Golf Hotel Whiskey

Golf Hotel Whiskey: for pilots and aviation enthusiasts

Videos

How to perform steep turns video

Jason Schappert, the pilot blogger behind MzeroA.com, has recently put together a short video covering a “neat new approach” that he is using to teach steep turns – a fairly important concept for student pilots to learn early on in their flight training. Jason began his video by noting that he has noticed that many of his students are struggling with steep turns. However, Jason pointed out that the secret to performing steep turns is to have consistent:

  1. Airspeed.
  2. Bank angle.
  3. Sight picture.

He also added that performing steep turns is a really visual maneuver. Hence, you should be able to perform one just by looking out of the cockpit window (In fact, Jason added that he will sometimes cover the instruments when he has his students performing steep turns).

At the end of the video, Jason asked viewers to leave comments on his site with tips for performing steep turns and already, 79 comments have been posted.

Landing and takeoff videos from Lukla: The world’s scariest airport

Lukla, the tiny air strip that is the gateway to Mount Everest in Nepal, easily ranks as one of the scariest airports in the world to both land at and take off from. After all, Lukla is at 2,860 metres (9,380 ft) with a runway width of 20 meters and an incline that is a staggering 11,75° (almost 20%) that leads to a cliff. To further complicate matters, no landing aids are available while ATC is limited to AFIS (Aerodrome Flight Information Service).

As you can see in this first video, an aircraft landing at Lukla will need to go from 150 knots to (hopefully) a complete stop in just seven seconds:

That also means that a takeoff from Lukla is equally tricky:

Finally, here is a cockpit view of a takeoff from Lukla:

So you want to buy a $25 million private jet…

If you have ever wanted to experience the jet set lifestyle or you are wondering what a mere $25 million will buy you in the way of an aircraft, check out this video report from the Wall Street Journal’s Kaveri Niththyananthan who visited Farnborough Airport to take to the skies in a Challenger 300 private jet with a representative of Bombardier.

After being dropped off directly on the tarmac and then onboard the aircraft, the first thing that Kaveri said she noticed were the fine wood interiors and cream leather seats inside the aircraft that can swivel and turn into four beds. In addition and unlike many commercial aircraft, she noted that the Challenger 300 is completely Internet and iPod friendly plus comes with a state of the art entertainment system.

Kaveri also interviewed a representative from Bombardier who noted that the Challenger 300 sells for a cool $25 million – plus or minus a bit depending upon how a customer wants to outfit the interior of the aircraft. Unfortunately though, Bombardier does not accept MasterCard and noted that customers will typically seek financing (much like buying a house) and then hire an aircraft management company to manage the aircraft. Moreover, many customers will also allow an aircraft management company to charter out their aircraft to help offset the cost of owning and operating one. 

However, don’t expect to walk into an aircraft showroom and fly out with an aircraft as Bombardier also noted that the wait for a larger aircraft is now around 3 years while the wait for a smaller aircraft is about 1 year. 

Behind the scenes video of a skywriter

Recently, the Wall Street Journal’s Monika Vosough took a sneak peek behind the scenes of skywriting with Larry Arken, a pilot in Long Island who operates a skywriting business. In this video segment, Monika shows how the complex art of skywriting has gone high tech thanks to advanced software and onboard computers so that pilots like Larry can continue a 100+ year tradition of creating gigantic letters of smoke up in the sky:

Amazing video of how NOT to land a Cessna Citation 2

Hat tip to FlightSchoolList.com for posting this amazing video of a Cessna Citation 2 attempting to make a downwind landing at what appears to be full throttle on a wet Atlantic City runway. The aircraft ended up in the water at the end of the runway (luckily no one was hurt in the incident) but watch what happens in the video at about the 3 minute mark…

Even more entertaining than the commentary provided by the eyewitnesses are all of the comments that have been posted on YouTube about the incident.

Certainly the video raises A LOT of questions about the judgment of the pilot and whoever hired him to fly one expensive aircraft!