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Twas the Night Before Christmas (aviation style)

Cathy Gale recently posted (on the Winged Victory: Women in Aviation blog) this anonymously written aviation version of the classic Christmas Eve poem. Although its been floating around the web for some time now, we thought it would be fitting to repost it once again for Christmas Eve:

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and out on the ramp,
Not an airplane was stirring, not even a Champ.
The aircraft were fastened to tie downs with care,
In hopes that — come morning — they all would be there.
The fuel trucks were nestled, all snug in their spots,
With gusts from two-forty at 39 knots.
I slumped at the fuel desk, now finally caught up,
And settled down comfortably, resting my butt.
When the radio lit up with noise and with chatter,
I turned up the scanner to see what was the matter.
A voice clearly heard over static and snow,
Called for clearance to land at the airport below.

The secret behind easy S-turn maneuvers

S-turns are used to help cement the basic fundamentals of aircraft control with the goal of developing aircraft control coordination. This is done by flying along a particular ground track at a constant altitude and while this can be tricky the first time around, the maneuver is actually fairly easy if you know what to do.

Hence, a recent post by Patrick Flannigan on AviationChatter.com about performing simple s-turns is well worth reading. In the post, Patrick lists seven steps that might seem complicated at first but its fairly easy if you remember one secret: pick multiple ground references. In other words, connect the dots with your airplane.

Why should you practice doing S-turns? As Patrick noted that its a required maneuver for the Private Pilot checkrides while the Private Pilot Practical Test Standards (PTS) will “require an altitude of +/- 100′ and airspeed +/- 10 knots along with adequate wind-drift correction to maintain constant radius turns.” In other words, its something that every pilot needs to know how to perform.

Amazing handcrafted aluminum aircraft models

Craftsmanship can best be described as a marriage between the hands and there is no better example of this than the aircraft models created by Young C. Park that can be viewed at the Internet Craftsmanship Museum or at the actual Craftsmanship Museum in Vista California (near San Diego). Park is a retired Dentist from Hawaii who has always had an interest in model aircraft. However and as a retiree, Park had plenty (and we mean plenty!) of time on his hands as his first detailed model of a F-4U-D Corsair took about 6000 hours and over 5 years to build! Park used the lessons he learned from creating the first model to create a second Corsair plus a P-51 Mustang.

Besides the amount of time, effort and craftsmanship that went into creating these models, what is also amazing about them is that Park used some of his old dentistry tools to cut the metal for them – somewhat of a tricky process as the they “cut like butter until it digs in and binds or grabs the metal.” However, the results of his work earned him the 2002 Metalworking Craftsman of the Year award from the Joe Martin Foundation:

Here is a close-up side view of the Corsair model’s cockpit control area:

Just look at the amount of detail and craftsmanship that went into creating the Corsair model’s engine:

List of pilot mnemonics and acronyms

Flying involves plenty of memorization and much of what a pilot needs to remember may only be used occasionally or just in an emergency situation. Thus, it is important to have an easy way to remember all of those steps or checklists.

Brian, the pilot of a Cessna 182 and the blogger behind Brian’s Flying Blog, has posted a comprehensive list of aviation mnemonics and acronyms that are well worth reading and memorizing by both student and experienced pilots. He has also divided his list into VFR and IFR mnemonics and some of his examples include:

TOMATOFLAMES (VFR equipment)
tach, oil press, manifold press, altimeter, temp, oil pressure, fuel gauge, landing gear position, air speed, magnetic compass, elt, seat belts
CIGAR (Run-up before takeoff)
controls, instruments, gas, attitude (trim and flaps), run-up
ALARMS (Emergency Engine Failure)
airspeed, landing site, air restart, radios, mayday, secure plane
TTTTT (IFR Holding Patterns)
turn, time, twist, throttle, talk

Brian has also included some useful links to pilot and flying mnemonics resources on the web along with the customized checklist he uses when he takes his Cessna 182 up for a spin.

Engine failure after take-off (with runway to spare) video

Jason Schappert has recently created and posted a short video covering an engine failure after take-off when there is still some runway left under the aircraft. His major points included getting the nose down, bleeding off some of that air speed before trying to get the wheels on the ground and not hesitating to hit those breaks once back on the ground. Finally, Jason suggested that pilots should consult the manuals for their individual aircraft for further and more specific advice and suggestions.

In addition, Patrick Flannigan added an important comment that pilots should always know the area around their home airport. In other words, know where all of the open fields and other potential landing spots are and plan what you will do in the event of an emergency so that it comes naturally to you if something should ever go wrong.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK70Ygc0W6c&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

How impossible is the impossible turn?

Every pilot has been told that attempting to return to the airport after experiencing an engine failure right after take-off is a bad idea. After all, conventional wisdom tells pilots to avoid as much maneuvering as possible and to find a suitable place to land that is ahead and not behind the aircraft. However, just how impossible is the “impossible” turn and are there situations where it can be safely pulled off?

As Bruce Landsberg, the President of the AOPA Air Safety Foundation, recently noted on the AOPA blog:

We have ample evidence that a poorly executed turn or an attempt at too low an altitude is disastrous. What we don’t know is how many people successfully pulled it off because there are no statistics on the positive side. Sorry, but local hangar flying does not quite qualify as a reliable source even as the story gets better with each retelling!

Bruce then noted a new “Real Pilot Story” entitled The Impossible Turn which covers an incident involving a Mooney that managed to perform the impossible turn and it was all captured on video.

Hence, what do you think about the possibility of doing the “impossible” turn and have you ever heard of an instance where it was successfully performed? Are there any circumstances or a particular aircraft where you feel that the impossible turn is possibly worth attempting?