Europe Grounds all Dassault 7X operations - immediately

[bizjets101]

http://ad.easa.europa.eu/ad/2011-0102-E

27 May 2011

Dassault 7X aeroplanes, all serial numbers.

From effective date of this AD, all flight are prohibited.

A Falcon 7X experienced an uncontrolled pitch trim runaway during descent. The crew succeeded in recovering a stable situation and performed an uneventful landing.

Analysis of the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and Fault History Database (FHDB) confirmed the event, but did not allow explaining the origin of the pitch trim runaway.

This condition, if occurring again, could lead to the loss of the aeroplane.

To address this potential unsafe condition, Dassault Aviation has proposed to EASA to prohibit, from the effective date of this AD, any flight operations of Falcon 7X aeroplanes, to which EASA agrees by issuing this AD.

This AD is considered to be an interim measure pending the outcome of the investigation currently carried out by the manufacturer. Further AD action is expected to follow when additional information is available.

[bizjets101]

Unknown whose aircraft this was, appears to have occurred in Malaysia??

Three Canadian Falcon 7X's

C-FAWZ FlightExec (Is this the Lau family jet 'founder of ATI Technologies')???

C-GMGX Magna Intl.

C-GRGM Robert Miller, Future Electronics

Quick check of FlightAware shows ZERO Falcon 7X's airbourne and NTSB is about to release a statement most likely ground USA Falcon 7X flights.

[cdnpilot77]

C-FAWZ FlightExec (Is this the Lau family jet 'founder of ATI Technologies')???

Don't know for sure but I think the Lau family has a Falcon 900 and possibly a Challenger 605? I didn't think they bought a 7X....yet!

[bizjets101]

Hmmm, the Lau's have two big homes in the Bridal Path and have 3 Cirrus SR-22's at Buttonville!!!, nice. I believe they are owners of some of the FlightExec aircraft.

As for the 7X, incident aircraft was a Swiss 7X on approach to Airport Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah (SZB), in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - and a emergency was declared.

[cdnpilot77]

Hmmm, the Lau's have two big homes in the Bridal Path and have 3 Cirrus SR-22's at Buttonville!!!, nice. I believe they are owners of some of the FlightExec aircraft.
.

Ibelieve you are correct there with the Flightexec aircraft, last I heard one of his airplanes was sitting in a hangar waiting to be sold but market price was too low last year so he is hanging onto it until market prices come back up...ps, they also have a "cottage" on lake joseph that by my guess is about 30,000-40,000 sq/ft.

[Changes in Latitudes]

Fix on the way!

Dassault finds fix for grounded 7X

By David Learmount

Dassault's Falcon 7X business jets, currently grounded because of a stabiliser trim fault, are expected to be airborne again shortly.

Dassault said on 9 June that it had developed and validated a modification, and depending on approvals from the European Aviation Safety Agency and "modification kit logistics", it expects the first aircraft to have the changes completed "within about 10 days".

This modification will feature additional automated protection beyond that already designed into the horizontal stabiliser trim circuitry, the airframer said. Dassault said it involves both software and hardware alterations, which have already been tested and validated on a test bench.

Dassault said it is "co-ordinating an unprecedented logistic effort" to manage the modifications within its own service centres and its Falcon authorised service network, adding that "additional dedicated retrofit lines have been set up in France, at Bordeaux-Mérignac and Istres, and also in Little Rock, Arkansas".

The aircraft have been grounded since an EASA emergency airworthiness directive, issued at Dassault's request, came into effect on 26 May. This followed the 25 May incident when a Falcon 7X experienced a pitch trim event during descent. The crew successfully recovered the aircraft to a stable flight profile and performed an uneventful landing.

The manufacturer says its investigation "has confirmed that the Falcon 7X control laws operated normally, which allowed development of a safe ferry procedure using the digital flight control system in normal mode".

The 7X entered service in 2007, 112 aircraft have been delivered, and until this event they had accumulated over 75,000 fault-free flight hours, said the company.

[invertedattitude]

"Additional Automated Prevention"

How about a "Let me fly" button.

[airdude]

The ''let me fly'' button is part of the fix...

They've put 3 countermeasures to prevent this malfunction to happen again:
2 software / electronic architectural fail safe;
1 hard wired button to deactivate the electronic trim system.

The only problem is that they still don't know exactly what happened the first time...
I still feel safe whit the mods they did but keep wondering what will fail next.