There are many blogs on aviation out there. My all time favorite, however, is Captain Dave’s “Flight Level 390″ blog.
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A while back it disappeared from blogspot and I did not find anybody who knew much about it. This is tragic and I miss Captain Dave’s view on the world from above a lot. After all he was an inportant inspiration and influence on me to start this blog!
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I hope you are well, Dave! And I hope to read from you again in the future. Happy Landings until then!
To be continued…
(originally posted on March 16, 2013 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/we-miss-you-captain-dave/)
Visibility: more than 10k
Temperature: 2°C
Wind: 200, 5 knots
QNH: 998hPa
Location: EDAY (Strausberg)
Equipment: Beech Starship 2000A, N8244L
I stumbles across a spectacular beauty in EDAY of all places today. After a great morning of flying, I went into the main hangar to hang out and maybe do some hangar flying with the tech guy from the flight school. My eyes almost popped out when I saw a Beech Starship way back in the corner.
At first I had a hard time believing it but there was no mistake. The gentle flow of the fuselage curving into the large wings with the pusher props mounted on top of them. The high legs, the canards and the long, elegant bow – a Starship 2000A, incredible!
So what is all the excitement?
The Beech company made a very bold move when they decided to develop the starship. The first prototype flew in 1980 and it was available for customers from 1989 on. The pusher configuration, the carbon fiber fuselage and the early version of a glass cockpit made it incredibly advanced. Developed by aviation legend Burt Rutan, the design has many admirers.
Unfortunately, the starship was not exactly a success story for Beechcraft. For a variation of reasons, only 53 were ever build. Beech eventually decided to stop supporting the fleet and bought back as many of the planes as they could in order to destroy them. Today, less than ten (!) remain airworthy.
I only once saw a starship before. It was in the Evergreen Aviation museum in Oregon in 2006. And now one came to me and made my day! I need to find out what it is doing here.
To be continued…
(originally posted on February 6, 2013 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/beech-starship-n8244l/)
Thunk. The main wheels make contact with the runway at 70 miles per hour. The rubber squeaks a bit but that is normal. I hold the nose up for a bit longer until the aircraft has slowed down so much that the lift disappears and the nose wheel gently settles down. We have transitioned from flight to taxi.
Learning how to land is probably the biggest challenge in learning to fly. The aircraft is designed to fly. It wants to fly. So taking off is relatively easy (throttle forward and off she goes). A good landing requires a smooth transition from flying to not flying and that can only be done with a lot of practice!
My first solo was after about 100 landings with the instructor. Now, after flying for about two years in five or six different aircraft types, I maintain a health respect for the process of landing. And every pilot will have the occasional bad landing, even after years of experience.
A good landing starts with a good approach
It all starts in the pattern. The traffic pattern is a set routing for the approach to any given airport. It enables the pilot to execute the phases of the approach and finally land the aircarft even if he has not been to one particular airport before.
The approach in a small, non-complex plane typically looks like this:
Enter the pattern in the downwind leg. Slow down and start setting flaps. Turn on carburetor heat, double-check traffic situation and turn into base (90 degrees off the landing direction).
Double-check the location of the runway, check wind, possibly check landing lights. Start loosing altitude, typically about 200 feet. Now you are ready for the final approach.
Turn one more 90 degree turn into final. The runway is in front of you now. Make sure not to loose too much speed and/or altitude during the turn. Check and adjust the glide path, align the aircraft with the center line of the runway.
As the wind is almost never coming from straight ahead, I usually drift away from the center line.
Cross or crab?
There are two possible ways to compensate for that. I can turn the nose into the wind and approach the runway at an angle. In this scenario I have to straighten the aircraft out shortly before I touch down. If I don’t do that, the landing gear gets pushed down the runway sideways and may break. The crabbed approach is how the big airliners do it.
My flight school prefers to teach the other method, however. In this I use the ailerons to lower the wing into the wind. So if the wind comes from the right, I lower the right wing tip. If I would only do that, the aircraft would start a right turn. To counter act that, I push the left rudder pedal which forces the nose to the left and counter acts the movement to the right.
Now I have to hold the balance of these counter acting steering impulses. As drag increases from the crossing of the rudders, I have to make sure we don’t get too slow. For this I keep the nose down a bit. Also I have to make sure we get to the touch down zone of the runway and I have to adjust the power setting of the engine accordingly. Sounds complicated? It is!
So why do I learn this complicated method as opposed to the straight forward angle of attack? Well, the significant advantage is that I am already aligned with the runway in the very last moment of the approach when I flare the aircraft out. I can concentrate on slowly reducing the energy of the movement of the plane before it touches down hopefully very softly. The aircraft can easily touch down on one wheel first and the settle down on the other one as the lift reduces and the aircraft “gets heavier”.
How high is a beer bottle?
If I would hold the attitude of the aircraft until it makes contact with the runway, the nose wheel would probably be the first thing to touch down. It would probably collapse and the prop would strike the tarmac. A very expensive landing.
That is why I pull the nose of the aircraft up shortly before the landing. Now the aircraft is supposed to float down the runway with this nose-up attitude. The engine is in idle and the attitude means a lot of resistance. So the aircraft is supposed to slow down, the lift decreases and eventually the main wheels make contact with the runway, cat like.
My first flight instructor always told me to flare and float at about the distance of a beer bottle from the runway. It took me a long time to figure out how high a bottle of beer is…
To be continued…
(originally posted on January 25, 2013 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/landing/)
Within a little over a month I have been to the two busiest Airports (in passenger numbers) in the world:
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (KATL) had a total of 92,365,860 passengers traveling through its halls in 2011. Beijing Capital International Airport (ZBAA) had 77,403,668. Both are modern, vast and intimidating, but there are distinct differences.
PEK entered the top 30 list of the busiest airports of place 26 in the year 2002. 27,159,665 passengers walked its shiny floors that year.
Atlanta was the undisputed number 1 in all of these years and went from 76 million in 2002 to the afore mentioned 92 million in the same time it took Beijing to grow from 27 million to 77 million.
The difference in growth rate can be felt in the air of the airports. Atlanta has been hugh for 30 years. It was completely rebuilt in the 70s and designed for it’s current size.
The terminal with its individual annexes is located in the middle between two parallel runway sets. At the time, this design was groundbreaking. The ways in Atlanta are long but for the size of the complex, the traveling time within the airport is reasonable. The ways for the aircraft are efficient and it is easy for the passengers to navigate.
KATL is busy and at times crazy but it also feels like a well running machine. Nothing can bring it to a stop, everything has happened before, there is a routine in handling non routine situations, in handling large numbers of passengers and in dealing with the needs and whereabouts of travelers from all cultures and all time zones. It is one of the more cosmopolitan places in the United States.
Beijing is different. The predominant feeling is pace, development and growth. Everything is brand spanking new, almost not broken in yet.
The airport radiates national pride but there is also a clear need to demonstrate it. It is build to impress and it is a world of contrasts. Futuristic materials and sparkling surfaces that are being shined with bamboo brooms that have been used in China for a thousand years.
What would be confident routine in Atlanta is excited, almost playful pride in Beijing. Traveling through it is invigorating, a promise of am amazing future.
To be continued…
(originally posted on January 18, 2013 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/worlds-busiest-airports/)
“When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your Eyes Turned Skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” (Leonardo da Vinci is rumored to have coined this phrase)
(originally posted on December 22, 2012 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/aloft/)
My host and I struggle to find the address online, but eventually we find the website and decide, it looks open. We plan the way. Bus line 935 should take me right there. He writes the correct stop down for me.
The next morning, my day starts with a search for the bus stop. On the street we saw on the map, there is no bus stop at all. Just as I start thinking about options, a 935 bus comes around the corner and passes me. I walk in the direction the bus came from and before long I find the nest. A bit off my map but never mind. After some discussion with the driver of the next 935 bus (involving my cheat sheet and lengthy explanations I can’t follow), I am on board.
Coupled Navigation
Once in the bus, I note the time and start counting stops. It is supposed to be 8 stops in about 40 minutes. My flight instructor would be very proud. As my stop comes up, I compare the electronic display with the characters on my paper and double check with the attendant. It all checks out, this is it. However, I find myself standing on an empty road in the middle of a construction site. I am way off my little map of the city center and I try to navigate from my memory of the computer map we looked at the night before.
5 Euro joker
I walk down the road and towards a high way I see in the distance. On the way I ask a worker who only has a blank stare for me. So eventually I pull the joker out of my pocket – the mighty iPhone. After about 5 Euros in roaming charges, I am back on track. The museum is about 3 kilometers to the east. A half hour walk along a busy street with staring Chinese pedestrians brings me to the gate.
The museum is large, new and very nice. The building flows like a waive and definitely has an aerodynamic quality. Brian’s experience has prepared me, so I pull out my identity card at the entrance. The lady at the desk checks it thoroughly, smiles and hands it back to me with the ticket. I’m in.
Room for expansion
I start my visit with the museum building. I enter through the main door and am greeted by a clearly surprised person at the coat check. The inside of the museum is divided up in individual parts that look like trade fair booths. All of them have displays, posters, artefacts and no visitors. A tired cleaning person stares at me, at the bathroom my appearance stops the vivid chatter of two attendants.
The museum is great and I am startled that it is so deserted. Are there no aviation enthusiasts in China?
Out and about
The museum is surrounded by ample space for aircraft. The collection is obviously just starting and the number of exhibits is still small. But they are interesting and not fenced off – a big plus.
It looks like the area has been improoved since Brians visit in 2011. Two C47s and a C46 (with replacement wheels) are placed in a row with neatly trimmed grass around them.
The A310 and a Hawker Trident are sitting a bit further back. I later read about the Trident (B-2207) that it used to be a VIP transport and was open to the public at its earlier base. I would love to see the insides of this beauty. Maybe on a future visit.
Behind the building I see a weathered Iljushin IL-14. Chairman Mao received one as a gift from Stalin in 1954. Is it this one? Probably not but I will have to brush-up on my Chinese to find out.
To be continued…
(originally posted on October 15, 2012 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/chinese-civil-aviation-museum/)
I am eying the sky with apprehension. Gray clouds and light rain, the sun is nowhere to be seen. There is an improvement in the forecast, we will see.
My flying buddy is picking up his new aircraft today, “Kilo Tango”. He has asked me to come along. I will use the occasion to get a check ride on the FlightDesign CT LS. I am excited.
The sky is still gray when we arrive at the airport but the rain has stopped. I start with ground school, he has got some more paper work to attend to. “Kilo Tango” is a very clean flying machine. The speed management is very important and needs attention. She is not as forgiving as my training ships.
Many buttons
“Kilo Tango” has an EFIS (Electronic Flight Instrument System), a so called “glass cockpit”. The flight instruments are electronically displayed on two screens. The advantages in safety and comfort are hugh. The integrated system can relate important information to raise situation awareness. But it requires a lot of training.
Ground school completed
The sun has come out and its time to fly the beauty. “Kilo Tango” climbs at a 750 feet per minute and I take her through a hole in the clouds. The sun is warming my face up here and we begin with some air work. The aircraft is fast, responsive and easy to direct. She wants to go.
After a quick set of turns and the regular routine of stall drills in various configurations, we are back in the pattern. I’m fighting to slow Kilo Tango down, just as I was told. On the last turn into final, she starts talking to me. “Five hundred” she whispers into my ears. Gotta love it!
We fly for almost two hours and conclude the training with a special kind of emergency drill. The instructor shuts the engine down completely. I have done this before, but it is a very special sensation every time. “Kilo Tango” seems to think so too. Her warning voice sounds a bit shrill, or am I imagining things?
Sun set
After the check-out, it is time to get going. The weather is still good and we are not going far tonight, but we don’t want to push our luck. And we have a quick stop-over in Strausberg planned. My buddy is flying and I am in the right seat. A very odd perspective for the approach into the home base.
The sun is low and the sky starts turning a warm orange. The clouds are beautiful today. I get ready to go home. Before I leave, he takes the second set of keys for “Kilo Tango” and hands them to me. “Keep ‘em, it’ll make it easier in the future”, he says. They are small and unspectacular. But to me they are more impressive than Porsche keys.
To be continued…
(originally posted on September 30, 2012 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/bring-her-home/)
Visibility: almost unlimited
Temperature: 19°C
Wind: 330, 18 knots
QNH: 1017hPa
Location: EDCE (Eggersdorf)
Equipment: “Kilo Tango” (Flight Design CT LS, a new bird in town!)
I know the airport in Eggersdorf well. It is about 10 minutes by air from Strausberg and a good part of my sports pilots training has happened on the long grass strip over here. Today is only the second time ever I visit Eggersdorf from the ground. I’m here with my flying buddy and he is here to buy an aircraft.
Eggersdorf is the East German base of the Flight Design company, makers of the CT line of light sports aircraft. My friend is buying a used CT LS. He has seen the aircraft here before, has negotiated with the owner by phone, has paid a deposit and is inspecting it today.
When we arrive at the Flight Design facility, “Kilo Tango” is waiting for us on the apron already. She is three years old, has about 400 flight hours and is very well equipped. Dynon glass cockpit, Garmin GPS, 100 horse powers Rotax engine, even leather upholstery – a fun ride!
We are greeted by the manager. He walks us around the aircraft, then lets us explore her some more on our own. We do a thorough check. “Kilo Tango” is in very good shape. She looks almost new and in fact, 400 hours is not much for an aircraft. After a bit, the manager is back and we taxi the plane over to a shop hangar for a technical inspection. We take off the engine cover, check the fluids and do a visual inspection of the engine.
Lunch break and check ride
After a lunch break with stew and aviators stories, it is time to fly. I will stay on the ground today, my buddy gets the check ride for the CT. Him and the manager are gone for almost one hour. The day is clear but a nasty cross wind makes for difficult training conditions. The CT is a very nice flying machine and it is fast for its class. The pilot needs to pay a lot of attention to the correct speeds and it is easy to come in too fast.
Paperwork
When they are back, my buddy is happy but also a bit overwhelmed. I guess it will take a few days for him to wrap his head around the fact that he is buying this high-tech beauty.
We go through the paper work of the aircraft. There are two big binders of documentation plus a number of thick hand books, probably exceeding the useful load of “Kilo Tango”.
On the way back to the big city, we stop by a pizza place. We sit in the sun and it is difficult to stop smiling. What an amazing day.
To be continued…
(originally posted on September 23, 2012 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/buying-an-airplane/)
Visibility: limited only by the imagination
Temperature: 28°C
Location: EDOR (Stölln)
Equipment: DDR-SEG, Iljuschin Il-62 “Lady Agnes”
The Village of Stölln, north of the big city, has the oldest air filed in the world. Did you know that? I did not!
The German glider pioneer Otto Lilienthal came here on a fairly regular basis for training. And it is here that he managed to take-off, fly a controlled turn and land at the same point he started. And by the definition of the good people of Stölln, this makes the site the first air field of all time. Hard to argue with this!
The other great thing about Stölln is the “Lady Agnes”. She is an Iljusihin IL-62 jet liner. She was operated by the east German airline Interflug and ferried to Stölln as a museum piece after she was retired in 1989. The most significant thing about this is, that she was landed on the local sail plane strip – 900 meters of grass. There is quite a spectacular video of the landing available on YouTube.
Today, Lady Agnes is a quiet sight. But one that will make the aviators heart go warm.
To be continued…
(originally posted on September 6, 2012 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/il-62/)
