Hat tip to Rodney’s Aviation Ramblings blog for finding and posting this very amazing and cool video sponsored by Red Bull of two gliders doing formation flying over spectacular Austrian mountain scenery. In the video, skydiver Paul Steiner manages to climb from one glider to the other to touch its rudder – you have to watch the video to better understand what I mean and just how difficult the stunt actually was. In other words, its not something you see nor would you attempt on a regular basis!
One pilot’s checklist…
All pilots know the importance of having checklists for the specific aircraft that they are flying and some of these checklists can be much more complicated and lengthier than others depending upon the type of aircraft being flown. Hence Sulako, the blogger behind Sulako’s Blog, has recently posted this checklist (we have excluded all of the “painful and boring” details) for the aircraft he flies:
- Customs/canpass
- Oxygen system
- Circuit breakers all in, switches switched appropriately – we double-check these because our maintenance guys could have done routine maintenance on the airplane and left c/b’s pulled or switches in unusual positions as part of their maintenance checks.
- We fire up our standby attitude indicator (we actually have 2 standby AI’s) to make sure it has spun up before flight
- If we are doing a ground-power-unit (GPU / battery cart) start, then we leave our generators off, but if we are doing an engine start from our own battery we leave our gens on…
- Battery emer check
- We check our various warning systems
- We check our fuel crossfeed valves and indicators
- Inverters
- Pressurization and environmental
- Trim / Flaps
- CVR
- Autopilot
- Atis / GPS / Data / Takeoff Briefing / clocks and bugs
- Pax advisory / coffee
Below these checks is a little black line with further checks to perform once everyone is on board (he includes these check in another paragraph). In fact, he noted that he can do all of these checks in about five minutes (since he is familiar with the plane) – less time than it took to write them down…
How to recognize and recover from spatial disorientation
Experiencing spatial disorientation in flight can potentially be deadly and yet it can sometimes be difficult to tell when you are experiencing such an illusion. Hence, Jason Schappert of MzeroA.com has recently created and posted a podcast and a video that covers the topic of spatial disorientation in flight. In the first podcast, Jason discuses the different types of illusions that can occur in flight by using the following acronym:
I – Inversion
C – Coriolis
E – Elevator
F – False Horizon
L – Leans
A – Autokinesis
G – Graveyard Spin/Spiral
S – Somoatogravic
Jason explains how to recognize each of these spatial disorientations and more importantly, how to recover from them:
In the second video, Jason asks his viewers what instruments you can trust when you are spatially disorientated. In the video, Jason explains that you should first look at your airspeed indicator and then your other instruments and adjust accordingly:
Five questions to consider before deciding to buy an aircraft
The global economic downturn has created some fantastic purchasing opportunities of high ticket items, including aircraft, for those who still have plenty of cash on hand. In fact, there may never again be a better time than now to actually purchase an aircraft.
Hence and if you are considering purchasing an aircraft, a short article in the April 2010 issue of the Conklin & de Decker newsletter is well worth reading because the article listed the five questions you should be asking yourself before even looking at any aircraft. These questions are:
- Do you have a budget and know how to use it? In other words, do you have the cash or the cash flow to maintain an aircraft?
- Do you have emergency money? This included money for both scheduled inspections and unanticipated repairs that may arise and cost thousands of dollars.
- How is your credit? Financing an aircraft purchase, especially one that might be needed for a business, is always an option if you have good credit and cash flow.
- Do you have an existing relationship with a financial institution? If you plan to finance a purchase, its always better to seek financing from an institution that knows you and your business. In addition, the website of NAFA has a membership directory of aircraft financing companies.
- How old is the aircraft? A good rule of thumb is that an aircraft age at the end of any finance or lease term should be no greater than 20 years as a newer aircraft is usually easier to sell than an older one.
Keeping the above questions in mind will greatly aid you in determining whether you should take advantage of some of the once in a lifetime deals that are now out there.
We hope this clears things up
Apparently this notice was sent by a major international airline to its pilots explaining the monitored approach method where, on an approach to very low visibility and ceiling, one pilot flies the approach and when the other pilot sees the runway, he takes control and lands. This removes the problem of the pilot having to make the transition from flying instruments and, at the last minute, looking outside and ‘getting his bearings’ as the other pilot is already ‘outside’.
If the pilot not flying says nothing by the time they reach ‘minimums’, the pilot flying automatically starts the ‘go-around’ procedure as he is still on the instruments.
Now try this actual explanation of this procedure from the airline’s manual:
Flight Operations Department Notice
There appears to be some confusion over the new pilot role titles. This notice will hopefully clear up any misunderstandings. The titles P1, P2 and Co-Pilot will now cease to have any meaning within the operations manuals. They are to be replaced by Handling Pilot, Non-Handling Pilot, Handling Landing Pilot, Non-Handling Landing Pilot, Handling Non-Landing Pilot, and Non-Handling Non-Landing Pilot.
The Polish air disaster: Why are most fog-related accidents fatal?
Given the recent Polish air disaster (Polish air disaster: Pilot ignored fog alert) where it is already being reported that the plane’s pilot ignored repeated warnings not to land at a fogged-in Russian airstrip, a recent short post by Alton K. Marsh on the AOPA Pilot Blog’s Reporting Points about fog related accidents is worth noting and repeating. In the post, Alton mentioned that the AOPA Air Safety Foundation (ASF) has discovered that roughly three-fourths of the time, aircraft accidents in fog are fatal. However, it was also noted that there is no clear-cut fog category in the accident statistics that were studied (hence, the term should include “obscuration” and “below minimums”). Nevertheless, the study found that:
Those on no flight plan who had an accident that included the above weather conditions between 1998 and 2007 led the fatal category with 203 fatalities. But those on IFR flight plans came in second with 106. Those on VFR flight plans were much lower, with only 49 fatalities over the nine-year period. Part 91 operations in fog, obscuration, and below minimums conditions led the statistics with 340 fatalities. In second place were charter operators with only 38 fatalities.
The AOPA ASF researcher who conducted the study concluded by saying that:
“The relatively low number of fog accidents [for aircraft] on VFR flight plans–and the high number on flights that didn’t file any–probably says something about the risk attitudes and flight practices of the pilots involved. IFR pilots are expecting low visibility, so reports of fog won’t necessarily deter them from trying the approach, but it [fog] will make things get bad in a hurry if [the pilot] gets off course or goes below minimums.”
In other words, it is the attitude of the pilot and not the the fog itself that is the real cause of the accident – as the recent Polish air disaster seems to indicate as well.
