So I’ve been told my airplane engine has two magnetos, but what the heck is a magneto? Well in a reciprocating airplane engine like that of Lycoming IO-360 found in many Cessna 172 aircraft the magnetos are a source of high-voltage electrical energy. This electrical energy is used to produce
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You don’t have to be a mechanic to be a safe pilot, but a knowledge of how your engine works and what the engine instruments are telling you will make it easier to give your engine tender loving care and get long, reliable service from it. Today we’ll cover your
…According to FAA research and safety reports there are three distinct types of communication errors:
An absence of a pilot readback. The pilot merely acknowledges the clearance that he/she in actuality misunderstood.
A Readback/hearback error. When a pilot reads back a clearance incorrectly and the controller fails to catch the
…Effective communication is absolutely critical to your safety and the safety of those in the air around you and on the ground. There’s a well established phraseology and accepted techniques in aviation, so mastering this will be key in your flight training. Take a look at the …
VORs are anything but standard. When operating under the guidance of radio navigational aids like a VOR it’s important to understand the restrictions and standard service volumes (SSV) associated with each aid of intended use. VOR standard service volumes are designated in three classes: Terminal (T), Low Altitude (L), and
…We’re devoting this week’s posts to the VOR, a radio navigation system used worldwide by private and commercial pilots. This introduction comes from The Student Pilot’s Flight Manual, by William Kershner.
The most useful of the enroute radio navigation aids, other than GPS, is the VHF omnirange,
…Coordinated Universal Time, Universal Time Coordinated, Greenwich Mean Time, Zulu Time—I am sure you have heard these terms at some point in your flight training, but what is all of it? To keep it simple these are essentially one in the same: time corrected for seasonal variations in the earth’s rotation
…Understanding the imaginary grid we’ve laid out around and across our planet is key in flight planning and ultimately your safety. Today, we’ll review some of the basics with help from the FAA textbook Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge.
The equator is an imaginary circle equidistant from
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