On 21 January this year (2019) footballer Emiliano Sala was killed when the Piper Malibu aircraft in which he was flying (from Nantes, France to Cardiff) crashed into the English Channel. The accident was widely reported at the time, along with all sorts of speculation about the cause. There has also been a lot of press about the licencing status of the pilot, David Ibbotson, who was also killed.
The scenario: our single-engined training aircraft airplane is set up in a stable descent on approach to land. The configuration is appropriate, perhaps with partial or full flaps extended. Airspeed is somewhere between 60 and 80 knots. What happens to the flight path of the airplane if the pilot pulls back on the yoke and raises the nose? Stop and think about the answer for a minute, then read on.
Today I added some survival equipment to the baggage compartment of FLYO.
Transport Canada’s published flight test standards for PPLs changed earlier this year in a couple of interesting ways.
Those aircraft owners who are involved (as much as is permitted) in the maintenance of their own aircraft might be interested in a case that came before the Transport Appeal Tribunal of Canada (TATC) in June 2018.
Every aircraft owner has bits of equipment on their aircraft that stop working on occasions. And few aircraft owners have the resources, time, or availability always to be able to fix whatever isn’t working before the next time they want to fly. How then can an aircraft owner tell if their aircraft is legal to fly when they know some piece of equipment isn’t working?
Scenario: You’re flying a series of touch-and-go’s for practice, and the Tower controller gets on the radio: “Unable touch-and-go due to wake turbulence, Dash 8 departed thirty seconds ago, what are your intentions?”
What does this mean, and how should you reply?
Your small airplane has landed in a grass strip, or field, or other confined area, one with which you’re not familiar. There’s a runway of sorts, but it’s muddy in places, or the grass hasn’t been cut for a while. Also it’s not level, like the tarmac runways you’re used to. There’s a bit of an up-slope here, and it definitely slopes down over there.
I was talking recently with a friend and fellow aircraft owner, and he was telling me his preparations for flying out of the Island (CYTZ) and what he’d do if his radios gave up in flight and he was unable to contact the control tower to get permission to re-enter the control zone or a clearance to land.
A friend asked me to estimate the force exerted by the tailplane on the fuselage of a Cessna 182, this week. In the course of answering I located and/or worked out some information that might interest you.