Electric flaps are common on light aircraft. Single engine Pipers had manual flaps, actuated by pulling up on a flap lever (kind of like the Mooney Johnson bar) that was on the floor between the seats. All the Cessnas I've flown had a small flap switch on the forward panel that activates an electric motor. On some models, the switch had detents for the common flap positions. On older models, the switch was spring loaded so that you held it down to activate the motor and lower flaps, and held the switch up to activate the motor to raise the flaps. When you released the switch it would spring back to the center position.

Hydraulically actuated flaps are rare on light aircraft and even more of a rarity is pneumatically actuated flaps, using pressurized air from the engine. I think there are some Russian (or former Soviet bloc) manufacturers that have pneumatically actuated flaps.

Lmao sorry for writing a terrible paragraph, I'm from Canada and not Quebec so English is my first language.... Abyways what I ment to say is, say there's someone that's currently 14 and 5 years from now there's supposed to be a shortage of pilots, would he want to try and get hired in any special way like going to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University or something similar.


Or would I just want to go to a traditional school like- http://springbankair.com/programs/fl...rcial-licence/

Then getting 2000 hours through CFI work?

Any degree you recommend over others or just any aviation degree?

For some reason, having a degree seems to be required these days, but the major isn't important. Something aviation related seems to make sense but the important thing is to get the pilot license and ratings necessary for employment.

If I knew a 14 year old who seemed set on pursuing a career in aviation, I'd get him started on lessons with the goal of soloing on his 16th birthday and getting the flight instructor certificate to start accumulating time. Going to a school that has a flight department would make sense (Embry-Riddle, UND, Purdue) and applying for an internship at an airline while in school.

5 year old: "I will be a captain..."

I have another question, what is the formula for calculating your descent rate?

I might be misunderstanding your question, but we don't really ever try to calculate a descent rate (i.e. ft/minute), even though we might have a rough idea of what looks about right.

For example, when flying an ILS we'll usually see a descent rate of ~700 fpm, give or take. The actual number is a function of groundspeed which obviously varies depending on the winds aloft. (With a little trigonometry, you could derive the exact fpm descent rate required for a given groundspeed to fly a 3° glideslope.)

The only real "calculation" we do on the fly (didn't mean that as a joke or a pun, but let's keep it in there!) is using the "3-to-1" rule for figuring when we need to begin a descent to make a crossing restriction. So if we're at FL270 and ATC tells us to cross the IRONS intersection at 11,000', we'll figure on starting down when we're about 48 nm from IRONS ((27-11)*3). If there's also a speed restriction, we'll figure in an extra mile for each 10 kts of speed we have to lose. So for the same example I just used, let's say we were indicating 320 kts and the controller said "cross IRONS at 11,000' and 250 kts," then we would start down around 55 nm from IRONS.

These are just "rule of thumb" calculations and we don't have to be OCD about it because we can always adjust our descent rate (within limits) to make up for a late descent, and we've also got spoilers for drag if we need to lose airspeed a little faster.

Did this answer your question, or did I misinterpret what you were asking?

Fwiw, ATC is familiar with the "3-1 rule" and uses it to provide appropriate descent

Yea you did awnser the question but I'm now left with more, what is "mm" and "IRONS"

mm is the standard abbreviation for millimeter, but you're probably referring to my use of nm, which is an abbreviation for nautical mile, the standard distance unit in aviation.

IRONS is just a random intersection name I picked for the example I used. Aviation intersections are always five characters in length.

My favorite intersection names were the fixes associated with the ILS to runway 16 at the Portsmouth NH airport (Pease AFB). The fix names used to be:

ITAWT*
ITAWA
PUDYE
TTATT*

The missed approach fix was IDEED. ("I thought I saw a puddy tat. I did!")

I looked at this approach a few years ago and they've actually removed the two fixes with asterisks. I wish I had saved one of the old approach plates.

Is there a worse Business Class offering than British Airways... 8 seats in a row isnt even the worst of it

Ah thank you, yes I meant nm, i just noticed it autocorrected....

So I'm currently in DEN awaiting a United plane change because, get this, the seal on one of the doors is MISSING!

How the **** does something like that go missing?

A little Asian lady probably threw it in the engine for luck. You might recommend that they check the engine before departure.

On the plus side, our very hot flight crew is milling about in the gate area now.

Thats unusual for United. You usually get the long in the tooth, should have retired years ago surly bunch.

Flew into MSP the other day, thought of this: more dangerous to be a pilot or driver in winter weather?

One the one hand, less runway to maintain than highway, so I imagine it's kept more clear. On the other, plane has significantly more mass and speed, and (I imagine) there's no "steer into the skid" to recover if something does go wrong.

Plus, pilots don't generally have to deal with the other idiots on the road?

How many accidents for each? There's your answer.

Not necessarily so. Many accidents in cars are minor, no one's hurt. I suspect a plane accident is pretty much always traumatic.

Also a question of volume. Really accidents/trip or something?

But anyway, I think what I'm trying to ask is something more around where our esteemed host feels more comfortable; airport, where problems are much fewer because there's a small, select group of highly-trained individuals operating vehicles (but when there is a problem, it's a big one), or on the road, where any knucklehead can be out there driving around, but problems are often of the smaller variety.

Wanted to know why blinds are kept open for takeoff and landing but googled instead of asking and found this:

http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/...-a6899681.html


Right, I mean why use thousands of years of human knowledge and thought to answer the question when one can simply "feel" the answer.

The death rate per passenger mile is lower for flying, though as the main dangers are on take off and landing then presumably there is a distance where driving is safer, though I suspect it might be something not normally flown like for journeys within the same city.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbc...ngeles-n832786

Plane on way to Tokyo 4 hours in realizes someone should not be onboard. Pilot in charge returns to Los Angeles. 8 hour flight to nowhere.

Why can’t pilot make determination passenger was not a threat and return him from Tokyo back to LA?

Huge inconvenience for many people because of one lame person getting on wrong flight. And how does that even happen? Had a United ticket and get on All Nippon Air.

Also lead to my favorite conspiracy of the year. Chrissy Teigan and John Legend being part of a child sex ring.

And the explanation as to how. From what I read, ANA and United are partners and use the same code system. So the beep beep machine recognized the code on the ticket and let them board.

So those machines beep for every single flight? I thought they were programmed for the specific flight so something like this doesn’t happen.

What an epic fail all the way around. I guess Pilot made the safest choice. Japan can’t allow an unauthorized person to enter I suppose.

I once got on the wrong flight (Delta) and arrived at my seat to find it occupied. My boarding pass didn't raise any red flags at the gate after being scanned.

Japan could very easily let him through customs if he passed the normal checks. And if not, they can hold him there and make him take another flight out like they would any other reject. I don't understand the pilot's decision.

Terrible software programming that would allow a passenger to get on the wrong plane. I hold the plane 99% responsible and the passenger 1%.

I am pretty sure Southwest even has it programmed to not allow passengers with a “C” card to board during the “A” process and that is for their own flights.

Pilot took the safest route. He probably didn’t want to feel responsible for bringing a “bad” person inside Japan. Sucks to be the other passengers on the flight. Bad-beat central.