Good day all
Seems the CemAir vs SACAA sage is set to continue, as far as I have heard the case of the latest grounding has been heard in the JHB High Court and the Judge has undertaken to deliver judgment on Monday 21 January.
By which time CemAir would have lost another ten days of revenue, hopefully they can weather the storm and return to safely full capacity. It is heart-breaking to hear of another large employer in the aviation sector facing closure, no matter what the reasons. I also believe that if there are valid safety reasons on the SACAA’s part to ground CemAir then it has to be done, I sincerely hope the CAA are willing to assist CemAir to formulate an action plan to rectify any noncompliance issues rather than just shutting them down and washing their hands of them. We will communicate the Judgment as soon as it is released.
The General Aviation world will be coming out of their summer hiatus this weekend with a few events planned in the Gauteng area.
SAPFA will be hosting a Navigation Rally Training Camp at the Aerosud Canteen in Centurion (520 Van Ryneveld Ave, Pierre van Ryneveld along the Eastern Boundary wall of AFB Waterkloof) and not as previously advertised at the Harvard Café at Grand Central Airport.
The current South African Rally Flying Champion, Mary de Klerk will be presenting the Training on how to plot and fly a Rally to FAI standard. Mary can be contacted at mary@sapfa.co.za or 084 880 9000
Cost: R100 per person + please bring some more money for the informal breakfast and lunch snacks & drinks (cost to be advised)
BRING :
- Plotting Tools (Please be organised with your tools)
- Fine Liner Koki Pens (Black / Blue / Purple)
- Fine Line Koki Pen Red to mark your photographs on the map
- Protractor to measure your headings
- Compass to measure your distances
- Ruler (nm & mm) / Pencil / Pens / Eraser
- Digital Time Clock x 2 (one as a standby)
- Prestik to stick your photos to the glareshield
- Scissors to cut your photo sheet and map.
AGENDA:
09h00 – 10h00 : Rally Presentation
10h00 – 10h15 : Tea break
10h15 – 12h15 : Plotting Practice revert #1 with detailed explanations
13h30 – 14h30 : Lunch Break
14h30 – 17h00 : Plotting Practice revert #3 with a new plot on a new map under time pressure
This will be the ideal time to start your practice for the World Championships that will be held in Stellenbosch in 2020.
The Sports Aerobatic Club of South Africa will be hosting their first competition this year (Gauteng Regionals) on Saturday 19 January. All the big names in South African Aerobatics are expected to attend, and it promises to be a great comp full of action packed flying at all levels.
French Air Force Mirage 2000D Crash
“The two crew who were in a fighter jet when it crashed near the Swiss border have died”, French authorities have said.
The Mirage 2000D vanished from radar last Wednesday while flying in a snowstorm near the Swiss border, over a mountainous area between the Doubs and Jura regions.
More than 100 rescuers, police officers and others searched icy mountains for the aircraft and the two-person crew.
The French air force said that the pair had died and identified them as Captain Baptiste Chirie, a combat pilot with 24 war missions, and Lieutenant Audrey Michelon, an arms systems navigator who participated in 97 war missions.
The air force did not say what led to the declaration of their deaths.
Defence Minister Florence Parly and the chief of the French air force, General Philippe Lavigne, on Friday headed to the air base in Nancy, in eastern France, to meet with aviators and families, a statement said.
The jet took off on Wednesday from the Nancy-Ochey air base in north-east France. According to the paper one local resident "heard the plane around 10:15 am, this is a busy corridor and they often go very low, but suddenly I heard a thud and then nothing." Regional newspaper L'Est Republicain reported that debris, a parachute and a map had been found in the search.
Bombardier CEO sees decision on loss-making CRJ jet this year
Bombardier Inc aims to make a decision this year on the future of its CRJ regional jet as it “aggressively” pursues new orders to secure its industrial future, the Canadian planemaker’s chief executive said on Wednesday.
The company is exploring “all strategic options” for the loss-making program including a potential sale, but its immediate focus is to win orders and cut costs, CEO Alain Bellemare said.
Asked whether Bombardier would reach a decision this year, he said, “I hope so, for sure. The more certainty we can provide the better but we are getting good traction”.
Bellemare was speaking on the sidelines of a ceremony marking a new U.S. assembly line for the larger A220 jetliner development, which Bombardier agreed in 2017 to sell to a venture led by Europe’s Airbus.
Bombardier, which had struggled to keep pace with the huge cash demands of a new aircraft program, later sold its older Q400 turboprop program and announced a review of the 20-year-old CRJ series.
“I don’t want to drag this on for too long but a lot of that is not in my hands; it is also in customers’ hands,” Bellemare said.
“We are trying to see how we build a backlog. For us to keep this thing going we need to have a future production profile that makes sense. We are willing to maybe reduce our production volume but at the same time we need to have sufficient volume to feed the supply chain,” he added. “We are very aggressive right now. We are working aggressively with airline customers. That’s our number one priority.”
Analysts say adding new orders and lowering costs are measures designed to throw the aging CRJ program a lifeline and make it more attractive to long-term investors.
The CRJ competes with Embraer regional jets and is helped by union “scope clause” rules in the United States restricting the size of jets used by regional airlines.
Bellemare played down concerns that the clauses could be renegotiated, hurting demand for the CRJ, saying they had historically been hard for airline managements to change.
Unijet Drops Suit Against Vnukovo Airport Over Deadly Crash of Total CEO Plane
A Moscow court has a closed case brought by France's Unijet against Russia's Vnukovo airport over the 2014 crash of Dassault Falcon 50 that killed Total CEO Christophe de Margerie
"We are dropping the suit in full and requesting to close the proceedings", a representative of the plaintiff said.
Unijet, the operator of Dassault Falcon 50, was seeking compensation of 6.7 million euros for the fatal crash. Vnukovo said in October that the dispute had been settled by insurance companies.
The company demanded the compensation for a jet crash that had occurred on 20 October 2014 at Moscow's Vnukovo-3 Airport, killing Total CEO Christophe de Margerie. The incident happened when the aircraft, which was to fly to Paris, hit a snow removal vehicle when taking off. The three crew members also died in the crash.
Embraer's Board of Directors ratifies approval of the deal with Boeing
Embraer's Board of Directors ratified its prior approval regarding the strategic partnership with Boeing. Yesterday, the
Government of Brazil authorized the transaction that would position both companies to accelerate growth in global aerospace markets.
The closing of the transaction will be subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. Assuming the approvals are received in a timely manner, the transaction is intended to close by the end of 2019.
Since it was founded in 1969, Embraer has delivered more than 8,000 aircraft. About every 10 seconds an aircraft manufactured by Embraer takes off somewhere in the world, transporting over 145 million passengers a year.
Embraer is the leading manufacturer of commercial jets up to 150 seats. The company maintains industrial units, offices, service and parts distribution centres, among other activities, across the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe.
