Leader, bandits at 2 o’clock!
Roger; it’s only 1:30 now—what’ll I do ‘til then?
— The Bill Waterson comic character Calvin, of ‘Cavin and Hobbes.’ fame.
Bird strike myths and facts
The Hudson River incident a few years ago brought dramatic attention to the problem of aircraft bird strikes being all too common, but rarely deadly for aircraft. However, a group called the Bird Strike Committee USA has an article on its website entitled “The Top 10 Bird Strike Myths” and some of the following myths exposed may be somewhat startling.
- Bird strikes cannot cause serious airline accidents.
- Bird strikes are rare.
- Bird strikes are no more of a problem today than 20 or 30 years ago.
- Large aircraft are built to withstand all bird strikes.
- If a bird flies into an engine during takeoff and the engine quits, the airplane will crash.
- Nothing can be done to keep birds away from airports.
- It is illegal to kill birds just to protect aircraft.
- If birds are a problem at an airport, killing them all would eliminate the problem.
- Except for the very rare accident, bird strikes are only a nuisance to airline operators.
- Bird strikes are a concern only to those who fly.
- Bonus Myth: Bird strikes never occur at high altitudes.
Obviously the answers are the opposite of the above statements or myths and the Bird Strike Committee USA’s article goes into considerable detail listing all of the facts about 
bird strikes for each one. The Bird Strike Committee USA’s main website also points out that annual bird and other wildlife strikes to aircraft cause well over $600 million in damage to US civil and military aviation and that over 219 people have been killed worldwide since 1988 (click here to see their list of bird strike incidents starting with Orville Wright).
It should be mentioned that the Bird Strike Committee USA was formed in 1991 to address bird strike issues and their next annual meeting is scheduled for August in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Such meetings are usually spread out over 3 1/2 days and include four parts:
- Practical classroom and field training sessions on wildlife control at airports which cover both civil and military aviation.
- The presentation of technical papers and posters.
- Exhibits and demonstrations with vendors.
- A field trip which generally covers the host airport or a wildlife management area to observe management programs and habitat issues related to wildlife and aviation safety.
If you are an airport official in the UK and can’t attend one of these annual meetings, the Bird Strike Committee USA’s website has an Understanding and Reducing Bird Hazards to Aircraft page and a Best Management Practices For Airport Wildlife Control paper listing some of the steps you can take to reduce wildlife dangers at or around airports.
What is the best digital log book for pilots?
If you are wondering what the best digital log book for pilots is, you are probably not alone as someone named Chris Carlson recently asked the same question on the Ask a Flight Instructor forum:
Is anybody aware of a good iPad or PC based logbook program? I have created my own in excel, but am wanting something that can connect to an iPad, and hopefully be able to import my current excel logbook into it from the beginning.
A couple of pilots responded by suggesting LogTen with Kev Hughes noting that from what he sees, its by far the most expensive but its also the most user-friendly and “all around best product.” He added that if a pilot is looking for something that is seamless for both computers and the iPad, LogTen is the best choice.
Meanwhile, Gary Moore wrote that his personal favorite and the one he uses is Safelog by Dauntless Software. However, he did not elaborate any further as to why this is his favorite digital log book.
Someone with the user name Sidestickplayer suggested MCCpilot log as there is a free version while the enterprise edition goes for about $70 or so. There is also an iPad/iPhone app for it and you can import your data from excel.
Finally, Mark Kolber wrote that he is a big fan of cloud based solution MyFlightBook. com. Mark did caution that with any cloud-based solution, there is always the risk of something happening to the provider, but MyFlightBook.com mitigates the risk by providing the ability to download a syncable Excel spreadsheet in order to maintain your data locally plus they regularly update their product and there are both iOS and Android apps. Mark also noted he had 1,500 hours of flight time over the course of about 20 years to import from Excel and with some helpful assistance from the developer, the import went “surprisingly smooth.”
At the end of the thread, Chris thanked Mark for his MyFlightBook.com suggestion and he even wrote that myflightbook. com is “one of the best things I’ve even gotten for free!”
Ice-phobic wings may be coming to an aircraft near you
Icing and deicing are big problems for aviation as ice buildups on wings will disrupt airflow by altering the shape of the wing surface – impacting lift. Icing can also happen at any stage of the flight – from when the aircraft is parked on the ground at the gate to when its already up in the sky. To make matters worst, deicing systems add weight to an aircraft while the need to deice on the ground causes causes delays for passenger flights. However, technology could once and for all eliminate the need for deicing on the ground as it might be possible to eliminate the threat of icing all together.
Last Summer, Brett Snyder, the blogger behind the Cranky Flier blog, pointed out a short post on the Wall Street Journal’s Ideas Market blog about a paper entitled: Liquid-Infused Nanostructured Surfaces with Extreme Anti-Ice and Anti-Frost Performance. To put the paper’s thesis or point into plain English, Harvard engineers have apparently developed a way to make things like aircraft, power lines and other objects exposed to harsh elements “ice-phobic.”
They do this with technology that involves fashioning a highly porous surface layer atop the material needing protection with nano-scale fibers being one option and nano-scale bumps being another. This porous surface is then covered with any liquid that doesn’t mix with water and the pores retain the liquid – preventing ice from attaching to the surface.
No ice will appear at all when the temperature is just below freezing while at extreme temperatures, some ice may form but it will slide off with the slightest nudge from a fan-generated breeze or from just plain gravity.
Meanwhile, the AOPA Pilot Blog has just posted this rather interesting video of a new type of hydrophobic coating that repels water and could potentially have aerospace applications:
The video seems to suggest the possibility of coating an aircraft with whatever type of chemical or technology is being depicted and have it shed water, ice and even bugs.
With any luck, we might be seeing some of the above anti-icing technology being deployed by the end of the decade or sometime in the next one to not only save the aviation industry time and money, but to also save lives.
Restoring a Mosquito bomber in New Zealand
The AOPA Pilot blot recently mentioned the Fighter Factory in Virginia will adding a flying restored de Havilland Mosquito KA114 bomber to its collection that was built with recovered parts and new tooling by Avspecs, Limited, at the Ardmore Airfield in Auckland, New Zealand. Avspecs happens to be owned by a husband and wife team who also made sure they did a photo and video shoot of the whole restoration process with the photos and videos posted on MosquitoRestoration.com.
In case you aren’t familiar with the history of the British conceived Mosquito, it first flew on the November 25, 1940 and soon outperformed all other Allied and Enemy aircraft. In fact, it was 23 MPH faster than the Spitfire and so versatile that it performed in every role (e.g. bomber, fighter, fighter bomber, night fighter, photo reconnaissance etc). However and due to their wooden construction, only a few of the 7,000 or so Mosquitos built have managed to survive.
So as you can imagine, restoring a Mosquito to airworthy status from parts sourced and recovered from all over the world was no easy feat as the following short video shows:
Nevertheless, here is a video showing the end result – a Mosquito being flown for the first time in at least 15 years:
Finally, the MRC Aviation blog in New Zealand has found and posted this video of what appears to be the same Mosquito being dismantled in preparation to be shipped to the States:
Birds don’t have all the fun…
People think it would be fun to be a bird because you could fly. But they forget the negative side, which is the preening.
— Jack Handey, ‘Deep Thoughts from Saturday Night Live.’