When flying in foreign airspace, it’s important to be able to understand air traffic control’s (ATC) instructions as well as being able to communicate back. Let’s start with the two basic directions: Let’s say you encounter a line of thunderstorms along your route. You may have to notify ATC …
If you are already a pilot then you are probably very familiar with the phonetic alphabet. The phonetic alphabet is similar to the english alphabet except each letter is represented by a word instead. Since letters have similar sounds such as “C” and “D”, we use the words “Charlie” and “Delta” to prevent any miscommunication. It is …
[su_audio url=”https://dl.dropbox.com/s/w3mx5drlgsihy1b/Precipitation.mp3″ width=”30%”] https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_IcHx2tNOZOZ0ZUbmxRSGtCOXc/edit?usp=sharing[/su_audio] Precipitation or “Precip” is water falling from the atmosphere. It’s important to know the different types of precipitation because they can affect flight operations. The amount or intensity of precipitation can be defined as: Light Moderate Heavy Let’s take a look at the three types of precipitation: Rain Rain occurs …
It seems to be more common to read in the news about an unruly passenger misbehaving on a commercial flight. An unruly passenger may pose a threat to the safety and security of a flight by becoming violent towards other passengers and flight crew. What causes air rage? Most cases of air rage are …
Almost every pilot has come close to hitting a bird in flight at least once in their career. While most bird strikes do not severely damage the airplane, the threat is still possible. In this video I discuss: What a bird strike is What factors increase the chance of a bird strike Ways to prevent bird …
There are four basic forces that act on an airplane to change its airspeed or altitude. Thrust Thrust is produced by the powerplant and propels the aircraft forward. An aircraft accelerates (speeds up) when its thrust is greater than the drag. Drag Drag is the force that opposes thrust and may be caused by …
