Positioning Pounds
How to develop a healthy understanding and respect for weight and balance limitations.
Aviation Safety
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Five Pattern Sins
They arent fatal, just bad manners and sloppy technique. Here are some tips on improving your pattern flying.
Peer-Pressurized
A VFR-only Bonanza pilot succumbs to peer pressure and launches into marginal conditions.
Learning Experiences: 07/04
Running Out of Gas
Unfortunately, running out of fuel is still not an uncommon cause of private aircraft mishaps. I was flying home from a relaxing two-hour flight with about 30 minutes of fuel left as my home field came into view. When I was five minutes from the grass strip, my engine suddenly quit very abruptly, as if it had run out of fuel-it had. The first thing I did (correctly) was to establish the best glide angle and head straight for the airstrip. When I was less than a mile from the runway (downwind, as it turns out) and 2000 feet high, I started my descent. This was the wrong thing to do. I made a near-perfect power-off glide right down to the ground, 10 feet short of…
Squawk Box: 07/04
The following information is derived from the FAAs Service Difficulty Reports and Aviation Maintenance Alerts.
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Southern California Propeller Service
Improper Repairs
The FAA is proposing a new airworthiness directive (AD) for Hartzell Propeller, Inc., McCauley Propeller Systems, and Sensenich Propeller Manufacturing Company, Inc. propellers returned to service by Southern California Propeller Service, of Inglewood, Calif. Comments on the proposed AD are due at the FAA by July 19, 2004.According to the FAA, inspections of various propeller models returned to service by Southern California Propeller Service have revealed safety-critical problems. These include…
Unicom: 07/04
Whos Safer?
As a lifetime subscriber to your magazine I just want to tell you what a great job you are doing. Your magazine has made me a much better pilot. I do have a question, though: Have you done any studies regarding high-time pilot accidents vs. low-time pilot accidents (GA only)? Are high-time pilots safer (or at least involved in fewer accidents) than low-time pilots? Seems to me that for every 200-300 hour pilot who has an accident, there is 2000-3000 hour pilot who has an accident as well.
-Kevin Hughes
Via e-mail
Were glad you keep coming back, Kevin.
To answer your question, we turned to the NTSB, and its Annual Review of Aircraft Accid…
Airshow Arrivals
By the time you read this, the U.S. airshow season will be in full swing. Already, Sun n Fun has come and gone; AOPAs fly-in is scheduled for shortly after this issues deadline and the Experimental Aircraft Associations AirVenture extravaganza in Oshkosh, Wis.,-the granddaddy of all fly-in airshows-is coming up. Any number of other events are planned, too.
All of these fly-ins have one thing in common: A relatively large number of aircraft will attempt to arrive during a relatively short time span. For that purpose, event organizers and the FAA often create a set of arrival procedures designed to provide some order to the chaos. These procedures are published as Notices to Airmen (No…
March 19, Utica, N.Y. / Learjet 35A
At about 0645 eastern time, a Gates Learjet 35A was substantially damaged while landing at Oneida County Airport. There were no injuries aboard the Part 135 air taxi cargo flight. The copilot reported that he was the pilot flying at the time of the accident, which occurred after an ILS approach to runway 33. The airplane was too high during the approach, and the copilot decreased engine power. The sink rate then became too great, and the flightcrew initiated a go-around. However, the airplane landed hard on the runway before the engines could spool upand sustained damage to the main landing gear and both wings….
March 06, Bay St. Louis, Miss. / Beech V35B
At about 1100 eastern time, a Beech V35B landed gear up at the Stennis International Airport after a local flight. The pilot stated that, while on a practice precision instrument landing, two airplanes flew over the runways thresh old at about 1,000 feet and two helicopters were hovering over the taxiway next to the runway. This activity distracted his attention and he did not lower the landing gear before landing. The airplane landed on its belly and skidded to a stop on the runway….
March 10, Bardstown, KY / Diamond Star
Shortly before noon eastern time, the ATP-rated pilot attempted to land the Diamond DA-40 at a private field. Neither the pilot nor his passenger were injured. The pilot said he circled the field twice before setting up for a full-flap landing to the south. Despite flying as close as possible to trees on final and performing a slip to lose altitude, the airplane landed half-way down the 2,500 foot-long turf runway. The pilot retracted the flaps, applied maximum braking and then lost directional control during the landing rollout. Both wings were substantially damaged when the airplane impacted a knoll during the runway excursion….
