Aviation Blog

As the country reels from the COVID-19 Pandemic the effects continue to create havoc on an economy which was pounding forward on all cylinders just a few months ago. Perhaps nowhere has the economic damage been felt more than the aviation industry. United Airlines management gave a startlingly honest review of the situation in a letter to employees, describing a 97% decrease in passengers for the first two weeks of April compared to the same period in 2019. United expects a 90% drop in passenger count this May compared to May of last (United, 2020).  (Dozens of United Aircraft sit parked at Denver International as demand plummets) In response to the turmoil of the commercial and corporate business aviation world, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act in late March, almost unanimously (NBAA, 2020). The CARES Act provides unprecedented support to airlines and business aircraft operators to help pay employees through grants and loans, as ...

Crew Resource Management (CRM) In most aspects of professional flying, two or more crew members work together to safely accomplish a flight. The inherent complexity of modern aircraft combined with the busy nature of modern air traffic control requires this flight crew to work together seamlessly, whether operating a military aircraft on missions or a commercial airliner flying hundreds of passengers around the world. (Author's UC-35 after an instrument approach to a foreign airfield with icing and thunderstorms in the area) Both the FAA (PHAK, 2016) and the United States Army (FlightFax, 2020) find that pilot error of some kind is a factor in approximately 80% of accidents. Having a second set of eyes can reduce the risk of an error resulting in an accident and assist the pilot in command in aeronautical decision making. Additionally, good Crew Resource Management will divide tasks appropriately to lessen the workload and prevention saturation. Crew Resource Manageme...

A discussion of density altitude on aircraft performance is natural for someone learning to fly in Colorado. Being blessed with more than 300 Visual Meteorological Condition (VMC) days a year and visibility which often stretches more than a hundred nautical miles over the front range of the Rocky Mountains is both awe-inspiring and often times humbling, particularly for pilots who learned to fly closer to sea level. I'd like to clarify a few definitions first in my discussion of why density altitude is such an important environmental factor which affects pilots of anything from the illustrious J-3 Cub to jets such as the Embraer 145 and especially helicopters, such as my personal favorite steed, the HH-60 Blackhawk (seen below in our Ft. Carson training area near the base of Pikes Peak, approximately 6500 feet above sea level.) Definitions (FAA, 2016) : Pressure Altitude - The height above the standard datum plane. Essentially, this is the aircraft altitude above mean ...