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9
SEPTEMBER 1953                                  

CAA AND CAB

  Alfred S. Koch, formerly administrator of CAA's International Region, on Sept. 1 became Chief of the office of Safety, replacing Ernest S. Hensley, who had held the job four years. Administrator Fred Lee said Hensley had requested permission to resign the post and be reassigned as assistant administrator of Region Six at Honolulu.
  One of Koch's first assignments will be to study present safety activities with a view toward relinquishing CAA functions back to industry, and to cooperate with the new Senate Commerce subcommittee on civil aviation in recommending any changes to the Act that may be needed to facilitate this reallocation of responsibility.
  Hensley's departure from the top CAA safety job represents the second major change in that office this year. William Davis, formerly deputy to Hensley, was transferred to an assistant regional administrator's post in Kansas City last January. Frank C. Stone replaces Koch as administrator of the International Region.

NEW PRESIDENT of The Ninety-Nines, Inc., is Geraldin (Mrs. Chas. A.) Mickelsen, Sacramento, Calif., school teacher, who has been flying for 15 years. She joined the Ninety-Nines in 1937 and has held all chapter offices, has been southwest governor for two years, was vice governor for two years, has been on International Executive Board for past two years and on Int. Membership Committee for past four years. She has been active in the Wing Scouts and the California Air Education program and is a member of the California Aviation Society.

  CAA's Personnel Officer in Washington sought last month to help victims of the reduction-in-force program find new jobs. He prepared and distributed to industry a dossier detailing qualifications of 77 individuals who had lost their jobs in the economy move. The dossier gives all pertinent information except names and addresses, which CAA will supply to prospective employers upon request. 

  An alphabetical index of aircraft specifications has been compiled by CAA's Office of Aviation Safety for office use.

  The temporary local service certificate of E. W. Wiggins Airways was permitted by CAB to expire on Aug. 1. The New England carrier promptly applied for CAB permission to operate as an air taxi operator under its established name. Such permission is necessary because of a CAB rule prohibiting air taxi operators from suing such words as "airline" or "airways" without specific permission.

  CAA Safety Release #378, which became effective Aug. 15, institutes a $10 charge for each special aircraft registration number issued. The charge was adopted, CAA said, to compensate for work involved in performing this extra service, for which a large number of requests are made.

  CAB's enforcement office last month refused to take any action against Northwest Airlines as a result of Capital Airlines' complaint of "unfair" competitive practices arising from NWA's sale of alcoholic beverages in "violation of the law" of seven of 10 states over which the two carriers compete. Enforcement said that not only are the legal questions involved extremely complicated, but the job of policing such practices, would be "well-nigh impossible." Capital asked the Board to order action to be taken.

  CAA recently worked out an arrangement with the Air Force for industry discussions on a restricted basis of the so-called Rand Study on logistics characteristics and costs of AF transport planes. The study was made by the RAND Corp. under an AF contract, and its contents were strictly hush-hush until Pentagon security officers downgraded its security classification at CAA's request. 

  Scheduled air carrier rotorcraft certification and operation rules have been drafted by CAB's Bureau of Safety Regulations as a new CAB Part 46, which has been submitted to the industry for comments by Oct. 30. Although patterned closely after the revised Part 40 which goes into effect Oct. 1, Part 46 prescribes special requirements for helicopters. Simultaneously with the release of the draft, of Part 46, CAB circulated a proposed amendment to Part 21 which outlines specifically the requirements for a commercial helicopter pilot rating. Graham Aldrich, consultant to the Air transport Association's helicopter study committee, said the Part 46 proposal was "premature." He said the Board should wait until multi-engine helicopters are available for commercial tests to provide experience on which to base regulations.

     CAB has authorized Northwest Airlines to do business also under the name of "Northwest Orient Airlines." 

 Representatives of the Better Business Bureaus and civic organizations in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco, testifying at the Los Angeles session of hearings in CAB's Large Irregular Carrier Investigation, accused non-scheduled airline ticket brokers of abusing the traveling public through such practices as failure to make refunds, misleading advertising, incompleted trips, and lost baggage.

 A new CAB regulation forbidding airlines to file tariff rules relating to liability for personal injury or death to passengers was scheduled to become effective Sept. 1. Rules in question are those in which airlines disclaim liability in some cases, require notification of the injury within a specified time, or require that suits must be brought within a specified time. CAB said the new regulation would not interfere with provisions of any "treaty or convention to which the U. S. is a party," but would have the effect of permitting applicable state laws to govern.

 Air Transport Association is currently working out with its airline members the draft of a revised CAB regulation allowing use of "drift-down" procedures in en route aircraft performance by the airlines. Regulation is essentially the same as that specified in the new CAR Part 40 for non-transport category aircraft with a change in the 50 foot per minute rate of climb.

CAA Aviation Safety Release No. 376 stipulates that before foreign nationals can receive visas to enter the U.S. to train at CAA-approved schools, the schools must receive U.S. Attorney General's approval through the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Loss of control due to high drag from the right propeller on final approach was determined by CAB to be probable cause of the Northeast Airlines Convair 240 crash at La Guardia Airport last Feb. 6.

After Air Line Pilots Association