Golf Hotel Whiskey

Golf Hotel Whiskey: for pilots and aviation enthusiasts

Pilot (knowingly) flies a defective aircraft (with predictable results)

General Aviation News will often reprint excerpts from National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident reports, including one from an August 2010 report about an incident involving a Ryan Navion B in Fort Myers (Florida) that led to substantial damage to the aircraft but no injuries. According to the accident report, the pilot of the aircraft had discovered that the elevator trim adjustment wheel was binding when it was set to the full airplane nose-up position. He made the discovery on his previous flight and he planned to have the aircraft inspected after the flight was concluded.

File:Cessna-172-trim-control.jpgHowever and upon landing at his destination, the pilot discovered that all of the airport facilities had closed for the evening. Hence, he decided to continue with his plans to pick up passengers and then he departed for his home airport.

The flight home was normal until the pilot began to trim the aircraft for the landing flare. At that point, the aircraft pitched up uncontrollably and the left wing hit the ground – causing substantial damage. The investigation revealed that the trim wheel was binding on the instrument panel when the trim was set to a nose-up position but when the trim wheel was removed from the trim system, the rest of the mechanism could move in both the up and down directions.

Hence, the binding of the trim wheel on the instrument panel was ruled to be the probable cause of the accident but also the pilot’s improper decision to depart from the airport with a known mechanical problem was also ruled to be a cause. In other words, he should have made the difficult decision to spend the night at his destination rather than risk his life and the lives of his passengers along with those on the ground by taking off and trying to get home.

Introducing the Aviator Tactical Vest (or Rescu-Me Survival Vest)

Most UK based pilots  probably aren’t flying to the types of remote “back country” areas that North American pilots may fly to or over but General Aviation News has recently profiled the so-called Aviator Tactical Vest (or Rescu-Me Survival Vest) that still might be worth considering as its designed for the worst case aviation scenario – a 72-hour stay in the Rescu-MeTM Survival Vestsroughest terrain after an off-airport landing in a remote area. Its designer, Jim Herbert, who has more than 40 years experience as both a pilot and a back country guide and firefighter, noted that most of the crash sites he has seen involves a tail that might be separated from the cockpit by as much as 400 feet. And if all of your survival gear is in that tail (like in the movie Alive about the 1972 Andes plane crash of the Uruguayan rugby team) , you will have a big problem.

Hence, Jim has designed a vest made of 1000 Denier Cordura, a very heavy weight nylon with a urethane coating that will protect against hypothermia in winter as well as reflect summer heat away from the body. The vest, which comes in black or a woodland camouflage design that reverses into a high visibility orange, has the following features:

  • “Prioritized pockets” in which equipment necessary for survival are arranged in the order of usefulness with the upper left pocket intended for a navigation compass, flash gear and a small first aid kit while the larger right hand pocket which can hold a Personal Locator Beacon, a radio and a fixed bladed knife.  A 3,600-calorie food bar also sits in a pocket opposite a water purification filter, water purification tablets and heavy duty ziplock bags.
  • Included with the vest is a shelter blanket, a micro-fiber blanket that is intended to wick moisture away from the body, a hood stowed in the collar and 50 feet of military spec chord.
  • Each vest has a high visibility RESCU ME panel to signal search and rescue aircraft.
  • For the pilots who don’t want to wear the vest in the aircraft, there is an egress pack designed to drape over the seat consisting of a nylon pouch that can be removed with one tug of a release rip-chord.

And while buying such a vest might seem like a precautionary overkill if you are a pilot who flies around the UK, the vest was also designed with outdoorsmen like hunters, boaters or hikers in mind – meaning pilots or non-pilots alike who engage in outdoor activities might want to consider getting one.

A basic Aviator Tactical Vest sells for $260 while a fully loaded one weighing 11 pounds sells for $440. For more information, visit Jim’s website at Rescu-me.com.

The iPhone 5 connector is a headache for aircraft owners

By now, many followers or buyers of the Apple iPhone 5 are probably aware of the problems with its new mapping application (so much so that Nokia has even written a blog post to gloat about the benefits of their own mapping technology!) but Flight Display Systems has pointed out some challenges for companies that manufacture aircraft iPhone accessories. Specifically, Flight Display Systems pointed out two challenges: 1) The iPhone 5’s new “Lightning” connector and 2) The new, taller form-factor of the phone.

To first put things in perspective, Lightning is a brand new, all digital, eight-signal connector that is now being used iPhone 5, fifth generation iPod Touch and seventh generation iPod Nano. As with the old 30-pin connector, the Lightning port can be used for charging the device, syncing data and outputting audio to another device.

However, Lightning is an improvement because it is thinner – meaning the new iPhone 5 is less bulky and can have larger speakers for more volume output. Its also more durable than the previous connector that often got damaged when inadvertently plugged in backwards because the new connector is reversible.

What that means for Flight Display Systems’ products is the following:

  • iPod and iPhone Cable Adapters (FDMEDPLR-3 and FDMEDPLR-3QR). These products require the Lightning adapter to work with both the iPhone 5 and the fifth generation iPod Touch and according to Apple, the Lightning connecter will not support analog video. However, charging and audio output should still be supported.
  • iPod and iPhone Docking Station (FDIPD-MD Ver 2) — The new iPhone 5 and iPod Touch are too large to fit in this particular docking station, with or without the required adapter.

Adapters from Apple start at $19 for the Lightning to USB Cable, $29 for the Lightning adapter and $39 for the Lightning-to-30-pin connector cable but bear in mind that these adaptors will not necessarily support all functions just yet.

Likewise and for now, you might be better off sticking with your old iPhone when flying as there might still be other issues to work out. 

Leading British wine merchant dies after a skydiving collision

Over the weekend, Patrick Sandeman, the 53 year-old co-owner of Lea & Sandeman wine merchants which has been called the best wine shop in London, died after crashing into a French skydiver (causing the pair’s parachutes to collapse) 50 feet from the ground. The incident happened above the Sibson airfield, near Peterborough, Cambs. The 28 year-old French skydiver was air lifted to Cambridge where he remains in a serious condition with severe spinal and lower leg injuries.

Patrick Sandeman Witnesses are saying that conditions were still and sunny but there appeared to be too many skydivers in the air – a charge the skydiving company (UK Parachuting) is denying. The British Parachuting Association (BPA) along with Cambridgeshire Police are conducting a “board of inquiry” but a spokesman for the former has already stated that there is nothing to suggest that there were too many people in the air at the same time. 

A parachuting coach who was waiting to board the aircraft was also quoted in the Telegraph as saying that there was a "normal number of people jumping" due to restrictions on the aircraft but parts of Sandeman’s and the French skydiver’s parachutes got tangled as they were moving and collapsed – causing both to fall too the ground (The French skydiver managed to land on his feet).

Sandeman was a fixture in the UK wine scene for some thim as his multi-million pound wine business was established in 1988 with partner Charles Lea and now has four locations in Chelsea, Kensington, Barnes and Chiswick, west London. He had also been named the London Merchant of the Year several years in in a row.

Flight and the Artistic Imagination exhibit

If you are an aviation enthusiast who also loves aviation art, earlier in the summer The Guardian had an excellent review of the Flight and the Artistic Imagination exhibit at Compton Verney in Warwickshire that will be concluding at the end of this month. The exhibit starts with works by Leonardo da Vinci and Francisco Goya and moves on to other works by artists such as Henri Matisse, Paul Nash, Peter Lanyon and Hiraki Sawa to end with images or videos of space travel, satellite images and everyday air travel. These works are also from national collections such as the Imperial War Museum, the British Museum, Arts Council Collection and the National Galleries of Scotland.

The Guardian’s review does a great job of describing the ideas behind the aviation art and the exhibit (you can also see another review from the Guardian here along with one from the Financial Times here) but here is a quick preview of just a few of the works of art on display:

A Way of Flying by Goya

A Way of Flying by Francisco Goya.

Nose-diving on the city by Tullio Crali

Tullio Crali’s Nose-diving on the City (1939).

Paul Nash’s Battle of Britain (1941)

Downed, by Al Johnson

Al Johnson’s Downed (2006) sculpture: Knitted, stitched textiles, timber and forged steel.

The exhibit will last until the end of this month meaning you still have two weekends to plan a visit (for opening hours and admission prices, click here). And if you can’t make it to the exhibit, there is also a companion book available for half price at £7.50.