Saturday, June 21, 2008

Airport Facilities

The ILS system, considered to be the ultimate new generation, is installed in almost all international airports. We may also find it in some regional airports, but due to its facility and comfort it offers, it is prefered for international traffic.
Every airport has its systems. These can be an ILS approach, either a VOR/DME approach(where the distance between the aircraft and the airport VOR/NDB is always mesured during the approach or even a visual approach (requires visibility above the minimums)
Every runway has its way of approach for landing. There are many factors, such as its length, its wide, its location, its airport 's traffic etc., to determine what type of approach this will have. In no way should the pilot be unprepared to execute any of these approaches. THat 's why there are plenty of charts and airport maps.. ;)

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Quality, not time

.... They say that, in aviation, a pilot should always use his instict as well as his genuity, in order to avoid some cases that would occur him to use them...
we always try to be "ahead" of the airplane, to execute every action properly, without loss of attention nor concentration, so as not to be imposed to undesirable situations, where everyone in this left-seat needs to think accurately and make his decisions... But this is not always the case and panic with terror are conquering the cabin and especially the cockpit, on which the whole trip depends on....
All needed, is prosperity and smart use of these big boys.... other wise, no one is able to figure things out... In aviation we dont hold any record... we only give attention to the QUALITY....

Fs cockpits

Years of hard work conclude in as real as it gets fs cockpits.The final result is truly amazing!However a lot of money is spent in these "virtual" cockpits.Here are some wonderful results!




A 737 cockpit,congrats to the creators!





Lovely creation!





I'd love to be in the captain's seat!



























Wednesday, May 21, 2008

A must-see site

http://www.luizmonteiro.com/


An interesting site every pilot needs to check out.. ;)

Final Approach Speed, VREF

We have certainly seen many a time this phrase, either on the FMC, or on the learning center of FS itself. So, we re going to see what 's it this all about.


First and foremost, a good landing means a good approach. And the key to a fairly "good" approach is PLANNING. In aviation we have a moto : "Always try to be 5 minutes ahead of the aircraft", that means calm and accurate predictions for the little time ahead. So, we need to already have planned on our FMC once the ATC advises us that we are cleared to execute the ILS or whatever else. Most people in Flight Simulator argue that we can arrange to have the desired approach speed a few metres before the runway... WRONG... The VREF must be set on the long final, that means anout 8-10 miles from the runway, or when entering the ILS. The upper speed limit when cleared for ILS is usually considered to be a 230 IAS speed. There is nothing wrong, as when we enter the ILS and start our approach, we can easily bring our aircraft down to this speed within a single minute, with the aid of ultimate airplane configuration, that means flaps, trim, Gear etc. Take me for instance: I always intercept the ILS with my 736, whose VREF flactuates from 132 kts to 145 kts., at the begining of the glide slope, established on the Localizer, with a speed of 180-200 kts. In about 30 seconds I have the airplane fully configured for landing: Gear Down, Flaps FULL, trim set, and my VREF speed.

VREF speed does not refer on last minute configuration. The purpose of this topic, is to make clear that our final approach speed has to be set and maintained once on FINAL, not on the last few meters DME from the threshold, as in most online cases, for reasons of hurry any pilot may have. Our purpose is to make it "as real as it gets", not to always come out in a rush!! ;-)
Keep the skies clear and blue....

Instrument Landing System

In this article, we are going to see what this famous approach, known to all of us as the "ILS", is about....
Despite beeing in use for more than 40 years, it is still considered to be the most accurate landing system. It consists of two directions : one lateral (localizer) and the other one vertical (glideslope):

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The localizer enables the airplanes to get aligned with the runway extended centerline. In most cockpits, it is depicted with a diamond moving accross a lateral line. Once the diamond gets in the middle of the line, it means we have successfully hit the centerline so we must maintain our final heading, also known as the course of the runway











The glideslope, also installed a few meters below the threshold, runs on UHF frequencies, contrary to the localizer, which is on VHF frequencies. In combination with the localizer, the pilot is also informed about the glidepath, whether he is above or below the desired line, that means if he comes too high or too low. Of course, we can rely on the VASI lights ( the four lights near the runway touchown zone) but from a certain distance and longer we have no way of knowning, especially if there 's a thunderstorm during a night approach etc. The glideslope goes in pair with the localizer, so there 's only one frequencie in the specific runway which combines these two in order for the approach to be executed.



Marker beacons
: here we have three markers, the outter, the middle and the inner one. In the panel, there is a blue color when crossing the O.M, an orange color for the M.M and a white for the I.M. They are automatically updated once we tune the frequencies. They are used mostly for reasons of distance as well as chronometring affairs.
But in most ILS approaches, there are not markers, so we have the Distance Measuring Equipment which measures our slant distance from the runway in nautical miles. In this Diagram, we can see the ILS and an aircraft on its glidepath, encentered with the line, coming for the markers (about 4nm DME)



ILS Categories : 1, 2 , 3a, 3b , 3c . Amongst these , only 3a, 3b, 3c allows the autopilot to set up for the Autoland figure.






Here we have the ILS approach chart of Venizelos International Airport of Greece in Athens, for the runway 03R. we can distinguish that our glidepath starts from 9 nm DME at 3200 ft AGL. Professional pilots study these charts carefully so as to know how to react in every possible case, such as going around.

The beggining


This is the second blog by me and Bilettos,which talks about aviation technology,theory and technical matters.The main blog is
.So,ground school of aviation is the little brother of aviationsubjects,and shows more the mechanological side of the airplanes.Enjoy!