Indice dei contenuti per March 2017 in Flying

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AVIATION TECHNOLOGY MADE SIMPLE Landing gear gets as little respect as that old comedian Rodney Dangerfield — not much, really, which is surprising when you consider that almost everyone seems to measure the quality of the flight by the smoothness of the touchdown. That final transition that turns a flying airplane into a taxiing one, even when the distance to the surface is just a few feet, can impose huge impact loads on an airplane if it’s not handled well, something that poses a challenge to designers. That’s why the landing gear is always so beefy. But even the sturdiest traditional landing gear design can’t cover up a botched flare that’s been known to smash passengers’ teeth together. SMOOTHING OUT THE BUMPS An airplane built with a trailing-link landing gear…

“We find ourselves in a position where many of the latest technologies are being born in general aviation.”John Uczekaj JOHN UCZEKAJ Aspen Avionics President and CEO John Uczekaj believes one of the unsung roles of the avionics industry is its ability to attract young, tech-savvy pilots. By leveraging the connectivity of smartphones and tablets to merge technologies between our personal and pilot lives, he says, the beginning of the turnaround needed to address GA’s declining pilot population could take place. ONE OF THE BENEFITS OF BRINGING NEW AVIONICS TECHNOLOGIES TO MARKET IS THE INDUSTRY’S ABILITY TO ATTRACT MORE TECHSAVVY PILOTS. Floatplane Fun When Uczekaj’s parents escaped from communist Hungary during the Hungarian revolution in 1956, they had no material possessions and couldn’t speak English. But they valued the importance of…

FLYING Opinion Advancing age and retirement bring on a certain sense of freedom and may, in fact, inhibit one’s social filter. And though I have worried mightily about what the devil I would do with myself once unemployed, I can report from two months in, so far, so good. An older friend told me long ago that he had a similar fear of having nothing to do and therefore loaded his post-work calendar with tasks. A month later, he said, he could care less about any of those commitments. I get that. As for the social filter, I sense it slipping. Whereas I might heretofore have been reluctant to give voice to some of my most crass and socially unacceptable urges, I now feel pretty free to say what’s on…

Editor’s Letter When the National Transportation Safety Board in 2011 added “general aviation safety” to its Most Wanted list of transportation improvements, the aviation industry cheered. Associations issued press releases welcoming the NTSB’s decision to highlight GA safety as an important priority. To everybody involved, it seemed like the right thing to do. And it was. Fast forward six years and general aviation safety stubbornly remains on the Most Wanted list. The press releases, however, are nowhere to be found. Aviation groups appear to be growing weary of GA being singled out year after year, especially considering that some noteworthy safety gains have been achieved. The situation came to a head this past fall when NBC News aired a segment in the aftermath of a deadly midair collision between two…

1. If the glideslope fails before PARCL, what is the lowest mean sea level altitude to which you may descend? a. The aircraft is not authorized to continue the approach if the glideslope fails b. 820 feet c. 200 feet d. 340 feet 2. With the glideslope still inoperative, what is the lowest agl altitude to which you may descend to conduct a nighttime circle-to-land on Runway 11 at 100 knots? a. 539 feet b. 340 feet c. Circle-to-land is not authorized d. 879 feet 3. If you’re cleared for the ILS from south of BRBON, how do you establish yourself on the localizer? a. Fly north until the localizer needle begins to move b. Head 034 while descending to 3,000 feet c. Ask ATC for radar vectors d. Maintain…

As they approached the outer marker at Buffalo in their Q400 turboprop, Capt. Marvin Renslow, 47, and First Officer Rebecca Lynne Shaw, 24, had allowed themselves to be distracted by an extended conversation about their previous icing experience compared to their current icing conditions. They were now too fast for so close in. About 3 miles from the outer marker, Capt. Renslow quickly reduced power to near flight idle and called for flaps 5 and gear down. In response, Shaw selected 5 degrees of flaps, put the gear down and moved the condition levers to maximum rpm. As the airplane slowed, Renslow called for flaps 15. Two things happened next that are hard for many pilots to understand. First, as the autopilot leveled the airplane at the glideslope interception altitude,…

The master mechanic, the inveterate tinkerer, the skilled craftsman who works magic in wood and metal and fiberglass: I am, sadly, none of these things. I know many people who are naturally handy, and I envy them. My own father, a carpenter and then a general contractor for 25 years, is one of these folks, but his aptitude was apparently not hereditary. The opportunity was certainly there, as I accompanied him to work and pounded nails many times, but I learned curiously little from the experience. I was too much of a dreamer, my head always in the clouds; I bored easily with manual work. Worse, I was (am) somewhat clumsy and didn’t particularly enjoy getting my hands dirty. I loved learning how mechanical things work, just not necessarily making…

FLYING Opinion As is my normal custom on a two-man crew, I offer to perform the walk-around inspection when it’s the copilot’s leg. I enjoy the stroll, fresh air, and re-engagement with the parts and pieces of the airplane — a reminder of just how big the machine is that I fly. On this particular occasion, performing the walk-around was not an exercise of sound judgment for an experienced captain. The sky had unleashed an annoying drizzle over London Heathrow Airport. Sadly, I was aware of the forecast before leaving JFK the morning prior. Certain that I wouldn’t melt (although I didn’t share the same confidence with the new uniform material), my walk-around of our 777-300 progressed without issues. An enthusiastic crew chief intercepted me as I scanned the intricacies…

JOE RYBICKI Next Step Congrats on your last paying flight, Dick [“The Splendid End,” Gear Up, February 2017]. I met you in Knoxville, Tennessee, years ago. You came over to say hi to two guys in a Beechjet. We tried to talk your wife into that jet you wanted. She wasn’t buying it from us either! Here’s a much easier sell for you: How about an old taildragger? Cheap, fun, basic stick-and-rudder bug smashing at its finest. Believe me, we jet drivers just think we know how to fly. STEVEN JOYCE BECOMING AN AIRLINE PILOT My son is following Sam’s career path quite closely [“Changing Course Along an Airline Career Path,” January 5, 2016]. Dreams of becoming an airline pilot are alive and well for our youth right now. Some…

The privately operated Phenom 300, arriving from Milan’s Malpensa Airport with a single pilot and three passengers aboard, overflew the Blackbushe aerodrome, southwest of London, before circling to a left downwind for Runway 25. Blackbushe is not a controlled airport, but it once was, and it still has an old-fashioned tower with a glassenclosed cab, within which is a person called the AFISO, or aerodrome flight information service officer. His function is to advise aircraft of things like wind conditions and traffic, but not to issue instructions or clearances. Ahead of the Phenom on the downwind leg, more than half a mile closer to the runway and well below the jet’s altitude, was a high-wing, two-seat microlight aircraft — more than 1,400 feet above and 1.4 miles from the runway…

FLYING Opinion I borrowed this title from a documentary about Pete Seeger and the Weavers because the phrase “wasn’t that a time” always comes to mind when I remember an airfreight company operating out of southwestern Ohio for nearly 30 years — first as Hogan Air and then Miami Valley Aviation. When I came back home to work in the Cincinnati FSDO, Miami Valley was rising from the ashes of the revoked Hogan Air 135 certificate, relocating from Hamilton, Ohio, to nearby Hook Field in Middletown. OK, I’m going to be flat-out honest here. “Hog Air” wasn’t squeaky clean, but no airfreight operation flying old Beech 18s and DC-3s could be totally compliant and stay in business. They flew well-maintained, if bedraggled and cosmetically challenged, airplanes and employed a bunch…

FLYING Opinion From time to time, I get letters suggesting topics for future articles. I welcome them. After several decades of writing “Technicalities,” I sometimes feel panic welling up as I try to think of something new to say. Some readers, sensing that a question may not be large enough, send several. One, who identified himself only as Mark, sent five. Here they are: QHorizontal stabilizers can be huge, but rarely do we see winglets on them. I see it claimed on the Web by some that the down forces are not so large as to require them. If that was true, then why make the horizontal stabilizers that big? AWinglets are really useful for drag reduction only when a lifting surface is operating at 40 percent or more of…