December 11 is the submission deadline for Stage 1 of GoAERO—a three-year contest backed by NASA, Boeing, RTX, and other key aviation stakeholders seeking to aid the estimated 4.5 million Americans living in “ambulance deserts,” who may need to wait longer than 25 minutes for emergency services to arrive. The aircraft created by competitors could rescue people in danger and respond to disasters, medical emergencies, or humanitarian crises.

Officially launched on February 5, GoAERO (Aerial Emergency Response Operations) has been recruiting teams of university students who lack the financial backing of large corporations. But the competition is open to just about anyone over the age of 18, GoAERO founder and CEO Gwen Lighter told FLYING.

“It is a call for engineers and entrepreneurs and innovators and universities and students and professors and retirees and businesses and corporations and all of that to join us and to create these emergency response fliers,” said Lighter.

Lighter envisions GoAERO’s emergency response flyers as “another tool in the first response toolkit.” Helicopters, she said, are great for emergency response but are expensive to procure and operate, require a pilot, and struggle to operate in tight spaces.

Drones, at the other end of the spectrum, are excellent for delivering medical supplies. Drone delivery companies Zipline and Wing, for instance, have collectively transported hundreds of thousands of shipments of blood, vaccines, and equipment. But when it comes to search and rescue, drones can only complete the latter portion of the mission.

“What we are doing is we are saying, ‘OK, helicopters are one end of the spectrum, drones are the other,’ and then putting them together, molding them into something that can deliver a first responder to someone in need, rescue someone who needs help, deliver needed goods and supplies, all within the rubric of natural disasters, everyday medical emergencies, events caused by climate change, humanitarian crises,” Lighter said.

The aircraft are intended to be simple, compact, and uncrewed, flying either entirely on their own or with help from a remote pilot. They must also be easily transportable, deployable within minutes, and capable of delivering first responders, patients, or supplies in cities, rural areas, and disaster zones.

Aviation for Public Good

Lighter previously organized GoAERO’s predecessor GoFLY, which similarly sought to put groundbreaking technology into the hands of people who otherwise would not have access. But whereas GoFLY was geared toward personal, recreational flight, GoAERO is about helping others.

“GoAERO is really focused on a singular mission, which is saving lives,” Lighter said. “It is aviation for public good.”

According to Lighter, all GoFLY partners have signed on to the new initiative, and even more have joined. Boeing is the lead GoAERO sponsor, but the contest is also backed by RTX, Honeywell, Iridium, and industry groups such as the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) and International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS). First responders, aviation regulators, and other organizations are on board.

“We’ve had hundreds of discussions with not only aviation [firms], but first responders in a wide variety of different types of response, whether that is search and rescue, whether that is wildfire, whether that is earthquake, whether that is everyday medical emergencies and EMTs,” said Lighter.

She added: “Collectively, we have landed on these technical rules and specifications to create aircraft that really allow first responders to be first responders, rather than pilots and all of these other things.”

GoAERO will provide teams with some design guidelines. But Lighter told FLYING that the goal is for participants to produce a wide range of designs. Teams will be permitted to focus on medical needs and disaster scenarios specific to their area, for example.

“Success for us looks like in three years, at the end of the competition, that we have a multitude of different flyers that show up, and some are better in everyday medical emergencies, and some are better in urban environments, and some are better in remote environments, and some are better in wildfires,” said Lighter.

Participants will have some help from above. The competition offers what Lighter called a “full education platform,” with educational webinars, legal assistance, and one-on-one mentorship opportunities with experts from Boeing, U.S. government agencies such as the FAA or Department of Defense, and other mentors. Those relationships can help them refine design concepts, build autonomy, or raise funding.

GoAERO earlier this month, for example, signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA that will see the space agency lend its personnel to the initiative. NASA also committed $400,000 through its University Innovation Project to support U.S.-based university teams and will grant access to free or discounted software, services, and products.

“I think GoAERO represents bringing the best of aeronautics and aviation to the public space, to public good, making sure that we are bringing our capabilities, our technologies, our genius together to work for the American people and for the people across the globe that need these kind of services,” said Bob Pearce, associate administrator of NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) and GoAERO mentor.

The Fly-Off

The GoAERO competition will culminate in a three-day “fly-off” beginning February 2027, during which teams will put their aircraft through a series of missions to gauge adversity, productivity, and maneuverability.

At stake are $2 million worth of prizes, including a $1 million grand prize for the winner. In addition, the top performer in each of the three fly-off missions will win $150,000. A $100,000 RTX Disruptor Award will be handed out for “disruptive advancement of the state of the art,” while a $100,000 autonomy prize will highlight the best use of automation.

All missions will be flown in a single-occupant aircraft carrying a mannequin, “Alex,” or other nonhuman payload. The contest will evaluate a range of different scenarios, testing competitors’ ability to save an injured person from under a forest canopy, douse a wildfire, rescue a drowning victim, and complete other emergency missions.

All of these must be performed under difficult conditions such as inclement weather, unknown terrain, or uncooperative air traffic control. Competitors will not have access to the mission courses or locations of obstacles until the day of the event. In addition, they should “expect the unexpected”—mission conditions and elements may not be exactly as advertised.

The FAA helped write the technical rules of the competition and will mentor teams to ensure their aircraft comply with federal rules. The agency will be “deeply involved” in the fly-off to maintain safety.

“We are closely working with the FAA in a number of their departments, and we have fully integrated our programming into today’s FAA certification process, and we will be helping our teams through that,” Lighter said.

During the contest, teams will have to dodge pylons and walls and contend with less-than-ideal takeoff and landing conditions. “The Flood” site, for example, is an 18-inch deep pool with simulated rain conditions—teams must touch or pop a balloon floating on its surface. Other locations will feature inclined slopes, sandy pits, or heavy winds.

A panel of expert judges will rank attempts by completion, speed, and payload, with bonus points awarded for one-person crew operations, quick deployment, and few operator inputs. To be eligible for the grand prize, a team needs to complete two missions, or complete one and partially complete another.

What Happens After?

Lighter emphasized that GoAERO hopes to produce not just emergency response flyers, but an ecosystem around them.

“We’re building this ecosystem so it’s not one company, it’s not one university, it’s not one entrepreneur, it’s not one regulator, it’s everybody coming together to use transformative technology to save lives,” she said.

At the end of the fly-off, the winning teams will have full control over what happens next. They will retain all intellectual property rights and do not necessarily need to commercialize their technology with a partner.

But while there are zero post-competition requirements, GoAERO aims to set teams up for success. Partners such as Boeing and RTX will be present for the fly-off, and winners will then have the option to meet with them and start a partnership.

“What we want to do is enable our teams to make the best choices for themselves at the end of the competition, whether that is licensing technology, whether that is building on their own, whether that is raising funds to commercialize, whether that is joining with a strategic partner—all are open and options for each of our teams,” Lighter said. “We certainly would never dictate to our teams how they should deploy. Rather, we will create the conditions where they have multiple options to be able to commercialize should they wish to do so.”

She added: “We all came together because we realized that there’s been a convergence of breakthrough technologies in aviation and in adjacent industries, and we now have this first moment in history that we have the ability to create new forms of emergency response aircraft.”

How to Get Involved

The deadline for GoAERO’s initial paper submission phase is December 11, which means there is plenty of time to apply.

To do so, applicants can visit goaeroprize.com to find the Stage 1 application forms, which include short biographies of each team member and legal documents covering liability and insurance, for example. Application is free, but there is a design submission fee of $250 for individuals and $500 for teams.

“Everything is on the website, from the technical rules to the schedules to the webinars to who the advisors are and who the partners are to how to engage with us,” said Lighter.

GoAERO excludes applicants under the age of 18, employees of Boeing or RTX and their families, and citizens or residents of countries subject to U.S. sanctions or export controls. But all others may apply, and the competition already includes teams from 40 countries. Entities that would prefer not to form a team but are interested in a partnership can also contact GoAERO.

Ten $10,000 winners will be selected from the Stage 1 pool, and eight Stage 2 teams will win $40,000 each. But teams can enter the competition at any time, including during the final fly-off. For that last phase, participants will need an aircraft with registration and airworthiness certification that has demonstrated, via video evidence, controlled flight with a full payload.

The stage is set. The rules are clear. All interested parties need to do is join the competition.

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The equipment used by the Canadian Airborne Sensor for Search and Rescue (CASSAR) system detects the cell tower interrogation signals emitted by cell phones. The system has been installed in CC-130H aircraft that are dedicated to search and rescue response.

According to a summary released by Canada’s Department of National Defense, the system “essentially mimics a cell phone tower to capture location and other information from an operating cell phone.” Conversations cannot be monitored. Phones have to be on, with a live battery and not on airplane mode, and once detected it’s easy to home in and find the phone.

The gear has been available for several years, but the department did an exhaustive analysis of the privacy concerns that naturally arise from this kind of surveillance ability. Any operating cell phone can be tracked by the system from the air and that prompted a Privacy Impact Assessment under the country’s Privacy Act.

“Based on the results of the PIA, privacy risks arising from the collection, use, disclosure, and retention of personal information using the CASSAR system are expected to be low,” the report said.

In exchange, the system will save lives, say military commanders.

“With such a vast area [as Canada], an enabling technology like the CASSAR system augments the existing search and rescue capability, reduces search time, and improves outcomes, a positive addition to search and rescue operations,” said Lieutenant-General Steve Boivin of Canadian Joint Operations Command.

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AVweb.

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The NOTAM was issued to protect aircraft performing painstaking salvage and rescue missions in the area, which could be hindered by other aircraft. The U.S. Coast Guard said it deployed boats and a helicopter to the site. Several emergency helicopters are visible on Flightradar24. These aircraft are typically equipped with forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sensors and other cameras to search for victims.

No injuries or deaths have yet been reported by authorities, though first responders have described the situation as a “mass casualty multiagency incident.” Crews are reportedly searching for six people. The water where the bridge was struck is about 50 feet deep and 47 degrees Fahrenheit, complicating rescue efforts.

The FAA issued a specific warning to drone pilots in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“The FAA has flight restrictions in place around the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse,” the agency said. “Do not interfere with rescue operations. If you fly, emergency response operations cannot.”

Aircraft flying in the airspace around the bridge—even small drones—could compromise the safety of emergency aircraft. Entering the TFR would be akin to driving around a barricade intended to shield firefighters extinguishing a blaze.

The restriction limits pilots from flying within 5 nm and below 2,000 feet above the surface over the site of the incident. The TFR is under the Class B shelf, which has a floor of 1,500 feet—pilots avoid this airspace by flying below it. Essentially, the TFR prevents pilots from transitioning straight to Baltimore/Washington International Airport (KBWI) and flying up the Patapsco River.

Around 1:30 a.m. EDT Tuesday morning, a Singapore-flagged ship called the Dali collided with Francis Scott Key Bridge. The vessel was chartered by shipping giant Maersk but managed by the Synergy Group, which said no casualties occurred on board. The ship was carrying around 4,900 containers and traveling at about 9 mph (8 knots).

The Dali’s crew notified authorities of a power issue and sent a mayday before the collision, according to Maryland Governor Wes Moore.

The bridge crosses the Patapsco River and was part of Interstate 695, a major commuting route used by an estimated 35,000 people daily, said Paul Wiedefeld, Maryland Transportation Secretary. It and the Port of Baltimore comprise a key U.S. shipping hub.

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Lift Aircraft, the manufacturer of a funky, single-seat electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) design called Hexa, on Thursday announced that the aircraft is now on sale to fire departments, police departments, medical providers, and other public safety agencies.

Hexa has been in development for six years, and it’s finally ready to hit the market. The eVTOL was designed for “anyone” to get flying in a fraction of the time it would take to obtain a pilot’s certificate. But while the aircraft will eventually be marketed for personal use, law enforcement agencies and first responders will get the first crack at it.

Only five aircraft are being allocated to public agency partners, who can opt in with a refundable deposit before year’s end to reserve their delivery. Buyers can also take a trip out to Lift’s training facility near Austin, Texas, where a team will teach new pilots the ropes and talk through optimal use cases.

Lift customers will be able to fly Hexa for firefighting, police, medical, search and rescue, emergency, and disaster response applications under FAA public aircraft operations rules. And since it qualifies as a Part 103 ultralight, no pilot certification is needed to operate it. Beginner training on the aircraft’s control system—which consists of a single, three-axis joystick—can wrap up in less than an hour, the company claims.

Journalist Anderson Cooper and others with zero or minimal flight experience have already taken Hexa to the skies. FLYING got the chance to try out a simulator at UP.Summit in Dallas in October—the experience was akin to a virtual reality video game.

The Specs

Hexa’s pinwheel-shaped design uses distributed electric propulsion from 18 independent 126-kilowatt electric motors and propellers, each with its own battery pack. A redundant autopilot computer and the joystick control flight, but users can also switch to what Lift playfully calls “Look, mom, no hands!” mode. The aircraft can fly and land safely—even on water—with up to six motors disabled. Its airframe is built entirely of carbon fiber.

Weighing just 432 pounds, Hexa qualifies for the FAA’s powered ultralight classification, allowing it to be flown without a license. The eVTOL’s ultralight qualification was confirmed by the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association (LAMA) in 2022.

The 15-by-15-foot aircraft folds down to about 9.5 by 7.5 feet, but it can carry up to 250 pounds (or up to 350 pounds in cargo configuration). Endurance (10 to 17 minutes) and range (8 to 15 sm) depend on payload. It cruises at around 60 knots at up to 9,000 MSL and can even fly in 20-knot winds, medium rain, and temperatures between 0 and 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

Versatility is the key here: Lift says Hexa’s unique features can benefit a plethora of different customers. Firefighters could douse blazes in hard to reach places. Disaster response teams could drop or extract personnel or supplies in places where helicopters can’t land. Emergency medical services could deploy air ambulances that arrive 80 percent faster. Even the U.S. Coast Guard could find some value, bringing Hexa in for a water landing to make an offshore rescue.

For those public safety agencies wary of deploying such a strange, unfamiliar aircraft, it may be reassuring to hear that Lift has already completed a pre-operational flight and safety test program. 

Oh, and it’s also been researched, developed, and tested over the course of five contracts with AFWERX, the innovation arm of the U.S. Air Force. That relationship began with an initial agreement in 2020 and blossomed into a Phase 3 contract, which has allowed Lift to train Air Force pilots on Hexa’s simple controls. Last year, airmen made their first remote flight at Eglin Air Force Base’s Duke Field (KEGI) in Florida.

But Air Force pilots and public agencies won’t be the only Hexa customers, Lift says. Eventually, the company claims, people will be able to walk into a Lift vertiport, train for less than an hour, and leave in an eVTOL flying solo—even in places like New York City.

Last year, Lift signed a tentative agreement with the Big Apple’s Charm Aviation, one of the East Coast’s largest helicopter tour operators, to bring Hexa to downtown Manhattan. FAA rules limit flights to uncongested flyover areas and uncontrolled airspace. But the company plans to dot the city’s waterfront with vertiports, providing access to a Class G VFR corridor that extends up to 1,300 feet.

Lift also intends to partner with the Warren Buffett-backed Marubeni Corporation to commercialize Hexa in Japan. The aircraft has already made public demonstrations in the country, and Marubeni could preorder as many as 100 of them.

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First reported by Reuters, India’s order for 31 MQ-9B SeaGuardian drones from the U.S. government is on the precipice of going through after India’s defense ministry approved it. The deal was initially brokered for 22 SeaGuardian aircraft all the way back in 2017 but has stalled for years.

According to General Atomics, use cases for the MQ-9B, also known as the Reaper, range from disaster relief and search and rescue to anti-submarine warfare and long-range surveillance, intelligence, and reconnaissance.

The sale of MQ-9B drones, manufactured by defense contractor General Atomics, will net the U.S. government just more than $3 billion. But the move has larger geopolitical implications, potentially serving to ward off China’s growing military or reduce India’s reliance on Russian drone technology. The U.S. in recent months has been working to strengthen its defense ties with India.

Per The Times of India, the defense ministry’s Defense Acquisition Council submitted an initial “acceptance of necessity” for the deal, the first major step toward pushing it through. Now, it awaits clearance from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet, which is expected to be announced next week when Modi meets with President Joe Biden.

Since November 2020—around the time the deal was supposed to have been approved—the Indian Air Force has been operating two leased SeaGuardian drones, capable of flying more than 30 hours at an altitude of more than 40,000 feet. So far, they’ve logged thousands of flight hours conducting surveillance along the Indian coastline.

Still, a final purchase agreement between the two sides has yet to come to fruition. In February 2022, conflicting reports conversely characterized the deal as on hold or in advanced stages as it awaited approval from India’s defense ministry. But if recent reports are accurate, it seems the latter outlook was the correct one.

India’s SeaGuardian order, if approved, appears to be the largest purchase of MQ-9B aircraft, which also exist in a SkyGuardian variant. Publicized deals have typically consisted of a handful of SeaGuardian deliveries—only a few have included more than 10. The drone is operated by several U.S. allies, such as the U.K. and Belgium.

It’s worth noting, though, the deal will not be final until Modi’s cabinet submits a formal “letter of request” to initiate the sale. Previous reports have also suggested the final number of MQ-9B aircraft to be delivered may be revised down.

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The aircraft in question, Swiss eVTOL manufacturer Dufour Aerospace’s Aero2, has been in development for years and is now entering its final prototype phase, the firm announced Thursday.

It’s a huge milestone for Dufour. Designed to enable flight testing and certification before the autonomous Aero2 enters serial production in 2025, the fourth and final prototype, X2.3, is just about ready to be built. Slated to begin testing in early 2024, X2.3 will bring Dufour closer to European Union Aviation and Safety Agency (EASA) design approval.

The announcement follows Dufour’s historic deal with Spright—a subsidiary of helicopter services firm Air Methods—for the purchase of up to 140 Aero2 aircraft, one of the largest civilian drone purchases to date.

More recently, the company secured a Series B funding raise led by Vista Global, one of the world’s leading private aviation groups. It also earned a $2.8 million grant from Innosuisse, the innovation agency of the Swiss Confederation, the most it was eligible to receive.

Aero2’s unique, tilt-wing design gives it the vertical lift capabilities of a helicopter with the cruise speed of a winged plane. The key differences between X2.3 and Dufour’s previous prototype—which has flown successfully at the firm’s airfield in Dübendorf, Switzerland—are an improved maximum takeoff weight (around 459 pounds) and the addition of hybrid-electric propulsion through a frame contract with Suter Industries.

And while the latest prototype is projected to have a slightly slower cruise speed (81 knots versus 92 knots in earlier iterations), Dufour will give it more ground clearance and a larger fuselage and wingspan. Other changes include a new front-loading mechanism, the replacement of a conventional tail with a more stable H-tail configuration, and swapping ducted fans for a rear propeller.

“Aero2 is able to transport 88 [pounds] over a distance of 215 nm. The structure and systems have to be safe and aerodynamically efficient, and delivering this is not an easy task,” said Simon Bendrey, Dufour’s head of design. “I’m especially proud of the hard work of our teams to lock in a design that will meet or exceed our customers’ stringent requirements.”

Aero2’s specifications—which also include redundant motors and control surfaces as well as a flight time of three hours in standard configuration—make it a good fit for multiple operations, hence the “Swiss Army knife” moniker. 

Dufour envisions it being used to deliver critical cargo, such as blood and vaccines, conduct remote sensing and data gathering (including beyond the visual line of sight), and enable public safety operations from search and rescue to wildfire prevention to border monitoring.

Now, the company is acquiring the materials needed to build the X.23 design, which will align with EASA’s Specific Assurance and Integrity Level IV (SAIL IV) standards. The agency has yet to fully define the requirements and means of compliance for that approval, which would enable operations over populated areas. But as soon as it does, Dufour plans to apply for it.

“Dufour Aerospace is working hard to develop the Aero2, and we have full confidence in their ability to deliver their innovative product,” said Joseph Resnik, president and CEO of Spright. “We’ve worked closely with the team at Dufour for more than one year now and are pleased with the progress being made. In close contact with our existing and prospective customers, we see a huge potential for this aircraft for numerous applications.”

In addition to the Spright deal, Dufour agreed to a long-term contract with Blueberry Aviation that will see the commercial aircraft and helicopter specialist purchase 100 Aero2 drones. The agreement also calls for Blueberry to acquire 100 Aero3 aircraft—a larger, piloted model that Dufour expects will become its flagship product.

Aero3 will maintain the tilt-wing and hybrid-electric propulsion components of Aero2 and is expected to handle a similar range of operations. The difference is it will hold up to eight passengers and fly farther, faster, and more efficiently than its predecessor, capable of carrying a useful load of 1,650 pounds.

Dufour is working to certify Aero3 by late 2025, about a year after Aero2 is expected to be approved. Worth noting, though, is the firm initially anticipated serial production of Aero2 to begin this year—that date has now been pushed back.

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The Grand Caravan, the fourth in Cessna’s Caravan series, entered the market in 1990. Known in the aviation world as “the flying Swiss army knife” because of its versatility, the Grand Caravan can be outfitted for varying missions, including surveillance, cargo hauling, and passenger transport. The EX model has a larger cabin, seating up to 14 people, including the pilot.

“The Grand Caravan EX delivered to the Belize Ministry of National Defense and Border Security will be used as a multi-mission platform for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), casualty evacuation (CASEVAC), search and rescue (SAR), air mobility, light air drop, and other operations as necessary,” said Bob Gibbs, vice president, Special Mission Sales. “This is the first Caravan EX in the service of the Belize Ministry of National Defense and Border Security.”

According to Textron, this particular Grand Caravan EX is fitted with an electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensor, operator mission console, tactical radios, and data link. Textron Aviation will provide pilot, mission operator, and maintenance training, as well as an in-country field service representative.

The Foreign Military Sale (FMS) contract was executed by the U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama. 

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The trials included demonstrating an increase in engine power and raising the main gearbox torque rating. The gearbox is responsible for lowering an engine’s high input speeds and transferring the appropriate torque to a helicopter’s rotors and some engine accessories.

“The testing ran to plan from day one, an astounding success for the teams in Colorado and Yeovil, and a phenomenal execution by all who made it happen,” said Kristian Daines, the AW101 Performance Improvement Program manager for Leonardo Helicopters’ U.K. division.

Leonardo said a cross-departmental team was able to complete a 21-day trial plan in the U.S. in just 16 days. The team of pilots and engineers did the tests to expand the high-altitude capabilities of the AW101 in Colorado at Buena Vista and Leadville, which sits nearly two miles above sea level (9,933 feet msl at the airport, KLXV). There, the team tested the helicopter’s high-altitude takeoff and landing performance envelope, including recovery techniques in case of an engine failure.

Additionally, Leonardo said the AW101 Performance Improvement Program allowed the team to raise the main gear box (MGB) torque rating to 117 percent. The test pilots and engineers had to demonstrate the expanded capabilities to members of the Italian Secretariat General of Defence and National Armaments Directorate.

• READ MORE: Best Helicopter Pilot Jobs in Colorado

To transport the helicopter to Colorado, Leonardo shipped it to Baltimore, Maryland, in parts, where its engineers put it together. Then, an aircrew that included test engineers and pilots flew the chopper 1,600 miles to Buena Vista.

“The aircraft’s inherent capability and equipment fit, coupled with superb work from the Field Service Representatives team (who put the helicopter together), meant the transit went exactly as planned,” said Nick Wharmby, test pilot at Leonardo Helicopters’ U.K. division.

Following the test, the manufacturer is shipping the helicopter, in parts, back to its facilities at Yeovil in the U.K. before delivering it to the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security, which has ordered 16 AW101 AWSAR helicopters.

According to Leonardo, the AW101 has a max gross weight of 34,390 pounds, and can transport up to 38 lightly equipped troops or 16 stretchers. In a different configuration, it can even carry quad bikes and tactical all-terrain vehicles (ATVs). Each AW101 is powered by a GE CT7-8e turboshaft powerplant with full authority digital engine control (FADEC).

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• aerial photography
• pipeline patrols
• search and rescue
• crop spraying
• wildfire spotting

The fuel efficiency of LSAs is a major factor in these types of aircraft now being used worldwide for many aerial work applications. However, in the United States, LSAs currently are severely limited in what “aerial work” they can do, with the only “for hire” uses of an LSA today being: 

• flight instruction
• aircraft rental
• towing of a hang glider, but not banner towing

For many years, LAMA has been working with Jonathan Scott, a senior research fellow at École des Ponts Business School to lobby the FAA to include these uses in the MOSAIC rewrite. LAMA, USUA, and Scott have also been working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and other entities performing testing and data collection to prove that LSAs make sense for aerial work on many levels. As part of that work, a 2014 survey revealed that in other countries, the list of allowable types of aerial work an LSA-type airplane can perform is very long.

As we approach the release of the ongoing FAA MOSAIC regulatory rewrite, many in the LSA industry are hopeful that the case made by LAMA, USUA, and Scott will lead to a much broader list of allowable aerial work applications for LSAs in the U.S.

“One aspect of our testing confirmed that an LSA at a height of 4,500 feet agl can map 30,000 acres in about an hour,” Scott said, “while a drone would need four to six weeks to cover the same area because, by law, drones can only ascend to 400 feet. This means LSAs have the ability to do more with less if the right aircraft is matched with the right job. And from the testing we’ve been doing, we now know that LSAs can do aerial observation and imaging very well.”

Although Scott is the “driving force” behind the testing of LSAs for aerial work in the U.S., his entry into this field came almost by chance. 

“In 2017, while I was attending ground school, I came across an article written by a researcher at the USDA which highlighted their aerial-imaging program and mentioned off-hand that USDA-ARS uses six-seater aircraft to carry 10-pound cameras,” Scott explained. “So I sent the researcher an email asking why USDA was paying hourly fuel costs of over $125 [the cost of 100LL avgas at the time] when they could probably do the same job using LSAs that consume only $15 of fuel per hour. He immediately invited me to the USDA research facility in Texas and asked me to bring an LSA for testing. This was before COVID hit, so we had to wait a year, but eventually I arranged to have three different LSAs show up for testing.”

Scott’s everyday work involves eliminating waste, reducing resource use, and lowering costs in work and production processes. While visiting USDA-ARS, one of the technicians explained that most of the aircraft they use are given to them by Homeland Security (i.e., drug confiscations). The technician said that the repair, maintenance, and operation costs associated with these ‘free’ aircraft often exceeded the research center’s budget, so none of the four aircraft in the hangar were usable at the time.

When larger aircraft are replaced with LSAs, the economics are hard to dispute, Scott said. “Wildfire detection is a great example of these economics. If the state of Florida replaced its present-day wildfire-detection fleet of seventeen Cessna 172s with LSAs, the fuel savings alone would amount to over $1,000 per hour and emissions could be cut by more than two-thirds. 

“Keep in mind this doesn’t take into account all the other financial savings involved, which means Florida could probably increase the size of its wildfire detection fleet by 50 percent using LSAs and still end up paying fewer day-to-day costs than it does now.”

One of the many concepts Scott and USDA have testing is “bridging,” where two or more technologies are combined to enhance their capabilities. “In this case, we replace traditional aerial photography cameras with drones. The idea is to securely strap a small drone to an LSA thereby eliminating the height, weight, and distance limitations of the drone while enabling the LSA to transmit a live video feed to a ground crew. This is a real game-changer, especially if thermal cameras are entered into the mix because by combining a drone with an LSA, you end up with an affordable, and improved, aerial platform as well as two aircraft that can be separated and used for different applications,” Scott said.

The 2016 white paper listed the types of aerial work uses LSAs are currently performing around the world. In Germany for instance, “ultralights” (similar in fuel efficiency to our LSAs) are used for crop spraying and surveillance, herd management, inspections of pipelines, power lines, and wind turbines, aerial photography, and towing of gliders and advertising banners. In Australia and New Zealand, LSAs are being used for many of those same applications, and also shark patrols and aerial seeding.

In the work advocating to the FAA for broader allowable uses of LSAs for aerial work, it was imperative that the distinction between “aerial work” and “commercial uses” be made. “No hauling of passengers or cargo is envisioned, and flight over areas of dense population is not requested. Night and IFR operations are also not contemplated. Aerial work performed in LSAs is not expected to exceed any operation parameters of such aircraft accepted as compliant with ASTM standards,” the paper said.

While the nuts and bolts of the final MOSAIC rewrite remain a mystery, many involved in the U.S. light sport industry are hopeful that the FAA opens up this efficient part of general aviation to more aerial work applications. If that happens, it could be a win for all involved, saving operators money while opening the door for more LSA sales and a new wave of job openings for pilots and ground crews.

The post Will MOSAIC Allow LSAs To Do More? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Last September, troopers turned to Alaska Army National Guard’s Golf Company, Detachment 1, 2-211th General Support Aviation Battalion, 207th Aviation Regiment for help. Medevac Commander and UH-60 Black Hawk Instructor Pilot Capt. Cody McKinney, along with flight medic Sgt. 1st Class Damion Minchaca and helicopter crew chief and hoist operator Staff Sgt. Sonny Cooper were part of a four-person team dispatched to try to rescue a sheep hunter who had been stuck on a ledge for two days. A snowstorm was moving in, and time was running out.

The rescue earned the team the 2021 Rescue of the Year by DUSTOFF Association. Here is their story, as told to FLYING, of that day, how they performed the daring rescue in their UH-60 Black Hawk during treacherous whiteout conditions, and the teamwork and trust it required among the crew. Their conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and space.

Capt. Cody McKinney, Medevac Commander and UH-60 pilot

In this [rescue], particularly, they called us, and I think it was 2 in the afternoon, and said: “We have a hunter—he was hunting sheep—and he got stranded on a ledge that we think is about [a slope of] 60 degrees, and he’s up at 5,800 feet. And he’s been up there for at least two days. He can’t move anywhere. We don’t think he has any injuries. But he may have cold-weather injuries, given how high he was, and it had snowed the last two days.” 

When we received the mission, the first thing we did was we started flight planning. We knew that he was at 5,800 feet, and we knew that he was on super steep terrain, so we kind of knew what kind of hoist it was going to be. But then, when we started looking at the weather system, they were showing a broken ceiling somewhere in the 4,000s [feet]. 

• READ MORE: ‘Thunderstorm of the Worst Case’

We had an idea that we weren’t going to be able to get up to him, but with a broken ceiling, we figured we would try. 

We launched pretty quickly after receiving the mission. We were going toward Knik Glacier, I think it was a 30-minute flight. 

We climbed as high as we could, and we started bumping up against the clouds. I want to say we were [at] 4,500 feet or so with a broken layer. As we were doing that, we’re like, “We’re not going to be able to get to this guy. So what can we do?”

We called back to our boss and asked her to get the Alaskan Mountain Rescue Group on the phone and pre-position them in Palmer [Alaska], which is about 15 miles away from the rescue site. 

Our plan was, we’re going to go out there. We’re going to try to see if we could get to him, kind of anticipating that we couldn’t. [If so,] then we would swing back, try to find a good place to land up there as close to him as we could get. Then, we would come back and pick up Alaska Mountain Rescue Group guys, put them in via hoist as high as we could get and let them climb up to him. Then, they could bring them back down and we would hoist them out, you know, so we weren’t trapped in that cloud layer.

What we didn’t want to do was leave him up there for another couple days because he would have died. 

We’re coming up with this plan, and what we try to avoid is a quiet cockpit. So one thing we’ve kind of learned over the last three or four years working together is when a cockpit gets quiet en route, we just try to start talking about things that maybe we’re forgetting. 

So, we said, “All right, we know this guy’s been up there, he’s hunting, he’s got a lot of money. I bet you this guy isn’t gonna want to get on the hoist without all of his gear,” which is a thing. These guys get all combative and weird because they spend thousands of dollars on that gear, which we’re not interested in at all. 

So [Staff Sgt. Sonny Cooper] says to [Sgt. 1st Class Damion Minchaca], “Hey, I’m going to hook you up with extra carabiner. Like, we’ll get you the two-up device from Air Rescue systems and we’ll have everything in place in case this guy refuses to leave so that we can at least do a quick pick.” 

When we got around the corner to start looking at lower elevation places we could land, we found an opening in the clouds that we thought we could punch up to. When we saw that, it was kind of like a reality check between the crew. Do you guys want to come up to this and actually do this? We’re surrounded by 7,000-8,000-foot mountains. 

If we come up through this layer and we get stuck, we’re gonna have to push up through the icing and all the clouds to try to get an IFR clearance back, and it’s going to be a significant emotional event for everyone. But, you know, that’s the nature of medevac missions and we wanted to get this guy back home. 

We decided to push it. 

We came up through this hole—I think it was 4,500 to 4,800 feet—there was a layer where these broken clouds were sitting at, that 4,800-foot layer. We couldn’t really see it, but we knew that there was a ceiling at about 6,000 feet, and it was snowing pretty heavily. 

We got the grid where this guy was supposed to be, and of course, we couldn’t see him. And so we’re trying to fly around, and I’m telling my pilot in the other seat, “If you lose the mountain out the left side, let me know so that I can start to descend, or we’re gonna push up and start climbing because at that point, I think visibility was probably a mile.”

Very similar to flying in a ping-pong ball. We were using the broken rocks on the side of the mountain as reference points. We did two orbits looking for this guy and he finally figured out that there was a helicopter in front of him. He had a jacket that was red on the inside, and he turned it inside out and waved it at us, so we saw him.

Winners! Alaska Army National Guard aviation wins DUSTOFF Association Rescue of the Year! #TeamAKNG #AKArmyNationalGuard #dustoff

Story here https://t.co/GBzGt7kUN5 pic.twitter.com/ucgARAqB0R

— AlaskaNationalGuard (@AKNationalGuard) February 18, 2022

What he had done was he came off a saddle and scurried across a little scree field with a 60-degree slope, and then got caught on this little rock ledge that was maybe 3 feet by 3 feet. And then it snowed while he was there while he camped overnight. The next morning, he was just stuck. He couldn’t go anywhere. 

We identified him, knew where he was at and knew it was going to be a very technical hoist. We did an orbit and just talked about, “Hey, this is what we’re going to do. We’re going to do a dynamic-style hoist. We’re going to minimize our time coming in. And then after we pick him off the hoist, we’re going to do a left descending turn, and while [Minchaca’s] coming back up into the helicopter, we’re going to descend back down through that sucker hole to make sure that it doesn’t close up on us.” 

We came out maybe a quarter mile from where he was and we did all of our safety checks, opened the doors [Cooper] moved out to the door of the helicopter and brought [Minchaca] out. 

We have skis on our helicopter, so you actually have to drop half of our ski when it kind of dangles down below so that the hoist rider doesn’t hit it. Then we brought [Minchaca] out to what we call the brace position, which is where we bring the cable down and he sits basically where the floor of the helicopter sits at his armpit level. And then we kick the tail out to the right about 15 degrees, so we’re flying in kind of like a notch profile. What this allows is for the hoist operator and the hoist rider to visually confirm the target and to make sure that everybody’s on the same page of what we’re doing and where we’re going.

We are in that profile with the nose kicked to the left about 15 degrees. We’re going about, I don’t know, 50 knots-ish, and we’re starting this kind of gradual approach to him. 

[Cooper], in his head, is measuring where the target is at so that he times running the cable out.

Staff Sgt. Sonny Cooper, helicopter crew chief and hoist operator 

At this point, we’ve identified the target. The aircraft is in its profile and we’re on approach but this guy put his jacket back on, the camo side out. I was the only one who actually had eyes on him at this point, so I’m trying to guide the aircraft in while trying to point him out to [McKinney], who is on the controls in the right seat and also point him out to the medic because we don’t really have the time to do more orbits in there and find this guy.

This is our one shot, our one chance to actually get to him in a timely fashion.

We’re making the approach and calling him in, and about halfway in, [McKinney’s] able to identify him. [Minchaca] gets eyes on him and I start rolling the cable out. I’m lowering [Minchaca] down. I’m waiting for his hand and arm signal letting me know that he’s about the same level as the guy on the mountain. 

He gives me a signal, so I stopped cabling him down. I continue calling the aircraft in until [Minchaca’s] within five feet of the target. But, I’m looking down there at this guy and he’s on this small ledge that’s maybe 3 feet wide by 2 feet back and there’s a wall of rocks right behind him. There’s nothing but snow on either side of him, to his left and right. I’m not wanting to set [Minchaca] down right on top of this guy because there’s a risk of bumping this guy off the mountain.

At first, I tried setting [Minchaca] into the snow on one side of him. The snow sloughed out from under him, so I tried the other side of the guy and set him down. That snow was just as soft and nothing stable to put [Minchaca] on, so my last option was to put him basically right on top of the guy.

When [Minchaca] landed, his feet basically interlocked with him.

Keep in mind this is all probably within about 30 seconds. I tried one spot, tried the other, and they don’t work, and I put him right on the guy. 

Capt. McKinney

I think at this point, too, the cable length is probably 70-80 feet. We like to hoist at no lower than 70 feet because the rotor velocity on the helicopter is so great that it will affect the hoist rider. We also didn’t want the downwash from the rotor system to push that guy off that ledge.

Like [Cooper] just said, [Minchaca] tried to touch a part of the ground that was next to him and it just completely shuffles, like sloughed off. It was a good thing he didn’t try to walk out because it would have killed him. 

This terrain relief was 60 degrees or so. When we ran [Minchaca] out on that cable initially, we’re at 5,800 feet and all the way down to the bottom of that valley. He was sitting out there, just dangling for 30 seconds at 4,000 feet or so.

Sgt. 1st Class Damion Minchaca, flight medic

When I came out of the helicopter…and I didn’t see the guy. I finally get a little glimpse of the guy but I keep losing him. I’m really trying to work the wind because, as we’re coming in, we have to beat our rotor flow. We try to beat that before it starts to make you spin. I come down and me and Cooper, we’re working together. I’m near the area I want to be at, but I touch it and [what looked like snow covered ground] obliterates. I thought it was solid. I felt like I was going to fall off the face. It was pretty intense. 

Before we got out there, me and Cooper actually did a little practice run of how we’re going to use the ARV—our air rescue vest—in the back of the helicopter, so I was ready and pretty prepared to get him inside of it.

I push him against the ledge to get a nice and stable base. He was already on top of it. He’s screaming about his hunting bag before I can talk to him about anything else. I was like, “Hey, just hold on. Let me get this vest on you.” I throw his arms through the vest, get him locked in. I get all three points locked in, and I reach over and grab his hunting bag. 

[Minchaca informs the man that if the bag hinders the operation in any way, it will be left behind.]

I look up and you can see the helicopter, all the snow, it’s breaking the mountain apart as we’re trying to get off of there. I just knew we had to get out of there right away. I snapped it on. I get the up signal, so I shook my head up and I’m ready to go. And I come right off that mountain. 

When we do those swings, as you come off the mountain, the helicopter turns into the swing, and it is a perfect flow as we’re coming through. We came up nice and straight. We didn’t spin at all and came right into the cabin.

Capt. McKinney

One of the interesting things about the medevac and hoists and a helicopter that’s over 70 feet long is that—like typically in aviation—it’s always the pilots who have the precision and the skill and all that stuff. But in hoists and these precision environments, it’s really a team effort.

The way that [Minchaca] rides the hoist, like if he puts an arm out in the wrong position and gets into a spin. If he doesn’t give the right hand and arm signals, we put him down in the wrong spot. But we know we’re 70 feet in the air coming down to a target that I can’t see, so it becomes like this trust game. 

[Cooper] is not only working a pendant that goes up to 300 feet per minute, trying to manage [Minchaca] and talk to me about what’s happening on the hoist. He’s also calling the helicopter, and I am just blindly trusting whatever he says. 

So if [Cooper] says, “Hey, you’re clear left, I want to bring that tail around and start to move left and descend,” I just do it because I trust him. 

That’s kind of the environment that we’ve built here. It just absolutely does not work unless you have that. 

When we started bringing [Minchaca] in, because you have the rotor velocity coming off of the helicopter, it comes down on that slope. And as it’s coming down on that slope, it doesn’t matter how good a pilot you are. As soon as you pick that load up, that velocity is going to push that load away from the mountain. The only way that you can manage that is that you time it and you roll the helicopter away with it to stop any unwanted conical rotations. 

[Cooper] was managing all of that stuff. He’s also, in his head, timing as we roll out. Then, as we’re turning around the corner, we’re descending into a cloud layer, and we’re looking for that open spot. 

As I’m coming right, my co-pilot [Chief Warrant Officer 2] Brad Jorgensen says, “Hey, you got an opening right there. Let’s straighten it out.” Cooper’s saying the load is good, bring him up. In a matter of two minutes that felt like an eternity, we pick this guy off of a mountain. We’ve got him. We brought him back in the helicopter. We descended back through a cloud layer and we’re headed back.

The reason that these missions like this are possible is because we have the support of our leadership to train in technical environments, so when we go and we do a hoist off the mountain, it’s not like the first time we’ve done it. We have the Air Guard and other DOD assets that we train with, the Air Force. We’ve trained with the [Navy] Seals up here, [Special Forces] teams. We have this high level of proficiency so that when we go out and somebody is relying on us to bring their kid home that they can have the trust, and we have the fidelity to actually execute those missions. 

The post Flying Blind: Trust Is the Cornerstone for This Alaska Air Rescue Team appeared first on FLYING Magazine.