Wind Drift - What Does it Do

Wind Drift

The three keys of understanding "drift" from a pilots point of view are:

• Air is a soup
• Motion is relative
• You are "in" the air

Air is a soup.

In physics there exist three states of matter. A solid, a liquid and a gas. Air is a gas. It is composed of a number of different molecules that have mass and take up space. It is like an invisible fluid that flows. Wind is air in motion.

Motion is relative.

A moving stream is like moving air or ''wind." If you are floating downstream in an enclosed boat without windows you don't have a sensation of actually moving. You can move about in the boat easily. If you ignore all the noise outside the boat you don't have any sensation that you are moving. You really are in a moving mass of soup. Steady flow of air is wind. As long as the flow of water is steady you feel like there is no motion at all. If you walk to one end of the boat and return to where you started you are, in fact, moving in the boat while the boat has continued to float downstream.The fact that motion downstream is taking place is real. Frame of reference is important. Which side of facts you choose to disregard. Do you judge your position by reference to the boat or by the boats position to the shore outside? Try climbing a down escalator in a store. Its a matter of relativity of motion. On the ground you don't have trouble with the "familiar." In flying it suddenly matters.

Your "in" the air.

An airplane that flies in moving air is like, in the example above, when you walked back and forth in a boat. Your plane is "contained" ,once in flight, by the surrounding air. The difference, when we fly, is the air is invisible as it surrounds the plane and the boat surrounds you in the stream.

The airplane, like the boat, has two motions both at the same time. It has motion through the air mass, like walking in the boat, and it has motion with the air called "drift." In the boat you were "drifting" downstream (one motion) and walking in the boat. (the other motion)

You, as the pilot, can fix your attention on one type of motion or on the other as you choose. After you feel comfortable in the air, you can watch both motions at the same time and not become confused.

Thunderstorms - Are They Good for Something

Thunderstorms - The Good - The Bad - The Evil

Thunderstorms can damage or destroy planes flying into or under them. As long as pilots use common sense in preflight weather briefings and practice techniques to exit a thunderstorm or avoid one while flying they do have a few good points.

On a humorous note, if you are inside a thunderstorm your aircraft traffic usually falls to zero.

They provide water for many continents during the summer months world-wide. Without water many continents would become dry. Plants, which use carbon dioxide ( do you really want to limit carbon dioxide emissions ) and release oxygen as a by-product, receive water in large amounts from the rain produced by thunderstorms. Without water fish would die, crops fail from extreme droughts and animals would perish.

Environmentalists need to create thunderstorms to prevent global warming. Thunderstorms are natural air conditioners. Hot air from the earths surface is rises up into the high atmosphere from the formation of a thunderstorm. The cloud formation from thunderstorms give humans and lower animals shade and eventually cooling rain on a hot day.

This is interesting. The earth, without thunderstorms, would have it's temperature rise as much as 20 degrees F.

The summer dust, haze ( impediment to VFR flying conditions and safety ) and other pollutants come together in the lower atmosphere to create smog. When thunderstorms are created by rising air and moisture that trap pollutants the air spreads the pollutants higher up into the atmosphere clearing the air below. Once the cumulus clouds build into the actual thunderstorm, with resulting rain, the air is washed and the pollutants are returned to the earths soil. Breathing becomes easier and less harmful.

Lightning produced by thunderstorms helps keep the electrical balance between the earth and the atmosphere under control. Friction of the gases ( air ) creates static electricity that is released by the formation of lightning. This can be observed by dry lightning that many pilots view periodically at night.

Lightning is also a fertilizer. It changes nitrogen gas in the air to nitrogen compounds that fall to the ground by gravity or through the rain produced by thunderstorms. Nitrogen is one of the main ingredients of fertilizer needed for farming to produce the crops eaten world-wide. Ten percent of the nitrogen fertilizer needed for farming, world-wide, is made by lightening.

Finally, what beautiful rainbows a thunderstorm can produce along with the inspiration for song and dance.

Taxiway Lighting Systems

Taxiways - Lost and Found

First, a taxiway is a communication path on an airport connecting runways with ramps, hangers, terminals and repair facilities. Larger airports the taxiways are hard surfaced to support heavy aircraft.

The Blue Lights mark Taxiway Edge lights and emit blue light. They make finding your way around easier. Jeppeson Charts have taxiways well marked for the pilots benefit.

Jet Ports have high-speed exits off the Main Runways to facilitate moving large planes. Once off they use the taxiways.

The center of the taxiways have a single yellow line to help you center your plane for taxiing.

The taxiway edge markings have two different purposes. If they have two solid yellow strips it marks an edge of the taxiway that separates the taxiway from a surface that doesn't, for instance, support a plane straying into that area.

The second is two broken double yellow strips that separate a surface that does support a plane crossing over onto it's surface but is not the actual taxiway.

Taxiways have Yellow Information Blocks as they approach a runway. The blocks contain black lettering and numbers that provide taxiway information when erected signs are not possible.

The lighting and informational choices expand as the complexity of the airport increases. Night increases the possibility of confusion. 

If  you fly into busy airports the following link is complete and will help you in the identification possibilities before you actually take off and, of course, is a part of your pre-planning. Airport Lighting Systems.

Garmin Pilot for I-Phone and I Pad - Possible Problems

Garmin Pilot

As a backup, in private aircraft flying, the I-Phone screen is quite small. In turbulent conditions, during IFR approaches, controlling and reading the device is nearly impossible.

As a flight planning device it has exceptional features. Use a  Search Engine to find test results and/or detailed information on the Standard or Pro versions of the Garmin App and the many features the Garmin device offers.

The I-Pad has a larger screen. Easy to read screens, in flight, are a blessing. Information is available and good.

There are still some disadvantages that interfere with the I-Pad.

A common one is glare. Ever try and read a modern gas pump screen if sunlight is hitting the screen? You get the point. Glare on the I-Pad screen makes use almost impossible. Later models of the I-Pad have brighter screens that make use possible. Changing the position of the I-Pad screen helps. Ton of kneeboards and mounts that alleviate some of the glare drawbacks.

Electrical discharge in the latest and greatest I-Pads, controlled by fast processors, adds up to heat. Heat will cause an I-Pad to shut down when you need it the most. Aircraft cockpits in direct sunlight and dark surfaces allow heat to build quickly inside the plane. Couple this with any heat producing electrical device and shutdown can occur. 

When an application uses more power than what is supplied from a charger, the time of operation is compromised. The power required to operate all the bells and whistles is greater in the latest models. Cutting the power to some features will eliminate the discrepancy between power out (device) and power in (charger).

The trade off between size of the I-Pad and placement in the plane may present problems. If the device covers instruments that is a no-no. Yoke mounting can eliminate the instrument problem. A neat idea is mounting the device on the co-pilot yoke. Aiming the device at you makes reading the information provided easy. Placing the I-Pad on the floor and bringing it up to view charts is another solution. Be careful, if unsecured by a retaining structure, the I-Pad slips behind the seats. Moving your head about to find the I-Pad can result in disorientation.

Finally, trying to use any device in turbulence is very difficult when your holding the I-Pad with one hand and inputing information with the other hand. A dash or yoke mounted I-Pad is safer to operate.

Modern gadgetry is great but a few problems exist. Keep in mind, though, the many great features that exist to make the purchase of the App a wonderful addition to flight safety.

Pussy Footing Around - Detecting a Cushion

Sensing Float (Buoyancy)

In landing an airplane sensations you receive from the plane to you are very important. Short fields require sensitivity to the subtle clues that affect lift. Floating is not nice as you run out of runway.

You want a slight cushion, when you land, to flare out, check the descent of your plane and contact the ground. This is the very slight touch of your wheels in a perfect landing. The "Ahh, what a landing" reaction from pilot and passengers. 

This is "flying the edge" to some folks. To arrive at the edge and not drop off the cliff is the goal in every landing.

We talked about lift reserve before. The perfect landing results from a cushion of reserve lift that allows the plane to touchdown quickly with as little float when you pull back on the stick or wheel and stall.

When you pull back on the stick you don't want to feel a surge of lift that requires a checking of the descent from you!

At altitude you can test the effect by flying a slow glide at the very edge of a stall. When you pull the stick back a few inches the flight path of the plane does not go up. Instead the plane begins to stall and settle. The flight path goes down. In a fast glide, with lots of reserve lift, when you pull back on the stick a few inches, the plane balloons with a firm push into your bottom. Net result is an upward flight path and a much longer movement forward before the plane settles down to land.

At altitude you can't  really see the deflection of the aircraft upward. You feel it. In an actual landing flare, near the ground, the slightest ballooning or settling of the plane is very apparent to the eye. You feel the changes you make in the stick position by sensing the slight weight changes (lightness or heaviness) that occur from stick handling.

If a pull back on the stick makes you feel slightly heavier you are gliding too fast and the plane "floats" until the glide slows.

If you pull back on the stick and you feel lighter, like going down in a fast elevator, your reserve of lift is limited and you descend.

Your perception of weight change is very sensitive. You make a conscious effort to pay attention to that "sense" and act accordingly. If you are a passenger in the right seat of a small plane during the final stages of a landing you will see the pilot make small changes in the stick position (both back and forward) as he "senses" the planes descent to a perfect landing.

This gives credence to the term "flying by the seat of your pants" when landing an airplane.

In conclusion, sensing the cushion effect is important to a good approach and landing. Your senses become very sensitive as you glide lower to the ground and control movements are limited to prevent major changes in flight attitude (up and down).