Posts

Weather Hazards

Image
 Weather is something that is a bit of an unknown. It is something that is out of our control and weather just happens. However we can generally predict when weather events will happen. Typically speaking we have snow storms in the winter, rain showers in the spring, thunderstorms and tornadoes, in the summer. We have hurricanes in the late summer/early fall. Currently we are in the end of winter, with spring just around the corner. Parts of the United States are covered in snow at this moment in time. So whenever there is snow it makes it much harder on everyone and everything. The airport has to run plow trucks onto the runway to clear off the snow and ice. Pilots have to be on their game as the runway can be slick, plus you do not want snow and ice to build up on the wings of the aircraft. Snow is hard on passengers as well, because a lot of times flights get delayed and or cancelled. I chose this because it is interesting to learn about the logistical challenges that it brings ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Threat of Terrorism in Aviation

Image
`One thing aviation and many other industries have in common is that they have been advanced by war. An example of this is during World War II when Nazi Germany made the first jet powered fighter aircraft. The Messerschmitt Me 262. More recently one of the advancements of aviation has been through the use of military drones, which have now created a civilian market for drones and other UAV's. GPS and radar are tools that pilots use pretty much everyday and they were created by the military and now they are a part of everyday aviation.      With all of that being said Terrorism is another form of warfare. Looking back over time hijacking has been a form of warfare that has been used where someone will demand that the pilot's fly them some where else, demand money, and or physically take over controls of the aircraft. The first reported hijacking in history occurred in 1931 in Peru. Armed revolutionaries demanded that a Pan Am Pilot fly them to another city, the pilot ...
5 comments
Read more

Pencil Whipping Pilots

Currently, pilots need 1,500 hours to get their ATP. Now there are a few exceptions but for the most part and  for the sake of this blog we will use 1,500 hours. The FAA and the United States Congress made this the law of the land after the 2009 Colgan Air Crash in Buffalo New York (Steven, 2023). The reason I bring this up as a question of ethics is that the 1,500 hour rule is nothing more than an honor system. Flight training is expensive and it takes time. The only thing that verifies your hours is a pencil, a logbook, and each person's personal integrity that they only write down the amount of hours that they actually have and only log their flights. Over the years a term has been made called a "Pencil Whipper Pilot" which is someone who takes their pencil and fills out their logbook without actually have flown those corresponding flights. As ADSB gets more and more integrated that may potentially be a line of defense against this as there will be a record that the pl...
Post a Comment
Read more