Search Results for: general aviation inc

I thought I would send you a note of something that really could have ruined my day.

I had asked a friend to go flying with me one evening. The sunsets here in North Dakota are fantastic and I thought she might really enjoy seeing them from a different perspective. I had already pre-flighted the airplane when she called and said she would be late. I told her I would take-off and do some landing drills while I awaited her arrival.

We have a small non-towered airport and I explained that when she arrived that she should park next to my vehicle on the ramp and keep her headlights on and I would then taxi to her and pick her up.

When she arrived I landed and taxied to her, facing the…

It doesnt take new pilots very long to realize the airplanes theyve trained in lack the payload, speed, and range to make serious trips, and they decide they need something bigger and faster.

The unfortunate result is that pilots new to complex, high performance aircraft have a lot of accidents. They may be able to handle things as long as nothing goes wrong, but throw in bad weather, gusty crosswinds at a short strip or a systems malfunction, and they are in over their heads. Some dont fully appreciate the tradeoffs in an airplane with six seats, oodles of baggage space, and six hours fuel capacity. Others find themselves in somebodys airspace before they know its there.

Checki…

Many pilots base the go-no-go decision on ceiling and visibility. Yet the accident record shows there are other considerations of equal or greater importance. For example, how many times have you delayed or canceled a flight because of forecast or reported severe turbulence enroute or at your destination?

The hazard of thunderstorms is obvious and can be visualized. However, high and low level clear air turbulence is often treated casually. When clear air turbulence is encountered above 15,000 feet, it is referred to as turbulence encountered outside of convective clouds. At lower altitudes it is simply mechanical or low level turbulence.

Low level turbulence often takes the form of…

It should come as no surprise that more than half of all general aviation aircraft are more than 25 years old, and more than 25% are past their 35th birthdays. Like everything else thats getting older, an aging aircraft can experience a host of problems, including decreases in both performance and structural integrity.

As aircraft age, undetected or uncorrected wear, fatigue, corrosion and creep can decrease an aircrafts ability to sustain the fail-safe loads designed into it. The most graphic example of fatigue and corrosion causing a serious problem in flight comes is the Aloha Air Lines B-737 accident in 1988, and that should be enough to scare any pilot. Clearly prevention, timely d…

Couldnt resist commenting on Milovan Brenloves Gasping for Gas [Airmanship, February]. His example of the private pilot who believed he had 26.5 gallons per tank in his 150 only to discover in reality the airplane carried 22.5 gallons per tank wouldnt have been saved the embarrassment of running out of gas even had he plugged in the 45 gallon stats.

According to an old manual I have for a 74 150, usable fuel for the little trainer totals 22.5 gallons. Thats both tanks, not in each. The optional long range tanks in the 150s prior to 65 provided only 35 gallons; 38 gallons through 77; the 152 long range upped the ante to a total of 39 gallons usable.

To quote the article, Misin…

The return trip from mid-state New York to Nashua, N.H., was being made with some urgency. The pilot had an important meeting to attend. The meeting became the last thing on his mind, however, when the engine coughed to a stop only part way home.

His very first thoughts: Oh damn! Im going to splatter myself among the trees below and kill myself! I can just hear my friends at the funeral. He seemed to be a pretty smart fellow, how could he do something so stupid?

After his initial shock at the silence, he became focused on the problem at hand. Rock the wings, theres always some fuel left in the tanks. The engine sputtered a few minutes and then quit again. He spied a small field…

While it may not have the sex appeal of politics or religion, oil analysis will spark some lively debate if you put together a group of pilots or mechanics. Some people shrug it off as an expensive exercise in futility that tells little about the inner secrets of engine wear. Others swear to their engines health if they get good sample results and get ready to shoot it if they dont.

In fact, the true value of analysis is somewhere in the middle. It cant tell you how long your engine is going to live and its far from a sure-fire way to predict catastrophic failure. On the other hand, experienced eyes can spot wear trends that can catch minor problems before they turn into big ones. Whe…

The column of black smoke rose like an obscene gesture to the north west of our control tower at Reid Hillview airport in San Jose, Calif. Id just come off a break and saw it as I stepped into the tower cab. The ground controller was busy lining up a string of trainers from one of the flying schools.

The tower controller, or what we called the Local controller, had a loaded traffic pattern with two parallel runways – one full of touch and go traffic the other reserved for itinerants. It was a busy shift, no different than most, except for the black smoke.

The phone rang, Did you guys lose one? the unidentified caller asked. I looked around. Nothing seemed out of order. No, I sa…

Roy Rogers had Trigger; the Lone Ranger had Silver. And each of them knew they could count on their horse to help them out of a jam. They knew the horse would always be up to snuff. They knew if the horse could jump that ravine or catch that steaming locomotive. Of course, it always would.

Similarly, pilots put a lot of faith into their trusted steeds. After a while flying the same airplane, rotation comes by feel and sound, with sometimes only a cursory glance at the airspeed indicator. Landings at familiar fields are made without second thought.

While that may not be unsafe, sometimes the shortcuts can be more onerous. Some pilots have virtually abandoned weight and balance calcula…

It would take a clinical psychologist to explain, but there are some people who are not meant to fly airplanes.

It certainly doesnt take a superman or superwoman to become a competent pilot, of course. Like riding a bicycle, most people can learn to do it competently, with a few becoming exceptionally skillful. The flip side of that is that there are also those who cant get the hang of it.

So it is with flying: There are some people who, for whatever the reason, simply can not put it all together and fly competently. The difference is that in aviation, this apparent learning disability costs lives and money, rather than scrapes and bruises.

My first exposure to this phenomenon w…