ASAP Axis Blog

When learning to fly aircraft and helicopters, there is nothing better than using a flight simulator. From the 1930’s Blue Box, all the way to free and paid mobile apps, the ability to simulate flight has improved tremendously over the years. Simulators can allow for aspiring or operating pilots to practice a multitude of aircraft types, scenarios, and more without having to utilize an actual aircraft. Simulators are now even able to replicate most functions of an aircraft and external factors to allow for the practice of flying, design of aircraft, and even investigations of aviation accidents.

In aviation terms, a navigational aid, or a navaid, is a physical device on the ground that airplanes can detect and fly towards. This can be any type of object including a lighthouse, day beacons, fog signals, buoys, etc. It can also mean any item that pilots use to help find their coordination such as GPS systems, global navigation systems and other types of navigational aids. For a basic description on read on below:

Aircraft fasteners are a critical part of assembling just about any type of machinery. But most fasteners, such as screws, nuts, and bolts, have a key weakness: they require access to both sides of the material being fastened. Rivets, for instance, require that a riveting hammer be placed on one side, and a bucking bar on the other to hold the rivet in place while it is hammered into a secure position. Blind rivets, however, have no such weakness, and can be installed when you don’t have access to or can’t see the back side of the item being riveted.

Before aspiring pilots can step foot into an aircraft cockpit and become a full time pilot, they must first undergo hours in a flight simulator. An aircraft flight simulator is a simulation of the real life experience that a pilot will have when operating a plane. Containing every situation possible, from hitting birds to bad weather, the flight simulator is designed to train and prepare fledgling pilots for any type of scenario, both mild and consequential. Read on below for information of the different types of flight simulators there are available for pilots.

Maintaining and improving safety is a constant challenge in aviation. With hundreds of thousands of people on flights around the world every day, it is more important than ever to keep aircraft flying safely from takeoff to landing. In this blog, we’ll review the aircraft safety and rescue equipment that are making flight safer than ever.

When birds come into land, they do so gracefully rather than crashing and tumbling into the ground. How? The answer is all in the legs. You may have noticed a bird’s legs extend out from beneath their bodies as they approach the ground, which enables the birds to channel their center of gravity and stay upright. Aircraft landing gear works more or less on the same principle. Landing gear can come in many different forms such as floats, skis and wheels. The most common type for commercial aircraft is the tricycle setup which, as the name suggests, consists of three sets of wheeled landing gear located under the nose of the plane and two at the rear of the plane, just past the aircraft’s center of gravity. The back two sets of landing gear have 4 wheels in a setup that is called the bogie landing gear.

Landing an aircraft is a difficult and stressful procedure for parts, as they deal with the weight of the aircraft and the friction of landing. Therefore, landing gear struts that support the aircraft must be resilient and durable. There are four main types of landing gear struts, all of them designed to take the shock out of landing.

From the Boeing 787 to the Airbus A330, virtually all commercial aircraft are constructed with riveted joints instead of welded ones. When it comes to riveted joints, two components are connected via a fastener, known as a rivet. These support shear loads that are perpendicular to the axis of the shaft and are especially useful in situations involving limited access. They are available in a variety of styles, sizes, and materials, and can be installed using a pneumatic hammer. Rivets are cost-effective, easy to install, and provide versatile reliability. This can explain why airliners choose to use them in the manufacturing process of aircraft.

Aviators all over the world rely on Global Positioning Systems (GPS) to safely navigate and maneuver their aircraft. GPS allow pilots to obtain precise three-dimensional location data during all stages of flight using triangulation; GPS can also track speed, relative distance, and time. With its continuous, accurate, and comprehensive mapping capabilities, it offers seamless satellite navigation that satisfies many requirements for pilots.

In completing pilot training, it is important that a pilot has a comprehensive understanding of various aspects of flight. A pilot must be well versed on the hundreds of components featured on an aircraft, how they might differ in the many types of aircraft, and the various stressors an aircraft can encounter in its flight cycle— including systems malfunction and adverse weather conditions. In addition, the pilot must be able to simultaneously monitor RPM, altitude factors, navigation, and more. So how can they realistically prepare for complex conditions that are so difficult to replicate in real-time?  Nowadays, a virtual reality (VR) flight simulator is often used to prepare pilots for circumstances they might encounter.