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Post by Tom Goodrick on Aug 11, 2012 22:35:15 GMT -5
I had gotten a couple books on flying for my granddaughter's 12th birthday. Her dad says she looked at them and set them aside for "later." One was a novel for girls about how a she goes for a ride in a friend's airplane and becomes "hooked" on airplanes. The other book was the FAA's new book "Airplane Flying Handbook" which is part of their new Private Pilot's course. Amazon was buggin me to review the books but I never saw them. They were delivered direct to her house in Athens, Georgia. So I bought A copy of the handbook. I thought it would be good from its description on Amazon and it is very good. It has very appropriate modern treatments of the basic things you have to do to fly an airplane - excellent illustrations. Here is the Table of Contents: FAA AIRPLANE FLYING HANDBOOK
CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION TO FLIGHT TRAINING 2. GROUND OPERATIONS (ADJUST YOUR SEAT PROPERLY AND LOCK IT.) 3. BASIC FLIGHT MANUEVERS 4. SLOW FLIGHT, STALLS, AND SPINS 5. TAKEOFF AND DEPARTURE CLIMBS 6. GROUND REFERENCE MANEUVERS 7. AIRPORT TRAFFIC PATTERNS 8. APPROACHES AND LANDINGS 9. PERFORMANCE MANEUVERS 10. NIGHT OPERATIONS 11. TRANSITION TO COMPLEX (GREAT DISCUSSION OF TURBOCHARGES) 12. TRANSITION TO MULTIENGINE AIRPLANES 13. TRANSITION TO TAILWHEELS 14. TRANSITION TO TURBOPROPELLER POWERED AIRPLANES (GOOD DISCUSSION OF BETA MODE.) 15. TRANSITION TO JET POWERED AIRPLANES 16. EMERGENCY PROCEDURES (DOOR POPS OPEN)
I was particularly surprised and pleased to see their mention of the need to lock your seat in place after adjusting it. When I was flying Cessna's there was a rash of accidents caused by seats slipping back during rotation at takeoff. The person who flew the plane before you was always either taller or shorter so you always had to make a big adjustment in the seat position. But if you were not careful, the seat could slip as you rotated the plane on takeoff. Imaging hanging onto the yoke and pulling the nose up into a stall at that vulnerable time. Cessna has since improved their seat locks. Another item that impressed me was including "Door Pops Open" under emergency procedures. That has probably happened to most the people who have soloed an airplane or taken their first passenger for a ride. It was 40 years ago but my wife still tells the story of how I tried to "dump her out" at 3,000 ft during a turn. It is no big problem if you just go on flying the airplane and then work on closing the door.
There is a good discussion with illustrations of how to handle an engine with a constant-speed prop, flying a turboprop with a good discussion of beta mode that made it clear how Microsoft in FS9 does NOT provide controls to operate properly in beta mode. (We beat that to death a few years ago.) Some aspects of jet flight are even covered.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to answer a few questions in their mind. There is a god and comprehensive glossary that mentions Calibrated Airspeed, Indicated Airspeed and True Airspeed. But I kept looking for an explanation of how the airspeed indicator works to give a speed that is safe to use at any altitude to fly the plane safely. It could be explained with a simple illustration and the simplest of equations: dt*Vt*Vt=ds*Vi*Vi where the d's are density, t means true, V means airspeed and i means indicated. Their explanation in the glossary is poor and gives no sense of the difference in values. (ds is sea level density.)
The bad thing about 'calibrated airspeed' is that, while all critical low speeds like stall speeds are given in calibrated airspeed, a pilot never knows when he is at a particular calibrated airspeed. He sees the indicated airspeed and knows there is a non-linear relation to calibrated airspeed. But he can't hold the pilots'manual open while checking to see if the airplane might be stalling!
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Post by Tom Goodrick on Aug 11, 2012 21:49:38 GMT -5
Flaming, regarding friends starting flight training, see my not in my Blog about the new FAA Airplane Flying Handbook.
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Post by Tom Goodrick on Aug 11, 2012 21:35:59 GMT -5
You are probably right. That would be a way to fix it. Unfortunately I have never worked in XML to move part of a figure. I would not recognize the code. I always fly the Baron (and other aircraft) with the GPS map embedded in the panel. That way I can always just glance at the map display to see the KTAS. I don't even have an original Baron panel.
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Post by Tom Goodrick on Jul 29, 2012 17:07:31 GMT -5
This is not a big surprise. Whenever M$ tried to market FS as a simple game, it has found no acceptance in the marketplace. When they show it as a more practical learning tool, then it does well - as long as they let other people write addons for it.
So what we are left with is nothing but a world and a bunch of airplanes we can fly in that world using reasonably realistic techniques. I don't need anything else from M$ to have a good time. FS9 and FS10 both work.
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Post by Tom Goodrick on Jul 23, 2012 17:14:07 GMT -5
I enjoyed the Champ. Then I flew the Cosmos Trike (a "go-cart" suspended below a semi-rigid wing. It is great fun. My landing was at 28 KIAS and -36 ft/min.
Then I flew a model of the AA-1a trainer by American Aviation which was owned briefly by Grumman American. That was fun. I flew a circuit but had no landing gauge.
The next plane I looked ta for a flight around the patch was a C-124 Globemaster. I'll wait a day or two. I have lost track of my DC-3 panel. I had it on this computer when I was flying FS2002. It is around someplace. I did see a DC-4 that was ready to fly.
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Post by Tom Goodrick on Jul 23, 2012 14:05:51 GMT -5
I had forgotten I had the Aeronca Champ on this computer. I took it for a circuit today in RW around the patch at HSV. The wind was 7 knots from 060 degrees. I was able to taxi out, takeoff on 36R, fly a pattern and land (again on 36R). Level cruise at 1500 MSL was 75 mph (yup, using the old glider mph airspeed gauge). Touchdown was at 48 knots and -46 ft/min. That is one sweet little airplane. It is strictly eyeball navigation. But the scenery goes by slow and pretty.
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Post by Tom Goodrick on Jul 5, 2012 13:29:44 GMT -5
This morning on the CBS morning show, Capt Sully Sullenberger solved the mystery of the Airbus that suddenly flew into the ocean north of Africa a couple years ago. He is retained by CBS to comment on aviation safety. As you may know, the Airbus suddenly departed normal cruise flight and plunged into the ocean. Data recorders showed an inexperienced co-pilot was at the controls while the plane stalled after some turbulence. there were three pilots: a senior pilot in command who was out of the cockpit when the incident started, an experienced co-pilot who was in the left seat and a third, relatively inexperienced co-pilot who was in the right seat. Recorded data showed the one flying (the least experienced pilot, gave nose-up control and held it as the aircraft started a rapid descent with the stall warning alarm sounding. He held that command input almost all the way down until the Pilot In Command entered the cockpit and said "Push the nose down!". Then the aircraft hit the ocean.
First, Capt Sullenberger showed that the controls devices were independent side-stick controllers, on the left for the left-seat pilot and on the right for the right-seat pilot. There was no mechanical interconnection between the two sticks. The left pilot could not see the right pilot's stick very well. But even the right pilot holding the nose-up pitch input was not aware he was doing it because the deflection for full nose-up is very slight. It does register on a little graphic indicator but pilots generally do not look at that indicator.
Sullenberger said this problem would not have occurred in a Boeing airplane like the 747 because the two control wheels are mechanically linked and because it takes a big control deflection - fore and aft - to go to full nose-up pitch input. He demonstrated this in a 747 simulator. The left control wheel would have been way back in the lap of the more experienced pilot on the left who would have recognized that, with the stall warning sounding, you want the control wheel forward.
On the cockpit voice recorder, after the Captain enters the cockpit and remarks about the stall, the right-hand pilot softly says "Oh, I guess I was holding the stick back." That is the last word recorded.
The only reason this crash has remained a mystery so long, is that the Europeans who support the Airbus did not want this simple explanation to come out! It was just politics. It was evident to anyone who saw the flight data recorder and heard the cockpit tapes and certainly to anyone who sat in the cockpit of an Airbus after spending time in a Boeing.
I just finished reading and reviewing a novel entitled "Fly By Wire" by W Larsen about a somewhat similar fictional incident. You can see my review and many other reviews at Amazon.com for this novel. It is a fun read if you don't take it too seriously.
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Post by Tom Goodrick on Jun 16, 2012 7:50:08 GMT -5
Hey, I lost one important aspect of FS9 somehow. I can't get a starting flight that picks up the actual date and time to go with the weather. We're getting into the annual hot months and I like to get the true time, season and weather. I can't find where to turn those on now.
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Post by Tom Goodrick on Jun 15, 2012 15:52:15 GMT -5
I'm still not flying enough. My setup is not as good as when I used the "Desktop" computer on the floor at the corner "cockpit" layout with rudder pedals. Now I fly wrapped up in cords in my power lift chair cranked up to the proper attitude for moderate relaxation. My joystick cord comes across my lap from the "end table" on the right between our two lift chairs, my headphone cord goes off to the left with extra length coils on the floor to my left, (headphones mainly used to provide background music), a short cord comes out of the back of the laptop (that actually sits on my lap), goes through the fan base and connects to a USB to power my twin cooling fans. Almost forgot the power cord that winds around from the left up to the left side of the fan base and through it to the right side where it plugs into the laptop for power. So I get all set to fly and something disturbs me so I have to get up. Two cords get unplugged, the "UP" flaps are selected (sorry I mean UP tilt motor is engaged which tilts the chair forward and then down and then raises the seat up so I can step away without bending my knees. But first I must bend down and place the computer safely on the floor. The complexity is utterly ridiculous!
Does this unload my heart? Maybe when I recline to 90% and take a snooze.
I still try to record a song on soundclick now and then. I also have devised a "playlist" for Songza" of some favorites done by very fine jazz musicians including David Benoit, Dave Koz, Grover Washington JR, Walter Beasley, The Rippingtons, Brian Culbertson, Stan Kenton, Count Basie, Sarah Vaughn and others. This is available through my Facebook page. I don't know exactly what that looks like or how you use it because I don't see the same thing when I look at my Facebook page. This is pretty good flying weather. Basie's "Helicopter" will help. A couple of people have tunes named "Flight" and Grover's "Winelight" is great when high and on course.
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Post by Tom Goodrick on Jun 4, 2012 21:27:19 GMT -5
I recommend the Mirassou Pinot Noir. There will be plenty.
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Post by Tom Goodrick on Jun 3, 2012 18:01:19 GMT -5
When I went to weekend drills on NAS MPLS I came down to the base from the north and never got close to St Paul. I also drove Navy trucks out of the base to get supplies and entered Minneapolis right outside the gate. Today leaving the airline terminal you might be confused. But you must cross a bridge to get to St Paul. As a student at the U (with campuses in both Minneapolis and St Paul), I drove a Company car to exchange shipping correspondence between a Clearing House and trucking companies mostly in St Paul. But I criss-crossed the river so many times I was often very confused.
We have our barbeque all set up, specializing in Polynesian Hot Dogs (with pineapple filling and wrapped in bacon). there's plenty of beer, wine or Scotch to wash them down.
My own trip has been interrupted to resume studies of the MU-2B-60 with its full-span flaps and spoiler roll control (no ailerons at all). I had it pretty close and it needed only a brief touch-up. Then I made many flights with similar turboprops climbing out of, and returning to Myrtle Beach to check climb and payload performance.
Today I made a brief test out of Van Nuys of the Embraer Phenom 100 recently featured in FLYING. Again it needed a touch-up because some specs were not published when I did the first flight model.
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Post by Tom Goodrick on May 24, 2012 17:52:46 GMT -5
I was thinking the gliders would have to dive for speed but use spoilers to to reduce L/D. I thought I did see spoilers out. it is a very strange match of "aircraft".
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Post by Tom Goodrick on May 18, 2012 6:43:02 GMT -5
That is really amazing. I suppose the gliders have their spoilers deployed to stay with those guys as long as possible.
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Post by Tom Goodrick on May 16, 2012 9:40:14 GMT -5
Thanks for your clear discussion of the route you've taken so far. I missed some of those stops when trying to put together the route. I will be resuming my Grand Tour starting at KCOE where my Phenom Jet has been parked for a while. I will be switching back to my lightly-loaded Cessna 414 (direct drive) for this trip through Glacier NP, Yellowstone, direct KFCA, CYWG, to KMSP.
KMSP is known as "Minneapolis" since it is west of the Mississippi River. St Paul has their own own little airport south of the St Paul town center known as KSTP.
As a kid in the Civil Air Patrol I covered much of southern and central Minnesota in a J-3 (in the winter). We flew out of a grass strip near Anoka (no longer there). My first few takeoffs were made to the north directly over the bunkers of Federal Cartridge Corporation (which I prefer to use now with my pistols).
I spent a fair amount of time at NAS Minneapolis (located on KMSP) during my brief time with the Naval Air Reserve (1960-1962) with my Squadron VA813. I was the guy holding the fire bottle while pilots started the engines on their AD5's. I did get a nice ride on a T-28 once over southern Minnesota.
Looking forward to the hop eastward to Boston, etc (another old 'hometown').
I am flying with "Fair Weather" giving me no landing winds but fluffy clouds at about 4,000 ft and light westerly winds at altitude. With pressurization on the 414, I'll fly high sometimes and low other times.
Incidentally, as I found and discussed years ago on this Forum, turbocharged piston engines in FS9 do best with Auto Mixture ON and making no mixture adjustments. The manual mixture settings are all screwed up in the FD and are unfixable. But using auto mixture you get pretty close. That factoid is buried somewhere in the historical Forum pages.
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Post by Tom Goodrick on May 7, 2012 21:03:59 GMT -5
I found out what you would have to do to hear the songs. First get Songza. (Free and you can select many playlists). Then go to my Facebook page "Tom Goodrick." Then you will see a note telling about my playlist and then a list of songs. Click on any song in the list to hear it.
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