Problems reported with landing gear, brakes, reversers, and shock absorbers

Super useless unless you happen to be going exactly true north or south, not near anomalies and not accelerating.

True north varies from the magnetic compass reading depending on where you are on the planet. The compass is useless at the magnetic north pole and is inaccurate near anomalies and when accelerating.

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Geographic north (also called "true north") is the direction towards the fixed point we call the North Pole. Magnetic north is the direction towards the north magnetic pole, which is a wandering point where the Earth's magnetic field goes vertically down into the planet.

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Magnetic declinations vary from place to place, depending on the intensity of Earth's magnetic fields. For instance, if you hold out a compass in New Zealand, magnetic north will be about 20 degrees east of true north, whereas the declination in Los Angeles is 12 degrees.

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In navigation manuals, magnetic deviation refers specifically to compass error caused by magnetized iron within a ship or aircraft. This iron has a mixture of permanent magnetization and an induced (temporary) magnetization that is induced by the Earth's magnetic field.

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The dip-correction weight on the compass causes indication errors when accelerating on an easterly or westerly heading. When accelerating on a heading of 090 or 270 degrees, the inertia of the weight holds back the compass and causes it to rotate toward north.

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Magnetic Anomalies can be caused by things like minerals in the rocks, void spaces and lightening strikes.

<snip irrelevancies>

It's useful because you have a built-in distance scale anywhere on your chart.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

There are other reasons to dump fuel. Dumping fuel lightens the load allowing the plane to fly slower without falling from the air. It also reduces the severity of fire when a landing does go wrong. I'm sure there are other reasons as well. The incident was a very near miss.

Yes, that's the point. Several parts required for a safe landing did not work creating a very dangerous situation. It was very fortunate indeed that no one was hurt, not because the procedures are infallible.

That's not much of a bench mark! There were any number of celebrities who died in airplane crashes in the 50s and 60s. It was still the wild, wild west in terms of airline safety.

Hardly. If the backup to the hydraulic system worked they would have had flaps and reverse thrust, just powered by the backup system. Are you suggesting the backup was to land fast and heavy and pray they could bring the plane to a safe stop? That *is* what happened.

All maps cause distortions. You cannot convert a sphere to a flat surface and preserve distance and direction. The errors grow larger with the area.

The longitude, also called a meridian, stays constant. The change in latitude is the distance along the meridian. That's just the ancient origins of the measure, not needed anymore.

Knots tells the pilot how fast he's traveling relative to the air. How's that important? It's important if he wants to keep the airframe in one piece. It's actually pretty easy for a maneuver at speed to start making the aircraft come apart, losing critical control surfaces like rudders, stabilizers and bits of wing.

They still let them fly on probation. It's a really big deal to replace a pilot. That's why every crash investigation also involves investigating the pilots, they almost always find something shocking.

Sure, and they're very small when

a) the map is large scale, such as the coastal charts I have in mind; or b) you're measuring the scale at a nearby latitude on the map,

in which case they're quadratically small. I'm generally doing both, so they're down in the ppm--much better than my chart dividers, for sure.

As I say, super useful.

I'm not proposing to navigate to Greenland with a child's school atlas. (*)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

(*) Though that sort of thing has been done, in a pinch:

I doubt you are going to get ppm level accuracy on paper.

When you do want to use your map, you need some way to measure direction to your goal. If it is beyond visual range, you need to use a compass. Now you are subject to all the errors I listed in my previous post.

You can, of course, use the compass to get the general direction, then use eyeballs once you are in visual range.

Another method is to use latitude and longitude to calculate the great circle route, then use GPS to correct your bearing once you start moving. GPS will then give you the distance to your goal, and the time remaining if you keep a constant velocity.

A map is not going to help if you are on a body of water, and beyond visual range of the shore or your target. It is also not going to help much if you are on land and meet an obstacle, such as a dense forest or a body of water.

nothing is guaranteed, everything can fail. That's why they have backup and even when backup fails they have a plan

The plane is build so it can handle a hard landing if it has to, it might get damaged but that is secondary

landing without flaps has a checklist and it is something the pilots train for in the simulator

Reverse thrust is not required, it is nice to have and reduce brake wear. Landing distance does not depend on it and it is allowed to fly without thrust reversers operable

You've obviously never been a navigator.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

I got my private pilot's license in 1959: YZP12677, and flew all over southern Ontario. I only got lost once, but found my location when I almost flew into a tall radio tower and located it on the map.

I bought my Piper Malibu, N4360V, in 1984 and flew all over the United States. Typical trips would be from San Jose, California to Boca Raton, Florida, Rochester, New York, Boisie, Idaho, Denver, Colorado, Los Angeles, California, San Diego, California, and miscellaneous trips to various points in the USA. I never got lost once.

Powerplant

PA-46-310P - One 230kW (310hp) Continental TSIO-520-BE turbocharged and fuel injected flat six piston engine driving a two blade constant speed Hartzell propeller.

PA-46-350P - One 260kW (350hp) Textron Lycoming TIO-540-AE2A.

Performance

PA-46-310P - Max speed 434km/h (234kt), max cruising speed 398km/h (215kt), long range cruising speed 363km/h (196kt). Initial rate of climb 1170ft/min. Service ceiling 25,000ft. Max range at long range cruising speed and altitude with reserves 2880km (1555nm).

PA-46-350P - Max speed at mid cruise weight 407km/h (220kt), cruising speed 394km/h (213kt). Initial rate of climb 1220ft/min.

Service ceiling 25,000ft. Range with max fuel and reserves at normal cruising speed and optimum altitude 1953km (1055nm).

Weights

PA-46-310P - Empty 1066kg (2350lb), max takeoff 1860kg (4100lb).

PA-46-350P - Empty equipped 1397kg (3080lb), max takeoff 1950kg (4300lb).

Dimensions

PA-46-310P - Wing span 13.11m (43ft 0in), length 8.66m (28ft 5in), height 3.44m (11ft 4in). Wing area 16.3m2 (175sq ft).

PA-46-350P - Same except for length 8.81m (28ft 11in).

Capacity

Typical seating for pilot and five passengers.

I should also mention there are plenty of obstacles flying in the US:

Prohibited Military areas, restricted airport boundaries, devations due to bad weather, fuel management on long flights, deviations due to mountainous terrain (no place to land due to engine failure), unplanned landings for passenger comfort (ladies got to pee), etc.

All these flights were made before GPS was available, and required knowledge of and correction for compass errors, and meticulous planning for safe flights.

Okay, so you're just looking for a fight. Have a nice day.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

You started it. Quote:

This time, I have to agree with Steve.

I have been flying since 1986, now retired from professional aviation, but still have an airplane, DA-42NG:

. I wondered in the discussion that nobody noticed that it is mandatory to report when fuel level drops below the minimum of 45 minutes fuel. It should also entitle to priority in ATC handling.

More actually one minute of arc on a great circle. The excentricity of Earth is not accounted for.