Training & Sims

Maybe were too busy focusing on the forest and the trees that the dirt making up the foundation of the arbors is ignored. Or perhaps its the elephant in the room no one discusses. Instructors dont teach it because they dont understand the opaque system themselves-cant teach something you dont know. Whatever the cause, many pilots have a poor understanding of how aeronautical information travels through the system and how charts are updated.

Did you know that even piston airplanes can occasionally leave a contrail? Sure, its unusual, but it can happen. Many of us often wonder why some airplanes leave contrails that can last seemingly forever, while others leave a contrail that doesnt last but a few seconds. Plus, of course, sometimes theres no contrail at all. Contrails are an interesting phenomenon. So, lets have some fun examining the science behind contrails. Along the way we can use that as a basis to learn a bit more about how the atmosphere behaves.

The other day the Washington, DC area was getting hammered with a series of strong, fast-moving thunderstorms. Reagan National (DCA) had just shut down when I heard the following on the ground frequency at Dulles:

Youve probably heard the morbid axiom: FAA regulations are written in blood. Many of the rules fattening the books governing pilots and air traffic controllers were brought about by unfortunate incidents. Line up and wait (LUAW) is a significant example. Its an inherently risky maneuver: a controller places an airplane on a runway but doesnt let them take off due to other traffic using the runway or on final to that same runway.

Its taken for granted that when you fly a light aircraft, you take care of everything from preflight planning to all the in-flight tasks and securing the aircraft afterwards. All decisions are usually left to one person. This is such a common routine for many that the risks of whats known as Single-Pilot Resource Management are often overlooked, especially due to the external pressures that are often present for any flight. In this accident report, the combination of a sole pilots pressure to get home and poor weather conditions had tragic results.

I loved The MTA Song as a kid. You know it: Charlie gets caught a nickel short and left to ride the rails of the Boston subway forever because the fare went up during his morning commute. I loved its joyful ridiculousness, and I loved that my dad would belt it out for us on his old Martin. (He was a beatnik-a hippy before it was cool.) Charlies wife handing him a sandwich always bugged me though. Why didnt she just hand him a nickel so he could get off the train?

Last month, Handling Windshear, described how to recognize, avoid and, handle an encounter with windshear. The focus of that article was the practical side of piloting but we necessarily touched on the basics of the weather behind thunderstorms, microbursts and windshear. Now its time to dig deeper into that meteorology.

It really should be true. Visual contact with lights offers a bridge between the miasma of IMC and the welcoming squeak of pavement. If you reach DA and have only the approach lights in sight, just holding your attitude for a moment longer-and lower-should yield enough visual information to put the wheels safely on the runway.

Regulations prevent collisions through right-of-way rules. These codified decencies apply to the road, sea and air. For aviation, 14 CFR 91.113 warns that regardless of whether an operation is conducted under instrument flight rules or visual flight rules, vigilance shall be maintained by each person operating an aircraft so as to see and avoid other aircraft. Sage advice, that, especially with our butts in the hot seat.

One of the things we hear that readers like best about IFR is our focus on stuff you really want or need to know in the practical world of flying on instruments. That, of course, and the occasionally flip and irreverent or even cheeky way we present it.