Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2019 i Plane & Pilot

ACROSS 1 Concept plane from Airbus that “flaps” in response to gusts and turbulence, 2 words 8 GPS picture, for example 9 It’s sometimes required for an approach 10 Route, for short 12 Large tree 14 What the pilot did during an autoland 16 Suffix for depend and cool 17 Instrument ____ 19 U.S.__, abbr. for military fliers 21 Automatic Flight Control System, abbr. 23 Disconcerting feature of some runways 24 Slip or crab in one 27 Roman 51 28 Some of these are split 29 Least-used control surface by newbies 30 Formerly known as, in high society 31 51 and Terminal Control, for example 32 A co-pilot’s chief duty? DOWN 1 Eviation’s electric-powered concept plane 2 Management of Heathrow and Gatwick, for short 3 Upward current of air used…

P-51 Mustang Mahogany Model This beautifully handcrafted P-51 replica features the paint scheme of Old Crow, the fighter famously flown by triple ace Clarence Emil “Bud” Anderson during World War II. Made of mahogany wood, this clear-canopy open-edition model features a wingspan of 19 inches and measures 13 inches in length, coming in at 1/24th the size of the actual aircraft. With a design that captures the fine details of the airplane Anderson flew for 116 missions, including for six consecutive hours on D-Day, this model is a great addition to any warbird buff’s collection. The model is priced at $399. Learn more at pilotmall.com. GM ARV Merge E-Bike General Motors (GM) recently threw its hat into the growing e-bike ring with the introduction of a pair of models, including…

No matter how much experience you have, complex taxi instructions at a busy airport can be confusing. The best hedge against it is having the complete taxi diagram with all the taxiways in intersections before you get your instructions. When you get your route, highlight it in some way on the diagram. Many apps let you do this on digital charts. Put Xs or some clear mark where you’re supposed to hold short along that route. You should only get one hold short per clearance, and then get a new clearance for the continuing route after being released from that hold-short point. Remember, you must read back hold-short clearances. Bonus points if you think about it, and read it back, in the same order the controllers do.…

My plan to fly my Mooney from Sacramento, California (SAC), to Kerrville, Texas (ERV), was ready for action. The plane was due for its annual inspection in six weeks’ time, so I decided to have the annual performed before my trip to Texas to avoid any maintenance issues while en route. Still, after the inspection was done, the Mooney Service Center informed me that the annual was complete and my plane was ready for my Texas destination, I still spent over an hour doing a preflight inspection. I needed to be sure that everything was working. I test-flew the airplane during daylight hours and everything seemed to be in order. A late-afternoon departure was planned, so I tested all strobes, position lights and the landing lights. I didn’t test my…

Proper term: Empennage Primary function: Stabilization, control Most common design: Conventional % of aircraft with conventional tails: ~75% Other common tail designs: V-Tail, T-Tail, Cruciform, Dual-Tail, Inverted Y Popular in fighter jets: Twin Tail, aka Double Vertical Stabilizer Advantage: Redundancy in case of battle damage Stabilizers on first Douglas DC-4 model: 5 (three above, two below) Purpose of multiple stabilizers: Fit aircraft into DC-3 Hangar First flight: 1939 Last flight: 1939 Renamed: DC-4E, for “Extinct” Main problem cited: Stability due to tail design Stabilizers on second DC-4 Model: 1 World’s largest aircraft by wingspan: Stratolaunch Tails: 2 Tail height: 50 ft. Tail height of Sky Baby, world’s smallest airplane (1952): 5 ft. Tallest tail in service: 79 ft. Aircraft: Airbus A380-800 Tail width: 99.6 ft. Surface area of vertical stabilizer:…

EXTRA UNVEILS NEW AIRCRAFT Extra spurred excitement at the recent AirVenture with the introduction of a new model, the NG, which opts for all-carbon-fiber construction over the company’s typical steel-tube skeleton. The new composite design results in a strong and light airplane that the company is marketing at $450,000. BOSE LAUNCHES NEW PROFLIGHT HEADSET Bose unveiled a new and improved version of its ProFlight headset a year and a half after the original model—aimed at the commercial pilot market—was introduced. The new lightweight headset, ProFlight Series 2, incorporates a number of upgrades based on user feedback, including a more flexible cable and a more responsive tap control, among others. STEVE DICKSON CONFIRMED AS HEAD OF FAA Former Delta Air Lines executive Steve Dickson was confirmed as the permanent leader of…

As the F-16 crossed my flight path in a steep bank, I sensed the deadly honesty of its design, each angle and curve built for one purpose. This was a hunter. It seemed like a joke that such a machine could bear the same name—airplane—as the machine I was piloting: a 70-year-old Luscombe cruising at 95 miles per hour. Not only did these two machines share a name, in that haze and early- morning sunshine, they also shared the sky, a remarkably tranquil and empty sky for a sunny Friday in August. I shook my head, marveling at this singular privilege of being a pilot. And yet, it did seem a little weird to be so close to the jet. I was flying to the northeast of Allentown, Pennsylvania, not…

MYSTERIES What did the crew of BSAA Flight CS-59 mean when they sent and repeated the cryptic message “STENDEC” via Morse code seconds before crashing? BACKGROUND On August 2, 1947, the crew of a British South American Airways (BSAA) Lancastrian, an airliner version of the Avro Lancaster WWII bomber, sent a cryptic message. Operating as Flight CS-59, aka “Star Dust,” the big piston twin was en route from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Santiago, Chile, with 11 people on board. At 5:41 p.m., a Chilean Morse code radio operator for the Los Cerrillos Airport received a message. “ETA Santiago 17:45 hrs. STENDEC.” “The operator understood that Star Dust intended to land in four minutes, but the final word, ‘STENDEC,’ confused him. When he asked for clarification, the crew repeated it two…

The week of Oshkosh AirVenture 2019 has come and gone. It was a spectacular week, with stories you’ve likely read and planes you might have seen. But this show, Oshkosh, as we all still call it (even if “AirVenture” has grown on me), is so much more than news and planes, and to its eternal credit, EAA gets it. The organization, which started in a suburban Milwaukee basement, spends nearly the whole year getting its house ready for party guests who stay for an entire week. And it shows. The grounds are massive and the preparations required to open every inch of it on Day One, and to keep it running throughout the week, are nothing short of staggering. And as you probably know, too, this year EAA had huge…