A plane needs air to be able to fly. Thanks to the laws of physics, the same parcel of air can have different characteristics based on temperature and altitude. Because of this, there are a few things we have to be careful of while trying to keep that hunk of metal afloat. Let’s take a…
I did better than expected on my Meterology midterm: 81%. Most of my mistakes were due to stupidity (ie, not reading the question properly). I also took care of the Radio Operators test on the weekend. The massing mark is 70%. It comprised of 30 multiple choice questions and 10 short answer questions. Pretty straight…
I’ve been using the following two documents provided by Industry Canada as a study guide for the Radiotelephone License: – Study Guide for the Radio telephone Operator’s Restircted Certificate (Aeronautical) – Guide for Examiners Conducting Examinations for the Radiotelephone Operator’s Restricted Certificate (Aeronautical) The examiner guide is good, because it contains some sample questions you…
I’ve been spending the past hour working on my Computer Systems assignment (its a METAR, TAF, and FD decoder). I’m at the point now where I have to convert the weather codes into human readable format. Ie, make it so that “SN” is displayed as “Snow”. Most of the codes are straight forward: SN =…
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…