i Mas Preguntas !

Another Monday comes and goes... good times. I've only got one class on Mondays (the English class that is the reason behind this blog) so Mondays aren't so bad for me. Unlike Tuesday/Thursday 8am-530pm back to back 75 minute classes plus whatever meetings from there. Anyway, I hope your Monday has gone spectacularly.

I've got some more questions to answer today for the benefit of all so here we go!

FIRST QUESTION: How much fuel does the plane you fly use? And how much does an average commercial airliner use? Well... as with most things aviation, there's not one simple answer. <HERE> is a link to a page out of my Pilot's Operating Handbook, or POH, for the Cessna 172M that I fly. Things like altitude, RPM of the engine, temperature and airspeed all effect fuel consumption. Also there is something called mixture. If you've ever driven a waverunner or an old Jeep that had a choke, its similar to that. There is a knob that the pilot uses to control how much fuel the engine is getting. You can pull it all the way out to shut down the engine by cutting off the fuel, or you can push it all the way in to give it lots of fuel. Using lots of fuel is called making the mixture 'richer' and using less is called making the mixture 'leaner.'

Now, my plane has 38 gallons of usable fuel. I generally plan on using 9 gallons per hour which is a big overestimation, but I'd rather not run out of fuel because of poor planning. As you can see on that chart, the gallons per hour can vary greatly depending on different things. That's basically the long and short of fuel burn for me in my little plane... incidentally, pilots call it 'fuel,' not 'gas.' I'm not sure why, really... but we do.

For commercial airliners, its a whole different story. They talk about fuel in terms of pounds, not gallons. Thus, they talk about fuel burn in terms of pounds per hour, not gallons per hour. I talked to my dad about it. He flies the Boeing 777... <THIS>. That thing uses... get ready... between 3000 and 4000lbs of fuel EVERY HOUR, PER ENGINE! To fly from Dallas, Texas to Narita, Japan (close to Tokyo) it takes about 185,000lbs of fuel. Cheah. And THAT'S just at cruise! Takeoff and climb consume an even higher rater of fuel.

If you think YOU have it rough filling up your car because of gas prices... try filling up that plane, every single day. Phew!

NEXT QUESTION: This question deals with turbulence...what factors enable the plane to keep flying/stabilized when there is a lot of turbulence instead of the lift under the wings being disturbed that might cause the plane to crash? So if you've ever flown on a plane somewhere, you may have experienced some, ahem, "slight turbulence." You can probably hear that little bell ding overhead and see that little seatbelt light up. Then either a flight attendant or the pilot comes on to make an announcement to reassure you that everything is okay... even though it may feel like your seat just got yanked out from underneath you.

Well.. that's pretty normal, especially taking off or landing... there are a lot of factors that go into what actually causes turbulence. But since this question isn't about what causes turbulence, suffice it to say that bumps are sometimes unavoidable. It sucks. Pilots don't like it either.

So... why doesn't the plane fall apart? To put it simply- its because they were made to not fall apart. I know that's a cop-out answer so I'll try to explain. Planes are heavy, or at least much heavier than air. Air is mooshy. Now, of course, if you've ever stuck your hand out of the window of your car at high speeds, you know that air can get pretty not-mooshy. But if you've ever hit your hand on a stop sign as you pass it in your car, you know that solid things get not-mooshy too! The point is that the weight of the wing of an airplane is designed to push back on the air in front of it without collapsing! Yay! <HERE> is a neat video that should give you some confidence about how these things are designed...

NEXT QUESTION: What types of things determine how high/how low the cruising altitude for a plane is? This is a pretty straight-forward answer. Basically only three things determing your cruising altitude: terrain clearance (yikes!), navigation aid signal receptional/communications coverage, and other traffic; in that order. Number one- you don't want to hit things on the ground like buildings or mountains or cranes or towers or people. Two- you need to be able to stay in range of the stations on the ground that you use to navigate. Some of them require you to be in line of sight, so that is part of your altitude. Also communications with air traffic control need to be guaranteed as much as possible. Finally, you don't want to hit other airplanes and you may choose a certain altitude because it doesn't have any other traffic on it.

NEXT QUESTION: What happens if a plane gets a flat tire going down the runway? This is pretty simple, too. You just apply the proper amount of brakes and stay on the ground... usually. For small planes, definitely so. Some bigger planes HAVE to go ahead and take off if they know they cannot stop by the end of the runway. During takeoff, the copilot will call out verbally different speeds as they pass through them. They each mean different things, but one of them is a point of no return kind of deal. It means that they have used up too much runway to stop safely and any emergency will be dealt with after taking off. That includes losing an engine and tires going flat. Again, that's just in big airliners... in my little Cessna, I'll just come to a rough and bumpy, but safe, stop.

FINAL QUESTION: This was a philosophical question about the nature of airports and airplanes. Think about what happens on every flight- you have a bunch of people all coming from different places and walks of life all getting into one very small space and getting launched into the air together. Then after they land, they all go their own ways. And airports are filled with people coming and going, all transient to that location... Hm...

I dunno. I've grown up at Dallas/Forth Worth International Airport and at Tyler Pounds Regional... I've been up in the towers and back behind the scenes as well as on the planes and in the waiting areas... my dad has done that his whole life. I didn't think to ask his opinion on the matter, though... I've always liked airports. There is always a sense of purpose... people are going somewhere... there are dozens of different jobs that make an airport work. Being a pilot is just one of hundreds of jobs that go into making a flight happen... so I've always liked the complicated, busy nature of airports.

The transient aspect of airports... I like that, too. When I thought about it, I kind of generalized it to... well, life in general. We live different places with different people over the course of our life... we have some friends for awhile that we lose and we sometimes have others that we never lose. We go places and do things or sometimes we never leave our hometown. I couldn't stand staying in one place forever, personally. Or, if I did, I'd have to travel alot (yay for being a pilot and getting paid to do it, too!). Meh... life's kinda like an airport, I guess... that's not really that deep of a thought, though.

I just like watching people when I'm at airports. Its neat. And its interesting... hm...

Well, time to close with... something. Here's something. Every plane has a maintenance log. If something breaks, pilots sometimes have to write in what happened and then a mechanic is legally required to sign off that it has been fixed. For example, on some planes, if the fuel cap breaks off, you have to have a licensed mechanic replace it and sign off. Well, the following is a list of problems that pilots wrote down along with the solutions that the mechanics wrote in afterwards... its pretty funny.

P = The problem logged by the pilot.
S = The solution logged by the mechanic.

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.

P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.

P: No. 2 propeller seeping prop fluid.
S: No. 2 propeller seepage normal. Nos. 1, 3 and 4 propellers lack normal seepage.

P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.

P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on backorder.

P: Autopilot in "altitude-hold" mode produces a 200-fpm descent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.

P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That's what they're there for!

P: Transponder inoperative.
S: Transponder always inoperative in OFF mode.

P: The T/C ball seemed stuck in the middle during my last turn.
S: Congratulations! You've just made your first coordinated turn.

P: Suspected crack in windscreen.
S: Suspect you're right.

P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search.

P: Aircraft handles funny.
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right, and be serious.

P: Radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed radar with words.

P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.

P: Radio switches stick
S: Peanut butter no longer served to flight crew

P: Screaming sound in cabin at start-up
S: Company accountant deplaned

P: Funny smell in cockpit
S: Pilot told to change cologne

P: Aircraft 2,400 lbs over max weight
S: Aircraft put on diet of 92 octane

P: #3 engine knocks at idle
S: #3 engine let in for a few beers

P: #3 engine runs like it's sick
S: #3 engine diagnosed with hangover

P: Brakes howl on application
S: Don't step on 'em so hard!

P: Radio sounds like a squealing pig
S: Removed pig from radio. BBQ behind hangar tomorrow

P: Whole aircraft smells like BBQ
S: Ground Checks OK

P: First class cabin floor has a squeak
S: Co-pilot told not to play with toddler toys in cabin anymore

P: Electrical governor is broke
S: Paid off governor's debt to Jimmy "The Fish" Galvano