Civil Aviation

WRITTEN BY MANOJ KUMAR P, ASST. DIRECTOR AIRWORTHINESS, DGCA “In Aviation Each Step has a Footprint. And it is called Signature.” During a friendly conversation with one of my friends regarding maintenance on a ship and aircraft, he stated, ‘If a ship has a technical problem at least it can float, whereas an aircraft having the similar problem, it can’t float in air.’ What my friend stated in passing always strikes me and encourages me to do my assigned task with due focus and diligence whenever I perform aircraft maintenance, documentation, auditing, handling stores, etc. Ensuring an aircraft fly safely requires various types of maintenance (preventive, snags, scheduled, unscheduled, etc.) to be performed on the aircraft at various periodicities based on days, flying hours, aircraft engine starts, aircraft landings, aircraft cycles, etc. In aviation, maintenance documentation (referring and recording) ensures that the scheduled maintenance is performed as per the maintenance manuals and in a correct sequence of steps. If any step in any of the maintenance tasks is skipped / missed or done in the incorrect order, it could result in a catastrophe. In aviation history many aircraft accidents have been caused due to such small missteps or missing of small steps. FOR EXAMPLE: a) Small screw which was erroneously left in the maintenance area after maintenance, in due course of time it can get stuck and obstruct the movement of the control columns, or make a hole in any of the hoses or pipelines of the hydraulic, fuel, pneumatic, Oxygen etc. b) Using a wrong size screw or bolt or nut or any other expendable can cause improper securing of the component or equipment or hose etc. This can cause the components falling out of their designated place due to vibrations and malfunction of the component and aircraft systems. So, it is evident that, maintenances on aircraft must be performed step by step as per applicable Manuals and Regulations. In order to ensure that no step of a maintenance task is skipped, Civil Aviation Regulators have mandated the operators to adhere to the maintenance documentation method of signing off and the use of task card / worksheets. A Proper Documentation Gives Us The Following Information: a) Step by step maintenance undertaken. b) Who did the job? c) When was the job done? d) Which special tools were used? e) What were the values of the checks done? f) How much work was finished? g) Which documents were referred? THE REGULATIONS Based on the history of aircraft accidents and incidents, various aviation regulators have stipulated various regulations for maintenance organisations to imbibe and adhere to. Some of the regulations which are applicable to this article are as follows: I) Para 1.4.13 of FAA Advisory Circular No. 145-9A defines Maintenance Function as a step or series of steps in the process of performing maintenance, preventive maintenance, or alterations. II) CAR GM 145.A.48 Performance of maintenance states that, A ‘sign-off’ is a statement issued by the ‘authorised person’ which indicates that the task or group of tasks has been correctly performed. A ‘sign-off’ relates to one step in the maintenance process and is, therefore, different to a certificate of release to service. III) Para (1) of AMC 145.A.48(c) Performance of maintenance states the procedures should be aimed at minimising multiple errors and preventing omissions. The procedures should specify that every maintenance task is signed off only after completion. IV) ‘Critical Maintenance Task’ means a maintenance task that involves the assembly or any disturbance of a system or any part on an aircraft, engine or propeller that, if an error occurred during its performance, could directly endanger the flight safety. GM M.A.402(h) Performance of maintenance and appendix VII of CAR-M/Part M — Complex Maintenance Tasks has stipulated list of complex tasks V) AMC M.A.305(h) Aircraft continuing airworthiness record system states that keeping continuing airworthiness records in a form acceptable to the competent authority normally means in paper form or on a computer database or a combination of both methods. VI) Para 3 of AMC M.A.401(c) Maintenance data states Maintenance tasks should be transcribed onto the work cards or worksheets and subdivided into clear stages to ensure a record of the accomplishment of the maintenance task. Of particular importance is the need to differentiate and specify, when relevant, disassembly, accomplishment of task, reassembly and testing. VII) Para b of M.A.401 Maintenance data states that the applicable maintenance data is: a) any applicable requirement, procedure, standard or information issued by the competent authority or the Agency, b) any applicable airworthiness directive, c) applicable instructions for continuing airworthiness, issued by type certificate holders, supplementary type certificate holders and any other organisation that publishes such data in accordance with CAR 21. d) any applicable data which is accepted by the regulator. UNDERSTANDING THE REGULATIONS Based on the above said regulations it is expected that the AMOs adhere to the regulations and devise an appropriate procedure for maintenance documentation as follows: a) Point I and Point VI mandate operators to identify the complex maintenance tasks of their fleet and prepare the work cards or worksheets with the following provisions: i. Step or series of steps in the process of performing maintenance ii. Maintenance task is subdivided into clear stages. iii. Record of accomplishment of each stage / Provision for signing by the engineer and technician who performed the task with date and time. b) Point II and Point III mandate that an AME needs to sign-off task or group of tasks has been correctly performed by him/her and to be signed only after task completes. c) In Point V, the regulator provides a provision to the operator to maintain the continuing airworthiness records either in paper form or in electronic form or both which are in a form acceptable to the regulator. d) Point VII lists the documents that fall under maintenance data and same needs to be considered for task cards / work sheets and for maintenance too. ACTION TO BE TAKEN Hence, CAMO must prepare

Aviation World Feature Airport infrastructure is the essential skeletal framework of aviation but generally tends to be taken for granted, possibly because addition of new airports and transformation of old ones happen at a slow pace and away from public glare. Nonetheless, airports play a vital role in sustaining aviation, supporting the transport network, promoting trade and tourism, and contributing to economic development of the nation. Covid-19 has been exceptionally unkind to civil aviation with airports possibly being the worst affected sector. By Gp.Capt. AK Sachdev (Retd.)In India, airports, being capital and real estate intensive, were in public sector domain during our initial years but that has changed in the last two decades with change of policies and the government’s fiscal compulsions to disinvest in them. There are close to 500 airports strewn over the extent of the country with 139 of them being under the public domain and owned by Airports Authority of India (AAI) according to AAI’s official site (https://www.aai.aero/en/business-opportunities/indian-airports accessed on 08 February 2021). According to AAI, the total number of functional airports in India is 153 of which 29 are international, 114 are domestic and 10 customs airports (at which unloading of imported goods and the loading of export goods is permitted). To put this figure into perspective, US, which has a billion less people than India, has over 5000 functional airports. This article critically appraises the push for privatising airport infrastructure.BUDGETARY IMPETUS The central government budget presented in 2018 had introduced NextGen Airports for BHarat (NABH)Nirman initiative. It proposed to increase the existing capacity of airports by more than five times through construction of 100 new airports in the next 10 years. An impressive sounding figure for investment in that direction was also mentioned but the onslaught of Covid-19 rendered all that planning superfluous. Indeed, aviation went into survival mode globally and it is only now that optimism is beginning to manifest itself in actions and thoughts of aviation stake holders, including the government. The budget presented last month reflected some of that buoyancy; the Finance Minister’s budget presentation speech mentioned the word ‘infrastructure’ more than 40 times and included a proposal to set up a Development Finance Institution (DFI) with a capital of Rs 20,000 crore and an ability to lend up to Rs 5 lakh crore. The issuance of Zero Coupon Bonds for infrastructure funding also has the possibility of providing an avenue for aviation financing.Disappointingly but unsurprisingly, the long standing demand of civil aviation to be given infrastructure status remained unaddressed. The total budgetary allocation for aviation was Rs 3,224 crores, a figure representing 22% reduction as compared to the ongoing fiscal year. Of this, airports have been allocated Rs 600 crores mainly for the revival of 50 airports that fall under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS). Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India(AERA) has been allocated Rs 10 crores. Besides, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) saw a provision of Rs 5,139 crores marked under Internal and Extra budgetary resources; the implication is that AAI will have to put up collateral to raise funds. The aviation portion of the budget has endeavoured to convey that the financial problems of airports are being addressed. However, the actual availability of funding is a bit nebulous, given the fiscal pressure this budget will be consummated under. There is thus a momentum building up for finding other means of funding airport infrastructure. In December 2019, the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) had been launched; it now has a pipeline of 7,400 projects, which require major funding expansion from both government and private sector. The government’s plan is to realise this goal through three concrete measures: creating the necessary institutional structure, monetising assets, and expanding capital investment through budgets. Monetising functioning public infrastructure is a way to generate more funds by drawing in private sector participation and that is the route airport infrastructure development is embarked upon. PRIVATISATION In her budget speech the Finance Minister said the government would be monetising assets of the AAI-operated airports in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities to raise money for building new infrastructure; this is a significant departure from the past where the government has maintained that big airports were being privatised so that the cash thus generated could be invested in airports in smaller cities. In a semantic quirk, the disinvestment in AAI’s airports has been always referred to, rather euphemistically, as privatisation — a term that encompasses the whole spectrum of private participation from a wholly private ownership to a Public Private Participation (PPP) model with multiple participants. As can be expected, each model has a unique texture withdiverse partners getting into bed but with disparate dreams. The result is that all the PPP ventures have not had the same degree of success. Perhaps the only thing common to airports moving away from the AAI fold has been the incremental addition to the air passengers’ burden. The first Indian airport to be privatised in India was Cochin as far back as 1999, followed by Hyderabad in 2002 and Bengaluru in 2004; Delhi and Mumbai — the two largest airports in the country — were privatised in 2006. At that time there was no airport regulator (the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) came up only in 2008 as a result of a Parliamentary act. It is not clear whether this fact contributed to the additional burden of privatisation on airlines (which in turn passed it on to the passengers). Privatisation was resisted stoutly by airlines but the government was unrelenting. Meanwhile, the project costs of airports overshot the original estimates (Delhi by 3.8 times and Mumbai by 1.7 times) with the incremental costs being passed on to the passengers through development fees to the tune of Rs 3400 crores. These figures are mentioned here to show the passenger pain related to airport privatisation. After 2006, there was a lull in the interest from potential investors in airports until 2015 when disparate entities again started looking at airports as lucrative ventures. In

‎300 tonnes of aid from around the world departed in a three-aircraft cargo convoy from Doha to India, as part of the freight carrier’s WeQare initiative Delhi, India, 3rd May 2021 – Three Qatar Airways Cargo Boeing 777 freighters departed to India today, carrying approximately 300 tonnes of medical supplies from around the world to support COVID-19 relief efforts. The three flights departed one after the other bound for Bengaluru, Mumbai and New Delhi as part of Qatar Airways Cargo’s WeQare initiative. Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said: “Having seen with great sorrow the impact this further wave of COVID-19 infections has had on people in India, we knew we had to be part of the global effort to support the valiant health care workers in the country. “As the leading air cargo carrier in the world, we are in a unique position to offer immediate humanitarian support through the provision of aircraft to transport much needed medical supplies, as well as coordinating logistical arrangements. We hope today’s shipment and further shipments in the weeks to come will help ease the burden on local medical workers and provide relief to the impacted communities in India.” Ambassador of India to Qatar, His Excellency Ambassador Dr. Deepak Mittal, said: “We deeply appreciate the gesture of Qatar Airways to carry free of charge essential medical supplies to India and supporting the fight against COVID-19.” Today’s cargo shipment included PPE equipment, oxygen canisters and other essential medical items, and consists of donations by individuals and companies around the world in addition to existing cargo orders. (Aviation World Online News)