Ready For Takeoff - Turn Your Aviation Passion Into A Career

In Episode 149 we discussed how to fly a 3-degree visual approach. In this episode we talk about how to fly a manual ILS approach, i.e., an approach flown without a flight director. If you are planning to fly to an airport with an operable ILS, a little flight planning goes a long way. You can check weather forecasts for your destination and determine the probable runway that will be in use when you arrive, along with the forecast temperature and wind. You need this information to plan your approach. To start, calculate the true airspeed of your aircraft at the anticipated landing weight when you arrive at your destination. Depending on your aircraft, this can vary considerably depending on weight. Now, consult your performance charts to determine your approach speed in indicated airspeed (IAS). Use your IAS to calculate the true airspeed (TAS) for your approach. If you are operating into a sea level airport on a standard day, IAS an TAS are close to each other, but if you are flying your approach to a high-a

Ageless Aviation Dreams Foundation is a manifestation of the passion of the Fisher family for seniors and for aviation. To understand this passion and the history of the Foundation, you need only look at the personal and professional legacy of the Fisher Family. William L. and Dorothy Fisher started the family’s aviation heritage in 1940. Their love for the freedom of flight now transcends through four generations of pilots.  William purchased a Stearman for $1,200 but later sold the airplane.  They also had a very soft spot in their hearts for the aging and, in 1965, decided to open a senior health care facility in Roseburg, Oregon. Since then, aviation and senior care and service have become a lifetime priority for 3 generations of the Fisher family. In the spring of 2011, William Fisher, son of William L. and Dorothy, and his son Darryl, decided to fulfill a life-long dream. They traveled throughout the United States, giving veterans and seniors in long-term care communities, an opportunity to fly in a new

FAR 91.25 briefly discusses the NASA Aviation Safety Reporting Program. In many respects, it's a "get out of jail" card to avoid enforcement action. The program is explained in Advisory Circular AC 00-46E. Enforcement Action. When determining the type and extent of the enforcement action to take in a particular case, the FAA will consider the following factors: (1) Nature of the violation; (2) Whether the violation was inadvertent or deliberate; (3) The certificate holder’s level of experience and responsibility; (4) Attitude of the violator; (5) The hazard to safety of others, which should have been foreseen; Par 7 Page 3 AC 00-46E 12/16/11 (6) Action taken by employer or other government authority; (7) Length of time which has elapsed since the violation; (8) The certificate holder’s use of the certificate; (9) The need for special deterrent action in a particular regulatory area or segment of the aviation community; and (10) Presence of any factors involving national interest, such as the use of aircraft f

Christina Olds is the daughter of Robin Olds, an American fighter pilot and general officer in the U.S. Air Force. He was a "triple ace", with a combined total of 16 victories in World War II and the Vietnam War. He retired in 1973 as a brigadier general. After her father's death, Christina spent years combing through her father's notes, diaries and unfinished memoir to complete a captivating, intimate memoir of the consummate fighter pilot. The son of Army Air Forces Major General Robert Olds, educated at West Point, and the product of an upbringing in the early years of the U.S. Army Air Corps, Olds epitomized the youthful World War II fighter pilot. He remained in the service as it became the United States Air Force, despite often being at odds with its leadership, and was one of its pioneer jet pilots. Rising to the command of two fighter wings, Olds is regarded among aviation historians, and his peers, as the best wing commander of the Vietnam War, for both his air-fighting skills, and his reputation as

FOQA is a voluntary safety program that is designed to make commercial aviation safer by allowing commercial airlines and pilots to share de-identified aggregate information with the FAA so that the FAA can monitor national trends in aircraft operations and target its resources to address operational risk issues (e.g., flight operations, air traffic control (ATC), airports). The fundamental objective of this new FAA/pilot/carrier partnership is to allow all three parties to identify and reduce or eliminate safety risks, as well as minimize deviations from the regulations. To achieve this objective and obtain valuable safety information, the airlines, pilots, and the FAA are voluntarily agreeing to participate in this program so that all three organizations can achieve a mutual goal of making air travel safer. A cornerstone of this new program is the understanding that aggregate data that is provided to the FAA will be kept confidential and the identity of reporting pilots or airlines will remain anonymous as

Emilio Corsetti took a flight in an airplane as a teenager, and he was hooked! He started taking flying lessons, and received his Private Pilot license before his driver's license. He paid his dues at numerous flying jobs after becoming a CFI, and flew night check deliveries for four years before getting hired as an airline pilot. During his journey, Emilio was unemployed a total of ten years as he moved from one company to the next, experiencing terminations and furloughs numerous times. His major airline flying, at TWA, started out in the Second Officer (flight engineer) position on the 727. While a new-hire at TWA, he became fascinated by the story of the first turbojet airliner to ditch in open water. During his furlough he researched the event, interviewing crew members, survivors, rescuers, and air traffic controllers, as well as researching NTSB records. The resulting book, 35 Miles From Shore, was an immediate success. His next book, Scapegoat, chronicles the 10-year battle of a b727 crew to clear the

During qualification training, airline pilots learn to deal with depressurization, engine failure, and  emergency descent. It's a straight-forward process in training. Each of these are memory-response items that must be completed correctly. The training and checking for these emergency procedures evaluates each of these events separately. In fact, compound emergencies are not permitted to be evaluated. Unlike a "routine" decompression, an explosive decompression is a much more serious event. The time of useful consciousness (TUC) during an explosive decompression is roughly half the TUC of a slower decompression. While the TUC at 35,000 is 30-60 seconds, after an explosive decompression it will be 15-30 seconds. That is exactly what the pilots of Southwest Flight 1380 were faced with: Explosive Decompression, Engine Severe Damage, and Emergency Descent, and they performed magnificently.

Russ Goodenough is one of the few people on the planet to become a member of the caterpillar club from both seats of the F-4! Russ attended the United States Air Force Academy in the second graduating class, and then went on to Air Force Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) and followed that with qualification in the top-of-the-line F-4. During his combat tour of duty at Cam Ranh Air Base in South Vietnam he was shot down, exactly 52 years ago on the date of this recording, April 21, 1966. His dramatic rescue is chronicled, along with actual photos of the rescue, in his memoir, Why Johnny Came Marching Home.   Following his combat tour of duty, Russ flew F-4s in Europe, then separated from the Air Force to pursue a career as an airline pilot. He flew all over the South Pacific as a Continental Airlines pilot.

Aircraft on Ground or AOG is a term in aviation maintenance indicating that a problem is serious enough to prevent an aircraft from flying. Generally there is a rush to acquire the parts to put the aircraft (A/C) back into service, and prevent further delays or cancellations of the planned itinerary. AOG applies to any aviation materials or spare parts that are needed immediately for an aircraft to return to service. AOG suppliers refer qualified personnel and dispatch the parts required to repair the aircraft for an immediate return to service. AOG also is used to describe critical shipments for parts or materials for aircraft "out of service" or OTS at a location. In aviation, master minimum equipment list, or MMEL, is a categorized list of on-board systems, instruments and equipment that may be inoperative for flight. Specific procedures or conditions may be associated with operation of the relevant item. It is considered by default that any equipment or system related to airworthiness which is not include

Samme Chittum is an award-winning writer of fiction and nonfiction, and is currently a writer for Smithsonian Channel's Air Disasters series. She has a PhD and two Masters Degrees. Samme started her journalistic career as a police reporter, covering crimes and accidents. Her first nonfiction book about an air accident was The Flight 981 Disaster: Tragedy, Treachery, and the Pursuit of Truth, the story of the Turkish Airlines DC-10 air disaster that occurred in 1974.   Her book Southern Storm: The Tragedy of Flight 242 recounts the tragic crash of Southern Airways Flight 242, a DC-9 that lost power of both engines due to massive water and hail ingestion.   Her book about the crash of the Concorde, Last Days of the Concorde: The Crash of Flight 4590 and the End of Supersonic Passenger Travel is now available for pre-order.

Readiness The basic needs of the learner must be satisfied before he or she is ready or capable of learning (see Chapter 1, Human Behavior). The instructor can do little to motivate the learner if these needs have not been met. This means the learner must want to learn the task being presented and must possess the requisite knowledge and skill. In SBT, the instructor attempts to make the task as meaningful as possible and to keep it within the learner’s capabilities. Students best acquire new knowledge when they see a clear reason for doing so, often show a strong interest in learning what they believe they need to know next, and tend to set aside things for which they see no immediate need. For example, beginning flight students commonly ignore the flight instructor’s suggestion to use the trim control. These students believe the control yoke is an adequate way to manipulate the aircraft’s control surfaces. Later in training, when they must divert their attention away from the controls to other tasks, they r

Anyone in a safety-sensitive position in transportation must be tested for drug use, both pre-employment and on a random basis, as well as for suspected drug use. In airline operations, the following positions are subject to this testing: Flight crewmember duties. Flight attendant duties. Flight instruction duties. Aircraft dispatcher duties. Aircraft maintenance and preventive maintenance duties. Ground security coordinator duties. Aviation screening duties. Air traffic control duties. In addition to the previously-screened marijuana, cocaine and heroin, as of January 2018 the drug tests for synthetic opioids.

Heath Owens is not the typical professional pilot Ready for Takeoff guest. In fact, Heath is not yet a pilot. But he is an aviation fanatic who has broken the code on how to fly for FREE, and his enthusiasm is contagious, and he has some great ideas for our listeners who want to learn how to get in the air without spending a lot of - or any - money. And Heath explains how he got started in aviation insurance. I think you're going to find his story fascinating.

Even if you are type rated the in the airplane, there is a lot more to upgrading than learning how to fly the airplane from a different seat. You'll find that most of the real-life challenges you face as Captain have nothing to do with engine failure on takeoff! At many airlines, when it took more than 10 years to make Captain, copilots would have a lot of exposure to good and bad Captains, and would have the opportunity to see countless airborne decisions and evaluate their results. With rapid advancement now days, it's possible copilots will not have the extensive mentoring that existed previously. At most airlines there is some form of New Captain training to give the prospective aircraft commander training and instruction on a variety of operational topics, such as Leadership, Crewmember Mentoring, Crew Resource Management (CRM), Inflight Medical Issues, Decision-Making, Management, Fatigue-Risk Management, Stress, Aviation Law, Company Procedures and Performance.

Robert "Cujo" Teschner served as the U.S. Air Force's debrief expert during his time as an F-15C instructor pilot at the U.S. Air Force Weapons School at Nellis AFB, NV.  He personally designed and taught the first-ever core debrief fundamentals course to all Weapons School students across all disciplines.  He authored the paper "The Vocabulary of the Debrief," which was published in the Weapons School Review, and served as the subject author and senior adviser on a paper presenting the fundamentals of debrief methodology.  Cujo has spent countless hours teaching debrief fundamentals to both military and business professionals. After retiring from the Air Force, Cujo founded VMax Group.

Upgrading from airline First Officer (copilot) to Captain involves more than simply moving from the right seat to the left. If a new type rating is required, there will be ground school and simulator training, and the ubiquitous check ride. Simulator training may consist of traditional Appendix H Training to ATP Practical Test Standards and the newer Advanced Qualification Program, and will be conducted in a Level C or Level D simulator. After training is complete, the new Captain must complete Operating Experience (OE) - formerly called Initial Operating Experience (IOE) in accordance with FAR 121.434, which consists of 25 hours of supervised inflight training on regular revenue flights with a Line Check Airman in the right seat. At the completion of OE, if it the pilot's initial Captain certification, an FAA Aviation Safety Inspector will ride along on one leg of the OE to observe the PIC's performance during the latter stages of OE.  

From the Afterburner website: As an F-15 pilot, Thor escorted the U.S. President through the sky and flew missions to ensure the safety of the country after the attacks of 9/11. He was the tactical leader of 300 of the most senior combat pilots in the Air Force and he oversaw the execution of a $150M/year flight program. Thor was named the Top Instructor Pilot at the Air Force Flight Training Headquarters and he’s flown thousands of missions teaching pilots from 25 countries around the world. He received his Bachelor’s Degree at the United States Air Force Academy and is a summa cum laude graduate of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas. For most of 2015, Thor led a team of Afterburner consultants that was embedded in Silicon Valley with one of the top-five largest software companies in the world. While there, Thor supported the successful completion of more than 50 projects or “Missions” created from the CEO’s key strategic objectives. Thor is humbled to have had the incredible experienc

In aviation terminology, a rejected takeoff (RTO) or aborted takeoff is the situation in which it is decided to abort the takeoff of an airplane. There can be many reasons for deciding to perform a rejected takeoff, but they are usually due to suspected or actual technical failures, like an engine failure such as a compressor stall occurring during the takeoff run. A rejected takeoff is normally performed only if the aircraft's speed is below the critical engine failure  speed (sometimes called decision speed) known as V1 , which for larger multi-engine airplanes is calculated before each flight.The Federal Aviation Administration defines V1 as: "the maximum speed in the takeoff at which the pilot must take the first action (e.g., apply brakes, reduce thrust, deploy speed brakes) to stop the airplane within the accelerate-stop distance. V1 also means the minimum speed in the takeoff, following a failure of the critical engine at VEF, at which the pilot can continue the takeoff and achieve the required height

From The Anchor of Hope website: Col Ravella is a 1983 graduate of Texas A&M and served over 26 years in the USAF as an F-15E pilot with over 3700 hours and command at the Squadron and Group levels.  Jim is a father of seven children, a writer and a speaker.  Jim married Andrea Fuller in 1983; they had two wonderful sons, Nic and Anthony. They lost Andrea in 2007 after a four-year battle with breast cancer. During their fight with cancer, Jim documented their journey in a blog, Journey to Healing, that touched many lives around the world. Jim and Andrea spoke to cancer groups and churches, offering hope to those facing life's challenges.  Their faith, grace and courage was an inspiration to all who knew them and, through Jim's writing, continues to change the lives of those who read their story. Jim has appeared in numerous print venues and radio interviews. Ginger Gilbert Ravella is a military wife and widow, mother of five, stepmother of two, writer and international speaker.  At 36 years old, she faced

From Wikepedia: Deep vein thrombosis (DVT), is the formation of a blood clot in a deep vein, most commonly the legs. Symptoms may include pain, swelling, redness, or warmth of the affected area. About half of cases have no symptoms. Complications may include pulmonary embolism, as a result of detachment of a clot which travels to the lungs, and post-thrombotic syndrome. Risk factors include recent surgery, cancer, trauma, lack of movement, obesity, smoking, hormonal birth control, pregnancy and the period following birth, antiphospholipid syndrome, and certain genetic conditions. Genetic factors include deficiencies of antithrombin, protein C, and protein S, and factor V Leiden mutation. The underlying mechanism typically involves some combination of decreased blood flow rate, increased tendency to clot, and injury to the blood vessel wall. Individuals suspected of having DVT may be assessed using a clinical prediction rule such as the Wells score. A D-dimer test may also be used to assist with excluding the