Search Results for: oxygen

Everyone makes mistakes, perhaps including the mechanic who last worked on your airplane. Find those problems on the ground before your test flight.

The best way to fully understand hypoxias effects is in an altitude chamber. But theres more to high-altitude flight than just being able to breathe.

The Mooney Ovation2 GX debuted in late 2004 with the Garmin G1000 integrated flight deck.

Hum Along With Us
With reference to Dr. Brent Blues article Mid-teens Physiology (November 2004), I may have discovered a way to stretch the bodys ability to process and retain oxygen just a bit more effectively while flying at altitude.

I routinely fly our Cessna T210 at FL190-230 on long trips from St. Paul, Minn., to Providence, R.I. The typical 50+ knot tailwinds let us accomplish this nonstop. Its not uncommon for me to have five of the six seats filled, and of course, we have oxygen strapped on from 14,000 all the way up. With five pairs of lungs sucking my precious O2, however, somewhere over western New York, the gauge is starting to get a bit low. So, not exa…

At 1550 Pacific time, the airplane contacted trees in a walnut orchard during an emergency descent following an encounter with weather and a loss of control at about 16,000 feet MSL. The pilot deployed the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) and the airplane made a parachute landing into the walnut orchard. Neither the Instrument-rated Commercial pilot nor the single passenger aboard were injured; the airplane was substantially damaged. Instrument conditions prevailed; an instrument flight plan had been filed but not activated. The pilot subsequently reported that he was passing through 14,000 feet MSL with the autopilot set at 100 feet per minute (fpm) rate of climb while using suppleme…

Click here to view “By the Numbers.”

———-

September 1, 2004, Willits, Calif.
Cessna 172S
The airplane was destroyed and the Private pilot received minor injuries after descending into trees about 1/8th mile west of the Willits Municipal Airport. Visual conditions prevailed for the dark, nighttime flight that originated in Watsonville, Calif., about 90 minutes earlier. The pilot reported no mechanical malfunctions during the flight; the airplanes landing light was functional, although he did not use it. According to the pilot, he was attempting to locate his home base airport. Upon arriving in the vicinity of the airport…

Touch And Goes?
I am in full agreement that touch-and-go landings (Touch And Goes, October 2004) are not that useful. Heck, they dont even count for currency in a tailwheel aircraft. But mostly, they are very unrealistic and dont teach that much. I would agree that if you need to do them, make sure you have lots of runway. But if you have lots of runway, think about a stop-and-go landing. Land, stop, reconfigure, perform whatever checklist items you need to do and then go. You get to practice a takeoff too!

Instead of practicing touch-and-goes, we ought to practice more go-arounds. Sometimes I think they are a lost art.

Vince Massimini
Via e-mail

———-<...

Climbing to the flight levels puts your body through major changes that mere oxygen cant address. Heres whats going on and some tips on how to minimize the effects.

One reader castigated me for not paying enough attention to Thielert diesels. Another inquired whether the just-certified Diamond TwinStar would have superior climb performance because of the great torque of its Thielert diesel engines. A critical mass of Thielert interest has evidently been reached. Thielert GmbH is located at the small town of Lichtenstein in […]

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

———-

Various Cessna single-engine pistons
KAP-140 Autopilots
A new Airworthiness Directive, AD 2004-15-19, supercedes AD 2003-24-13, which applies to certain Cessna Models 172R, 172S, 182S, 182T, T182T, 206H, and T206H airplanes equipped with a certain Honeywell KAP 140 autopilot computer system installed on the center instrument control panel near the throttle. The superceded AD (2003-24-13) requires, among other actions, installing an update to the operating software of certain KAP 140 autopilot computer systems. The new AD (2004-15-19) results from the…