Hanger Talk and Unusual Situations

Nostalgia at Camp Grayling 

In Michigan, Camp Grayling was the destination of The Michigan National Guard. Troop exercises and refresher work for the Air national Guard were common during the 50s just after the Korean War (United Nations Action - If you remember!) Just to the east of the current US-27 between Gaylord and Grayling (Inter-State 75 didn't exist then) was the bombing and artillery range practice area.

Pops and I used to sit down by Bradford Lake and listen to the explosions taking place by both artillery and aircraft. That same morning we decided to canoe for a bit before the chores. As we started out from the little cove we noticed three P-51s peeling off in a direction that was unusual for the bombing range pattern we observed many times before.

As we continued to canoe we found the three P-51s. From the north end of Bradford lake the three planes were leveling out of a co-ordinated dive just about at the surface of the lake. So close to the surface rooster tails of water trailed far behind the magnificence formation close to their attack speed. Pops and I were less than half a football field away. We watched in awe as the three sped by intent on buzzing the lake for some reason. At the end of Bradford Lake they suddenly applied climb power narrowly missing a bank of trees in front of a row of small cabins. They quickly climbed skyward disappearing just as fast as they appeared, just moments before.

We were breathless from just watching these powerful P- 51s slide by over the lake. The next day we discovered that a newly married couple occupied one of the cabins at the end of the lake. So much for peace and quiet on their honeymoon.

Pops and the B-29 on Gaum in WWII.

Nostalgia - B -29s

Pops was an MD with the 3rd Marine Division in the Japanese campaign. He was with the Marines from 1943 through 1945. His last island station was Guam in the Marianas Group. It was there where a little prank was played on Pops.

With other island bases in the Pacific, including Guam, the bombing of Japan increased as the possibility of invading Japan rose higher and higher as we prepared for that eventuality.

One very early morning my Dad took his morning stroll near the B-29s as they began to warm up for a morning flight to Japan. One of the pilots, who knew my Dads love for flying, asked if he wanted to go for a ride. It was, of course, a set-up. Dad said, "Sure."

He was told to climb up into the fuselage and take the seat in the upper bubble that didn't seem to have a gun. Evidently the intercom was active and everyone in the plane could hear the conversation.

Dad asked what the camera in the bubble was for? The pilot replied, "Once were airborne and you see several targets coming toward us, all you have to do is point the "little camera" and focus on the nearest rapidly approaching Zero and pull the trigger! You see Doc, that little camera co-ordinates every gun on the "29." You are the "main man!"

Dad asked where they were going? Pilot replied, "Japan Doc, Japan!" Lots of laughter ensued as my Dad was yelling about a possible court martial and was quickly finding his way out of the stationary B-29 warming up!

Humor had its way of easing the tensions for all involved on the dangerous formation soon to take off toward Japan.

1964 S Model Bonanza to 1946 Piper Cub- Bouncy Bounce!

Nostalgia - 1946 Clipped Wing Piper Cub

Transitions! Transitions! When the Beech was sold I invested in a 1946 clipped wing Piper Cub with a 90 Hp engine and a metal prop. transitioning from a high powered V-tail Bonanza to a tail-dragger was a fun sight at the Ann Arbor Municipal Airport as I attempted to perfect the technique for landing the Piper.

The Lippert-Reed Clipped Wing Cub has, essentially, the same wingspan as the Piper Tri-Pacer. It didn't float and, believe it or not, landed like the SeaBee. It was a smaller version of the Republic "Flying Rock!"

The Cub was outfitted with the original bungee cord suspension and large balloon tires characteristic of all Cubs from that era. Now you are anticipating where the "Bounce-Bounce" from the title came from. That is exactly what happened to me as I practiced the proper attitude to place the Cub into as I landed. Take-offs were not a problem.

The tower remarked, on more than one occasion, here comes the local BB guard ready to bounce down the runway !! One miscalculation and the Cub would sail into the air before settling down for another "touch and go" until I finally learned to fly again.

I am sure none of you went through this embarrassing ritual as you transitioned down to a great little tail-dragger from a more advanced aircraft.

It was a bare-boned Cub with an illegal gravity tank, in the wing, that would drain fuel into the original tank when you opened a valve. If you remember, there was a cork attached to a wire that indicated your approximate fuel left in the original tank right in front of the pilot. When I opened the valve the only way you knew the original tank was full was when a few drops of fuel splattered onto the windshield. Real safe! Had to be quick on the fuel shut-off valve.

It gave this Cub about a five hour flight time. It was a wonderful dawn patrol plane that I used extensively and incorporated it into Civil Air Patrol searches.

Stories still are told about me and the Cub as we learned together how to really enjoy flying as it was meant to be!

Acrobatics - the Piper Super Cub

Nostalgia - Piper Super Cub Aerobatics

Back in the days when I was a cocky little SOB and very sure, at the age of sixteen, that I knew everything I was shown that I didn't. I experienced another rude awakening. This time the scene of my demise was at the Waters, Michigan Airport near the famous Bottle Fence next to the Old Waters Hotel that later burned down, years later.

If you remember, Waters was the site of a lumbering empire. The story goes that the empty bottles of booze that Mr. Stephens drank, during his life, made up the fence. It was at this grass strip that I had my experience with acrobatics.

The Regional Manager from the Piper Aircraft Company was in Gaylord to visit. Bob Nichols, the Gaylord Airport Manager, at the time, brought him down to Waters to his home.

He was flying a Piper Super Cub. Of course, I tried to tell him things about the Super Cub. He asked my Dad if he could show me a few things about the Super Cub! "How about a quick flight with me?" said the Regional Manager. I said, "Sure!"

Waters Airport was just a single runway grass strip running parallel to Old US 27. There was a paved road at the south end of the strip with high electrical wires running up the road.

The Cub, with me in the front seat, gained speed quickly and was airborne moments later. Instead of a slow gain in altitude the gentleman kept the Cub just above the runway going faster and faster. I watched, apprehensively as the end of the runway and the high electrical wires were coming up quickly. I made the mistake of asking when we were going up!

At the mention of "up!" he put the plane into a vertical climb and executed a perfect acrobatic loop that had me pulling my stomach back into my body and spent the next half hour surviving a series of wonderful aerobatic flying that I knew nothing about but enjoyed thoroughly.

Downwind Landings at Night - Visual Illusions

Downwind Landing at Night

In a much earlier post we talked about what happens if you use the runway lights in your peripheral vision, in a night landing, to judge your height above the runway before you flare out prior to landing.

What is the visual illusion, if you mistakenly land with the wind (downwind landing) at night? In this case, looking at the runway lights in your peripheral vision, the lights appear moving quite fast. This is due to the increase in the planes actual speed over the ground caused by the tail wind.

You may think you are closer to the ground than you actually are. If you are at an altitude of fifty feet AGL but the plane seems much lower, due to the illusion caused by the runway lights, you may flare to a landing too soon and too high.

Net effect is a possible stall, too soon, and you nose the plane down into the runway for your first accident report.

As always, visual illusions can create situations where an accident is possible if you are unaware of what is happening.

Please discuss these situations with your flight school instructor. You can also email me or leave a message for me on this blog to discuss theses visual illusions anytime.

Residential Noise Pollution from Commercial Aviation

Residential Noise Pollution from Commercial Aviation

Lake Harriet is a beautiful jewel of a lake nestled in the City of Minneapolis. A favorite pastime, for me, is fishing the south side of the lake for bass near the weedline and shore. I knew when to scramble home when a large Boeing 747 loomed nearby on its approach to MSP. Right on time -5:40 PM the big boy tip-toed through the suburbs toward a landing.

For a short period of time a conversation below was impossible to hear. Think of the number of approaches and takeoffs the people below endure just for the priviledge of living on the shore of the lake each day. Take offs are noisier.

The power reductions imposed by the major jetports are effective on landing and takeoff but the decibel level makes ordinary conversation limited. What you and I need to remember is what we can do to reduce noise to acceptable levels to "keep the peace" with the public surrounding an airport we use.

Low and slow approaches by conventional small planes with small, frequent power adjustments is not the way to keep the peace.

Not quickly gaining altitude within the airport boundries after takeoff is another way to expose those underneath to unnecessary noise pollution.

Busy airports will incur the wrath of the "polluted" that may lead to legal sanctions to reduce noise levels. Ann Arbor airport had a continuing problem with City Council to reduce expansion plans of the airport and times of use. Good flying procedures reduced the complaints and pressure.

Co-operation is the key between the public and the flying community, both commercial and private aviation interests.

Research in Aviation: What Do You Believe?

Statistics - What Do you Believe

Calling all folks who like to play bingo. Calling all folks who like to gamble now and then. Calling all people who believe everything they read in the news sources about new aviation research as the gospel truth. If you do, you have just been scammed!

Jim, get serious. These folks want to believe what they read. They fly, they like it and hang on every bit of positive news they can find. Okay, lets look at "odds" that play into research and believable results.

Take a quarter and flip it five times in a row. Its either going to be heads or tails each time. Everybody has done this at least once in their lives. You know, tonight you do the dishes. Heads I do them, tails you do them!

But, suppose you were going to Las Vegas for the weekend to enjoy a little "R&R." If you flipped that quarter five times and came up with five heads in a row, and you didn't know better, in Las Vegas you bet "heads" everytime in a game....you would lose your shirt. The "Odds" in coin flipping is 50/50. The secret in odds, that you know, is the more trials(times you flipped the coin)the closer the results would be to 50/50.

In research, if you read an article where the experiment consisted of ten trials, the result has no validity. Its like getting five heads in coin flipping. Whatever that researcher says is nothing but an "opinion" and statisticallly has no validity. The opinion may be right. But something is missing that will lend truth to the opinion.

In statistics, the number of trials is very important to support the results an investigator publishes. In order to state a 90% certainty for an experiment a very large number of trials must be run. Rarely does an investigator, seeking approval from the reading public, run a significant number of trials to validate what he is saying.

News leaked to the Press or TV, to gain exposure for a scientist, is not believable news unless backed up by statistics that are credible. Later, if other investigators back up the results of the research, you now have believable news.

A fine point to remember! The news you read about diabetes, in the future, may be statistically correct when more data becomes available. Until that data becomes available and is supported by other researchers the results are just an unsubstantiated opinion.

Major publications, like The New England Journal of Medicine as an example, have strict parameters before an article is accepted for publication. The source of the news is important too.

When is news believable news? Now you have a simplistic rule of thumb what research to put into a "circular file" and what research to become excited about.

Flight of the Phoenix - Common Sense - Safety?

Pilots and Flight Distraction Safety

After reading article after article trying to make excuses for napping on the job, the fact that pilots tire on flights where the plane flies itself is a case of boredom. Sure they tire and nap off. Scares the heck out of the general public. The fact folks will think twice about taking a commercial flight is what worries the FAA and commercial aviation interests.

If you are IFR rated, whether you're a commercial or private pilot, the instructions are the same. Unusual cockpit radio chatter and blinking displays, trying to get your attention, are not normal. Calls by cell phones ignored is not normal. If a pilot inadvertently does not change a Center mandated frequency, the Center is supposed to try and re-contact the aircraft on the previous frequency. 

Having a Center repeatedly contacting you while you are awake, is very hard to ignore, and not normal. Even while you are both busy staring at your laptops while the aircraft pushes along with a brisk tailwind, you should pick up that the communications you are listening to are not normal.

Even with your laptop screen adjusted for best visibility, you should see the screens in front of you, on the intrument panel, blinking rapidly to catch your attention coming in from the IFR Center. Thats not normal!

Even the passengers are no fools. How many were looking at their watches to see if they would land in time to make a connecting flight. 78 minutes late? The Flight Attendants themselves would be fielding so many questions they would break down the cockpit door to stop the questions of why they were on their way to Green Bay instead of landing at Minneapolis.

Why didn't the pilots respond, if according to what I have read, when the flight attendants knocked loudly on the door to the cockpit after trying to reach them on the intercom? If they were engrossed with their laptops at least one or both should have responded. Were they asleep?

 Sometime the fact that they were deep in sleep will come out. Why not tell the truth in the first place. Save everybody a lot of grief.

The continued coverage by the news services and asking the right questions will force the situation. Net result, people will avoid air travel for a little while, the yelling and screaming will subside, the airlines will lose money and laptops will be banned and the pilots will continue to catch catnaps on long boring flights. Only difference is the FAA will mandate the catnaps for the crew and mandate continual assurance that the plane is monitored by a crew member that is fully awake.Unfortunately, the pilots in question should be fired. Next time the result may 
not be pretty.

Engine Failure - SeaBee - Sunburn

Nostalgia - Engine Failure in a Republic SeaBee

Chronicles are wonderful sources of planes and pilots in unusual places! The scene is Gaylord Municipal Airport in Michigan somewhere in the past. Participants were my Dad and his Son-In-Law, Jack. Nice day for a spin in the SeaBee, practice a few touch and go's in Otsego Lake and a quick return back to the airport and drive back to Bradford Lake, a few miles south of Otsego Lake to join the ladies for a planned lunch.

The takeoff started out ok but over the end of the runway, about 300 feet into that wonderful CAVU weather, the Franklin engine decided to take a rest! 

Pops didn't have time to drop the wheels (SeaBees have a cumbersome wheel retraction system) but a field full of cattle, just to the NW of the airport, provided the emergency strip "Pops" headed for, gear up! I have to admit my Dad really knew his aircraft. 

The "Flying Stone," built just after WWII by Republic Aviation, slid in among the scattering cattle and pulled a rivet or two. Shook "Pops" and Jack up a bit but otherwise no damage was done to either the plane or crew - well, maybe a bruised ego or two.

Now came the fun! Belive it or not the field was flat enough and big enough to fly the SeaBee out of rather than dis-assemble and tow back to the airport, a short distance away.

That required a days work with Bob Nichols, the airport manager, helping Dad and Jack hoist the plane up with a series of jacks so the wheels could be jacked down again.

All three men were without shirts on a nice sunny day in northern Michigan with cows licking their backs for the salt.

The Chronicle doesn't end with the safe takeoff and return to the airport later that afternoon after a through going over by Bob to determine what went wrong. Bob is a certified A&E.

It ends with two very sunburned men, two irate wives waiting for that nice lunch and the embarrasing day they struggled to explain.

How Many Pilots "Bust" Physicals and Why

Pilot Physicals - Why Do Pilots "Bust" Physicals

Approximately one percent of the individuals applying are denied certification. Over fifty six percent of pilots denied have less than forty hours of flying time. It could be assumed that less than one-half percent of the licensed pilots applying for renewal are denied. Of the total denials ninety one percent of the people are involved in non-aeronautical occupations. The aeronautical occupation most often denied is the air traffic controller. Next come airline pilots, commercial pilots, executive pilots and flight instructors, in that order.

The biggest cause for denial is a problem with the cardiovascular system. 

Next comes a miscellaneous category that includes diabetes, alcohol, drug problems and general systemic problems. 

This is followed by nervous and mental problems. Eye problems are pretty far down the line. Vision accounts for about ten percent of the Class I failures and about eight percent of the Class II and Class III failures.

What happens if the aviation medical examiner detects what he feels, form the examination, is a disqualifying flaw? The physician doesn't issue the medical certificate and sends his report to the Regional Flight Surgeon or to the aeromedical Certification Branch of the FAA in Oklahoma City. 

Before issuing or denying a certificate the above offices may want additional information about why the person was denied.

If the decision to issue is a "no" there are avenues of appeal. The most frequent appeal has to do with cardsiovascular problems. The regulations state that a heart attack is disqualifying but it is the FAA's policy to reconsider an airman for certification two years after the attack, if he is in good shape. They make no exceptions on diabetes unless the airman is able to control it with diet alone - no insulin or oral drugs.

What seems to be a conclusion from the study is the fact of  little voluntary attrition because of a known medical condition and a knowledge of the requirements. In other words we only go to see physician when we need our certificates perodically renewed.

Ear Pollution in Flying Planes

Noise Pollution in Flying Airplanes - A Comparison

When we talk about Ear Pollution we must have an understanding of the intensity of common sounds for comparison. The list below gives you an idea where noise behind a Single Engine Small Plane stands with respect to other intensities of sound.

1. Threshold of Hearing........0 Decibels
2. Whisper.....................30 "
3. Quiet Office................40 "
4. Normal Speech...............60 "
5. Busy Street.................73 "
6. Cockpit Noise...............105 "
7. Hard Rock Music.............110 "
8. Threshold of Pain...........140 "


High intensity noise is one of the major causes of permanent hearing loss. It cannot be reversed. Sounds which exceed 85 decibels pose the greatest threat to the hearing mechanism. There are few sounds in nature that surpass this level and the ear is not prepared to cope with more than 85 decibels.

The exposure to high intensity of sound is important. The longer the exposure per week the earlier the hearing loss begins.The ear has three conduits for sound, outer ear (pinna), the middle ear, that houses the three little bones of the ear, that help transmit sound waves to the inner ear. High intensity sound affects the inner ear nerve found in the chochlea. (A sea shell shaped coiled structure) Hearing for high pitched sounds is affected first. With more exposure, more and more of the pitch range is destroyed until your hearing is really handicapped. Again, it is important to repeat that a noise induced hearing loss is permanent and cannot be reversed by medical treatment.

Frequently, hearing aids are not very beneficial since the nerve endings are destroyed. Hearing sensitivity is usually measured by finding the lowest intensity level a person can hear low, medium and high frequency musical tones. We interpret these sounds as different pitches. The impression of these sounds are recorded on an audiogram. If you ever went to an audiologist he or she would explain what the tracings represent.

If you remember your days as an audiophile the whole thing hinged on you receiving sound that was not distorted. If the ear is healthy the listener will have little difficulty in distinguishing between the various speech sounds.On the otherhand, if you have impaired hearing due to exposure to high intensity noise in the cockpit without protection, you may have great difficulty distinguishing such words as he and she, not and got and slow and low.For example, the phrase " You are too slow for a safe landing" and the phrase "You are too low for a safe landing" are similar but different enough to cost you your life.

Several things can be done to cut down on or prevent high intensity sound to protect against permanent hearing loss.Simplest solution is to buy a set of tight fitting earplugs. Sound reducing earmuffs are even better. Revolver and pistol shooting earplugs and muffs are acceptable if they fit. (A wad of cotton is useless!)

Scientists have found that understanding speech in noise is not impaired when wearing ear protection. Anyone who questions this can purchase a headset built into protective muffs. You can purchase these at any pilot supply store. High intensity noise does cause stress related error making decisions and general fatique that I have discussed in earlier articles. One point to remember is that engine noise, even with protectors on, is still loud enough to hear a decrease in RPM or a missing magneto. 

A final note, if you feel that your hearing may be impaired please make an appointment with an audiologist at your earliest convenience. They can assist you in finding the best ear protectors for your needs.

Red Light Blindness

Red Light Blindness

Red light blindness - the visual handicap that develops gradually affects most pilots including many that seem to have "perfect vision" under daylight flying conditions.

A good idea, if you are a pilot over the age of 40 years young, is to try and read fine print by red light before your next night flight.

What is red light blindness? Heres an example: You plan on taking your wife out to dinner at a local "feeding hole" located at a convenient airport about an hours flight away from where you hanger your plane.

You leave just a little after sunset in perfect weather. You need to cross-check your position and make sure the frequency of the next VOR is correct. Its dark in the cockpit so you turn on the red map light and spread a chart on your knees. You can't read it there so you pick it up for a closer look..yikes, it is still blurred. You move the chart right up under the red map light, you sense your eyes are widening and your forehead strains as you try to focus the fuzzy figures of the VOR frequency. Thats red light blindness.

How does red light blur vision?

At the age of forty your eyes ability to focus close up declines due to changes in the ability of your lens to alter its shape to clearly focus an image on the back of your eyeball. (the retina) This condition is called presbyopia.

In good illumination it is hard to read a newspaper held at arms length. I remember going through this and I will bet you have too. Red light has a rather long wave-length. It takes even more effort, on your eyes part, to focus on print in red light than in normal white light illumination. 

The pupil of the eye dilates to its maximum under dim red light, attempting to admit more light to the retina. The net result from the lens thickening and increasing its curvature and the dimness of the red light causes the image to fall slightly behind the retina. 

I will high-light several sources that will include diagrams to ease your understanding of eye physiology which is beyond the scope of a short blog. 

If you have an interest in photography the human eye is similar in operation. If you are near-sighted or far-sighted click on the links in this sentence.

Interrupted Communications - Non-Existent Communications

Interrupted Communications from Equipment Failure


With the incredible increase in miniaturization of avionics an old enemy still rears its head...HEAT. Remember the story about how cool transistors ran and the rage in the aviation community after spending thousands for new avionics only to have them fail. The answer to theses communication failures is simple: Get rid of the heat!

The best way is an air- conditioned hanger. Hangering an airplane goes a long way toward solving heat-induced avionics problem. For many of us, that is far too expensive.

Alternatives are much cheaper but may not be as effective. One of these is borrowed from autos, a cheap reflective foil panel for installation when the plane is parked. That will reduce but not eliminate entirely, the heat build-up problem.

Arrange for proper stack cooling if you have your plane serviced regularly. Vent ports are a good idea. Keep heat producing power devices above sensitive avionics. Same goes for your positioning of your home TV-Audio-Cable stuff...why not do the same in the plane. Unpressurized aircraft are easier to vent. Pressurized are more complex because they can't have any openings to the outside. Fans are okay but be careful of the magnetic fields created by fan motors that could cause problems with sensitive navigational equipment.

A problem with corporations that manufacture avionics is their sales stress reliability. If suddenly they seem to mention cooling that reflects, in an adverse way, on reliability. The majority of manufactures today insist on proper cooling of their avionics installation or the warranty is invalidated. Good enough reason for you to retrofit well preserved antique aircraft that you wish to communicate from consistently.

Scared? Uncertain? Frightened? How to Reduce "The Holloween Syndrome!"

Controlling "uncertainty" in flight....

Night-time flying can lead to a sense of uncertainty, especially if comforting visual clues are not forthcoming. You may unconsciously turn up the volume to the headset or speaker for communications. Fix? Turn the volume down to normal levels.

Finger tapping for no apparent reason. Fix? Stop the tapping.

Increasing the brightness of instrument illumination. Fix? Turn down the illumination.

You feel unusual tension developing in your face and body.
Fix? 

• Try to relax and practice procedures you know that relax you. One possibility use the ADF radio station that broadcasts 'elevator music' that is relaxing. 
• Stretching is another. 
• Shoulder shrugs. 
• Think good thoughts. 

You feel lost, in the geographical sense.

• Fix? Use instrumentation to locate your position. 
• Tune in to a major 50,000 watt radio station. 

Crying?
Fix? Self-evident.

Procrastination?Fix? 

• Use a handy checklist to set up a recognizable sequence to follow. That will, in many cases, provide the self help to get out of trouble.

Use the IFR Center in your area. If your plane is transponder equipped and you know your Center frequency, they can find you and they are trained in techniques to calm you down. Once calmed, you will be astonished as to what you now remember to aid yourself. Additional informatiion that tension may be rising is the "familiar becomes unfamiliar" and vice-versa.

In controlled airspace having fear arise, recognized and brought under control is vital. We all have our moments.   Recognize, in a simplified way, those signs of fear and deal with them quickly for your safety.

Energy, Energy on a Beautiful Day

Atomic Power - On a Humid Day

Ahhh! Beautiful day! Nice hammock to think about physics! Specifically, how is it possible for a thunderstorm to have the power of numerous atomic bombs! No way you say! Get in the hammock and look at a cloud forming on a nice hot, humid day. Everything appears normal until suddenly the cloud rises upward very fast. Soon it takes on the appearance of a thunderstorm. Lets take a peek at that phenomenon.

The Adiabatic Lapse Rate per thousand feet is 4.5 degrees F. Suppose the dew point, on this beutiful day is 68 degrees F. If the temperature in our hammock is 90 degrees F the base of the clouds forming should be aprroximately 5000 feet above ground. As our fluffy friends approach 13000 feet something happens. At 13000 feet the water vapor begins to freeze!

Now think about what happens when water changes from a liquid state to a solid state - ice. Somewhere in the innermost recesses of my insane mind I remeber a rat fact from my HS Chemistry Teacher that for every gram of water that changes from a liquid to a solid, 580 calories of heat are released. Maybe somebody can tell me, on a hot, humid summer day, how many grams of water are being converted? You get the picture?

The enormous energy being released rapidly pushes the cloud formation to astronomical heights. Down here in "Humid Land" (South Carolina) tops of thunderbumpers reach 50000 to 60000 feet on a regular basis in the afternoon buildups.

Which answers the question of the day! In a single thunderstorm here is the amount of energy released from a thunderstorm.

If the quantity of water that is condensed in and subsequently precipitated from a cloud is known, then the total energy of a thunderstorm can be calculated. In a typical thunderstorm, approximately 5×10 8th power kg of water vapor are lifted, and the amount of energy released when this condenses is 1015 joules. This is on the same order of magnitude of energy released within a tropical cyclone, and more energy than that released during the atomic bomb blast at Hiroshima, Japan in 1945.

Energy, energy on a Beautiful Day...

Load Factors - G - Forces - Structural Failure

Load Factors in Flight

Load factors and safe flight. "The witness saw pieces of a plane fall out of the bottom of a nearby thunderstorm"...this is related to phrases like, "separation in flight" and "exceeded the designed stress limits of the aircraft" as frequently reported in too many accident reports.

The strength of an airplane is measured by the total load its wings can support without sustaining permanent structual damage. In curved flight - all types of turns, pullups from dives or when abrupt or excessive back elevator is used-the load factor increases because of the buildup of centrifugal force.   

Remember the steep turn instruction when you had to perform a left and right 360 degree steep turn for your instructor without losing altitude? You could feel the buildup of G-forces in your rear end and the pooling of blood trying to respond to the increased Gs. 

The increase of the load factor occurs at a startling rate once the bank of the aircraft has passed 45 degrees. At a 60 degree bank the load factor is 2 Gs. Twice what the load factor is in straight and level flight. At a bank of 70 degrees, a mere 10 degrees more, the load factor is 3 Gs and at 80 degrees the load factor increases to the structural failure stage of almost 6 Gs. 

Since most aircraft rated for "Normal Category" are limited to 3.8 Gs the danger from rapidly increasing G forces in planned and unplanned (read in a "thunderbumper") is obvious. Yes, you can rationalize that a plane is engineered for a safety factor 50 percent above the specified load limit for the Normal Category aircraft but it is foolish to insert yourself into a deadly game of G Force versus Structural Failure.

The limit above is the point at which wings and engine decide to leave the plane. Before the above limit is reached you can expect some damage to the aircraft. The more excess the more damage until you reach the engineered limit.Think about the aircraft you rent. If the G load was exceeded on a prior flight in a rented aircraft the 50 percent engineered safety factor may be considerably reduced. Structural failure may occur at a G force of 3.9 Gs, for example. Renting? Do a careful preflight.

If you encounter rough air or unusual vertical gusts, immediately slow the plane down to its specific "maneuvering speed" at which it will still continue to fly with a safe margin above a stall but, in rough air, it will sustain the least amount of structual damage. This speed is about 1.7 times the stall speed of the aircraft your flying.

Density Altitude - Hot, Humid Days

Density Altitude

If you have ever flown into a small strip in early morning and found, after a few hours, that the temperature increased to a point where the calculation of takeoff distance was necessary before takeoff?

I can remember several such instances at Dawn Patrols I attended in the Summer.

You have to  take humidity into your calculations. Water vapor can reduce the percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere. Neglecting density altitude with small, not too powerful planes can lead you to a much closer look at the trees below, upon takeoff, than you may have desired

The problem with humidity is that water vapor does not combine with aviation gas to produce ignition. Here's the important point. If water vapor partial pressure is five(5) percent of the total airpressure the available power to the plane is reduced by five(5) percent. this means your takeoff distance will be increased. Maybe too much!

At high temperatures and dew points the problem of high density altitude is compounded by a possible six(6) percent or more power penalty due to humidity. This factor is not accounted for in the Operators Manual of many antique aircraft.

If your manual allows you graphs to determine distance for takeoff, increase that distance by the humidity factor. If that seems like too much trouble, just add six(6) percent for all conditions below 90 degrees F or seven(7) percent for all conditions up to 100 degrees F.

The Compulsion Hazard - Actions that are IIrrational

Compulsion - Actions that are Irrational

The term compulsion refers to an individual's irresistible tendency to perform an action, even though he realizes it is irrational. 

For a pilot, this "compulsion" to go on in the face of weather conditions that were quickly deteriorating is a good example.

The feeling, irrational as it was, signaled that the weather condition was "circumnavigable" and that it would be better to the West. All of us have correctly thought such thoughts and made decisions based on new information from observatios or the FSS and had the decision turn out well.

Reasonable reponses to such thoughts is different from compulsion. An irrational response, one that could lead to an accident, may be compared to a physiological change you already know about; i.e., hypoxia or alcohol related.

Compulsion can be recognized if the pilot is alert. It is a feeling that is not backed up by information. The "Get-home-itis" feeling, which we have all experienced, is not a compulsion. A compulsion is more subtle. It relies on less obvious thoughts and personality factors. Those less obvious factors can lead a VFR pilot to continue flight into adverse weather conditions that are beyond his ability to handle.

This leads into a discussion of the intensity of the compulsion. The intensity is directly related to:

• The amount of success a pilot that has received praise for overcoming obstacles
• The number of times he has cut corners successfully
• What it means to him as a pilot
• The thrill of skirting danger. 

These less obvious factors may push the pilot into an irrational act based on compulsion.

What we, as pilots, need to do is recognize early that we are in emotional danger. When cold, hard facts or experience say "Do not go on!" Make the conservative decision.

If you can recognize the trap of compulsion and arrive at the "right" decision...you will be safe and a loved one will be very glad that you did.

Nothing About Aviation but Ingenuity...Yes!

Courtesy of The Readers Digest.

The following concerns a question in a physics degree exam at the University of Copenhagen:

• "Describe how to determine the height of a skyscraper with a barometer."

One student replied:

"You tie a long piece of string to the neck of the barometer, then lower the barometer from the roof of the skyscraper to the ground. The length of the string plus the length of the barometer will equal the height of the building."

This highly original answer so incensed the examiner that the student was failed immediately. 

The student appealed on the grounds that his answer was indisputably correct, and the university appoint an independent arbiter to decide the case.

The arbiter judged that the answer was indeed correct, but did not display any noticeable knowledge of physics. 

To resolve the problem it was decided to call the student in and allow him six minutes in which to provide a verbal answer that showed at least a minimal familiarity with the basic principles of physics.

For five minutes the student sat in silence, forehead creased in thought. The arbiter reminded him that time was running out, to which the student replied that he had several extremely relevant answers, but couldn't make up his mind which to use. On being advised to hurry up the student replied as follows:

"Firstly, you could take the barometer up to the roof of the skyscraper, drop it over the edge, and measure the time it takes to reach the ground. The height of the building can then be worked out from the formula H = 0.5g x t squared. But bad luck on the barometer."

"Or if the sun is shining you could measure the height of the barometer, then set it on end and measure the length of its shadow. Then you measure the length of the skyscraper's shadow, and thereafter it is a simple matter of proportional arithmetic to work out the height of the skyscraper."

"But if you wanted to be highly scientific about it, you could tie a short piece of string to the barometer and swing it like a pendulum, first at ground level and then on the roof of the skyscraper. The height is worked out by the difference in the gravitational restoring force T =2 pi sqr root (l /g)."

"Or if the skyscraper has an outside emergency staircase, it would be easier to walk up it and mark off the height of the skyscraper in barometer lengths, then add them up."

"If you merely wanted to be boring and orthodox about it, of course, you could use the barometer to measure the air pressure on the roof of the skyscraper and on the ground, and convert the difference in millibars into feet to give the height of the building."

"But since we are constantly being exhorted to exercise independence of mind and apply scientific methods, undoubtedly the best way would be to knock on the janitor's door and say to him 'If you would like a nice new barometer, I will give you this one if you tell me the height of this skyscraper'."

The student was Niels Bohr, the only Dane to win the Nobel Prize for physics.

Medical Certification Denied - Abuse by Physicians

Irrational Acts and Medical Certification Denial

In these times of bureaucratic abuse pilots sometimes feel "put upon" by what they consider abuse by the physicians that issue Third Class Medical Certificates.

In one such incident the physician noted the applicant had an undenied history of "gunrunning." He denied the applicants Medical Certificate under the guise of a "Character or Behavior Disorder."

From an appeal to the Examiners decision the National Transportation Safety Board said, "The question of whether or not an individual is disqualified from holding a medical certificate because of character or behavior disorder which has been severe enough to repeatedly manifest itself by overt acts has been before the board before. 

In those cases there were numerous overt acts of the airmen which became the basis for a clinical diagnosis of a character or behavior disorder.

In this case, the only overt act relied upon by the Administrator is that the respondent admitted being convicted for gunrunning, in violation of the relevant Federal statutes. In our view, this conviction, in itself, does not give rise to any reasonable inference that the petitioner suffers from a personality defect which would require that he be reexamined."

The AOPA was pleased that pilots can appeal and win when activities in the past do not, in many cases, represent a "Character Or Behavior Disorder" that will deny them a medical certificate.

The Fate of an Aero Commander 500B - Medication

Distortion of a Pilots Judgement

A pilot standing in the weather office while a meterologist talked about the current situation...which was terrible. The pilot seemed to understand. The forecast was for turbulence, precipitation and toronadoes over fully half of his proposed route. Pilot reports backed up the forecast. Weather impossible for any kind of flight.

Yet at midnight he was airborne, incredibly on a VFR no flight plan departure. Immediately, after takeoff and again twenty five minutes later, the weather station read him the warnings, toronadoes, to which he replied, "Were picking our way through them." They found the wreck the next day.

They also found medicine bottles containing Dexedrine, Proloid Thyroglobulin and Seconal prescribed for the pilot for weight control. Dexedrine is a powerful excitant and Seconal is a depressive barbituate and they can interact to distort completely one's judgement, or in the words of the FAA's medic, to "alter emotional capabilities to make wise and sound judgements." The pilot was "too high"...so to speak, to realize what he was doing.

It is a wise move, anytime your physician gives you a prescription for something you must swallow to remind him you are a pilot and to ask if what he is giving you can affect your judgement or flying capabilities.

If you read the very detailed warnings on the literature that accompanies your medications it should give you pause before flying.

Visual Illusion - Flying upside Down?

VFR to IFR - On a Nice Day?

One mans' experience with that strange feeling of what is happening to me that I am not sure what is right-side up or up-side down.

Whaaaat! Pick these nice conditions to fly on this nice sultry Summer day:

• Altitude 6,000
• IFR Flight Plan filed for general safety about other aircraft in the vicinity
• Hazy
• Flying into the sun from the East across Lake Huron into Willow Run Airport just West of Detroit.
• Nothing but "blue sky above."
• Additional equipment aboard the plane is a friendly pussycat and a very tame duck.
• Aircraft contains all the necessary equipment for IFR flight.

You trust your instruments and not the "seat of your pants!"

The flight was uneventful until you begin to slip across Lake Huron. Then, suddenly that nice partial horizon of the earth that was passing beneath my plane disappeared.

 Fine, I looked out over the cowl of the Bonanza and all I saw was haze. In fact, haze to my left, haze to my right, hazy blue above and hazy blue, from the water below.....and just like that I was glad I was instrument rated!

I felt suspended in space, other than what my air speed indicator registered, it seemed like I stopped flying. It felt like the plane started to roll. It took my IFR training to ignore that sensation by checking my instruments to verify that I was indeed on a heading of 266 degrees and my artificial horizon was indicating straight and level flying.

It took a good thirty seconds of flying for the sensations of turning to subside. Transition from VFR to IFR just like that!

I contacted Center to report the conditions for other pilots that were flying that day. A family with a non-intrument rated pilot at the controls would place his family and plane into great danger on that nice, hazy, lazy Summer day.

The temptation to bring the plane to straight and level flight, once the illusion of a turn was sensed, requires IFR training to prevent a disaster.

The loss of a definite horizon visually and the lack of detail caused by sun glare through a hazy sky and the very similar blue of the sky and water puts the pilot into that strange mood of "where am I and am I right-side up or up-side down?"

If you have time, verification of whether you are up-side down, is confirmed by the pussycat. If he is walking gracefully across the ceiling of the cockpit you may be upside down.

If the duck has folded its head under its wing it is either tired or it is raining outside.

Jim

Addendum's:

I contacted Center to report the conditions for other pilots that were flying that day.

 A family with a non-intrument rated pilot at the controls would place his family and plane into great danger on that nice, hazy, lazy Summer day.

The temptation to bring the plane to straight and level flight, once the illusion of a turn was sensed, requires IFR training to prevent a disaster.

The loss of a definite horizon visually and the lack of detail caused by sun glare through a hazy sky and the very similar blue of the sky and water puts the pilot into that strange mood of "where am I and am I right-side up or up-side down?"