Tomas Vykruta Data Daily

The FAA materials and tests cover outer markers, marker beacons, locator outer markers (LOM) and compass locators to various degrees. However, I find the material incomplete and a bit confusing. This article will cover what the FAA does not. First and foremost, Outer Markers are optional and being phased out: "From the 1930s until the 1950s, markers were used extensively along  airways  to provide an indication of an aircraft's specific position along the route, but from the 1960s they have become increasingly limited to  ILS approach  installations. They are now very gradually being phased out of service" If you don't see an OM published on the approach plate, it does not exist. Don't look for the light at the FaF. It will not happen. Look at these 2 plates to see what to look for. It is shown in both in the Profile View and Plan View. http://155.178.201.160/d-tpp/ 1310/06075I25R.PDF http://155.178.201.160/d-tpp/ 1310/00407IL29R.PDF The wh...

Trick 1: Getting to a VOR intersection I did some x-plane experimentation today and came up with a technique to get to arbitrary VOR intersection without having to draw anything. Try this exercise in a sim: Set 2 VOR's for some intersection. Randomize the position and heading of your plane (without looking). Unpause. How long does it take you to figure out how to get to the VOR intersection? (this is exactly what my CFII did to me today over oakland). No cheating with GPS or map. scenario (this is based off published missed for SCK ILS RWY 29R): VOR1: OBS 330 CDI left deflected VOR2: OBS 230 CDI right deflected DG: shows heading 060 degrees. Where the hell is the intersection? Solution: 1. Look at VOR1 and pick the deflected right-angle heading where the CDI is pointing. It's 240 degrees for VOR1 (needle visually points at 240, or if you like math,  330 - 90 is 240). 2. Repeat for VOR2. VOR1: OBS 330 CDI left deflected <== 240 VOR2: OBS 230 ...

See this ShowMe video (recorded on IPAD).  This process makes it very easy to solve very complex VOR problems. Step 1. visualize an airway Step 2. determine if in front or behind VOR Step 3. determine if to left or right http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=JqvkfjM

Must-see presentation at from John and Martha King on risk management with some personal anecdotes of a miraculous airplane crash in an ice storm that nearly cost them their lives.

As a pilot I've been following this shocking airliner crash at SFO very closely. I'd like to share an article I just received written by a US captain who trained Korean pilots. Disclaimer: I have not verified the authenticity of this content, but have no reason to believe it's fictious. After I retired from UAL as a Standards Captain on the-400, I got a job as a simulator instructor working for Alteon (a Boeing subsidiary) at Asiana. When I first got there, I was shocked and surprised by the lack of basic piloting skills shown by most of the pilots. It is not a normal situation with normal progression from new hire, right seat, left seat taking a decade or two. One big difference is that ex-Military pilots are given super-seniority and progress to the left seat much faster. Compared to the US, they also upgrade fairly rapidly because of the phenomenal growth by all Asian air carriers. By the way, after about six months at Asiana, I was moved over to KAL and found them t...

I'm a savvy business traveler. I spent 2 years working for Xbox, during which I would travel nearly 100,000 miles a year. On a monthly basis I'd be in Shanghai, Tokyo, Tapei, Soeul, London, Brisbane, and those were 2 day destinations. Today, I had to travel from New York to San Francisco on a routine business trip for Google. I decided to do a little experiment and track not only how long it actually takes to get from New York to San Franciso door-to-door, but where the time goes. I used 3 certified, scientific tools to write down exact times: An analog Diesel wrist watch A pen My hand My hand was not only a convenient place to write down times, it was also a reminder to keep writing down times.  The trip was simple: Take the NY Subway 1 stop to Penn Station. From there, the NJR direct to to Newark Airport. Direct flight w/ United to SFO. Rent car, drive to hotel in Palo Alto. End of trip. It's a 6.5 hour flight, so how long could the whole trip take? ...

1 coffee down. Early Friday morning I met who was to be my FAA Designated Pilot Examiner, Sherry Diamond at a small office in a flight school at KPAO (Palo Alto, CA) airport. It was the morning of my FAA checkride. If I pass this, I will walk out with a US pilot license usable virtually anywhere in the world. I didn't think I'd be nervous like the others, I'm not the nervous type, and I felt ready. But I was a bit nervous. The check ride involves a deep, 2 hour verbal exam, and a multi-hour flight exam where the examiner does fun things like suddenly shut off your engine - you must land the plane safely on a runway (with no engine) or you fail. It's a simulated engine failure landing. Sherry carefully examined my logbook . She looked puzzled. After a few minutes, she looked up and asked where the rest of my logbook is. I told her she's looking at it, and asked her what the problem was. She said the problem was it begins in December, and February has barely st...

Boom, you need to refile you income tax forms for IRS and the only copy you have is a PDF from h&r block or TurboTax.  The problem is, they are watermarked with giant 'DO NOT FILE, COPY ONLY' letters. Solution :  open up in any basic image editor (Gimp, photoshop).  Set contrast up to about 90%.  The watermark letters will magically disappear. Poof.  It causes some quality degradation in the rest of the text, so ideally you'll want to only change contrast in the area where the watermark exists.  Highlight with rectangle select tool. Quality is  good enough  to be readable by IRS agent.  Heck, drag that contrast all the way up to 100% and make them squint a bit.

An SR22 collided with a Cessna 152 midair, miraculously both pilots live to tell about it. Almost all mid-air collisions between planes lead to multiple fatalities, since almost all parts of an airplane are required to maintain lift. These guys were lucky - landing gear smashed the windshield of the other plane. Landing gear and windshield happen to be 2 components not required for flight. I just read some safety articles on midair collisions. Some of this is not so obvious. Worth sharing. Over 50% of collisions happen in: - sunny, vfr condiions (when you feel most comfortable) - below 5000', near airport - fast aircraft overtaking slow (if you're climbing at 73mph and he's flying at 300mph, you will only have a few minutes from moment of coming into your field of view, to him overtaking you) - fast aircraft collides with slow from behind (0-15 degrees): how often are you scanning BEHIND you while flying? - blossom effect: super counter-intuitive. an a...

Very annoying that Cessna doesn't make these available. I made my own PDF . Transfer to your kindle, ipad, etc. This includes the Cessna 1970K checklist as well as POH (Pilot Operating Handbook), or airplane ownership ForeFlight has a "documents" tab which is a perfect place to keep this.