How It Works: Bleed Air
For decades, aircraft have used engine bleed air for a variety of purposes, spanning everything from engine starting to cabin pressurization to anti-icing. Here’s how engine bleed air works.
For decades, aircraft have used engine bleed air for a variety of purposes, spanning everything from engine starting to cabin pressurization to anti-icing. Here’s how engine bleed air works.
Imaginactive has come up with an updated hypersonic jet concept designed to make our world a lot smaller. Named Paradoxal, the aircraft would fly at the edge of space, allowing it to cut trips from Los Angeles to Sydney down to 3 hours, Imaginactive said. Today, that trip takes commercial airlines more than 14 hours […]
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The addition of Garmin G3000 touch-screen avionics and interior improvements took this turboprop to a different level when it debuted in 2016.
While there are differing statistics regarding causes of aircraft fire-related accidents, it is safe to say that aircraft maintenance and pre-flight actions by the pilot play a significant role in most such events. And since the chances of surviving an in-flight fire without major injury or death are poor, preventing a fire from occurring in the first place should be Job One. Pilots can memorize procedures, talk about scenarios and what-ifs, but when it is all said and done, avoiding one starts on the ground.
Ratings Man is a ratings collector. No matter how many ratings or hours anyone has, he has more. Many of us go after the more common upgrades to our private pilot certificates, such as an instrument rating or high-performance and complex aircraft endorsements. Out in the wild blue yonder, we put these skills to good […]
Have you encountered a situation or hazardous condition that yielded lessons on how to better manage the risks involved in flying? Do you have an experience to share with Aviation Safetys readers about an occasion that taught you something significant about ways to conduct safer flight operations? If so, we want to hear about it. We encourage you to submit a brief (500 words) write-up of your Learning Experience to Aviation Safety for possible publication. Each month, Aviation Safety publishes a collection of similar experiences sent to us by readers. Sharing with others the benefit of your experience and the lessons you learned can be an invaluable aid to other pilots.
We took off from Camarillo under calm, clear blue skies. The hillsides along the coast of Southern California displayed a panoply of colors — bright-green grasses mixed with expansive patches of purple, yellow and orange flowers. The last time I was in Camarillo in a Lancair Evolution, the airplane had a big Pratt & Whitney […]
I recently read Mr. Marcums excellent comments concerning the crash of JFK, Jr.s Piper Saratoga II. As a pilot and flight instructor, and as a clinical laboratory scientist for over 50 years, Id like to suggest there are additional factors that command consideration. First, with no reported passenger in the right seat, was there an asymmetric load on the aircraft which was initially compensated by the autopilot? Could the pilot have experienced a runaway electronic trim malfunction when resuming manual control of the aircraft?
When considering landing on a runway with marginal length or a difficult or obstructed departure path, the first stage of aeronautical decision-making is deciding whether to land in the first place. The next one is if you land, can you make it out safely? Quite often there are good reasons to do neither, with perhaps the biggest single factor being density altitude, usually when trying to take off at the planned time. In case youre thinking density altitude (DA) is strictly something that concerns mountain-flying enthusiasts like me, you should know it is not a concept unique to the high country. High-altitude pilots just have a head start when it comes to familiarity with DA. Anyone whos flown in the summertime, including from sea-level airports, has experienced some form of DA.