Quick Survey (school project)

Hi :

I just filled out that survey for you ,I will keep that survice in mind for a few projects I am working on.

Just one thing On a few of those questions I anwered that I would not feel any safer So I will give you a little explanation.

In the bigger jets that have multiple crewmembers I totaly agree sending out a warning to someone is a great idea. I am pretty sure all the 121 air carrier jets have that contact with the dispatch department. even giving a printout or something in that case is fine. one crew member would fly the plane and the other would try and solve the problem.

When you get into general aviation aircraft you have a different story.

If I am flying along from point A to point B and my engine quits as one of your examples. The last thing I want is some system blasting in my ear that my engine just quit. My job is to FLY THE AIRPLANE. I know the engine just quit I can hear that and I can feel that in the flight controls.

If a signal was sent out and DIDN'T destract me from flying the plane that would be fine. in a single pilot plane you want to keep everythig as simple as possible. This is one reason I am totaly against using all this high teck stuff for private pilots and instrument ratings. Students haven't even learned to fly yet and now you have to figure out some navigation system that has 200 modes and 400 different screens on it. Result they forget to fly the airplane

When I was in flight school up in the San Fransisco bay We didn't use GPS we used landmarks and back then even as student pilots we were allowed to fly under special VFR conditions. now it is not allowed and I do agree for the most part for the reg change. The point being we knew were we were every step of the way because we had our eyes outside the airplane where they belong.

So if you are working in this area find stuff that doesn't destract the pilot. If it is some type of engine monitoring system all I need to know is the engine is running a little hot, so I would richen the mixture. I don't need a warning message then have to press a button to get to the next screen and then another that tells me cylinder 5 is running 30 degrees hotter than the others. I can't take the cowling off so there is nothing I can do except richen the mixture a little bit or if I am that worried about it just land.

I have actually seen this with just individual cylinder head temps. One temp is a little higher than the rest. If you take the cowling off you can see that certain cylinders are going to run slightly hotter or colder. BUT the point is the student sat there staring at the gauge and forgot about flying the airplane.

As instructos we have to teach distractions but in an emergency situation I need full focus on flying the plane. The Wife and kidds asking me 100 questions is going to be bad enought. I wouldn't want 3 systems blairing in my ear also.

Let me know if you need any more help. Keep up the good work

Airfreddy

 

Glad to help you out.

If you are working in these areas as I think you are, You have to think about some other things.

If you have some system that automaticaly sends a signal out to search and rescue for example. You have to make sure you actually have an emergency.

So in your example we will use an engine failure. So I am flying along and forget to switch fuel tanks. " airfreddy how can you forget to do that? " if you fly long enough something as stupid as this will happen. It will probably only happen once but it can happen we are all human.

So the engine quits. your system sends out a signal telling search and rescue that my engine quit. Ok I was a bad pilot and didn't file a flight plan so knowone knows where I am going. Even worse I am flying at a low altitude in the desert to take pictures of cactus. Not real low but low enough that center can't pick up my transponder. So search and rescue thinks a crash has happened.

Now I am low and no one knows where I am going. A signal was just sent out to search and rescue that a plane had an engine failure at some GPS point. I just switch tanks and keep going. I circle around for two hours enjoying the scenic flight with my girlfriend. Then About two hours after having fun I climb back up again and get picked up on radar but I am 25 miles from the point where the engine quit. At this point in time atc doesn't know anything about me and won't pay attention unless I do something wrong.

BUT search and rescue was dispached out two hours ago to look for me. They would start looking probably 5 maybe 10 miles from the initial location of the engine failure.They spend two or three days looking for me. Finally the faa or NTSB or whoever pulls the radar records and tracks me down.

Now I have a huge problem I get a $300,000 bill for that search and rescue operation. All I did was forget to switch tanks, the engine quit, I switched tanks and enjoyed the afternoon.

So if you are working on this type of system you need to make sure you have verification systems in place to verify what actually happend.

If I got stuck somewhere I would just use my handheld and call out on the center frequency. Try and get in contact with a major airliner at 30,000 feet and tell them the situation and ask for help. They would relay the message to flight service and go from there.

So you need to think about everything. If the above example happens 2 or 3 times, the word will get out and no one is going to want to buy your system anymore.

Examples like the one above have happened more than you would think

Airfreddy

 

That would work but you have to remember the more mechanical stuff you put into the airplane the more chance you have for something fail. So you would be talking about changing all of the fuel selctors and everything in the airplane for this system. Big jets have all of that stuff built into them from the factory.

If you are trying to come up with something for an airplane that is 40 years old, you are talking big bucks just to get your system approved by the FAA. Then you are talking about putting a $25,000 system in a $15,000 airplane. Pilots won't go for that. Most people think that all pilots are rich. I know of people that live in the hangers just for their love of aviation. They gave everything up to have a pretty descent airplane. So a lot of them have money but a lot don't.

I know they have been coming out with the GPS emergency locator transmitters. I think they are pretty expensive for now. I think I would rather have some type of handheld GPS/Satelite device that I could activate and then forget about. It could be built in the airplane also but if you go for something installed in the aircraft you are once again looking at big money and about 3 years waiting to get it approved by the FAA. If you came up with a satelite/ gps / hand held divice you won't have to worry about the faa since it would never be a permanent part of the plane. I think they may have them out there. I am just getting back into the industry so I have a little catching up to do.

You don't really need to tell the world that this then that happened. You just need to let them know you had to do an emergency landing and exactly where you are so you can get help as fast as possible.

airfreddy