Even in today’s “performance-based world” the underlying technology of Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) remains crucial, as no performance-based specification can cover the fact that we still use “steam-powered” systems, especially for communication. If you talk to somebody involved in communication engineering outside aviation, they cannot believe what technologies are being used on aircraft. The bandwidth available today for Controller-Pilot-Data-Link-Commun

When a 200-million-dollar passenger jet approaches a major airport somewhere on this planet and receives some directions from air traffic control (so-called „RADAR vectors”), they are expressed as magnetic heading [1]. This almost embarrassing fact tells us two things: In aviation, we still mostly use a magnetic north reference, despite the fact that technology would enable us to always use true north Sometimes, instructions are given as a heading, even if the goal is to achi

There are two common misbeliefs associated with aircraft circuit breakers: One relates to resetting a tripped CB, the other refers to why the CB is there in the first place. Resetting a tripped CB What do you do, when during the pre-flight you notice, that one CB is “popped out”? What do you do, if the same happens in flight? A good operator will provide you with guidance on both aspects. If there is no such guidance, my personal recommendation for the pre-flight case is to c