Tabla de contenidos para March 2019 en Flying

An “uncrashable” airplane? It sounds far-fetched, but that’s precisely the aim of research that is delving into the question of how general aviation aircraft can evolve to become far simpler to operate with assistance from new digital flight-control architectures, enhanced stability tools, flight-envelope protection and other technology enhancements. The ideas tie in neatly with optimistic predictions for on-demand urban mobility, concepts like Uber Elevate that promise one day to whisk passengers from rooftop vertiports in one part of a city to another using fleets of electric-powered vertical takeoff and landing air taxis. The unexciting name for the research is Simplified Vehicle Operations. Pushing for this transformation in a big way is the FAA. The eventual goal is fully autonomous flight, with a pilot on board merely to monitor systems and…

The Grand Bahamas International airport (MYGF) in Freeport, Bahamas, a privately owned facility, is frequented by nearly a dozen airlines including Delta, Delta Connection, American Eagle, Silver Airways and Bahamasair operating a variety aircraft types. Because tourism is the primary economic driver, be on the lookout for plenty of aircraft in the area from the neighboring islands as well. With Freeport only 94 flying miles from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and 86 nm from West Palm Beach Florida, the overwater portion of the trip in the most any aircraft is tantalizingly short, but not so short that single-engine aircraft should travel without life rafts and flotation gear. A. NO LOCAL ALTIMETER The first major not is an important one for those operating on an IFR flight plan. Unless the pilot is…

Like a good marriage, an abiding love for aviation grows and changes over the years. The emotion is always there, but the reason for the initial attraction isn’t always the same reason you stay committed. I was fortunate to fall in love with aviation as a kid while riding around in the back of my dad’s Cessna 310, and I started flying airplanes almost 25 years ago. But you might say I renewed my vows when I discovered helicopters eight years ago. The challenge and adventure of flying helicopters were a revelation to me, and a reminder that even in a complicated world of TFRs and ADS-B, flying offers a simple freedom that can’t be matched by anything else. Last spring, I took the latest step in this relationship and…

I have been a motorcycle road racer for many years. Picture closed circuits and leather suits with knee sliders. The kind of gear that protects you when you lean over and press your knee into the asphalt at triple-digit speeds. I love road racing, and crashing is part of the game. I have done so more than a few times. Because of this sport, I have been hospitalized for broken ribs, a chipped pelvis and once a bruised kidney that made me urinate blood for a week. Because of this sport, once I was unconscious for four minutes after a last lap entanglement. Yet despite the inherent danger and physical cost of admission, I have loved learning to excel at motorcycle racing. I was always a terrible student, learning best…

We’re all set, then. We’ve agreed on a price, the airplane has undergone multiple inspections at Stevens Aviation in Nashville, Tennessee, and the title is clear. I have sent the remaining impressive dollar amount to the escrow people. I’ve asked Eric Engstrom, who’s actually been the pilot for this exact airplane, to fly with me for two days to get me up to speed on the Universal FMS and any of those quirks and idiosyncrasies that just don’t get talked about in initial or recurrent training. I have that low-level excitement/anxiety that you might feel on the eve of a second marriage. What could possibly go wrong? On an early October evening I find myself on a Southwest flight to KBNA, where the airplane, a 2000 Cessna CJ1, is waiting…

INVESTIGATE THE AEROMEDICAL DIVISION Imagine a football game played on a field with no first-down markers, goal line or end zones. As the quarterback, you execute plays to the best of your ability only to see yellow flags strewn on the field. You back up, set your line, snap the ball and throw downfield … but no matter what you do, you can’t know if you have advanced toward your goal or not. Such is the game some of us find ourselves playing with the FAA Aeromedical Division in Oklahoma City. This division sends out a steady stream of snail mail correspondence asking for yet another test at pilots’ expense and sometimes for information that’s already been submitted. You know you are living your own version of a Catch 22…

It’s sunny and 83 degrees with a light breeze in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, as I write this; the only sign that Christmas is fast approaching are the multicolored lights strung in Windbird’s rigging and occasional faint notes of familiar holiday tunes drifting across the water. I wish I could report that Dawn and I have been sailing across the Caribbean Sea, running with our dog Piper over sugar-sand beaches or spearfishing and lobstering on remote reefs — but alas, I cannot. We are stuck on the dock, where I spent the past two weeks toiling away on projects in Windbird’s conspicuously empty engine room and dark hole of a bilge. Your envy over my tropical yuletide just instantly evaporated, didn’t it? ANY PILOT WITH A LICK OF SENSE…

My grandparents were Eastern European Jews, and I am the grandchild of immigrants. They came here with nothing. The civilization from which they came was destroyed by the Nazis, so, growing up in the 1950s, there were virtually no physical artifacts of my family’s long European existence. Most of the houses of my contemporaries (all Ashkenazi — that is, Eastern, Russian or Polish Jews) held a menorah, a Chanukah candelabra; the two Sabbath candlesticks; and/or a samovar. Over the years our samovar was turned into a lamp and then disposed of in a move or a redecoration. In my college years, meeting contemporaries of different backgrounds, I was stunned by their references to family histories. My people came here fleeing the Cossacks. Those who remained were killed by the Germans.…

I have been inclined to class electric airliners, along with personal jet packs, among the consumer products that will always be almost here. My estimates of the likely future, however, have almost an inverse predictive value: If I say something is utterly impracticable, it will very likely be for sale at Walmart next year. The case for skepticism about electric airliners is strong. The crux of it is energy density. Fossil fuels store many times as much energy per pound as batteries do, and weight is the enemy of flight. The Tesla Model S sedan, the poster child for electric vehicles, achieves a couple of hundred miles’ range with 1,200 pounds of batteries plus a not-negligible amount of power modulation equipment between batteries and motors. An airplane could fly the…

Universal Avionics and its parent company Elbit Systems have integrated panel-mounted avionics with a wearable HUD, allowing pilots to view critical flight data wherever they turn their heads. The SkyLens is particularly useful once the final approach fix has been passed. While looking through the lens into the outside environment, the pilot is able to see the picture through an enhanced-vision-system camera, bring ing clarity to low-visibility conditions. Paired with Universal’s InSight avionics suite, SkyLens offers “look, point and click” technology for control of FMS functions. InSight STCs are in the works for the Cessna Citation VII and Dassault Falcon 50. SkyLens is part of the Clearvision Enhanced Flight Vision System family and can be integrated with other avionics without a fixed HUD, its makers said.…

Peter O. Knight Airport (KTPF) at Tampa, Florida, has two runways: 18/36, which is 2,687 feet long, and 4/22, which is 3,580 feet. Their intersection, and the start of Runway 22, is a few hundred feet south of the approach end of Runway 18. KTPF is a non-tower airport; aircraft rely on a Common Traffic Advisory Frequency to prevent conflicts. On the morning of March 18, 2016, a temporary flight restriction was in place around MacDill AFB, 5 miles to the southeast, because of an airshow there. The edge of the TFR bisected KTPF, and only Runways 4 and 36 were being used for departures. The sky was clear and the wind was 9 knots from 210 degrees. The wind was, therefore, a direct tailwind on Runway 22 and a…

An entirely new concept of home-based flight simulation was recently introduced by Palo Alto, California-based CloudFlyt. Flying in the cloud has a double meaning here as the system is based around scenarios that literally live in the cloud. This Internet-based configuration makes flight scenarios easy to access, and CloudFlyt can add new missions with immediate availability for the subscribers. Users access the program through an app on an Nvidia Shield TV streaming device that, like Apple TV, acts as a portal between various apps and any TV with an HDMI port. A regular TV at home provides a perfect platform on which to display CloudFlyt’s flight scenarios. A yoke and rudder pedals are connected to the streaming device, linking them to the airplane’s controls on the screen. The setup is…

The airplane looked absolutely the same. It was the same Piper Arrow II with the blue-and-silver accent ribbon that flowed from the tail to the nose against a white background. It was the same airplane that was displayed on almost 200 hours of my logbook pages. I smiled knowing that my former career as an airline pilot had paid for the shiny paint scheme. So, what was different? A simple realization: The airplane would now be the only one I would fly. And I would fly the Arrow not because my livelihood depended on it, but for the simple pleasure of operating it. Approaching the airplane from the ramp, my mind momentarily flashed to the intricate cockpit of the Boeing 777. I remembered embracing the pure enjoyment of knowing the…