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Showing posts from August, 2022

Tower and restricted operating area ATC

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           After cranking up the Aircraft and doing preflight checks you want to jump on the runway and into the sky taking on the freedom of the sky. This is how easy Hollywood makes aviation out to be. Of course we know this to be different. After making all the calls, filing plans, and checking weather we deal with control entities for the airports. When dealing with the runway and air space we always go through the Tower control (Airport Operations). In my UAS job we tend to switch from ground to tower while sitting at the line up and wait command. After take of we will keep in contact will that airfields tower until we leave that airspace. In my case its the Delta airspace. Tower is a vital component for our airfield. If tower wasn’t a regular part of our military airfield there would be a large number of incidents and major congestion on the run way. Tower control is a major player in keeping safe space and organization on and around the airspace. Whi...

Hit and run:Aviation vs wildlife.

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  According to Vissers report on impacts of air port operations, unwanted sound also known as noise is the main topic of interest (Impact). While in advanced individual training for the military we would start out training listing the risk involved in our operations. Every class, although different in topic, had one thing in common. Wild life impacts of Uav operations. Being located in Arizona I was lucky enough to see this trining come in use. We had incidents with rattle snakes and even coyotes on the air field. When reading the report of disturbing noise to mankind my mind automatically thought of adverse wildlife effects of aircraft. A simple procedure we had in place was to  leave the airfield and climb to altitude to reduce noise interference with wild life. For the smaller UAV this wasn’t an option. Most of the time they had  limits on where they could fly. In order to reduce interruptions of mating season of endangered wild life they would only be allowed to fly i...

Hijacking problem. Is TSA too late?

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            While panning through aviation history I came across an event that became more frequent through the years. Highjacking poses a constant threat in aviation. In 1972 around ten hijackings took place in the U.S alone. Toward the end of the year the FAA imposed an anti-hijacking rule that would inspect all carry on luggage and implement the use of medal detectors and pat downs (Timeline of FAA). Fast forward 29 years to November of 2001. Just two months after the tragic events of 9/11. George W. Bush signed a law that gave us the Transportation Security Administration ( Timeline of FAA).  Although we sometimes see airport security as a tedious and inconvenient task, commercial airports need top tier security to eliminate the risk of these hostile take overs that result in the loss of lives.      I am sold out to the idea of protecting the lives of all passengers. We’ve seen the devastation that the lack of security measures ...

Human factors in aviation

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       What are Human factors in aviation?  In my own terms when mankind uses the knowledge gained from all ages of flying and they apply those skills into systems and procedures in aviation we have human factors. This is a very wide topic to cover that not only involves us getting things right, but also risk factors, and behaviors that can cause issues in aviation (PHAK Chapter two).       As many of us do, I have seen how human factors play a role in the operations of our aircraft. When relating to a teams performance level you must first look at the individual. Factors such as the Macho mentality, invulnerability, and anti-authority can be major hinderances in all aspects of aviation (PHAK chapter 2). I have seen first hand, in our maintenance department, an individual have all three of these factors showing in his work. The individual was very knowledgeable in their field, but they had become arrogant believing some rules didn't apply to them(...