Posts

F-15 to F-35 Engines

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  For this weeks blog post I did not have to look anywhere but instead listen.   What I mean by that is the F-15 and F-35’s taking off outside my house is what gave me inspiration to write about what I know and love, jet engines.   The F-15 carries around 2 F100-220/229 and has been doing so since the 1970’s and it is my job to tear down, inspect, rebuild, and test these engines making sure they can stay in a Jet as long as possible.   Pratt and Whitney also had this in mind as they constantly update and revise certain things inside the engine whether it’s a Turbine, Stator, or even an engine computer, they are constantly learning and tweaking the engine to make it more efficient and stronger.   They also used this motor to help develop other motors, to include the F-135 engine.               With the new F-135 engine, producing double the thrust of a 229 (roughly 43,000 lbf) it also derived in a way from a 229.   As Airforce technology explains “Components from F119 and F100-229 e
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The Development of Crew Resource Management

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For my blog I am going to talk about the introduction of Crew Resource Management (CRM) and what led to its development.   First, it must be noted that CRM did not emerge from a singular accident but was influenced by a series of accidents and incidents.   CRM was created in response to the realization that many aviation accidents were either caused or exacerbated by the human factor of communication.   During these critical times when an emergency happened there was a lack of communication between the pilots and flight engineers, poor decision making, and ultimately led to an inefficient team and flight deck.             As mentioned, multiple accidents led to the development of CRM but one notable one was the Tenerife Airport Disaster in 1977.   This disaster was caused by two Boeing 747 colliding on the runway and killing more than 580 people.   The weather this day was foggy and air traffic was very busy and all communications were through just the pilot.   The miscommunication b
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Fogger

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       When people think about weather and how it can threaten aviation I'm sure most people think lightning, rain, snow, excessive wind which all pose a great threat to aviation.  However, I feel the most dangerous type of weather is the accumulation of dense fog.  Although fog is only in the first couple km in the troposphere it makes a pilots VFR inop and must rely entirely on the instruments in the cockpit and whatever information that is given by ATC’s.  This becomes a severe hazard for planes coming in for landing as you can barely see the runway markings along with not being able to visually see your altitude for landing.  It also causes roughly 22-25% of the major United States Airline delays because of dense fog.   Accompanying fog there can also be dew which in turn can cause blackice or freezing of aircraft flight controls (on the ground not in air).  With dew there is more H20 in the air and if it begins to freeze along with the dense fog, you have pilots trying to ta
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Air Traffic Controllers

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    Air Traffic Controllers are the stop lights, yield signs, and roundabouts of the skies so it is no surprise that there are more than one type of ATC.  Although they all have their importance I am going to focus on two in particular ATC, which are, the approach controllers and the aerodrome controllers.  Both of course use radar along with communication with pilots but both have very distinct differences which is why they both have their own job position.        Aerodrome Controllers are what people think when someone says ATC, as there are the ones in the Control Tower at every airport and are telling all planes where to go and when.  From handling taxiing aircraft to landing and departures, they are responsible for all of them.  These types of air traffic controllers also only deal with planes that are roughly 10 miles from the airport.     The biggest difference I feel is they are not always stationed at the airport.  For major air traffic such as London, UK the approach controll
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Airport Noise Factor

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  When it comes to environmental factors I feel the biggest factor is dealing with the noise.  Noise pollution is 100% unavoidable considering not only do you have ground noise, but you also have the biggest noise emitter, the engines.  Not only do you need to make sure the location of the airport is close and easy accessible, but also need to pay notice to the runway directions and what angle the planes will need to be landing at.  Take for instance Las Vegas McCarren airport, which is located 5 minutes away from the strip.  Around the airport itself it is mostly factories except one area where there is some residential.  Because of this, that end of the runway, along with having a long runoff area, there is extra area allotted to the airport to distance the aircraft as far away as possible. Excessive noise is not only an annoyance to anyone around but it could be a major factor in people's health especially their hearing.  This is why noise is the biggest environmental factor for
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Air Mail Act of 1925

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  One piece of legislation that came out that I feel was an important step into modern day delivery services using air is the Air Mail Act of 1925.  When this piece of legislation became a law, what it did was give the United States Postal Service higher private contractors to deliver mail rather than government appointed aircraft, which at the time was scarce and inconsistent.  The Act was brought forth by a congressman named Clyde Kelly who explained, "the Act permits the expansion of the air mail service without burden upon the taxpayers(Matignon, 2019) .   Although this Act went through many amendments, it paved the way for modern day commercial air travel.   Although it went through many amendments, like the Air Mail Act of 1926 and Air Commerce Act, it still opened the doors for basic private contracting for packages.  This is still carried on today as certain bigger corporations charter packages all over the world.  Sometimes DHL will carry packages for Amazon or USPS wil
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Human Complacency

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    When it comes to aviation maintenace i feel the biggest human factors are complacency or invulnerabilty.  Whether it is task, organizational, or stress/fatigue induced complacency it all lead to maintaners not being 100% there when doing a job.  In maintenance you can see some people are just going about the job and lacking all situational awareness and seem to forget that they are actually in a dangerous proffesion.  They get this very relaxed, carefree attitude towards the work they are doing which can become impressionable to newer workers.      When it comes to team activities and have complacency amount the team, it causes inadequate work and none trustworthy work.  It can also lead to dangerous situations that can cause damage to aircraft or injury to personnel.  The team activity that comes to mine is engine removals from aircraft.  Sometimes they can seem very teddious and workers could get complacent.  It is when that happens, you tend to forget steps and accidents happen
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