Some pilots say that the only thing an airplane has in common with cars is that the tires are rubber, and that’s not really too far off the mark. The Wright brothers and their predecessors and later aeronauts developed a plethora of ideas from scratch that differ radically from the simple mechanics of ground-based transportation. Take the cockpit, for instance. ...
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When a person first learns to fly airplanes, this pilot-to-be is trained to fly under what is called VFR. This is an acronym for Visual Flight Rules. Although there are multiple competencies a VFR pilot must master, the area of expertise the general public associates most with piloting aircraft is the actual act of flying. This includes manipulating the flight...
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Some people warm up their cars before taking to the road but others don’t. Some use electric turning signals, some use hand signals, and others don’t. There is a lot of variation in how people begin their drives with some using a more thoughtful, experienced approach and others just taking their chances. In aviation, with its pervasive safety culture, the...
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With all of the safety advances in equipment and in pilot training, the vast majority of airplane problems are surmountable, and even if an airplane makes its way to the ground against the will of the pilot, in the majority of cases things come out acceptable and nobody dies. As a matter of fact, after a person learns the basics...
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Flying in a small aircraft or even going down the runway is especially valuable for a first-time, front-seat passenger. In this case, they can look down the runway while the airplane is accelerating (or, if it’s landing, while the airplane is approaching the runway). That view is fantastic, and it is not available for passengers in large airliners, this will...
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