If you’ve been reading along then you know that we’ve spent the last couple of posts talking about ADS-B, or automatic dependent surveillance – broadcast. As a part of NextGen, or the Next Generation Air Transportation System, the FAA and other agencies are working to move airspace management and surveillance away from radar and toward a satellite-based solution.
As pilots and aircraft owners, we are some of the luckiest people on this planet. Have you ever thought about it? We can, at a moment’s notice, break the bonds of Earth’s surface and take to the skies. How can we make use of this gift that we have been given; this skill we have worked so hard to refine, in a way that repays some of it forward? How can pilots help make this world a better place?
We all strive to become better pilots. Here are some tips on improving your game.
1. Master the rudder… The reality is that Sir Isaac Newton knew exactly what he was talking about when he penned the idea, “For each action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Your plane wants to yaw and roll to the left for multiple reasons:
Since the day we figured out that we needed a way to know where planes were in the sky, we’ve used radar to bounce radio signals off of them, wait for those signals to return, and use that information to plot their positions relative to other aircraft.