Merve Esendağ, Author at Herkes İçin Havacılık Derneği

How Durable Are Airplanes?

There have been countless developments in the name of aviation since people saw the flight and gliding of birds in the sky and started building planes inspired by them. Now, when we talk about today’s aircraft, it is necessary to say that they all have a certain standard, that they are done under certain rules, that they are tested, and that they cannot fly unless they are approved by the authorities.

Although some of these developments are due to a number of bloody events, aircraft design engineers now consider every possibility and carry out their tests.

It is also worth noting that proving that an aircraft is capable of flight is not enough only at the production stage. Every aircraft currently in use is regularly maintained and its airworthiness is always checked. These aircraft, which have passed many tests separately, from their engines to the hull plating, from the rivet used to the seat fabric, are only offered to your flight if they successfully pass each test.

How Much Can The Wings Carry?

It is available in the manual of how much payload the wings of each aircraft can carry. This value given when loading on the aircraft should never be exceeded. If the plane is overloaded, it either cannot take off at all or if it takes off, it loses altitude and falls because the wings cannot carry the plane while it is still in the climbing stage. So, is this value written in aircraft manuals really reliable? Yes, this value was loaded and tested with sandbags while the aircraft was in the test phase. So you can count on those wings to carry the plane, as long as the plane does not overload.

Another issue in which Wings are tested is flexibility. Aircraft can be subjected to many harsh weather conditions during their flat flights. One of them is turbulence. Don’t be afraid if you’re caught in turbulence on a plane and you see the wings move up and down and think it looks like it’s going to break. Because the aircraft’s Wings have been tested and approved to 90 degrees before they have yet to be flown.

Engines And Dead Chickens

Flocks of geese and similar flocks of birds that caused an emergency landing of an Airbus plane in the Hudson River in 2009 are a threat to aircraft. Tests are also available for these swarms, which cause the engine to stop or even explode on the plane. Aircraft engine manufacturers are throwing dead chickens and testing their durability while the engines are running at the production stage with a weapon they have created in the face of this serious problem. So if you’re on a plane, that plane passed the test and handled the dead chickens well.

Lightning May Fall

According to a statement by Cardiff University’s lightning laboratory, each commercial aircraft is struck by lightning on average once a year. So, how do big piles of metal survive this harmless? Because the conductivity of aluminium used as an aircraft coating material is excessive, electricity flowing from lightning is easily dispersed in the fuselage.

Merve Esendağ July 2, 2021

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Does The Co-Pilot Have To Do Everything The Captain Says?

The biggest feature that distinguishes the captain and co-pilot in a cockpit is the experience of at least 500 hours of flight in the type of aircraft in which it is assigned. In the cockpit, the flight is carried out with a section of work performed by the captain. These two pilots, who are in the cockpit for a safe and successful flight, also reduce each other’s workloads. In general, the co-pilot’s mission description is as follows:

Assisting the captain before and during the flight,
Supporting the captain in take-offs and landings
Ensuring control of aircraft weight and balance form for each flight,
Supervising ground handling operations,
Contacting ATC,
Organizing procedures in an emergency, etc.

What Are The Captain’s Responsibilities?

The captain is responsible for the aircraft and its passengers during the flight. It is responsible for making, implementing and implementing flight-related decisions for a safe and successful journey. He is the person to whom the safety, responsibility, aircraft ownership and flight safety of the passengers he flies are deposited. Other responsibilities of the captain-pilot:

Ensuring the safety of life and property of aircraft,
Giving orders and instructions to other aircraft personnel, when necessary,
Collecting evidence against a crime committed on an aircraft,
In case of problems that may arise, search for staff and other passengers who are there and confiscate their belongings,
Knowing the technical characteristics of the vehicle he is flying very well, etc.

Workload Is Common But The Decision Is One

Pilots can exchange ideas on a topic and make joint decisions. But when there’s a disagreement in the cockpit, the person he says is the captain-pilot in charge. The co-pilot is responsible for following the instructions he gives when he sees fit. The decision made by the captain pilot, who has experience and responsibility, is applied.

Merve Esendağ June 25, 2021

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Are Captains And Co-Pilots Always The Same Person?

A successful operation is based on three main foundations; aircraft, crew and fuel. At the same time, these basics are a cost factor for an airline. Ensuring the most financially efficient use of the entire fleet and crew is only possible by choosing the best route and putting appropriately qualified personnel on this route. To circumvent crew planning and scheduling with minimal risk, airlines must first create a realistic and optimally efficient route schedule for each IATA season. How do you think this process is carried out by airlines that are constantly affected by predictable and unpredictable events that affect the crew planning process? The crew planning and scheduling process is managed by dividing into several planning stages. Different teams working on the flight, rest and mission swarms of the crew work in coordination when planning resources and any team plan with changes are constantly updated and transmitted to other teams.

Crew Match

A crew match is a series of consecutive flights that start at the same residence centre and end at the same residence address. This process, which is very decisive in terms of cost, aims to minimize the usual crew costs and maximize the efficient use of crews.

Crew Assignment

After the crew match processes are finished, each crew member is assigned to these matches. This is a critical stage for the planning phase, as airlines that want minimum cost in crew matching want maximum efficiency in Crew Assignment. Because at this stage, too many changes in the missions of the flight crew and the failure to establish order well can lead to low motivation and job dissatisfaction in the crew members. In the current situation, a crew member also does not have a chance to choose a mapped task. In order to minimize the possibilities of these and similar problems, the same crew is usually given the same route. But with some changes made, chart states can change. But it should be noted that in the current situation, flight personnel do not have a chance to choose a mapped mission.

Merve Esendağ June 18, 2021

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Why Do Pilots Always Announce In English ?

The foundations of today’s aviation were laid by the first manned powered and supervised flight, which the Wright brothers carried out in 1903 on their own aircraft. Aircraft first used for military purposes, II. Commercial Aviation also began to develop after World War II, using it for the transport of people and goods. At first, short-range flights were carried out, and with the development of aircraft, long-range, overseas flights began to be made. As it ceased to be a national transport and became international, general rules and regulations were needed for aviation. States that wanted to establish a certain standard for aviation began to carry out this work with the contracts they signed and the organizations they established.

Aviation Phonetics

As in all areas of life, communication is very important in aviation. Clear and reliable communication between the pilots and the tower is necessary for the safety of all stages of the flight. In order to minimize the margin of error and avoid misunderstandings in these international operations, ICAO has determined the language of aviation is English and has developed an aviation phonetics with its own words, phraseology and abbreviations.

English Announcements Made Every Time

If the flight is domestic and it is known that there is no one on that flight who does not understand the local language, sometimes pilots can take the initiative and announce-only in the local language. For example, if it is known that there is no foreign passenger on the plane on the Izmir-Ankara flight and the pilot deems it appropriate, he will make the announcement only in Turkish. But as a procedure, since the language is English, it actually has to make every announcement in English.

Merve Esendağ June 11, 2021

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How Many People Fly A Plane?

Safety and security concepts are issues of maximum importance when it comes to aviation. Because ”In Aviation, the rules are written in blood” there is a sad truth like this saying. These rules, written with many accidents and the deaths of many people throughout history, show how important every fine detail is in aviation. For this reason, aircraft design engineers predict a safety factor of at least 50% in the aircraft they design.

So How Many Pilots Do You Need For A Safe Flight?

A pilot will also suffice when the aircraft is intended to fly. But in such a situation, there may be problems with the safety of the flight. Therefore, for a flight to pass safely, two pilots are needed in the cockpit. One of these pilots is the captain pilot and the other is the co-pilot (First Officer). The workload is reduced by a task allocation between these two pilots. Pilots serving as PM (Pilot Monitoring) and PF (Pilot Flying) must always work in coordination and communication with each other. This distribution of work is carried out by the captain pilot.

PF flies the aircraft, makes the necessary decisions and contacts the tower, and, if necessary, gives the PM the necessary instructions. The PM is responsible for controlling and managing the systems. The PM’s task definition includes controlling speeds, lifting flaps, and controlling landing gear. He is also responsible for following instructions from PF. In this way, the workload of the pilots is reduced by the distribution of the mission, and in an emergency, one of the two pilots in the cockpit tries to control the situation.

Can’t There Be More Than Two Pilots?

In the years when aircraft systems were not yet as advanced as today, there was also a flight engineer in the cockpit. This engineer, who had the same training as the pilots, was responsible for controlling the technical structure of the aircraft in the air as soon as he flew the aircraft. Thanks to the indicators located on the tool board, it provides control of the systems and makes the necessary calculations. But especially after the 1980s, these engineers were replaced by computer-based systems in the cockpit.

Merve Esendağ June 4, 2021

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What Is The World’s Largest Cargo Plane?

Antonov, the Ukrainian state aircraft manufacturing and service firm, has produced the world’s largest cargo plane with its aircraft named “Mriya”, which means “Dream”. The An-225 was originally manufactured to carry the air shuttle called Buran. It has a total crew of 6 people. Having made its first flight on December 21, 1988, An-225 took off from Hostomel Airport in Kyiv. This aircraft, which is a complete giant with a length of 84 meters and a load capacity of 15 thousand meters, has world records with its 253 tons of freight, 187.6 tons of mono cargo, and 42.1 meters of cargo-carrying capacity. With a maximum load capacity of 250 tons, this aircraft can reach a speed of 850 km per hour. It needs 3500 meters of runway to take off in its fully loaded state. The An-225 Mriya, which is much larger than the other very large aircraft, the B747, and A380, can take 300 tons of fuel.

Withdrawn To The Hangar

The An-225 Mriya, originally built to carry the Buran space shuttle, slowed the Russian space program when the Soviet Union disbanded in 1991. For this reason, the An-225, which was no longer needed, was towed to the hangar. Even the aircraft’s engines have been dismantled for use on other aircraft. Ukraine’s Antonov airline began carrying cargo with AN-124 Ruslan as demand for carrying heavy cargo increased. But the demand for large cargo planes increased when some wanted to carry cargo that could not be transported with the AN-124 Ruslan. Thus, it was decided that the abandoned an-225 Mriya aircraft would be repaired and flown. The An-225, the world’s largest cargo plane, received its certificate after a large-scale repair and flew again in 2001, and there is still only one of this giant plane in the world.

Four Combat Tanks Can Be Loaded

The An-225 carried 4 combat tanks with a total weight of 254 tons and broke the world record. Later, he carried the food weighing 187 tons in total from Germany for 216 thousand soldiers serving in the Sultanate of Oman.

Seen In Turkey

It landed at Sabiha Gökçen Airport in 2003. The sound of 6 engines was so strong that it is known that the windows of Pendik-Kartal and the surrounding houses were cracked and damaged.

Merve Esendağ June 20, 2020

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Author: Merve Esendağ