January/February 2003
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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2003 AVIATION SAFETY FROM COVER TO COVER Cover Story: All A Matter of Scale JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2003 U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration VOLUME 42 • NUMBER 1 FEATURES Norman Y. Mineta, Secretary of Transportation Marion C. Blakey, Administrator Nicholas A. Sabatini, Associate Administrator All a Matter of Scale for Regulation and Certification 1 James Ballough, Director, Flight Standards Service 10 Special Interest NOTAMS Robert A. Wright, Manager, General Aviation and Commercial Division “VFR Flight Not Recommended” H. Dean Chamberlain, Acting Editor 11 Louise C. Oertly, Senior Associate Editor A. Mario Toscano, Associate Editor/Art Director 20 From the Logbook: The Worst Mistakes Deidria Shaw, Administrative Assistant 22 Do You Still Remember How to Do It? 27 All in the Approach The FAA’s Flight Standards Service, General Aviation and Commercial Division, Publications Safety First: Staying Proficient Branch, AFS–805, Washington, DC 20591; tele- 29 phone (202) 267–8212, FAX (202) 267–9463; pub- lishes FAA AVIATION NEWS in the interest of flight 32 Can I Take It with Me? safety. The magazine promotes aviation safety by calling the attention of airmen to current technical, regulatory, and procedural matters affecting the safe DEPARTMENTS operation of aircraft. Although based on current FAA policy and rule interpretations, all printed material herein is advisory or informational in nature and should not be construed to have regulatory effect. Medical Stuff: Doing Things Right The FAA does not officially endorse any goods, 18 services, materials, or products of manufacturers that may be mentioned. Certain details of acci- So, You Thought You Had a Current Medical? dents described herein may have been altered to protect the privacy of those involved. 30 Famous Flyers: A Dream of Wings The Office of Management and Budget has approved the use of funds for the printing of FAA AVIATION NEWS. 33 Runway Safety Corner: Airport Diagrams SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES 34 FlightFORUM The Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402–9371, sells FAA AVIATION NEWS on 35 AvNEWS subscription. Use the self-mailer form in the center of this magazine to subscribe. BACK COVER Editor’s Runway CHANGE OF ADDRESS OR SUBSCRIPTION PROBLEMS Send your label with correspondence to Sup Doc, Attn: Chief, Mail List Branch, Mail Stop: SSOM, Washington, DC 20402–9373. Or call GPO Customer Service at (202) 512–1800/6; FAX: (202) 512–2168. To keep subscription prices down, the Government Printing Office mails subscribers only one renewal notice. You can tell when your sub- scription ends by checking the date on the second line of your mailing label. To be sure that your serv- ice continues without interruption, please return your renewal notice promptly. ✳✳✳✳✳✳✳✳✳✳✳✳✳✳3–DIGIT 342 FAN SMITH212J JUN96 R 1 423✳ FRONT COVER: Claude McCullough JOHN SMITH adjusts the engine in his scratch-built 212 MAIN ST FORESTVILLE MD 20747 model WACO S3HD. (Mark Lanterman photo courtesy of Model Aviation) BACK COVER: Global Hawk, the U.S. http://www.faa.gov/avr/afs/news/index.cfm Department of Defense’s newest un- manned air vehicle. (Norththrop Grumman Corporation photo) A DOT/FAA FLIGHT STANDARDS SAFETY PUBLICATION H. Dean Chamberlain photo by H. Dean Chamberlain eality has surpassed fiction. conditions the resulting steady ocean That idea is not as absurd as Remember the yesteryear breeze could provide good, strong, some may think. One unmanned air- photos of kids building model smooth lift for hours along the wide craft has flown from the U.S. across R aircraft in their bedrooms out cliff face. the Pacific to Australia. The U.S. mili- of balsa wood and silk. How times Life was simpler in those days. At tary is using remote-controlled un- have changed. To illustrate the that time, pilots flew “real” aircraft, manned vehicles in its war on terror- change, one day more than 25 years while modelers flew radio-controlled ism. An unmanned cruise missile can ago, I flew a radio-controlled (R/C) aircraft. How times have changed. fly hundreds of miles and hit a target glider at San Diego’s Torrey Pines Now, both modelers and “real people” using GPS to navigate. With today’s Gliderport. The cliffs at Torrey Pines fly model aircraft and real aircraft by technology, a remotely-piloted (the po- and the Pacific Ocean breezes that remote control. Now the world of the litically correct term) aircraft can be flow up and over the cliffs made this remote-controlled aircraft is only a radio-controlled, or have an au- site a great location for R/C model matter of scale. At a recent radio- tonomous flight control system on- gliders and the then new full-size hang controlled model airplane club open board that can fly a predetermined gliders with their intrepid human pilots house, the R/C “pilots” referred to flight profile, or have a combination of suspended beneath the colorful craft. “real” aircraft flying overhead as full- both systems so the autonomous air- The site also had a cable winch launch scale. Things have advanced to the craft can be redirected in flight if nec- capability for full-size piloted gliders. point where the only question in some essary by data link from another air- What made that site so good, particu- people’s minds is when will the first re- craft or satellite. Things have larly for the smaller R/C model gliders mote-controlled or autonomous non- progressed to the point where, ac- and the much larger hang gliders, was piloted aircraft carry its first commer- cording to one magazine, the U.S. Air the fact that with the right weather cial passenger. Force is concerned how its pilots and JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2003 1 The Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) flies above the USS Carl Vinton (CVN 70) on a simulated Navy reconnaissance flight headed by Command Carrier Group One about 100 miles off the San Diego coastline. Predator has a wingspan of 48.4 feet, a length of 26.7 feet and weighs approximately 1,500 pounds when fully fueled. Cost of the aircraft is around 3.2 million dollars. Average speed is approximately 70 knots. (U.S. Navy photo by PH3 Jefffrey S. Viano) those who support piloted aircraft will happen. But such aircraft will be sub- manned R/C aircraft by definition. If it react to the continued development of ject to regulation. is not manned, it is not an ultralight. It unmanned aircraft to include the pos- They will be regulated both for is an aircraft subject to the same rules sibility of a future unmanned bomber your protection and the protection of as all aircraft. and other aircraft types. Are pilots those on the ground. A basis for that If you still think the idea of un- going to soon join the Dodo bird on requirement is contained in the FAA’s manned aircraft flying is too futuristic, the extinct list? Only time will tell. definitions in the Code of Federal Reg- then you did not see the May 29, Not only has the progress of ulations (CFR), title 14, part 1, Defini- 2002, NASA Ames Research Center’s radio-controlled aircraft development tions and Abbreviations. The FAA def- news release announcing it had raised issues within the U.S. Air Force, inition of “aircraft means a device that “...signed an agreement to explore de- but also it has raised one issue within is used or intended to be used for velopment of a world-class center de- FAA about the use of such craft in the flight in the air.” Nowhere in that defi- signed to investigate science and National Airspace System (NAS). nition does it say the device has to be commercial applications of unmanned Someday, you may hear an air traffic manned. Under this definition, a small aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with controller issuing you a traffic advisory or reduced scale aircraft such as a high-resolution digital imaging sys- about an unmanned vehicle at 12 o’- R/C model aircraft is just that. It is an tems.” The center’s program will in- clock and three miles. Before you aircraft subject to rules governing its clude working with FAA on how to op- panic, that aircraft may also have sen- operation in the NAS. For those who erate in the National Airspace (NAS). sors onboard to help it “see” and might argue that a 14 CFR part 103 Currently, a NASA Ames research avoid you. Now who has the right of ultralight vehicle is not an aircraft by team is working on a $3.76 million way? definition, the definition of an ultralight project to test the commercial use of a If the idea of flying crosscountry includes the requirement for solar-powered UAV in the NAS. The with an unmanned aircraft near your “...manned operation in the air by a largest U.S. coffee plantation located aircraft bothers you, you might as well single occupant.” Therefore, an ultra- on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai will be start getting use to the idea. It may light vehicle could not be an un- the test site. 2 FAA Aviation News So how did the line between Maryland-based Chesapeake Bay being able to walk to your crash site to radio-controlled model aircraft, such Radio Control Club (CBRC) showed pick up your aircraft rather than “fly- as gliders, airplanes, and helicopters, the diversity of what I would call the ing” to your crash site then being car- become so blurred with aircraft capa- traditional R/C aircraft, and how things ried out. ble of carrying weapons, crossing an have changed in the last 25 years.