In This Issue:
Featured Links: |  | | | Dear American Flyer Subscriber,
Welcome to the February issue of I Fly America Association’s American Flyer(sm) e-newsletter. This issue highlights winter flying safety along with the FAA-developed tools for predicting icing and spotting aircraft traffic. Also, be sure to check out the benefits of the IFA Aircraft Finance Program, along with our new IFA RV Finance Program.
Feel free to forward this information to other pilots, or have them visit IFA at www.iflyamerica.org to read these and other articles. We’d also like to know what you liked or didn’t like about this issue? What would you like to see in future issues of American Flyer? Email us at admin@iflyamerica.org and let us know.
Congratulations to our latest IFA Online Giveaway contest winner Donald Miller of Andover, MA. Don't miss your chance to win a GCA-6T headset. Log on to www.iflyamerica.org and be sure to enter!
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Safety First: Watch Out for Winter
by: Patricia Mattison, Safety Program Mgr. - Juneau, AK
Flight Standards District Office
(Reprinted with permission of FAA Aviation News)
For some of us, winter is a time of snow, sleet, ice and other assorted bad weather. Occasionally there is a rare clear day that tantalizes even the most recalcitrant pilot to fly away winter boredom. However, weather being what it is here in Southeast Alaska, a beautiful clear day can quickly change to cloudy skies followed closely by snow and low visibility.
A reduction in visibility can happen rapidly or slowly and insidiously. A rapid reduction in visibility usually can be handled by a 180-degree turn to return to the departure airport. Slowly deteriorating visibility is the most hazardous. Thinking that visibility will improve as the flight progresses, the pilot continues to fly on towards the intended destination. Expecting to see an improvement, a pilot may continue until all hope of a course reversal is lost.
Flight into low visibility often results in a Controlled Flight Into Terrain or CFIT accident. Whiteout conditions and flat light are two of the largest contributors to this type of accident. Other restrictions to visibility are rain showers, low clouds, fog, and in other parts of the world blowing sand and dust.
Low visibility and the threat of bad weather don’t seem to deter some pilots. Just last winter I was looking out of my dining room window when I heard an approaching airplane. I couldn't see it, because of clouds and snow, but it was there nonetheless. It is possible that visibility was better at altitude than it was from my earthbound house, but I somehow doubt it.
Poor visibility is only one weather problem to conquer. Another potential problem is icing. Small airplanes don't deal well with ice accumulation, even in seemingly insignificant quantities. Once the airfoil leading edge is covered with even a thin layer of ice lift is lost. Rime ice is particularly hazardous. It forms rapidly and causes an airfoil to change shape and lose lift. Clear ice is difficult to see. It is virtually transparent and flows back on the leading edges and forms a clear glaze over the aircraft structure that is difficult to remove.
I once had an experience with unforecasted icing in the clouds on an instrument flight. There was a rapid accumulation of a combination of rime and clear ice on the Cessna 172 I was flying at an altitude of 10,000 feet. The plane began to descend - whether I wanted it to or not, because of lack of lift - to 7,000 feet, where it was warmer and the ice was able to break off. Only then was I able to maintain altitude. Fortunately the terrain was at about 6,000 feet. If icing had occurred in an area where there were really high mountains, I would have had a distinct problem. I could have been a statistic!
The best thing to do is to get the most thorough weather briefing possible and then take a good look for yourself. If you have even the smallest doubt as to the safe outcome of a flight, put it off. Delay until you have a good weather outlook and you feel confident about taking that flight.
FAA Develops Tool to Predict Icing
(Reprinted with permission from FAA Aviation News)
Predicting in-flight icing just got a little easier, thanks to a new tool developed by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Using the new, web-based Forecast Icing Tool, aviation meteorologists and airline dispatchers can warn pilots about icing hazards up to 12 hours in advance.
“One of the best ways to manage the effects of bad weather is to avoid it altogether. With information provided by this automated tool, pilots flying aircraft under 18,000 feet can make critical flight decisions,” said FAA Administrator Marion C. Blakey.
In-flight icing is most hazardous to private pilots and air taxi and commuter aircraft operators flying at lower altitudes. Those aircraft may not have sophisticated wing-deicing equipment used by larger commercial aircraft. The FAA tool provides a high-tech color weather map and/or a flight route display of icing potential at flight levels from 3,000 to 18,000 feet. The user can select forecast times from three-, six-, nine-, and twelve-hour intervals to plan safe routes of travel.
With funding from the FAA’s Aviation Weather Research program, the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO, developed this new tool. It joins the growing FAA-developed suite of weather tools, such as the Current Icing Potential tool. The National Weather Service operates these products for the FAA.
IFA Aircraft and RV Financing Available
Be sure to check out the IFA Aircraft Finance Program. We have partnered with AirFleet Capital – a leading aircraft financing company that specializes in financing for general aviation and business aircraft nationwide. AirFleet Capital provides financing and refinancing for new and used aircraft from $25,000 to over $10 million in value and its principals and loan officers are aviators with a strong background in the aviation and finance industries. Financing your aircraft with IFA’s Aircraft Finance Program is a fast, easy and simple process.
Just look at all the benefits you’ll receive:
* Loan values available from $25,000 – $10,000,000
* Terms up to 20 years available depending upon aircraft age and use
* Rates among the most competitive in the country offering you potentially significant savings
* Flexible payment programs customized to fit your requirements, providing low monthly payments and a wide variety of payoff options
* Fast, experienced service online or by phone
* Quote turnaround typically within one business day
* One to two business day loan turnaround
* Loan pre-approval to give you the ability to shop for your boat with “cash in hand”
* Refinancing at today’s lower rates – refinance your aircraft and upgrade your avionics panel, upgrade the engine, or refurbish the paint and interior.
* Complimentary IFA membership - request a quote and you’ll receive a complimentary membership in IFA.
* Offer available to U.S. residents only
Have an RV?
IFA can now offer you financing for it through its new IFA RV Finance Program, offered through AmeriFleet Capital, Inc., a leading recreational vehicle finance company and sister company to AirFleet Capital, IFA’s Aircraft Financing Program partner.
Here are the benefits you’ll receive:
* Financing for new and used Class A, Class B, Class C, fifth wheels, and travel trailers from $25,000 to over $2,500,000 in value
* Loan amortizations from 7 to 20 years on RVs manufactured between 1989 and present, depending on the age of the RV and the loan amount available
* Financing for up to 90% of the purchase price including options, tax, tags, insurance and warranty on new RVs
* Competitive rates
* Exceptional service with quotes available online or by phone typically within one business day
* Detailed understanding of the RV financing market
* Fast and simple process with a one to two business day loan turnaround
* Refinancing of your current loan
* Complimentary IFA membership - request a quote and you’ll receive a complimentary membership in IFA.
* Offer available to U.S. residents only
Traffic-Spotting Aid Available
When an air traffic controller says “you have traffic twelve o’clock two miles fast moving” do you wonder what you are looking for? Spotting traffic efficiently and rapidly requires knowledge about what you are trying to detect, just as knowing what to hear helps you understand noisy and mumbled radio transmissions. Well, the FAA has developed a little aid to let you know just how difficult it might be to find that traffic. It will help pilots judge the appearance of aircraft at varying distances.
From FAA’s website you can print out a 3 X 5 reference card that will give you an indication of the size of a target for which you would be looking. If your airspeed is 120 and the approaching aircraft’s speed is 150, your closure is 270 mph—or 27 seconds before contact. This little visual aid will let you see what your traffic will look like at a distance of two miles, one mile, and one-half mile. They are all surprisingly small!
This aid should be particularly useful for CFIs, student pilots or any pilot who occasionally fails to spot traffic called out by ATC. Of course, weather, visibility, type of aircraft, direction of flight, and other factors will also affect how you see traffic. But it is a good practice exercise to print this card and check it regularly to keep yourself alert to spotting traffic.
Thank you for your IFA membership. Remember, by using the money-saving benefits offered through IFA, you save money while helping I Fly America to continue to promote flying safety, affordability, growth, and fun!
I Fly America
PO Box 417
Harwich Port, MA 02646
508-432-8846
508-430-2049 (fax)
admin@iflyamerica.org
www.iflyamerica.org
Working to promote flying safety, affordability, growth, and fun!
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