Airspeed

Tactical Decision Aid

buttle — Sun, 24 May 2009 05:04:47 +0000

Eric Avila, at the Houston Center Weather Service Unit has designed a helpful, color-coded way to look at a TAF (Terminal Aerodrome Forecast).

It even includes current and previous weather, making it easy to spot trends.

You can even customize it with your personal weather minima.

Oddly, it only works with three-letter airport designations (completely barfs on ICAO designators). And the design work is, shall we say, government issue. But check it out. Looks very useful.

Light Gun Signals

buttle — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 19:24:56 +0000

Light gun signals from the tower.

LIGHT	ON GROUND	IN AIR
Steady Green	Cleared for Takeoff	Cleared to Land
Flashing Green	Cleared to Taxi	Return for Landing
Steady Red	Stop	Yield, Continue Circling
Flashing Red	Taxi Clear of Runway	Airport Unsafe, do not land
Flashing White	Return to Start	NOT USED
Red/Green	Exercise Extreme Caution	Exercise Extreme Caution

Acknowledge instructions by wagging your wings (day) or flashing your landing light (night).

LiveATC

buttle — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 19:41:35 +0000

I just found a very cool site, LiveATC.net. They have many live ATC audio feeds. It’s not the whole country by any means, but most of the biggies are covered. Check out their feed map.

Navlogs

buttle — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 05:03:44 +0000

Or Nav Logs or Navigation Logs. Say you’re planning a VFR flight and are getting frustrated with getting certain flight planning software to print. Maybe you’d like to download a PDF file of a navlog and just print up a blank. Well, you might be me. Except that I already looked up a few for you. You can find navlogs at:

First Flight
Dauntless
Superior Flight School (although it makes some assumptions about using their planes, I think)

I’m sure there are more. I’ll add them as I find them. If you have a favorite, leave a URL in the comments.

Hooked on Phonetics

buttle — Tue, 20 May 2008 03:19:11 +0000

As long as we’re covering the basics, even though this should be easy to find now it’ll be just that much easier. Here is your aviation alphabet.

International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Phonetic Alphabet:

Alfa

Bravo

Charlie

Delta

Echo

Foxtrot

Golf

Hotel

India

Juliet

Kilo

Lima

Mike

November

Oscar

Papa

Quebec

Romeo

Sierra

Tango

Uniform

Victor

Whiskey

X-ray

Yankee

Zulu

0 Zero

1 Wun

2 Too

3 Tree

4 Fow-er

5 Fife

6 Six

7 Sev-en

8 Ait

9 Niner

Now practice all that with a West Virginia accent and you’ll be Chuck Yeager.

V Speeds

buttle — Tue, 06 May 2008 04:38:58 +0000

This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but I’ll keep updating this post as new aircraft V speeds come to my attention. Don’t expect to see V1 or other speeds associated with large turbine aircraft. If you’re flying one of those, you’ve either memorized all you need or have access to all relevant speeds. This collection is for pilots of light general-aviation aircraft. You know, those of us who need a BFR every couple of years

Va Design Maneuvering speed
Vc/Vno Structural cruise speed. Orange/Green lines meet. (35kt vertical gust)
Vf Design flap speed
Vfe Flap extension (top of white)
Vg Best Glide
Vle Max gear extension speed
Vlo Max gear operating speed
Vlof Lift-off
Vmc Minimun control speed
Vne Redline
Vr Rotation
Vref Ref to Vso. Short final = Vso * 1.3 + 1/2 wind gust speed
Vs1 Clean stall (bottom of green)
Vso Stall, landing configuration
Vx Best angle of climb
Vy Best rate of climb

Before Landing

buttle — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 06:46:26 +0000

I must include one of the classics: GUMPS.

G as on fullest tank, and boost pump on

U ndercarriage (gear down and locked)

M ixture full

P rop to takeoff pitch

S witches and Seat Belts (landing lights, etc.)

A good suggestion for those of us who fly with the gear “down and welded” is to press the toe brakes on the U to make sure there’s hydraulic pressure. I also like to say “gear down” while reaching up to pull down a phantom switch. I figure it can only make the transition easier.

Some learn it as CGUMPS, with the C meaning carb heat.

Ready for takeoff

buttle — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 06:12:17 +0000

Nearly as easy to remember as the sandwich: BLTT is a handy mnemonic for that last-minute checklist as you take the runway for takeoff.

B oost pump on

L anding light on (assuming it’s dark out)

T ransponder to ALT (for those of us without the fancy GPS units that turn it on automagically)

T ime of takeoff (hack the clock!)

Unusual Attitudes

buttle — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 06:01:50 +0000

My first instructor, who got me through my instrument rating back in the day, taught a simple mnemonic to remember for unusual attitude recovery. You’re in a TRAP:

T hrottle

R udder

A ileron

P itch

It has worked well for me. But after reading a recent IFR Magazine I realize it needs help. First, you need to push to unload. But PTRAP isn’t as catchy.

As for the rudder, IFR has this great disambiguation: Step on the sky, or Put your Foot in the sky. Even if the sky is just the blue part of the artificial horizon.

What’s that VFR minimum again?

buttle — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 04:37:54 +0000

One part of my BFR which drove me nuts was trying to memorize all the VFR minimums. Pilots have to memorize so much random stuff it’s no wonder we come up with so many strange mnemonics. This ditty is my contibution to the oevre. You’re on your own to remember that the miles are all statute. If it helps you, forgive that it doesn’t quite scan.

Alpha Not here,
Bravo 3 and clear.
(3 mi and clear of clouds)

Charlie, Delta and Echo played Golf at night, using 3, 1, 5, 2 to avoid a fright.
(3 mi, 1000 above, 500 feet below, 2,000 lateral)

Golf in the day is 1 and clear, and below 1200 at night
(below 10,000 day, and below 1200 AGL at night)

while Echo and Golf over 10 is 5, 1, 1, 1, all right.
(Above 10,000 feet: 5 mi, 1,000 feet above, 1,000 feet below, and 1 mi lateral)

The bit about golfing at night is, obviously, because the minima in Golf airspace at night are the same as they always are in Charlie, Delta and Echo – below 10,000 feet. See why this is hard to memorize?

NB: Yes, I know it should be VFR Minima, not VFR Minimums. I’m optimising for page hits. Sue me.

Update: I tweaked the bit about Golf because I had neglected Golf during the day below 10,000. This stuff is really hard to memorize. I hope this bit of purple verse helps.