Thursday, May 23, 2013



My friend and former co-worker Kitsch posted this on his Facebook wall and I wanted to share, because it made me pee a little bit. Audio not safe for work due to an instance of the F-word.

What you are seeing is a wing oscillation in a Hawker 800.  Apparently it's due to the aftermarket winglets (the pointy tips) causing some kind of unexpected vibration at high altitude.

 
I don't blame the guy for swearing.  The wing oscillation would put a LOT of stress on the wing spars - wings are designed to flex rather than break, but what I see in the video can't be good for the airframe.

http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/ainmxreports/2013-05-15/service-bulletin-issued-hawkers-api-winglets

The article above says that a Service Bulletin has been issued for certain Hawker 800 winglets, restricting the maximum altitude the airplane is allowed to fly at to 34,000' from the previously certified 41,000' until a fix for the problem is implemented

I can only imagine how freaked out the crew was, but clearly this flight had a successful ending so that's good.

Wednesday, May 01, 2013



Good morning, Quebec City!  Here for a few hours.  This is another one where the reported weather was somewhat different from what we actually encountered.  Ceiling was supposed to be 11,000', but the magic FMS managed to find the airport anyways.