CharleyL
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 p.1 #11 · Duffel / Wheeled Duffel for Safari/ bush flights? | |
I have been on King Air and DeHavilin flights when the captain had many passengers move to different seating positions to correct the plane's weight and balance. In one of those flights everyone had seated themselves in the rear 2/3 of the airplane, and he made some of them move to the frontal seats. Other times I have seen them unpack some luggage and move it to other positions in the cargo bays, again, because the pilot couldn't get the weight/balance calculation that he needed for a safe flight. The pilot or captain will not attempt to fly if he cannot get the weight/balance correct within an acceptable tolerance, unless he hasn't done the calculation, and you won't want to fly with this guy. It is extremely important to get this right before taking off. Even in 747's they need to do these calculations before takeoff, but they have considerably more power and it's easier to get weight distribution in larger airplanes within the limits. Be safe, and cooperate with the pilot when he asks you to change seats. The ground crews are well aware of needing to distribute the luggage weight. It's almost always the passengers that need to move seats to get this correct weight/balance calculation correct, and when you see them moving around at the captain's request it's because of this. Don't refuse, or you will get escorted off of the airplane. They don't want to put people or luggage off, but it sometimes becomes necessary, when the passenger(s) won't cooperate or the freight/luggage cannot be balanced. They can't fly safely if the airplane is unbalanced, or too heavy.
On the other hand I once took a cross county flight in a 747. Not many passengers got on, but I wasn't paying much attention, as I was headed to give a speech to a large group and wasn't fully prepared for before the flight. When we started down the runway, it was like driving a high powered drag race car, and we left the runway way and climbed very rapidly. I looked around and could only see two other passengers, so when we reached altitude, I asked one of the stewardesses how many passengers were on the flight and she said 4, but they needed the plane at the next city, so we flew anyway. We later all got together, stewardesses and all, about over the wings and had a 4 hour party. Best and fastest long flight that I was ever on.
My career and job took me many places, it seemed like almost everywhere in the upper quarter and the US side of this Planet, with some trips to Western Europe, occasionally too. I survived many bad flights, delays, very rough rides, cancellations, and breakdowns in those years. Fortunately ,most were on airplanes larger than 15 passenger, and much larger airplanes, and then on the weekends in our own small airplane, which was mostly flown up and down the East Coast of the US and never Wes much past the mountain range. We took very good care of our own air plane, so only a few problems came along during any of the flights. Most problems were with the radios (Avionics) and the flight could continue easily using the backup second,and still working, radio.
Most of our flights in our airplane were in good Weather too. Instrument flying, where you can't usually see more than a foot beyond the window, is much less safe in a small airplane, because of where smaller airplanes need to fly, how high or low, and compass direction, you are totally dependent on what the gauges say, but with a working radio, it is easy to talk to a control center with radar, who can see where you are, how high you are, and which way you are headed. A pilot that is fully trained in flying on instruments, is necessary for this. Many crashes occur when visual flight rules are not followed (When you can't easily see the ground) and when an untrained pilot attempts to fly by the instruments alone. The control centers will also advise if there is any other traffic of any size in the air near you and also how high they are, as well as their heading, so Radar really isn't necessary in small airplanes if you stay in contact with the control centers during the flight. If getting close to the other airplane or their headed direction, the control centers will advise a change in altitude or other measures to avoid a collision. They have sometimes even given us the channel and contact information of these other airplanes, so we could talk freely to each other as we passed by.
We always stayed in contact with the control centers, even in bright sunny and almost cloudless days, just in case something went wrong. You can fly low altitude by following common electronic paths through the sky, or when flying low on Sunny days, you can follow roads, even by using highway road maps, to keep from getting lost. The big airplanes have to stay high above the little guys, so following roads and highway road maps becomes quite difficult for them. the aviation version of GPS is a great and fairly new way to navigate any airplane, but instrument training is required for bad Weather, even if the airplane has one of these special GPS systems.
The Kennedy's son was not instrument trained, but he got himself and his passengers into a position where he should not have been, and only by flying by the instruments could he have continued safely. It's easy to feel the airplane and think you are flying straight and level, when you can't see where the ground is, or correctly feel that you are flying straight and level. A gradual change in altitude or airplane orientation that's slow and gradual will not be felt, and you can get into a stall where the air speed over the wings falls to less than the airplane needs to stay in the air, or you get into a wide spiral where the pressures against your seat give you a false sensation that you are flying straight and level. They think that this is why he crashed.
I think I've said too much in this post that didn't pertain to photography, but I care about all of you and don't want to see that you were in a plane crash. Be safe everyone.
Charley
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