Grant Corriveau's Blog, page 4
June 15, 2019
June 12, 2019
Free Father’s Day promotion!
[image error]Apparently, this upcoming Sunday is Father’s Day. So, first off – I’ll send out a huge THANKS to everyone out there who fulfills that important role, in one way and another.
We may not all be DBBs (Dad’s by biology) but inasmuch as we provide care and support for another human being, we’re making a positive contribution to the world. Well done.
Now, for the crass commercial side of this post: Entirely by coincidence, this is the weekend that my new Kindle eBook will be available FREE! If you, or anyone you know, might be interested in seeing what goes on behind that locked door at the front of the aircraft cabin, here’s your chance. No Risk! No Disappointing “awww, that’s four bucks I’ll never get back!” feelings!
How can this not be a good deal? Right?
So – remember to check out the Amazon Kindle website starting June 14th – Friday AM (PDT) until midnight, June 16th Sunday.
I hope you all enjoy it and any comments you’d care to leave on the Kindle website will be welcome. Also, feel free to contact me at this website if there are any topics you’d like to discuss or ask questions about.
The Journey Continues …
June 7, 2019
Do Not Buy This eBook (yet…)
[image error]I have a FREE promotion coming up!
But, apparently, it takes at least one day to get that set up after the book goes “live.” So – please DO NOT ORDER THE eBOOK version just yet or you’ll probably get charged the regular rate. Hang on for a day and get it free!
Such a Deal…
Also – if you order the Paperback version, a free ebook will also be made available to you during the promotion.
June 6, 2019
Airline Pilot book update…
“Airline Pilot: A Day in the Life,” is now available in paperback format![image error]
Now, the next learning curve I get to climb is the marketing “stuff.
“I always scurried out of the security screening process eager to get on with less stressful things — like flying airplanes through thunderstorms.” – Airline Pilot: A Day in the Life.
June 3, 2019
Captain’s insights…
[image error]From: Airline Pilot: A Day In The Life: “Fuel gives us time – and options. But now fuel is costly, and companies dole it out by the teaspoonful. They dispatch us with minimal fuel reserves based on the reliability claims made for weather forecasts. I wonder if weather departments ever overstate the validity of their predictions, to justify the multi-millions of dollars spent on technical equipment and super-computers. Or is this just another example of my “old pilot” skepticism morphing into cynicism?”
May 31, 2019
New book update …
The new ebook is available for preorders: Kindle/Amazon.
Release date is June 15!
The paperback version should also be available by then… one small step. This is fun.
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November 1, 2018
And you thought you had a rough flight…
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1911: Pilot Cal Rodgers takes off from New York City and begins the first transcontinental flight across the United States. He hopes to win a $50,000 prize by completing the trip in 30 days, but the inexperienced pilot has little idea of what such a trip will actually entail. …
The aircraft would end up making more than 70 stops before landing at the designated goal in Pasadena, California, on Nov. 5. Rodgers had missed the deadline by 19 days (and you think your flight delay was something).
Rodgers made more than 15 crash landings and numerous hospital visits during the trip. The plane had been repaired and rebuilt so many times during the trip that, like grandpa’s axe, little of the original aircraft made it to California.
https://www.wired.com/2009/09/0917transcontinental-flight/
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June 4, 2018
Aviation Safety vs. Economic Pressures… an age old struggle:
Canadian Air Regulations regarding pilot flight duty times are about to be amended to bring them more in line with international standards and scientific research. As it stands, Canadian pilots can be scheduled to fly longer hours than pilots in most other countries. But will regulators go far enough to meet the evidence-based studies by NASA and others? Or will they cater to the financial concerns of airline owners? We’ll see.
//www.cbc.ca/i/caffeine/syndicate/?mediaId=1239747139584
https://saferskies.ca/learn-more
May 16, 2018
Breathless …
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Since the advent of jet liners (and high altitude flight) the cabin air has to be kept at a greater pressure than the outside air or we’d pass out from lack of oxygen. This is accomplished by making the fuselage (more-or-less) airtight, then forcing in air. A special outflow valve gives us precise control over pressure changes inside the plane. These valves are usually located on the lower fuselage of the aircraft, near the rear. The next time you’re sitting at the departure lounge or looking out the window while parked at the gate, look for the valves on the planes around you. They look like a significant-sized hole (circular or rectangular) equipped with a moveable valve (see the photo for a typical example). On the ground they are normally fully opened. This valve is gradually closed and regulated by an automatic sensing system, once the flight begins.
Aircraft cabin pressure problems are extremely rare thanks to reliable and redundant designs of the systems and constant vigilance by the pilots, but when they do happen they are considered, potentially, very serious. This is because when our brains go without oxygen too long we suffer brain damage and even death. So, maintaining adequate cabin pressurization is critical to our survival.
The degree of danger from pressurization problems depends upon a few factors such as our altitude and and how suddenly pressure changes occur.
NEXT — The problems we face when control of pressurization is lost…
May 2, 2018
World’s Fastest Glider
In 1981, NASA achieved the world’s first controlled-flight return from space. This was supposed to be the end of spam-in-a-can space “capsules.” The Space Shuttle was the first true spacecraft which would provide on-going, access to earth orbit using a reusable ship:
The Dream – reuseable space access
For reasons I have not researched (but are surely related to program costs), this capability has since been terminated. Currently, the Americans are accessing the International Space Station via the “ancient” tried-but-true Russian Soyez space capsules.
The Russian system has the advantage of returning to a landing rather than an ocean splashdown. Apparently, the last second firing of the Soyez’ retro-rockets transforms the impact with earth from a “crash” to a “survivable collision.” Ouch. Maybe one day the rockets now being tested and used by private corporations for cargo supply missions to the ISS will be up to the task of flying manned missions.
