I ran into this while searching for some help with flying between VOR's in a MS Flight Simulator flight plan.

Microsoft Flight Simulator Lessons for the Cessna 152

A nice taste to get the idea of actual lessons while playing from home. There is a decent amount of effort put into these videos.

We've previously discussed planes being grounded during particularly hot days. I believe it has happened in at least Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Denver over the past few years.

What about places in the Middle East where those kinds of temps are more common? Do they have longer runways on average to account for this? Or I guess another option is bigger engines to get up to speed faster on shorter runways? Or do they shift flight operations more into the early morning and late afternoon to evening hours?

Are flight patterns strictly based on the current weather?

Specifically the approach, if it matters. I live WNW of DEN and have noticed more approaches coming over the house this summer than in the past. Of course, this could just be recency.

It doesn't seem as if there's been any significant wind on those days, so I was wondering if they might change things around for non-weather reasons sometimes.

Longer runways do help. Las Vegas has one of the longest runways in the U.S. at 14,512' (2.75 miles long). And shifting flights is also a strategy. I've been to Cairo a half dozen times and our departure was scheduled for close to midnight to get more reasonable temperatures. As this was already a very long flight (it required 4 pilots due to block time in excess of 12 hours), we often had to leave with empty seats due to weight limitations. We carried full fuel and also took a lot of cargo.

I've seen a couple of times where the temperatures were so high in the states that operations were suspended. As it was explained to me, this is primarily due to having no performance data for those extreme temperatures. And indeed, our performance charts did top out at some temperature (I can't recall the number). You are probably asking "Why not just get the data for the extreme temperatures?" It seems like it would be a simple extrapolation from the current charts. I had these same thoughts.

I was told by folks higher up the aviation chain that you pay for performance data from whatever company provides them, and the cost for extended data did not pass a simple benefit/cost calculation. I remember at least one time that we (ACA) had to cancel flights in/out of Denver due to high temps and Air Wisconsin was able to continue due to having the performance data that we elected not to pay for.

Even as I type this, it seems borderline ridiculous but I'm pretty sure this is an accurate representation. I don't actually know what goes into the construction of performance charts. Is it a simple engineering exercise? Or is live flight testing required? I've got to think it's something beyond a simple extrapolation of the existing charts but there are probably also liability issues involved in that.

While it's a fact that current winds dictate the runways in use, many airports have a preferred pattern and will use that configuration unless the winds make it impossible or unsafe, even accepting tailwinds for until they become too great. Reconfiguring the arrival patterns and the line of aircraft awaiting departure, particularly during "rush hour," injects significant delays for those aircraft and thus it is avoided unless absolutely necessary.

I recall being in line for departure at LGA for runway 13. The winds were 310 degrees, a direct tailwind. We can accept up to a 10 knot tailwind for departure. When it was our turn, tower said "Delta 480, winds three one zero at one five, cleared for takeoff runway one three." We had to decline and no other aircraft would accept the runway either. Tower had no choice but to "turn the airport around" as they say in the biz. Imagine the choreography required to get all of those planes from their line for one runway to the opposite side of the airport. This is exacerbated by LGA's limited real estate and taxiway configurations. I can't remember exactly, but I think this culminated in delays exceeding 30 minutes.

In all of my years of flying in and out of LGA, I can count on one hand the number of times I've landed on runway 13. This is probably because the approach takes traffic low over the city when on final approach. With winds out of the southeast (i.e. right down runway 13) this would obviously be the preferred runway for performance, etc. But if the winds are less than 15 kts or so, they will use runway 13 for departure and have arriving aircraft land on runway 22, with a 15 knot crosswind. This configuration becomes impossible if the winds increase enough to exceed the crosswind limitations of arriving aircraft. (This number varies by aircraft type. In the CRJ, we had a 26 knot crosswind limit; in the B767 we trained for up to 40 kts but in normal ops we considered 30 kts to be the limit.)

Changes to default airport configurations are sometimes made in response to local activism for noise abatement. Denver has plenty of runways to choose from (4 parallel N/S runways and two E/W runways) and they have preferred runways depending on the quadrant from which the arrival is coming. Another possibility for a short-term configuration change is airport construction. JFK closed the main runway (31L/13R) for year several years ago and arrival patterns were altered for that period. LGA routinely closes one of its two runways on the weekend for normal maintenance. This reduces the field to one runway for arrivals and departures.

If you look at the path of a long-haul flight on FlightAware or something, it often looks like a perfect arc. Does this mean that the compass heading is constantly changing every fraction of a second? Or, is the arc really made of sustained “lines” of flight at a particular compass direction?

Also, what is the knocking sound from below the passenger floor on a 767, which corresponds to force of the air flowing out the vents?

Rear lav filled up?

That's One Way to Sit Down!

Earlier, United Airlines B738 tips onto its tail after parking at the gate.

The United flight arrived at Lewiston Airport, Idaho when the incident occurred. No injuries have been reported .

PICTURE CREDIT -- DSJR1

Heard early this AM that was the flight USC was on to go play Washington State.

All the linemen must've been on the back of the plane.

True story, I was once’s plyed with drinks by a Swedish stewardess who had lost all her clothes.

Airline Execs Complain About "Pilot Shortage"

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/othe...nes/ar-AAOEuZV

I'm not an economist or a high flying airline CEO (pardon the pun), but it seems very shortsighted that the first response airline bosses have to the Coronavirus is to layoff their pilots en mass. Now they grumble about a self inflicted "pilot shortage" that they helped create.

My brother is an FSR (Field Service Representative) for the NFIB - the National Federation of Independent Business which represents the interests of small business owners. In making his rounds and visiting clients, my brother tells me the predominant complaint he is hearing from small business owners is their frustration (and exasperation) with "... not being able to find workers!" I tell my brother: "What do business owners expect when their first reaction to the virus is to throw their workers out the door?" Loyalty is a two-way street. As an employer, if you expect loyalty, you need to show loyalty. Stick with your employees during the tough times and they'll stick with you through the flush times when you have plenty of business and really need them.

I'm not sure about now, (I've never lived in Japan or worked for a Japanese company), but it is my understanding that a longstanding custom in Japan is that employers retain their employees during tough times - they don't lay them off or terminate them at the first sign of an economic slowdown. (I've read that a common practice with Japan's automakers, such as Toyota and Honda, is to keep their employees busy "retraining" rather than laying them off at the first sign of a business slowdown. In Japan, laying off workers is a last resort - not a knee jerk first reaction.)

If the airline industry is experiencing a true "pilot shortage," there are two ways to solve the problem. First, dramatically boost pilot pay - in order to attract new pilots. Second, show a bit of loyalty to your existing pilots. Don't let your first knee jerk response to a business slowdown be to show your pilots the door.

I'm not an airline CEO so I'm sure somebody high up in one of the airlines will graciously "explain" to me why I'm totally wrong.

Uh oh. Somebody forgot the tail stand.

Biggest tail-dragger I ever saw.

Hey Woxof, hope you are well.

Have you ever watched 'The plane that fell from the sky'? It's about Flight TWA 841 (1979) which entered an uncontrolled descent at 39,000 feet but the crew managed to regain control at 5,000 feet and everyone survived.

CBS recreated the scene using the passengers from the flight which is quite comical. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmUpBGCymBY

The NTSB concluded that the probable cause was pilot error because the slats had been extended while the aircraft was flying at cruising speed. However, Capt. Gibson denied this suggesting that the actuator on the slat had failed.

Have any thoughts about this incident? Did you ever hear about pilots using the flaps/slats whilst cruising to increase performance of the plane?

I've been meaning to post this for about 9 years but I am a bit of a procrastinator.

I have got married and had 3 children since signing up to post this haha.

Better late than never.

I have been remiss in answering posts here lately. What can I say? I've dived deeply into "full retirement", playing lots of golf and poker, often going for the "combo platter": golf in the morning, poker in the evening.

Regarding your question above, we all know the that the shortest distance between two points on a sphere is the great circle route (intuitively obvious when using a globe rather than a 2-D map). To fly the great circle, your heading would be the heading of the tangent line to the route at any given point and this obviously changes continuously. The FMS (and pilots for that matter) operate in 1 degree increments, so the FMS will command that adjustment when the flight path begins to deviate from the great circle route. Note that winds are not constant along the route and also affect the heading required to track the route.

I don't know if this really answers your question, but I can say with some certainty that the FMS does not use the second method you suggested (i.e. "constructing sustained 'lines' of flight at a particular compass direction").

There area several aircraft types which run the risk of this happening when empty. For that reason, many of them have "tail stands" which can be inserted into the lower rear of the plane to prevent this kind of thing. Often, the plane is fine until they start loading baggage in the aft baggage compartment. Without passengers on board, that baggage can move the center of gravity aft of the main landing gear, resulting in photo ops like this.

First of all, congratulations on getting married and having a family. I can see how other priorities resulted in the delay for your post.

As for TWA 841, I think it was probably pilot induced. In the early years of aviation, there was a lot of folklore about ways to increase airplane performance, usually by reducing drag. One of the methods I used to hear about a lot in my GA days was getting the plane "on the step." This was an analogy to boating where you get the boat to a speed where it is skimming the surface and experiencing less drag. Since air is a fluid, the thinking was that something similar happens with aircraft, though the analogy is imperfect since the airplane doesn't ride on the air, it travels through the air. There was no clear concensus on how to achieve flight "on the step" and it seemed to be the province of those with the "right stuff." I haven't really heard the term in decades and I mention it because it's germain to the time of this incident.

I do remember hearing mention of using slats in flight to increase lift with no increase in drag. But in aviation, as in life, there is no free lunch. I'll trust the aerodynamicists and aircraft designers. If they prohibit the use of slats in cruise flight, I think I'll respect that limitation. Perhaps the limitation is due to the higher risk of asymmetric slats at high speeds, which is the situation these pilots found themselves in.

I'm happy to report that I never flew with, or heard about, any pilots at Delta who intentionally operated the plane outside the envelope of how we were trained to fly it. Speed limitations on the extension of slats, flaps, and landing gear are scrupulously observed.

Thanks for the detailed response W0X0F. You've done a great job keeping this thread going for so many years.

I haven't visited for a long time now but I enjoyed the part where you took that guy flying who had only been in a simulator.

I hope Poker has treated you well over the years, my Poker career is long gone...I think it's under these nappies somewhere. Might be a while before I find it again

That guy was Tyler Sparks and that was an interesting experiment. As for poker, I’m playing more now that I’m retired. I enjoy the game a lot and play mostly at MGM National Harbor (DC area) and occasionally at Charles Town, WV (Hollywood Casino).

Latest National Geographic is about the green revolution.

Interesting article about how aviation may change, both alternative fuels and the aircraft themselves.

Would be interested in W0X0F's ideas on flying the new planes vs current if he reads it.

I had this radio interview suggested to me. It's an interview with a 747 pilot who has his own youtube channel "74 Gear". I saw that it was 44 minutes in length and I was a bit concerned. However, after listening to it, it goes fast. Seemed like 20 minutes.

There's all kinds of interesting behind the scenes stuff similar to what W0X0F delivers in this thread. I never even thought about why pilots drag their words on the intercom. Makes sense!

They're drunk?

I watch Kelsey’s videos and enjoy his channel. Not sure I buy his reason for the way some pilots talk on the intercom (and, btw, I never had this habit). I think it’s more of a fear of public speaking. Some people are comfortable with it, some aren’t. I never had a problem with it, and I used a very conversational tone. I’ve always had a problem with “airline speak” and my most hated phrase became my moniker here (see my avatar). Those words never passed my lips.

Kelsey's channel is great. He's got a series called "cockpit confessionals" where he tells stories that people have sent in to him. He also took a YouTube flight attendant on a flight in a piston GA plane, and she's TERRIFIED of being in the plane while he wants her to take the controls.