Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2016 i Flying

Tamarack Aerospace is in the fi nal stages of FAA certifi cation for the fi rst commercially viable installation of its Active Technology Load Alleviation System (ATLAS), which allows wingtip extensions with winglets to be installed without increasing the load on the wing. The installation includes Tamarack Active Camber Surfaces (TACS) on the outboard portions of the trailing edges of the wings. The TACS automatically activate when additional load is put on the wing, such as during turbulence or maneuvers that increase G-load. The fi rst STC for the system will go to the Cessna Citation 525 series: the CJ, CJ1, CJ1+ and M2. The system is already certifi ed in Europe and is available for installation there. We had a chance to test out the system on the Citation…

NO. 910 I.L.A.F.F.T. “I LEARNED ABOUT FLYING FROM THAT” People like to ask, “What was your favorite flight?” There are so many, I wouldn’t know how to choose. But ask me to choose my least favorite flight, and I can tell you in a heartbeat. It started on a beautiful February day. My buddy Shaun decided to join me. We made a lot of good decisions during that flight, except one: taking off. That time of year in San Diego brings some rain and a few storms. We were grounded for most of the week, but things cleared by the day of my talk in Las Vegas — an easy 80-minute flight in our Van’s RV-7. Checking my iPad, I saw the weather looked VFR, but I called Flight Service…

BOSE A20 AVIATION HEADSET While your grandfather might have survived just fine without any ear protection, pilots today agree that the only way to fly is with a welldesigned active noise-reduction (ANR) headset. Bose’s latest offering, the A20, is an improved version of the company’s highly successful headsets. With the ability to connect via Bluetooth to your portable jukebox (read, tablet or smartphone), you will get exceptionally clear sound quality whether you’re listening to music or making a phone call through the headset. At only 12 ounces in total, the headset doesn’t weigh you down, and the soft padding eliminates any pressure on the apex of your head. $1,095 bose.com X-NAUT ACTIVE COOLING MOUNT Give your flying friends peace of mind with this unique cooling mount that prevents iPads from…

In her nearly 40-year career as a ferry pilot shuttling general aviation airplanes around the globe, Margrit Waltz has amassed nearly 23,000 flight hours and just completed her 800th ocean crossing. Most of these flights were between Europe and the United States, over miles of desolate ocean and through some of the planet’s worst weather. To fly this far for this long and live to tell the tale, a ferry pilot must have superb piloting skills and a personality as tenacious as it is courageous. And when things go south and you are in the soup in a single-engine or twin GA airplane somewhere near the resting place of the Titanic, there is something else a ferry pilot needs: luck by the yard. “Once, I was delivering a Cessna 404…

FRANK D’AMICO Only Human MARK KUETHER The “Substitute Copilot” article [Jumpseat, October 2016] really illustrates that even the best airline pilots can easily succumb to human limitations. While learning to fly, I always considered overcoming a minor distraction a good sign of my skills. How ever, I wondered if it was just my novice perspective or if I really performed well. This article let me know that even the best of the best can be thrown by minor distractions and foibles. Your Shots @thathelicopterguy Share your flying adventures with #FlyingMagazine. Single -Pilot Tips Readers chimed in with their tips for pilots flying by themselves [“Master the Skills Needed to Safely Fly Alone,” Oct. 9, 2016]. DALE DOUGLAS After 40 years of single-pilot 135 flying, I’d say don’t fall asleep, have…

AVIATION TECHNOLOGY MADE SIMPLE Automatic dependent surveillancebroadcast is a GPS-based system meant to replace the traditional radar-based technology ATC has relied on for decades to detect and manage aircraft traffi c. ACCURACY AND EFFICIENCY ADS-B relies on an aircraft’s GPS receiver to determine highly accurate position and groundspeed information, which it calculates by receiving radio signals from a network of satellites and comparing the time stamp of when those signals were sent with the time stamp of when they are received. Aircraft then take this GPS data and, along with identification and flight-status information, transmit it to groundstation receivers using a datalink transmitter in the form of either a Mode S transponder or a universal access transceiver. This occurs automatically a minimum of once every second, compared with the existing…

RELEVANT DISCUSSION: (AIM 2-1-2, 3-2-3, 3-2-4, 5-4-3, 5-4-4, 5-4-23, 5-5-11, 91.155, 135.205, 135.213, 121.649, OPSPEC C077, FAA-H-8083-16, JO 7110.65W PARAGRAPHS 7-4-2 AND 7-4-3) A visual approach is an IFR clearance that allows a pilot to descend for landing without flying a published instrument approach, reducing workload and saving time. Here’s what you should consider before flying a visual approach: 1. The aircraft must be on an IFR flight plan. 2. ATC may assign — you can accept or not. 3. You should not get clearance for a visual unless the proper VFR conditions exist (a controller requirement). 4. The airport must be reporting at least a 1,000-foot ceiling and 3 miles of visibility. 5. To vector an aircraft for a visual approach, an additional controller requirement is that the ceiling…

Four years ago, I wrote that it would be impossible for a skydiver in a wingsuit to flare and land without a parachute. The aerodynamic efficiency of a wingsuit is so low, and its area so small, that even with all the stored energy of a 100 mph fall, it could not simultaneously support a human body and slow to a safe landing speed. Shortly after I delivered this pronouncement, 42-year-old British stuntman Gary Connery disproved it. Not quite the way I imagined, however. Connery, accepting that he would not be able to land like a pigeon at a fast walk, decided instead to fly at full tilt into a runway-cumshock-absorber consisting of 18,000 large cardboard boxes. The YouTube videos of his arrival — there are several — are impressive.…

RNAV APPROACHES The RNAV approach is a type of GPS-based procedure that is becoming ubiquitous in general aviation as the FAA continues to roll it out at thousands of airports around the United States. If you’re adept at flying an ILS approach, RNAV LPV procedures (off ering “localizer performance with vertical guidance”) should be very familiar to you, since lateral and vertical deviations are identical at similar distances. Have a look at the chart above to learn about the nuances of these types of satnav-based approaches.…

I’ve seen enough over the past few years to reach the conclusion that self-driving cars going mainstream is now a matter of when rather than if. The advanced technology in today’s production vehicles is helping to pave the way. While I haven’t had the chance to use the autopilot feature in a Tesla electric vehicle, I did recently take a new Ford SUV on a road trip and used its driver-assist technology over several hundred miles. This particular model had an advanced cruise-control system that would accelerate and brake automatically to maintain a user-defined distance from the car in front of you. It would also engage the steering system to guide you back into the middle of the lane if you started to drift. This system still requires the driver…

For all the talk about lingering economic uncertainty and struggling aircraft market segments, it’s hard to think back to a more fascinating time for the business aviation industry. From emerging models like the Cessna Denali turboprop and Cirrus Vision Jet to larger airplanes, including the HondaJet, Pilatus PC-24, Citation Hemisphere, Bombardier Global 8000 and Dassault Falcon 8X, the market is brimming with new choices. At the pinnacle of this list of business airplanes are two large-cabin jets that inarguably rank among the most technologically advanced civil airplanes ever designed. The Gulfstream G500 and G600 can fly several thousand miles just a few knots below the speed of sound. They will whisk passengers in ultimate comfort thanks to their astonishingly quiet and supremely comfortable cabins. They feature the first active-control sidesticks…

My cellphone buzzed in its charging station on the nightstand. I opened one bleary eye and glanced at the red glow of the digital clock. The time was 4:06 a.m. My rude awakening could only be from one source: crew schedule. The caller ID confirmed my assumption. My reserveassignment period had begun six minutes prior. The bright-eyed and bushy-tailed voice at the other end of the line was in stark contrast to my demeanor. Nonetheless, I attempted to rally by uttering a mostly coherent greeting. The crew scheduler was pleasant and professional and got right down to business. I was being assigned a ferry flight. We were to fly an empty 777 from JFK to Dallas and then deadhead home. As my comprehension reached a mostly normal level, I acknowledged…