sense of direction and then some

[cate]

Hi, I'm cate.
I am very new to flying. Very. Very very. I have a stack of questions I hope I can get a grasp on with your assistance. First is just shameless gossip: what is your take on the JFK crash? What do you think happened?
Secondly, have you ever crashed and was it the most terrifying experience of your life? What happened to your plane? Third- and I promise I am not usually so fixated on the grusome aspects of flying- does anyone know of a site on the web where I can find out more about radio communications?
This one is rather embarrassing. I'm... well, first let me disclaim this by saying I am a rather intelligent girl with a pretty firm grasp on how to get through the world with minimum disruption and maximum joy. I can configure an NT server with a SUN and a Mac in fifteen minutes flat. I can explain to you the physics of atom bombs, electromagnetics and wave theory. I can recite to you the first five pages of For Whom The Bell Tolls. However...
However I have no sense of direction at all. North means less than nothing to me. The only time I know west is sunset. I walk out of a building and have not a clue where I parked. I swear to you, someone once asked me which way is North and I pointed up.
This inability to really understand where I am on the globe worries me, particularly if I am responsible for flying an airplane. As I said, I am extremely new to flying- I have been up only once and I loved it- so I don't know if this is really less of a problem than I suspect or if I should start forcing myself to learn my cardinal directions. Any ideas on this aspect of flight- orientation- is greatly appreciated.
And finally, are any of you concerned about Y2K? I suspect not, but I am curious both as a programmer and someone who loves planes.

cheers,

cm

[djschaut]

If I may call you Amelia (Earhart),
First, Kennedy's crash was 'pilot error.' Eighty percent of crashes are pilot error. In my opinion, he had a case of what we call 'get-there-itis.' He didn't turn back when he was faced with fog which obstructed his view of terrain and became disoriented.
Second; I haven't crashed, yet, and hope not to. A friend of mine put his V-tail Bonanza in the median of I-17 north of Phoenix a couple of years ago. He's up and flying again, and hadn't been injured (neither his two passengers).
Third, if you can visualize electrons occupying valences in atoms, then you can learn 'situational awareness' in a small plane. Your instructor will work with you on that. For help, you can use a GPS (global positioning system) device that can show you your plane's position, direction, airspeed, ETA, airports, terrain, and even weather. Fortunately, you never need to know which direction is north in an airplane--you have a compass or two. If the arrow on the compass is pointing to 360 deg., you're heading north and south is behind you, if it says 180 deg., then you're heading south and north is behind you. You have an altimeter or two to show you how high you are. If it says 10,000ft. and the ground is at 5,000ft., then you're 5,000ft. above ground level (AGL). You have all the instruments in the airplane to know exactly where you are in space. When you learn to use these alone to navigate without looking outside, we call it instrument flight, or flying by instrument flight rules (IFR). You'll start under visual flight rules looking outside the plane (VFR), but you'll certainly use your instruments. Your enthusiasm for flight should carry you into many happy hours defying gravity.
I don't know of any websites that describe radio communications. You need to review radio communications in one of the Private Pilot books available at the bookstore or flight store at your local airport. Then, to get really good at it, borrow a hand-held transciever or receiver, tune in to a busy airport's approach, departure, or tower frequencies, and listen. As soon as you understand everything being said and the positions of the airplanes in real time, you'll be an expert. At first, it'll sound like gibberish.
Good luck.

------------------
DJSchaut

[wxwatcher]

cate,

I agree with DJ's advice and would offer the following.

Visit the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) web site. Look in their gift shop section for a tape called "Frantic Friday" and purchase it. While it is NOT the normal radio chatter you're looking for, it will give you a heavy dose of air/ground communications during the actual EAA fly-in at Oshkosh, WI. One hour plus of non-stop ATC instructions to arriving and departing aircraft during very busy conditions. Another tape they had was of a safety forum they had at their flyin about ten years ago. It was titled "Hey Flight Service, Do You Hear Me?" and is a light-hearted look at ATC communications with the FAA's flight service station, but the procedures discussed also apply to just about any air/ground communications. The seminar was hosted by NAATS, the flight service controller's labor union.

As for information on aviation accidents, do a Yahoo search for NTSB or National Transportation Safety Board. They are the US government agency primarely responsible for investigating all transportation related accidents in the US. They usually only investigate general aviation accidents that result in a fatality or where a "newsworhty" individual is involved. Most other G.A. accidents are handled by the FAA Flight Standards District Office for the area of the accident.

Finally, contact the local FAA Automated Flight Service Station and ask for a tour. Most facilities are more than willing to take a few minutes (or longer) to explain the ATC system, flight service, aviation weather, and just about any other aviation related topic to someone who is genuinely interested.

Let me know what area of the country you're from and I'll point you to the right facility and even give you a name to contact if I know someone at that facility. You can post that info here or email me at my office address:

9-awp-oak-web@faa.gov

Yup, you're reading right. I'm a flight service specialist at Oakland AIFSS and handle responses to email sent to our web site at the above address.

Good luck in your adventures,

Jerry



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Comments and opinions are my own and do not reflect those of my employer.

[cate]

Thank you for your speedy replies. Regarding Amelia, that's about the most flattering thing I've heard since the summer equinox when someone told me I was a backtalker, thank you. : )

RE: radio comm. I've been listening to Centennial and ORD ATC over the net. It's gorgeous. It has this urgent quality to it, everything so precise, the linguistic form of physics, I guess. I understand a little of it. To me, it's like when I started learning how to program. You pick up certain protocols first, a certain pattern, and then slowly you start recognizing the verbs and subjects. Then you can understand how it all fits together. So far, I'm just getting used to the protocols. But as I said, it sounds like music to me, lovely and sincere, and so it's not a chore at all. I will go ahead and buy those items you told me about, to speed the process.

Regarding Kennedy: I read somewhere that he might have been so disoriented that when he saw the lights on the ground he thought they were stars. I thought: isn't that just like a Kennedy. What I don't understand though is what happened there at the end. They say the plane went up and then leveled out and then went down and leveled out and then went nose-down into the sea. Do you think he thought he was just flying strait? Why would a plane behave that way? What was he thinking? I am not usually so fascinated by Kennedys, I am just horrified by planes in seas.

cheers,

cate

[wxwatcher]

cate,

Since you mentioned ORD, I'm guessing you're around the Chicago/DuPage area. Don't have my contact list at home, but the local Automated Flight Service Station is in Kankakee. Chicago TraCon (Terminal Radar Approach Control) is located at the base of the tower at ORD, and the Air Route Traffic Control Ceter (ARTCC or enroute control) are at DuPage. With a few advance phone calls, most of these locations will be willing to give you a tour, but they would appreciate prior arangements at both the TraCon/Tower and ARTCC so they can schedule you in during one of the "slower" periods.

Since you're from the Chicago area, I'm sure you've heard of Oshkosh, WI and the big fly-in. The EAA has a museum there that's open year-round and includes an "ancient airports" exhibit. This is an outdoor walking tour of the buildings and layout you might have found at an airport during the early days of aviation. They have obtained the actual buildings and equipment and set them up on a simulated flight line. That display includes one of the first Flight Service Stations, Lone Rock,WI, which actually started life as an aerial light station outside Mauston, WI. This would make a nice weekend trip either before the snow flies or next spring after the ground dries a little.

One other contact you may want to consider, and again it's a little ways from you. Just west of Milwaukee is a town called Waukesha. One of the FBO's is Waukesha Flyers. Stop in or call them and ask for Jodi. Tell her you've been in contact with her uncle from the FAA and I suggested you contact her. Like I said in an earlier post, you remind me of her. I'll bet she'd be willing to answer any of your questions about flying.

As for your questions about the Kennedy crash, there's been no official determination of cause yet. However, most speculation centers around what is refered to as spatial disorientation leading to a stall/spin incident. This would account for the flight profile indicated by the radar track.

In this situation, a pilot gets into marginal VFR or IFR conditions and loses sight of the natural horizon. Since most flying is done by visual reference to the horizon, loss of this reference can lead to disorientation. The body starts telling the brain you're in a turn or climbing, or descending, or whatever and, because you can't see to confirm that sensation, the untrained person will react to that stimulus. End result is overcontrol of the aircraft causing it to stall (the wings stop producing lift) and spin (a hard turn either left or right, but usually right in small aircraft). Unless the pilot is very good and responds immediately and properly, the stall/spin in this situation is almost always the start of a fatal crash.

However, if the pilot recognizes the loss of visual clues and immediately transitions to the use of the artifical horizon and other instruments in the airplane, this situation can be avoided. With proper training, a pilot can even be taught to recognize the stall/spin by reading the instruments and can take corrective actions.

The basics of these techniques are taught to every new pilot as part of their initial training. It's called "unusual attitude" training, but is intended to help the student learn to trust the instruments and how to read them in an emergency. it is not the full IFR or instrument training needed to be legal to fly under adverse conditions. Chances are, this "unusual attitudes" is the only training Mr. Kennedy had to cope with the weather conditions he encountered and that wasn't adequate for the situation he found himself in.

Now.. Let's see how far off-base I am when the official NTSB report comes out in a few months.

Jerry



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Comments and opinions are my own and do not reflect those of my employer.

[djschaut]

Amelia,
I'm the moderator of The Hangar. Do you know how to set up websites? It's not an aviation topic, but you can use my e-mail to reply, if you wish. I have a web address idea I'd like to set up, but don't want to spend a lot of money on it. It's not an aviation topic, and nothing comes up when I use the address in the URL format, so it may still be available.
Thanks.

------------------
DJSchaut

[cate]

I've been mistaken for a Yank!

Newp, I've never even been to Chicago. At this moment I am sitting about 7 miles from HOU. NASA is about 2 miles away and there's a badass jet fighter shreiking overhead, on final approach to Ellington Field, about 4 miles away. Firmly seated in Texas. I'm not proud of it, but it's the truth.

I found ORD through, I think, airsafety.com. DFW is at propilot.com. Centennial is ... sheesh, I don't rememeber where I found that one. I was looking for JFK but no joy.

Thanks again for your help.

cate

[piper pilot]

Cate
Here is a website with some radio com. on it. www.tc.faa.gov/ZDV/GA/radio.html It tells you how to announce altitudes, about entering airspace and other good stuff. Also if you look through your FARS as in FAR/AIM I think it has some stuff on radio com.
good luck piper pilot

[HighFLyer]

Well Cate its good to hear from you again! From a few of your other posts I was afraid we had lost you. I have to tell you its great to hear from someone of the opposite sex as interested in aviation as us neanderthals. Even here at school its hard to find a female relatively interested in flying.

As to answering your questions, they seem extremely relevant to someone just starting flying. We'll start off with JFK. Unfortunately he was a rookie pilot flying an airplane that was too much for him. The combination of an arrogant attitude, not enough experience, and a complex airplane was too much to handle, and he paid for it with his life.

On to crashing! Never have and never plan on it! I do know one person fairly well who ended up flipping a Tri-Pacer on its back. He said it was a horrifying experience, but is back in the saddle and flying pretty heavily now-purley for fun.

Going to radio communications, I know they can be extremely confusing. There has been more than one time when center has had to repeat its instrucions to me! Even experienced pilots have trouble making out words among the jibberish. As wxwatcher mentioned Oshkosh WI is a great place to experience aviation at its finest.

I extend an invitation to you and anyone else on this board to come visit Oshkosh sometime. If I am in the area let me know because I can show you the "behind the scenes" of EAA. I know Paul Poberezny personnaly and have met his son Tom once or twice. In addition I can often get one or two VIP flight-line passes for the convention. Last year I was able to meet Sean Tucker and Chuck Yeager. When the Corsair crashed last year I was able to get into the hangar it was stored in until the NTSB hauled away (the entire airplane was gone except for the cockpit - amazing).
Also if you ask, you can usually get a tour of the tower and experience ATC personnely (this usually applies to anywhere).

I hope this helps, and hope to hear more about your flying adventure!

[HighFLyer]

Whoops, just realized how old this post is. Anyway, I hope Cate is still around to grace us with her presence!

[cate]

Aw, gosh, guys, I'm touched.

Yep, I'm still around. I've fallen in love with Bonanzas lately. They're gorgeous and they have that funky Russian-looking split tail and when you fly them, you feel like God was saving a little secret surprise just for you. Besides that, some kid crashed the Cessna 172 I usually fly and so I'm a bit miffed about being demoted to the 150. The 172 had not even 100 hours on it. It still had the new-plane-smell. The whole thing was just sad.

So what's happening with yall?

cate