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Category Archives: Flying
Looking Both Ways
In teaching student pilots, I have been amazed that a few will cross a runway or taxiway without looking. At airports with control towers and active ATC, the instances of this happening are more pronounced than at airports without ground control. The … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying, Personal
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Tagged a late Friday afternoon, airplanes, airports with control towers, Cessnas, clearance to our ramp, crossing a runway or taxiway without looking, discipline, Flight instructors, flight training, flying, inexperienced pilots, judgment, learning to fly, look both ways, Looking Both Ways, making the approach to another airport, pilots, professional pilots, similar runway patterns, student pilots, teaching student pilots, the mighty PA-44 Seminole, using the radio
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2 Comments
Precession – Is It Really A Left Turning Tendency?
Flight instructors teach their students about the left-turning tendencies an airplane encounters on takeoff. Unfortunately, some flight instructors may not fully understand the dynamics of takeoff and might pass a misconception or two on to the next generation of new … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying
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Tagged airplanes, airspeed, altitude, Back in the Old Days, Cessnas, conventional landing gear, flight controls, Flight instructors, flight training, flying, full throttle, high power settings, high-angle-of-attack-flight, inexperienced pilots, judgment, learning to fly, left-turning tendencies, Newton’s third law, nosewheels, novice pilots, P-51 Mustang pilots, P-factor, pilots, precession, Precession - Is It Really A Left Turning Tendency?, professional pilots, propeller blade, right rudder, spiraling slipstream, student pilots, students, taildraggers, tailwheels, torque, training aircraft, World War II
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6 Comments
Time For a Plane Diet?
Yesterday, I talked about the problems of loading an airplane improperly. With a forward or aft cg, especially if loaded outside the limits, you are going to have control problems. Now for the rest of the story, as Paul would … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying
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Tagged absolute ceilings, altitude limits, an overloaded airplane, best angle of climb, best rate of climb, carrying a little extra weight, control problems, exceeding the allowable aft cg limit, flying an overweight airplane, high rotation speeds, higher landing speeds, increased takeoff distance, loading an airplane, lower climb rates, performance issues associated with heavier operating weights, putting too much in the airplane, service ceiling, shallower climb gradients, Time For a Plane Diet?
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Loadin’ Up the Old Family Plane
There is a trick to loading an airplane properly, especially for a long cross-country flight. Many pilots lack a practical understanding of the important concepts of loading. It is not the same as going out to the family SUV and … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying
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Tagged balance equates to controllability, center-of-gravity, elevator control feels very heavy, exceeding the aircraft’s g-limits, FAA private pilot written exam, loading an airplane properly, Loadin’ Up the Old Family Plane, ng cross-country flights, over control the plane, overloading the aircraft, pilot examiner, pitch control is exaggerated, recovery from a spin, stall recovery, understanding the concepts of loading, weight and balance
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Flying From Here to There
One challenge I enjoyed most learning to fly was flying from one place to another. In the aviation business, they call this flying cross-country. It truly is a great challenge and immensely fun. It is also a fascinating science. The … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying
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Tagged charts, checkpoints, flying cross-country, Flying From Here to There, following directions, going from point A to point B, GPS, instruments, most fascinating navigators, navigation at sea, navigational instruments, printed timetables, rudimentary sextants, the ancient Polynesians, the Hawaiian Islands, the Pacific Ocean, when technology fails
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5 Comments
Downed Raptors
The Air Force Times reported on an interesting development this week on July 27. According to the AF Times, the entire fleet of F-22 Raptors in the Air Force inventory has not flown since May 3, 2011—the result of problems … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flying
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Tagged a complex machine, aircraft life support systems, Anchorage AK, Captain Jeff Haney, cognition, Downed Raptors, F-22 Raptors, hitting trees on landing, hypoxia, liquid oxygen (LOX), military O2 systems, OBOGS, On-Board Oxygen Generation System, pilots, system concerns, the 525th Fighter Squadron, The Air Force Times
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Bert Stiles
Yesterday I wrote about the bomber bases in England, left crumbling today 66 years after the end of World War II. Mentioned in the blog, was the loss of talent resulting from the deaths of many. Specifically, I said I … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, History, Writing
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Tagged 505th Fighter Squadron, a feature writer, a writer ahead of his time, B-17 and B-24 heavy bombers, Bassingbourn England, Bert Stiles, captured, dogfight, Estes Park, exceptional writing, flying the B-17 into combat, Hanover Germany, Hitler’s war effort, killed in action, missing, P-28s, P-47s, P-51D, P-51s, Serenade to the Big Bird, Tar Heel, the 91st Bomb Group, The Eighth Air Force, the Royal Air Force, The Saturday Evening Post, US Army Air Corps, V-1 buzz bombs, V-2 rockets, W.W. Norton & Co., World War II, World War II bases, wounded
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102 Years Ago Today
A little after four o’clock in the morning this day 102 years ago, 30 year-old Louis Charles Joseph Blériot, an engineer and early French aviator, was nursing a badly burned foot. He and two other early pilots, Hubert Latham and … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, History
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Tagged 102 Years Ago Today, a 25-horsepower Anzani engine, a very rough landing, Blériot #VIII, Blériot #XI, Blériot-Aéronautique Aéronautique, Calais France, Charles de Lambert, crossing of the English Channel, Dover England, Hubert Latham, Louis Charles Joseph Blériot, Société Pour Aviation et ses Derives (SPAD), Société pour les Appareils Deperdussin, the airplane would never fly again, the Daily Mail, the Musee des Arts et Metiers
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1 Comment
It’s Another Year
Well, until today, I was older than my best friend, Paul. Today, he is as old as I am. Unfortunately, we both went over the hill a long time ago. In other words, we are a couple of old fa… … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, History, Life in General, Personal
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Tagged a damn Yankee, a lifetime of gratitude, Alberto Santos-Dumont, barnstormers, biplanes, gypsy pilots, in the fifth grade, It’s Another Year, It’s [a] old Southern joke!, my best friend Paul, my only interest was jets, over the hill, the Demoiselle, the First World War, the summer of 1986, the Sunshine State, the War Between the States, ultralight airplanes
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1 Comment
Knowing Where to Land
One thing about landing an airplane is knowing where to land. Of course, all pilots will land on an airport, but the question becomes one of where on the airport. Or maybe where on the runway. It makes little sense … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying
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Tagged a pilot must know the performance of his or her aircraft, aircraft operations, capable of executing the landing within those parameters, centerline stripes, Cessnas, engine overheating, experienced pilots, fouled spark plugs, hard surface runway, knowing airport runway and marking, Knowing Where to Land, land near the FBO, naturally decelerate without using the brakes, Pipers, saves wear and tear on the brakes, saving taxi time, single-engine airplanes, the pilot-in-command, where to land on the airport, where to land on the runway
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2 Comments
