The latest episode of Mythbusters tackles the myth of cell phones on airplanes. Their experiment was done two different ways. First they purchased a bunch of equipment, radio stacks, VOR/NDB radios, GPSs and got it working. They then tested the equipment by tuning it to an airport VOR (San Francisco, which was 10miles away). During…
No flying today because of thunderstorms. The upside though is that I have yet another METAR I can use to test my METAR parsning engine that I wrote for my Computer Systems class. This SPECI is particularly interesting: SPECI CYKZ 131233Z 09011G16KT 2 1/4SM -TSRA BR BKN006 OVC012CB RERA RMK SC6CB2 CB N MOVG E…
I will probably find out how I did on the Radio Exam come Monday. In the meantime I’ve been studying for the PSTAR test. The passing grade for this test is 90% and its your ticket to getting your Training License (read: fly solo). Subject areas include: – Canadian Aviation Regulations (CARs) – Air Traffic…
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…