Ethics in aviation

Aviation security August 31st 2022      Most of us dread going to the airport, the rule of thumb is to get there 2 hours early before the flight so you have time to get through check-in and the security screenings. The lines for security are long and TSA always seem to be unstaffed. In the moment I hate standing in the lines and having to take off my shoes and get scanned but I know they are there for everyones safety.      Criminals and terrorist are clever and they are always trying to find ways to smuggle in contraband or weapons onto a flight, its a never ending game of cat and mouse and TSA always has to be one step ahead. Airport security has metal  detectors, drug sniffing dogs and sometimes they have armed agents doing random checks on passengers who seem a little nervous. All of these layers are pretty easy to spot by everyone but one things that is hard to catch is the insider threat. An insider threat is typically a current or former employee, third party contractor, or a bu

 Aircraft Systems and Flight August 23, 2022 FADEC      The FADEC or full authority digital engine control is the brain of all jet powered aircraft and some piston engines. The FADEC on jet powered aircraft are in charge of monitoring multiple parameters hundreds of times a second such as engine inlet temperature, air pressure, fuel flow, turbine temperature, vane position and much more. Its overall purpose is to "provide optimum engine efficiency at any given flight condition" ( SKYbrary Aviation Safety ). They are complex computers that alleviate a lot of workload from the pilot, it can deliver max engine power without going over the operational limits therefore not over stressing the engine. The FADEC is in charge of start and restart procedures, it also monitors the engines overall health and can even diagnose system faults for ease of maintenance. It has many advantages but the one big downside is that is has full control over the engine and if it goes out, the engine fa

 Environmental Factors August 18th, 2022      Weather and aviation go hand in hand and therefore being a pilot also means being a part time meteorologist. Every pilot wants a clear sunny day to fly in but that's not always the case. Every time you fly, you will have to take into account the weather. You can see the obvious like rain, low clouds and wind but one thing you cannot see but may be able to feel is humidity. Humidity simply means the amount of water vapor is in the air.       I learned how to fly in Florida on the gulf cost (KCGC) and you can guarantee that it was always going to be 90 percent or more humid everyday. Humidity is not necessarily a factor while at cruising altitude but it is during takeoff. Engine performance output is calculated on cool, dry days and it doesn't take into account the water content. The water vapor that is drawn into the engine is non-combustable and therefore you will need to enrich your fuel/air ratio to combat it. The resulting horsep

August 10th 2022 Ethics in Aviation           The aviation community is built on its ethics. The definition of ethics is to have a set of moral principles or in my words to have a strong moral compass. My day job has me building and maintaining the jet engines that power F15's. They are large and very intricate machines the require an acute eye for detail and a strong moral compass. When building up these engines, we have inspection points that we have to adhere to before we move on and install the next component, these steps are called in-processes inspection or an IPI. I have worked with a lot of people over the years, mostly good and some bad, unfortunately we really only remember the bad. There was one such occasion when an IPI was simply pencil whipped and no one knew about the it until the engine went for testing. During the engine run test, it was found to be consuming a vast quantity of oil causing the test to be rejected. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that