Monthly Archives: April 2005
Icing: Altitude Strategy
I’ve written about icing before, both here and here. Like storm clouds and scud running, icing is one of those things that pilots are supposed to avoid but occasionally stumble into anyway. The Canadian AIP contains some advice for pilots … Continue reading
Blog: Randy's Journal
Via Aviatrix, I’ve found another interesting aviation blog: Randy’s Journal is a weblog maintained by Randy Baseler, VP Marketing for Boeing Commercial Aircraft. Obviously, the blog reflects company orthodoxy, but it at least uses direct language rather than the marketing … Continue reading
NATCA vs. Nav Canada
[Updating: on guessing — see below] The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) — the non-union union representing U.S. air traffic controllers — attacked plans to privatize the U.S. air traffic control system with the following statement: Cleveland controllers alone … Continue reading
400
Yesterday, during a Hope Air flight, the virtual odometer in my logbook finally ticked around past 400 hours. It was a day of flying extremes. I flew three legs totalling 8 hours flight time (7.2 air time), of which 3.3 … Continue reading
Float planes
[Updated] The Canadian Press has an unusually detailed and accurate story about floatplane safety in Canada. Unfortunately, with the summer season arriving, we’re going to see another big spike in the fatal accident rate in Canada as the floatplanes take … Continue reading
Non-annual inspections
The annual inspection for my Warrior is approaching. As I’ve mentioned before, as a Canadian private aircraft owner, I have the final responsibility for determining that the annual inspection has been completed. In the U.S., on the other hand, it’s … Continue reading
Toronto/Pearson still in the top 30
The Airport Council International (ACI) released its preliminary 2004 list of the top 30 airports yesterday (ranked by number of passenger movements). Toronto/Pearson saw a huge increase in traffic, but is still just barely clinging to the list in spot … Continue reading
Canadian Airport Diagrams Online
U.S. airport diagrams for all airports with instrument approaches have been available online for a while, along with all U.S. instrument procedures (SIDs, STARs, approaches, etc.); recently, official PDF versions became available which do not go fuzzy when you blow … Continue reading
Power + Pitch = Stall (?)
Kris Johnson has a posting on holy wars in aviation, including the two variants of the very dangerous teaching that you control airspeed with pitch and power. The idea is that students learn to look out the window (which is … Continue reading