User Profile Header
johnbpatson
,
TX
Comments
Displaying 1-5 of 28
HAL is NOT in Control of Your Airplane
from johnbpatson
wrote 2 years 41 weeks ago
Too true. ESP equivalents have been available in automobiles for years. They "take control" of the vehicle when the driver turns too fast, preventing skids and a complete loss of control. Every study carried out shows ESP equipped vehicles have lower accident rates than non ESP equipped vehicles but the system is usually offered only as a paid for option. That may soon change, as it did with ABS brakes, and many lives will be saved when it does. I am sure the same will apply with aircraft. Just as an aside, the design life of automobile ESP systems is in seconds, but they hardly ever reach it because when they are needed, their intervention in measured in milliseconds.
Sustain This
from johnbpatson
wrote 3 years 1 week ago
Yep, but you do not mention one of the most pressing environmental problems for aircraft: noise. When ever airfields are under threat, it is the noise part which gets the locals out waving banners -- and we are talking small grass strips as much as large airports. In spite of this engines are still put in aircraft without mufflers (silencers in English English!) and noise is the last item on propeller designers' checklist. Diamond has a surveillance version of its twin which, reportedly cannot be heard once it is at 1000 metres (3,000 ft) which shows it can be done. Until then, expect more and more raised fingers from those little people below....
No Time to Be Smug
from johnbpatson
wrote 3 years 20 weeks ago
"When the public is so willing to give up all manner of liberty and suffer enormous intrusions on privacy and personal time simply to board an airliner we can be sure that it will support any level of restriction on any type of flying..." I am afraid "the public" that is you and me, have never been asked if we are willing to give up liberty and suffer enormous intrusions on privacy and personal time -- it was imposed from above by what historians will call an elected dictatorship, or rather dictatorships as we are in the second regime where it happened. Few passengers know they pay €16 for the pleasure of being treated like cattle in airports by surly staff employed by the biggest make-work scheme since Roosevelt. Most hate the experience and will fly less, but are not motivated enough into putting pressure on politicians to stop the madness. (As the boxer bomber incident shows, if the intelligence services acted intelligently the risk could have been averted -- his own father told them he was a risk and they did nothing). GA pilots, one hopes, are more motivated and articulate than the general public and must use this motivation to make restrictions on flying politically unacceptable. Even dictatorships crumble when pressure comes from below...
We Can't Afford Avgas War
from johnbpatson
wrote 2 years 47 weeks ago
With all due respect, the argument is not about the fuel but about the engine. Student pilots, learning in Cessna's, arrive in a 100HP minimum car which hardly ever needs oil, and quickly learn in the pre-flight to fill up with oil and check the fuel! The whole concept of a carburettor in a piston engine is foreign to anyone who has a motor car built after around 1990. Modern electronic ignition on motor cars means you can drive at the coast, and then up a 10,000 foot mountain pass without having any "pinking" at all, using regular unleaded gas with or without alcohol.
There is a V6 South African engine just developed for aircraft but, having done the development and testing, they need three times the cash for the certifying and that is where it becomes silly and why oil burning, flat four or six cylinder motors designed in the 1930s and making enough noise to annoy everyone on the ground are still being sold.
This is just looking at gasoline fuelled engines, if you look at the performance improvements in diesel motor car and truck engines since common rail injection systems were introduced you really need to hold on to your hat.
And it does not have to be expensive, new auto engines do not cost more than $5,000 each wholesale. It is the "pilot notebook" syndrome (ordinary notebook $1, call it Pilot notebook $10,) which gets multiplied with anything to do with aircraft, including, for years, the price of fuel.
Pilot-on-Pilot Hate
from johnbpatson
wrote 2 years 33 weeks ago
As I grow older I become more and more sure that the world is made up of bigots and free souls. You microlight hater probably has equally strong views about those of different race, democrats, women who work, homosexuals and those of other religions. Probably reaches for his gun when he sees cats too.... Keep his aircraft away from tall buildings.
- 1 of 6
- ››
Newsletter Signup
Marketplace
Find great Products & Services!
Partner Pages
