Posts

The Dangers of Microbursts

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One of the greatest meteorological hazards to aviation is a microburst (also called a downburst). These are sudden bursts of air that rush down from the sky at speeds of up to 100 mph. There are two types of microbursts - wet and dry. Wet microbursts are often associated with thunderstorms, when dry air causes moisture in the cloud to suddenly evaporate, cooling the air. That cool air then wants to sink, quickly rushing down and out of the storm at rapid speeds affecting an isolated area on the ground. Sometimes, these microbursts are strong enough to cause damage to property. Dry microbursts do not need to be directly associated with storm and often does not have precipitation falling with them (thus, the name dry microburst). These occur when humidity levels are high at the upper levels of the atmosphere, with much less humidity at the ground levels of the atmosphere. Precipitation begins to fall at higher levels of the atmosphere, evaporating as it hits the dry air. The evaporation
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Air Traffic Control Entities - TRACON (Approach) & ARTCC (En-Route)

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When thinking about air traffic control within the world of aviation, most people quickly associate it with air traffic controllers who are on location - up in the control tower overlooking the airport. But that is definitely not the extent of air traffic control! Without a doubt, tower controllers have an important job, but there are two other main ATC entities that also make huge contributions to the safety of our skies. These entities include the TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach Control) and the 'en-route' ARTCC (Air Route Traffic Control Centers). Today, we will look into these two entities to consider the roles they play in keeping the National Airspace System safe and keeping flights on time.  ARTCC - Air Route Traffic Control Centers There are 22 different ARTCC facilities representing different sectors across the U.S. Within each facility's designated sector, the sectors are further divided for different air traffic controllers to manage each area. As an aircraft fli
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Making Airports Sustainable

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Creating sustainable airports is one of the greatest issues facing airport management to this date. Airport managers need to look closely at their airports and examine how they could improve in the future. Much of these improvements look to reduce the impact on environmental issues, which are becoming extremely important. The FAA explains that working to create sustainable airports will allow for "reduce[d] environmental impacts" while still allowing for "economic growth" and becoming more involved within the community around the airport ( Airport Sustainability , n.d.). Currently, the FAA is working to support airports to assist in making changes to become more sustainable. The FAA has given grants and provided guidance to 44 airports within the United States to help them put new sustainable measures into place. These airports range in size from smaller, general aviation airports to massive commercial airports such as SEA and DFW ( Airport Sustainability , n.d.). T
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Aviation and Transportation Security Act

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     Without a doubt, September 11 of 2001 was a day that changed the world forever. It shook millions upon millions around the world and left the aviation community in shock and pain. Therefore, the actions taken after 9/11 played a large role in shaping the aviation world that we know today. The Aviation and Transportation Security Act was introduced in U.S. Congress on September 21st and became law on November 19th of 2001 (Aviation and Transportation, 2001).      Within this legislation came many changes to the aviation industry, namely advancements in security. From this Act came the idea of TSA with "day-to-day Federal security screening operations for passenger air transportation" being noted (Aviation and Transportation, 2001, Section 101). Screening required that ANYTHING, whether that be people or objects, had to pass through a security screening before being released into the secure area of an airport to prevent weapons or terrorists from even getting close to a ga
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Human Factors & Crew Resource Management

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      Humans play a massive role in the aviation industry. Therefore, human decisions and actions are naturally extremely important when it comes to many different situations within aviation. Humans and their impact when making decisions or taking actions within their job in aviation are considered human factors. Or, as the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority describes, "issues whether personal, social, environment or organization that affect how people perform tasks in their work reductions" (Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority, n.d., para. 1). One of the most important  considerations within aviation human factors is the concept of human error and looking into how the risk of error can be reduced in the future. (Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority, n.d.).     One of the areas that work to address the reduction of human error within aviation, particularly amongst the flight crew, is crew resource management (CRM). Crew resource management works to streng
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Threats from Within the TSA

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When thinking of TSA security practices, most of us think about how effective they are in addressing threats from people not associated with the airport. But I had to wonder, what would happen if a threat came from an employee within the airport - a TSA agent, no less. In the freak case that a maliciously-intent employee would have slipped through the cracks to become a TSA employee or if a disgruntled employee saw a reason to threaten the airport, would the TSA have a plan to handle that situation? Thankfully and not surprisingly, the TSA does acknowledge this possibility and has plans set up to try to mitigate the risk and/or address the situation if a threat does exist. The TSA calls this an insider threat, describing that as "a n individual with authorized access to sensitive areas and/or information, will wittingly or unwittingly misuse or allow others to  misuse this access to exploit vulnerabilities in an effort to compromise security, facilitate criminal activity, terroris
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Fuel Injected Engine Systems & Impact Icing

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  Today, I would like to discuss the problems that can be caused by icing on a fuel injected engine system, with a Cessna 172 in mind. Although fuel injected systems are greatly advantageous compared to carburetor systems in regards to icing, there are still problems that can occur. The main concern would be impact icing, that type of icing being the type that gathers on the outside of the aircraft ("Aircraft Systems", 2008, p. 7-11-7-12). Impact ice usually occurs when there is moisture in the air, whether that be mist, rain, snow, clouds, or others of the like. This ice build-up is similar to what may be experienced when ice builds up on an aircraft’s wings (Martin, 2017). Naturally, icing conditions and icing should generally be avoided as best as possible, but if faced with a situation where icing threatens, it is important to know how it could possibly interfere with your fuel injected engine. One of the greatest concerns regarding fuel injected engine systems and impa
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