Plastic Pilot

Aviation is a learning process and it is sometimes good to stop and have a look backwards. So for my last post of 2007, I will share with you six of the lessons I learnt in 2007.

Some are about aviation, some are about editing a blog, some are new lessons, some are things I already knew but have been confirmed in 2007. I hope they will help me in 2008, and if they could also be good for you, then I’ll be happy !

Sad events are popular
As editor of an aviation blog I had to post about accidents, crashes and people who flew away. I made it to help impacted persons, and to not forget those who left. It was quite a surprise to me to see how much visits these posts generated. I sometimes felt guilty about it.

Sea haze develops quickly
While I was in Cannes to renew my IFR, I saw sea haze covering the airport and making any operation impossible within 15 minutes. The good old tip of having fuel to an alternate not in the coastal area makes even more sense to me now.

One never forgets
After completing the FADEC challenge, I flew again on Piper Archer and Saratoga. After more than one year, I quickly re-gained proficiency quickly. One never forgets about flying.

Magic is still in the air
Travelling on airlines certainly lost some of its charm and prestige in the low-cost and high-security era. The ecological concerns also reduces aviation’s aura. But when I posted about how airlines work, how passionated aviation workers are, and what makes this business particular, I got interesting feed-back from readers with various background… and as I once told, aviation will never die.

Media are all but objective
This is not new to me. I always knew it, and this has been confirmed years ago when an accident hit the company I worked for by that time. Media are not trying to report truth but to attract the wider possible audience. Their role has been more than evident in the Dash8-Q400 story as well as in the British Airways “ghost” flights case. I don’t blame them, they do their job…

Blogging is good
I like to fly, write and share my experiences. It took me time to find the good way and structure, not talking about the template. I still consider myself as a beginner, so expect new mistakes and changes in 2008. Editing this blog makes me happy, and this is why I will continue.

Thank you for reading, and see you in 2008 !

Electrically powered airliners are not for tomorrow, but they will be in service well before you would bet.

Different projects are running in parallel, and three of them communicated progresses recently. They can’t be compared easily as they don’t have exactly the same objectives.

The ELECTRA is an electrically powered aicraft relying on its battery only. The Hy-Bird is equipped with solar panels and a hydrogen-based generator, and aims at flying around the globe. SolarImpulse’s goal is also to fly around the world, but using solar energy only…At first, the ELECTRA. This is an extemely light aircraft (165kgs without pilot), which is powered by a 25 HP electrical engine fed by a lithium-ion battery. The prototype made its first flight - 50 kilometers in 48 minutes.

Hy-Bird project aims at flying nothing less than around the world ! It is propelled by an electrical engine which is fed by solar panels and hydrogen. The sole product of hydrogen generators is water. The plane by itself will be 100% ecological, but producing hydrogen is not exactly a green-ish process…

This is exactly the difference with SolarImpulse. This project lead by Bertrand Piccard also aims at flying around the globe, but using solar energy only. This makes the challenge harder… particularly at night !

The three projects have a common challenge: batteries are EXTREMELY heavy. A typical car battery weights 25 kilograms, and is by far not powerful enough to power the ELECTRA for 15 minutes. Battery technology evolved a lot last years and these projects will certainly lead to more improvements.

To realize their objectives, Hy-Bird and SolarImpulse will need excellent solar panels - much lighter and more efficient that what exist today. Any improvement in this area will serve all other solar panel applications, helping to fight global warming at a wide scale. One more time, aviation is serving the whole community…

• Info on ELECTRA plane
• Hy-Bird Website
• SolarImpulse Website
• Bertrand Piccard’s Website

This post is the third in a series about how modern planes are designed with maximal care to the enviroment. The first one was about Jet-A1 engines, and the second about composite materials and Computer Aided Design.

Human Factor Lesson One - Chapter One - Paragraph One - Line One: the Eustachian tube links the nose and the middle-ear and its purpose is to balance pressure on both sides of tympanic membrane.

Flying when your nose or throat is not clear could result in Eustachian tube lockage, inability to balance pressure, and ultimately to tympanum damage. Not good. I know it, all pilots know it from basic training.

This post is not an ex-cathedra lesson, but a feed-back from a dummy pilot who did not respect this tip, namely… me. On this day I had a begining cold, but nothing serious, so I did not cancel my flight.

Weather was low stratus with unlimited visibility and blue sky on top, in cold high-pressure condition. The plan was an IFR departure, leaving on top, and then a flight to the south of the Alps. The flaw in the plan was an obstructed pass, leading me to divert back to my departure airport… The rest of the flight has been mistakes and consequences…By the time I flew back, the stratus dissipated, but for practice I decided to re-join IFR and fly an ILS approach. Because of trafic I expected an high-speed ILS (160kts to 4 miles final). This speed on a 3° glide-slope corresponds to a rate of descent of approximately 800 feet per minute.

My ears cracked more than usually in descent, and I could hardly compensate the pressure, even by swallowing a lot. Soon, my left ear got completely blocked, and it became slightly painful.

My meteo teacher told me that the atmospheric pressure increase in descent, and the lower the altitude the stronger the increase. As I could not compensate the pressure difference, pain in my ear was slowly increasing, reaching the limit of what I could withstand. The stratus was gone, so I could have cancelled IFR and fly off the ILS for a slow VFR descent. I did not.

As expected the pain increased as the descent continued, making my flying a bit less “precise”. My passenger / co-pilot was fully qualified on the plane and I could easily pass him the controls. I did not.

After landing my left ear was painful, but not bleeding. For the next eight hours I could not hear anything with this ear. It was really disturbing and unplesant, so when a loudly crack unlocked it, the releif was immediate.

This situation evolved in a fully developed otitis, cured in two weeks. A tympanum inspection shown a small crack, hopefully not needing surgery.

One and a half year later I still hear cracks when I sneeze, or when flying as airline passenger. My VFR descents are now slow and carefully controlled as I try not to exceed 500 feet per minute. I had no opportunity to re-fly high speed approaches, but next time I will be very careful of any signs of compensation problems.

I don’t fly anymore with any sign of a cold. Got it ?