At times it may seem more efficient to overload or badly load a vehicle. However, the effect of reduced safety for those in and around such vehicles can be fatal. Luck is often the only thing saving lives on our roads. We must all gain and apply appropriate experience with knowledge before our luck runs out and costs another life. Think twice before you allow your vehicle to put others lives at risk. Photo courtesy of Patricia Mawuli. Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Photo of the week August 28th, 2013
At times it may seem more efficient to overload or badly load a vehicle. However, the effect of reduced safety for those in and around such vehicles can be fatal. Luck is often the only thing saving lives on our roads. We must all gain and apply appropriate experience with knowledge before our luck runs out and costs another life. Think twice before you allow your vehicle to put others lives at risk. Photo courtesy of Patricia Mawuli. 
Monday, August 26, 2013
August 26th, 2013
Fresh Air Matters... with Capt. Yaw
It is very interesting to note how many people use the terms ‘digital’ and ‘analogue’ without knowing what they really mean. Let us look a little closer.
Analogue : Relating to continuously variable, measurable, physical quantities, such as length, width, voltage, etc. Such information is generally represented on a dial, with a needle moving over a scale. The needle moves continuously, in relation to the input – providing an analogous response to the ‘input’. The needle does not give you the value; you have to read it off of the scale – and can make mistakes depending on the angle of read and position the instrument. In transmission terms a continuously variable waveform is transmitted and received. Minor defects in the transmission create minor distortions to the reception, but the signal may often still be useable at the other end. For example, in analogue TV transmissions the image may be a little fuzzy, but still watchable.
Digital : Relating to or using signals or information represented by discrete values (digits). Decimal digital representation uses the digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. Binary digital uses the digits 0 and 1 only. Therefore a display that is in NUMBERS is digital – there is no confusion – you read the exact number given. A light that comes on or goes off to indicate a value is also technically digital (0 for off and 1 for on) – and not subject to ‘discernment’ in reading the value. A transmission that is made up of ‘on and off’ or ‘0 and 1’ signals is binary digital. Any distortion to the signal will result in corrupted transmissions, and unusable results at the reception end. For example, in digital (satellite) TV, any disruption to the signal results in loss of parts of the picture or total loss of the image.
However, day-to-day these terms get used with gusto and fervour that leaves one wondering if they have become marketing terms rather than technical terms!
Digital is more efficient than analogue – that much is for sure. But there are some places where analogue still has advantages!
Many car manufactures have tried putting digital speed indication in their production, only to return to the dials – although such a dial may now be computer generated using digital data – in response to customer feedback.
In the cockpit of an aircraft we enjoy a mixture of digital and analogue readouts. The traditional cockpit was principally analogue, meaning that there were lots of dials! Pilots like to refer to these dials as ‘steam gauges’. If you can imagine the early steam engines, they would have big dials indicating the temperature of the water and pressure of the steam in their boilers. Such dials have been the bread and butter of movie makers ‘tension building moments’ since the days of Laurel and Hardy!
The average ‘single piston engine cockpit’ enjoys a number of neat little gauges providing information in three basic categories:
1.Engine instruments – these include hour meter (to record the number of hours the engine has run), tachometer (providing revs per minute or rpm), cylinder head temperature (CHT), oil temperature, oil pressure and for some exhaust gas temperature (EGT).
2. Flight instruments – air speed indicator (ASI), vertical speed indicator (VSI), altimeter (tells you how high you are), slip indicator (basically a glorified spirit level!)
3. Navigation instruments – compass (tells you whether you are heading North, South, East, West, etc.), VHF Omnidirectional Radio (VOR), Distance Measuring Equipment (DME), transceiver (two way radio with frequency selection) and now the Global Position System unit or GPS.
Perhaps the first of all of these instruments to go ‘digital’ was the radio. Trying to tune using a needle along a scale was quickly found to be ‘inefficient’ in the busy cockpit environment. That would have been quickly followed by the hour meter (often simply called the Hobbs after a manufacturer of the same) – in fact, although I know of combination analogue/digital hour meters, I cannot recall ever seeing a purely analogue one other than a clock!).
Analogue flight instruments are generally non-powered and rely on air pressure (static and dynamic) or gravitational forces. Modern cockpits are now using electronics to take those forces and represent them digitally on screens – part of the Glass Cockpit revolution. Personally, I still like the ‘non-powered’ ones – since they are incredibly reliable – even in the event of an electrical failure!
Each of the engine instruments has its own power supply, generally 12 or 24v, and a sensor wire. Occasionally you will still find a mechanical tachometer – but rarely. All of these instruments take a time to scan in flight. Imagine that you want to scan 4 CHT, 4 EGT, oil pressure and temperature, etc. It is a lot of gauges. It is therefore only natural that the engine instruments have gone digital early on. A good Engine Management Unit (EMU) can save instrument panel space and provide a rapid and efficient reading of engine data – and can record it! Ease of recording and analysing data from a flight is the biggest plus of going digital in aviation! What I like most is the way the numbers on the screen change from green to yellow and (hopefully never) to red. It reduces the pilot workload, and such an EMU can also flash warnings to alert a pilot who is busy, with navigation or radio work, to a developing issue. Digital engine instrumentation, in my opinion, offers the biggest advantages of ‘going digital’.
Navigation instruments have pretty much always been a mixture of digital and analogue outputs. For example, the traditional VOR has a digital input for VOR frequency and an analogue output for tracking on a dial. Modern VOR replaces the dial with little markers that flash to the left or right (digital markers), but the concepts are the same. GPS has pretty digital numbers for latitude and longitude – but the analogue representation of what that means, on a moving map display, provides a thousand times more meaning when you are zooming over the countryside!
Digital is about being precise, accurate and unambiguous. It can reduce workload and simplify transmissions, but I still like my analogue dials, they are more friendly, and, for me personally, have more personality than the flashing lights and numbers of a small TV screen. Where they save me workload, I am all for it, but when they detract from my pleasure of interaction, I will choose to stay with my analogue ASI, VSI and Altimeter!
The aim of going digital has always been to reduce ambiguity and increase accuracy. I am sure that we all can think of areas where we need to consider more digital solutions!
Capt. Yaw is Chief Flying Instructor and Chief Engineer at WAASPS, and lead Pilot with Medicine on the Move, Humanitarian Aviation Logistics (www.waasps.com www.medicineonthemove.org e-mail capt.yaw@gmail.com )
It is very interesting to note how many people use the terms ‘digital’ and ‘analogue’ without knowing what they really mean. Let us look a little closer.
Analogue : Relating to continuously variable, measurable, physical quantities, such as length, width, voltage, etc. Such information is generally represented on a dial, with a needle moving over a scale. The needle moves continuously, in relation to the input – providing an analogous response to the ‘input’. The needle does not give you the value; you have to read it off of the scale – and can make mistakes depending on the angle of read and position the instrument. In transmission terms a continuously variable waveform is transmitted and received. Minor defects in the transmission create minor distortions to the reception, but the signal may often still be useable at the other end. For example, in analogue TV transmissions the image may be a little fuzzy, but still watchable.
Digital : Relating to or using signals or information represented by discrete values (digits). Decimal digital representation uses the digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. Binary digital uses the digits 0 and 1 only. Therefore a display that is in NUMBERS is digital – there is no confusion – you read the exact number given. A light that comes on or goes off to indicate a value is also technically digital (0 for off and 1 for on) – and not subject to ‘discernment’ in reading the value. A transmission that is made up of ‘on and off’ or ‘0 and 1’ signals is binary digital. Any distortion to the signal will result in corrupted transmissions, and unusable results at the reception end. For example, in digital (satellite) TV, any disruption to the signal results in loss of parts of the picture or total loss of the image.
However, day-to-day these terms get used with gusto and fervour that leaves one wondering if they have become marketing terms rather than technical terms!
Digital is more efficient than analogue – that much is for sure. But there are some places where analogue still has advantages!
Many car manufactures have tried putting digital speed indication in their production, only to return to the dials – although such a dial may now be computer generated using digital data – in response to customer feedback.
In the cockpit of an aircraft we enjoy a mixture of digital and analogue readouts. The traditional cockpit was principally analogue, meaning that there were lots of dials! Pilots like to refer to these dials as ‘steam gauges’. If you can imagine the early steam engines, they would have big dials indicating the temperature of the water and pressure of the steam in their boilers. Such dials have been the bread and butter of movie makers ‘tension building moments’ since the days of Laurel and Hardy!
The average ‘single piston engine cockpit’ enjoys a number of neat little gauges providing information in three basic categories:
1.Engine instruments – these include hour meter (to record the number of hours the engine has run), tachometer (providing revs per minute or rpm), cylinder head temperature (CHT), oil temperature, oil pressure and for some exhaust gas temperature (EGT).
2. Flight instruments – air speed indicator (ASI), vertical speed indicator (VSI), altimeter (tells you how high you are), slip indicator (basically a glorified spirit level!)
3. Navigation instruments – compass (tells you whether you are heading North, South, East, West, etc.), VHF Omnidirectional Radio (VOR), Distance Measuring Equipment (DME), transceiver (two way radio with frequency selection) and now the Global Position System unit or GPS.
Perhaps the first of all of these instruments to go ‘digital’ was the radio. Trying to tune using a needle along a scale was quickly found to be ‘inefficient’ in the busy cockpit environment. That would have been quickly followed by the hour meter (often simply called the Hobbs after a manufacturer of the same) – in fact, although I know of combination analogue/digital hour meters, I cannot recall ever seeing a purely analogue one other than a clock!).
Analogue flight instruments are generally non-powered and rely on air pressure (static and dynamic) or gravitational forces. Modern cockpits are now using electronics to take those forces and represent them digitally on screens – part of the Glass Cockpit revolution. Personally, I still like the ‘non-powered’ ones – since they are incredibly reliable – even in the event of an electrical failure!
Each of the engine instruments has its own power supply, generally 12 or 24v, and a sensor wire. Occasionally you will still find a mechanical tachometer – but rarely. All of these instruments take a time to scan in flight. Imagine that you want to scan 4 CHT, 4 EGT, oil pressure and temperature, etc. It is a lot of gauges. It is therefore only natural that the engine instruments have gone digital early on. A good Engine Management Unit (EMU) can save instrument panel space and provide a rapid and efficient reading of engine data – and can record it! Ease of recording and analysing data from a flight is the biggest plus of going digital in aviation! What I like most is the way the numbers on the screen change from green to yellow and (hopefully never) to red. It reduces the pilot workload, and such an EMU can also flash warnings to alert a pilot who is busy, with navigation or radio work, to a developing issue. Digital engine instrumentation, in my opinion, offers the biggest advantages of ‘going digital’.
Navigation instruments have pretty much always been a mixture of digital and analogue outputs. For example, the traditional VOR has a digital input for VOR frequency and an analogue output for tracking on a dial. Modern VOR replaces the dial with little markers that flash to the left or right (digital markers), but the concepts are the same. GPS has pretty digital numbers for latitude and longitude – but the analogue representation of what that means, on a moving map display, provides a thousand times more meaning when you are zooming over the countryside!
Digital is about being precise, accurate and unambiguous. It can reduce workload and simplify transmissions, but I still like my analogue dials, they are more friendly, and, for me personally, have more personality than the flashing lights and numbers of a small TV screen. Where they save me workload, I am all for it, but when they detract from my pleasure of interaction, I will choose to stay with my analogue ASI, VSI and Altimeter!
The aim of going digital has always been to reduce ambiguity and increase accuracy. I am sure that we all can think of areas where we need to consider more digital solutions!
Capt. Yaw is Chief Flying Instructor and Chief Engineer at WAASPS, and lead Pilot with Medicine on the Move, Humanitarian Aviation Logistics (www.waasps.com www.medicineonthemove.org e-mail capt.yaw@gmail.com )
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Photo of the week August 21st, 2013
Safety is important to the survival of us all. This week, during a safety training programme at Kpong Airfield, a demonstration was given of what happens when a person is hit at 60kph. A watermelon acted the part of a person wandering onto a runway, whilst the Medicine on the Move truck simulated an aircraft with wooden 'wings' strapped across it. The sight of the melon disintegrating on impact changed the spectators approach to road and airfield safety. We hope that this image will remind us all how dangerous roads and airfields can be if you do not follow the rules and respect the dangers. Photo courtesy of Medicine on the Move and WAASPS. Www.medicineonthemove.org and www.waasps.com
Monday, August 19, 2013
August 19th, 2013
Fresh Air Matters... with Capt. Yaw
I continue to be amazed at the lack of basic understanding of mathematics, and its principles, in young people leaving educational establishments – regardless of which country or system.
As a pilot/engineer, I am constantly using numbers - large numbers and small numbers. Knowing how to express a number is essential in passing on understanding.
In aviation there are ‘rules’ for how we say numbers, even down to the pronunciation of each number! The aviator pronounces each number with a specific emphasis, in order to avoid confusion: 1 – one, 2 – two, 3 – tree, 4 - fo-wer, 5 – fife, 6 – six, 7 – seven, 8 – eight (although it may sound more like aaayte), 9 – niner , 0 –zero, 1,000 – tousand. These subtle pronunciation methods provide clearer radio transmissions. Such precision and detail is part and parcel of safety. Getting the number wrong, or misunderstanding what was meant, can lead to an accident or mistake, and we don’t like those!
Interestingly, aviation has other rules on numbers. We like to speak each number out. For example ‘change frequency to one – tree – zero – decimal – niner’ means select 130.900 Mhz on the radio. Runway numbers are given as digits (‘runway one niner’ for runway 19). Altitudes (below 10,000 feet) are spoken differently. For example 3,400 feet is said ‘tree tousand fo-wer hundred feet’. Once we get above ten thousand feet it should be said with digits, but many pilots will compile both together, for example 14,000feet may be said as ‘one, fo-wer – fourteen tousand feet’, making sure that everybody understood.
Perhaps a simple way to put this together is to read an ATIS (Automated Traffic Information Service) broadcast, this example being from Schiphol in the Netherlands, the words said on the radio broadcast are on the left, and what they mean on the right:
What is really important is that everybody understands the numbers being said, and we go to great lengths to get it right! Yes, we work hard to make sure that there are no misunderstandings – and we do not use ‘oh’ to mean zero either!
I do not expect ‘Joe Public’ nor ‘Kwame Public’ or even ‘Abena Public’ to be so precise as we expect in aviation, but I do not like confusion.
I asked some school leavers to read out this number: 1,356,105.125, for which the correct answer should be ‘one million, three hundred and fifty six thousand, one hundred and five, decimal (or point) one hundred and twenty five thousandths’, although it may be easier to read ‘…. decimal one two five’. The answers I got were bizzare! Some started with ‘one billion’. Others had a ‘one oh five’ embedded in their answer (oh (O) is a letter, not a number). Some ended with ‘decimal one hundred and twenty five’. Out of the ten youngsters I asked, not a single one was able to express the number in a way that avoided confusion.
In an attempt to clarify the situation, I asked them all to explain ‘place value’ to me. The question was lost. It seems that the UNDERSTANDING of the value of a number by its PLACE to the left or right of a decimal point is not being taught – or if it is, not being understood.
Those who went through the ‘old school’ system would have learned about ‘hundreds – tens and units’. Those who learned the ‘base’ system would understand the use of indices, where number positions are valued according to the power of the base, relative to the position in relation to the decimal place,for example 103, 102, 101, 100 . 10-1, 10-2, 10-3 meaning 1000, 100, 10, 1, 1/10, 1/100, 1/1000
Not knowing that the third position after the decimal point means ‘one thousandth’ is a problem. I teach youngsters how to program robotic production tools – and we work to 0.001mm. That is one thousandth of a millimeter – also called a micron. It is not just necessary to get the big numbers right, but the small ones too, and yet it seems that schools are not managing in getting the BASICS understood – and retianed.
There is no point in trying to teach calculus or simultaneous equations to students unless we first get the basics of our number system into their heads. Frankly, I would rather see FEWER mathematics topics taught in schools, but that they be taught better and that students left school with better understanding – an able to apply maths in their everyday lives.
I still seem to struggle to find students who can calculate 10% in their heads or multiply two single digit numbers together, without using a piece of paper – or more atrociously, using a calculator.
Parents, you are to blame too. You need to drill your offspring in simple math’s – tables, addition,10% and reading out numbers so that others can understand. The lack of mathematics across the board is a barrier to sustainable development. As an employer, I spend way too much of my time ‘fixing’ the heads of those who have graduated from education without the ability to carry out the necessary daily tasks that make industry function.
Capt. Yaw is Chief Flying Instructor and Chief Engineer at WAASPS, and lead Pilot with Medicine on the Move, Humanitarian Aviation Logistics (www.waasps.com www.medicineonthemove.org e-mail capt.yaw@gmail.com )
I continue to be amazed at the lack of basic understanding of mathematics, and its principles, in young people leaving educational establishments – regardless of which country or system.
As a pilot/engineer, I am constantly using numbers - large numbers and small numbers. Knowing how to express a number is essential in passing on understanding.
In aviation there are ‘rules’ for how we say numbers, even down to the pronunciation of each number! The aviator pronounces each number with a specific emphasis, in order to avoid confusion: 1 – one, 2 – two, 3 – tree, 4 - fo-wer, 5 – fife, 6 – six, 7 – seven, 8 – eight (although it may sound more like aaayte), 9 – niner , 0 –zero, 1,000 – tousand. These subtle pronunciation methods provide clearer radio transmissions. Such precision and detail is part and parcel of safety. Getting the number wrong, or misunderstanding what was meant, can lead to an accident or mistake, and we don’t like those!
Interestingly, aviation has other rules on numbers. We like to speak each number out. For example ‘change frequency to one – tree – zero – decimal – niner’ means select 130.900 Mhz on the radio. Runway numbers are given as digits (‘runway one niner’ for runway 19). Altitudes (below 10,000 feet) are spoken differently. For example 3,400 feet is said ‘tree tousand fo-wer hundred feet’. Once we get above ten thousand feet it should be said with digits, but many pilots will compile both together, for example 14,000feet may be said as ‘one, fo-wer – fourteen tousand feet’, making sure that everybody understood.
Perhaps a simple way to put this together is to read an ATIS (Automated Traffic Information Service) broadcast, this example being from Schiphol in the Netherlands, the words said on the radio broadcast are on the left, and what they mean on the right:
| This is Schiphol arrival information Kilo | Identification that you are listening to the Schiphol airport arrival broadcast. Kilo meaning that it is the 11th broadcast of the day (K being the 11th letter of the alphabet) |
| Main landing runway one eight Right | The runway with 18R painted at the threshold should be used. There are two runways parallel to each other running from 180degrees magnetic (hence the 18), the R means the one on the right! |
| Transition level fife zero | When you descend below five thousand feet change your altimeter setting from 1013.25 to the QNH setting we will give you later. |
| Two zero zero degrees, one one knots | Wind direction 200 degrees (from the south west direction) at 11kts. |
| Visibility one zero kilometers | Clear visibility for at least ten kilometres |
| Few one thousand tree hundred feet | There are a few clouds at 1,300feet |
| Temperature one fife, dewpoint one tree | Temperature in the shade on the ground is 15C, and water would condense (precipitation begin) at 13C. |
| QNH niner niner fife hectopascal | The altimeter setting once you get below five thousand feet is 995mb or hectopascals (the same units with different names – hectopascals being the more correct modern term). This makes the altimeter give height above sea level (based on the pressure at the time of the recording) |
| End of information Kilo | End of the thirteenth transmission recording of the day. |
What is really important is that everybody understands the numbers being said, and we go to great lengths to get it right! Yes, we work hard to make sure that there are no misunderstandings – and we do not use ‘oh’ to mean zero either!
I do not expect ‘Joe Public’ nor ‘Kwame Public’ or even ‘Abena Public’ to be so precise as we expect in aviation, but I do not like confusion.
I asked some school leavers to read out this number: 1,356,105.125, for which the correct answer should be ‘one million, three hundred and fifty six thousand, one hundred and five, decimal (or point) one hundred and twenty five thousandths’, although it may be easier to read ‘…. decimal one two five’. The answers I got were bizzare! Some started with ‘one billion’. Others had a ‘one oh five’ embedded in their answer (oh (O) is a letter, not a number). Some ended with ‘decimal one hundred and twenty five’. Out of the ten youngsters I asked, not a single one was able to express the number in a way that avoided confusion.
In an attempt to clarify the situation, I asked them all to explain ‘place value’ to me. The question was lost. It seems that the UNDERSTANDING of the value of a number by its PLACE to the left or right of a decimal point is not being taught – or if it is, not being understood.
Those who went through the ‘old school’ system would have learned about ‘hundreds – tens and units’. Those who learned the ‘base’ system would understand the use of indices, where number positions are valued according to the power of the base, relative to the position in relation to the decimal place,for example 103, 102, 101, 100 . 10-1, 10-2, 10-3 meaning 1000, 100, 10, 1, 1/10, 1/100, 1/1000
Not knowing that the third position after the decimal point means ‘one thousandth’ is a problem. I teach youngsters how to program robotic production tools – and we work to 0.001mm. That is one thousandth of a millimeter – also called a micron. It is not just necessary to get the big numbers right, but the small ones too, and yet it seems that schools are not managing in getting the BASICS understood – and retianed.
There is no point in trying to teach calculus or simultaneous equations to students unless we first get the basics of our number system into their heads. Frankly, I would rather see FEWER mathematics topics taught in schools, but that they be taught better and that students left school with better understanding – an able to apply maths in their everyday lives.
I still seem to struggle to find students who can calculate 10% in their heads or multiply two single digit numbers together, without using a piece of paper – or more atrociously, using a calculator.
Parents, you are to blame too. You need to drill your offspring in simple math’s – tables, addition,10% and reading out numbers so that others can understand. The lack of mathematics across the board is a barrier to sustainable development. As an employer, I spend way too much of my time ‘fixing’ the heads of those who have graduated from education without the ability to carry out the necessary daily tasks that make industry function.
Capt. Yaw is Chief Flying Instructor and Chief Engineer at WAASPS, and lead Pilot with Medicine on the Move, Humanitarian Aviation Logistics (www.waasps.com www.medicineonthemove.org e-mail capt.yaw@gmail.com )
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