ONE presentation to go

I got one more 20 or so minute presentation on our applied research project and its progress so far.
then i'm free..

i also found this today

http://www.senecac.on.ca/school/aviation/irc/

I remember it being taken. You can tell that I'm smiling :D

My summer "vlog"

With the days filled with sadness that just passed and the slow but sure steady race of moving forward and getting back in the air, I felt a sense of nostalgia so once I got home from Cynthia's funeral, I started re-watching some of my videos and this one I remembered the most because I had just done it this past summer.

So with my lack of blogging over the summer as I promised at the beginning of it, I present you this video which wrapped up my whole entire summer.

Summer COOP 2010 video

I had to use our schools video streaming program because youtube would delete the audio which has content I obviously don't have copyrights to.

RIP Aviators

I have written a post about the passing of a Seneca grad of 2009 earlier this year and it is unfortunate that I have to write another for 3 more.

It's been 8 days since Aziz, Cynthia, and Lloyd took off for flight, and although their physical bodies along with the airplane (C-GSCZ) came down to an unfortunate landing, their souls continue to soar the skies above us. It has been 8 days of thinking and trying to understand what has happened. 8 days of random triggering of the deepest burden of sadness I have ever felt. 8 days of feeling remorse and condolonces and sometimes thinking of when are we going to wake up from this. 8 days of what if this or what if that and knowing that no matter how many what ifs we can think of, it won't bring them back.
But most important of all, the past 8 days have been spent remembering their great loving nature and celebrating their short-lived lives.

Today was a very special day, and although Cynthia has yet to be laid to rest, we have taken this day to celebrate each and every one of them and how they have impacted each of us in their own little or big way.Seeing the turn out today and the many others wishing they were able to come was just a confirmation and sometimes wake up call to what it really means to be part of Seneca Aviation.

Pilots of all kinds in the industry, alumni, staff and faculty, and those that I haven't seen in a long time or haven't even met yet were there to pay tribute to the lives lost on that dreadful Thursday evening. What a remarkable sight I thought, as I reminisce and say my last goodbye to Aziz, Cynthia and Lloyd.

To many people, we may look like security guards or other alike. To some that know we are pilots, have not a clue of what it is to be truly a pilot, especially that from Seneca. And to the few that have been where we are right now, know how hard yet truly rewarding it is to be part of this camaraderie.
Today gave a brand new meaning to what I often call my second family that is Seneca Aviation and I am forever grateful to be apart of such a tightly-knit community.

This profession and more importantly, this passion we have chosen is a dangerous one and although this loss has taken a great toll on us, we mustn't fear of what lies ahead because of this. Instead, we must take the lives they have lived and use it for strength and inspiration to continue to do what it is we truly love above all the rest.

I sat inside one of the Beech Bonanzas today, the one which I flew with Aziz and Cynthia just two days prior the accident in fact, and as hard as it was to try and understand what has happened and the pain it felt when I had tried to visualize being in that airplane, I know full well that what they would want is for us to get back on that horse and fly with them once again.

Theodore Roosevelt once wrote:
"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

Airplane Fatal Crash

It's hard to think let alone write about the event that transpired last night.
One of our airplanes were involved in a fatal crash/accident killing all 3 occupants on board when they were returning back to Buttonville from Kingston.

The news article and video footage of the wreckage can be found here


When I say one of our airplanes, its one of the Bonanzas that I've always loved to fly, and have flown many times.

And when I say occupants, it's 3 good friends of mine, 2 of which I have flown with on the exact same flight two days prior (on Tuesday).
I'm not an accident expert so my opinions aren't much for anything, but looking at the footage of the devastating wreckage, it seemed that the impact was quite hard.

Only time will tell if time can tell what happened here, I sure hope it does, so we can learn from it...and perhaps save another family from getting that phone call or doorbell.

RIP to the comrades that were killed and God Bless to their friends, and most especially their families for this loss.


ps. i have so much more to say about this, but i will leave it til later

oneness

I have been told countless times that no man is an island and that everyone needs someone in order to live.
Yes. I agree, but to a certain extent.

We always need someone, but we don't always need someone else. We always need ourselves.

Independent is defined as being free from outside control; or not depending on another's authority. And well, I can honestly say that I am not independent, although I strive to be.
I believe there are a lot of things in life where we just need to walk the walk and do it alone.
Growing up for example, sure our past experiences with others have produced a vast majority of what has shaped us to be what we are right now. But if it wasn't for individualism and independence, we wouldn't even be able to get out of that experience and learn from it.

True happiness is about our own perception of happiness and without knowledge of what it is that we want  or need, we cannot ever find it.

I have learned a couple of weeks ago that this 30 year old woman had arranged a wedding to marry herself. She said it was to acknowledge her love for herself and I am beginning to understand what she meant. We need to love ourselves before we can truly love others. Sure we can be selfless, and it is nice to put others before ourselves but it is in our human nature to think of ourselves, so why don't we do it enough?

Maybe it's not the achievement of happiness that truly matters, maybe its the pursuit of it. The extremes and measures that we would go through to attain it is when true self-fulfilled living really start.

Be your own hero

A hero is defined as someone of distinguished courage ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.


Some or most of us have heroes we look up to. It could be someone who has done significant things that affected history of mankind or history of ourselves, our families, or a group of people. It could be someone notable and have books written about, or it could be as simple as our own mothers or grandparents.


It is not wrong to have these people to look up to, in fact it is almost encouraged but its quite possible that its hard NOT to have a hero. Almost all of us have someone or something to look up to, and it keeps us going and it makes us want to do great things for others and the lives that have been given to us. However this shouldn't be a limit. This should be a start of something great.


There's a reason we do things the way we do, and there's a reason why we keep doing things over and over. It is almost like we're in training and we train ourselves to situations and feelings and the kind of thinking and acting that we do. So why do we train? Why do we bother with falling in love when we know we would probably get hurt, or why do we rise when we know we're prone to fall at any moment of our life. Is it because we want to be heroes ourselves? Maybe.


But I think it's for something greater, it's for the unexpected. When what we don't see or know come up and tests our abilities. When these things finally do happen, there's a saying that we should keep in mind.


We do not rise to the level of our expectations (occasion). We fall to the level of our training.


- Archilochus, Greek Soldier, Poet, c. 650 BC


Some things happen to us that catch us off guard, or so it seems. We may think we're not ready for something, but in reality, we have been trained for this. All those days that we wake up and get through 24 hours of a day, its not uneventful...its training.


So there's no need to rise to the occasion and feel like we need to be heroic, we just need to fall back to the level of our training and keep our composure. In our own little ways, thats what makes the heroes, heroes...its not something they wake up to one day and reaches for...thinking I want to be a hero... It's how they keep their composure and keep doing what they're doing when things change is what makes them heroic.

SMS and TC

A week ago we had a Transport Canada Civil Aviation Safety Inspector Aviation Enforcement come in to talk to us in class.

She talked about how they go about their business and that "voluntary compliance" are the keywords.
They don't go out looking for people who don't abide by the regulations but if they see something during their cyclic inspections, or due to a report of an incident and accident and you get caught, she spoke to us how they go about it as well. How many hours we are given to report an accident and all the penalties that we can face and the steps we can take.

She also mentioned that they are there to protect us and the paying passengers that use Aviation. Talked to us about the complaints that they get from people about noise, some were reasonable and they looked into it. But some were just weird because at one time, a person complained about airplanes flying too low over their house and after searching on google map, it was found that her house is right under a short final for one of the runways so they couldn't really do anything.

She used the words "we're not out to get you" but...there are still laws to follow.

Its amazing how much (in some how little) influence Transport Canada has on air carriers/operators. I recently found out that a float plane association has been created over to the west for British Columbia float plane operators.

The news article can be found here

This somewhat ties in to Safety Management Systems (SMS) that are still continually being phased in for almost all operators. The ultimate goal is for each carrier to assess their own operations and have a system in place to catch threats and errors and be proactive and generative instead of just reactive (do something only when an accident occurs).

I have taken a course in SMS however, there are still a wide range of standards and all the little details to be learned. I believe that it is a great tool to have especially when you're out looking for a job. It's that one extra boost for you above the rest who may not have a background in SMS.

Movie Makeup a Security Threat

So there was this article today on the news about a young asian man from Hong Kong who went on a Vancouver-bound flight disguised as an old man using expert prostetics.

He apparently went to the lavatory as an old man and came out a young asian man.

Pictures and the full article can be found here

What does this mean for the Aviation/Airline industry and Security of Transportation?
Well for one, it is a serious threat to be able to have completely falsified identities coming in to Canada or any other country for that matter. Who knows if this technology will be used by further security threats or national security threats on the bigger scale.

Something must be done right? Are we gonna start pulling on peoples faces to see if they're real or not?
Who knows.

Polar Navigation and POW

Today started just as any other normal day. I got to school for an 8AM annual mandatory winter operations briefing. Apparently it is mandatory by Transport Canada for each Air Operator, including our school to have ground instruction or refreshers on Winter Operations every year. Or so I think/heard.

After that, we had Aircraft Design class where we handed in our fuselage design.
Our fuselage was a long range aircraft capable of 365 passengers in 22 First Class, 70 Business Class, and 273 Economy class seating configuration.

After that, I was about to kick and complain about the upcoming French class when I remembered that it wasn't class today but instead, we had two war veterans come in to talk to us while our Professor baked us a cake shaped in an airplane...more or less.

First was a WW1 Royal Canadian Air Force veteran that worked as a gunner in the Halifax and Lancaster for some time. He told us about a story in 1943 where he had been on a bombing mission somewhere over Germany and was shot down by the left wing of the airplane. 5 of the 7 occupants of the aircraft safely jumped with parachutes into German territory where they were eventually captured. He then talked about his time over at the German prison camp where "The Great Escape" had occurred and how he helped create the tunnels and how secretive everything was. He said he was fortunate that he wasn't chosen as one of the 200 to go out that night, which only 76 successfully escaped but 50 of which had been caught later on and killed.

A second slightly younger, RCAF navigator whom flew in the Korean and Vietnam wars talked to us afterwards. He was talking amongst pilots so he was allowed to use jargons, most of which we understood. One question he asked actually surprised me. He mentioned that he had done a lot of flying around the North Pole and asked us this:

What would your track be if you were to fly from the North Pole to Vancouver, and the class gladly said...well south! 180 degrees.
He said yes that's right, how about if you want to go to Halifax...and slightly confused we answered SOUTH?

And that was the problem...over the north pole...all directions was SOUTH! And so it required a completely different grid system for navigation. They have used a lot of "ancient" navigation ways, since they didn't have the convenience of the GPS back then. They actually used a grid system which used the Prime Meridian and parallel lines to it, and used that as a north and they flew grid tracks instead of true/magnetic tracks.

He also told us about his time flying in the C130 Hercules, where he was...if it wasn't for chance...would've been shot down by a SAM fired by someone which actually killed the airplane that had taken off 30 seconds before them.

Value of a day

Life generally begins at birth, we start counting our years of age by the time we are born. There are many points in our lives where we also begin the first of firsts. Our first food, first word, first steps, a lot of firsts. Sometimes we get caught up with one of these firsts and end up doing it more and more, these are our likes and dislikes so to speak. You then continue on with your life, you know there are school and work, and family and whatever it is that we do.

Every single day of our lives we encounter something different.  The things we do in our day may exactly be the same as of yesterday or the day before but there’s always something there to make each and every day unique and different to every other day. This could start as early as the time you wake up until the last visual image you see at night when you sleep. Many times our days are just routine; we wake up, eat, take a shower, go to work, come home, eat, and then sleep. During these days, we often attenuate the value of the day and we usually just live that day as if it was a bag of candy so full and unlimited like that in a candy factory.

Every single year we celebrate many different holidays and occasions: New Year’s Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and most especially our very own birthdays. Now every year has many different mysteries in store for us ahead, but to some people, they only celebrate their birthday as a mere occasion, just like any other. There are those moments of course that are highlights of our life, like our 18^th birthday or 21^st or any other birthday that has some kind of significant meaning behind it.  Although sometimes people work so hard or are too busy that they may even forget their own birthday, they don’t really cherish it even though at any given point for the next 365 days, that very birthday they didn’t really celebrate could be their last.

Our lives are really pieces of different lives, or moments of our lives put together, sometimes we remember certain things more clearly than others, and maybe there’s a reason for that. One of these moments could be the happiest day of your life like that of when you get married, or as tragic as losing someone you truly love, whichever it is, for some mysterious way we usually remember the things that affect our lives and the people we are more than the ones that have less likely to have affected us. And these moments are like those flashes of images that you will never be able to forget for the rest of your life, unless you get Alzheimer’s, even then you may forget everything and only remember that moment stuck in your head.

Anyways, I’ve probably rambled on too many things that I’ve lost most of you, and I must say this wasn’t really thought of carefully but forgive me.

What I’m trying to say is to find that value in everything around you, find its worth or make it known. We celebrate our birthdays not because we were taught to or everyone else does it, but because it’s an identification, a reward, a trophy, or some sort of recognition to yourself that you’ve made it through the past year with all its troubles and tribulations and rewards, that you’ve conquered what you thought a year ago was unconquerable. And it allows you to peek into the year ahead and see if you can make it through another year of YOUR LIFE.

Living life as a routine, as if each day was the same as every other day, as if you know for certain that there will always be tomorrow,  is not so intriguing or rewarding because if you don’t value the day, at the end of it you don’t really feel like you’ve accomplished anything. It’s almost fully true that there will always be tomorrow, but you don’t know if there will be a tomorrow for you! So seize and live the day, wake up each day as if it were your last, and put a value on it. 24 hours may seem like a long time, but all that matters is that at the end of it, you have faced all that you can, and that you couldn’t possibly have done any more that you already have. No regrets.

Sure there will be lots of firsts of a lot of things for you, and it’s great but remember as surely as there are firsts of things, there are also lasts of things. We technically started living our life at the time we are born, but sometimes we need to truly live life or relive life. Surely there’s birth, life and living, dying, and death but it’s not necessarily always in this order. Just make sure you live life, if you feel like you’ve died, then relive again. Put a value on everything and earn it.

Buttonville Airport Closing

This week there was an official announcement that Armadale Co. collaborated with Cadillac Fairview for future developments for Buttonville Municipal Airport (CYKZ).
They are supposedly building a shopping centre here in several years.

The full press release can be found here

Now there are a lot of private aircraft owners that call Buttonville home, as well as Toronto Airways Limited and my alma mater, Seneca College School of Aviation and Flight Technology. Small charter and medevac operators use Buttonville as well.
I don't know if these people have started to make plans for the future as this airport comes down to a close, but they're gonna have to whether they want to or not.

This is due to the wake of the fund from the Greater Toronto Airports Authority being taken away yearly. It is a privately owned but publicly used airport and it simply cannot remain aloft without this funding. There were a few petitions from Aviation Enthusiasts and Pilots alike for the government to take charge and give Buttonville funding as it is a vital part of the economy in the GTA.

Since this is a blog, I am open to pitch my opinions and I believe this is just one of the few ways our government lacked in its motive to serve the people. Do we really need another shopping mall? People who have complaints of noise and safety knew there was an airport when they bought that house 5 minutes away. The recent incidents/accidents within the second half of this year didn't help the cause of trying to keep this airport an airport. I just feel sad because it has become my home airport where I've done many firsts. Many years from now, I will tell my kids, right by this store is where I conducted my first takeoff, by this entrance door is where I've been splashed with cold water after completing my first solo flight...and so on.

This isn't just about Buttonville, there are many airports in the world that are closing and not enough being built to replace them. Aviation is an ever growing industry and people need to understand the need for Aviation. If you don't let them know, they will never find out.

Which view is better

There’s something about love stories that we cling to. We all go through stories in movies and other media about how one person finds another and they both fall in love and live happily ever after.

But what’s more are the real stories. The one that go through sorrows and sadness and despair, the ones that we are accustomed to because we have gone through them and we feel a sort of relief learning that other people, mostly everyone, go through them as well. The stories that end in sad endings, and the ones that just make our imaginative selves want to go crazy because of dramatic irony. We all enjoy the stories even though it probably kills us inside.

It makes us think of our own little or big stories. It makes us see if we are the same or what if we are completely different. No matter the case, we feel a sort of relation with other people’s stories that we become sort of part of their story.

It’s amazing how we can dream about ourselves in third person and use some of those dreams as a deciding factor to some of our choices in life.  Sort of like the way we watch tv shows, movies, or read stories and find ourselves being played by another character in the same third person view.

Maybe that’s the problem, in life we only see things in first person but in the dream world or in fantasy or in other peoples stories, we see ourselves in other people as third person and it allows us to have a completely different perspective on almost everything. It allows us to step back and realize things we cannot comprehend in first person.

So maybe what I’m trying to say is that, when the going gets tough, we need to step back and look at ourselves from up above or down below, somewhere other than the first person view. Because in the first person view, we have lots of blind spots that we cannot take away and those blind spots can mean a complete change in direction in some things.

So step back, and when you find yourself contemplating whether you are doing the right or wrong thing, look at yourself from someone else’s perspective and maybe, just maybe you can find a fuller view of the situation rather than being obscured or skewed by the first person view.

Seneca...my school!

Check out two videos made by Seneca College about my program :)

Seneca's Simulators
Seneca's Fleet

January 1, 2010, A new decade

an excerpt from a journal I keep...

A new decade begins, a new year begins. Who knows what the past 10 years have given us, it's too much to think about and, well it's unchangeable anyways so what's the use? More importantly is to start on a good note, start fresh because a new beginning has been granted to all of us to make better of ourselves.

Today I went to St. Michaels Cathedral for the feast of Virgin Mary as well as for New Years. It was very refreshing and a great reminder for the new opportunities that are ahead of us. All we can really do is make the most of each one or at least try to. 

There's no greater loss than a missed opportunity. An opportunity to make things better, to accept things the way they truly are, to change and, most importantly, to grow.

I then proceeded to Nathan Phillips Square to go skating with friends except we miscommunicated as it was actually at Harbourfront. So Eddy and I walked down there with Tim Hortons coffee in our hands to keep us warm in the very cold winter night.

We skated for a bit and as I was skating alone, at times I'd feel a sudden rush of sadness as a sad/slow song comes on, and the many couples skating together didn't help at all. But I was with friends, some true but definitely enough to overcome the feeling that brought me down. After, we went to Shoeless Joes, and I had just a beer while others had full meals because I had already eaten at Frans near Eaton Centre. I had a char-broiled sirloin beef burger with tomatoes, lettuce, onions, pickle, cheese with fries and coke. It was definitely a filling meal to my stomach as it was to the soul as I had it with my parents and my brother as a start to the New Year.

After Shoeless Joe's, we parted and we, the Markham boys, made our way to Scarborough Town Centre where Martin had parked. We had a lot of moments to be by ourselves on the TTC and in the mall. I did a cartwheel in the empty mall, a kind of (hopefully) foreshadowing of the year ahead where I would feel like doing cartwheels as contentment enters my life again.

----------------

Now I sit here, 2:58am of the second day of 2010, not really feeling alone nor sad even though I haven't talked to her the whole day. Maybe I could get used to it and finally move on. I think I need it more than I want and I believe that it will be something that allows me to grow.

My one goal in the years ahead is to continue to grow to become the best version of myself for me and hopefully for someone else. No one knows what turns we choose to make will define us and shape us, and we may not even be able to see what's around the corner but the beauty of it all is that we all eventually get to the finish line, and that's guaranteed. So live a little more than yesterday, the year before, the decade before, because you never know how much a little step can be a giant leap for your life.

Flying Cheap: the race to the bottom

The public has to be aware.
Next time you exit that airplane at your winter vacation, think about the pilot that greets you at the end just outside the flight deck...

Flying Cheap: This is a documentary regarding the airline industry that we have today
Watch and Share

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/flyingcheap/view/

AUTUMN

So today I went outside and took some pictures. Tomorrow I have a flight test. It looks amazing and feels amazing outside, slightly chilled but it's great! Its October and well, the days are getting shorter but my days feel longer every day. I am constantly bombarded with assignments and projects, along with the painful homework here and there. I just want to fast forward to 8 months from now and graduate!

Anyways, I am currently reading Air Transportation: A Management Perspective by John Wensveen partly for a class but it seems quite informative.

I have not much to say, take a look at a couple of my photos from today. http://www.flickr.com/photos/realitics/ for more

I LIED!

I said I was going to keep this more up to date over the summer because I had something to talk about. Well, that's a lie!
Because I clearly didn't write anything. I'm sorry!


I had to make journals throughout the summer about my time at the work place though..so i'll post one of those


"During the past two weeks, I have done quite a lot of flying and have learned a lot about the charter operations. On Monday, I spent the whole day flying with our maintenance manager. Our first stop was flying to pick up regular clients from a fishing camp near North Bay in Lac Caughnawana. It was in the Caravan and the weather wasn’t the best, luckily we had weather radar on board. We got up to the cottage and the winds weren’t too bad and we got inside after we docked since they were not ready to go just yet. They offered us some desserts and Tom said since we didn’t really have any time to eat because it was a busy and packed day, we accepted.

The client and his friends were still finishing up lunch when we were inside; they were all nonchalant even though in our minds, we didn’t have any time to spare because we would be late to pick up the next passengers.

After dropping them back to Buttonville, we had a quick turn and headed on our way to Taboo golf resort around the Muskokas. We picked up more passengers who spent the weekend there to drop them off at Pearson to go to their international flights. We were late but they understood that delays like this and due to weather can happen. On our way to Pearson, we encountered fairly significant weather that forced us to go a little bit lower. I never used the weather radar prior to this and he got to show me how to use it and read the feed briefly."

RIP AVIATOR

When I think of a plane crash, usually I just look at the technical aspects of the scenario/accident. Like what happened or what they couldve or shouldve done or what I would have done.

But when you find out it’s someone you personally knew, the whole perspective is totally changed. You just can’t look at it technically anymore, you start to relate it to yourself.

And the reality of it all is that accidents, fatal accidents like this could really happen to anyone, even yourself.

And the reality of the profession you’ve chosen becomes close to heart.

Rest in peace son, friend, brother, aviator. You belong in the skies now and will forever live in our hearts.

Aviation Assistant

A few days ago, Monday May 17th, I started my summer coop job at (and i'm not here to advertise for them or anything) ...ahh well i guess i just won't say. And my job position is Aviation Assistant which is basically just helping around with daily flight operations.
So far it's been great and fun, a lot of hands on work and I get to understand that with such a smaller company compare to what you see on "TV" or media i should say, that the pilots are more involved than just flying the aircraft.
It's a great revelation to me because usually coming out of college or flight school, that's what pilots face. And I say usually because there ARE those students who train because of a job position waiting for them but anyway. Most pilots face a small company to begin their careers with and it's quite interesting from the looks of it so far. I cannot wait!

Next week I will be going for my float rating/endorsement which could be very useful in the future. (Float rating allows me to takeoff and "land" on water with floatplanes.) Could be fun!

you CAN be too careful

There's a saying that goes, you can never be too careful. And clearly they are talking about safety and being on the cautious side of things. I think that's wrong or partially incorrect. It is possible to be too careful and it can be costly at times.

Aviation whether it's a flight training, air taxi, airline or any other company in between has always revolved around the topic of safety. It is the core, the foundation, the epicenter of the whole infrastructure of what we call Aviation. Anything that has to do with flying, has to do with safety. If it wasn't the case, the whole flying industry would literally and figuratively plummet from the sky. But what if these companies decide to all of the sudden think you can never be too careful?

Well if by being too careful means taking no risk, well then unpack your bags cause your airline may not be flying anymore. In flying there are all sorts of hazards that are at risk, to name a few there's wind, weather, system failures and so on. But that doesn't mean you wouldn't take an airplane through weather with some wind and well the systems are kind of important to keep the airplane flying. And risk, well everyone has their own perception of risk which depends on many factors like past experience and so on (that's a whole can of worms.)

That's the reason why safety isn't defined as the absence of risk...instead it's a condition that exists when hazards are managed to an acceptable risk. (straight from my safety management systems course).

So if by being too careful means you aren't taking risk then the quote you can never be too careful is simply wrong. Take your risks and manage them according to your own perception and level of acceptance. You may not be running a multi-million dollar company but you will definitely be rewarded in some way, shape or form. High risk means high reward (usually)

"Being scared means you're onto something important. If you're not scared then you're not taking chances, if you're not taking chances then what the hell are you doing?" 
- HIMYM

Quick Reference Handbooks

Most aircraft/companies have quick reference handbooks, QRH for short. They are pretty much some form of checklist or troubleshooting manual in times of abnormalities. Pilots still need to memorize drill items that require immediate and reactive action but minor irregularities in any portion of flight can require a pilot to call out the QRH.

The QRH has index or table of contents on where to find different abnormalities. They are usually divided into seriousness of of the situation either emergencies, abnormalities, advisories or status messages on the EICAS (engine indicating and crew alerting system) which would have different colour codings as well. Then they are indexed depending on the system that is in question for example power plant for engine problems, electrical, fire protection and so on. Sometimes different scenarios require the flight crew to refer to other pages in the QRH and all this while trying to fly the airplane and maintain situational awareness. This is primarily the one important reason why pilots can never be replaced by computer alone and why we still need at least two pilots for (most) commercial operations. QRHs can range from a few pages to a few hundred pages depending on the simplicity or complexity of an aircraft.

It makes the pilots life and workload that much easier because there is simply no way any pilot can memorize every possible scenario that can arise from a flight. The QRH tries to put all that into one little package...even then the randomness of situations still occur and pilots eventually will have to use their judgment if the QRH doesn't outline the problem.

Life's QRH

When in sorrow - John 14
When others fail you - Psalm 27
When you have sinned - Psalm 51
When you worry - Matthew 6: 19-34
When you are in danger - Psalm 91
When God seems far away - Psalm 139
When your faith needs stirring - Hebrews 11
When you are lonely and fearful - Psalm 23
When you grow bitter and critical - 1 Corinthians 13
When you feel down and out - Romans 8:31
When you want peace and rest  - Matthew 11: 25-30
When the world seems bigger than God - Psalm 90
When you want Christian assurance - Romans 8: 1-30
When you leave home - Psalm 121
When your prayers grow narrow or selfish - Psalm 67
When you want courage for a task - Joshua 1
When you think of investments and returns - Mark 10

If you are depressed - Psalm 27
If you are losing confidence in people - 1 Corinthian 13
If people seem unkind - John 15
If you are discouraged about your work - Psalm 126
If self-pride takes hold - Psalm 19
If you want to be fruitful - John 15

For how to get along with others - Romans 12
For understanding of Christianity - II Corinthians 5: 15-19
For a great invention/opportunity - Isaiah 55
Paul's secret to happiness - Colossians 3:12-17
For dealing with fear - Psalm 347
For security - Psalm 121:3
For assurance - Mark 8:35
For reassurance - Psalm 145:18

Mistakes

Mistakes aren't made at a moments notice. They are brewed over a period of time in which of it has been hidden from the obvious and the visible. Sometimes common sense may not make sense because there has been a lack of understanding of the general view or perspective of the idea or thought. The reality of the relativity of situations and scenarios are always going to have biased judgment of what has been or what seems to be happening or what we predict the outcome to be.

But when it's all said and done, when bad things seem to lead to worse things and further to things that are unknown, the human capacity is truly the last line of defense and tries to adapt to these unfamiliar ground in which lives and property may become endangered.

For the sake of our own learning and the learning of others, mistakes have to be made. No they are not wanted or greeted with a big welcome, but with the outcome resulting from these mistakes, nor they are frowned upon when they do occur.

"Learn from the mistakes of others,
         you'll not live long enough to make them all yourself."

Flight Computers

  

OUT WITH OLD AND IN WITH THE NEW.

So I've recently made the switch/conversion from the E6B to the CR flight computer. More specifically I have chosen the smaller CR-2 version of the device. Now the E6B was great for all the functions that I had to use it for. There was nothing wrong with it that made me get the CR flight computer. It was actually in one of my courses (Air Carrier Procedures) that required us to purchase the CR flight computer.

This is for the assignments and the future applications that the CR flight computer has capabilities of.

• It does every single function that the E6B did plus a few extra more.
• It's one piece and the one I got is much smaller so it's easier for storage or when I have to use it in flight.
• It's much easier to do flight planning calculations in terms of track, wind, and heading and all the jazz since you don't have to keep turning the discs so many times which can produce errors along the way.
• It has greater range for speeds in terms of groundspeed since the E6B can only go up to 260kts.
• The downside is that since it is a smaller device, the markings are much smaller and tighter therefore there are more estimating involved and can therefore produce minor errors.
• Also the E6B slide rule is great for drawing track lines on the map which is better than a flimsy plastic ruler, not to mention it has written valuable information that can help a pilot in training (or any pilot for that matter) for quick reference.
• The E6B also has space to put instructions on how to use it and the CR flight computer does not, but those instructions are just wasteful space once you got used to using the computer.

All in all, the E6B is great for initial training and flight planning but as a pilot moves to a bigger and faster airplane, more functions are required to do calculations and the E6B simply cannot perform some of those tasks, like calculating Mach Number according to altitude and temperature, and so on. The E6B is just limited plus its bigger and cannot fit into my pocket like the CR-2 can.

The CR flight computer is definitely an improvement over the E6B...but as technology is ever so vast and fast moving, the requirement to use a CR flight computer is all the more unlikely with the FMS/FMC's on board new generation aircraft. But if there's ever that event of an electrical failure or you just simply operate at a small charter company with FMS unequipped aircraft, the CR flight computer is the way to go.

Summer 2010

So it's been too long since I've posted on this. Mainly because there I had really no ideas on what is actually appropriate to post on this particular blog.
I have plenty of other social networking sites that I use like:
Twitter - which is connected to my facebook for some reason and will be mostly updated because it's so easy
Dailybooth - a daily photo blog of my life and trying to interact with others through pictures
Youtube - ideas and projects into motion picture. HOwever I need more ideas for this.
Tumblr - some of my creative or random thoughts come here...
Flickr - some pictures that may be creative may be posted on this

and so on but I was still not quite sure what to put on pilotsdiscretion.

However things are about to change! wooo!
Summer 2010 is going to be filled with exciting stuff as I will be working for Cameron Air for a coop work term the whole summer. They operate C206s and Caravans and on floats so that should be fun.

I have been making a lot of videos for youtube lately because it's so much fun and I like to share my days, thoughts, and so on with the rest of the world.r