Search Results for: wright

I am not surprised at the results from the various tests conducted in Rescue Heroes? [Instrument Check, March]. All of the shortcomings reported are exactly what an experienced communications technician would expect.

A handheld transceiver has very limited transmit power. Most of them use a different method of stating transmit power, stating peak envelope power rather than carrier power as used by panel mounted transmitters. That means there is approximately 1 watt of carrier for a hand-held rated at 5 watts – a substantial reduction in transmit range compared to your No. 1 com.

Even more telling is the hand-held antenna system efficiency compared to a real antenna mounted on…

Visibility measurements at the airport dont mean you can see the field from that far away. The wicked world of slant-range vis

At 0045 eastern time, a Cessna 177 was damaged when it veered off the runway during landing at Dayton Wright Brothers Airport. The pilot and two passengers were not injured. The pilot said they were returning to Dayton after attending a baseball game in Cincinnati. He said the airplane ballooned during the flare and he elected to go around, but the airplane would not gain airspeed or climb. As the end of the runway approached, he elected to land the airplane. It landed hard and fast and the gear collapsed. Before the accident trip began, the pilot had logged only 1.6 hours in the previous 11 months, including a biennial flight review. His last night flight was logged nearly two years earlier…

Non-precision approaches can involve either a plunge to MDA or a stabilized approach. Your moving map can make stabilized safer

The following briefs were selected from the 170 preliminary reports filed with the NTSB in September 2002. Statements in quotes were taken directly from the NTSB documents. The information is subject to change as the investigations are completed. Click here to view “Accident Totals, September.”

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September 01, Stow, Mass.
Champion Citabria
At about 1150 eastern time, a Champion 7ECA struck a parked vehicle while landing at the Minute Man Air Field. The pilot and passenger suffered minor injuries. The pilot was landing on runway 30 when the airplane began to porpoise and veer to the right. The pilot added power but…

In ancient Greek theater, playwrights used a mechanism called deus ex machina – god from the machine – to lower an actor to the stage like a god descending from the heavens to right whatever wrong was happening onstage and return order to the universe.

Divine intervention may have worked on theatergoers thousands of years ago in Greece, but it doesnt do diddly in aviation. Unfortunately, too many pilots rely on blind luck to save their skin.

Reading the NTSB accident reports month after month shows that boneheaded pilots are not in short supply. Their ill-conceived maneuvers generally fall into predictable patterns, with the occasional creative individual who finds some new way to har…

When used airplanes turn into vintage airplanes, theyre easier on the budget but harder to own

Thanks for Taxi Smack, your excellent piece on taxiing accidents (Airmanship, August). I am a 2000+ hours pilot with a CPL/IR. One of the milk runs I make in my Mooney goes into Zurich, Switzerland, an airport I know well.

Some months ago, the authorities at ZRH decided to redesign GA parking, although no new taxi plate was published. Upon arrival I was assigned a familiar row and guided in by a follow-me van. When departing two days later in perfect weather, I got my IFR, startup and taxi clearances and taxied out in the normal fashion, turning left on the taxiway leading to the apron.

Within 100 meters I found the taxiway to the main apron was temporarily closed and a new lane for…

July 1999 will have a bit of infamy in the aviation world for years to come. Not only did New York (and the rest of us) lose JFK Jr. to a light plane accident, National Air and Space Museum chief Donald Engen died when the motorized glider in which he was riding suffered an in-flight breakup.

Of course, popular media managed to present startlingly inaccurate information to the general public about the safety of light plane flying, especially in its round-the-clock coverage of the search for Kennedy and his passengers. The misconceptions born out of that coverage are bound to stay with us long after the average American forgets what VFR means. Many people stubbornly concluded what theyd a…

When I was a new flyer, an old instructor named Tony Stubby Azzetti taught me how to hand-prop an airplane. Despite the lack of three fingers on one hand, he made it look easy, as though hed been swinging props to start airplane engines for decades. Always remember, he said as I took the propeller blade for the first time, that propeller cant see you and wont feel a thing if your melon gets in the way. Old Stubby sure knew how to teach.

Safety-conscious pilots will shake their heads in disbelief that anyone would intentionally grab a propeller and swing it. Good. Keep that attitude and youll live to be an old pilot. But some day, when your guard is down, you may be tempted to tw…