Some Thoughts on ‘See and Avoid’
I’m sure I’m not the only pilot who’s not completely comfortable with the idea of ‘See and Avoid’ when it comes to avoiding other aircraft in uncontrolled airspace. Of course, it’s one of the first things you are taught when learning to fly. You keep a good lookout for other aircraft. You keep your eyes outside the cockpit as much as possible, you move your head around to minimise blind spots, you keep up a...
Ancient Wisdom
Aviation is full of wise sayings. Some of them are useful. Darragh Owens explores the aviation proverbs we like to quote to each other Besides promoting other changes in our skills, attitudes and knowledge, learning to fly requires substantial additions to our everyday vocabulary. During the process of becoming an aviator we expand the range of our natural language, to absorb glossaries of unfamiliar terms: including various ground...
Aircraft crashed on take-off after probable wake turbulence encounter
The flight had been planned as a training flight in a tailwheel aircraft. After completing the pre-flight briefing and checks, the flying instructor, with the broadcast wind information as “variable at 03kt”, decided to take-off from Runway 24, the longest grass runway available. The flying instructor was to carry out the take-off. No abnormalities were identified during the pre take-off power checks and, after lining up on Runway 24,...
‘Plan before take-off’ urge NATS
The UK National Air Traffic Service (NATS) is urging pilots to carry-out proper pre-flight planning in order to avoid unintended and unauthorised entry into controlled airspace. So called ‘infringement’ incidents have been increasing in the UK and are viewed as a significant hazard in particular by controllers responsible for areas of controlled airspace. NATS say that every year, their air traffic controllers see approximately 600...
New airprox prevention advice published
The UK Airprox Board (UKAB) has published a new set of advice to General Aviation (GA) pilots aimed at reducing the number of ‘near miss’ airprox incidents. The UKAB say that GA airprox incidents have increased by 50% over the last decade. CAA Beware leaflet 2nd page The new campaign has been developed by UKAB to offer comprehensive guidance for GA pilots, based on a thorough analysis of hundreds of incidents it has previously...
Meeting the Girls Venture Corps – what could possibly go wrong?
FTN Columnist Helen Krasner reflects on the lessons from an impromptu flying visit to a public event Way back when I was a newly qualified helicopter pilot, a month of two after getting my PPL(H), I decided to take a fixed-wing flying friend for a Saturday afternoon ‘jolly’. Where should we go? Well, she was involved with the Girls Venture Corps, and she mentioned that they had an event nearby on that day. Various...
