Skywalking, to get your mind off matters of grave importance

General Discussion General Chat
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When considering the airplane engine, there are many factors you have to think of to make sure you’re safe in the sky.
You don’t want engines overheating, but you don’t want them cooling too fast either.
You could form carburetor ice even in 80° weather because you’re going so fast, and when that happens, you flip the carburetor switch when you suspect sluggishness from ice.

Of course, it could be your fuel air mixture which you have to constantly adjust as you change altitudes because the air is less dense, and you need to also reduce your fuel mixture too.
Too much fuel can cause fouling of spark plugs, your engine runs cool believe it or not, and you won’t be getting maximum power from your engines.

Not enough fuel will make your engine burn hotter, because of the excess oxygen, the combustion will produce more heat and less energy.

If you do check your carburetor ice, remember to hold that heat for at least four seconds to allow melting before you bring it back.

Maybe your angle of attack is too aggressive and your engine is having a hard time because it’s cutting higher resistance as opposed to a low angle of attack.

Your alternator could be performing less than optimal, could be you need to open your cowls, could be landing gears are still down and you got hella drag because you forgot to lift your wheels up.

Could be your engine.

And as you go through this chapter of flight instruction, you realize aerodynamics is fucking arithmetic compared to needing to know your engine!

Gotta make sure there’s enough pressure in the manifold, you are ensuring optimum power, you are controlling the temps of your craft not just through secondary systems but also how you are flying your craft!

Winds is nothing compared to ice and pressure!

You have to make sure you don’t freeze your engine during landing by turning down your rpms too far, it could cause warping in the engine or any of the dozen components around it!

You are a trekkie if you followed me this far, or a sky jock in which case, how did I do?
This shit is crazy, I’m not sure if I’m ready for ground school.

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Two reasons for becoming a pilot:

First, a private pilot license can take you anywhere you want to go, and you can take pretty much everyone willing to fly with you anywhere they want to go, and charge your friends the spending money while you tag along their vacations as “the pilot”.

I’m pretty sure no one would fly with me regardless, so not really a big sell for me.

A sport pilot license gets me in the air half the time, and I’m assuming that’s enough to get going on aerobatic training.

For the G’s.

If I miraculously find ONE person to fly with me, well, I got the seat, and it comes with over a hundred pounds of cargo space.
It’s going to be fighter seating though, you’ll be enjoying the view from the back, going 213 mph cruising speed at 8,000 ft. as I explain every control and it’s critical role to keep the plane in the air.

That’s probably when I’ll notice the engine power going down and remember to turn the carburetor heat on, and as the four seconds pass and you can feel the power recovering, you’ll be wondering how the hell you ended up in my cockpit in the first place!

With my luck, my instructor will be the exact same way.

Except unlike my instructor, you’re flying in my homebuilt kit I got online, and just as you think you gotten through the worst of it, hearing about the difficulties of aviation, I’ll continue on about how I built my plane, the problems with perfect rivets, and the inspections you have to go through, and how many hours is recommended before you can call her officially “air worthy”.

How many hours? Like a few hundred, like breaking in a new toy, only steady use will tell the quality of craftsmanship.

And now you have to ask yourself if you really want to know how many hours I put into my craft already.
Surely I would break my vehicle in before offering anyone rides?

It doesn’t matter what the answer is, it’s going to take a minute for me to stop laughing before I can answer the question.

And while I regret my rude manner, you had it coming.
Just remember, if I accidentally stall, it’s fine, stalls happen all the time.

I’m not sure anyone is ready for that, not even me.

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We’ve discussed the engine, aerodynamics is arithmetic, Sir Isaac Newton stuff, Lift over weight and thrust over drag, and while these aspects are quite important, the electrical systems can be just as critical without causing so much attention.
That is, until it fails.

The alternator is the key, the battery is your gauge.
First, you need to know if you’re looking at a charge/discharge ammeter or load type ammeter.
One tells you if the battery is charging or being used, one tells you how charged your battery is.
One will stop when the battery is fully charged, the other will show drain (usually) in the beginning and build back up to normal as the alternator charges the battery.

Innocent until the charging that was supposed to stop 30 minutes in still hasn’t stopped charging for an hour, or if after an hour you see your battery still isn’t fully charged. In either case, that’s when you need to start paying attention to the lights, because you might have problems.

Usually the low-voltage light will turn on if the battery isn’t getting sufficient charging, or the high-voltage light if it’s overcharging or charging too fast, but that’s not always the case, and catching problems early is always better than waiting for them to happen.

Especially when you’re miles off the ground.

Low-voltage problems is the reason why every pilot needs to know their electrical loads on their craft, the capabilities of their battery, and decide how much of that optimum power you want to rely on in the event of a power failure.
How long will it take your battery to drain when all your electrical is depending on your storage because your alternator is having issues.

Overcharging can lead to it’s own problems, and the first thing you want to try when you are facing that kind of problem is to reset the whole damn system.
That means shutting the main off, so you can reset the alternator, perhaps clear any malfunction in the regulator.
But if that doesn’t work, that is another reason why you need to know how long your battery is going to last.

This is a good time to note that your engine doesn’t need the alternator to make it work.
The spark plugs are not reliant on the alternator whatsoever.
It is the magnetos that powers the engine, a marvel of renewable energy, a secret aviation keeps closely guarded.
Don’t want to be seen as woke.

What does this mean for the builder?
Make sure every fucking system is grounded!

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I’m keeping all my flight gear on my lanyard, including flashlight and all necessary documentation.

I’m going to preflight like an X-wing pilot in the Rebellion.

Gonna find a co-pilot that screams like R2-D2.

And I want the military to help out with guidance systems for flying circus dog fighting.

I’m all in if that happens.

Man, Top Gun was so good!
Still not watching the first one, you chose to put that mullet in!

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You know what’s funny is I’ve always wanted to be a pilot lol

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What part of that story made you want to say that?
I thought I made the experience in my plane perfectly clear.
You sure R2? I’m going to want to practice switching seats mid flight.

Once I get certified to parachute, you’ll be popping the hatch so I can jump and chute into… something, a Progressive campaign rally, bolster the candidate.

That wasn’t a deterrence, I’m just making sure you know what you’re getting into.

Or are you all about the dogfighting?
X-wing Squadron? I call Hobbs, the mouth.

What do you know of birds?

I don’t know birds, so for the sake of argument, without trying to be at all accurate, I’m pretty sure I just watched a crow yesterday miss several snipes in a botched attempt at “hanging claw grab”.

After a few attempts the crow landed on a lamp post, where I swear the gang of snipes began pestering the crow in what can only be described as incessant shit talking.

The crow tried to swipe at one, but I chose snipe for a reason, these little fuckers were fast, literally did a loop without even breaking into a turn.

These little ones were playing above me showing me their skills, swooping right above, flapping like… hummingbirds to be honest, their flaps were enormous!

The crow flies like how I imagine the human gliders that take off from the ground will be like, the steady beats to keep aloft are more suited to our capabilities.
The control needs to happen at the apex of the wing, that is where the force needs to be applied to get ease of wing lift when recharging for another pump against the wind.

The control will need to rotate to slightly angle your “flight feathers”, it will help reduce resistance when bring up the wing, reversing the rotation will add to wing area for lift, as well as alternating rotation of each side will act as ailerons for turns.

Years ago, this was just a daydream.
Now, I can almost feel it.

Leaf springs to load tension on, when needed you get a 50-100 lbs. assist.
Smaller springs, and you can load pairs.
How many loads to effectively take off?
Two maybe, before you start flapping like eagles.
Or crows.

Not like snipes, you’ll give yourself a heart attack.
And apologies to bird enthusiasts everywhere, I didn’t care to look any of this up.
It started as a daydream.

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And finally, your eagerness is finally getting attention as we discover flight instruments, the heart of flying, your position in the sky, the reason you just went through all that shit in the first place.

Windspeed indicator is the one that can malfunction if it happened to swallow a bug. It is the reason you’ll put a sock on your pitot tube after flight with an embarrassing red tag because that’s a pain in the ass to take off once you’re already moving.

Altimeter uses sea level pressure and compares it to yours to tell you how high you are. If you think you can do a dab at this point, then by all means, but I would recommend your copilot help you.

Now, if you’re smart, you’ll realize that pressure at sea level changes, so how on Earth would you be able to get accurate measurements?
Very good grasshopper, you’ll need to take readings of both barometric pressure and ground temperature before you take off.
Typically your weather stations and local whatevers will help you, but I am a long-range shooter, and I already knew what the best tool for the job was, even as I was first reading about the issue.

I’m so glad I have another use for my Kestrel 5500 weather instrument, where she does all that and more with her amazing tricks. She’ll hold that position on whatever parameter you’re looking for, and with the push of a button, you’ll get satisfactory readings every single time.
That’s right, I went there.

Have you seen the Shooter? The book was so much better, but credit where credit is due, Mark Whalberg got me so into it, I had to read it when I found out it existed. So much better than the movie, but the Kestrel gives you shooter perspective on bullet effects when dealing with humidity and windspeeds along with barometric pressure.
Now I can use it to test the sky.
How fucking cool is that?
That is one of my favorite parts of being a man.
Versatility, like a swiss army knife, or a satisfying lover.
Mhm, better hold on to something.

Vertical speed indicator uses the variance in pressure to tell you how fast you’re climbing, and before you slowly rise at the pace of early morning wood, just make sure you calibrated your kollsman window properly before take off.
Wipe that smile off your face, this is important.

The attitude indicator will tell you your pitch, if your angle is too aggressive, or if you’re in danger of stalling it’s your attitude that needs adjusting. If only we could figure that out in real life maybe boys would get laid more.
Unfortunately, this is a problem I see happening all the time at my bar.
Puts too much stress on the situation, you need a straighter angle of attack, this is how you blow fuses or miss your windows of opportunity.
Wink.

The heading indicator will tell you what direction you’re facing.
I got nothing, and it seems like it should be an easy one.

The turn coordinator will indicate your banks, whether you’re putting too much force into it, if you’re feeding too much into the attempt, or generally warn you of hard resistance and possibly stalling.
No one wants that, make sure you’re well prepared to make a smooth turn, and ease into your new heading as if you were being welcomed with open arms.
If not, you’ll feel the full gravity of a too steep turn, your weight won’t be able to hold you aloft, and instead could find yourself in a terrible situation spinning out of control.

But if there is ever turbulence in the skies, make sure you absolutely keep at respectful speeds. Going too fast could cause discomfort to the cabin, or worse, damage to your craft.
There are so many things that can go wrong in the sky, I would just play it safe, and fly under guidance regulations.
They are there for everyone’s safety.

Be sure to raise your tray tables and zip up your pants, and thank you for flying with us.
We hope you enjoyed yourself, now buckle up as we prepare for landing.

Who said flying was hard to understand?
I came to understand it just fine.
You’re welcome, the pleasure was mine.

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I just got the plans for the RV-8.
I was right, no one is ready for a internet kit aerobatic flyer, that’s a risk no one should allow me to take!

This is how it goes:
First ground school, which from my research leads me to believe you can do that online with necessary certification to get you into the sky.

After that is flight instruction, where you will need to rent both instructor and rental to get the hours sufficient for license.

The difference between sports pilot and private license is being able to fly at night, sports pilots can only carry one passenger and are limited to sports planes.

20 hours for private, 10 hours for sport, with instructors and again in solos, both take the same ground school, and private license is where you start before getting into… it’s like a fishing license, you meed to add stamps to be able to fish certain types, same as a plane.

I can’t believe I was going to trust myself in my own built plane.
I can’t believe you would think it was a possibility, haven’t even started ground school and already calling my mistakes.

Do you have any idea what perfect rivets mean?
Do you know how many rivets are on an airplane?!

Groundschool, we’ll see what happens after that.
I chose Rod Machado because I loved his take on flight in his pilot handbook.

Just bought it twice since it comes with the course.
Oh well, 40 hours? That’s a video game.
The real trick is actually finding someone to fly with me.
So don’t tell anyone we had this conversation yet.

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lol just nostalgia of being in High school thinking of being a pilot, dont mind me, bu tyou definitely got my mind of things

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To center means to be balanced, balance allows you to move freely about yourself.
Should you lose balance at anytime, you will lose your center and fall.

In fact it is simple as it sounds, so simple that we don’t even recognize that we are constantly doing it at every second of our waking lives.

Only fleeting moments do you recognize your precarious situation when you misstep, but even after recovery, before you know it, you are back to your original gait and stride.

The same with breathing, when it is not on our mind, the breath flows freely and smoothly without any effort or consideration on our part.

But what if you’re in a pool? What happens to your breathing then? Your first breath in colder water will be shallow, you must adjust to the new environment before your body fully adapts to it’s new surroundings.

What about flying in an airplane? You cannot control your own momentum, it is beyond you, so every take off and landing you clench as if you’re holding back what could be a possible shart.
The very word turbulence can cause many to panic and get a hold of themselves, but for me, I can’t get enough G’s.
Flying coach since single digits, I am comfortable with 20 hour flights crossing the Pacific, I have yet to encounter turbulence I didn’t enjoy.
I fucking love it.

Just like a car, I feel the banks from left to right, international flights have flight displays and navigation monitors tracking your flight, along with the many selections of shows, movies and games to enjoy at your leisure.
The latest selections of the hotest movies fresh out of theaters, and available for you before recorded release.

Yes, I’m talking about coach, when you cross borders, it is a different arena.
Twenty years ago, they would show two movies on a pacific crossing, shown on community monitors throughout the cabin, and you would put your headphones on and dial the movie channel, and instead of being able to select music like you can now, would have playlists on the other 7 or so channels running constant in case you wanted some listening pleasure.
Simpler times.

Entertainment has come a long way, for many it’s to try to get their minds off the flight, but for me it’s to pass the boredom. Along with my travel pack I am never short on little things to keep my mind on while stuck in my cramped ass, yet perfectly portioned seating.

The narrow reclining kills me though, would it kill anyone to add even an extra 2°?!
Come on!

But when it’s time for landing, it’s go time, tray tables up, seat fully reclined, seat belts on and windows up so flight attendants don’t need to pick up after your shit and everyone can see the view much to your chagrin.

It’s for me, even in the center of the cabin, I like the view of windows lined up for me to see the landscape upon landing.

I try to feel exactly when the moment before wheels touch ground. You can feel it if you concentrate.

I can feel the pilots rate of decent, and the more amateur they are, the more the passengers groan, and I soak it in like a Sith Lord consuming dark side energy of people’s suffering.
The fear is delicious, once I have a taste, I only want more.
What’s a little misstep upon landing? Probably not going to kill us, why not some thrill?

That is the seduction of the Dark Side, excitement and sense of adventure!
And nothing is more adventurous than danger.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking, we going to be landing in some choppy weather, please excuse the discomfort as we get you to your destination as quickly and safely as possible.”

Disappointment, everyone wants to get there as quickly as possible, but the only reason they want to do it safely is because they feel the power of nature as they rest precariously on the wind in the sky.

What is life if not without a little risk? And I thought you were in a hurry? Seems like it as soon as the seatbelt lights turn off, you can’t wait to get to the door, we can get there even faster!
You just need to clench for a little longer than you’re used to.

Helm, set a course.
Engage.

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