Monday, January 28, 2008

Throwing the red flag


Look at all those red streamers hanging off this airplane. Is this some sort of decoration - to prove to others how fast you're going?


Let's hope not - those flags should be "Removed Before Flight." Those are mostly pitot tube covers, and are critical to safe operations. The cover keeps dirt, contamination, and insects from entering the pitot tube, which can result in erroneous instrument indications and damage to systems.

Pitot tubes are used on aircraft as speedometers. The actual tube on the aircraft is around 10 inches (25 centimeters) long with a 1/2 inch (1 centimeter) diameter. Several small holes are drilled around the outside of the tube and a center hole is drilled down the axis of the tube. The outside holes are connected to one side of a device called a pressure transducer. The center hole in the tube is kept separate from the outside holes and is connected to the other side of the transducer. The transducer measures the difference in pressure in the two groups of tubes by measuring the strain in a thin element using an electronic strain gauge. The pitot tube is mounted on the aircraft so that the center tube is always pointed in the direction of travel and the outside holes are perpendicular to the center tube. (On some airplanes the pitot tube is put on a longer boom sticking out of the nose of the plane or the wing.) http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/VirtualAero/BottleRocket/airplane/pitot.html If the pitot tubes are blocked, the speed of the aircraft cannot be accurately measured. This has resulted that more than just a few accidents.

There are also "engine plugs" to keep contamination from entering the engine. Snow can pile up in there - and birds can build nests overnight. Just another way to keep an expensive piece of machinery from needing maintenance!

Someone asked how to pronounce Pitot - it's pronounced /ˈpiːtoʊ/ tube. The Pitot tube was invented by Italian-born French engineer Henri Pitot in the early 1700s, and was modified to its modern form in the mid 1800s by French scientist Henry Darcy.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Elizabeth shares scholarships available in San Diego

If YOU hear of any scholarships, please pass them along and/or post them on the message board: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Gibbs Endowment Scholarship Fund
The San Diego Aerospace Museum
Attn: Education Office
2001 Pan American Plaza
San Diego, CA 92101(619) 234-8291, ext. 119
Application Deadline: Postmarked no later than April 1, 2008
Open to: Graduating seniors from San Diego County high schools who will be attending a four-year university.
Interest/Requirements: Applicants must have high academic achievement, a strong aviation/aerospace career interest and be pursuing a degree in math, physics, science, or engineering. Interested students must write directly to the San Diego Aerospace Museum to request an application (please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope). Eligible applicants will be interviewed.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Convair Alumni Association Scholarship
The Convair Alumni Association and The San Diego Aerospace Museum
Attn: Education Office
2001 Pan American Plaza
San Diego, CA 92101(619) 234-8291, ext. 119
Application Deadline: Postmarked no later than April 1, 2008
Open to: Graduating seniors from San Diego County high schools who will be attending a four-year university.Interest/Requirements: Applicants must be direct descendants (natural or adopted) of former employees of Consolidated Aircraft Corporation (1935-1943), Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation (1943-1954), or General Dynamics Corporation (1954-1997) and who worked in the San Diego area. Interested students must write directly to the San Diego Aerospace Museum to request an application (please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope). Eligible applicants will be interviewed.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zoie Lewandowski
ΦΘΚ – ΑΩΡ
http://bridge2peacechristmas2007.blogspot.com/

Elizabeth shares scholarships available in San Diego

If YOU hear of any scholarships, please pass them along and/or post them on the message board: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Gibbs Endowment Scholarship Fund
The San Diego Aerospace Museum
Attn: Education Office
2001 Pan American Plaza
San Diego, CA 92101(619) 234-8291, ext. 119
Application Deadline: Postmarked no later than April 1, 2008
Open to: Graduating seniors from San Diego County high schools who will be attending a four-year university.
Interest/Requirements: Applicants must have high academic achievement, a strong aviation/aerospace career interest and be pursuing a degree in math, physics, science, or engineering. Interested students must write directly to the San Diego Aerospace Museum to request an application (please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope). Eligible applicants will be interviewed.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Convair Alumni Association Scholarship
The Convair Alumni Association and The San Diego Aerospace Museum
Attn: Education Office
2001 Pan American Plaza
San Diego, CA 92101(619) 234-8291, ext. 119
Application Deadline: Postmarked no later than April 1, 2008
Open to: Graduating seniors from San Diego County high schools who will be attending a four-year university.Interest/Requirements: Applicants must be direct descendants (natural or adopted) of former employees of Consolidated Aircraft Corporation (1935-1943), Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation (1943-1954), or General Dynamics Corporation (1954-1997) and who worked in the San Diego area. Interested students must write directly to the San Diego Aerospace Museum to request an application (please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope). Eligible applicants will be interviewed.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zoie Lewandowski
ΦΘΚ – ΑΩΡ
http://bridge2peacechristmas2007.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Girls With Wings Calendar


From time to time, GWW receives requests for attendees or volunteers to various aviation events around the country, most of them dealing with girls and education.

Here is a recent addition to the calendar.

Date = March 8, 2008 ~ 7:30 am - 5:00 pm
Title = Wings to Fly
Location = Peoria, AZ
Description = The Arizona Department of Transportation, Aeronautics Division will be hosting the 2nd Annual "Wings to Fly" at the Challenger Space Center in Peoria, AZ. This event is focused on encouraging girls to pursue careers in aviation and aerospace. This is a free all day event.
Location = The event is located at the Challenger Space Center in Peoria, AZ. The address for the Challenger Center is 21170 N 83rd Ave, Peoria, AZ.

For more information, contact Carole Glenn via email at cglenn@azdot.gov or phone at 602.294.9144

Website = http://www.blogger.com/www.azdot.gov/aviation/wingstofly

Friday, January 18, 2008

Aircraft Electronics Association Scholarships

The AEA Educational Foundation has awarded nearly $1,000,000 to students seeking careers in the aircraft electronics and aviation maintenance industry. Numerous awards are available and range from $500 to more than $35,000 each. The deadline for 2008-2009 school year awards is February 15, 2008.



Scholarship Applications



Scholarship Descriptions



Scholarship Winners 2006-2007-->

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Another Scholarship

"This scholarship applies only to obtaining a private pilot license. It does not apply to instrument ratings or any other aspect of flight training. This scholarship is not intended for individuals already enrolled in a university based flight program, which offers instruction in private pilot certification as part of the curriculum. Ages 16-23 years.In order to be considered for a 2008 scholarship, applications need to be online at www.leroywhomerjr.org and submitted/postmarked by Tuesday, January 31, 2008.

Applications postmarked after January 31, 2008, or applications with no postmark will be rejected."The deadline is approaching. Apply now. http://www.leroywhomerjr.org/scholarships.html

Thunderbird Video

This story has been going around the aviation sites, but I finally just watched it and it's worth a couple of minutes. It's an interested take on the Thunderbird maneuvers and how dangerous they can be.

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: BEHIND THE SCENES OF THAT AMAZING THUNDERBIRD EJECTION/CRASH PHOTO
Original, Exclusive Videos from AVweb Reader-Submitted & Viral Videos

When we first saw the photo of Capt. Chris Stricklin's ejection from a doomed U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds F-16 a few years ago, most of us here at AVweb thought it was a fake. But the more we looked at it, the more it seemed possible that someone had actually snapped Stricklin's moment of truth in what must be one of the greatest aviation photos ever shot. Well, it wasn't long before we learned that Staff Sgt. Bennie J. Davis III had actually captured the drama at an air show at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho.

In this AVweb original video, Video Editor Glenn Pew looks at the circumstances surrounding the dramatic accident — combining still photos, in-cockpit and outside-of-cockpit video, and narration including the investigation's findings and changes in procedure for the T-birds.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Taxiing in Chicago


Yesterday we were at Chicago O'hare's airport (KORD). Hopefully I have remembered the events accurately. I have been a pilot for 15 years, and our getting our airplane successfully around this airport was a real challenge!

To explain, we were parked at the Fixed Base Operator, which is marked on this diagram as the FBO Ramp on the right side. Can you find it? Click on the picture or on this link: http://204.108.4.16/d-tpp/0713/00166AD.PDF, which will open larger.

Our company actually let us know right off the bat that we were supposed to taxi on LL short of V to call ground. This means that we first tune the ATIS frequency (135.4) to hear the prerecorded departure information (weather and runway info). ATIS said to call Ground Metering on 121.67 - this is a busy airport and this is how airplanes get in line. There wasn't a delay, so Metering told us to "Taxi Lima Lima, Hold Short of Victor, MONITOR Ground 121.9." Monitor means tune the frequency, but don't call them, wait for the Air Traffic Controllers to call you with instructions.

Ground called and said that our runway was 22L, so go LL to MM, hold short of 27L. Now, it would be fine if you had all the time in the world to mosey on over, but there are airplanes moving all over the place and we all are "metered" into the traffic flow. So we get to holding short of 27L - awaiting the landing airplanes. There are radio calls going back and forth all over the place so we have to listen closely so we can hear our call sign.

All of a sudden they call us again, "Cleared across 27L, take Bravo across the bridge, hold short of A21, call 121.75." This is another Ground Frequency because the airport is so big. Not only do you have to remember what the directions are - I usually write them down - you have to check the airport diagram to confirm which way you need to turn. Controllers sometimes speak very quickly because they assume you have been to their airport before and know which way to go to the runway (it is a good idea to set up your instruments for the runway before ever leaving parking so you know the general direction).

Yes, we had to cross a bridge! We got to the other side and there was a huge commercial airliner being pushed back from its gate right into us. We stayed out of their way, and soon heard our call sign and "Follow the Airliner to Alpha, take A18 to Delta all the way to 22L." Meanwhile, there are other airplanes taxiing too, so you have to pay attention - do you wait for the airplane already on the taxiway, or are you supposed to be first? Usually they'll tell you if you have to yield to someone else - there are no red/green lights!

Finally, we make it to the end of the departure runway, switch to tower frequency and await instructions to taxi onto the runway and get cleared for takeoff. Whew!

Yes, it was very hectic. It should be noted that taxiing is a very critical phase of a flight (this is why people should keep their seatbelts fastened until the "Captain turns off the fasten seatbelt sign"), because there are many so chances for mistakes; turning the wrong way, forgetting or misinterpreting instructions, night/poor visibility conditions.... The Federal Aviation Administration is doing everything they can do prevent accidents - it's been in the news quite a bit. It every crewmembers' responsibility to keep her head up and keep situational awareness. If a pilot doesn't understand the instructions, it is completely appropriate to ask the controller to repeat. Even if she gets upset at a pilot taking up the busy radio time. The implications can be bad, legally (a pilot can lose her license for a violation) or safety wise (airplanes have accidently taxiied onto active runways).

All in a day of the life of a pilot.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Rod Machado's License to Learn article

I spent last night just outside of O'hare airport - right on final. To the left is an example of one of the airplanes passing by my window that lulled me to sleep last night (until the hotel had a 3:30am fire drill!).

If you are not a member of the Airplane Owners and Pilots Association, you might not know Rod Machado. He is a humorous author of many aviation books and articles - teaching while entertaining. In this month's AOPA magazine, his License to Learn article is entitled Reluctant Moms and Dad. It has special significance to me, considering the goals I am striving for with Girls With Wings. You can read the whole article at http://www.aopa.org/members/files/pilot/2008/ltol0801.html if you are an AOPA member. I would highly encourage you to become a member, since this is a huge advocacy group for general aviation.

Here is what Rod has to say:



Suppose I told you I could get your child to enthusiastically study geography, math, physics, chemistry, and psychology. After you had my head examined, would you be interested? Oh, and as a bonus I can get him or her to hang out with highly motivated, well-educated older people who are good role models because they don’t do drugs or spray graffiti, and they have a great work ethic.


You’re still with me, aren’t you? Then let’s talk about the value of allowing a responsible teenager to take flying lessons.


Perhaps you’re one of those parents (or perhaps you know one) who is reluctant to let your teenager take up flying for one or all of the usual reasons (generalized anxiety, cost, competition for the family airplane). Although you may have compelling reasons for feeling as you do, I’d like to offer a different perspective on why you should enthusiastically nurture and support your child’s desire to fly. More specifically, since you’re probably a pilot already and likely open to the idea, I’d like to offer you some ammunition that might help you convince reluctant non-pilot parents that flight training for their child would be the best educational investment they could make.


Social science research now says that a teenager’s peer group has as much (if not more) influence on the development of that individual’s values as his or her parents. For this reason alone, it’s reasonable to consider that flight training might confer a powerful developmental advantage on any young adult with an interest in airplanes. After all, the moment a person begins flight training, he or she immediately starts associating with an entirely new peer group that emphasizes the value of rules, rituals, and responsibilities.


Most of the individuals your child encounters during flight training are highly motivated, educated, and dedicated people, and most of them also will be older and more mature than your child. Think about it. Suddenly, your teenager starts singing the praises of someone over age 30 who values education, self-discipline, self-study, and self-reliance. Even in your wildest dreams as a parent, could you imagine that your teenager might seek out and spend time with such people, especially since these folks aren’t probation officers? Could you imagine having some influence over the new friends your offspring makes? Go ahead, pinch yourself so you’ll know it’s true.


There are few things as sad as young people without a sense of purpose or passion in their lives. Sure, they may be good kids, but they’re also bored, and boredom provides absolutely no developmental advantage whatsoever. Nature and teenagers
abhor a vacuum (or a vacuum cleaner), so this void is going to be filled with something. This is the primary reason young people should be exposed to as many new and novel ideas as possible (specifically, ideas that don’t involve puncturing, piercing, or indelibly coloring parts of the body). You hope that such a worthwhile pursuit clicks and triggers a burning desire—the Holy Grail for most parents—deep in their child’s psyche. If there’s any chance that flight training will trigger a passion for learning in your child, then you owe it to him or her to explore the idea. It may just change the way they look at the world. It may also disabuse your child of the notion that being tossed into a mosh pit at a Radiators From Space punk rock concert and bodysurfing a wave of human hands is Nirvana itself.


Another reason to consider flight training for an interested teenager is that it’s an honest way of developing self-respect. For the past quarter century, the self-esteem movement in this country professed that simply making young people feel good about themselves was the key to generating productive and responsible behavior. We have seen this phenomenon in physical games where nobody loses because a score is seldom kept (thus, nobody has their feelings hurt) and everybody wins because you get a trophy for just showing up. Lack of self-esteem was even touted as the real reason behind the irresponsible and criminal behavior of young people. Social science, however, has shown this premise to be false. In fact, most of the really bad boys and girls in prison aren’t short on self-esteem. Scientifically speaking, criminals score extremely high on self-esteem scales. It turns out that the value of self-esteem as it applies to improving someone’s behavior is determined primarily by how it’s earned, not whether it’s conferred.


Telling young people to have pride and self-respect simply applies a veneer of feeling good but doesn’t teach them behaviors that both generate and sustain self-respect. In the end, the common sense view prevailed: People appreciate more deeply what they legitimately earn, not what they’re given (or told they should have). Learning to fly an airplane is a responsible, authentic means of generating pride and self-respect. Give an interested teenager flying lessons, and you’ll teach him or her that study, discipline, and practice are personal qualities to be admired and acquired.


If you’re hesitant about allowing your child to take flying lessons (or are the doting aunt, uncle, grandfather, or grandmother), I hope you’ll consider what I’ve said, and give the gift of flight. When you learn something new, you become something new. So give your child a chance to become something new by introducing him or her to aviation.


Aviation humorist Rod Machado writes from Southern California. His personal website is http://www.rodmachado.com/

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Various Types of Flying Pursuits


I consider myself lucky, having had the experience of flying helicopters in addition to airplanes. There are a lot of people that have only flown fixed wing aircraft. But there are so many different kinds of flying machines and reasons to fly them. One type of airplane that not many people are rated to fly are seaplanes. I am so jealous of anyone who can takeoff and land on water! I was in Ft Myers, FL, yesterday, and took a picture of this float plane.
Ok, so why would this capability be necessary?
Courtesy of wikipedia:
Uses and operation
Numerous modern civilian aircraft have a floatplane variant, usually for light duty transportation to lakes and other remote areas. Most of these are offered as third-party modifications under a supplemental type certificate (STC), although there are several aircraft manufacturers that build floatplanes from scratch, and a few that continue to build flying boats.
Many older flying boats remain in service for fire-fighting duty, and Chalk's Ocean Airways operated a fleet of Grumman Mallards in passenger service until service was suspended after a crash on December 19, 2005, which was linked to maintenance, not to design of the aircraft. Purely water-based seaplanes have largely been supplanted by amphibious aircraft.

Seaplanes can only take off and land on water with little or no wave action and, like other aircraft, have trouble in extreme weather. The size of waves a given design can withstand depends on, among other factors, the aircraft's size, hull or float design, and its weight, all making for a much more unstable aircraft, limiting actual operational days. Flying boats can typically handle rougher water and are generally more stable than floatplanes while on the water.

Rescue organizations, such as coast guards, are among the largest modern operators of seaplanes due to their efficiency and their ability to both spot and rescue survivors. Land-based airplanes cannot rescue survivors, and many helicopters are limited in their capacity to carry survivors and in their fuel efficiency compared to fixed-wing aircraft. (Helicopters may also be fitted with floats to facilitate their usage on water, though such craft are not referred to as "seaplanes".) These are even more limited in range.

Water aircraft are also often used in remote areas such as the Alaskan and Canadian outback, especially in areas with a large number of lakes convenient for takeoff and landing. They may operate on a charter basis, provide scheduled service, or be operated by residents of the area for private, personal use.

Greece uses seaplanes to connect its many islands to the mainland. In the Western Hemisphere, there are numerous seaplane operators in the Caribbean Sea that offer service within or between island groups.

In August 2007, Scottish based commercial operator Loch Lomond Seaplanes launched the only European city based seaplane service. They offer a daily service from Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, to the west coast town of Oban, as well as charters and excursions elsewhere.

Monday, January 07, 2008

The Girls With Wings Website gets new paint!

The website has a new color scheme (though it will take me a few days to transition all of the pages). What do you think? Send me an email to let me know if you like it. Lynda@girlswithwings.com

Hope your new year is a good one!

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Mis-firing in your Wiring



I had started this post looking for some statistic on how much wiring is in an airplane. All airplanes are different, of course, with some more complex than others. Electrical wiring is used for the obvious reasons, like lights, radios, etc., so I figured that if you included all of the other systems in the airplane, there would be miles and miles. I bring this up because we had to bring an airplane into maintenance, and the first thing the mechanics did was to open the avionics bay. This is where all of the radios, batteries, generators, etc, are usually located on an airplane. It is an unpressurized compartment, which means that this bay climbs in altitude with the airplane. The back wall (in this picture - the one to the right) is where the aircraft is sealed to pressurized with the airplane. There is a section at the rear of the airplane that is not pressurized either.

This is not viewable to the pilots during their preflight. If it was we'd see all of the wires and tubes leading into the pressurized vessel. This is on the other side of the flight deck, so obviously a lot of it has some level of importance to the pilots.

So I ask again, just how much wiring is in an airplane? Here is a much better picture:

In fact, according to this aviation maintenance magazine http://www.coopind.com/news_wiringmatters.htm :

Modern jets contain 100-200 miles of wiring running into every nook and cranny of the airplane. To borrow a biological metaphor, the wiring is akin to the body’s nervous system.

The trend matters. New jets feature more wiring carrying more current (the advent of wireless systems is reversing this trend). The cabin area of a new-production jet, for example, features wiring for such things as in-flight entertainment systems. A measurement the electric power generating capacity of 1st, 2nd, and current generation jets of comparable passenger-carrying capability would show a steady increase in aircraft electric power generating capability.

Mostly I just found articles with concerns about wiring. There were about ten articles in USAToday alone in 1999. http://www.usatoday.com/money/biztravel/wiring/w010.htm

Damaged wire insulation has led to fires and electrical equipment failures for years in military and commercial airplanes, according to Air Force, Navy and Federal Aviation Administration documents. U.S. and Canadian investigators are studying whether wiring malfunctions might have caused the crashes of TWA Flight 800 in 1996 and Swissair Flight 111 in 1998. Last September, NASA put a hold on space shuttle flights because damaged wiring was found throughout the agency's aircraft. An exposed wire caused a short circuit during the launch of the shuttle Columbia last summer. Similar flaws were later found elsewhere on Columbia and on the Endeavor and Discovery shuttles.

The problem is, you can't really see most of these wiring bundles http://www.usatoday.com/money/biztravel/wiring/w005.htm :


Wire-testing experts agree with Block that visual inspections have limitations. ''Almost all the wires in commercial aircraft are in bundles,'' says Chris Teal of Eclypse International, which sells wire-testing machines. ''Visual inspections can't see some radial cracks or each wire in a bundle. You have to check all the wires because often the problem is just one.''

Airline personnel used only flashlights to examine the wiring, and wire bundles were
left undisturbed. The inspectors -- some of whom examined their own airline's
planes -- were trained to look for ''signs of deterioration, cracked insulation,
discoloration, sparking, arc tracking, improper routing and dirt or lead buildup,'' Marcontell says. Wire-testing experts agree with Block that visual inspections have limitations. ''Almost all the wires in commercial aircraft are in bundles,'' says Chris Teal of Eclypse International, which sells wire-testing machines. ''Visual inspections can't see some radial cracks or each wire in a bundle. You have to check all the wires because often the problem is just one.''
I don't mean to scare anyone with this information. As we all know, flying is inherently dangerous and we have to take it seriously. It's good to know these things are being researched and improved on.

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Traveling Cross Country




I ended the year 2007 by traveling across the US. I actually started my flights on Christmas day, when I flew from Cleveland to New Hampshire. It had been particularly warm in CLE and we had lost all of our snow, so I was happy to see some white stuff.


You have to be careful what you wish for, because I then flew across the Rocky Mountains (to the right) into Telluride to drop off a family for their holiday vacation.











We also had a flight across Monument Valley in Utah. You can read more about this amazing landscape at http://www.navajonationparks.org/htm/monumentvalley.htm. It looks much better from the ground - I drove through here once on my move from Texas to Minnesota (I took the long way).




Last but not least, we flew from California to the Phoenix area, which took us right over the Grand Canyon. http://www.nps.gov/grca If you've never been to the GC, it is so much BIGGER than you would imagine. It is so wide and so deep that you actually lose your depth perception - it looks like a painting.


A great explanation is found on http://www.vision3d.com/stereo.html

Two Eyes = Three Dimensions (3D)!Each eye captures its own view and the two separate images are sent on to the brain for processing. When the two images arrive simultaneously in the back of the brain, they are united into one picture. The mind combines the two images by matching up the similarities and adding in the small differences. The small differences between the two images add up to a big difference in the final picture! The combined image is more than the sum of its parts. It is a three-dimensional stereo picture.


The word "stereo" comes from the Greek word "stereos" which means firm or solid. With stereo vision you see an object as solid in three spatial dimensions--width, height and depth--or x, y and z. It is the added perception of the depth dimension that makes stereo vision so rich and special.


Pilots, by the way, are tested for and must have depth perception.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Happy New Year!

The new Girls With Wings eZine is out. You can view it here or sign up for monthly delivery (this is also the better looking copy!).
Have a great one,
Lynda