Innehållsförteckning för November 2015 från Flying

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK: AUTHORITATIVE INSIGHT AND OPINION ON AVIATION’S BIGGEST ISSUES In a literal and legal sense, the publishing company that leases the editorial offices and writes the checks owns this magazine. On a more transcendent level, Flying magazine belongs to us all. Many of you have been reading this publication since — well, since you could read. For others your acquaintance with Flying began later in life, when you finally decided to satisfy your insatiable yearnings to strap in behind the controls of an airplane and bring clarity to the deep mysteries of flight. When you aren’t physically inside the cockpit, Flying is your tangible link to the world of aviation. It is something you can hold in your hands to gain a sense of belonging to an…

If you read our Flying eNews regularly, you have likely seen several recent accidents that have resulted from pilot incapacitation likely due to pressurization issues. An unexpected rise in cabin pressure can catch the pilot unaware and be debilitating within minutes, depending on the altitude. But a small, inexpensive device can help alert the pilot to take action before it’s too late. The device is called AltAlert. I tested out the device recently and was impressed with the unobtrusive yet effective system. As I climbed through 10,500 feet, the box let out a chirp announcing the possibility of hypoxia. While there is only one audio alert, the AltAlert emitted a red flashing light every 15 seconds. Above 10,000 feet, the oxygen saturation is significantly lower than at sea level, so…

PIPER PA 18-150 Brookneal, Virginia/INJURIES: 2 Minor According to the flight instructor and the pilot-rated student, both believed the airplane had been fueled at the time it was pulled out of the hangar by line personnel, and they had observed a fuel truck parked near the airplane before the flight. The student had performed the preflight inspection, during which he interpreted the fuel sight gauges as indicating full fuel; however, he did not visually check the fuel in the tanks. When the instructor arrived at the airplane, he asked the student how much fuel was on board and the student said the tanks were full. The flight departed from Lynchburg, Virginia, and made several takeoffs and landings at a nearby airport. About one hour into the flight as the airplane…

A NO-HOLDS-BARRED LOOK AT PILOTS, PLANES AND LIFE IN THE AIR Once upon a time I went to Disney World … well, sort of. A man I knew owned a Piper Cherokee and wanted to fly to Pensacola, Florida, to see the Naval Air Museum. He asked me to go because he didn’t have an instrument rating and I guess he was a little sweet on me. I was otherwise romantically “embroiled,” but I had no plans over that Thanksgiving holiday and said OK if he was cool with a separaterooms/just-friends relationship. The fl ight was fun (well, as fun as fl ying 700 miles in a Piper Cherokee can be), and the Naval Air Museum was a treasure. The next day we hopped to Cedar Key, a (then) low-key,…

25 YEARS AGO OUR COVER FEATURED THE LEARJET 31A, WHICH NOT ONLY INTRODUCED A NEW BENDIX/KING GLASS COCKPIT BUT ALSO TOOK THE VENERABLE BIZJET TO A MAX OPERATING SPEED OF MACH 0.81 OVER THE ORIGINAL 31’S MACH 0.78. COMBINED WITH LEARJET’S LEGENDARY FLYING CHARACTERISTICS, THE NEW FEATURES ONLY FURTHER SOLIDIFIED THE AIRPLANE AS A PILOT’S DREAM. In “Keeping Pilots Apart,” we dug into air traffi c rules, detailing just how closely airplanes fl y and who is responsible for ensuring aircraft separation — the pilot or the controller — during key scenarios. We also identifi ed key pilot behaviors that can enhance safety in crowded skies: radio discipline and a sense of responsibility as PIC. Flying’s Len Morgan refl ected on a special and particularly speedy fl ight to London…

FEEDBACK FROM OUR READERS WHEN TO SAY NO The article “The Power of No” [Taking Wing, September 2015] reminded me of an experience as a young DC-8 copilot. We were scheduled to fly from MSY to ATL on a full stretch DC-8. I had discovered a maintenance discrepancy and reported it to the captain. He reviewed my input and, while it was a gray area, he decided the item had to be fixed and not carried over to ATL. We called maintenance and notified them. Shortly thereafter a maintenance foreman arrived on the flight deck and demanded we carry the discrepancy forward to ATL. The captain declined and the foreman started a heated tirade. The captain remained calm and took the verbal abuse. When the foreman finally stopped, the captain…

Garmin International has introduced a new controller option for the G2000, G3000 and G5000 integrated flight decks. The GTC 580 is a high-resolution landscape configured touchscreen module that not only incorporates the functions of the GTC 570, but also acts as a standby flight display in case there is a problem with the main screens. Both the GTC 580 and GTC 570 act as interfaces between the pilot and the avionics. Touch-enabled icons on the screen allow for full flight-deck management, and access to radio, audio and transponder functions, weather systems control and more. Unlike the GTC 570, the GTC 580 adds standby flight-display capabilities, providing primary flight data right on the 5.8-inch LCD screen. In addition to standby flight-attitude information, the GTC 580 displays airspeed, barometric altitude and heading…

NO-NONSENSE RISK MITIGATION FOR PILOTS LIKE US Iliamna is a great fl y-in fi shing destination in southwestern Alaska. In early summer, however, it often has rain, with low ceilings and visibilities. The day of this fl ight was no exception. As we prepared for our IFR departure, the mountains all around were in the clouds. There is no radar at the airport, and missing the mountains meant we would have to carefully follow the complicated departure procedure found in the front of the terminal procedures book. Martha and I were briefing it one more time just before engine start when a passenger in back cupped his hands and hollered, “Do you have a flight plan?” It was a bad time to be distracted. Frankly, my fi rst reaction was…

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What happens when a longcherished American value bumps up against the government’s post-9/11 need to surveil potential threats and protect its citizens? One such struggle, the balance between privacy and security, has become a defining issue for the 21st century. From Edward Snowden and cellphone metadata to online ads that know who you are, where you are and where you have been clicking, street-corner security cameras, social media sharing and the “big data” to pull all those pieces together, the fight plays out in headlines and in our daily lives. When that conflict comes to aviation, the clash between privacy and security has made for some major headline-grabbing conflicts. On the one hand, flying has always meant freedom, privacy, isolation. It’s a VFR flight with no radio and the long…

CUTTING THROUGH THE MYTHS TO GET TO THE FACTS OF FLIGHT “The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was Scaled Composites’ failure to consider and protect against the possibility that a single human error could result in a catastrophic hazard to the SpaceShipTwo vehicle. This failure set the stage for the copilot’s premature unlocking of the feather system as a result of time pressure and vibration and loads that he had not recently experienced, which led to uncommanded feather extension and the subsequent aerodynamic overload and inflight breakup of the vehicle.” Thus is the NTSB’s final report, released in July, on the Oct. 31, 2014, breakup and fatal crash of the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo prototype. I described the accident, and the design features and…

22 EMBRAER LEGACY 450 ACHIEVES CERTIFICATION 24 PLUS HELISAS AUTOPILOT NOW AVAILABLE FOR R44 The XTI TriFan 600 may look like something out of a sci-fi film, but its designers insist the concept is further along in its development than artists’ renderings might suggest. Once you realize who is on XTI’s management team, the declaration gains extra credibility. Based in Denver, the new company is headed by a veteran group that includes Jeff Pino, former president of Sikorsky Aircraft; Charlie Johnson, former president of Cessna Aircraft; Dennis Olcott, former chief engineer at Piper and Adam Aircraft; and David Brody, the founder of XTI Aircraft. Not only is the vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft unusual, the company’s plans for securing initial funding are too. Pino told us XTI has received commitments for $6.5 million…

Genesys Aerosystems recently delivered a new insturment panel option for Robinson Helicopters’ R44 with HeliSAS (Helicopter Stability Augmentation System) autopilot. Weighing 12 pounds, the HeliSAS brings new workloadreducing and safety advantages to the R44, with an easy transition to manual control. The pilot can override the autopilot simply by applying pressure to the cyclic. Featuring basic stability augmentation, heading hold, altitude hold, navigation signal tracking and approach guidance, the R44’s new autopilot option mirrors that of the turbine-powered R66, which was flight-tested and FAA approved earlier this year. The autopilot is now available on R44 and R66 models equipped with Aspen’s Evolution 1000H Primary Flight Display (PFD). Providing an affordable glasscockpit option, Aspen’s PFD fits the models’ standard eight-hole instrument panel and provides a modern alternative to the traditional, steam-gauge…

ACCIDENT ANALYSIS THAT GOES BEHIND AND BEYOND THE NTSB REPORT “This is 176, we’re coming in over Cape Cod descending, we have a magnetic chip detector light, we’d like to declare an emergency — and we’re heading for home plate.” It was August 1978. Oneseventy-six was a Grumman US-2B Tracker, a Navy utility plane nicknamed “Stoof” from the type designation of one common model, the S-2F. A high-wing twin with two radial engines of 1,525 hp each, Stoofs were anachronisms in a Navy that had gone nearly all-turbine. Superseded in their original role of carrier-based anti-submarine patrol, they found work ashore in personnel and materiel transport and pilot proficiency. “Home plate” for this one was NAS South Weymouth, just across Massachusetts Bay from Cape Cod. The purpose of the outing…

TALES OF WHEN FLYING, DISCOVERY AND LIFE CONVERGE Tick, tock. I resisted the temptation to look at my watch, then stole a furtive glance into my shirt cuff. Still only 2:15 p.m. I’d been at Horizon Air’s operations center on the edge of the Portland International Airport for a little over four hours, but it seemed much longer, and now time was slowing to a near standstill as I awaited my fate. I leaned back in my chair, selfconsciously straightened up, readjusted my tie and smoothed out my suit coat. I was replaying each part of the interview in my head. I knew it hadn’t been perfect — but was it good enough? I’d soon fi nd out. I’d been trying to get hired by Horizon for nearly a year,…

FROM THE OPERATING ROOM TO FLIGHT OPS: A SURGEON’S JOURNEY Sometime late this afternoon I’ll get an email telling me about tomorrow. I keep a close eye on my phone, as this will be my first rotation as captain. I hope I get paired with a strong first officer. Upgrading to captain has come just two years after the official start of my career as a full-time pilot for pay. It feels that this is just about the right amount of time. Certainly a year ago would have been too soon, even though I got my private pilot’s license in 1967 and have been flying nonstop ever since. But that was all Part 91, in rented airplanes or in my airplanes, when and where I wanted to go. If the…

FLYING THE HEAVY METAL WITH AN AIRLINE CAPTAIN It’s easy to forget one of the reasons I became an airline pilot in this age of aviation technology that includes FMS, RVSM, ADS-B, RNAV/RNP, ACARS, VNAV and CAT III, plus the effects of 9/11, bankruptcy, retirement plan terminations, contentious contract negotiations and the normal stresses of a professional aviation career. Not that I completely forgot, but rather I was pleasantly reminded recently. I’ll tell you how in a moment. First, you have to promise not to discuss this month’s column with my editor-in-chief; my primary mission is to provide nuts-and-bolts airline pilot insight and not drift too far in the direction of general aviation fl ying. But I’m going to deviate slightly off the centerline with insight that’s not so much…