Search Results for: Lear 45

The following information is derived from the FAAs Service Difficulty Reports and Aviation Maintenance Alerts.

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An FAA certified repair station received a Janitrol cabin heater combustion head in exchange for a new part purchased by a customer. The trade-in combustion head had a hole approximately 0.4375 inches in diameter burned through it and the entire part was severely corroded.

Clearly cabin heaters are operated with minimal maintenance until they fail. A pressure decay test of this unit would have made its deficiencies obvious.

Cabin heaters are neglected during the summer, then expected to perform perfectly during the first cold snap. However, cabin heaters tha…

[IMGCAP(1)]The key for all landings is the pilots ability to estimate how the airplane will descend to its landing. This ability directly affects the timing of configuration and power changes and the amount of maneuvering that might be necessary to arrive at a suitable touchdown point. The pilot needs to be able to maintain the correct glide angle while maneuvering the airplane.

The most important ability – and it comes easier for pilots with glider flight experience – is the ability to estimate the gliding angle and what distance can be picked up with it. All pilots should be able to do a pretty good job of estimating where their airplane is going to land, knowing the normal glide ang…

[IMGCAP(1)]The first time a pilot on an ILS approach sneaks under the glide-slope is almost always a situation where he is on an ILS final, approaching minimums. Hes close to decision height and suddenly there are patches of ground appearing intermittently below. An instant later, the strobes are visible. He drops below the glide path and the runway is straight ahead. The pilot later realizes that remaining on glide slope at decision height would have meant executing a missed approach and possibly a trip to the alternate airport.

On the next gamble, he descends a little bit more below the glideslope path – and it works again. In fact it may work a number of times. The best estimates i…

The following briefs were selected from the 223 preliminary reports filed with the NTSB in August 2001. Statements in quotes were taken directly from the NTSB documents. The information is subject to change as the investigations are completed.

Aug. 01, Sugar Grove, Ill.
Beech Bonanza
At 11:31 central time, a Beech A36 lost engine power and was damaged in the ensuing forced landing. The pilot was not injured. The flight was a post-maintenance test flight and the airplane had just come from its annual inspection. A ground run showed no anomalies, but during a post-accident inspection it appeared a fuel line had loosened enough to leak but not enough to come off its f…

[IMGCAP(1)]On Valentines Day 2000, Indy racer Tony Bettenhausen went down in a Baron 58 that was approved for flight in known icing conditions. FAA records show that in mid-afternoon the day before his fatal accident, he called Nashville Automated Flight Service Station to file an IFR flight plan and get a standard weather briefing.

He was told that along his route of flight there was a convective Sigmet reporting a line of thunderstorms 30 miles wide, with tops to 30,000 feet. In addition, the forecast called for moderate rime and mixed icing from the freezing level to 24,000 feet, with moderate turbulence below 15,000 feet. He updated the weather later, then wisely decided to cancel…

[IMGCAP(1)]Heres a news flash: There is no such thing as a perfect flight. Every pilot is forced to examine the airplane he is about to fly, his own skills and the demands of the mission, and make judgment calls about the risks involved and how to minimize them.

Sometimes the calls are easy, with the intended flight well within the limitations of the airplane and pilot or so far outside those capabilities that a decision is black and white. Most times, however, the choice requires not so much a go/no-go decision as an analysis of where the pitfalls of the flight might be.

In those cases, a pilots experience leads to certain assumptions, for better or for worse. Just as you may expec…

Elaine, my 21-year-old-daughter, was a senior in college and was to get married in less than two months. She and I have shared that special close bond that is unique to dads and daughters, so we planned one more father-daughter adventure before she tied the knot.

She had one day open on her busy pre-wedding summer schedule, so I cleared my schedule too. I just hoped the weather would be VFR for our planned flight to Ocean City, N.J., a place that holds many great memories for my wife and Elaine.

The evening before the flight I checked the weather forecasts on the AOPA website and filed a flight plan as well. We planned to lift off at 5:45 a.m. to arrive at Ocean City by 7 a.m. Breakfa…