Flight Safety By Steve Wightman, Airplane Pilot and Repairman. U.S. Army Ret. Japan Airlines Airbus A350 Collision at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on January 3, 2024,
Night flying is astoundingly beautiful over a collage of city lights and airports. It’s like Christmas city scale. Blue, red, white and flashing lights are everywhere. Night flying is peaceful because nearly all the VFR traffic is gone. There’s just us IFR pilots doing their thing, flying solely by reference to instruments. Instrument flying is all about being on heading and altitude and being where you are supposed to be at any given time.
Today, all the resources of an all glass cockpit are now available at my fingertips. Starting with my IPAD flight planner, Garmin Pilot, I save time creating and filing my flight plan and managing logs only digitally now. Further, I can plan any flight on my IPAD, I-Phone or desktop, file it and load it to my flight computer via wi-fi. I no longer have to call and talk to Flight Service. Also, these computers log and track flight statistics and maintenance data without me lifting a finger.
A dozen or so miles southwest of Boston’s class B, ATC directed me to fly east out over the ocean. I had planned other options besides KBED in case of delay. On the other hand I wanted to get home if I could. I turned to the new eastward heading and watched my required fuel ETA fuel reserve dwindle and my distance to KBED double with each ticking minute. With KBED backed up I was on a delaying vector with no time limit-ugh! I also knew fuel consumption was higher than normal due to a high density altitude. I knew I had taken the first step onto a slippery slope. I had to do something and do it fast.
the G900X shows about 200 TAS. You’re now humming along in the sun, eating terrain and conserving precious fuel. Also, like just about every other system on N71RJ, the solar system is backed up by a HVAC system I designed that keeps the cabin cozy. It varies and blends cold inlet air and hot engine-supplied air to supplement solar power and keep you comfy even at night.
How The First Fatal Accident Changed My Life and My Concept of Flight Safety
Shark Attack on a Seawind Pilot Shark Attack on a Seawind Pilot Shark Attack on a Seawind Pilot-Peril is in the deep: On a Panama
When I admire my Super Seawind sleeping beauty I recall that it was first my vision and now my creation. I had built the first ever PT6 powered Seawind and I flew N71RJ all the way up to 19,000’ at breathtaking speeds. That’s something! I recently finished the annual inspection IAW a strict maintenance schedule I authored in 2013. I feel accomplished because N71RJ is safer and better equipped than ever. Like an old friend, it’s waiting for me on the tarmac. All it needs is a qualified pilot plus a little wanderlust.
That sad day in 2014, she had not only lost a loving husband, but a copilot friend too. Like her husband, the copilot was also a dad, a friend, a brother and a son. There were no survivors. Something critical had been overlooked. Understanding the cause of this fatal crash and so many others over my flying years I reflected; “what makes my Seawind safer than other builders and even safer than type certificated airplanes like Cirrus, Cessna and Piper?”
Sensing nebulous danger, my heart rate fired upward. We were back in the clouds and then; thud! Emerging from clouds I got another quick look and both wing leading edges were icing up fast. I glanced again on indicated air speed. It had declined 5 Kts in about 30 seconds. “Ice on the wings”
