Features

It seems that since Leonardo de Vinci first placed his mental concept of a flying machine on paper we aviators have had a hard time separating fact from fiction. Aviation, not unlike most other human endeavors, has its share of commonly stated “truths” the scientific data doesnt support. Lets call them aviation myths. Why then, do they continue? One reality is that we are all busy in our daily lives and digging through reams of material to verify what someone else says is just too time consuming not to mention boring.

Routine flight operations typically occur in steady or quasi-steady flight: the traffic pattern, normal climbs and descents, cruise flight, even turns. Yet for all its complexities, skillfully piloting an airplane requires that we strike a balance between just three pairs of performance-defining parameters. Two of these are the force pairs lift and weight, and thrust and drag. Its a never-ending struggle to balance the weight of the airplane with lift, to balance the drag penalty resulting from that lift with thrust.

In November 2006, Alan Klapmeier, CEO of Cirrus Design, sent an almost-unprecedented letter to all owners of Cirrus SR20 and SR22 aircraft. The letter came on the heels of a string of fatal accidents in Cirrus aircraft in adverse weather conditions.

Whenever we fly from point A to point B, many of us use the Victor airway system. We pick a route that offers us the smallest increase beyond a great circle distance, or the highest groundspeed and these days, especially perhaps the widest berth from unfriendly airspace. Not always will we get the route we filed and, too often, the cleared route will put us at a major disadvantage.

Axioms about landing abound in aviation. Sayings such as “flying is the second greatest thrill known to man; landing is the first” and “any landing you can walk away from is a good landing” are among the most popular. You also hear colorful language applied to the landing process: A greaser is good; crow-hopping, porpoising, groundlooping are bad.

Its often a source of heated debate in hangar-flying sessions: What should you carry in the airplane to get you through an off-airport landing? How should you plan for such an event, and what will you need to get you through it? The scenarios raised in such discussions can range from making a quick 911 cellphone call to request assistance from a warm, sunny beach to a marathon wintertime “Donner Party” episode. Or worse.

This time of year, pilots main weather worry turns to airframe icing. The thunderstorms are (mostly) gone, replaced by layers and layers of moisture-laden clouds. Depending on where and how high you fly, there be ice in them there clouds.

Why do reciprocating aircraft engines have independent dual ignition systems? At first glance, the answer seems obvious: for a safety backup. Most pilots will agree that if one system fails, the other will provide enough spark to keep the engine running. Keeping the combustion going is only one reason for the dual-magneto system.

A good landing comes from a good approach. Its hard to make a good landing from a bad approach. Ive heard both these axioms many times during my ongoing quest for the perfect flight (and have repeated them often to my students) because for the most part its true. A good, and more importantly safe, arrival depends on the process we use to get there

Its a myth that good pilots can “fly anything with wings.” The truly good pilot realizes each type of airplane has unique characteristics and systems. Understanding them is the difference between “flying” and “flying safely” in an unfamiliar aircraft type.