Development of Upset Recovery and Basic Aerobatic Courses for Collegiate Flight Training Programs

Upset recovery and aerobatics are two topics in general aviation that are often overlooked by commercial pilots in training. This can be due to several different constraints, such as not having the time or resources to receive optional flight instruction, or the workload involved with locating a reputable school and qualified flight instructor. In addition, upset recovery and aerobatics training is not required to become a commercially rated pilot and start a career in the aviation industry. However, both topics, especially upset recovery, can increase a pilot’s awareness of the limitations of their own aircraft and increase their confidence when faced with a loss–of-control situation. Implementing upset recovery and aerobatics into a collegiate flight training curriculum would mitigate some of the constraints that a pilot faces when making the decision to pursue this training. This paper begins by analyzing the limited upset recovery training that a student pilot receives during their primary flight training and how this relates to the frequency and types of aircraft accidents caused by a loss of control. Next, a sample collegiate flight training curriculum will be reviewed to identify subject areas that are expanded upon in upset recovery and aerobatic training. The presentation will discuss how areas identified in this curriculum could be used to develop abbreviated syllabi for collegiate upset recovery and aerobatic courses that could be grounded in academics and serve as an advantageous addition to the primary training a college student receives in their collegiate flight training program

Less weight more fun

Microlight Aviation is still in its infancy, yet in the 20 years since enthusiasts around the world started fitting lawnmower engines to hang-gliders or small makeshift wings progress has been remarkable. Since then, microlight flying has become a mainstream activity in General Aviation; in the United Kingdom alone Microlights are now 21% of civil registrations, outnumbering either gliders or homebuilt light aircraft. The rapid expansion in microlight or ultralight aircraft worldwide has unfortunately not been matched by the development or commonality of regulations. Even the name is not common; the UK, New Zealand and Ireland refer to “Microlights”, France refers to “ULMs” (Ultra Leger Motorise), whilst many other countries have preferred the term “Ultralight”, including the USA and Australia

A Study of aircraft lateral dynamics & ground stability

The stability of an aircraft on the runway is dependent on many factors. In this thesis, a mathematical model is developed that allows the ground stability and lateral dynamics of an aircraft to be analyzed while it is in the process of taking off or landing. Only two degrees-of-freedom will be considered: lateral displacement and angular rotation. Equations of motion for the model are developed using Newtonian mechanics. The major components of the aircraft that are included in the model are the main landing gear, the vertical tail, and the tail wheel. The model is developed into both linear and non-linear forms. Comparisons are made between a tricycle gear aircraft and a taildragger. Simulations for both the linear and non-linear model are performed to better understand stability. The results of these simulations are used to comment on the applicability of the linear model

BCAR section S issue 2 - What is possible and a review of existing designs

British Civil Airworthiness Requirements Section S “Small Light Aeroplanes” is a standard based upon the European light aircraft standard JAR-VLA. It is an unusual standard in that it is a UK administered standard that is still in routine use and development, not having been superseded by a Joint Airworthiness Requirement (JAR). Section S applies to the artificially defined class of “Microlight Aircraft” (some of which are also referred to as “SLAs”)

In Search of Collegiate Flight “Education”

The goal of most college flight programs is not to produce general aviation pilots, but rather professional pilots who also attain AA/BS degree-related life skills, wrote one professor [emphases his]. A central thesis of this paper is that before college flight graduates can compete for professional jobs, they will need post-graduation flight experience, i.e., general aviation experience, and to get those general aviation jobs, graduates will also need excellent general aviation skills - which flight collegiate programs commonly do not provide. The professor\u27s comment is explicitly condescending in its differentiation between general aviation and professional flying. This hubris is part of the collegiate aviation problem -training to professional standards in general aviation aircraft, and using a college\u27s own graduates to perpetuate a limited, tightly constrained, incestuous training program in general aviation aircraft does not mean that those graduates are exposed to or qualified for the real world of general aviation. Being both an ATP/CFII and a professor at a flight-oriented university, but teaching in a non-flight department, provided a unique, close up, but outsider\u27s view of collegiate flight education. Three criteria come to mind for evaluating the efficacy of collegiate flight program philosophies: training, education, and experience. Training means training for flight, both on the ground and in the air; education refers to both traditional academia and also to flight education, the latter a possibly new concept; and experience means marketable flight experience as opposed to just hours logged. This paper looks at flight education and these three standards, based both on lifelong participation in general aviation at multiple levels and also time spent observing a big name flight university

Baseline Assumptions and Future Research Areas for Urban Air Mobility Vehicles

NASA is developing Urban Air Mobility (UAM) concepts to (1) create first-generation reference vehicles that can be used for technology, system, and market studies, and (2) hypothesize second-generation UAM aircraft to determine high-payoff technology targets and future research areas that reach far beyond initial UAM vehicle capabilities. This report discusses the vehicle-level technology assumptions for NASAs UAM reference vehicles, and highlights future research areas for second-generation UAM aircraft that includes deflected slipstream concepts, low-noise rotors for edgewise flight, stacked rotors/propellers, ducted propellers, solid oxide fuel cells with liquefied natural gas, and improved turbo shaft and reciprocating engine technology. The report also highlights a transportation network-scale model that is being developed to understand the impact of these and other technologies on future UAM solutions

Applications of flight control system methods to an advanced combat rotorcraft

Advanced flight control system design, analysis, and testing methodologies developed at the Ames Research Center are applied in an analytical and flight test evaluation of the Advanced Digital Optical Control System (ADOCS) demonstrator. The primary objectives are to describe the knowledge gained about the implications of digital flight control system design for rotorcraft, and to illustrate the analysis of the resulting handling-qualities in the context of the proposed new handling-qualities specification for rotorcraft. Topics covered in-depth are digital flight control design and analysis methods, flight testing techniques, ADOCS handling-qualities evaluation results, and correlation of flight test results with analytical models and the proposed handling-qualities specification. The evaluation of the ADOCS demonstrator indicates desirable response characteristics based on equivalent damping and frequency, but undersirably large effective time-delays (exceeding 240 m sec in all axes). Piloted handling-qualities are found to be desirable or adequate for all low, medium, and high pilot gain tasks; but handling-qualities are inadequate for ultra-high gain tasks such as slope and running landings

Flight Control Research Laboratory Unmanned Aerial System flying in turbulent air: an algorithm for parameter identification from flight data

This work addresses the identification of the dynamics of the research aircraft FCRL (Flight Control Research Laboratory) used for the Italian National Research Project PRIN2008 accounting for atmospheric turbulence. The subject vehicle is an unpressurized 2 seats, 427 kg maximum take of weight aircraft. It features a non retractable, tailwheel, landing gear and a powerplant made up of reciprocating engine capable of developing 60 HP, with a 60 inches diameter, two bladed, fixed pitch., tractor propeller. The aircraft stall speed is 41.6 kts, therefore it is capable of speeds up to about 115 kts (Sea level) and it will be cleared for altitudes up to 10.000 ft. The studied aircraft is equipped with a research avionic system composed by sensors and computers and their relative power supply subsystem. In particular the Sensors subsystem consists of : \uf02d Inertial Measurement Unit (three axis accelerometers and gyros) \uf02d Magnetometer (three axis) \uf02d Air Data Boom (static and total pressure port, vane sense for angle of attack and sideslip) \uf02d GPS Receiver and Antenna \uf02d Linear Potentiometers (Aileron, Elevator, Rudder and Throttle Command) \uf02d RPM (Hall Effect Gear Tooth Sensor) \uf02d Outside air temperature Sensor A nonlinear mathematical model of the subject aircraft longitudinal dynamics, has been tuned up through semi empirical methods, numerical simulations and ground tests. To taking into account the atmospheric turbulence the identification problem addressed in this work is solved by using the Filter error method approach .In this case, the mathematical model is given by the stochastic equations: \uf028 \uf029 \uf028 \uf028 \uf029 \uf028 \uf029 \uf028 \uf029 \uf029 \uf028 \uf029 \uf028 \uf028 \uf029 \uf028 \uf029 \uf029 \uf028 \uf029 \uf028 \uf029 \uf028 \uf029 \uf028 \uf029 0 0 , , , , , x t f x t u t w t y t h x t u t z k y k v k x t x \uf071 \uf071 \uf03d \uf03d \uf03d \uf02b \uf03d (1) where x is the state vector, u is the control input vector, f and h are dimensional general nonlinear vector functions, \uf071\uf020\uf020contains the unknown system parameters, z is the measurement vector ,w is the process noise and v(k) is the measurement noise. The presence of nonmeasurable process noise requires a suitable state estimator to propagate the states. To take into account model nonlinearities in the present paper an Extended Kalman Filter has been implemented as the estimation algorithm

RTJ-303: Variable geometry, oblique wing supersonic aircraft

This document is a preliminary design of a High Speed Civil Transport (HSCT) named the RTJ-303. It is a 300 passenger, Mach 1.6 transport with a range of 5000 nautical miles. It features four mixed-flow turbofan engines, variable geometry oblique wing, with conventional tail-aft control surfaces. The preliminary cost analysis for a production of 300 aircraft shows that flyaway cost would be 183 million dollars (1992) per aircraft. The aircraft uses standard jet fuel and requires no special materials to handle aerodynamic heating in flight because the stagnation temperatures are approximately 130 degrees Fahrenheit in the supersonic cruise condition. It should be stressed that this aircraft could be built with today's technology and does not rely on vague and uncertain assumptions of technology advances. Included in this report are sections discussing the details of the preliminary design sequence including the mission to be performed, operational and performance constraints, the aircraft configuration and the tradeoffs of the final choice, wing design, a detailed fuselage design, empennage design, sizing of tail geometry, and selection of control surfaces, a discussion on propulsion system/inlet choice and their position on the aircraft, landing gear design including a look at tire selection, tip-over criterion, pavement loading, and retraction kinematics, structures design including load determination, and materials selection, aircraft performance, a look at stability and handling qualities, systems layout including location of key components, operations requirements maintenance characteristics, a preliminary cost analysis, and conclusions made regarding the design, and recommendations for further study