Aviation Weather - Clouds

The study of weather, perhaps on a par with air traffic control, is as necessary to the pilot as his airplane. Moreover, the state of the weather will determine whether the pilot can conduct his flight, and whether the flight will be made under VFR (Visual Flight Rules) or IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) conditions. The study of weather, so necessary to successful and safe flight, involves many elements and conditions (wind, air masses, pressure areas, fronts, wind shear, thunderstorms, wake turbulence, etc.) which cannot be absorbed all at once.
So let's begin with what the sky shows us - Clouds:
Of themselves, clouds are indications to the pilot of air motion, air stability, moisture, altitude of precipitation, the freezing level, the type air mass, position of fronts, and the warm or cold sector (which are also important indicators), and sometimes help identify weather hazards. And we must remember that the clouds and what they indicate are in a state of change, hour by hour.
We can classify clouds as upper, middle, or lower, and identify those clouds by name; both modified by a prefix or suffix. As weather has its own language, so do the clouds. Let's begin with the uppermost cloud form, that of Cirrus, since it will be the first group of clouds seen as weather approaches; and followed by Alto or middle clouds, and stratus types for lower clouds. The following are classified and identified:

• Upper clouds: Cirrus, cirrocumulus, cirrostratus, and cirrus nothus ( a scarf cloud at the top of a built-up cumulus - at high altitude). The bases run from 18,000 to 45,000 feet.
• Middle clouds: Altocumulus, altostratus, altocumulus lenticularus - actually the source of heavy or hard rain or snow is altostratus. The bases run from 6,500 to 23,000 feet.
• Lower clouds are stratus, cumulus, stratocumulus, and nimbostratus - seen as rain coming from stratus. Cumulonimbus is a builtup cloud from 1,000 feet 10,000 feet or more, with bases from 300 feet to 6,500 feet.

As indicated, clouds can be built up vertically or can be fractured on a horizontal level. Scud is a spurt of moving cumulus or stratus on a horizontal level. Clouds formed by vertical currents, such as cumulonimbus, obviously are formed by unstable air; whereas clouds, such as stratus, are formed by cooling of a stable layer of air. Altocumulus castellanus clouds are convective clouds of rough turbulence and some icing.

High clouds are composed of ice crystals or supercooled water droplets. Middle clouds are primarily suspended water, or supercooled droplets. Low clouds - fog or precipitation - rain, sleet, snow, and turbulence will occur in some areas depending on the time of year and the temperature.

A strong buildup of cumulus may indicate a thunderstorm, with accompanied thunder and lightning. Tornadoes can form from the bases of a long line of cumulus and stratus, indicating very unstable air.

Clouds are also indicative of the type of air mass present (artic, polar, tropical, etc.) and fronts, either cold or warm. A front is a meeting of two dissimilar air masses. Air Masses and Fronts will be discussed in detail in the near future. RS.

Take a Break Chat

Readers: Between articles and blogs, let's chat a bit. I must tell you that I am sentimental and occasionally launch into philosophical tidbits. I've learned a lot of things in my life beside aviation, three of which I think you should hear: 1. Love is what makes the world "go around", it is our life. We can't do without it. It is the eliminator of hate and anger, and it gives us the courage and confidence to accomplish our tasks. 2. Giving is the one true happiness. Give of yourself and then remember the forgotten and the needy. Giving will relieve your stress and tensions, and allow you to face all the problems of the world with complete confidence. 3. There's no substitute for a good nights' sleep.

I had to tell you this, also - I love swing music and melodic songs. Tony Bennett's "I left my heart in San Francisco" is a particular favorite and Russ Morgan's "So Tired" is another. My wife and I used to dance to Russ Morgan's music at the Claremont hotel in Berkeley, CA. Natalie Cole's "Unforgettable" and Dinah Washington's "What a difference a day makes" will stop me cold. What are your preferences?

"How to beome a pilot" article

How To Become A Pilot
(Private Pilot Certificate)

By

Robert Shaw


So you’ve finally made the decision – you want to become a pilot. Entry to the flying world can be long and arduous, but it can be short and reasonably easy depending on your approach to the matter. Whether you are young and a student in school, college or university, or work for a living, or are in the middle-age bracket wanting to “do your thing” – you can do it!
I learned to fly in a government-sponsored program by attending a ground school, and flying before and after a full-time job, years ago.
Aviation is becoming a big world of people, airplanes, airlines, flying schools, electronics, mechanics, technicians, computers, etc. (Several schools such as Emery-Riddle, Langa Air, and Daniel Webster College, and others, offer degrees in aviation management). You can be part of this world, if you know how and where to begin.
Aviation is expanding by leaps and bounds, and the outlook for pilots, mechanics, technicians, and other positions couldn’t be better. The Boeing Aircraft Co. forecasts a 2.8 trillion market for new commercial airplanes over the next 20 years. This equates to a forecasted 5% annual increase in passenger traffic, and a 6.1% annual increase in air cargo traffic. Boeing Vice President of Marketing, Randy Tinseth, projects delivery of passenger and cargo airplanes on the order of: 3,700 regional jets (90 seats), 17,650 single-aisle airplanes (200-400 seats), 6, 290 twin-aisle airplanes (200-400 seats, 960 airplanes 747-size or larger (more than 400 seats). Boeing is focused on offering new airplanes that burn less fuel and spend less time in maintenance, allowing airlines to maximize operating efficiencies, lower their costs, and increase profitability – while providing the nonstop, point-to-point flights and frequency choices passengers want.
So there is and will be a great need for pilots – and right now that is a concern – a separate subject to be covered. And we’re not talking just male pilots – women make good pilots, too. In fact, even now we have women airline Captains and First Officers. As of June 2007, AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association) reported 412,002 pilots in General Aviation (GA), 70% of which are certificate holders – no doubt, mostly Private and Commercial pilots.
So let’s get started. The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) is charged with promoting and regulating aviation – a somewhat opposing task. The regulating task is where we begin with the Federal Air Regulations (FARs) - requirements and procedures for pilots. The FARs is a volume of 1,021 page document, combined with the Airmens Information Manual (AIM) – consisting of Parts, Subchapters, and paragraphs, and a Pilot-Controller glossary, and an index. Frankly, it’s a case of hunt, and hunt some more, to find what we are looking for. And you must learn in the FAA language may is used in the imperative sense and acronyms are used throughout the volume, plus the fact that the rules and procedures are in constant change.
Private Pilot (PP) certification can be accomplished in a single-engine (SE) or Multi-engine (ME) airplane – that is, you can learn to fly and take a certification test in the airplane you have chosen for your training. You must have at least a 3rd class medical certificate (although you can have a First class or 2nd class certificate, if you qualify).
The student pilot can either sign up for a qualified training school, ground and flight school, or get a qualified Instructor and qualify for the aeronautical knowledge requirement. Usually, your own city airport can supply you with a qualified Instructor and available training airplanes.
Learning to fly is all about aeronautical knowledge, becoming proficient in an airplane, and chalking up flight experience. This is detailed by the FARs under Part 61, Certification of Pilots and Instructors. Under Subpart E – Private Pilots, paragraph 61.103 lists the Eligibility Requirements as follows:
a. Be at least 17 years of age.
b. Read, speak, and understand the English language.
c. Receive a logbook endorsement from an authorized Instructor who conducted the training or reviewed the persons home-study on aeronautical knowledge.
d. Be certified that you are prepared for the knowledge test.
e. Pass the knowledge test on the aeronautical areas listed under 61.105 (b) – 13 items.
f. Receive flight training and a logbook endorsement from an authorized Instructor.
g. Meet the aeronautical experience requirements.
h. Pass a practical test on the areas of operation listed in 61.107 (preflight preparation, preflight procedures, takeoffs, landings, etc.)
i. Comply with 61.109 Aeronautical Experience – 40 hours of flight training from an authorized Instructor; 10 hours of solo flight training in the areas of operation listed in 61.107 (b) & (i) of this Part, and the training must include at least 3 hours crosscountry (x-c) flight training in a SE airplane; 3 hours night training in a SE airplane which includes one x-c flight of over 100 miles total distance; 10 takeoffs and landings to a full stop, from a landing pattern; 3 hours of flight training in a SE airplane on the control and maneuvering of an airplane solely by reference to instruments, including straight and level flight, constant airspeed climbs and descents, turns to a heading, recovery from unusual flight attitudes, radio communications, and the use of navigation systems/facilities and radar services appropriate to instrument flight; 3 hours of flight training in preparation for the practical test in a SE airplane, which must have been performed within 60days preceding the date of the test; and 10 hours of solo time in a SE airplane, consisting of at least 5 hours of solo x-c time; one solo x-c flight of at least 150 nautical miles total distance with full-stop landings at a minimum of three points, and one segment of the flight consisting of a straight-line distance of at least 50 nautical miles between the takeoff and landing locations; and three takeoffs and three landings to a full stop (with each landing involving a flight in the traffic pattern) at an airport with an operating control tower.
The average for earning a PP certificate is about 65 hours of flight time. The Piper Cherokee, the Cessna 150/152, and the Cessna 172 are typical training airplanes, although other airplanes are used. Use of an airplane for training usually depends on its power and the consumption of fuel.
The cost of renting airplanes for VFR operations may run $65 to $82/hour, dry.
The present cost of 100 octane fuel is $4.81/gallon. Instructor fees are additional, perhaps $6,500 to $7,500 for flight training, including ground school, books, materials, and examiner fees.
I would recommend that all applicants read the appropriate paragraphs of the FARs from the Volume itself or from a training school curricula since the requirements and procedures are so detailed, and make references from one paragraph to another. In addition, FAA may make a change over time.
The appropriate paragraphs concerning PP certification are:
61.102 Applicability
61.103 Eligibility
61.105 Aeronautical Knowledge
61.107 Flight Proficiency
61.109 Aeronautical Experience
Of the 600,000 plus pilots in the U.S. today, more than 247,000 hold Private Pilot certificates. You can join us. Good Luck, and don’t let that first bounce on your solo landing throw you. The next landing will be better.


______________________

Approaches and Landings

Approaches first - What is a good approach to land? A good approach is a prerequisite to a good landing. We can approach the runway either by a traffic pattern or straight in (if cleared). We'll begin with what the FAA thinks a good pattern should be. (My comments in parenthesis) chapter 4 under Air Traffic Control in the FAR handbook states as follows:

1. Enter pattern in level flight, abeam the mid-point of the runway at pattern altitude - 1,000' above ground level (AGL) is the recommended pattern altitude unless established otherwise (each airport or field has a stated pattern altitude above the station's elevation above sea level - if the station is located at an elevation of 800', and if the pattern altitude is to be 1,000' above the station, then the pattern altitude would be 1,800'. (A left hand pattern is recommended unless directed otherwise).
2. Maintain pattern altitude until abeam approach end of the landing runway on downwind leg.
3. (Turn left on base leg, either hold altitude or descend to turn from base leg to final - FAA left this step out, which is important).
4. Complete turn to final at least 1/4 mile from the runway.
5. Either land or proceed straight ahead until beyond the departure end of the runway.
6. If remaining in the traffic pattern (TP), commence a turn to crosswind leg beyond the departure end of the runway within 300 ft of pattern altitude.
7. If departing the TP, continue straight out or exit with a 45 degree turn (to the left or the right depending on the TP) beyond the departure end of the runway after reaching TP altitude (or, as directed by the Tower or Air Traffic Control for climbout.
8. Do not overshoot final or continue on a track which will penetrate the final approach of a parallel runway.
9. Do not continue on a track which will penetrate the departure path of the parallel runway.

In WWII, flying P-38's, a pattern to the field was somewhat abbreviated. We would come across the field downwind at low altitude (say 50 ft) to midfield, execute a steep climbing right turn (never left) to a pattern altitude established by experience, followed by a relatively steep descending turn to the runway. There was a line painted across the runway. If we landed beyond the line we were fined $1.00. The distance down the runway beyond the line was necessary to keep from overshooting. I missed now and then in the beginning. But we can't do that here and now - we fly square patterns and use our best judgment.

Keep in mind that there are other authorized approaches such as Contact, VFR,VOR, IFR , etc., many associated with or from a holding pattern or instrument approach procedure.

Most airports will have a Segmented Circle, usually in the middle of the airport, showing the direction of the TP, and a wind cone to indicate the direction of the wind.

Now the landing: The approach is half the battle - but you really have three choices:
1. You can set up an approach speed and maintain it all the way down to the flare point (probably above the end of the runway at perhaps 50 ft, assuming your shooting for the first 1,000 ft of runway).
2. Descend at a constant rate, say 500 ft/min, and adjust the descent angle so that you don't undershoot or overshoot your touchdown point.
3. Set up an airspeed with throttle, bleeding of airspeed as you descend with pitch control (using your stabilizer control) to the flare point (say the end of the runway at 50 ft). In any case leave a little throttle on in case you have to go around or if it's gusty or you have a crosswind. The flare will be your short-term judgment, gently bleeding off airspeed to the stall. The stall has to coincide with runway contact, otherwise you will "drop the airplane in" or experience a "hard landing", followed by a bounce. Remember that if you stall the airplane, say 2 ft above the runway, your contact force will be the 2 ft x the weight of your airplane (the heavier the airplane the greater the force), plus the fact that you may have a little trouble with the second contact, after the bounce, keeping the airplane on a straight course. A crosswind or gusts would aggravate your situation.

I prefer setting up a 500 ft/min descent, then bleeding off airspeed with the stabilizer to the flare point, depending on my judgment between undershooting and overshooting the runway. Short field landings should be made with power on to the end of the runway, then"chopping the throttle" on touchdown. Forget the go-around, unless you feel you can't accomplish the stop on rollout.

After all is said and done, remember that the airplane has to touch down on the runway stalled, at the same attitude that it sets at rest. Put this in your memory for the final approach and as you flare.

RS.

Correction of Accidents -Safety - NTSB

Hi - Pilots and Readers: Today I must correct the figures in my last post on Accidents - Safety - Traffic Delays. My apology. The errors were either typographical or I'm working too hard. The May 2007 aircraft accidents reported was 74 instead of 47, resulting in 32 fatal accidents and 50 fatalities. This was a considerable improvement over April 2007 with 6 in-
cidents, 120 accidents, 31 of which were fatal accidents with 71 fatalities. In my thinking, this is not a good record of safety. No wonder the NTSB Investigators are behind in their reports. So you see we have much work to do. I'll check to see what we did wrong and give you a report.

Accident Cause-Safety-Travel Delay

By this time you've heard that a Cessna Citation airplane on a medical flight went down in Lake Michigan - late afternoon on 6-4-07. All perished. The accident was particularly painful to me since it was a mercy flight and the fact that I was a Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) and its successor the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Investigator years ago. My investigation memories are all too clear. The current NTSB Investigators will work painstakingly to find the probable cause, the end result of their work, followed by any and all recommendations to prevent a future accident.
(I must tell you that I have always felt that NTSB's probable cause was a misnomer - that a primary cause should be determined as fact and one that, without question, made the accident inevitable. Contributing causes would then be assessed.)
But aircraft accidents do happen - for all kinds of reasons - and the best way to avoid an accident is to inject any and all safety measures into your operations - all the time. Think safety.
It must begin with flight planning and carry through the entire flight.
Looking at the NTSB preliminary reports of accidents and incidents for May 2007, 47 accidents (two airline incidents) occurred - US and Overseas - with 43 resulting in fatal accidents and 47 fatalities. All accidents involved General Aviation (GA) aircraft operation. As much as I dislike armchair analysis, my past experience tells me that 70% of accident causes will inevitably be pilot-related.
(An analysis of the 2007 aircraft accidents will be made later in the year to determine what we did right and what we did wrong)

We have other problems in aviation, too. Airline travel delays is a hot subject these days. Travelers are getting fed up with the constant delays. Why? There seems to be a multitude of factors, but also an attitude that this is the name of the game by Airlines. Passengers experienced delays in airline flights 75+% of the time in May 2007. Winter weather, unseasonable tornadoes, and thunderstorms were factors - but I suspect that too few and crowded traffic hubs (major departure and arrival points), limited use of direct flight, lack of airline route planning, and lack of trained personnel to handle short-term traffic adjusments were also important factors.
There has to be better planning and coordination of flight operations by the Airlines. Sensible and speedy security procedures would help, too. What are your thoughts on the matter? RS.

.

Ceiling and Visibility

Ceiling and visibility are two basic weather elements which must be considered in all flying beginning with your flight planning. Normally we don't give the two elements much thought. We look at the sky - it's either cllear or cloudy. And we look out and around to see how far we can see objects. But for flying, the broad perspective must be narrowed to specific judgments.
The FAA's definition of ceiling is "the height above the earth's surface of the lowest layer of clouds or obscuring phenomena that is reported as broken, overcast, obscuration, and not classified as thin or partial". Pretty wordy and a little confusing, yes?
Well, let's get practical - if you cannot see clouds in the sky or you have something like fog or haze, you have either no ceiling at all or you have ceiling zero, depending on whether the condition is thin or heavy in obscuration.
Weather Observers classify clouds 3/10 or less as scattered, 6/10 as cloudy or a ceiling, 10/10 as overcast. And, of course, heavy fog would be obscuration or ceiling zero.
Now visibility is another matter. We usually think of seeing objects in terms of miles (statute), say 1/4 mile, 1/2 mile, 1/ mile, 3 miles, etc., a matter of distance judgment - relating much to visual acuity used in connection with takeoff, landing, and clearances, and VFR and IFR flight. In fact, ceiling and visibility appears as the first pair of elements used in our flight planning.
As stated (all too simply) in the FARs (Federal Air Regulations), IFR flight is weather conditions below the minimums for flight under VFR conditions.
In any case, to the pilot ceiling means dealing with clouds, sky cover, at what altitudes, and their movement over time. Visibility relates to all kinds of weather conditions - rain, snow, fog, smoke, and haze in connection with all phases of flight and appears perhaps as the first defining factor in planning whether you fly VFR or IFR.

My Novel

You didn't know that I wrote an aviation-romance novel, did you?
The title is : "Justin's Way Back" and it's about an America World Airlines Captain who flys the new Boeing 777 (home base San Francisco) to continental and overseas destinations while his wife gets mixed up with a mobster. He doesn't take it well and slips a little until Amanda and Josephine come along, with some other people, too. You must like flying, and romance, too.
It's a soft-cover book of 432 pages selling for $12.95 plus Calif. tax. You can obtain a copy by
E-mailing me at: ( roberthshaw@sbcglobal.net). RS.

Need More Pilots

Good Morning fellow pilots and all others! And as my father-in-law used to say, "And the rest of the day to you, Sir!"
I had planned on discussing Ceiling and Visibility today, but I've thinking about our pilot population - we need pilots now and for the future. I've been told that we will lose 3,000 airline pilots in the next 2 years due to forced age retirement. At this point in time I don't see where the replacement pilots are coming from. I don't think we have the Aviation schools and Instructors to provide the need for the replacement pilots and the call for future pilots.
And - in my opinion the future looks bright for all pilots, especially in the jet world, particularly in the very light jets (vlj) for beginning pilots, which seems to be developing by leaps and bounds. The developing jet world, with its advancement of digital equipment, will require more and more aviation and electronic technicians and many types of qualified Instructors. And the latest models of the Prop and prop-jet airplanes are being installed with the new advanced equipment.
Yes, Aviation is in a stage of development - we now have several Universities and colleges offering Bachelor and Masters degrees in Aviation on the Internet.
Aviation is an equal opportunity employer - it's not just for the male. You know we have many employed female Airline Captains and First Officers right now - and they make good money, too.
Let's think about our future in Aviation! Give me a digital buzz of your thoughts!