A Pilot’s Blog
A blog about aviation, aviation news, and space.

After a certain point in my flight training, almost daily my instructor would pull “engine out” drills and I would have to go through the motions of making an emergency landing. This guy had to do it for real.

A single-engine airplane surprised motorists on I-70 just east of the Greenfield exit Sunday afternoon after the pilot lost power and had to make an emergency landing on the highway, according to the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department.

Thankfully the pilot was able to land safely, and after an roadside inspection, was able to take off again from the highway to return to the airport. There’s something you don’t see everyday.

Update (2/20): Overcast. Bleh.

If you’re under cloudless skies this coming week be sure to take a look outside between 8 and 9 pm (Central Time) on Wednesday, February 20th. There is expected to be a beautiful total lunar eclipse which will be visible over all of the Americas. If you miss this one, you won’t have another chance until 2010.

The eclipse will begin when the moon enters the faint outer portion, or penumbra of the Earth’s shadow. The penumbra, however, is all but invisible to the eye until the moon becomes deeply immersed in it. Sharp-eyed viewers may get their first glimpse of the penumbra as a delicate shading on the left part of the moon’s disk about 20 minutes before the start of the partial eclipse (when the round edge of the central shadow or umbra, first touches the moon’s left edge). During the partial eclipse, the penumbra should be readily visible as a dusky border to the dark umbral shadow.

The moon will enter Earth’s much darker umbral shadow at 1:43 on Feb. 21 by Greenwich or Universal time, which is 8:43 p.m. on Feb. 20 in the Eastern time zone, 7:43 p.m. Central time, 6:43 p.m. Mountain time and 5:43 p.m. Pacific time.

Seventy-eight minutes later the moon is entirely within the shadow, and sails on within it for 51 minutes (about average for a total lunar eclipse), until it begins to find its way out at the lower left (southeastern) edge.

The moon be completely free of the umbra by 9:09 p.m. Pacific time or 12:09 a.m. (Feb. 21) Eastern time.

The vaguer shading of the inner penumbra can continue to be readily detected for perhaps another 20 minutes or so after the end of umbral eclipse. Thus, the whole experience ends toward 12:30 a.m. for the East (with the re-brightened moon now sloping down along the high arc it describes across the sky), or during the mid-evening hours for the West.

I was able to see the partial eclipse that occurred in March, and I hope that the weather will cooperate and I will be fortunate enough to see this one. The universe truly is a wonderful and beautiful thing.

Related: Lunar Eclipse

Last year, I posed on this blog the question of the “Treadmill Problem”. That is, if a runway was turned into a giant treadmill that could exactly match the rotational speed of the wheels of an aircraft trying to takeoff, would the aircraft ever takeoff? Well, earlier this week the infamous MythBusters took on that very problem.

They first performed a small-scale test with a model airplane and a real treadmill. The result? The model airplane took off. They then performed a much larger scale test with a real ultralight aircraft on an actual runway. They used a huge roll of tarp material pulled in the opposite direction of the aircraft by a pickup truck. The result? The airplane took off with little effort. They explained the science behind it. In a car, forward motion is generated by friction between the tires and the road surface, so on a treadmill a car would remain still. However, in an aircraft, the actual forward thrust is provided by the propeller or jet engines, the wheels just allow the aircraft to easily roll. So, no matter how fast the treadmill moves under the wheels, the aircraft easily takes off. It makes sense.

Related: The Treadmill Problem | The Treadmill Problem Revisited

Michael Anderson - David Brown - Kalpana Chawla - Laurel Clark - Rick Husband - William McCool - Ilan Ramon

In the skies today we saw destruction and tragedy. Yet farther than we can see there is comfort and hope. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, “Lift your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all these? He who brings out the starry hosts one by one and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.”

The same Creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn today. The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth; yet we can pray that all are safely home.
- President George W. Bush, February 1, 2003

We will never forget you or your sacrifice.