We all should agree that at the moment of touchdown, the longitudinal axis of an airplane must be moving parallel to and above the runway centerline. The confusion lies in the landing itself vs. Unless one is flying something like a B-52 with a crosswind landing gear arrangement, there is only one way to land in a crosswind: in a sideslip or, more simply, in a slip. We plan to look much more closely at this accident once the NTSB has issued its final report and probable cause finding.Ĭonventional wisdom seems to indicate there are two ways to land in a crosswind (“Crosswinds On Rails,” August 2015): the crab and sideslip methods. We’re also curious about cockpit workload and an F-16 pilot’s ability to scan for traffic when shooting practice approaches, especially since there’s no safety pilot available. Information in the NTSB’s preliminary report on this mid-air collision seems to indicate the F-16 pilot did not begin any kind of maneuver to avoid the Cessna 150 traffic until it was too late, despite several urgings from ATC. I think the F-16 pilot’s delay in turning was a big mistake. “Opposite direction” means a closure of nearly five miles a minute. Regarding the NTSB preliminary report of the mid-air collision between a Cessna 150M and a USAF F-16C in the September 2015 issue, what type of Tacan approach has you going 250-plus knots at 1600 feet and 15-plus nm from the destination airport?Īt that speed, and at any altitude, a call for traffic at two miles requires an immediate response. We hinted at that in the sidebar accompanying the table, but we didn’t make it clear enough, either in the article or the table. G loading omits a critical piece of information: The data presented presumes level flight. Yes, the traditional chart or table depicting bank angle vs. Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, it was a generally good article. Bank angle in and of itself has no relationship to G forces. I can and have flown in a 60-degree bank and pulled zero G, and also flown a 60-degree bank and pulled 4G. Presenting this data is an indication of competence in trigonometry but someone is not paying attention to the real world of airplane flying. If I see one more graph or chart showing that if I’m in a 60-degree bank (“Maneuvering Stalls,” September 2015), I must be pulling 2G, I think I’ll throw up.
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