Through The Mist Darkly

Another flying lesson this morning.  Despite dire warnings of an approaching storm, my instructor decided that we could go up.  Today’s flight was to practice slow flight and then start getting into stall recovery.  I’ve been nervous about this part of the training but off we went.

A crappy picture of my weekend office.  The Cessna C172R is a cramped area and you’re really up close and personal with your instruments which is a good thing because they can save your life.  The six instruments in front (called the Six Pack) give you all the information you need to make sure you’re flying straight and level.

People always say that the view must be fantastic.  Not so much.  There’s not a whole lot of visibility forward as the windscreen is so high.  The magnetic compass sits front and centre and you’re usually looking through the spinning prop.  In slow flight you can actually get hypnotized by the blades and have to force your focus past them.  Here I’m sitting in the airplane waiting for Steve to show up.  The wind was just starting to gust up and the little Cessna was bouncing around quite a bit.

We finally got off the ground.  It was a good takeoff and I got to practice my crosswind procedures.  We headed north until we were over the Shelburne wind farm which is part of practice area – not many houses below if you decided to do something stupid.

Spent about an hour in slow flight.  This involves pitching the plane’s nose up as you reduce power.  The trick is to do this while making sure that you don’t lose or gain significant altitude.  It’s an important part of the exam and we kept at it until I finally started to get it right.

So here we are at about 4,000 feet when we notice that the storm front is coming in a lot faster than predicted.  Figuring that we still had some time, Steve stalled the airplane a couple of times so I could get a feel for it.  What a hoot!  Cut the power to idle and start pitching the nose up until the speed falls to 44 knots which is flaps up stall speed in the Cessna.  The stall horn starts blaring and it sounds like an angry mosquito in your ear.  Just like clockwork, the plane loses lift and you start to drop – straight down.  Steve immediately drops the nose to start air flowing over the wings and brings the power back on.  The first time felt like being on a roller coaster as it crests the top of a rise.  My stomach was somewhere behind my ears and just wanted to get out and walk.  The second one, now that I knew what was coming, was a whole lot of fun.  Steve makes it look easy and my turn comes next Sunday.

By now the ceiling had dropped so low and the visibility so crummy that Steve had to handle the ride back to the airport.  With the headwind, we actually got the airplane to stand still.  He was trying to make it go backwards but we didn’t have any more time to mess around.

A bumpy approach and a textbook crosswind landing and we were back on the ground.  I taxied up to the pumps and we had to chock the wheels as even with the brakes on the light little C172R was still moving forward.  I think we made it back just in time.

All in all, one of the best days I’ve had in the air.

Tags: Flight Instruction, Flying Is Fun, aviation by EyeNo
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Jon Ostrower is, by far, the best and most respected aviation blogger writing today.  In just over a year he’s become the go to guy for breaking news.  His site is one of the first I check every day. 

Jon started putting videos up on what he calls “Movie Monday”.  Today’s selection is the first of a five part documentary released in 1996 called the 21st Century Jet.  It follows the design, manufacture and flight of the Boeing 777.  As Jon writes:

This is one of the single most valuable public historical tools for understanding Boeing, its recent history and its philosophy on innovation and risk. From a personal prospective, this documentary served as a model for my coverage of the 787 program that you see here. Embedded inside this movie are important lessons for the 787 program, as well as the context for understanding the global design and supply chain.

Each section is just under an hour but very much worth your time whether you have a love for aviation or a desire to understand how large projects work.  Personally, both aspects appeal to me – one as a hobby, the other being what I do for a living.

Grab a beverage, sit back and enjoy!

21st Century Jet - Part I(click to open in new window)

Tags: Flying Is Fun, aviation by EyeNo
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Yesterday, I spent a most enjoyable day helping to celebrate the 90th birthday of Mr. George Neal.  I wrote about Mr. Neal a couple of weeks ago and his contribution to Canadian aviation and it was great to see so many people come out to a party at the Toronto Aerospace Museum.

Greetings from the Premier of Ontario, Prime Minister of Canada and Lieutenant Governor of Ontario (on behalf of the Queen) were given.  A cake was presented and a general good time was had by all.

I spent a few hours helping set things up and one of my tasks was to work on a Powerpoint presentation that played throughout the festivities.  Made up of pictures of Mr. Neal and his aircraft, it also contained transcripts of emails from wellwishers from all around the world.  Most poignant were those from ex-military pilots who credited the de Havilland Caribou with saving their lives in Vietnam. 

de Havilland Canada built the DHC-4 Caribou for the US Army where it was designated as the CV-2.  With the remarkable STOL (Short Take Off and Landing) capabilities developed for the Beaver and Otter, the DHC-4 was ideally suited for operations in jungle conditions where “runways” were hastily hacked out of the fast-growing vegetation. George Neal was the test pilot for the prototype and production models and the pilots credit him with demonstrating the incredible properties that convinced the Army to purchase more than 170 airframes.

A live auction was held for the chance to go flying with George in his vintage Chipmunk.  I seriously considering getting myself an early Christmas present but the bidding for this once in a lifetime opportunity quickly outstripped my budget.

The chance to celebrate a living legend does not come very often.  It was an honour to be a part of this happy occasion. 

Tags: Flying Is Fun, aviation by EyeNo
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I dropped into the Toronto Aerospace Museum today just to see what was going on and to see if any projects had been planned for me while I’ve been travelling.  Luckily, I brought my camera.

Today we took possession of a 1956 de Havilland DH87B Hornet Moth that has been purchased from George Neal, a member of the museum.

Mr. Neal (middle) flew his airplane in for the handover and it was truly a special and bittersweet day.  Here, he poses with Claude Sherwood (museum CEO, left) and Paul Cabot (curator). The Moth may never fly again as it’s scheduled to go on permanent display.  Mr. Neal, at the tender age of 90, sold the aircraft to finance a project where he’s building a Hawker Fury.  He’s a member of the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame (inducted in 1995) and holds the distinction of being one of the first Canadian pilots to be qualified to fly the RCAF Vampire, our first jet fighter.  Neal’s testing and demonstrations of aircraft such as the Beaver, the Otter, and the Caribou, allowed them to be successful around the world . He retired in 1983 as Director of Flight Operations of de Havilland Canada.

The day was superb, the winds were light and George performed a perfect landing in a perfect example of this rare airplane.

Tags: Flying Is Fun, aviation, photo by EyeNo
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So you’ve got yourself a lovely little seaplane.  The industry loves it!  Sales are about to boom.

One little problem.  D-ICKS???  Is that the best registration number you could get?  I know it’s a German plane (hence the D for Deutchland) and it probably doesn’t raise any eyebrows over there but it certainly does cause a little Beavis and Butthead giggle from this side of the Atlantic.

It’s a Dornier Seastar.

Tags: Flying Is Fun, aviation by EyeNo
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Forget about the captioning from some wag over at FARK, the picture is supposedly legit.  Passengers on a CRJ flying from Guilin in the south of China, to Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province were asked to lend a hand when the airplane had mechanical trouble before it could reach the gate.

I fully expect to learn that this was a stunt or hoax picture but it gave me a good laugh after a brutal week at work.

Tags: Flying Is Fun, aviation by EyeNo
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Finally, a livery that makes the Airbus A380 look good.

And they’ve released a spiffy new commercial.

Looks mighty pretty with the big ‘roo on the tail.

Tags: Flying Is Fun, aviation by EyeNo
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Although I’m usually lucky enough to get business class when I travel to Europe, domestic travel is always in cattle class.  In order to help dull the pain, I pay a fair amount of money every year to for a "Maple Leaf Club" card with Air Canada.  This allows me to use the lounge and executive class check in facilities.  It’s been a good deal but I’m starting to think about whether it’s worth renewing next year.

I got to the airport in Toronto this morning with plenty of time to check in, go to the lounge and then wander down to the gate.  Or so I thought.  There were about 30 people in line waiting for one harried Air Canada agent.  I finally got through and heading off to go through security.  It was hell but that’s not Air Canada’s fault.

Got into the lounge without problem and immediately noticed a few things:

1. Coffee machine out of order
2. Real glass glasses had been replaced with plastic.  Not only is this wasteful but it sure sends an incredibly cheap message to your best customers.
3. The entire lounge was messy.  Lots of staff standing around, just no one doing anything.  Where are the supervisors?
4. The men’s room (usually a treat when compared to the standard terminal facilities) was out of toilet paper and messy.  Hello?  Doesn’t anyone check these things on a regular basis?

The flight was fine.  Flight deck was unusually chatty which is always a good thing.  Watched Caddyshack and had a good laugh and saw some incredibly high thunderheads which were stirred up by Hurricane Ike.  Left rainy Toronto and landed in sunny Vancouver.

Air Canada, you’re letting the beancounters ruin what was once a proud, great airline.  You’re sacrificing decades of goodwill to save a few bucks.  I know times are tough but you need to think these things through.  And don’t even get me started on your Jazz affiliate pulling all the life vests off their airplanes.  Somehow the phrase "penny wise and pound foolish" is stuck in my mind and won’t go away.

Tags: Flying Is Fun, aviation by EyeNo
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Airbus A-340 undergoing testing in Toulouse France.  The purchaser is rumored to be a Russian billionaire.

Nice!

Tags: Flying Is Fun, aviation by EyeNo
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September 11, 2001.  9/11.  There’s no forgetting the shock of that day.  Seven years on and aspects of the events are as fresh today as they were as I sat watching CNN.  The initial confusion that was slowly, terrifyingly coalesced into the realization that the United States was being subject to a coordinated attack unlike anything ever seen before (or since).

The eventual number of causalities was not record setting (as cold as that sounds) but the instruments of their deaths marked a paradigm shift in how we viewed commercial airline travel.  The glamour, excitement and just plain fun of flying, in an instant, was destroyed forever.

Patrick Smith is an airline pilot (767) and author who also writes columns for SALON and is a frequent contributor in the forums over at Airliners.net.  Today he posted a very poignant remembrance of that awful day.

On the Tuesday morning when everything happened, I was deadheading from Boston to a work assignment in Florida. My airplane took off only seconds after American’s flight 11. I had watched it back away from gate 25 at Logan’s terminal B and begin to taxi.

Forced to land in Charleston, South Carolina, he joined other bewildered people to watch as the second plane hit the World Trade Centre:

I’m watching the video of the second airplane, shot from the ground, apparently with somebody’s camcorder in a kind of 21st century Zappruder film. The picture swings left, picks up the United 767 moving swiftly. The plane rocks, lifts its nose, and like a charging, pissed-off bull making a run at a fear-frozen matador, drives itself into the very center of the south tower. The airplane simply vanishes. For a fraction of a second there is no falling debris, no smoke, no fire, no movement. It’s as though the plane has been swallowed by a skyscraper of liquid. Then, from within, you see the white-hot explosion and spewing expulsion of fire and matter.

Finally, tragically and unbelievably, the towers collapse

To me, had the airplanes crashed, blown up, and reduced the upper halves of those buildings to burned-out hulks, the whole event would nonetheless have clung to the realm of believability. But it was the collapse — the groaning implosion and the pyroclastic tornadoes whipping through the canyons of lower Manhattan — that catapulted the event from ordinary disaster to pure historical infamy. As I stand awestruck in this shithole airport restaurant in South Carolina, the television shows the towers of the World Trade Center. They are not just afire, not just shedding debris and pouring out oil black smoke. They are falling down. The sight of those ugly, magnificent towers collapsing onto themselves is the most sublimely terrifying thing I have ever seen.

In the ten-second bursts it took them to fall, I knew something about the business of flying planes was changed for good. And pilots, like firemen, policemen, and everyone else whose professions had been implicated, had no choice but to take things, well, personally. Four on-duty crews — eight flight officers in total –- were victims. They were disrespected in the worst way, killed after their beloved machines were stolen from under them and driven into buildings.

Captain Smith then goes on to reflect on how the world of air travel has changed:

People ask now, “What’s different?” Maybe I’m more philosophical than many of my peers, but at heart the changes aren’t the quantifiable kind: security, cockpit doors, baggage screening and the like. It’s more sinister and intangible — something that can’t be armored, upgraded, or fenced in by razor wire. It’s a state of mind — a state of disappointment and anger. Anger to have had our planes so brazenly stolen, coworkers fooled, killed, and thousands more thrown out of work. What drives it home are the same pains and inconveniences now faced by everyone: long lines, angst and unpleasantness in the terminals.

I can’t see how it be summed up more eloquently than that.

Tags: aviation by EyeNo
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The Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, today launched Flight Rights Canada, to provide Canadian air travelers and carriers with a clear documentation of the rights and obligations they both have.

 

FLIGHT RIGHTS

• Air passengers in Canada are entitled to easy access to information regarding their rights with respect to air transportation services, including but not limited to such things as denied boardings, cancellations, and long delays. Passengers are also entitled to information about services for air travellers with various disabilities.
• Carriers are obligated to make their terms and conditions of carriage easily available to passengers.
• Air transportation regulations specify what elements must be addressed in a carrier’s terms and conditions of carriage.
• Carriers are required to address matters such as compensation for denied boarding as a result of overbooking, delays, cancellations, passenger re-routing, and lost and damaged baggage.
• The terms and conditions of carriage are legally binding on carriers.
• Passengers have recourse to a complaints resolution process that begins with the air carrier. Under this process, passengers should seek direct redress or remedy first from the carrier for any breach of service commitments or obligations.
• Passengers may seek corrective measures or a refund of direct expenses incurred, if they believe an air carrier has not lived up to the commitments in its published tariffs.
• If a complaint is not resolved between a passenger and the air carrier, the passenger can contact the Canadian Transportation Agency at 1-888-222-2592 or by e-mail at info@cta-otc.gc.ca. The Agency is an administrative tribunal with quasi-judicial powers. It is responsible for a wide range of adjudicative and economic matters pertaining to federally regulated air transportation.
• The Agency initially uses an informal approach to manage complaints. If passengers are unsatisfied with the informal process, they can launch a formal complaint to the Agency.

September 2008

---

CODE OF CONDUCT OF CANADA’S AIRLINES

Passengers have a right to information on flight times and schedule changes. Airlines must make reasonable efforts to inform passengers of delays and schedule changes and to the extent possible, the reason for the delay or change.

Passengers have a right to take the flight they paid for. If the plane is over-booked or cancelled, the airline must:
a) find the passenger a seat on another flight operated by that airline;
b) buy the passenger a seat on another carrier with whom it has a mutual interline traffic agreement; or
c) refund the unused portion of the passenger’s ticket.

Passengers have a right to punctuality.
a) If a flight is delayed and the delay between the scheduled departure of the flight and the actual departure of the flight exceeds 4 hours, the airline will provide the passenger with a meal voucher.
b) If a flight is delayed by more than 8 hours and the delay involves an overnight stay, the airline will pay for overnight hotel stay and airport transfers for passengers who did not start their travel at that airport.
c) If the passenger is already on the aircraft when a delay occurs, the airline will offer drinks and snacks if it is safe, practical and timely to do so. If the delay exceeds 90 minutes and circumstances permit, the airline will offer passengers the option of disembarking from the aircraft until it is time to depart.

Passengers have a right to retrieve their luggage quickly. If the luggage does not arrive on the same flight as the passenger, the airline will take steps to deliver the luggage to the passenger’s residence/hotel as soon as possible. The airline will take steps to inform the passenger on the status of the luggage and will provide the passenger with an over-night kit as required. Compensation will be provided as per their tariffs.

Nothing in Flight Rights Canada would make the airline responsible for acts of nature or the acts of third parties. Airlines are legally obligated to maintain the highest standards of aviation safety and cannot be encouraged to fly when it is not safe to do so. Similarly, airlines cannot be held responsible for inclement weather or the actions of third parties such as acts of government or air traffic control, airport authorities, security agencies, law enforcement or Customs and Immigration officials.

Flight Rights Canada does not exclude additional rights you may have under the tariffs filed by your airline with the Canadian Transportation Agency, or legal rights that international and trans-border passengers have pursuant to international conventions (e.g., the Warsaw Convention) and related treaties.

Long overdue.

Tags: airline, aviation, aviation, Canada, Travel, weather

Tags: aviation by EyeNo
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ZOOM Airlines pulled the plug today.  Especially sad news as one of my best friends is a Captain.  From their website:

Zoom Airlines sincerely regrets to advise its customers that it has ceased operations with effect from 18:00 UTC on Thursday 28 August.

600 people out of work.  Another lower cost alternative finished. 

Tags: aviation by EyeNo
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The trusty suitcase has hardly had time to air out but it’s time to hit the road again.  This time, however, it’s for fun - not business.

I’m off to Ottawa Thursday morning to attend the Canadian Aviation Heritage Society annual general meetings. CAHS is the oldest and largest organization in the world dedicated to the celebration and documentation of Canada’s flying heritage.

This year’s meetings have some really special events that I’m looking forward to attending. Thursday night, we’re off to the Canadian Aviation Museum for a BBQ and behind the scenes tour.  Saturday, it’s on the bus to Vintage Wings of Canada in Gatineau Quebec to see the country’s largest collection of privately owned classic and warbird aircraft.

We got a sneak peek at one of the aircraft when they flew their De Havilland Fox Moth into Downsview for the Wings and Wheels Festival.

It’s nice to be flying for fun for a change.

Tags: Flying Is Fun, aviation by EyeNo
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