Flight test

“ This was, to be sure, not the great test, the final test, the test of the man-carrying flyer, but it was felt by all to be of almost equal importance, for if the balancing of the small aerodrome was correct, the large one would maintain its equilibrium, and the problem of human flight would be solved practically as well as theoretically. ”

“ On January 12, 1960, the Board recommended to the Administrator, Federal Aviation Agency, that flight recorders be installed in all new transport-type airplanes and presently operating turbine-powered transport-type airplanes. Subsequent to that date and as a result of the information gained from the flight recorder in this accident, the Board has expressed the opinion to the Administrator, Federal Aviation Agency, that recorders should also be installed and operating during the training, test, and ferry-flight operations of these air carrier airplanes. ”

“ THE WITNESS: Certainly. The airmen's information manual and -- and ground school in the general case addresses these issues, although I don't have any oversight knowledge about how -- how thorough that is.
CHAIRMAN FRANCIS: Okay.
MR. PHILLIPS: As part of this flight testing and ground testing of the equipment, are the FAA technicians who perform these tests and review them specially trained or certified?
THE WITNESS: Yes. ”

“ The ATA Charting and Data Display Task Force has been doing a lot of work from a human factors that do flight tests of the actual changes that are recommended, and at the bottom is an important effort that was initiated because of an NTSB recommendation a couple years ago of a new task force called the ATA Charts Database and Avionics Harmonization Task Force, which really looks at the human factors of what all information a pilot has to look at and where they should be the same and where they cannot be, how do you go about training the pilot to understand where those differences are. ”

“ Certain of these problems could be partially solved by laboratory experimentation, but nothing can replace flight testing, and the results obtained by flight tests in our atmosphere would not be valid in another type of atmosphere. The most logical way to overcome this difficulty would be to build our interplanetary vehicle, go to the planet that we were interested in landing on, and hover several hundred miles up. ”

“ The excuse cannot be made that his mechanics had performed this all-important work of inspection, for their attention was centred on the daring "banking" evolutions of some audacious pilot in the aerodrome.
Mr. C. G. Grey, the well-known writer on aviation matters, and the editor of The Aeroplane, says, with regard to the need of inspection of air-craft:—
"A pilot is simply asking for trouble if he does not go all over his machine himself at least once a day, and, if possible, every time he is starting for a flight. ”

“ The flying machine which will navigate successfully in a perfectly quiet atmosphere may be unseaworthy, or rather, unairworthy, when a wind springs up, or the shifting of the wind may spoil all the air pilot’s plans. To add to his troubles, the aviator must move among air currents which change and change again in a moment’s time. As we study the difficulties of air navigation we will appreciate, more than ever, the wonderful patience, skill, and daring of the successful aviators.
The action of the air currents had first to be carefully studied before flight became possible. ”

“ Experience, the researches of science, and the growing skill with which aircraft are built, stand between the airman and many of his previous dangers. The aeroplane to-day, one of the structural triumphs of the world in its lightness and its strength, has a factor of safety which is sufficient to meet, and to withstand, not merely ordinary strains, but any such abnormal stresses as it may encounter—and which may be many times greater than the strains of normal flight. ”

“ Methods should be developed for collecting and correlating the experiences that airplane pilots may have with exceptional turbulence, or other unusual atmospheric conditions. It happens from time to time that a pilot, military, airline, or private, observes some exceptional atmospheric condition, or some exceptional effect upon the flight of the aircraft. The ability of pilots to benefit from one another's experiences in such matters is quite largely limited to the results of informal report. ”

“ THE WITNESS: No. Los Angeles are all -- have all -- have four pilots, and they're all -- that's my authorized strength there.
MR. BERMAN: Okay. Thank you. How does the FAA evaluate the flyability or the difficulty of an instrument approach procedure?
THE WITNESS: Well, that's a little out of my expertise now, but I was at one time a flight inspector, and it was -- we actually flew the procedure, and we evaluated it again for the lowest, in our estimation, quality -- not quality, experienced pilot, could he fly that procedure on the original commissioning flight check. ”

“ Following its arrival in Washington, the airplane was serviced with gasoline and oil and was given a routine "turn-around" inspection. This inspection consists of a general visual examination of the airplane, especially of the propellers, wing and tail surfaces, and the controls which are visible from the outside, and the testing of the controls, engines, instruments, and radio equipment. In addition, the interior of the airplane is cleaned and the outside surfaces wiped off. ”

“ And the third one of a different approach, I have been taught, and I taught as an instructor, when you're flying an ILS, you automatically would start timing at a FAF, which is not necessarily the same as the ILS, for the approach or if any reason, you lost the glide scope in your aircraft or on the ground, you could continue on the localizer approach as long as you hadn't gone below the MDA, and the approach is right in front of you, and you don't have to fumble and try to find another approach to complete it or make a missed approach. ”

“ Aeronautics is now more than an art. It is a rapidly expanding branch of applied science. Aeronautical engineering has become one of the recognized professions. Some of the leading government51 laboratories of the world, including the National Physical Laboratory in Great Britain and the United States Bureau of Standards, are devoting their attention to aeronautical research. There are also many unofficial “aerodynamical” laboratories for studying, with the aid of wind tunnels and other apparatus, the many problems pertaining to the physics of flight and the principles of aeroplane designing. ”

“ The Board is aware that some international air carriers use the nonflying pilot in a more interactive role during the performance of a nonprecision approach, in which that pilot leads or prompts the flying pilot through the approach procedure by stating the next procedural change, including course, heading, altitude, time, visual contact, or MAP. The Board is also aware that some air carriers employ a "monitored approach" method, with the first officer as the flying pilot and the captain as the monitoring, nonflying pilot until just before landing. ”

“ All they had to depend on were three new flying instruments, developed during the past year in experiments conducted over the full-flight laboratory established by the Fund at Mitchel Field.
The chief factors contributing to the solution of the problem of blind flying consist of a new application of the visual radio beacon, the development of an improved instrument for indicating the longitudinal and lateral position of an airplane, a new directional gyroscope, and a sensitive barometric altimeter, so delicate as to measure the altitude of an airplane within a few feet of the ground. ”

“ The handicap was not a serious one, and I think I may truthfully say that we kept pace with our French comrades. The most important thing was to gain actual flying experience, and as much of it as possible. Only in this way can one acquire a sensitive ear for motors, and an accurate sense of flying speed: the feel of one's machine in the air. These are of the greatest importance. Once the pilot has developed this airman's sixth sense, he need not, and never does, worry about the scantiness of his knowledge of the theory of flight. ”

“ The pioneer aviator built himself what he considered a “strong airplane,” but when he attempted flight under weather conditions not so favorable as those on which he had counted, some untested part gave way. So in the early days there were many tragedies. To-day, the airplane has become a safe mount indeed, for not only is the finished machine tried out before it is put into use, but each separate part is subjected to the most exacting series of tests. If it does not bear up under at least six times the strain it will ever be called on to endure in flight, it is rejected as unfit. ”

“ However, there are many three-crew aircraft operating in the world today with either flight engineers as pilot or engineer in the third seat who are forward-facing for take-off and landing and who do have assigned duties of monitoring the pilots. ”

“ At three thousand feet altitude the Pilot is satisfied that he is now sufficiently high to secure, in the event of engine failure, a long enough glide to earth to enable him to choose and reach a good landing-place; and, being furthermore content with the steady running of the engine, he decides to climb no more but to follow the course he has mapped out. Consulting the compass, he places the Aeroplane on the A–E course and, using the Elevator, he gives his craft its minimum angle of incidence at which it will just maintain horizontal flight and secure its maximum speed. ”

“ The workload of such a procedure, I think, is considerably less than attempting to fly level, for instance, a descent to an MDA in a jet aircraft that's 3 or 400 feet above the field typically in a landing configuration requires fine judgment to then seek visual reference over a nose pointing in the air and then complete an approach at the right descent path to the runway, all of that in limiting conditions. ”

“ During the final approach the pilot not making the landing, using the instruments of his own flight panel, will call out the altitude and airspeed checks that are currently specified in the respective aircraft Equipment Operating Manuals. The pilot making the landing will check the announced airspeed and altitude readings with those being displayed on his instruments. ”

“ Every conceivable test has been tried which could give information that would lead to any improvement in strength to withstand strains, in addition to the complete knowledge that has come from actual tests under all conditions in the air, and on the ground itself, by expert flyers who have done almost everything that it is possible to do with the machine as far as trying to find its weak point is concerned. ”

“ THE WITNESS: Okay. An instrument landing system is a ground-based electronics system composed of about six subsystems that provide lateral and vertical guidance and fixes or rough knowledge of position to the pilot along the approach path to an airport.
MR. PHILLIPS: Would you -- would we like to go ahead and put up Page 6 of Exhibit 9-E, Teddy? Would this help in your discussion?
THE WITNESS: Well, yes, thank you. This is the simplified but sufficient diagram of the nature of the needle indications that are provided to a pilot while flying an instrument landing system approach. ”

“ Under such circumstances it is impossible to tell what the plane is doing. It may be upside down or turning giant circles. Without instruments the pilot simply does not know his position in space—there are no outside landmarks with which to check. Of course, if one is really upside down for any length of time one’s feet drop back from the rudder and the safety belt tightens; or if in a skid a side blast of wind gives a belated warning, etc. ”

“ Specifically, the NTSB requested the FAA to review ARTS III program for the possible development of procedures to aid flight crews when marked deviations in altitude are noticed by ATC, air traffic control. ”

“ Watch the successful model as it gains its altitude, settles down to a horizontal flight, is perhaps knocked off its course by a cross current, and steadies itself with a graceful curve and proceeds on its way.
All these problems must be anticipated. The young aviator must ingeniously arrange his planes and ballast in advance. The regular sky pilot, on the other hand, meets the problems of the air as he encounters them, by flexing his wings against disturbing currents or by banking to maintain an even keel at a turn. ”

“ These and other indeterminable factors may or may not have presented additional distractions to the crew but must be considered in the final evaluation. It is clear, however, that a rapidly deteriorating visibility situation and increasingly heavy cockpit workload compounded with all or any combination of the other influencing conditions may have distracted from the full attentiveness of flight instruments and the proper monitoring of the aircraft's altitude. ”

“ In the terminal environment there are two different types of processing that we'll talk about. One is general terrain warning and the other is approach path monitoring.
However, both of these types of processing require certain things to be present before the aircraft will be eligible for MSAW processing. It must be a tracked target. That is, a flight plan must be entered into the system. It must have a valid mode Cor altitude reporting. It must be within the adapted eligibility area. It must be outside any inhibit zones. ”