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Today was a textbook day for illusions! I was afraid that it would be weeks before I could experience them first hand. I was able to book this flight a little last minute on Friday night. I was going to experience two illusions today. These illusions are created by drift. It’s pretty simple really: Ground…
This is an update to a post I made earlier in the week. The flight on Saturday was good. We finished up stalls and spirals. Let me tell you, spirals are much more easier on the stomach than the spins are. One of my classmates took a video of her spin lesson – I asked…
Crew Resource Management. It’s a concept that is relatively new to the aviation scene. The idea behind CRM is that work flows and communication in the cockpit and with the rest of the crew is optimized. A lot of aviation accidents in the past were due to a lack of CRM. The most famous would…
This is a repost from Aviatrix’s latest post. First, some background: ADF Is a navigation tool thats based on AM radio signals. The way it works is that there are a bunch of “stations” (called NDBs, Non Directional Beacons) all over Canada that broadcast this AM signal that you use for direction finding. There is…
My last two lessons have been canceled because my FI is sick. Get better soon! My midterms are coming up this week (and next). I’ve been studying for my Human Factors midterm on Saturday and I’m going to spend the most of the day today doing so as well. The second half of this class…
Can it be? Three in a row?! Yes, well.. sort of. The weather today was looking marginal for finishing up practicing spins and spirals. So I decided today would be better spent on a ground briefing than in the air. I was still able to get in 2 flights this weekend. Saturdays flight was probably…
This clip is a good example of a language barrier that could cause potential problems with air traffic. It looks like the controller was telling the pilot that the flight level was available until a certain point, however both the pilot (and my self) didn’t understand. Listen to the clip here. Also interesting to note:…
I’m sure you’ve heard the news. Steve Fossett is trying to break the longest flight record in his Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer. I’d be interesting to see if anyone is able to capture some clips of his travels on LiveATC.net. His route takes him over Canadian airspace (specifically Gander, NL) which LiveATC.net has a feed…
… according to one of my teachers. Let’s start off with a little bit of grade 10 physics: There are four forces that act on an airplane: Lift, Weight (gravity), Thrust, and Drag. All of these forces are equal in straight and level flight. Rule of Flight #1: Lift always acts perpendicular to the wingspan…