David Cruz Blog

  Air Traffic Control Entities Air Traffic Control (ATC) is a vital component of the National Airspace System (especially in busy areas). Their function is based on organizing all the air traffic that is under their authority, providing enough separation for what each aircraft is doing without creating any possible safety issues. Also, they coordinate with the surrounding entities to anticipate what are the intentions of the airplanes that will be entering their airspace soon. For example, when there is a flight from Miami International Airport to Chicago O'Hare Airport, the aircraft will go through several Air Traffic Control Entities to complete this flight. All the entities involved are coordinating the aircraft's route to provide an efficient and safe operation, making the job easier for everyone. For this blog, I am going to compare ATC Tower and Flight Service Station (FSS). The tower facility is the first entity we contact when we are starting a flight in controlled airs...

  Noise Pollution in Airport Environment Airplanes are loud, we can all agree on that. That is the reason why, nowadays, new airports are being built away from densely populated areas. But the problem comes when the airports are already built. Here in Florida, we can see that most of the major airports are located in the middle of the cities. Miami, Orlando, Tampa, West Palm Beach, and many more cities have their big airports located next to where people live, and this can create a big issue for people's health. According to the European Commission (2020) "across 47 European airports surveyed, 3.2 million people were exposed to levels higher than 45 dB, and 1.4 million were exposed to levels above 40 dB". It is important to mention that even though these numbers are not harmful to the human ear if people listen to this amount of dB for a prolonged period it can start creating problems for their hearing. In my personal experience, as a Colombian, I have seen how neighbors ...

  Federal Aviation Act In 1958, during President Eisenhower's mandate, Senator Mike Monroney, a democrat from Oklahoma, proposed the creation of a federal agency to have a more modern, safer agency to control the fast-growing aviation industry, both civilian and jet. On August 23, 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal Aviation Act, creating the Federal Aviation Agency (later called Federal Aviation Administration).  The Federal Aviation Agency was proposed after the government saw the pace at which the National Airspace traffic was increasing and after a mid-air collision occurred over the Grand Canyon in 1956, the creation of an agency was completely required. In my opinion, this Legislation Act was really important at that time. If an agency that controls the whole National Airspace System was not created probably more accidents would have happened. The creation of the FAA was important at the time, and how the Airspace has worked over time, we can see that...

  Team-Based Human Factors Everyone gets so scared to fly when we hear that an airplane accident has happened. This collective panic is caused by the lack of basic understanding society has over aviation. Thinking that flying in an airplane is almost a ride to death makes people more nervous than they should actually be. Nowadays, airplanes are a really safe way of transportation, and most accidents occur due to human error, not a failure in the aircraft itself. According to a study completed by the FAA, between 60-80% of aviation accidents are caused by human error. Lack of communication, pilots not being correctly prepared, not enough rest, or even pilots impaired by alcohol or drugs can lead to catastrophic accidents where there are many deaths. Crew Resource Management (CRM) is the effective use of all available resources for flight crew personnel to assure a safe and efficient operation, reducing error, avoiding stress, and increasing efficiency. Any pilot who is sharing a coc...

  Laser Pointers as a threat to aviation security Laser pointers have been an emerging threat to the aviation industry in the last couple of years. These pointers have gained popularity among people who want to play small jokes with family or friends, which is still fine. The problem starts when these people start using the lasers to bother pilots, especially in critical phases of flight such as takeoff and landing. What starts as a simple joke can lead to catastrophic events, such as an accident. The laser pointers will cause the pilot to go temporarily blind, creating a hazard for the airplane's occupants as well as people on the ground. Since the FAA started tracking laser pointers incidents in 2010, there have been 67,558 incidents reported, with a 250% increase in recent years. The FAA received 9,723 reports from laser pointers in 2021, the highest number ever. This is just showing us that society is not conscious enough of the risks that are involved in using these pointers. ...

  Hydraulic System The hydraulic system of an airplane is, perhaps, the most vital system when we talk about safety. In general aviation, the brake system is powered by hydraulic fluid as well as the landing gear operation for airplanes that have a retractable gear system. This system can be really reliable, but even a small leak can be a potential hazard to the safety of flight. In a Cessna 172, it is important to check any hydraulic leak near the wheels, as this can mean that brakes can fail during landing. When we preflight a Piper Cherokee PA-28-161 we can check the level of the hydraulic fluid to prevent a lack of fluid, that can cause a brake failure. When we talk about complex aircraft, hydraulic failures could involve landing gear not moving up and down when needed. It is vital to check on preflight for any leak on the fuselage or also dripping from the hydraulic actuator. The potential impacts can be catastrophic. It could go from skidding off the runway after no positive ...