Full throttle and downhill
I always thought that downhill was for bikes, maybe a buggy could do that as well. These two guys decided to do that…with an airplane. In fact, they get the Highlander, an amateur-built STOL aircraft that can actually land in less than 150 feet (50 meters) and in steep runways up to 40º. Amazing.
There’s no doubt they from USA, not only for the accent, but also for the country-like music they listen to when flying.
This vid has been recorded from another hill, from the outside, so you can appreciate much better the acrobatics.
This vid instead, show you the acrobatics onboard the airplane.
Extract from LandingShort.com
No comments
Air France A380 back to JFK due to computer trouble
The recently unveiled Air France A380 that was flying from New York Kennedy Airport (KJFK) to Paris (LFPG) was forced to land back to New York, just 90 minutes after it took off. It is said that a minor computer problem could make that happens.
“It was Friday 30th at night. After 90 minutes of normal flight, the airplane was obliged to go back to the departure airport, New York Kennedy. The airplane is brand new, and it’s breaking in. The minor computer trouble caused some lost of accuracy on navigation parameters” an Air France spokesman said.
Air France A380
The Air France A380, the largest double-decker ever, lift his flight a week ago (Friday 20th) from Paris Roissy-Charles de Gaulle to New York – J.F. Kennedy with more than 500 passengers onboard.
No commentsThe Blues
The US Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, also known as Blue Angels, is an aerobatic team from the US Navy. Every year, they perform in more than 70 shows around the States. Their birds, the F/A-18 Hornet, is one of the most emblematic aircraft, maybe much more emblematic than the Boeing 747.
The Blue Angels were born in 1946, and the main aim of this Squadron is to enhance the US Navy recruitment, trying to excite young people to enroll the Navy. And they certainly do.
Some of their tricks are the half-Cuban 8 takeoff, the knife-edge pass, the section high alpha or the Delta formation. If you want more info about them, just go to their official website.
And now, check this video out, with Van Halen as Blue Angels soundtrack. Awesome.
And here you have the Fat Albert (Hercules C-130) with a Jet Assisted Takeoff.
Merry X-mas!
From CrossingTheSkies staff, we wish you a nice and merry christmas, and a happy new year also! We hope you found this blog beautiful, and we thank you all for visiting it!
We expect a new year (2009) with plenty of new and fresh material, new posts, aviation news, aeronautics and some more.
See you around!
Andrew && Angel
Author: La Roche Spotters
Cross-polar routes
Since 2001, when Russia opened their airspace borders, some airlines thought that flying across the north pole would be much faster, like a shortcut. As a matter of fact, they got right. You can almost save up to 4 hours of flight, flying through the north pole instead of the regular routes.
These regular routes are the PACOTS (Pacific Organized Track System) going from the U.S. west coast to Japan and Honolulu. These are a set of predefined routes (it works like NAT routes), that start within US airspace (a fix) and they finish within Japan airspace (another fix). Between them, there’s just some waypoints defined with coordinates (there are no navaids to define them). So, an airplane departing from JFK had to go to the west coast and then, get en-route in these tracks.
United Airlines, Continental and other Japanese airlines started operating routes through the north pole. Then, they would save time, fuel and consequently money. But it’s not that easy. We all know that in the north pole it’s kinda cold, so it’s pretty likely that kerosene solidify. Nevertheless you can also descend to a lower altitude and modify your original route.
In addition, because of the earth’s magnetic field shape, the cosmic rays are much intense in that area. Therefore, the radiation exposure seems to be greater than the normal quantity. Some expert says that the total radiation exposure up there could be equal to 3 X-ray taken. Here you can appreciate a cross-polar route from JFK to Beijing (Japan) at Great Circle Mapper.
ATC services are not available, since we have no radar coverage. To sum up, it’s really an amazing adventure flying this kind of routes. Pilots must have good skills, and a big coat!
Fly-by-wire and Airbus Laws
Nowadays, commercial airplanes do not fly with metal wires moving the ailerons anymore. Now it is managed digitally, from the source (the sidestick or yoke movements) to the control surfaces movement. This system is called Fly-by-wire.
The fly-by-wire system consists of some computers (5 computers on board the Airbus’ planes, 3 primary and 2 secondary), that read the pilot movements, interpret them, and it sends a modified signal (from the original one) to the control surfaces.
All these means that the airplane movements will not match proportionally what the pilot is doing actually. This philosophy shocked a lot of pilots, they couldn’t imagine flying something without a cable between the yoke and the surfaces. Finally, it was demonstrated that this system was much efficient, safer and much versatile.
Airbus was the first one using fully fly-by-wire (A320 were the first) and they create a set of laws that would govern this system. There are 4 laws: normal law, alternate law, direct law and mechanical back-up depending on the degradation of the airplane.
- Normal Law: It is on when normal operation is carried out. It controls the 3 axis (pitch, roll and yaw) balancing the aircraft and interpreting the sidestick movements. In addition, it offers some envelope flight protections (on pitch attitude and roll attitude) and alleviate load factors, like the gravity when turning for a much better comfort.
- Alternate Law: If a minor failure exists (sensors disagreement, computer blackout, hydraulic system upset,etc) this law becomes the active one. Basically it provides the same control as the normal law, but without protections. Also, the roll control becomes “direct law-like” control.
- Direct Law: If a major failure exists (radio altimeter failure when approaching, 3 inertial references down, etc) this law become the active one. Then, the movements of the control surfaces are the same as the sidestick movements. There is no auto trim, and any protection system will be available (even alpha-floor for stall warning).
- Mechanical Back-up: This mechanical aid should be used when the electrical system is all down. Then, the airplane can only be controlled with the trim wheel for pitching, and rudder pedals for rolling.