Monday, February 1, 2010 - 18:34:57 ET

Do You Monitor 121.5?

It's been a year since the cospas-sarsat program stopped monitoring 121.5Mhz for distress signals. However, Transport Canada has provided a grace period for aircraft owners to move to the new 406Mhz ELTs.

This means that potentially nobody is listening on 121.5Mhz for the ELT signal.

The new system offers way more advantages to the old one. Mainly the ability to encode your GPS location in the distress signal so that Search and Rescue can come to your aid more quickly.

To be honest, whenever I've flown an aircraft with dual radios, I've never tuned to 121.5Mhz on the secondary radio. I mostly used the secondary radio to listen to traffic/calls for the area that I would be entering in the future.

The new 407Mhz ELTs still broadcast on 121.5Mhz along with distress calls and communications by intercepting aircraft. So my question to you is, do you still monitor 121.5?

[Note: I updated to correct the article. Thanks Richard!]

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Sunday, January 31, 2010 - 14:54:48 ET

Logbook Updated

I spent the last two hours cleaning up my logbook and putting in missing entries. Let this be a lesson! Always update your logbook after every flight!

I've updated the my hours on this site, on the left hand side. It's nice to see that I've broken the 200 Hour mark. Shame I don't have a CPL to show for it (yet).

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Wednesday, January 20, 2010 - 12:39:42 ET

Flying, According to Rick Mercer

Here is a funny clip from the Rick Mercer Report (a show on CBC here in Canada) about the recent security changes for flights in to the USA.

He also has an interesting (and funny) look at some of the behind the scenes at Vancouver International Airport.

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Wednesday, January 13, 2010 - 09:38:41 ET

Loran-C No More In the USA

The United States Coast Guard is going to terminate the LORAN-C service this February. The full service shutdown wont be complete until October of this year.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security has certified that the Loran-C system infrastructure is not needed as a backup to the GPS system or to meet any other federal navigation requirement.

More information can be found on Inside GNSS.

I've never been formally trained on how to use LORAN-C for navigation, however I have flown aircraft with the equipment on board.

I agree that we do need a backup to GPS however I dont think current navaid technology (VORs, NDBs) are good enough. LORAN-C seemed like the perfect tool.

Have you ever used LORAN-C? Does this affect you at all?

I don't believe there are any LORAN-C transmitters in Canada.

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Wednesday, January 6, 2010 - 23:11:29 ET

Events I Plan On Attending

Here is a list of some Aviation related events that I have put in my calendar for this year. I doubt I will be able to get to them all.

January 20 - Transport Canada System Safety Seminar - Raising the Bar
May 29-30 - Wings and Wheels at Downsview
July 26 - Oshkosh (anyone planning on going by air want to give me a lift?)
??? - Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum (I think they have a fly-in/open house every summer)

Are you planning on going to any events this year?

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Tuesday, January 5, 2010 - 23:09:54 ET

Incipient Spin Caused By Engine Failure

"...If the engine fails on take-off with insufficient runway remaining, I will trim the aircraft for best glide and try to land withing 30° of the runway centreline."

Ahh, the take-off briefing! This particular line is an important one. It's not advisable to try to turn around after an engine failure on take-off. This video demonstrates why you shouldn't.

With such a high bank angle at such a slow airspeed, the aircraft enters into a spin and crashes. The sad thing about this situation is that it looks like the pilot had enough room to land straight ahead without incident.

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Wednesday, December 30, 2009 - 11:26:40 ET

Pilot is Dead. Now What?

Picture this: Flying home with your family, on a King Air. You have flown single engine airplanes before, but nothing as complex as a turbocharged, retractable gear, multi engined aircraft like the King Air.

You decide to travel in the co-pilots seat while the pilot of the aircraft takes off and flys you home.

10 Min after take-off, the pilot dies. What do you do?

This happened to Doug White. A video of his radar track and atc communications of the almost 40 min ordeal is a good watch.

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