emergency

Watch the thing fly itself

By Dave English

Concorde or Cub, the thinking is the same: “If everything was going absolutely perfectly, then you could just sit there and watch the thing fly itself across the Atlantic at twice the speed of sound. But all the time you had the think about what you would do if there was some sort of an emergency.” Concorde Captain John Hutchinson. A snippet of his interview with Markus Voelter on the wonderfully in-depth podcast Omega Tau, 18 February 2015. He went on to discuss some of the major implications of losing an engine in supersonic cruise over the Atlantic at 50,000 … Continue reading Watch the thing fly itself

Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown talks flying

By Dave English

Legendary Captain Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown was a British Royal Navy test pilot who flew 487 types of aircraft, more than anyone else in history. He was the most-decorated pilot in the history of the Royal Navy. Some of his ‘firsts’ include first to land a jet on an aircraft carrier and first to land a twin-engine aircraft on an aircraft carrier. He logged over 2,200 aircraft carrier landings. Fought in combat, commanded air bases. Absolutely bloody amazing. Amazon Prime Video has a great little documentary that is almost all him sitting on his couch talking, with some old test footage. … Continue reading Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown talks flying

Some pilots know . . .

By Dave English

Deep system knowledge is only needed on rare occasions. Unfortunately those occasions, when things break, when checklists and abnormal procedures are not enough, tend to require you have that knowledge NOW. Dr. Nicklas Dahlström is Human Factors Manager at Emirates, and a former researcher at Lund University School of Aviation in Sweden. Quote from his presentation at the 69th International Air Safety Summit, 2016.

Aerobatic training?

By Dave English

“The real need is for a fully aerobatic training aeroplane to be provided so that airline pilots can practise real flying manoeuveres and recovery from unusual attitudes. … There are too many senior transport pilots flying who have just about forgotten how to fly an aeroplane.” The Chief Test Pilot of the UK Airworthiness Authority wrote this in the last paragraph of his classic book. Fifty years ago. Long before AA587, AF447, and so many more. But we still don’t do this. Most airline pilots have never gone past 60 degrees of bank, and our simulators aren’t realistic for high … Continue reading Aerobatic training?