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General Aviation Info: Aviation Topic of the Month

Flight planning is the process of producing a flight plan to describe a proposed aircraft flight. It involves two safety-critical aspects: fuel calculation, to ensure that the aircraft can safely reach the destination, and compliance with air traffic control requirements, to minimise the risk of mid-air collision. In addition, planners normally wish to minimise flight cost by appropriate choice of route, height, and speed, and by loading the minimum necessary fuel on board.

Flight planning requires accurate weather forecasts so that fuel consumption calculations can account for the fuel consumption effects of head or tail winds and air temperature. Safety regulations require aircraft to carry fuel beyond the minimum needed to fly from origin to destination, allowing for unforeseen circumstances or for diversion to another airport if the planned destination becomes unavailable. Furthermore, under the supervision of air traffic control, aircraft flying in controlled airspace must follow predetermined routes known as airways, even if such routes are not as economical as a more direct flight. Within these airways, aircraft must maintain flight levels, specified altitudes usually separated vertically by 1000 or 2000 feet, depending on the route being flown and the direction of travel. When aircraft with only two engines are flying across oceans, they have to satisfy extra safety rules to ensure that such aircraft can reach some emergency airport if one engine fails (See ETOPS).

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Start out the New Year right by resolving to know what the dimensions and the approved fuel grades (and colors) are for your aircraft. This section also usually contains supplemental data, definitions or explanations of symbols, abbreviations, and terminology commonly used. Recall that standard empty weight is the weight of a standard airplane, including unusable fuel, full operating fluids, and full engine oil. What about reference datum? A proficient pilot knows how to communicate clearly with others by using the language of aviation and its terminology. (The reference datum, by the way, is an imaginary vertical plane from which all horizontal distances are measured for balance purposes.) These terms and other gems may be uncovered in Section 1 of most aircraft manuals.

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Round out your year of monthly study with a thorough review of your aircraft's limitations. Some of these limitations are visible at all times in the form of placards, and some must be memorized. For most aircraft, limitations include airspeeds of operation, power plant limitations, weight limits, center of gravity limits, maneuver limits, flight load factor limits, fuel limits, and flap-operating limitations. You may have touched on some of these topics in previous months, but it is still a good idea to devote some time to reviewing them.

Now that you've been studying for a whole year, I'll bet there's nothing you don't know about your airplane. I'd even bet that it was fun, or at least a little easier since you approached it one section at a time. Remember that any activity worth doing takes effort. Considering how much fun it is to fly, I think you'll find that the effort of staying proficient is well worth it.

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Get ready for Old Man Winter by taking a look at how your airplane is - or is not - equipped to neutralize the effects of cold air, frost, snow, or ice. Your POH should describe the equipment that is available on your aircraft and include a schematic diagram to supplement the description.

Be aware of the potential hazards of carbon-monoxide poisoning from engine manifold leaks while using cabin heat, and look into some of the carbon monoxide alerting systems available. A simple carbon-monoxide detector is inexpensive, yet it could save your life someday. Remember to dress appropriately if you do fly in cold climates. An off-airport landing in winter, though successful, could lead to disaster afterward if you do not have adequate protective clothing.

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Go through your aircraft's POH section on weight and balance and revisit a loading problem, a loading graph, a center of gravity moment envelope chart, and a center of gravity limits chart.

Remember the basic formulas needed to solve a weight and balance problem:

• WAM (Weight times Arm equals Moment) and,
• M/W=CG (Moment divided by Weight equals Center of Gravity)

Don't become the subject of an NTSB accident report because you were flying outside of your aircraft's weight and balance limitations.

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A slip landing is a technique for landing an airplane in a crosswind. As the pilot begins his final approach, he corrects for the wind by angling the plane and using the ailerons and rudder to correct for the wind.

Essentially, the rudder is used to keep the plane pointing in the same direction as it is traveling relative to the ground. The ailerons are used to keep the airplane over the extended centerline. In this configuration, one wing will be lower than the other and the airplane will not be flying (relative to the wind) in the same direction it is pointing. Part of the lift generated by the wings pulls the plane into the wind.

Because slips are uncomfortable for passengers and can increase the risk of the plane entering a spin, slips are generally not used for the entire descent. Pilots usually advocate a combination of the slip landing and crab landing techniques for the smoothest possible landings.

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In the early days of flying, pilots realised that their aircraft could be used as part of a flying circus to entertain people or impress others by performing aerobatics. Maneuvers that had no practical purpose were flown for artistic reasons or to draw gasps from onlookers. In due course some of these maneuvers were found to allow aircraft to gain tactical advantage during aerial combat or “dog fights” between fighter aircraft. The word presumably derives from the term used by human gymnasts — acrobatics — to describe exercises designed to impress or build muscle strength.

Many aerobatic maneuvers involve rotation of the aircraft about its longtitudinal axis - rolling - or the pitch axis - looping. Some complex maneuvers - such as a spin (flight) - also require that the aircraft be displaced around a vertical axis, known as yawing. Maneuvers are often combined which demands a higher level of skill from the pilot, but greatly increases the spectacle of an aerobatic flight sequence.