What is for a professional pilot required to fly as safe as possible? Written by pilots the book gives a detailed introduction into the basics of accident prevention in air traffic. Explicit background knowledge as well as detailed listings of safety relevant features in human behaviour are included.

Three thousand feet above the Zambian bush, the DHC2 Beaver had only ten minutes' fuel remaining. Night was drawing in; ground features were indiscernible. I could not raise anyone on the radio. Would this be the end? John Flexman knew he wanted to be a pilot from the moment he saw an RAF flypast as a boy of eight. At sixteen he joined the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy, getting his 'wings' in 1961 at the age of 18. From there on he never looked back. His flying career took him around the world, from the Far East to Africa and back again. John came within seconds of disaster on several occasions and often encountered tragedy, losing several friends and colleagues in flying accidents. During his years in Africa he flew the dictator Idi Amin several times, while on the ground he was able to witness the barbaric results of Amin's regime. He went on to fly an assortment of prominent businessmen, politicians and pop stars, from Norman Tebbitt and Rupert Murdoch to Phil Collins and Paul McCartney. John finally retired at 60, having narrowly survived a 42-year career spanning 17,800 flying hours. Aviation at the Edge is his story.

This text covers fundamentals used in the navigation and guidance of modern aerospace vehicles, in both atmospheric and space flight. It can be used as a textbook supporting a graduate level course on aerospace navigation and guidance, a guide for self-study, or a resource for practicing engineers and researchers. It begins with an introduction that discusses why navigation and guidance ought to be considered together and delineates the class of systems of interest in navigation and guidance. The book then presents the necessary fundamentals in deterministic and stochastic systems theory and applies them to navigation. Next, the book treats optimization and optimal control for application in optimal guidance. In the final chapter, the book introduces problems where two competing controls exercise authority over a system, leading to differential games. Fundamentals of Aerospace Navigation and Guidance features examples illustrating concepts and homework problems at the end of all chapters.

A Dutch Italianate, Adriaen Van de Velde represents a point of artistic crosscommunication across borders, fusing agricultural landscapes in Holland with mythological Arcadian scenes in Italian settings. He died at the early age of 35, and yet he produced a great number of masterpieces that earned him tremendous posthumous fame in the 18th and 19th centuries, when he was one of the most sought-after names among collectors in Germany, France and England. Compared to Mozart's chamber music by the renowned art historian Wolfgang Stechow (1896-1974), Van de Velde's works are delicate and carefully composed and demonstrate his mastery of lighting effects as well as the human figure. His father Willem van de Velde the Elder and brother of the Younger were both marine painters, who in the winter of 1672-73 moved from Leiden to England to work in the service of King Charles II. Adriaen, by contrast, almost certainly never travelled outside his native country and chose to paint landscapes rather than seascapes. His meadows, Italianate views, beaches, dunes, forests, winter scenes and portraits in landscape settings and are among the very best that the Dutch Golden Age has produced. Moreover, the artist's drawings are widely considered to be a high point in 17th-century Dutch draughtsmanship. Yet despite his fame in previous centuries and the exquisite quality of his work, there has never been an exhibition devoted to the artist. As well as bringing together 60 of his finest works, the publication will reunite the paintings with their preparatory studies in seductive red chalk or pen and ink for the first time, making it possible to follow very precisely the various phases in the artist's creative process - perhaps more so than is possible for any other Dutch artist of the period. The publication will therefore offer not only a survey of the artist's oeuvre but also a rare glimpse of a seventeenth-century Dutch landscape painter at work, from conception to completion.

In late May 1927 an inexperienced and unassuming 25-year-old Air Mail pilot from rural Minnesota stunned the world by making the first nonstop transatlantic flight. A spectacular feat of individual daring and collective technological accomplishment, Charles Lindbergh's flight from New York to Paris ushered in America's age of commercial aviation. In The Flight of the Century, Thomas Kessner takes a fresh look at one of America's greatest moments, explaining how what was essentially a publicity stunt became a turning point in history. Kessner vividly recreates the flight itself and the euphoric reaction to it on both sides of the Atlantic, and argues that Lindbergh's amazing feat occurred just when the world-still struggling with the disillusionment of WWI-desperately needed a hero to restore a sense of optimism and innocence. Kessner also shows how new forms of mass media made Lindbergh into the most famous international celebrity of his time, casting him in the role of a humble yet dashing American hero of rural origins and traditional values. Much has been made of Lindbergh's personal integrity and his refusal to cash in on his fame. But Kessner reveals that Lindbergh was closely allied with, and managed by, a group of powerful businessmen-Harry Guggenheim, Dwight Morrow, and Henry Breckenridge chief among them-who sought to exploit aviation for mass transport and massive profits. Their efforts paid off as commercial air traffic soared from 6,000 passengers in 1926 to 173,000 passengers in 1929. Kessner's book is the first to fully explore Lindbergh's central role in promoting the airline industry-the rise of which has influenced everything from where we live to how we wage war and do business. The Flight of the Century sheds new light on one of America's fascinatingly enigmatic heroes and most transformative moments.

The Red Air Force versus the Luftwaffe in the skies over Eastern Europe. June 1941: Having conquered most of Western Europe, Adolf Hitler turned his attention to the vast Soviet Union. Disregarding his Non-Aggression Pact with Joseph Stalin, Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, a full-scale invasion of the Soviet homeland... aimed squarely at Moscow. In the skies over Russia, the battle-hardened airmen of the Luftwaffe made short work of the Red Air Force during opening days of Barbarossa. To make matters worse, Stalin had executed many of his best pilots during the perennial "purges" of the 1930s. Thus, much of the Red Air Force was destroyed on the ground before meeting the Luftwaffe in the skies. By 1944, however, the Soviet airmen had regained the initiative and fervently wrested air superiority from the now-ailing Axis Powers.

In the early morning of 20 April 1942, forty-seven Spitfire Vs of 601 and 603 Squadrons of the Auxiliary Air Force launched from the deck of the American aircraft carrier the USS Wasp, which had sailed to a position north of Algiers. The planes were bound for Malta. At the time, the island was under heavy siege by Axis forces. Salvatore Walcott's Spitfire never made it; he crash-landed in North Africa, part of Vichy France, and was interned. After attempting to escape, Walcott was liberated at the end of 1942. He returned to the UK and joined the US Army Air Corps and continued to serve as a pilot until the end of the war and afterwards with the USAF during the Berlin airlift. These are the bare bones of the story. But was that landing in Africa 'an inexplicable defection', as it has been described? Here is the evidence, alongside an exploration of American and British attitudes to men like Walcott who served under foreign flags. Walcott's story has been discussed for many years, but here is the truth. Did the Spitfire's undercarriage fail to retract, as Walcott claimed, or did he lose his nerve? Does the fact that Walcott later gained a reputation as a risk-taker indicate a 'Lord Jim' narrative, whereby he tried to make up for a moment of cowardice? Walcott's ultimately tragic tale is set against the larger narrative of Irish/American and British/Vichy France relations, of the Mediterranean theatre, aircraft design, and the US entry into the war.

Why would highly skilled, well-trained pilots make errors that lead to accidents when they had safely completed many thousands of previous flights? The majority of all aviation accidents are attributed primarily to human error, but this is often misinterpreted as evidence of lack of skill, vigilance, or conscientiousness of the pilots. The Limits of Expertise is a fresh look at the causes of pilot error and aviation accidents, arguing that accidents can be understood only in the context of how the overall aviation system operates. The authors analyzed in great depth the 19 major U.S. airline accidents from 1991-2000 in which the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found crew error to be a causal factor. Each accident is reviewed in a separate chapter that examines events and crew actions and explores the cognitive processes in play at each step. The approach is guided by extensive evidence from cognitive psychology that human skill and error are opposite sides of the same coin. The book examines the ways in which competing task demands, ambiguity and organizational pressures interact with cognitive processes to make all experts vulnerable to characteristic forms of error. The final chapter identifies themes cutting across the accidents, discusses the role of chance, criticizes simplistic concepts of causality of accidents, and suggests ways to reduce vulnerability to these catastrophes. The authors' complementary experience allowed a unique approach to the study: accident investigation with the NTSB, cognitive psychology research both in the lab and in the field, enormous first-hand experience of piloting, and application of aviation psychology in both civil and military operations. This combination allowed the authors to examine and explain the domain-specific aspects of aviation operations and to extend advances in basic research in cognition to complex issues of human performance in the real world. Although The Limits of Expertise is directed to aviation operations, the implications are clear for understanding the decision processes, skilled performance and errors of professionals in many domains, including medicine.

From the "perfect storm" to the South Pole, a stirring true-life adventure story by a celebrated helicopter rescue pilot During the course of a 30-year career in helicopter rescue, Colonel Edward Fleming led scores of high-risk, high-profile missions, including rescue operations during the Halloween storm of 1991 described in Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm and the successful rescue of Dr. Jerri Nielsen from Antarctica after she developed breast cancer. Now, Colonel Fleming takes readers along for a bracing ride as he recounts the most thrilling episodes of his long career. With all the nail-biting excitement of a bestselling thriller, Heart of the Storm brings to life dramatic jungle rescues in the Philippines, the longest helicopter rescue mission in history to save crew members of a Ukrainian freighter 840 miles off of the coast of Nova Scotia, a nearly disastrous rescue off a listing two-masted schooner during an Atlantic winter storm, and many more - including the ill-fated "perfect storm" operation of 1991 and the exceptionally difficult Dr. Nielsen rescue. Fleming describes the many near-misses and narrow escapes he and his crews experienced, as well as many tragic loss

Die Hauptaufgabe eines Verkehrspiloten besteht darin, sein Flugzeug sicher von A nach B zu bringen. Dabei ist das Wissen um eine optimale Unfallpravention noch immer verbesserungsfahig. In dem Buch wird dargelegt, wann und unter welchen Umstanden Unfalle passieren und wie sie sich vermeiden lassen. Demnach dient insbesondere das Crew Ressource Management (CRM) der Unfallpravention. Die Autoren, fast ausnahmslos Verkehrspiloten, definieren die Prinzipien des CRM und zeigen anschliessend auf, wie dessen Inhalte in die Praxis ubertragen werden konnen."

Culture forms a complex framework of national, organizational and professional attitudes and values within which groups and individuals function. The reality and strength of culture become salient when we work within a new group and interact with people who have well-established norms and values. In this book the authors report the results of their ongoing exploration of the influences of culture in two professions - aviation and medicine. Their focus is on commercial airline pilots and operating room teams. Within these two environments, they show the effects of professional, national and organizational cultures on individual attitudes, values and team interactions. From the Foreword by Captain Daniel Maurino: '...the authors direct their attention to applied research as well as to the search for practical tools to approach and deal with the relationship between culture, error and error management, and between culture and aviation human factors training for operational personnel. They devote particular attention to the link between culture and Crew Resource Management (CRM) training, a safety and prevention tool towards which few if any have contributed so much and so well..' '...The incorporation and management of cultural factors into aviation operations and practices simply represent another tool to contribute to the aviation system's production goals. Encouraging progress has been made, but there is need for improvement. This book presents one possible way to move forward' Vividly laced with numerous contributions from a range of practitioners and researchers from Asia, Australia, Europe and the Americas, as well as case studies and practical examples, the book is designed to be accessible to practitioners and managers wishing to improve their own organization and to researchers with an interest in gaining a greater understanding of the types of culture.

The book is in three parts, which consider training from the perspective of the learner, the instructor and the organization. Its intended readership includes civil and military training and senior pilots, flying instructors, check pilots, CRM facilitators, Human Factors and safety departments, and aviation and educational psychologists as well as those in operations and air traffic management and regulatory authorities.

This book is a single source, concise presentation of what pilots should know about basic aircraft systems. The content reflects the author's more than thirty-five years experience of flying and fourteen years of teaching Aircraft Systems to university students.Aircraft Systems for Pilots includes a brief study of the fundamentals of physical matter (from which airplanes are made) and mechanics (how airplane parts act and react). The author provides sufficient study of each type of system to allow the professional pilot to stay abreast of the critical learning which must occur as the pilot advances into management of more complex aircraft.Subject covered include physics, aircraft engine types and construction, reciprocating engine theory of operation, engine lubrication and cooling, propellers and governors, fuels and fuel systems, power management, supercharging and turbocharging, pressurization and high altitude operations, electrical principles, electrical components, aircraft electrical systems, hydraulic systems and landing gear, pneumatic and deicing systems, aircraft structures and flight controls, weight and balance, inspections, pilot maintenance, and aircraft instrument systems. Illustrated throughout, study questions conclude each chapter and includes index.In print for more than 30 years and continually updated through the years, this 4th Edition continues to serve as the comprehensive college textbook for pilots learning aircraft systems.

Distributed Cognition and Reality puts theory into practice, as the first book to show how to apply the Perceptual Cycle Model in aviation decision making. Based on case studies, critical incident interviews and live observations in cockpits, the authors develop a new way to understand how pilots and crews make decisions. This book will be useful for practitioners involved in accident and incident investigations and decision-making training, researchers and students within the disciplines of Aviation, Human Factors, Ergonomics, Engineering, Computer Science, and Psychology. Dr Katherine L Plant is a New Frontiers Fellow in Human Factors Engineering at the University of Southampton in the UK. In 2014 she was awarded the Honourable Company of Air Pilots Prize for Aviation Safety Research. Professor Neville A Stanton holds the Chair in Human Factors Engineering at the University of Southampton in the UK. In 2007 The Royal Aeronautical Society awarded him the Hodgson Medal for his work on flight-deck safety.

A series of books that provide, for the first time, the detailed information every pilot needs to know about the aircraft they are flying. Each book in the series covers all aspects of a popular aircraft type and is illustrated throughout with photographs and diagrams.

Following his first three successful books, describing his long career as a military pilot, Mike Brooke completes the story with more tales of test flying during the 1980s and '90s. During this period his career changed to see him take control of flying at Farnborough and then at Boscombe Down, as well as off-the-cuff delivery missions to Saudi Arabia, 'bombing' in the name of science in the Arctic and the chance to fulfil a long-standing dream and fly the vintage SE.5a. This often hilarious memoir gives a revealing insight into military and civilian test flying of a wide range of aircraft, weapons and systems. As in his previous books, Brooke continues to use his personal experiences to give the reader a unique view of flight trials of the times, successes and failures. More Testing Times and its earlier volumes make for fascinating reading for any aviation enthusiast.

A captain must be able not only to fly the aircraft, but also to manage it, manage the crew, and above all, manage his or her resources. In a number of air carriers there may be less than adequate additional training conducted, when upgrading pilots to the very responsible position of captain. However, three things that do not change are the authority, challenges, and responsibilities of being captain. They are as constant today as they will be in the years ahead. Aircraft Command Techniques is a comprehensive examination of the characteristics of the experienced captain. Each chapter begins with an appropriate and relevant anecdote that is analogous to the chapter's main theme. It then progresses to the chapter's main objective and finishes with a scenario that the reader is asked to solve from a captain's perspective using a number of considerations that are offered and should be evaluated when solving the problem. The intent is to help the pilot practise thinking as a captain. Offering a wealth of practical guidance, this book is an ideal platform for pilots or indeed anyone interested in how leadership and management skills are used to achieve excellence. The reader will gain important command skills and will learn how to apply these skills to routine and unexpected situations, in the same way as an experienced captain. The intended readership includes those worldwide in aviation universities and flight schools, in major airlines, in regional and cargo airlines, pilots upgrading to captain and those interested in leadership skill development.

Airline pilots often have to face sudden, unexpected situations that can become potentially dangerous. They are trained to deal with these situations, but sometimes the lack of time before the situation deteriorates and the associated stress can compromise their basic cognitive sequence and lead to a serious incident or even an accident. This book identifies common denominators in pilots' reactions to dangerous, unexpected events and highlights behavior common to all in complex, stressful situations. Facing the Unexpected in Flight: Human Limitations and Interaction with Technology attempts to clarify the human characteristics at play in stressful situations, with the goal of providing a more solid basis for designing aeronautical operating equipment and shaping future automation. The book applies an original cognitive analysis method to highlight actual operational behavior within a quick succession of short mental segments lasting less than one minute in all. This rational method of assessing human potential should contribute to a more effective distribution of roles and help to optimize the pilot-aircraft interface. The current drive towards total automation, together with the drone revolution and questions of cost-effectiveness within a global economy, raises the question of whether there is a need for pilots onboard aircraft. So, after scientifically dissecting human limitations and advantages in terms of flying an aircraft, the book concludes with reflections by the author on the possibility and implications of eliminating pilots from aircraft. In this section, the author sets aside scientific rigor and provides his sometimes subjective personal opinions on the professional future of airline pilots.

As a barefoot lad in the Outer Hebrides, Bill Innes dreamed the impossible dream of becoming a pilot and this book tells how that dream came to pass. The author's career of over forty years spanned a period of incredible advances in the air - now regarded as a golden era in aviation. After gaining his RAF wings in Canada he really started to learn his trade by flying pre-war Dakotas for British European Airways around the Highlands and Islands of Scotland - one of the most testing aviation-operating areas in the world. The experience was to stand him in good stead as he moved to London to fly classic 20th century British aircraft such as the Viscount, Comet, Vanguard and Trident. The narrative comes alive through tales of the many characters encountered in a time before flight recorders. There are authentic versions of some of the most famous anecdotes in the folklore of the sky, but also reflections on training philosophy and techniques which have a relevance outwith aviation. Along the way he explored his limits, barnstorming vintage aircraft in Tiger Club displays - surviving one breach of those limits which should have proved fatal! Progressing to being a training captain, Bill was happy to pass on his experience to colleagues. As one of the team that introduced the Boeing 757 to British Airways, post-retirement, he was privileged to be the trainer on the first flights of charter airlines such as Air 2000 and Canada 3000 before his swansong, flying long range Boeing 767s for Alitalia. Technical background is lightened by the thread of humour which runs throughout and there are also some sage words of comfort for the nervous passenger.

Recently updated, this comprehensive handbook explains the aerodynamics of helicopter flight, as well as how to perform typical helicopter maneuvers, unlike many aviation training manuals which are strictly how-to guides. Beginning with the basics of aerodynamics, each step of the process is fully illustrated and thoroughly explained-- from the physics of helicopter flying and advanced operations to helicopter design and performance-- providing helicopter pilots with a sound technical foundation on which to base their in-flight decisions. Containing discussions on the NOTAR (no tail rotor) system, strakes, and frequently misunderstood principles of airspeed and high-altitude operations, this revised edition also includes the latest procedures and regulations from the Federal Aviation Administration.

While large numbers of aeroplanes had been produced In America for the war effort overseas at the Western Front, it was found that that the British, French and Germans were far ahead of them when it came to flight technology, which led to a huge surplus of aeroplanes in the United States. The government's solution to recover some of the money was to sell the surplus stock off for as little as $200 dollars each. With no licence being required to fly a plane, the offer attracted many ex-fighter pilots as well as civilians, who developed a new American pastime known as barnstorming. Part entertainers, part thrill-seekers, the barnstormers made their way across the country as solo acts and in groups called 'Flying Circuses'. The American flier Ormer Locklear wowed the crowds by climbing out of his aeroplane and walk along the wing, and it wasn't long before flying circuses held less appeal for spectators if it didn't have a wing-walking act. Handstands, jumps across planes, and even the odd game of tennis were attempted by barnstormers to attract larger paying audiences. In 1936, the US Government banned wing-walking under 1,500 ft, which doomed aerial stunting, and while a few wing-walking teams operated in the 1970s, it wasn't until barnstormer Vic Norman founded his famous AeroSuperBatics wing-walking team in the early 1980s that the sight of daredevils hand-standing and flying upside down on the wing was seen in Europe. Several teams around the world subsequently formed using aeroplanes such as the Boeing Stearman or the Curtiss 'Jenny' biplanes to wow crowds as a part of regular air displays, and their appeal has continued to rise since the 2000s.

A series of books that provide, for the first time, the detailed information every pilot needs to know about the aircraft they are flying. Each book in the series covers all aspects of a popular aircraft type and is illustrated throughout with photographs and diagrams.