Hong kong skyline silhouette



HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Skopje
Happy New 2011! In hope that this year will bring the EX-YU aviation world more success.

Sretna nova godina
Srećna nova godina
Срећна нова година
Среќна нова година
Srečno novo leto

Priština

Visit tomorrow for an analysis of the year that was and from January 3 all the latest news

Belgrade

Hong kong skyline night pic

Croatia Airlines to Istanbul in 2011

Soon in Istanbul
Croatia Airlines will commence scheduled flights from Zagreb to Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul, from March 27. Flights will operate 3 times per week every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday using the Airbus A320. Croatia Airlines rarely expands its scheduled network to the East of the country. Earlier this year it was criticised by its own employees for not focusing more on markets such as Turkey and Russia. Until now, Turkish Airlines has been the only airline operating between Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport and Zagreb’s Pleso Airport.

Along with Istanbul, which will be an all year round service, Croatia Airlines is launching several new seasonal flights this summer including services from Dubrovnik to Athens and Venice, from Zadar to Munich, from Split to Hamburg and from Rijeka to London.

Croatia Airlines has had a disappointing year passenger wise. While in 2010 most airlines (including all other national EX-YU carriers) saw an increase in the number of passengers, Croatia Airlines’ numbers have dipped by almost 7%. All flight details for the Zagreb – Istanbul service can be found on the right hand side in the new route launches section.

Hong kong skyline pic

Hong kong disneyland pic

Adria could be grounded in 2011

Adria to follow in MAT’s footsteps?
A dramatic month at the Slovenian national carrier continues this week. After revealing that the company is tackling financial problems and facing potential bankruptcy, the Slovenian Government has said it will review the airline’s financial performance which could see the carrier’s operating license revoked, effectively grounding the airline. The news came after the Minister for Transport, Patrick Valičič, held talks with Adria’s management.

A financial body is set to review the airline’s performance, after which it will be decided whether Adria’s operating license will be revoked, extended by 12 months or left as it is. Adria’s demise would have great impact on the Slovenian economy and it is unlikely that the government would let the carrier go. However, with the Slovenian Government owning most of the airline and with strict European Union laws forbidding any sort of aid, the airline will quickly have to be privatised.

On Monday, the Adria’s management cut employee wages by 20%. The airline has accumulated losses of up to 86 million Euros in the past 10 years with banks no longer willing to extend the loan repayment period. The company is expected to end 2010 with a loss of between 8 and 9 million Euros, after a 14 million Euro loss in 2009. More alarming was a statement made by an Adria Airways spokesperson yeasterday, who gave out advice on the actions passengers should take if Adria goes bankrupt and they happen to have booked a seat on one of their flights, published by a local newspaper.

Question time # 119 update

For an update see the original blog below.

Still some unresolved pics there.

Propeller design rethought

Most manufacturers design propellers in the same way and they read the old books and reports and the prop gets no more than 80-85% efficiency at best. It is written in books that propeller efficiency will be about that at best and it is left often open how low it can be at worst.

Here is an interesting article about a guy that made a prop that was 90 percent efficient by not abiding the "old truths" but thinking out of the box:

http://www.eaa.org/experimenter/articles/2009-02_elippse.asp

Having a strong taper certainly makes sense since the propeller tip travels very much faster than the root through the air. Also the old saying that single blade prop is most efficient does not make sense if you think it in detail: the air that enters in the next blade is not the same air that went through the previous blade because of the forward movement of the aircraft. This could be extrapolated in a such way, that the faster the aircraft travels, the more blades the propeller can have without sacrificing the propeller efficiency. This should not actually require very high mathematics, but I am quite sure that it could be estimated with simple calculations where the downwash of the previous blade goes in relation to the next blade on the speed range intended for the aircraft being designed.

High altitude propeller will require some additional thinking for the tip chord because the Reynolds number will become low if the chord is this short. The TAS is much higher at high altitude, therefore the air travels faster through the prop, that would mean that the prop could have more blades. The high altitude propeller does not require full efficiency at low altitude because to be able to operate at high altitude, there needs to be a lots of excess thrust available regardless.

Jat to get 140 million Euros

Ending the Airbus saga
The Serbian Government has announced that it will give guarantees for a 140 million Euro loan to Jat Airways in 2011 for the purchase of 4 Airbus A319s and, as a result, solve the airline’s outstanding 12 year old order for 8 Airbus jets. Both Jat and the government have proposed to revise the original agreement from 1998. Instead of 8 aircraft, Jat would receive 4 and pay a further 140 million Euros, on top of the 17.9 million Euros already given to the European plane manufacturer. If Airbus approves the revised deal, aircraft should begin to arrive in 2012.

In 1998, the Yugoslav Government ordered 8 Airbus A319s for JAT Yugoslav Airlines, a deal worth 580 million American Dollars at the time. However, the order was seen as political stunt by the government at the time and Airbus was criticised for the extremely high price of the order. Furthermore, international sanctions forbid Airbus from delivering the planes and the aircraft did not fit into JAT’s fleet of over 20, mostly Boeing aircraft.

Just last month Jat Airways received a 51.5 million Euro loan. The airline will use part of the cash to finance the lease of 2 aircraft, most likely Boeing B737-700s. Last week, the airline withdrew the first 2 million.

Hong kong Pic

Hong Kong[note 3] (Chinese: 香港) is one of two Special Administrative Regions (SARs) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the other being Macau. A city-state[9] situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea,[10] it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour. With a land mass of 1,104 km2 (426 sq mi) and a population of seven million people, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world.[11] Hong Kong's population is 95 percent ethnic Chinese and 5 percent from other groups.[12] Hong Kong's Han Chinese majority originate mainly from the cities of Guangzhou and Taishan in the neighbouring Guangdong province.[13]

Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the First Opium War (1839–42). Originally confined to Hong Kong Island, the colony's boundaries were extended in stages to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and then the New Territories in 1898. It was occupied by Japan during the Pacific War, after which the British resumed control until 1997, when China resumed sovereignty.[14][15] The region espoused minimum government intervention under the ethos of positive non-interventionism during the colonial era.[16] The time period greatly influenced the current culture of Hong Kong, often described as "East meets West",[17] and the educational system, which used to loosely follow the system in England[18] until reforms implemented in 2009.from Wikipedia

Fire Fighting LSA

The LSA movement may have struggled along with the rest of civilian aviation over the last three years. 
Still, there's no stopping folks who see how useful Light Sport Aircraft can be for work at a lower cost than traditional aircraft.

Overall U.S. LSA sales leader Flight Design (1,500 now flying worldwide) just told us about a fire fighting department (situated at 8,300 feet MSL) in the Andes mountains of Ecuador that is using a CTLS as an aerial support unit.
John Hurst and Jeremy Endsley of Sebring Aviation went to the South American country to assist the Basin Fire Department at Mariscal La Mar Airport.
Hurst and Endsley trained fire department employees in the assembly, maintenance, and flight training of the CTLS.
The group operating the LSA is called the Air Volunteer Fire Department of Basin.
Hugo Cobo, the head of the department, said: "Using the CTLS...our Fire Department has an effective tool to help in search functions, recognition and support of ground operations by providing a better service to the community of Cuenca."
Mr. Cobo adds, "The decision to buy the CTLS was made after studying different information of other aircraft manufacturers including experimental, LSA and other general aviation (aircraft). The CTLS was the only aircraft that meets the safety operation and performance requirements for the Fire Department."
Low cost ops and training were important factors in his final decision. 
The CTLS is the first and the only aircraft used in all Fire Department operations, including search and ground operations support.
Cobo estimates average monthly flight hours will be around 25, with greater use expected during wildfire season.
The department's pilots received five hours of training at Sebring and another five hours in Ecuador.
This one aircraft will not only provide quick response and accurate surveillance during emergencies but will also be used as a kind of LSA showcase of the aircraft's usefulness to other fire departments in the region.
Typical mission profile, even given the 8,300 foot altitude at takeoff, will not limit flying top only one person due to the CTLS performance, which includes a climb rate above 1,000 fpm at sea level and a top cruise of 120 knots.
Here's a couple videos of the Ecuadorian operation.
Take off -- notice how the high altitude and thin air make for a long takeoff roll...wonder what the density altitude was? --

And landing...

Pacific Aerospace 750XL ZK-KBG

Arriving at Ardmore from Hamilton on the morning of 29Dec was Pacific Aerospace 750XL ZK-KBG (171).  The XTOL machine is soon to cross the Tasman on export to a Western Australian customer.



All photos Mike Condon

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