Table of contents for April 2023 in Pilot

ICELANDAIR USING VIRTUAL REALITY FOR TRAINING Icelandair, the flag carrier of Iceland, has selected the Danish virtual reality firm VRpilot to deliver immersive training for flight crew flying the Boeing 737 MAX. Icelandair will take delivery of virtual reality headsets that use the VRflow training platform, tailored to Icelandair’s 737 MAX procedures and cockpit layout. Guðmundur Tómas Sigurðsson, Head of Training at Icelandair said, “we are continuously looking into methods to improve the quality of our training. It is my firm belief that our cooperation with the great team at VRpilot is a big step towards that goal and we see great opportunities in the future development of the product.” Free Boeing 737 Type Rating Ryanair has announced a rare opportunity for a free Boeing 737 Type Rating training. To…

The plan was to have a couple of days R & R on the coast near the Camargue, before heading inland for two weeks of arduous flying for the World Precision Flying Championships at Albi – in the south of France. It made no sense to go straight into that hectic maelstrom. Tina, my wife, is a qualified international judge at such events, so she accompanied me in the Glastar aircraft. Choice of port of entry into Schengen was obviously one of the first decisions to make. I had used Rouen a few times before: it had the benefits of being firstly cheap, in terms of landing fees, and secondly more or less on our track line to Montpellier. The VAC guide said that customs would be notified by flight…

TVAL Flying Day With just one week to go, the Wings over Wairarapa airshow at Hood Aerodrome in Masterton, New Zealand, on 24-26 February was postponed after its military workforce was required to support the country’s Cyclone Gabrielle recovery effort. While heavy rain on Saturday 25 February partly scuppered The Vintage Aviator Limited’s (TVAL’s) revised weekend plans, Sunday dawned bright and clear with light winds, enabling its flights and passenger rides to proceed. Around fifteen of TVAL’s WWI replicas were positioned outside and most got airborne, some several times for pilot currency. There was no display flying but it was nonetheless pleasing that so much of TVAL’s collection was flown, including the Airco DH4 32224; Albatros D.II D.386/16; various BE2s; Bristol F2B D8084; Fokker DVII 7871 and DVIII 157/18; Nieuport…

NOTABLE NOTES EC for all? NATS calls for Electronic Conspicuity to be made mandatory for all aircraft, including GA, by 2025 p8 NOTABLE NOTES End of Reno The Reno Air Races will end in September after almost sixty years, but organisers are looking for other venues p9 NOTABLE NOTES Robot’s in control The US Air Force explores whether AI can fly both its transport aircraft and its fighter jets p11 GA deliveries up six per cent in 2022 The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) has announced that its members made deliveries worth $26.8b in 2022 globally, a six percent increase over 2021 revenues. The organisation presented its annual ‘State Of The Industry’ data at the end of February, which showed that all sectors of the industry had contributed to the…

Apaches hit 5m hours Boeing recently reached a unique milestone when the US Army’s AH-64 Apache attack helicopters officially reached five million flight hours. The accomplishment is equivalent to flying nonstop for more than 208,333 days, or 570 years and nine months. Additionally, 1.3 million of those five million flight hours were accomplished during combat. The AH-64 first flew in 1984, and since then the US Army has operated A, D and E-model Apaches. It currently operates D and E models, along with nineteen other countries. eVTOL demos planned for 2025 World Expo ANA Holdings Inc, the parent company of Japanese flag carrier All Nippon Airways, and California-based eVTOL developer Joby Aviation have been selected by the Japan Association to operate demonstration flights during the 2025 World Exposition being held…

“Nice Tiger you’ve got there!” “Thank you, but it’s actually a St....” Oh, he’s wandered off! If I had a pound for every time I’ve heard this, I’d be far richer. Certainly, in the UK the Stampe seems forever doomed to live in the shadow of the Tiger Moth. I’ve lost count of the number of times the Stampe has been confused with Mr de Havilland’s machine. True, they are both biplanes of a similar vintage, with the same basic layout and are of a comparable size. Similar enough to confuse the two dimensional masses perhaps, but surely not proper people, aviation people? Yet time and time again the poor Stampe begrudgingly labours under the misnomer of a Moth. But should it? After all, urban myth has it that the…

Swansea suspended The CAA has suspended the operating licence of Swansea Airport, stopping the plans for scheduled passenger flights to Exeter Airport. The CAA told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that it had provisionally suspended the operating licence due to a ‘systemic failure of safety management’. It cited ineffective safety management, inadequate safeguarding of the aerodrome, and an absence of an accountable manager. According to WalesOnline, Swansea Airport Ltd director Roy Thomas said he would be submitting an action plan, and that he expected to appoint a new accountable manager shortly. Mr Thomas said the previous accountable manager had been in post on the day the CAA inspected but that he stepped down to another position very shortly afterwards for personal reasons. Mr Thomas also said airport staff would focus…

New & restored registrations Cancellations…

In the euphoric growth years following WWII, business aviation expanded considerably. This development initially relied on light piston-engine twins, but these soon showed performance limits in a demanding market. To go further, faster, and higher, general aviation had to turn to turboprop engines and pressurised cabins. Beechcraft’s King Air is arguably the most attractive (and undoubtably best-selling) aircraft in this twin-engine segment, and Textron Aviation has now brought us the latest evolution of the line, the King Air 360. From the start, the range of aircraft built by the Beech Aircraft Corporation has been closely linked to the emergence of business aviation. The company’s first aeroplane, the Beech 17 ‘Staggerwing’ of 1932, attracted a wealthy clientele hungry for performance thanks to its speed of more than 160 knots and its…

To see the monthly calendar online, visit www.pilotweb.aero UNITED KINGDOM APRIL 2023 1 Eurofox Fly-in, Popham, Hants, popham-airfield.co.uk/events-calendar-20231 Sherwood Ranger Owners & Biplane Fly-in, Wycombe Air Park, Bucks, bmaa.org/events2 Helicopter & Autogyro Fly-in, North Coates, Lincs, northcoatesflyingclub.com/flying-events/8 ACS Aviation Festival of Flight 2023, Perth Airport, Scone, acsflighttraining.co.uk8 Sywell Aviation Museum Grand Opening, Sywell, Northants, sywellaviationmuseum.org.uk8-9 Easter Bunny Fly-in & Egg Hunt, Old Warden, Beds, shuttleworth.org/events15 Top Nav Competition, Bodmin, Cornwall, bodminairfield.com/events/15 VAC Spring Fly-in, Turweston, Northants, vintageaircraftclub.org.uk/calendar.php15-16 50th Anniversary Event & Aeroboot, Newark Air Museum, Notts, newarkairmuseum.org15-16 British Aerobatics Dan Smith Memorial Trophy, Dunstable, Beds, aerobatics.org.uk/events16 Porsche Club Fly-in/Drive-in, Bodmin, Cornwall, bodminairfield.com/events/16 ‘Show Us Yours’ Members Open Day, Popham, Hants, popham-airfield.co.uk/events-calendar-202322 80th Anniversary Fly-in, Henstridge, Somerset, wessexstrut.org.uk22 POSTPONED Club House Opening Fly-in, Breighton, N Yorks, realaero.com/bugle.html22 Jodel Club Fly-in, Popham,…