Latest Battery Problems Ground Japan B787s

Lithium Ion Batteries or LIBs continue to be major safety hazards  to aeroplanes fitted with them further more aircrew and passengers carry hundreds of them onboard airliners around the world every day. It's time that ICAO issued a ban on all LIBs until such time as science is able to make them safe.
 Click here Battery Problems on JAL B787

This LIB caught fire in a B787 whilst the aircraft was on the ground in Boston more pictures from the NTSB site click here B787 LIB Fire Boston

Electronic Flight Bags EASA Latest With AMC 20-25

On behalf of the PACTS (http://www.pacts.org.uk/ ) and the Air Safety Group ( www.airsafetygroup.org)I made a presentation in Westminster Hall to politicians and regulators from the CAA on the dangers to air safety that the use of an EFB on the flight deck can present. There is a CRD (Comment Response Document) to NPA 2012-02 which can be found here on page 6 EASA NPA 2012-02. 
By way of the EASA CRT (Comment Response Tool) I have made comments and suggestions, let's see what happens?

Flight Deck Automation - Augmentation or Replacement of Human Flying Skills?

Is there a point where automation on the flight deck achieves the opposite of what was intended ?

Automatics fitted by one manufacturer has led to a perceived arrogance by them with regards to risk and training. This translates as an attitude crafted by 'supremacy automatics' for example stall recovery training is not necessary because our aeroplanes cannot stall. When one did the inability of the aircrew to recover this situation proved fatal.

Information systems like the Electronic Flight Bag can also hoodwink its users into believing misinformation, again with fatal consequences. As a member of the Air Safety Group in London I wrote a report on this very subject and then made a presentation to politicians and aviation experts and regulators, copies of which
can be read here: EFB Friend or Foe
and my presentations here: EFB Friend or Foe PACTS Presentation

Recommendations made in the report and at the presentation are now being considered by EASA and the CAA for inclusion in EASA AMC 20-25

PC Tablets and Aviation

If you are considering using an EFB at some time in the future then this article will interest you. PC Tablets are the future and they will become the favourite personal computer of choice very soon. They are already finding their way onto the flight decks of airliners all over the world. But is the Apple IOS operating system and Apple's stand alone policy i.e having nothing to do with Microsoft suitable for aviation flight operations?

Not in my opinion.

Tablet Ownership Triples Among College Students

March 14, 2012, 3:01 am

By Nick DeSantis

The number of college students who say they own tablets has more than tripled since a survey taken last year, according to new poll results released today. The Pearson Foundation sponsored the second-annual survey, which asked 1,206 college students and 204 college-bound high-school seniors about their tablet ownership. The results suggest students increasingly prefer to use the devices for reading.

One-fourth of the college students surveyed said they owned a tablet, compared with just 7 percent last year. Sixty-three percent of college students believe tablets will replace textbooks in the next five years—a 15 percent increase over last year’s survey. More than a third said they intended to buy a tablet sometime in the next six months.

This year’s poll also found that the respondents preferred digital books over printed ones. It’s a reversal of last year’s results and goes against findings of other recent studies, which concluded that students tend to choose printed textbooks. The new survey found that nearly six in 10 students preferred digital books when reading for class, compared with one-third who said they preferred printed textbooks.

The new survey results arrive as several new tools have emerged this year to simplify digital publishing, including Apple’s self-publishing software and Inkling’s enterprise platform for large companies.

Harris Interactive, the same firm that conducted last year’s survey on behalf of the Pearson Foundation, conducted the poll in January. Figures for age, sex, household income and other factors were weighted to be representative of the U.S. population of college students.

EASA CRD Part FTL

The latest regarding the Flight Time Limitation Scheme from EASA OPS can be read here:
CRD to NPA 2010-14 (Part FTL)