SUPER EAGLES PLAYERS JETS TO LONDON

SUPER EAGLES PLAYERS

For the preparation for the 2018 world cup finals, the super eagles players were seen on on thier flight heading from Abuja to London .they all had the belief of returning back with a smile of winning the world cup.

BECOMING AN AIRLINE CAPTAIN

BECOMING AND AIRLINE CAPTAIN

Many aspiring pilot gets to ponder on how do co-pilots or newly certified pilots become an airline captain. Co-pilots are differentiated from captain by the duration of flying hours under his belt usually 4000-5000 flying hours which equivalent to eight years as well as succeeding on series of your certification test before becoming an airline captain. With this; you’ve also gained advancement which is calculated based on your total flight hour’s equivalent to your experiences in becoming a certified captain. A captain has four stripes on his uniform whereas the co-pilot has two or three stripes depends on your level of flight hours with the airline company. The following are the test undergone to become an airline captain;

PICUS TEST

When your airline makes an announcement for CAPTAIN UPGRADING, due to its need of new captains, maybe previous one may have retired or probably left the company for other reasons. If you are one of the co- pilot with a high flying hour you are opportune to apply for the captain upgrade. Then the flight training departments sets you up for a PICUS program.  Acronynm for PICUS are;

 P– Pilot

I– In

C- Command

U- Under

S- Supervision

The above mentioned department is responsible for training you up to a captain stage after passing series of flight test programmes. this program entails that you as a co-pilot act as a captain from the right hand seat of the cockpit, carrying out flight duties like, passengers announcement , dealing with situations during landing and appraoch, taxing towards the run way e.t.c. The amount of PICUS hours varies according to your country, aircraft type, previous gained hours after completing your PICUS program you move on to the next which is the ;

CAPTAIN ASSESSMENT AND INTERVIEW TEST

CAPTAIN ASSESSMENT

Here you are been interview with the company chief pilot, an airline psychologist and other advanced experienced personnel in the sector. The chief pilot possess of kinds of technical issues that you are bound to face concerning flights operations and expects you to respond to the questions professionally because at such point in time you are a semi- captain. You are expected here to explain how you deal with technical issues that balls down to aeronautical decision making.

AIRLINE PSYCHOLOGIST

He pays attention to your judgement on each imaginary affairs you are interfaced or questioned  with. After passing the assessment, what next is your;

CAPTAIN GROUND COURSE TRAINING

This is held for a duration of six days In which has other courses like the Crew Resource Management (CRM), using the minimum equipment list and others are taken.

SIMULATOR TRAINING

This is the interesting part of your captain training process, your constant checks on the airplane management, checklist, and emergency procedures. Your instructor will always pay close attention to your sense of judgement. At the end of your simulation test, you have a;

                                                               A typical simulator

 LOFT SESSION

LOFT stands for LINE ORIENTED FLIGHT TRAINING and OPC OPERATORS PROFICIENCY CHECK. The next step is to fly as a real captain in the real aircraft. Your first supervision stage will be with a Type Rating Examiner (TRE).

LINE TRANING CAPTAIN

This training is usually a 5days training. And questions like fuel planning and management, procedure planning, hydraulic systems, different kinds of approaches, take-off, flap settings and landing etc are been asked. After this is the final test known as;

FLIGHT RELEASE CHECK

At this point you are allowed into the cockpit to fly as a captain with an experienced co-pilot. After completing the line check. From that point you are called the Pilot in command (PIC).

An aspiring captain is graded not only base on your ability to respond to conditions of the aircraft operations but your adherence to rules and regulations involved on  all kinds of flight related activities. That’s what is graded most by your instructor. The captain-ship upgrading differs from airline to airline and flight safety regulations.

Book with Qartar Airways

qatar airways; Ease your booking

www.qatarairways.com/NG/Book-Now‎

SECONDARY FLIGHT CONTROLS OF THE AIRCRAFT

Secondary Flight Controls Of The Aircraft

The secondary flight controls are very vital for controlling the aircraft during when airborne, the secondary flight controls are also required to aid take-off to aid lift the large tonne weight  aircraft into the air. Additionally, the secondary flight control aids effective manoeuvring of the aircraft through it's flight path. The speed of operation of the secondary flight control does not have a immediate effect as the motor vehicle steering wheel. Some controls may take up to 30 seconds for its operation. example of the secondary flight control is the flaps, slats amongst others.

Flaps: The flaps is a vital secondary flight control mechanism, they are located on the trailing edge of the wing and are moved in the upward and downward direction. The secondary flight control known as flaps also has the capability of remaining in the middle to complete the chord line. When this is secondary flight control is in use, the wing shape is modified to achieve lift and to reduce the aircraft stalling speed (speed at which aircraft loses its speed) during low airspeed operation. It has a lever in the cockpit the pilot make use of for its operation. It takes 38 seconds for the trailing edge flaps to fully extend. In the analysis of the flaps in the mechanical control room, there are two (2) system reservoirs and a standby reservoir to aid hydraulics for its operation. The trailing edge flaps are operated hydraulically or electrically, if there is a hydraulic system failure the flaps maybe operated electrically with the aid of ultimate flap extension mechanism. The power drive unit is responsible for the flaps extension or retraction. It converts hydraulic power into mechanical force to operate the flaps. When the flaps lever is moved, there is an input sent to the leading edge flaps and slats. There is an indicator for leading edge flaps and slats in the in the cockpit located below the trailing edge flap indicator to indicate how they are often used. The green indicator or light comes on when all the leading edge flaps and slats are fully extended. The leading edge flaps indicator indicates when the flap is not in the supposed position.

Slats: Slats are secondary flight control which also are movable and are located at the leading edge of the wing to change the wing shape to achieve extra lift. They are used to reduce the aircraft stalling speed during low air speed and high angle of attack operation. The slat aids to smoothen the airflow in the upper surface of the wing. The slat is vital because when the aircraft is about to stall, it’s the leading edge of the wing that stalls first. They are located there so as the initial phase of the stall the aileron will provide a roll control.

Spoilers:  They are also secondary flight control which functions contrary to the flaps. They are located on the upper surface of the wing and are extended upward for the purpose of disrupting the airflow that aids to generate lift. When they are extended they create drag to aid descend rate. On ground taxing, the spoilers aids to reduce the speed at which the aircraft touches down during landing which is a few knot higher than the speed at which it would have taken of. For this reason spoilers are deployed to destroy the excess lift and aids the landing gear to have good adherance to the runway. There are leading edge flaps and slat as well as trailing edge flaps and slats.

Elevator Trim tab:  They are secondary flight controls located at the trailing edge of the elevator. Its functions is similar to the operation of flaps. But they function simultaneously. When both elevator trim tab faces upward, there is a lowering of the tail section and its aids the nose pitch up, when the trim tab of the elevator faces downward is, its aids the nose down. It’s controlled by a wheel in the cockpit which you trim up and down in variation.

 Protection Mechanisms for Flaps and Slats

 There are few protection mechanisms for the protection of secondary flight controls. Which includes the flaps and slat namely:

Flap load relief mechanism: it works for the trailing edge flap for the purpose of relieving load of the flap. When I mean load, I refer to weight of the flaps. When the trailing edge load relief is active the flaps load relief light indicates.

Leading edge automatic slat function: it moves leading edge flaps to the fully extended position.

Others includes;

Asymetry and skew detection mechanism

Uncommended motion detection

Trailing edge alternate flap extension

Without the secondary flight control, its going to be difficult to fly the aircraft in any condition. for effective function of each of the control, they have to be maintained and checked always as a pre start routine  before flight.

COMPLETE GUIDE ON LIGHTS FITTED ON THE AIRCRAFT

Complete Guide on Lights On The Airplane

Lights on the airplane serves as a source of notification to other pilots who are also making use of the airport. Light on the airplane are very important such that it can’t be done away with especially at night and also during the day. In my description of lights on the airplane, I will used the airbus A320 for analogy. There are 8 different kinds of lights fitted on the aircraft fuselage. The fuselage is a term used to describe the external body of the aircraft. Let’s starts its explanation from the nose wheel. The first light is the taxi light.

Taxi light: This is an important light on the aircraft fuselage, this light is used for taxiing on the runway and in most aircraft like the A320, its uses up to 150volts of electricity. Its direction is pointed to the middle of the runway line light which illuminates it at night.

Take-off light: This is another important light on the airplane, it’s used by the aircraft crew once they have received permission for take-off after clearance from the ground crew. Immediately it’s turned on. The take-off light is brighter at 600watts for the A320. But may vary in some aircraft. This light is fitted close to the nose wheel landing gear. And it automatically turns off as soon as the landing gear is retracted back to its position after take-off. But the switch necessarily needs to be put in the off position by the pilot after its automatic switching. Note that as the take-off light switches off the switch still remains in the ON position.

Run way turn- off lights:  This is another important light on the airplane that aids to lighten of the runway exit. Its angle of separation from each other is from the range of 130 degrees – 160 degrees.

Wing Scan light: This is another important light on the airplane, this light is used to light up the leading edge of the wing and the engine at night. It aids the pilot to check for fragments of ice on the engine and the wing. Ice on the leading edge of the wing makes it difficult for the pilot to set the wing in a desired angle of attack. If there is presence of ice when the aircraft is on the tarmac, A call for ground de-icing is made but meanwhile before doing that, he turns ON the engine anti-ice system in the cockpit. The anti- ice system on the engine is located in the middle of the front part of the engine, it’s used to provide heat to basic sensors that are situated in the engine of the aircraft and provides information to the pilot in the cockpit. There was a mistake carried out by an incompetent pilot of Air Florida Flight 90   late captain Larry and his crew in the 1980’s, he forgot to turn on the engine anti- ice switch during icy condition of the whether hence took long reach the take-off speed and different readings were provided in the cockpit.  Also the blinking lights on both wings of the airplane enables the plane more visible at night.

Beacon Light: This is another important light on the airplane, on bigger aircraft such as the airbus A320 which has the bright flashing reddish pink light fitted on top of the fuselage, its function is to enable airport users to identify if the plane is been push-back or about to work on  its power. This light is noted in the before start list which is similar to this:

BEFORE START

COCKPIT PREPARATION…………………………………………………………completed/both

GEAR PINS AND COVERS………………………………………………………...removed

SIGNS……………………………………………………………………………………..on/auto

ADIRS……………………………………………………………………………………..nav

FUEL QUANTITY……………………………………………………………………..-kg.lb

TO DATA………………………………………………………………………………….set

BARO REF………………………………………………………………………………..set both

WINDOWS/DOORS………………………………………………………………….close both

BEACON………………………………………………………………………………….on

THR LEVERS……………………………………………………………………………..idle

PARKING BRAKES……………………………………………………………………..as rqrd

This light notifies the ground crew or anyone who’s within the area of the plane that the pilot has received pushback clearance and the plane is moving either been pushed backward or forward. Many aircraft has different varieties of ways to use the beacon light.

Landing light: This is another important light on the aircraft, taking for example, on the airbusA320 these lights are mounted on the bottom of the wing close to the fuselage, it can be retracted by an electric motor. This light is turned on when the pilot has received a landing or take-off permission. They are kept ON till the pilot reaches 10000ft for approach for landing the light is turned back on at 10000ft for proper visibility.

Position light: This is another important light on the aircraft, it’s used for navigation and it’s located at the tip of both wings of the aircraft. The light on the right is the green and the left red. Both has a display angle of 110 degrees and the light placed at the tail section has an angle of 140degrees of display. This light enables other pilot determine the direction of the aircraft.

High intensity light: This is another important light on the aircraft located on the wings and the tail section. They are highly intensified in display and gives double flash in a second. They are turned on when the pilot is on queue for the runway permission to be visible to other planes and turned off once the pilot is out of the runway. They are also called strobe light.

Logo light: This is another important light fitted on the airplane, its located on the tail section of the aircraft pointing towards the logo of the aircraft company designed on it. It’s may be as well used for safety and advertising.

 Always refer to the minimum equipment list(MEL) to verify which lights needs be active, Airlines have different procedure on how and when to make use of the exterior lights of the aircraft. Without lights on the airplane it would be impossible for pilots to understand each other special in a busy airport. And there may be fear of collision between aircraft for lack or improper function on lights on the airplane. 

GUIDE ON PRIMARY FLIGHT CONTROLS

FLIGHT CONTROLS

Flight instruments are essential for pilots because as they fly through the air, visibility is not as comparable to that of a driver in a car that navigates through different routes on land. He needs (the pilot) to use those flight instruments to communicate with his sight, memory and the control tower by reading and paying attention to them. The flight instruments also aids to know your specific location in combination with the radar system.

The six basic flight instruments the pilot’s concentration are focused on are are demarcated In the centre, in the cockpit. The first instrument is:

The Airspeed indicator: The airspeed indicator is one of the basic and fundamental instrument. It’s synonymous to the car speedometer. It’s calibrated in knots. It tells us how fast the aircraft is moving through the air.

The Altitude Indicator: This is another important basic flight instrument. It tells us the direct indication of pitch and bank. Pitch is the action of lifting the airplane nose upward and downward. As bank is either to the right or left, Pitch is either up or down. Looking at the top of the altitude indicator is a small triangle orange in color pointing to calibrated white lines that signifies the bank indicator. Calibrated as 10 degree, 20 degrees, 30 degrees and lastly 60 degrees of bank. There is a large orange triangle in the middle of the altitude indicator. It show the level of pitch up or down.

The Altimeter: This is another flight instrument that indicates how high we are flying through the air. Its reads like a clock (analogue indicator) but in some modernized and sophisticated aircraft, the altimeter is digital (showing discrete values). The small hand points to thousands of feet whereas the long hand points to hundreds of feet in an analogue type altimeter indicator.

The Turn Cordinator:  The turn coordinator is another basic flight instrument used to evaluate the quality of turns. It shows two parts of indication, the left and right and also the centre with a small ball which acts based on centrifugal force. If the centrifugal force is pointing to the left, the ball will slide to the left, if the centrifugal force is pointing to the right, the ball will slide to the right the ball only rest in the middle of its demarcation in a straight and level flight. The rudder controls the quality of the turn in the sense that when you push on the right rudder that ball slides the right direction and the airplane turns right. The ball tells you what needs to be done with the rudder to stay a coordinated flight. This flight instrument doesn’t give you the direct indication of bank. It only tell you the plane is physically changing heading in a particular degree of bank close to the turn coordinator is the heading indicator.

The Heading Indicator: This is another basic instrument that tells us the direction we are flying into the air. Its analogue form has calibrated numbers. But most modernized airplanes has its numbers in digital form. It’s calibrated in 9, 12, 15 degrees of calibration. all you have to do is add a zero to the numbers. Our main headings are north, south, east and west. The north heading is 0 or 360 degrees, east is heading of 90 degrees, the south is 180 degrees, west is a heading of 270 degrees. Each little white tick on the heading is 5 degrees.

The Vertical Speed Indicator:  This is another basic flight instrument, it tells us the rate of climb or descent in a coordinated flight. Its calibration is in feet per minute. Most sophisticated aircraft has its calibration in digital form. Other flight instrument includes the:

Tachometer: This instrument indicates how much of power the engine utilises. The aircraft power is measured in rotations per minute, the full power is about 2500 rpm basically what is been done with the throttle in the cockpit. This works like the gas pedal in your car.

The mixture control: This shows how much fuel goes to the engine. On the ground we set the mixture to rich but as we climb the air gets thinner so we need to use less fuel otherwise the engine could choke itself as we compensate for the reduced air density after takeoff, we  ensure to make use of  less fuel.

The Flight instruments enables pilot communicate with the airplane.

Complete guide on the science of aviation and flight

THE COMPLETE GUIDE ON SCIENCE OF AVIATION AND FLIGHT

The science of aviation and flight are noticeable in our daily activities in life. as we might not consciously observe the exhibition of  the science of aviation and flight  daily which may  include throwing a piece of paper, travelling amongst others. these are  practical experiment  of how the sciences of aviation and flight are applicable in  most of our  activities.

The science of aviation and flight was excavated into nature as it became a quest in humans to fly at all times. aircraft were designed to operate in agreement with the principles of nature for its establishment. The wright brothers came up with a satisfiable idea for flight based operations which has been modified through further studies and  carried out researches. Soon, as advancement in technology shifts on the increase, A device will be implemented with less impact consideration, initiated into life in which human can fit into, insert necessary details including his destination, current location and other required values. And he/she arrives his destination in less than couple of minutes regardless his distance of destination. Its description is anonymous to principle of disappearance and re-appearance. This is applicable to any distance movement with same arrival time duration. Someone can  fit into the device travelling from Nigeria to America and he/she arrives the same duration with someone who decides to travel from Nigeria to Spain or whatever location but the idea is, it doesn’t exceeds the duration its assigned to travel regardless the destination  distance.

Principle of Science of Aviation and  Flight

The science of aviation and flight is aided by air. the earth is filled with trillions of trillion air particles, we cannot see the air but its impact can be felt.  For any object to fly in the air, it must possess the following characteristics

1. Streamlined body shape.
2. Wing attachment (The wings might be replaced as soon as more advancement in technology burst out).

The Wing of the aircraft allows it to be lifted into the air. In general, there are four forces that oppositely counterpart each other in flights. Failure in one of these force can lead to an uncontrolled flight movement which can cause serious damage to the aircraft as well as  the lives on board, These four forces that makes up the science of aviation and flight includes lift, weight, thrust and drag.

LIFT

The lift is a force that carries the whole weight of the aircraft into the air.its the opposite of the weight force.  The wings of the aircraft generates lift. It’s designed in such a way that it’s adjustable in an upward and downward motioned movement. The shape of the wing is like an air foil. Lift is a function of two things, the airspeed and the angle of attack. Air passes above and beneath the wings of the aircraft to generate lift base on two principles.

Bernoulli’s principle:

Bernoulli revealed the science of aviation and flight as the aircraft experiences acceleration, air tends to pass through the above and beneath part of the wing, the wing consist of two edges, The leading edge (front edge)  and the trailing edge (back edge). When you increase the velocity of the aircraft as indicated in the airspeed indicator, The air that passes through the above part of the wing travels more faster because it has a longer distance to travel than the air that travels downward part of the wing, thus a negative pressure is created, whereas the air that passes through the downward part of the wing creates a positive pressure. These two pressure that’s been created together combines to form a lift force that’s gets the aircraft into the air.  Some terms to take note of when analysing the wing of the aircraft are:

• Angle Of Attack : The angle between the chord line of the wing and the wind relative wind.

• Leading Edge: This is the front edge of the wing that has a back c-shaped design.

• Trailing Edge: This is the tail section of the wing has a v side shape.

• The chord line: The line that passes through the middle of the leading edge to the trailing edge from your imagination.

• Relative wind: The wind acting directly opposite the aircraft movement.

• Stall: it occurs when the angle of attack is exceeded. The angle of attack pilots makes use of ranges from 17- 20 degrees. And the wing no longer produces lift when it’s exceeded because the airflow across the wing is disrupted. To recover from a stall push the yoke in the cockpit forward. This pushes nose forward and reduce the angle of attack.

Newton’s law

Newton reveals the science of aviation and flight as,  as the relative wind comes in contact with the aircraft wing, it bounce s back thus hence making the large tonne weight of the aircraft be lifted into the air. As the speed increases, little amount of lift is been generated on the wing. The wing can be adjusted in position capable of creating a particular lift force. This adjustable position as explained earlier is known as angle of attack.

When the wing is extended beyond the normal angle of attack the aircraft tends to stall. A stall is a point where the wing is no more generating lift and can hence drop down from the sky. Pilots are been warned against the extension of the wing to this limit. The wing also consist of some attachment device which includes the aileron, the flaps and slats which would be discussed in further lessons.  All these attachment aids to modify the kind or nature of lift force needed for the aircraft. Opposing the lift force is the weight.

Weight

 The weight of the aircraft is capable of bringing down the aircraft. It’s the opposite of lift. In this scenario, we can conclusively say that the weight force is used by the pilot to land the aircraft when it’s applied measurably. After construction of the aircraft is done, the total weight of the aircraft is determined so as to enable the pilot determine its take-off speed and other requirement. The force of weight acts on every object that have its way to the sky.

Thrust

The thrust generates forward movement for the aircraft. It’s provided by the engines in the propeller. The pilot uses the throttle in the cockpit to vary the speed of the aircraft. Pushing the throttle forward, the aircraft speed increases. An aircraft can fly on one engine if the other encounters a failure during flight. But the controls applied has to be varied so as not to over-stress the aircraft on one side.

Drag

This is the force provided due to air resistance on the air-plane. If you pull the power back measurably, drag is going to be greater than thrust. And the air-plane speed will reduce. A point where the thrust and drag will be equal, we can say the plane no longer accelerates.

Flight Analysis

Mathematically, let the following letters represent the under listed force:

Lift = l, Weight= w= mg, Thrust = t, Drag =d

On the tarmac, when the aircraft is not accelerating, we can say conclusively say Lift (l) =weight (w), (Drag (d) = thrust (t)

During taxi to the runway, Lift (l) = weight (w), thrust (t) > drag (d).

During take-off, thrust (t) >drag (d), lift(l) > weight (w) varies measurably.

In the sky, on a level flight, lift = weight, thrust > drag (d) according to the airspeed. The airspeed is measured in knots from the airspeed indicator. It tell how fast the aircraft moves in the air.

The science of aviation and flight are the basic necessities for anyone who finds aviation to be his choice field before proceeding to enrolment in a ground school.