I was going to write a long post about the different types of Air Traffic Service Units in the UK but I got distracted by the Internet. Somehow I’ve ended up spending hours reading about military planes from the past - important research if you want to discuss the difference between A/G Radio and ATC services, to be sure!

First I watched this great clip on YouTube. The 526th Fighter Interceptor Squadron made this video in Germany in the 1950s:

Then I found myself on the Royal Air Force site, looking at an astounding collection of photographs in the RAF Timeline starting from the 1st of April 1918 when the Royal Air Force and Women’s Royal Air Force were formed. How can I resist bits of trivia like this:

6 Sep 1939 - South Africa declares war on Germany. Also on this day is the Battle of Barking Creek, when a error in identification in the Chain Home Radar system led to RAF aircraft engaging each other over the Thames Estuary. Blenheims, Hurricanes and Spitfires, not physically unlike the German Ju 88 and Bf 109, reported seeing enemy aircraft and several claims were made.

And photographs like this:

I might have managed to get something done but a so-called “friend” chose that moment to send me a link to a recent Popular Mechanics special: The 6 Most Lethal Aircraft in History

The article includes photographs and descriptions of amazing fighter planes: Fokker Eindecker, A6M Zero, B-29 Superfortress, AC-130 Spectre, A-10 Thunderbolt, and the AH-64 Apache. And another half an hour was gone.

In an attempt to get back on track, I scanned through the Professional Pilots Rumour Network and found a thread in their private flying forum entitled Don’t call mayday over the radio…! with some responses that had me laughing out loud:

Actually I have long thought that the mayday call would be much more pithy as:

“F**K, F**K, F**K”!! Summarises the situation when the donk has quit at 100 feet quite nicely I think.

The Pan call could similarly be replaced by:

“Bugg*r, Bugg*r, Bugg*r”, as it carries a degree of irritation without quite as much immediate concern as the former.

On my first night circuit in a Wessex 5 helicopter some 30 years ago, we suffered a hydraulic failure, a “land asap, running landing” emergency.

I called “(Callsign) Wessex, PAN PAN PAN, hydraulic failure downwind, request priority running landing on the runway” (rather than a hover landing on the normal helicopter T night landing spots inside the runway) .

ATC said: “Stand by - I have a simulated engine failure joining shortly”.

My instructor said on the radio: “He didn’t say “Practice PAN…..it’s a real one”.

ATC: Oh, er…Ooops sorry, clear land on the runway.

And this informative post from a marine point of view:

I was taught by the RNLI that:-
Mayday (3times) should be used to declare an emergency which endangers the vessel and/or its passengers/crew.
Pan Pan (3 times) should be used to indicate an urgent transmission, taking precedence over everything except Mayday calls to report a threat to life or major problem short of a threat to the entire hull. (Note it is NOT a Pan call - it is a Pan-Pan call)
ie,One of 2 engines out in flight is a threat to the hull therefore a Mayday (even if you can continue on one engine since loss of the remaining engine could be a bad thing! just ask Ryanair) a heart attack passenger is regretable but no threat to the hull therefore a Pan Pan call if you want to off load them at the nearest airport.

Of passing interest - until about the mid 80s a man overboard (marine style) was just a Pan Pan and not a Mayday since there was no threat to the hull!!

The next thing I knew, it was dinner time and I had forgotten to put the roast in the oven! Luckily, I live with an understanding man who is happy to take me out for a quick Chinese meal … I hope!

I’ll be more organised next week…

Aviation Video: F-16 Dead Stick Landing
The most amazing thing I’ve seen this week was via Jetwhine: this amazing video of an F-16 landing dead stick with an engine out.Jetwhine writes:

For those of you who may not be familiar with a Head Up Display used in the F-16, the pilot essentially views the information while still being able to look out the cockpit. The airspeed is the tape along the left side in hundreds of knots, while the altitude unwinds on the right side tape.

24 Hour Air Traffic Around the World Blows Minds, Eyeballs
Not surprising that the US and Europe are the hotspots but it’s interesting to actually see the big circle:

Here’s a video displaying all commercial air traffic in the world during a 24-hour period. Seriously, I’m moving to New York City tomorrow and seeing the flight density in this computer simulation scares me a bit. Thankfully, it’s a big planet with plenty of space to fly. But then, pilot friends tell me that sometimes they get close enough to wave at each other, so maybe it’s not as big as to accommodate the 7.4 billion passengers that will travel by air in 2020.

The Pitch/Power Debate: It’s the Trim, Stupid
The House of Rapp pitches in rather powerfully on a popular discussion:

I’ve never understood the dogmatic attitudes you’ll find among some pilots on this issue, although I’ve definitely seen those vociferous arguments out in the real world.

You can’t say it’s JUST power which determines altitude, because let’s face it, some aircraft don’t even have engines. And those aircraft happen to fly higher than aircraft which do have engines.

Good Captain / Bad Captain Revisited
Sam from Blogging at FL250 wrote Good Captain Bad Captain from the right seat. A few years later, he considers his point of view now that he’s in the left seat:

Having been in the left seat for about 300 hours, I can say that it’s a quite different experience than I thought it’d be when I was an FO.

BBC News: Pilot completes jetpack challenge
Fusionman crosses the English Channel with a jetpack:

The 49-year-old flew on a plane to more than 8,200ft (2,500m), ignited jets on a wing on his back, and jumped out.

Mr Rossy had hoped to reach speeds of 125mph. It felt “great, really great.”

Cockpit Chronicles: Flying around Hanna and Ike
Meanwhile, Kent Wien of Gadling is routing around hurricanes:

I couldn’t believe my timing. A four-day trip to the Caribbean with Hurricanes Hanna and Ike scheduled to be right in our way for almost every leg.

Monstrous Aviation: World’s Biggest Airplanes
I’m not sure monstrous is the word I’d use but it’s an interesting round-up nevertheless:

Talking about big planes is very much like talking about who should get the credit for man’s first flight - it all depends on who you talk to. As the brilliant James Burke has pointed out, inventors rarely create something from nothing - their successes are often the result of combining the partial successes, or learning from the downright failures, of other inventors. In some cases, it’s just pure dumb luck.

Five Airports One Flight

For those of us dreaming of flying the London Airports, this video of Five Airports One Flight is astounding to watch. If you are wondering how they managed it, there’s a comment by the original poster stating that “It’s not what you know, but who you know…” in terms of getting permission from air traffic control. There is also a comment that:

Unfortunately the opportunity to do this only happens a few days either side of the longest day. Outside that it is too dark to get over Heathrow before the first inbounds arrive.

Airline Empires

For a quiet moment of nostalgia, take a look at the flash slide show of airline empires with some wonderful old photographs of the airfields of the past.

Ask a CFI

I’ve only recently started reading ask a CFI.com but I’ve added it to my favourites for future reading. Paul answers questions and discusses issues he’s run into, including this very honest personal story about a lack of preparation when he was asked to pick up a Piper Aztec.

It was obviously bought at a real bargain and the new owner was putting in A LOT of money to restore it. I took a quick glance at the airplane, fuel on board (not much), required paperwork (ARROW) and hopped in. Some pilots refer to this kind of aircraft inspection as, “kicking the tires and lighting the fires.” I don’t remember kicking the tires.

Going Around

Cranky Flier calls out Associated Press for a terribly misleading video implying that go-arounds are unsafe.

Oh good, so a passenger with no flying experience knows that it’s a horribly unsafe maneuver? Please. As tempting as it may be, I can’t say I fault this guy for thinking that. A go-around can be a scary thing if you don’t know what’s happening. So who can I fault? The AP for putting this garbage on the air.

With a headline “The TSA blog: I read it so you don’t have to” Gadling’s Aaron Hotfelder writes about the American Transportation Security Administration blog with a Q&A post regarding the new ID requirement for airline passengers in the US. Be sure to read the full post with comments in what Aaron calls “the best comment thread ever”.

Note to the TSA: there’s a reason why community managers don’t come cheap.

People Like Us

And thanks to Prrrune for the link to the BBC comedy series People Like Us - Pilots on Youtube:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

Another selection of interesting and intriguing aviation articles that I stumbled upon while I should have been working.

Stainless Steel Lunch Jar
I want to get one of these for in-flight food on the Saratoga. We do the flight from Málaga to Southern England in two three-hour hops - an alternative to airport junk-food would be great.

Sky Pirates
Documentally travels light, so with the new baggage charges in place, he asked for a discount.

Crash survivors considered eating pilot
I suppose it depends on how many annoying announcements the pilot made.

The Glamour of Flight
A fun collection of vintage photographs of flight attendants from times gone by. I’m not advocating a return to beauty pageants for flight crew but the photographs made me grin.

Airplanes of the future could be self-healing
Bad enough they almost fly themselves these days, now they don’t even want maintenance.

ICON A5 Folding Plane Looks Like Sportscar
It looks interesting although the supposedly “increasingly common” full parachute for small aircraft made me pause. Has anyone actually ever seen one of these outside of magazine articles?

Aerodromes in the UK AIP
Online access to charts for civil licensed aerodromes in the UK - great when you are travelling (or for couples like us who tend to fight over who has access to the Pooley’s)