…weasels never get sucked into jet air intakes…
— Anon.
Bad landing on a snow-covered runway
General Aviation News has recently published an excerpt from a March 2009 National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident report about an incident involving a Piper Navajo and a snow covered runway in Buckland, Alaska that is well worth repeating even though spring is almost here. According to the accident report:
The commercial pilot was attempting to land on the snow-covered runway. He applied the brakes but the airplane did not slow. It was about 500 feet from the departure end of the runway when the pilot realized that stopping was going to be a problem, but he elected not to abort the landing. The airplane slid off the end of the runway into a snowbank.
Luckily there were no injuries but the aircraft did suffer from substantial damage.
Upon closer examination of the runway, the pilot noticed that it was covered with light snow over ice. However, the pilot also pointed out that he had landed there the previous day and that the runway condition was acceptable. Moreover, he stated that he had not received any reports or instructions about braking action for the airport on the day of the incident. Nevertheless, the FAA Information Supplement for the airport notes that it is unattended and recommends a visual inspection prior to landing.
In other words and if you are flying in winter, be sure to check the runway conditions at the airport you intend to take off and land from – especially if it is unattended.
Chinese farmer builds his own helicopter videos
Hat tip to the Flight School blog for posting three videos of a homebuilt helicopter in China. Apparently, a farmer named Chen Zhao Rong who has only a primary school education but a dream to fly built the helicopter by making and welding all of the parts himself and then checking the design against photos he found on the Internet. After buying a second hand motor for the helicopter, his overall cost amounted to about RMB70,000 (or £6,600 or US$10,600).
Unfortunately and after only a few months of flying, his engine stopped while flying 70km/h to another village and crashed into a field. Although unhurt, his wife threatened to leave him unless he stopped flying while the local police made him sign a document stating that he would never fly the contraption again. Hence, he then sold it to a friend for RMB20,000 (US$3,000 or £1,900).
However, there is some debate in the Youtube comments section about whether or not some of these videos are real or phony. Nevertheless, they look pretty authentic to us so decide for yourself!
Tips for better ATC communication
Student pilot “Topflight” has posted an interesting question on the Ask a Flight Instructor website about his problems with ATC communication:
Now that im flying IFR ATC communication has gone to another level and im finding it hard to keep up , im stumbling on my words , i feel like its too much information at a time. Any tips or help would be greatly appreciated.
Commenter Micah suggested that “Topflight” spend time listening to others communicate and he noted a service called liveatc.net where you can listen to actual ATC communications. He further suggested listening to a channel there while looking over a local chart of the area.
Meanwhile, commenter Bubba mentioned:
I had a student that was a really smart guy, but still had trouble on the radios in the IFR environment. In his case he was trying to figure out everything that he needed to do at the same time he was reading back the instruction and that’s what caused the issue. So I recommended that he quickly read back what ATC says and then think about what they just asked you to do.
He further added that over time, communicating with ATC will become second nature.
James MacGregor CFI then pointed out that he has noticed that you will get a better response from ATC if you are “more staccato then legato as they would say in music.” He then added that he has:
…some students that say things very meek their words flow into each other, these guys will geta slower response fromATC, I can get on the horn and say things very clearly and sharply with confidence and get a noticible diffrence in my communication with the controllers. Biggest thing is be confident when you speak.
Finally, Heather McNevin suggested actually visiting a control tower to get a behind the scenes look at how ATC communicates. She also pointed out that being nervous will impact a pilot’s ability to speak and hence, its important to stay relaxed and calm.
Would you have any further suggestions for “Topflight”? Moreover and for those of you who regularly fly over to the continent, how do you deal with different accents from ATC controllers?
What is the best pair of aviation sunglasses to wear?
For pilots, having the right pair of sunglasses to protect your eyes will be an important consideration for both comfort and safety. Hence, a recent post written by Roger Worden for his Roger’s Soaring Blog is well worth reading.
Roger began his post by noting that aviator sunglasses are specially designed with a teardrop shape to prevent sunlight from coming from a wide range of angles. In other words, they do not change much and they generally don’t follow fashion trends. He also pointed out that yellow lenses will help a pilot see cloud structure better than other colors.
On the other hand, Roger noted out that polarized sunglasses should generally not be used for flying for two reasons:
- Cockpit glass, instrument windows and even handheld devices such as GPS units may have some unintentional polarization. When this is combined with polarized sunglasses, dark spots and distracting color patterns can appear and interfere with a pilot’s vision.
- Polarized sunglasses are designed to cut glare but a little glare can also be a good thing as it can actually be the glint off of another aircraft.
Roger then mentioned that he started using American Optical’s FG-58 sunglasses and that they were ok but somewhat uncomfortable due to their design. Hence, he now uses them as backup.
Instead, he is now using Serengeti Aviators Drivers Gradient glasses and he noted that while he likes them, he has found that their lenses are not as hard as the lenses of other sunglasses (In fact, he scratched the lenses after a year or two). In addition, he pointed out that the temples consists of pretty thin wire and when he clips his radio earpiece to them when he is flying gliders, the clip will tend to slide around a bit.
Roger’s entire post is well worth reading but we would also like to ask you our readers about the aviation sun glasses you are currently using. Specifically, what brand or brands of aviation sunglasses would you recommend and why?
How to develop better instrument scanning techniques
Rex de Foor has posted a great question on the Ask a CFI forum where he noted that he has a student pilot who is doing well but his sticking point seems to his instrument scan. Rex noted:
I simply cannot get him to keep his instrument scan going. For a while he does well and then all of a sudden it is apparent he is losing the scan and becomes fixated. Any suggestions on how to break this bad habit?
Micah noted that he takes students through three phases of instrument training: 1) Basic attitude flying, 2) Basic navigation, and 3) Flying approaches. Once his students grasp the elements of each phase, he then moves on to the partial panel. After they become proficient at partial panel, he will then reintroduce the full panel. Micah noted that this will usually take some adjustment and then he will introduce the full panel in the next phase of learning.
Meanwhile, Steve Pomroy noted that fixation will tend to increase with fatigue. Hence, he suggested that Rex spend some time during the pre-flight phase making sure that his student is both well rested and fed.
However and if fatigue is not an issue, Steve added that plenty of practice will be required and it will take time. Moreover and in addition to backtracking the lessons a bit, Steve suggested that Rex should try having his student display his scan as they fly by actively pointing to the current instrument of choice. And while this approach may increase the workload, it will help to build up scanning capabilities.
If you are a student pilot, keeping the above suggestions in mind will go a long way towards improving your instrument scanning capabilities.
