Studying how to, and how not to pilot an aircraft

Blue skies!

We've been fairly busy lately having had four exams in the last three weeks, with another two exams next week. This far I've been spared from having to retake anything, but I'll have to study more than I have to be confident in meteorology and air law. Air law is filled with complicated details about everything which could make you think that every pilot should be able by heart to build an airport, make instructions on how to organize air traffic around the airport, act air traffic controller, organize rescue operations, and establish and design his own government authority so that it follows the wonderfully bureaucratic traditions in the industry.

The navigation course is comparatively interesting and easy, but as a former newbie physicist I regret that the geometry we learn is so simplified, and that course content seems actually designed in order to not make us understand the math, but just memorize formulas for the tests. Meteorology is by far the course that's most connected to science, among all courses that we will take until graduation. It's a very interesting course, while pretty difficult.

Besides studying I've devoted a lot of time to two things in my spare time. One is Microsoft Flight Simulator which I installed immediately after buying a new desktop computer (my old one was broken) and a joystick. Apart from easing my longing to fly for real again in spring, it can be quite instructive if you play it seriously. All buttons and switches from the real aircraft are present and the aircraft act very real. The other activity is watching documentaries from aviation accidents – I've watched around 20 episodes in the last two weeks.

One thing that's becomes very clear seeing all these documentaries is that the aviation industry should not be blamed to see lightly on accidents or not trying to avoid mistakes to be repeated, at least not in late years.  Another thing is that an accident never occur by random – there's always a series of avoidable events that lead to an accident. Practically all airliner accidents with fatalities or major airframe damage are thoroughly investigated and when solved lead to improvement of procedures or regulations that should prevent a similar accident from occurring in the future.

Youtube suggestions:

 

Maybe you've already seen documentaries about the Gottröra crash but this one is really good. A SAS airplane crashes after take-off from Arlanda on a field and everybody survives even though the airframe breaks apart. After this accident, checks that the wings have been properly de-iced were made more rigorous and the captain must actually touch the wing surface to check for invisible layers of ice. Training on engine surges and an automatic throttling system the pilots were unaware of was introduced.

A very long video about the famous 747 runway collision in Tenerife – the deadliest aviation accident ever. Because of a bomb in the Las Palmas airport terminal, many aircraft are diverted to the small Tenerife airport. When the aircraft finally can continue to their original destination Tenerife airport has been covered in heavy fog. A KLM 747 is at take-off position while another 747 of Pan-Am is taxiing on the same runway, and the KLM captain tries to take-off forgetting he has not got permission, and the collision is inevitable.

This accident led to a major standardization of aviation radio communication phraseology in order to avoid misunderstanding between the pilots and the air traffic controller. It also demonstrated the dangers of a social hierarchy between the captain and the co-pilot, and soon airlines started training their pilots in Crew Resource Management where the importance is emphasized of intervention by one pilot when the other one makes a wrong decision or is incapable to handle a situation.