Sketching some interesting moments from my life

I believe, Blogs are also meant for sharing beautiful moments from our life. So I would like to share some unforgettable moments here which are happened in my campus life at various occasions.

Pawan Bharathi- Man with lot of dreams

    During the second month in my college, an urgent need for a tool room keeper emerged. Thus, our principal introduced a new workshop-in charge- Mr.Pawan Bharathi, a north Indian from Mumbai. He was very tall, some what fair with spectacles. When I met him first, he was in a shabby appearance. Although he was not educated much, he was able to speak English well. For us, pawan Bharathi was a mystery man or rather a laughing stock. He used to carry one small bag always about which he was not ready to reveal anything. These sorts of characters were seen in his jobs also. In between he got a nick name-“pawanayi” (taken from a Malayalam movie). Pawanayi had a Chinese mobile on which channel browsing was possible. Many students utilized that facility for seeing cricket on live during the intervals of workshop practices in college.

     He had a lot of plans and ideas. One of his invention- automatic fuel less generator-one day he explained. We teased him a lot because it was just similar to the starter generator that used in aircraft. It was nothing but the modification of an old theorem. But now I feel that should have been appreciated or at least encouraged, because some elements of innovative ideas were included in it.

After six months he went to Mumbai. I am the only one person in this campus who heard the painful story of his life. After he has gone, I heard somebody grumbling each other “he was an eccentric”

Learning Foot ball from an outsider

     How many legends of football analysts could predict that Spain would win the FIFA world cup?? Nobody could until Netherlands and Spain conquered the ground after defeating all other teams. You may tell the name of that octopus – poll. It’s not fair.

     But I know one man who correctly predicted that Holland and Spain would come in semi-final and Spain would win the match. His name is sunny- an outsider who comes into our collage ground for playing football frequently. He is a daily labour and well proficient in football. The way he plays the football is a lesson for everyone. He usually comes late and will join in a team that scored less. He taught how we are supposed to control a ball and make extreme shorts non-verbally. Co-ordination is the most important thing in this game. It’s a team work.. As far as I am concerned, people of chalakudy consider foot ball as a passion. In my small village also, there are some foot ball team clubs who do not know how to play foot ball actually (when compare). The reason is that the players start practicing it only when some matches or tournaments called for.

     Some times our respected chief instructor Mr. chacko (>76 old) will also come and play with us. When he comes into the ground, as a simple human-being rather than a man who is owned so many degrees, is an inspiration for us. Interesting thing is that he wouldn’t be a man whom we see in our college when he steps to the ground.

The visitors

*Meeting a black man

     Before joining the college, I had heard so many stories of our foreign alumni students. Most of them were Africans and few were Australians. Even though I had heard all those stories, I was not ready to accept it first. But in the first semester, I got a chance to meet one of our alumni; from Africa (I don’t remember his name now. It was a typical name which we have not come across). He reached in our college in an afternoon with his family. His wife, a fat black lady had a resemblance of “Dakini amoomma” (balarama) in all means. The man whom I mention was very tall with no hairs in head (but not bald). He spoke to us and inquired the developments of aviation industry in India. He was working as an AME in British Airways at that time. He had a good personality. His daughter, a 5 yr old naughty kid, was running around the whole college. I think she liked our place very much. When my friend Jyothish extended a hand for a shake hand, she refused and made him run from that place. Kids are always kids, whether they differ in colours. Later we came to know that this man used to play football with our sunny chettan. He had met sunny before going.

     Sunny chettan told some interesting stories regarding these Negroes one day which I shall try to write later. According to him, those guys were fantastic in football. It could be true because it is evident that kerala football team still hires black.

I could understand one thing when I saw this man. We, Indians are very very beautiful. No need of inferiority complex at all. 

     After some time another alumni of our college visited with his wife. He was a panjabi I think, working in USA or SINGAPORE. However, being an Indian he married a foreign lady. He was pleased to see an American business jet aircraft housed in a kerala hanger. He took some photographs for the sake of his old memories.

*Seeing an aircraft first in life

    

     One fine morning, a group of nursery students visited our college. Actually that was their study tour. It was very nice to see, small kids with neat uniforms and ID cards, lining up with left and right. Their innocent eyes were searching those flying machines about which their teachers told. P A Nicker (panicker sir-seniors says P A Nicker) guided them to the hanger. Some students wanted to touch those aircraft. Those who could touch the aircraft pretended as if thy have done something special than others. For instructors, clarifying a nursery student’s doubt was not an easy task. One thing is sure, they were very happy before leave the place. They gave some chocolates for us before going.

     

   

   

Mangalore Air crash and Instrument Landing System

     As our principal Mr. Gilroy John Luiz is so particular in the personality of each student, all students are required to maintain a reasonable hair-cut and proper shaving always. Thus, having a hair cut twice a month became a habitual action. The next day of Mangalore air crash I went to a saloon to have my hair-cut. It was an evening. In my rural area, people usually join together either in some tea shops or saloons after their working hours. For them, discussing something with others is a good method of relieving fatigue and tension. When the barber began hair cutting, some people gathered there and started slandering others. In between somebody put the topic of air crash in front of them. Everybody’s attention turned into it. He was simply trying to shine in front of them. What ever he told them, was utterly foolishness. Before telling something, he should have read the news paper at least (in fact, he is a political leader)-I thought in my mind.

     During this time, some people had approached me with genuine doubts. They wanted to know about ILS (instrument landing system) mainly. As a student of aeronautics, I have the responsibility to answer their question. But, unfortunately, as I am not an avionics student, I couldn’t answer and make them understand completely. Here I am trying to explain about ILS which is said to be the main cause of that air crash.

     In our child hood, we used to play a game on which after a particular round we are supposed to play only in accordance with the guidance of other friends. Mishel obama once played the same game with children of Mumbai, when she visited India. In short, this is the main theory behind the instrument landing system. Landing of an aircraft, using instruments under zero visibility conditions. I shall explain it here without going into deep and using much technical words.

     During heavy fog condition or the pilot can’t see anything (what we call zero visibility), each aircraft has to be landed safely as directed by the instruments. This system enables the ATC to make the aircraft land in a particular runway at a particular time automatically. ILS includes two parts. Marker systems-outer marker (blue indication) which is at a distance of 3.9NM approx. from the Runway threshold, middle marker (yellow light) at a distance of 3500ft approx. and an inner marker (white light) at a distance of 1000ft. The second part is localizer antennas (that you can see in the above picture with yellow colour) and a Glide scope antenna. Suppose the aircraft is approaching an airport at night. When the aircraft passes the outer marker which is at a distance of 3.9 NM from the touch down point (runway threshold), the pilot gets a blue indication with a series of dashes in his cockpit. So the pilot can understand that his aircraft has reached so and so distance from the threshold. When the aircraft further moves and crosses the middle marker, pilot gets a yellow indication with a series of dots and dashes in the cockpit. Finally the aircraft reaches the inner marker which is near to the touch down point (approx.1000ft). What will happen? Pilot gets a series of dots and a white indication which tells the pilot that the aircraft is about to land. Next problem is-the aircraft has to maintain a correct angle before landing. Glide scope antennas takes this responsibility and provide the correct angle to the aircraft (while landing, nose will be up first. Hope you have seen it in films at least). The purpose of the localizer antenna is to give a direction to the pilot or rather aids the pilot to maintain a correct center line. Wind sac will be provided in the runway ends to indicate the direction of the wind. Aircraft  normally take off and land against the direction of the cross wind.
If something is not working, then the pilot will advance the throttle to initiate a missed approach and “go around” to land the aircraft in some other places.

About Mangalore crash

     The reason which is considered as the root cause of this tragedy is-hitting the aircraft in the glide scope antenna. The stability and control of the aircraft lost after that serious hitting and it fell in to the swire from the table-top runway. Actually that was a missed approach. The pilots were about to increase the engine power and fly from the runway threshold. I think they couldn’t land the aircraft in correct center line. Otherwise the possibility of hitting the wing with glide scope antenna would never occur. Nowadays we are using sophisticated radio communication equipments. Still a single human error will have to give a huge cost.

I am not an avionic student. What I have explained here may have some mistakes because we don’t have to study this portion. I gained only limited knowledge regarding avionics equipments which is from my electronic instructor commander Rajan Pillai sir.

Any mistakes can be pointed out
Any suggestion can be raised up

Thanks for your e-mails and valuable suggestions so far. I am a very glad to know that you people really liked my BLOG.

Sreeraj pathari
About2takeoff@gmail.com
sreerajpathari@gmail.com

Need for communication in aviation industry

I used to think why it says that effective communication between two engineers is mandatory as far as the aviation operations are concerned. Not only communication between engineers but also communication between pilots - AME, pilots-ATC, Team leader –group members…etc also must be considered when we talk about communication.
Here I am adding one interesting story which I have come across during a sleepless period in my college. It reveals the importance of communication in aviation industry.

Because of the high cost of aviation gasoline, a private pilot once wrote to his aviation administration and asked if he could mix kerosene in his aircraft fuel. He received the following reply:

“Utilization of kerosene involves major uncertainties/probabilities respecting shaft output and metal longevity where application pertains to aeronautical internal combustion power plants.”

The pilot sent the following cable:

“Thanks for the information. Will start using kerosene next week.”

He then received the following urgent letter:

“Regrettably decision involves uncertainties. Kerosene utilization consequences questionable, with respect to metalloferrous components and power production.”

This prompted another cable from the pilot:

“Thanks again. It will sure cut my fuel bill.”

The same day he finally received a clear message:

“DON’T USE KEROSENE.IT COULD KILL THE ENGINE-AND YOU TOO!”

(All AME students might have heard this. DOC9683)


In Penguin Dictionary of Psychology, communication is defined as: -

“The transmission of something from one location to another. The ‘thing’
that is transmitted may be a message, a signal, a meaning, etc. In order
to have communication both the transmitter and the receiver must share
a common code, so that the meaning or information contained in the
message may be interpreted without error”.

In my view, we (AME) are the doctors of aircraft, if we consider the aircraft as a human body which is being controlled by a soul (PILOTS). Because we heal and maintain this body as and when it is required. So it is clear that for the successful operation of an aircraft, pilot has to disclose everything to the respective AME including suspected incidents/sounds/defects. No aircrafts shall be released unless it is properly certified and intimated the same to the pilot-in-command (PIC) by an AME. Sometimes aircrafts are allowed to fly with some instruments inoperative condition (MEL), provided the same must be intimated to the pilots and properly marked in the cockpit. If the engineer fails to communicate these things to the PIC, then………….forget about that aircraft and lives involved in it.

After each and every flight pilot has to give a pilot defect report (PDR) to the AME. AME will rectify the snags accordingly. Actually, Pilots are expected to give a verbal conversation along with PDR for the effective snag rectification. Unfortunately, pilots are so reluctant to do so. I shall give a small interpretation here.
For example: You have been riding bicycle from your childhood onwards. One day one says that right brake is not working properly, so it is not advisable to use this cycle now. Will you agree his words? If I were in this place, I would have reached my destination by this time, ignoring his words. It’s a normal tendency. We are conditioned to act and neglect things in such situations. It might be because of over-confidence, pride of place, and sometimes characters.
But in aviation industry, these behaviours will no longer be accepted. We need to provide high safety to each person and to the society. A single human error can lead into a big disaster. I still remember one article from King Air Magazine named- “Advice to Pilots, Disclose everything to your AME” in which- a doctor examine a patient- picture was included in the cover.
Take the case of pilot-ATC communication. In different places, different kind of English is being used. Pronunciation always becomes a problem. Air traffic controllers (ATC) find difficulties to follow different regions pilot’s pronunciation. Indian registered aircraft’s nationality mark is VT. But during communication, pilots use only Victor Tunga (VT), why because VT can be pronounced in different ways. Using Victor Tunga avoids the barrier of pronunciation to an extent. National Geographic channel telecasted an air crash one day which happened due to the Russian-Indian pronunciation problems (“air crash investigation” 9.00pm).
During a shift hand over in Hangers, engineers are always requested to exchange the work logs with a detailed verbal communication. But most of the efforts can go in vain due to the hastiness of the engineers. In fact, these things are not followed properly.
Some times, to avoid the time lag, aircraft fuelling commence with passengers on board. In such occasions, a two way communication system between ground staff and representative of Airline Company must be maintained so that in case of fuel spillage or any accidents, necessary actions such as evacuation process, can be taken with immediate effect. Lack communication in these operations will increase the problems.

To avoid communication problems, International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) have developed a special communication system which we are using now globally.


Valuable comments are welcome.
Sreeraj Pathari
sreerajpathari@gmail.com

THE VALUE OF TIME

Everybody complains about time very often. No person will be there in this earth who does not complain about time at least once. Here I am sharing a few sentences about the value of time which I happened to read, from an unnoticed corner of a note book, this week. Now I am trying to find out the internal meaning of each word. I also request you to read and think this urgently and afterwards put it in to your real life.


One year: - Ask a student who has failed his exams
One month: - Ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby
One week: - Ask an editor of a weekly magazine
One Day: - Ask a daily wage labour who has ten kids to feed
One hour: - Ask the lovers who are waiting to meet
One minute: - Ask a person who survived an accident
One mille Second: - Ask a person who won silver medal in Olympics.


Hope it will be beneficial for you.

SreerajPathari

For the remembrance of my first DGCA examination………

Wow! How fast things are getting changed!!!
At last, after completing two semesters successfully with 88%, my first license exam date came. Got up early (not as usual) for final preparation and left from hostel at 7 AM. The examination center was at Nedumbassery airport. Candidates from all over India were running here and there because of tension. I have been admitted to enter the Gate due to the unexpected rain. One of the attracting things which I could see over there was an old Lear jet 24 series aircraft & a fighter housed in one corner of the Hanger. I know Mr. Lear well from the beginning of my aviation career because I have experience in assembling Lear jet with Nithin Sharma, Maheender, Niranjan, Kashchit Solanki of Creative aviation (USA) & our Sajeshettan. I used to ask my doubts to these people on those days. Those days are unforgettable.

I was standing in front of the examination hall. I heard a voice from behind. A beautiful girl with nice smile asked me something in Hindi (might have confused that I am a north Indian?).
I told her “sorry, I don’t know Hindi much. If you want to communicate anything, you have to speak either in English or in Malayalam”. She realized my situation and asked in English. Northern pronunciation are little bit tough to follow but could understand easily. She wanted me to direct her into the examination Hall. I helped her to find out the correct class room and then I went to mine. Even though the classrooms were air-conditioned, they didn’t allow switching on a/c.

The invigilator was a rough person who was continuously making some kind of headache to all. He didn’t let anybody write the name of examination as Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR). He wanted everybody to write it as airworthiness requirement. What can we do but agree. Somehow we filled all required columns and started answering. First question was about motivation from human factors. Second one was the form no. for Authorized release certificate. Afterwards the attitude of the questions began changing. I became half paralyzed. In between questions from CAR were asked so that I could release my tension to an extent. Even though the name of the exam was CAR, they didn’t ask any question from it, in fact. Most of the questions were from CAR 21, CAR 145, CAR M and Human factors which are less likely to come normally. As it is, CAR M & CAR 21 are new issued portions, we never expected this much questions from it. What we were told is that we need not give much importance to new issued/amended portions, considering the possibility that the question papers would have prepared already.

After 2hrs, I had a doubt. What happened to other guys???-seems to be attending a funeral rite. I wondered because I am the only person sleeplessly reading the question paper. Others had already fallen asleep (“be in the land of nod”, ha! ha!). I was also suffering from sleepiness. I handover my answer sheet along with question paper to Mr.OK (because he was habituated with saying OK at the end of all sentences in an interesting manner).
Self-analyzing
What would you do normally (occasionally for bright students), once you couldn’t write your examination well. You would be trying to find out reasons to substantiate your failure, right. Let me also
Try to find out what went wrong here. It is well known that once you are supposed to study law aspects of civil aviation, constantly changing amendments must also be considered. Sometimes new portions will be added with existing one which our seniors might not have studied. Here, CAR 21 & CAR M are new for us. As far as I am concerned, for paper I examination, both fortune and memorizing power play the important roles. As it is not a technical subject, it will not influence your career much. Just passing paper I for the name sake is more than enough. However, the requirement of passing can not be replaced for our career. It is just like passing learner’s license before driving license (pilots also need to get passed Students pilot license (SPL) before PPL & CPL which is awarded by DGCA). No other branches of engineering demand 70% marks for passing. That means we are supposed to be proficient in our respective aero design or aero engines or systems. AMEs are entrusted with working in high security areas. Once we didn’t come up to the level of expectation, so much of lives will be lost – I remembered our CI’s words. He had mentioned: - no matter how long you would take to clear papers, but if you could pass the paper means you are qualified internationally. A typical bachelor degree will not get noticed globally. But an AME license is an internationally accepted one. Due to its toughness only, DGCA examinations are being conducted trice in year with a min.gap of 4 months for pilots and AMEs.

I saw a Boeing 737-700 heading towards the horizon sooner I left from my examination hall. I feel it indicates something……….

I don’t know whether I will be passing or not. I can remember 50% of the question which I have written. Reaching 70% seems not easy. I am leaving to the GOD. Let god decides whether I deserve it or not. Next examination is scheduled at February.

Hope you will pray for me…………………..

SreerajPathari
sreerajpathari@gmail.com

Re-defining Popular Explanation

That was an afternoon period in my college. I was explaining How an Aircraft wing generates lift to one of my friend who was absent last day. While explaining Bernoulli’s theorem, I had mentioned few limitations which I happened to read in the associated content and other aeronautical websites. Somebody told the instructor, Mr.Eldho sir about my doubts, and I had been compelled to explain my views in the class (afterwards I got a nick name- Bernoulli). Let me share my views here.
“If Daniel Bernoulli and Sir Isaac Newton were alive today, they would have been truly amazed to see an Airbus A380 rise off the runway and climb six miles into the sky.” –I read this sentence in an article of an aircraft mechanic-Dave Jackson which made me think why he said so? Afterwards I tried to understand the Bernoulli’s principle deeper. It is normally considered as popular explanation.Bernoulli published his findings in"Hydrodynamica" in 1738. This theorem simply states that When the speed of a fluid increases the pressure decreases. Normally an aircraft wing is said to have an aerofoil shape which is convex on the top and flat below (camber). When the aircraft moves, the airflow will be divided to flow over and under the aerofoil (wing) which will create a pressure difference and thus a lift force. Most important thing is - Bernoulli’s principle itself says that the air traveling above the upper camber and below the lower camber will meet the trailing edge at the same time. It is too simple to understand. As it is having an equation based on conservation of energy, everybody took it blindly.
According to law of conservation of energy

Potential Energy + Kinetic Energy = Constant
PE + ½ mV¬2 = K
As we are considering only fluid or gas, static pressure is used to represent potential energy. The kinetic energy is a function of air motion and its density. Thus the Bernoulli’s equation became "Static Pressure plus Dynamic Pressure is a Constant".
Ps + ½ pV2 = K
In text books and colleges, many instructors used to teach this theorem pointing the venturi tube.
Ludwig Prandtl described how a fluid conforms to the shape of a container (known as the coanda effect). Wing can be considered as this container here. If the fluid takes the shape of this container, it has laminar flow. This flow is very essential to generate lift. “If this flow is replaced with its opposite, turbulence, the wing has stalled. In other words, the coanda effect has stopped working. The air is no longer adhering to and following the shape of the wing.”*.
Thus I came to know that something is missing in somewhere and you can not understand the theory completely unless you have completed a PG in mathematics and physics.
So far we discussed about the theorem. Now we shall take a look of its limitations. Unfortunately, the mathematics involved in calculating lift and circulations are truly horrific. Engineers need to be qualified enough to learn things completely. That might be the reason; pilots and engineers are being taught this principle for the simplification. “This practice began shortly before world war two broke out. The urgent demand for pilots and maintenance crews justified a great deal of over simplification.”
The main thing is that Bernoulli’s theorem is not applicable in the case of an inverted flight time. More over today there are some wings which are symmetrical in nature. Some aircrafts are having cambered lower surfaces also. Wind tunnel tests clearly shows that the up going air stream does not meet down going air stream at same time in the trailing edge. In fact it is lagging there. That means it does not obey the “principle of equal transit times”. This happens why because these two air particles have no "knowledge" of each other's presence at all, and there is no logical reason why these particles should end up at the rear of the wing at the same moment in time.

According to Nici Hinkel**, Bernoulli's equation is only applicable if the following four restrictions are true.

1. Flow is steady
2. Density is constant
3. Friction losses are negligible
4. The equation relates the states at two points along a single streamline, (not conditions on two different streamlines).

Once you go through the fluid mechanics of air, you can come to know that the above mentioned properties are not true in the case of different layers of air through which the aircrafts are normally operated.

However, one thing is sure that the aircraft wings generate lift due to the pressure difference. But nobody explains how this pressure difference occurs. Newton’s III rd Law of motion also plays an important role to explain lift. According to this law aircraft wing pushes the upcoming airflow down which results in a reaction force upward, thus lift. This can be truer than popular explanation. “A pilot can actually use the fuselage instead of the wing to create lift by flying sideways, with an appropriate angle of attack.”



After explaining this in the class, those who didn’t understand anything teased me a lot. They interpreted me as a fool who always try to criticize the conventional theorems. In my opinion, Bernoulli’s theorem must be defined as the total energy of an incompressible non-viscous liquid flowing from one place to another without friction is a constant. Its applications include venturimeter, Atomizer (used for getting a fine spray of perfume or insecticide), Magnus effect or swing bowling and flow of blood through artery which we study in our lower classes. I never said that Bernoulli’s theorem is wrong, but in this application (lift), it is creating a lot of doubts-that’s all. It is only a foundation, future theorems are built from here- afterwards only.
Valuable comments are most welcome.

Sreerajpathari
sreerajpathari@gmail.com
NB: - This is only a rough copy which I prepared to consolidate the points. Modified article has been published in an American online magazine.



Sources:-
*“How an Aircraft Wing Generates Lift” - Dave Jackson
**Deriving Bernoulli's Equation and How This Effects the Flight of Airplanes-Nici Hinkel
Bernoulli’s principle- From December 1943 Air Trails Magazine
Why aero planes fly: A physical description of lift-David Anderson& Scott Eberhardt
Aircraft Basic science
Aviation maintenance & AMT
Mechanics of flight, AC 65-9A, 15A