Inhoudsopgave van September 2019 - Flying

I’d just finished applying a coat of primer to a well-weathered pair of rocking chairs that adorn my front porch when a rumble of thunder interrupted my work. That’s odd, I thought. The storms weren’t forecast to reach our area until one o’clock. I pulled out my phone and looked at the time. One o’clock on the nose. Standing in your driveway with a fast-moving thunderstorm bearing down normally doesn’t present a problem. You can walk inside. It’s another matter when wet paint is involved. With all the elegance of a horse in stilettos, I dragged the sheet of cardboard upon which I’d placed the chairs across the driveway until they were safely inside the garage, glistening white and still gently swaying. Whether it’s freshly painted rocking chairs or GA…

On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the quality of your weather briefing before each flight? Does the wealth of information available from mobile apps and online resources give you the feeling of being more prepared today, compared to calling Flight Service 15 years ago? Or do you find it more challenging now, hunting down various resources, reports and forecasts from a variety of different sources online and in several different locations in the same app, trying to build a mental picture of the atmosphere before each flight? Personally, I’ve never been satisfied with the weather-briefing process, starting with the phone briefings I learned to use in the late 1990s. These were—and still are—constrained to a rigid flow, which ensured the same forecasts and reports were…

Since competing in a local air race a few weeks back, on the heels of the Kentucky Derby and the Indianapolis 500, I’ve been wondering if this fascination—this lust to compete—is just part of our DNA. Are we genetically programmed to pit ourselves against each other to prove who’s the fastest, the most cunning, the most daring, the “best”—or maybe the cleverest cheater? I suspect research will eventually establish that this obsession has roots a million or so years ago when a Homo neanderthalensis challenged a Homo sapiens to a race across some frigid Eurasian steppe. At stake was the deed to an exceptionally warm and dry limestone cave in the best part of town (location, location…). When the underdog—the sapiens guy—won, onlookers jumped up and down, brandished big sticks,…

The airspeed indicator may be the oldest and most fundamental of the flight instruments, but it is also the one least suited to its job, which is primarily not to tell us how fast we are going but rather where we are in the flight envelope. It is pleasant to know, as we cruise along, that we are indicating 137 knots; but the airspeed indicator is most important at low speeds, close to the stall, and it is there that it is most likely to play us false. We use airspeed in two ways. As a gauge of dynamic pressure—that is, of the force exerted by moving air on the airplane—it tells us during the takeoff roll when to rotate. Dynamic pressure is also the defining parameter for gear and…

PERFECT FLIGHT I continue to love Flying magazine for the thought-provoking articles you present. Dick Karl’s recent article, “In Pursuit of Perfection” [June], reminded me that the perfect flight is often as elusive as the impossible turn. On a recent flight from Fort Worth Spinks Airport to San Angelo Regional Airport, the perfect flight was about to be accomplished. I was 6 miles from the airport, had called the field in sight and was lining up on Runway 18 when something didn’t look right. The controller saw my descent and instructed me to turn to 330 and climb to 3,000 feet for a left base to 18. When I got on the ground, a flight instructor at the FBO laughed and said I wasn’t the first visiting pilot to line…

Because I’m both an airplane nut and history buff, many of my European work layovers involve either seeking out aerial adventures or investigating some bit of the 2,000 years of tumultuous history that seem to lurk around the continent’s every corner. Often, I am able to combine these interests—for a great deal of aviation history took place in Europe, and much of it is well-documented. The airplanes, theaters and campaigns of World War II are likely the most familiar to Americans, for whom the ultimate “just war”—and America’s heroic role in it—fills both grade school textbooks and untold hours of cable TV programming. The aviation history of World War I and the interwar period, on the other hand, is much more obscured by greater gaps of time, technology and culture—and…

It all started with a girl in high school. She was cute, and her father was athletic. He worked in the court system just across from Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, and at lunchtime he would play a game of squash. I had no idea what that was, but he encouraged me to find out when I got to college. To impress his daughter, I did, and for the next 45 years I enjoyed this exhausting game that is much like racket ball except the ball doesn’t move, so you have to. In the spring of my freshman year, I was introducing a friend to the game when I got hit in the eye with a squash ball rocketing off his racket. I immediately lost sight in my eye. I…

On a sunny afternoon in May 2017, a Learjet 35A on a Part 91 positioning flight from Philadelphia to Teterboro, New Jersey, crashed in an industrial area half a mile from the approach end of Teterboro’s Runway 1, killing both pilots. It was a day of scattered clouds, good visibility and gusty northwest winds. A high probability of moderate low-level turbulence and wind shear had been forecast, and pilots were reporting 20-knot speed losses at nearby airports. Teterboro Tower issued warnings of gusts to 32 knots. The weather was consistent with the forecast, and though the Learjet pilots had not—as far as investigators could ascertain—obtained more recent weather information after their first briefing at 6:30 a.m., they knew what they needed to know. The cockpit voice recorder transcript for the…

“Care that is patient-centered and includes the positive attributes of bedside manner has been shown to improve recovery from illness, revealing a link between provider behavior and effective disease management.” This passage was written by Linda Finch, a registered nurse and associate professor at the University of Memphis, in her paper on the effects of bedside manner in healthcare. Not surprisingly, it has a significant influence. The way we communicate with one another can provide real benefits. But it works both ways: Style of communication can also mask or disfigure the substance of what we are trying to say. In other words, the content of what we say matters, but it matters equally how we say it. Bedside manner is just as important in aviation. We pilots interact with everyone…

After moving full time to northern Florida, attending Sun ’n Fun in Lakeland was an easy proposition. My Connecticut friends were making the traditional trek from the Northeast, which made the event even more desirable. They are a motley crew with diverse experience levels from aerobatics to corporate jets, with me being the only airline pilot. The camaraderie includes standard verbal abuse, our primary method to indicate genuine affection for each other. As my departure date drew nearer, I debated the options of a two-hour drive versus a 50-minute flight. Having my own car allowed for more flexibility, but the fact I had never checked the box of experiencing a Sun ’n Fun arrival added more weight to the decision. Almost exactly 40 years ago, I was based in Lakeland…