Aviation Blog - Page 98

No one really likes going to the bathroom on an airplane, and no one really wants to think about what happens when you unleash that tremendous suctioned flush. Where Does Airplane Waste Go? They store it onboard for the duration of the flight. Once landed, a special truck comes and sucks out the contents of

As President, as in life, the right choice is often hard and hardly apparent. The answer is often more complex than first imagined and, to quote Obi-Wan, “depends greatly on our own point of view.” For example, what’s the answer to this Presidential quandary – who was the first President to fly? The answer: Roosevelt.

We don’t tend to think much about airplane windows, and when we do, it’s often for the wrong reason. If you aren’t a pilot or airline industry insider, you can hear all sorts of horror stories about windows cracking, but surely they’re stronger than that, right? Well, thankfully, yes – airplane windows aren’t made from

Modern small aircraft pilots can be forgiven for taking the “direct to” button on their GPS for granted. The ability to navigate straight to any point on the planet is a powerful tool in the cockpit. GPS has brought this technology to nearly every plane in the sky, but the concept has been around for

While it may seem like a simple matter, determining how high an airplane is flying is rather complicated. There are at least five different types of altitude that pilots use and think about. Which one is the altimeter reading, and is it even correct? It’s not a question an experienced pilot should have to ponder

Retard means reduce engine thrust to idle. Here is why Airbus jets call RETARD at 20 feet on landing, and what Boeing shows on screen instead.

There are two fundamental types of flying in the world. To greatly oversimplify it, the world of airliners and jets is instrument flying (IFR). The world of Cessnas and Piper Cubs is visual flying (VFR). But sometimes airliners fly visually, and some Cessnas fly on instruments. It’s all about the tools the pilot needs to

Most of a student pilot’s time in ground school is spent learning how airplanes fly. Just mastering the basics of straight-and-level, unaccelerated flight is plenty confusing. But comprehending the nuances of the forces of flight requires understanding that the critical stuff happens when things change. Today, let’s take a look at load factor. When an aircraft

Even the most ordinary things in aviation sound fancy, mostly because they get fancy-sounding acronyms. What sounds classier than a gas station and a corner mini-mart? In aviation, that would be an FBO. FBO stands for fixed-based operator and is a business found at an airport. The most common services offered by FBOs are fuel,

Now a dying technology, ADF-based navigation was once the foundation of the airspace system. VORs eventually replaced it and, more recently, it has been made nearly obsolete by GPS satellite navigation. ADF stands for automatic direction finder. Based on simple AM-radio ground stations called NDBs (non-directional beacons), an ADF is an aircraft instrument with a