“And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the very first Fokker airplane built in the world. The Dutch call it the mother Fokker.”
— Custodian at the Aviodome aviation museum, Schiphol airport Amsterdam.
Is “hangar flying” or airport camaraderie dying?
Todd McClamroch has written an interesting post for MyFlightBlog.com about the death of “hangar flying” or camaraderie around he airport in recent years. Todd began his post by noting that when he was first learning how to fly, the flight school he was at had a couch where you could sit and watch or listen to the activity at the airport. He noted that this was a great way to stay motivated through bonding as well as to learn from other pilots.
However, Todd then pointed out that:
Unfortunately, since moving home to Chicago in 2005, I have been unable to find true aviation camaraderie around the airport. I can find it online but it was missing at the airport. I belonged to a flight club that, despite a healthy membership roster, did nothing to foster social activities between members. I came to the airport to fly then left right after.
After becoming fed up with that experience, he found a new flying club (Leading Edge Flying Club) that focused on the social aspect of flying. This new club offers monthly fly-outs plus organized cook-outs on the tarmac. Most importantly, he noted that they offer a welcoming environment in the hangar clubhouse that encourages loitering after a flight. In fact, Todd now advises prospective student pilots that if their flight school does not have a couch, they should simply walk out.
Hence, we want to ask you our readers about your experiences around the airport and with Flying clubs lately and how it compares to what you may have experienced in the past. In other words, is there still plenty of camaraderie around the airports you fly in and out of a regular basis?
Jet blast tips a Cessna on its wing
General Aviation News will often post summaries of accident reports from the USA’s NTSB and recently they posted a summary of an incident involving a Cessna 172 in Tucson, Arizona, that is well worth mentioning – especially if you fly in and out of airports where there are much larger aircraft. In the incident, a student pilot accompanied by a flight instructor had just landed and were cleared to taxi to a ramp. However, they also had to taxi past a MD-80 aircraft that was holding short of the runway. According to the investigation:
The student pilot applied aileron control inputs for possible jet blast from the MD-80. The CFI advised the student pilot to stop the airplane due to the MD-80. As the Cessna slowed to a stop, the MD-80 increased engine thrust to taxi onto the runway and the jet blast tipped the Cessna over onto its right wing.
Apparently, the tower controller reported that he began to clear the MD-80 for takeoff while he scanned the runway to ensure that all crossing aircraft were clear. He then looked back to see the Cessna taxiing right behind the MD-80. The controller stated that he then stopped issuing a takeoff clearance but by then the MD-80 had already powered up. Hence, it was ruled that the CFI’s “inadequate situational awareness while taxiing” had led to the encounter with jet blast.
In other words and if you will be flying in or out of a busy airport where there are large aircraft present, be sure to maintain situational awareness and lookout for those jet blasts.
What happens if GPS stops working?
The more dependent we become on GPS, the greater the risk that terrorists will use it to cause disruption and damage. It also puts aviation and large parts of the economy at risk from a single point of failure.
It may not be terrorists. Those morons who point laser pens at cockpits may have a new toy. New Scientist reports that a $30 GPS jammer can kill the signal.
Even accidents and mistakes can cause severe outages. New Scientist cites several examples. For example:
IT WAS just after midday in San Diego, California, when the disruption started. In the tower at the airport, air-traffic controllers peered at their monitors only to find that their system for tracking incoming planes was malfunctioning. At the Naval Medical Center, emergency pagers used for summoning doctors stopped working. Chaos threatened in the busy harbour, too, after the traffic-management system used for guiding boats failed. On the streets, people reaching for their cellphones found they had no signal and bank customers trying to withdraw cash from local ATMs were refused. Problems persisted for another 2 hours.
It took three days to find an explanation for this mysterious event in January 2007. Two navy ships in the San Diego harbour had been conducting a training exercise. To test procedures when communications were lost, technicians jammed radio signals. Unwittingly, they also blocked radio signals from GPS satellites across a swathe of the city.
The Royal Academy of Engineering has just released a detailed report (PDF), Global Navigation Space Systems: reliance and vulnerabilities that underlines the risks. While there is a risk of gross errors, the more insidious threat is “dangerously misleading results which may not seem obviously wrong.”
A significant failure of GPS could cause lots of services to fail at the same time, including many that are thought to be completely independent of each other. The use of non-GNSS back ups is important across all critical uses of GNSS.
Is it time to consider planning a non-GPS alternative as part of an IFR flight plan. For example, could you divert to an airport with a VOR or ILS approach? Could you fly a procedure or missed approach with just a VOR and no GPS guidance? As new GPS-driven glass cockpits take over – I just flew an Avidyne R9 Cirrus to Antwerp, for example – do we need to keep our old-fashioned NDB/DME/VOR/ILS flying skills current as a backup? It’s certainly something to think about.
Dealing with mice and other wildlife in the aircraft hangar
Steve Ells has recently blogged on his Baby Boomer Airplane Blog about an interesting problem he has been experiencing involving his Piper Comanche (nicknamed “Papa”): Mice (and other wildlife) in the hangar where he keeps it. He noted that:
Mice climb up the landing gear tires and find their way through tiny openings into the soft and comfortable shelter of the cabin. I was surprised one day to find that one mouse–obviously seriously maladjusted–had tried to chew holes in a Travel John I had accidentally left on the back seat floor after a flight. After use the powder in Travel Johns morphs into "odorless, spill-proof gel that is non-toxic and safe for disposal in any waste bin," according to the company.
Steve solved the problem with an idea from the Tips Book of the International Comanche Society. He created low-cost metal walls to surround each landing gear tire when the aircraft is not in use.
He also noted that:
The hangar is home to many of God’s creatures, none of which respect Papa. The flying creatures sing their songs while balancing on the wires of Papa’s VOR antenna, ELT antenna and the nest in the rafters above the fuselage. They poop while they sing.
Apparently though, Steve has not come up with a solution to deal with the birds – other than to wash the aircraft often.
Hence and out of curiosity, have you ever experienced bird, mice or other wildlife problems where you keep your aircraft? What steps did you take to solve any problem?
11 lessons from a fatal Cirrus crash
Rick Beach has written an extensive and must read article for the Cirrus Owners & Pilots Association (COPA) website listing eleven lessons from a Cirrus crash last May 25, 2010, that led to two fatalities (The crash was also covered extensively in two COPA forum threads: Cirrus Fatal #61 in SR20 C-GYPJ near Buttonville Airport, Toronto, Canada and Transport Canada report on Buttonville SR20 accident). To quickly summarize the incident: The SR20 had departed the Buttonville Aiport in Canada after avionics maintenance with two pilots aboard. However, a cylinder fractured causing a loss of engine power and the pilots attempted to return to the airport. Instead, they lost control, attempted to perform a recovery and ended up impacting the roof of a commercial building.
Rick wrote extensively about eleven lessons that can be learned from the crash but here is a quick summary of his key points:
- Lesson #1: Diligently maintain your aircraft but remember that there are some failures that are extremely rare events. Nevertheless, you should still plan for them.
- Lesson #2: Mechanical things will fail and you must both plan for this as well as practice your emergency procedures.
- Lesson #3: Two (or more) pilots in an aircraft may create both confusion and different responses. Hence, be sure to do a briefing on the ground to determine who is the PIC, who will make the key decisions in the event of an emergency and how the other pilot(s) will contribute in such a situation.
- Lesson #4: If your aircraft does not have any power, you must act immediately.
- Lesson #5: Practice the emergency procedures. In particular, prepare for a situation where there is partial engine power loss and be ready to correct such a situation within seconds.
- Lesson #6: When preparing to land at an unfamiliar airport, be sure to look at the terrain and land use off the ends of the runways as you come in so that you can see what will be underneath you when you depart.
- Lesson #7: Be sure to prepare a departure briefing for each and every airport and departure. In addition, note the CAPS altitude of 500 feet AGL.
- Lesson #8: Think about your decision criteria for using CAPS in an emergency during both takeoffs and departures. Remember, no one has died when CAPS was activated below 133 knots and above 1000′ AGL.
- Lesson #9: Pull early – especially if you have altitude and are faced with a risky off-airport landing. You need just 8 seconds and a few hundred feet of altitude above ground.
- Lesson #10: Remember, CAPS can be used to reduce your impact energy.
- Lesson #11: Do everything you possibly can to avoid stalling your aircraft and then losing control.
Rick’s entire article is a must read – especially if you fly a Cirrus aircraft.
