Most people are unaware of airline maintenance procedures. One of the most common procedures used by airline maintenance, and pilots involves using a mel . A mel stands for minimum equipment list. This is a list of items on the airplane that have been approved by the FAA to allow the crew to fly with broken. The purpose of this is to allow the airlines temporary relief to defer a broken item to fix for later so it doesn't disrupt airline operations by grounding airplanes all over the place. However,their are some restrictions. The FAA will never allow you to mel something very critical to safety. To give you an example of a mel would be something like a windshield wiper in the cockpit. If one is broken, you can certainly fly the airplane safely without it. Plus, there are two in the cockpit. So one can be broken temporary. The FAA would normally put restrictions on that item being mel. For example, they may say you can't fly with a broken windshield wiper if there is rain in the forecast at your destination, or alternate airport. They may also say that the item must be fixed within three days. Mel's are perfectly legal & safe to use. It also allows airline operations to run more efficiently. Without mel's, it would be chaos in airline operations. Just imagine if a flight was canceled overseas because of broken windshield wiper, or cabin tray table. Obviously, these items are not a major safety item critical to flight,.

(Neat maintenance video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNs9pKoYcXk

A Columbia Airline B-737 flown by Aires Airline crashed Sunday August 14 while the pilot was attempting to land. The airplane broke apart into two pieces. Remarkably,  all the passengers survived except one person who died from a heart attack. Lightning strikes hit airplanes in flight all the time. Most lightning strikes cause little damage. Airplanes are designed to take hits from lightning. They have static wicks on the wing that discharge electricity away from the airplane when it's hit. The last airline crash that was caused by lightning was a Pan Am B-707 in 1962. Pan Am flight 214 was in a holding pattern when lightning hit the fuel tanks & ignited a spark of the fuel vapors that caused the plane to explode. Since that accident aircraft designers have tougher guidelines to make sure lightning is not a threat to aircraft. Today's aircraft have stronger protection of the fuel tanks to prevent any sparks in the tank. For instance, they have separate grounding for the fuel tank, shielding, & surge protection. As an additional precaution the FAA mandated jet fuel  to now have additives that reduce the amount of vapor produced.
In the case of the Columbia jet that crashed yesterday there were reports of lightning strikes on the airport at the time of the accident. Although the facts are not out yet. It appears that lightning was a factor. However, lightning didn't  break that aircraft in half. More then likely a hard landing is a more plausible cause. I suspect that the pilots were 100 feet in the air & lightning blinded them which would explain the appearance of the wreckage. In the coming weeks we will find out more details of the accident.  Below is a video of a airplane hit with lightning that just keeps flying along.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=036hpBvjoQw
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The magazine Smart Travel came out with a list of some of the world's most scariest airports for takeoff's & landings. Some airports are classified as special airports by the FAA because of unique challenges from high mountainous terrain, valley's, & short runways. Some East Coast airports for example, contain frequent fog, low ceilings such as Nantucket's Memorial airport which force pilots to consistently fly IFR approaches.
Another example is Yeager Airport that is built on top of a mountaintop with a short runway that ends at a hillside. Laguardia's main runways are extended over water. Laguardia's runway is also relatively short, but not as short as Chicago's Midway field. Also making Smart Travel's scariest list is Gibraltar Airport, Toncontin Airport in Teguciigalpa, Honduras, Paro Airport in Paro, Bhutan, and Wellington International in Wellington, New Zealand. It would be smart for travelers to educate themselves on their local area airports, or your arrival airport when you travel. Flying in, or out of special airports have more unique challenges for pilots. Passengers can increase their margin of safety further by avoiding special airports.

Yesterday we heard sad news that former Senator Ted Stevens died in a plane crash in Alaska. Ted Stevens was a former senator & former World War II fighter pilot. He also survived a plane crash in the 1970's which claimed his wife. The last three years of his life had some up's & down's. As a former Alaska Senator, he was accused of wrong doing in 2008  which he was acquitted. Ted Stevens is a general American war hero. One other thing I would like to point out is that Alaska has notorious nasty weather. If you ever been to Alaska you would quickly observe that everyone has a small private plane in Alaska in almost every backyard. You almost have to because it's hard to get around. Also, Alaska is also known for it's bad weather. In some cases that's why pilots go there to gain experience with it's notorious bad weather. However, they also have more accidents per capital then any other state when it comes to small airplanes. It was just a coincidence that Ted Stevens was a victim.

Yesterday a United Boeing B-767 made an emergency evacuation after it landed with hot brakes at Chicago's Ohara Airport. After the plane landed & came to a full stop they deployed the emergency slides. There were about 100 people onboard  three of which were injured from the evacuation. Hot brakes after landing occurs more often then you might think. After an abundance of caution flight crews will usually park the aircraft at an isolated area on the airport, or park it at the gate & wait for the airport fire trucks to inspect the brakes. From the cockpit we have an instrument gauge to monitor the temperature of the brakes. Depending on what range or temperature it is will depend if we declare an emergency & evacuate the cabin, or have passengers deplane normally from the gate. Hot brakes can cause loss of braking performance, tire deflation & potentially a fire. Hot brakes is something flight crews take seriously,and are well trained to handle. In most cases the outcome is usually successful & passengers get out safely. What causes these brakes to get hot are many factors such as hot temperature weather, high elevation airports, & excessive wear of brakes at high speeds. In jets pilots shouldn't use brakes until the speed on landing decrease to around 100 knots. If you used brakes at greater speeds there is a chance of brakes heating up. In most cases the brake temperature will cool off on it's own by the time the aircraft taxi to the gate. Below is the actual link video to the United Flight. http://www.wgntv.com/videobeta/16fddf44-e861-4f6f-9dc0-a98a2496d828/News/Cellphone-Video-O-Hare-plane-evacuation

Animals have more reason to have a fear of flying then people. One reason is because they are most likely to die on airliners then people. Federal data show the amount of animals lost or killed during air travel has increased over the decade. More pets died in air travel from 2005 to May 2010 then passengers in that same period. Some of the common problems are airline delays & lack of pet oversight. Pets could easily suffer from heat exhaustion. Pet safety has become such a huge problem that it help one business operator start an airline just for pets called Pet Airways. To learn more visit www.petairways.com  

Severe turbulence caused chaos on a United 767 yesterday. The plane departed from Washington, D.C. enroute to Los Angeles cruising at 34,000 ft when it encountered severe turbulence. The turbulence lasted for several seconds, but 25 of the 265 passengers were injured. Those that were injured didn't have their seat belts on. Some passengers described the turbulence encounter as being in an elevator that just dropped down the elevator shaft hit bottom, and came back up. This is exactly how I remember my encounter with clear air turbulence over ten years ago.The turbulence caused a small crack in the window area, but the aircraft integrity remained intact. To learn more on clear air turbulence I enclosed a video below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Gao3SIT3IY

Acupuncture Served As a Fatigue And Pain Treatment

 

By Rachelle Holmes of  http://www.webmd.com/fibromyalgia/news/20060616/acupuncture-good-for-fibromyalgia Augmentation body/liposuction Chicago Liposuction Center, MetropolitanMDs

 

 Acupuncture is one of the oldest forms of health care and treatments on the planet, but it still serves its purposes even today. Now, while inserting dozens of needles into your body doesn't seem like the most fun way to treat ailments, acupuncture is a tried and true therapeutic practice that has helped people deal with pain for centuries.

 

By inserting needles into various pressure points around the body, physical pain and stress can be relieved and even treated using acupuncture. For most, it's funny to think that sticking needles into the pain areas and pressure points of the body would be the answer, but when it comes to people who suffer from fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, it might just be that.

 

New studies have shown that that  http://www.webmd.com/fibromyalgia/news/20060616/acupuncture-good-for-fibromyalgia acupuncture in certain areas of the body releases adenosine, which is a natural pain killer that is usually released after an injury. This allows people who are suffering from constant pain to gain some much-needed relief.

 

By releasing adenosine, pain signals can be blocked from ever reaching the brain thus helping sufferers deal with their pain problems. This brings up a lot of questions about how much acupuncture has to do with adenosine release and if this is the reason that so many benefit from it. Yet, whatever the reason, studies have shown acupuncture to be great at treating the condition and helping the people who suffer from it.

 

From the fatigue angle, the study also went on to show that adenosine released from acupuncture has a lot to do with the regulation of the sleep cycle. By being able to regulate sleep correctly,  may be able to be properly treated and even fixed.

 

Acupuncture paired with the correct medicine can help both constant pain and fatigue, as new studies have gone on to show. This is good news for sufferers of both ailments, and goes to show that this ancient art of health may still have some new tricks to share.

 

One thing that is certain about pilots is that we all make mistakes regardless of experience level. The only difference is how we learn from that experience to become better pilots. Most good pilots try to learn from others mistakes. The airline management takes this same approach & will usually share mistakes made from other crews. During annual ground school recurrent training our instructor's will usually compile a list of airline operator's that fly the same aircraft & share any mishaps or incidents involving that aircraft, or important safety bulletins. This is one way to keep us current on past mishaps from other airlines. Another way we control, or reduce pilot mistakes is by using a checklist. Usually before we read the actual checklist we will do a flow. The captain & first officer both have their own flows. Basically how the flow works is we get switches in the proper position with the anticipation of following up with the checklist to verify that everything was done correctly. If we are interrupted on the checklist, we will place the checklist somewhere important as a reminder to finish it. Most crews place it between the throttles or power levers. Another critical thing most airlines implemented to reduce human error was to follow the advice of the FAA & make some changes to the checklist. At my airline we finish the checklist at the gate area before both engines are started. This is an important  safety feature because now both pilots can avoid distractions of having to look down to read a checklist. Instead, both pilots are looking out the window for traffic, & checking systems. Aircraft manufactures have contributed to safety & reduce pilot errors too. In recent years, most new aircraft have important items at eye level in the cockpit  to quickly grab the pilot's attention. This makes sense. I know in the past I flown some airplanes were I had to look down causing a distraction just to turn some switch on. Most people with a fear of flying find it hard to understand what is going on behind the scenes in the cockpit, but there is a reason why airplanes are not dropping out of the sky every night. Safety is not an accident. It has to be practiced.

In the aftermath of the famous bird strike incident in New York on Jan 16 2009 that cause a US Airways Jet to lose power in both engines, NY Airport officials have made promises to put down birds in the NY area. This week more then 250 birds mainly geese were rounded up in Prospect park, JFK, & LGA Airports. NY wants to make the surrounding area near the airports a bird free zone. Dealing with birds in a humane way has always been the goal. However, in recent years officials have been executing birds to  reduce their population which has been getting out of control in recent years. Ninety percents of bird strikes cause little damage to aircraft. A smaller number like 8 percent actually cause enough damage for an airplane to return back for landing. There have been four accidents in the last fifty years involving birds strikes. Two of the four accidents had been fatal.