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Showing posts from January, 2022

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

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

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