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Kategorie: Aviation at large

Make better landings

Make better landings

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Light airplanes either have two wheels just a bit behind the center of gravity and one in front, or they have two wheels way in front of the center of gravity and a much smaller one at the tail. This sounds like a minor difference but it does make for dramatically different handling.

In the tricycle configuration, the airplane just rolls on the ground much like a car. On take-off it will accelerate until it has reached a critical speed at which it can be lifted off the ground.

The tail wheel aircraft will start flying from the tail to the front during the take-off run. The steering on the ground is done with the tail wheel. So it handles much like a car in reverse. It takes some practice!

The landing is either straight on the two main wheels until the tail settles down or on all three wheels at the same time. Each way has its own complications, but I learn the three point landings first.

Make better landings

Alan Bramsons book “Make better landings” was recommended to me as a good resource. Unfortunately it has been out of print for a long time but I could find it online. The chapter about tail wheel landings was a very good preparation for the first lesson on the actual thing.

To be continued…

 

(originally posted on August 26, 2011 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/make-better-landings/)

Airport test

Airport test

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I will be testing our new Airport!

In July of 2012, the new airport “Berlin Brandenburg International” (BER) will open. Before that, there will be a series of tests for the new terminals.

Yours truly signed up as a volunteer for the test programm and I was accepted. So next February (!) I will spend a day at the new airport pretending to travel.

 

(originally posted on July 3, 2011 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/airport-test/)

Rotax 912

Rotax 912

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Flying has nothing to do with high tech. This is one of the very first things that a new entry into flight training learns. Flying is about weight and reliability. Reliability equals safety and it is achieved through redundancy (which creates weight issues again) and through proven concepts. Every novelty requires a lot of very costly testing and still has an inherent risk of new, unforeseen, previously unknown reliability issues. Combine this with an extremely small market and you have an environment which is very averse to innovation.

My trusted Rider MD3 aircraft is powered by a Rotax 912 engine. It is a very popular modern engine for light aircrafts. If compared to the engine in your new Toyota Corola however, it is anachronistic. Relatively inefficient, no electronic engine management and not even fuel injection. It and it has a carburetor despite the fact that it was developed in the early 90s.

But it is light, it is very reliable and every certifyed technician can fully understand every aspect of it. It can handle the constant mix of hot and cold that comes with changing altitudes and the pilot can hear if the engine is happy or not. These qualities are worth something. After all, if the engine in your Toyota stops the worst thing that can happen is that you are stranded by the side of the road.

My precious power plant costs about 15.000,- Euros. Sounds like a lot? It is a lot compared to the Toyota again. But Rotax has probably sold as many 912s since they were introduced 20 years ago as Toyota does in a month. Maybe less. The market for airplanes and all of their parts is tiny compared to cars or other industrial goods. Every airplane is hand made and there is almost no automation in the production.

Pilots have a very attentive relationship with their engines. Of course they want to avoid engine failure but they also want to make sure that their expensive power plants remain in working order for many years and thousands of operating hours.

Most airplanes are flown for decades. It is more rule than exception that a new student will be taught on equipment that is older than himself. But airplanes age well and they are constantly checked and updated and if all anuals are current, they can generally be considered safe.

So the development of the Rotax 912 is about 20 years old and the development of the airframe of the Rider MD3 is about 10 years old. Both is considered modern in aviation terms and I’m sure I’ll encounter some much older equipment as I gain more experience in flying.

To be continued…

 

(Originally posted on March 1, 2011 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/rotax-912/)