Intro to Aeronautical Science

MOA vs Restricted Areas There are different restricted military operating areas that also affect civilian aircraft.  Military typically use military operating areas (MOA) and restricted areas that are prefaced with an "R".  If we first take a look at MOAs, these are typically surface up to a specified altitude.  For example, if you take a look at the ForeFlight chart above you'll see Eglin A West, Eglin A East, Eglin B, and Eglin C.  When we perform aerial refueling operations, the MOA may be active from surface to 18,000 AGL meaning that commercial may fly over the active MOA as long as they are above 18,000 AGL.   On the other hand, there are restricted areas. On the chart above you can see R-2915A and R-2914A which is restricted from the surface to an unlimited altitude.  These areas are used a lot by the AC-130J Gunships when shooting.  When the restricted area is active, IFR aircraft may transit through this area when given specific instructi...

 Aircraft Noise in Aviation One of the biggest environmental impacts we face in aviation is noise.  There's is nothing about operating an aircraft that is quiet. I'm going to explain this impact from two different points of view, military, and civilian.       Here in Northwest Florida, we have multiple bases that operate military aircraft.  Here at Hurlburt Field, we have different C-130s including the AC-130J Gunships.  These aircraft shoot 30mm and 105mm rounds every night which makes a lot of noise. Over at Eglin AFB, they have F-15s, F-16s, F-22s, and F-35s which are extremely loud.  Eglin AFB does try to inform the locals when they will hear noise during particular times during training (Whitlock, 2021).  The Air Force in general tries their best to mitigate noise whenever it can and also takes this into consideration when choosing a location for certain aircraft (March 23, 2022).  There are multiple noise complaints throughout...

 The Federal Aviation Act of 1958 The Federal Aviation Act of 1958 was one of the most important legislative acts which streamlined how we operate in the skies today along with providing accountability.  As we go back and take a look at how the Federal Aviation Act came to be, we start to see a multitude of agencies.   In 1926 the Aeronautic Branch was created by the United States Department of Commerce.  In 1934 it was named the Bureau of Air Commerce.  At any given time we had multiple agencies.  In the Roosevelt days, the Civil Aeronautics Authority was created which was then split into the Civil Aeronautics Administration and the Civil Aeronautics Board.  In the 1950s there was a technology boom in aviation which prompted crowded airspace. In 1956 we had a mid-air collision between 2 commercial airliners killing 128 people. In 1958 we had another mid-air collision this time between a military plane and a commercial airliner.   These ...

 Human Factors in Aviation Human factors play a huge role in the safe operation of aircraft outside of mechanical means. One way of defining human factors is the study of the interrelationship between humans, the tools and equipment they use in the workplace, and the environment in which they work (Kohn, 1999). One of the most important aspects of aviation is crew resource management (CRM).  This can range from personality conflicts to physiological issues within the human body.  Using effective CRM can literally save the lives of the crew and everyone on that aircraft.  One example I would like to use is the C-130J crash in 2016 in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.  Please see  C-130J crash that killed 14 caused by forgotten night-vision goggle case (airforcetimes.com)   In this case, the pilot not only lost situational awareness but also used poor judgment when he decided to do something non-standard by using an NVG case to wedge the yolk back to raise th...

 Aviation Security Since September 11, 2001, we all know that the threat of terrorism has been on high alert.  However, in today's world airlines also have the threat of everyday passengers.   Incidents involving onboard disturbances and unruly behavior  have become far too frequent over the past few years, especially involving intoxicated passengers being aggressive and anti-social onboard aircraft, which is a criminal offense (2020).  In 2021 the FAA reported 5,981 unruly passengers with 4,290 of those being mask-related (March 2022).  Other issues were passengers that consumed too much alcohol and became combative. Crews are not trained to be combatants but crews are trained to recognize intoxicated passengers before they board, however, there are those that "get through the cracks" and board. During the checkpoint with TSA is where this can first be prevented in which TSA does a good job to the best of their ability with what they are given.  ...

    Flaps on an aircraft can be a very important secondary flight control system depending on various types of landings or even runway length available.  I'm going to use the MC-130J Commando II as an example. This aircraft has Fowler Type flaps which are considered high lift (Jan 2021).  When we want to land on a short runway, we have to land between 300 and 540 feet per minute descent rate.  If we couldn't roll flaps to 100%, this would not be possible as we could not get the airplane slowed fast enough.  The flaps are controlled by the utility hydraulic system from an electronic controlled flaps lever.  In the event we can't lower or raise the flaps through normal methods, we have to remove the electronic control from the mission computer and operate them using manual hydraulic control valves.  However, by doing this it takes away the asymmetric flap protection. There are also further ways of operating the flaps in the event we were to lose hyd...