Category: flying machines

Simulator Benefits

~ cjois

There is little doubt that simulators have redefined the realm of initial and recurrent training in both Military and Commercial aviation. Cost benefits have been a primary consideration. Lowering the risk of training has been the other major benefit. Achieving balance between simulator and real-aircraft training time has been a subject of much debate and research. Leaning too much to either format has impact. On one side, cost impacts could be significant. On the other, the trainee has little feel for what it is like to be performing this tasks in a real aircraft.

There is also truth to the fact that some areas of training are better handled in a sim while others absolutely need an aircraft. In my opinion, simulators have evolved to a point where they are close to ‘as real as it gets’. Transfer of training has proven to be effective. Aircrafts have become more technically advanced and a lot of training is focused on procedure and automation – an area where sims lend themselves to really well.

Replication of real-world weather, comms, terrain, flight dynamics have become possible. There isn’t a lot of loss in ambient factors in a simulator today.

In fact the term ‘supplement’ almost implies that sims are secondary. That has changed with time. In many areas, simulators end up being primary channels for training while aircraft-based training come in at an equal percentage or less.

Again, the one major risk of doing too much time in a sim is that it may lead to a situation where the trainee has little or no feel for what the real world circumstances will be like. This too, then comes down to how well real world factors are modeled into a simulation ecosystem – aka fidelity.

The Cost Index – what is it?

~ cjois

There was a time, not too long ago, when oil prices had peaked and jet fuel was a very expensive commodity. In times when jet fuel is as expensive as it is, fuel conservation is a mission critical exercise.

Aircraft design over the years has evolved to provide help in this direction. The Flight Management Computer (FMC) also called as the FMS was itself a revolutionary innovation. One of the features of the FMC is the Cost Index.

The cost index (CI) feature of the FMC can help air carriers reduce operating costs. significantly reduce operating costs.

While coming up with the Cost Index itself can be a complicated task, once that number is available and used in the FMC, the FMC uses it to compute aircraft performance primarily to maximize speed, minimize fuel burn.

Bill Roberson, Senior Safety Pilot, Flight Operations @ Boeing, wrote a really detailed article in the AERO newsletter back in 2007.

The concept is so valuable that it has become routine in aviation operations.

References:
Roberson, B. (2007). Fuel Conservation Strategies: cost index explained. Boeing Aero Quarterly, 2(2007), 26-28.
WU, J. D., WEI, Z. Q., & NIE, R. T. (2007). Calculating and Analyzing Cost Index Based on Long Range Cruise [J]. Journal of Civil Aviation University of China, 3.
Cook, A., Tanner, G., Williams, V., & Meise, G. (2009). Dynamic cost indexing–Managing airline delay costs. Journal of air transport management, 15(1), 26-35.

A trip down aviation history

~ cjois

EAA’s Airventure at Oshkosh, WI for most aviators is a unique experience each year. The event is the same, the venue is the same, most of the stalls are the same. Yet, nothing about AirVenture each year is the anything but the same. This is one of the reason why 700, 000 plus visitors come to Oshkosh, WI each year. I have personally been there every year since 1997 (when I moved to Chicago) with the exception of perhaps a couple years when my work called for trade overseas and I wasn’t in town to make the trip. Other than that, I do my best to ensure that the third week of July each year is blocked off from anything that needs me to travel away from Oshkosh.  This year, I went in mid-week for my annual pilgrimage to AirVenture. But by evening I knew I hadn’t had enough. So, I woke up really early on Saturday morning and went back again! It was a scorcher of a day. A heat index of 96 degrees. Really hot. But few things deter aviators or those with an aviation passion from doing the rounds at Oshkosh. I was proud to be one of them. 

On this trip though I took a slightly different route around the grounds. They say that the cosmos has nice surprises in store for those who take the unbeaten path… and indeed it had. I struck upon a used parts stall. The inventory of used, discontinued parts was unbelievable. I have been to another such store in Chicago, but to find a store like that in a airshow/convention venue was just a surprise. I couldn’t resist the desire to walk inside. What as meant to a quick 5 min browse, turned into 90 minutes of looking at all of these gauges, fan blades, props, dash mounts, even a few seats from old airplanes. Amongst all of those, my heart got set on two things. One of them was a Gables radio – a NAV unit.  The other was very interesting. It was a display cum control unit for a Rockwell Collins Doppler Radar Navigation system.  An analog computer! I was just amazed by the very construction of this panel. A piece of aviation history! It go me so interested that I waited to get back home and start searching for what it did or how it worked. What follows below is the result of the research.

The panel was part number 162C-1 of a larger ecosystem that collectively made up the Collins Doppler Radar Navigation System. The part was made in 1959.  Upon further research, I found a few different interesting facts.  A full description to come in future posts. 

Thx, CJ

The DJI Mavic Air

~ cjois

The DJI Mavic Air is one of many DJI UAV products. The Mavic Air is best known for its portability and serves the high-end hobbyist and serious enthusiast range of users. DJI has implemented some very unique design ideas to make the drone portable.

The Mavic Air folds up for storage, is very well built and looks aesthetic. The Mavic Air weighs just under 1 lb. and is very easy to carry around. The Mavic Air shoots 4K videos at 30 fps and still picture capture is performed at 12 megapixels. This works very well for its intended audience. The Mavic Air has a battery endurance range that results in flight times between 18-21 minutes. Strong winds alter battery endurance ranges. In terms of line of sight range the Mavic Air has a 2.5-mile control range using the remote. The drone comes equipped with internal and supplemental storage, the Mavic Air has 8GB of internal memory. The USB-C port allows for transfer of files. The supplemental microSD slot has support for microSDHC and microSDXC media. For power charging, the remote requires Micro USB and the drone has a USB Type-C port to transfer footage.

The Mavic Air is equipped with GPS and GLONASS satellite positioning. The GPS sensors are accurate and reliably enable automated and semi-automated flight modes. The Mavic Air performs well in steady hovering. Its GPS sensors make the ‘return-to-home’ safety feature very reliable. Location detection enforces no-fly zones and is once again very reliable. For example, the system will alert you to get authorization before flying at an airshow location with a TFR around it. There are a number of warning levels. Some warning levels can be overridden with necessary authorization and there are others that can’t be overridden.

The drone supports QuickShots. These automated camera shots move the drone through the air in a predetermined pattern such as a helix or spherical shot and allow for quick capture of the surrounding. This improves productivity and reduces the amount of manual programming needed to get the footage. Even with forward and rear obstacle detection, QuickShots must be used with care. In the QuickShot modes, the drone flies itself, and there is always a risk of collision.

The Mavic Air will fly at 17.9 miles per hour with obstacle avoidance enabled, or at up to 42.5 miles per hour in Sport mode, a mode in which the obstacle detection system is disabled. With a climb rate of 13 feet per second in Sports mode and 5 feet per second in Positioning mode (both using the Remote Controller), the Mavic Air is found be very useful in most situations.

The maximum service ceiling for the Mavic Air is 3.1 miles above sea level. One of the important considerations with regard to UAVs or drones is their wind resistance capability. The DJI Mavic Air wind limit is 22 miles per hour. Beyond this number, the Mavic Air will generate a warning for high winds. This can be somewhat limiting in certain circumstances. The Mavic Air’s obstacle detection and avoidance system is very much reliable. The Air has forward, backward and downward sensors. The Advanced Pilot Awareness System (APAS) leverages all of these sensors. Coupled with this intelligence, instead of simply hovering in place when it detects an obstacle blocking the drone’s path, the Mavic Air explores the situation and automatically adjusts flight to avoid it, either by flying to the side or rising above it.
Burdziakowski, P. (2018). UAV IN TODAYS PHOTOGRAMMETRY–APPLICATION AREAS AND CHALLENGES. International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference: SGEM: Surveying Geology & mining Ecology Management, 18, 241-248.
DJI Mavic Air. (2019). Retrieved May 5, 2020, from PCMAG website: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/dji-mavic-air
Fintan Corrigan. (2020, January 13). DJI Mavic Air Features Review, Specifications and FAQs Answered. Retrieved May 5, 2020, from DroneZon website: https://www.dronezon.com/drone-reviews/dji-mavic-air-review-features-specifications-faqs-answered/
Yousef, M., Iqbal, F., & Hussain, M. (2020, April). Drone Forensics: A Detailed Analysis of Emerging DJI Models. In 2020 11th International Conference on Information and Communication Systems (ICICS) (pp. 066-071). IEEE.