Pilot's Post - Structural Integrity From The Furnace

Structural integrity from the furnace

OVER 3000 years ago, the elements of the Lift formula was already recorded. In Job 28: 25 in the Amplified Bible one reads '…He gave to the wind weight or pressure…' According to Job 26: 7 '…He spreads out the northern skies over emptiness and hangs the earth upon or over nothing'. Who'd thought the 'ancients' believed the earth was flat or suspended by giants? In Job 37: 27 - 29 the hydrological cycle is described: 'For He draws up the drops of water, which distil as rain from His vapour; which the skies pour down and drop abundantly upon (the multitudes) of mankind. Not only that, but can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds or the thundering of His pavilion?' In Job 37: 28 we read 'He loads the clouds with moisture…' The formation of convection clouds is described in Job 39: 38 'When (heat has caused) the dust to run into a mass and the clods to cleave fast together?'

Job 30: 22 appears to apply to flying through storms, i.e. 'You lift me up on the wind. You cause me to ride upon it, and you toss me about in the tempest'. Pure aerodynamics! Makes you want to turn the radar to full bright. We read in Job 31: 6 being put to the test is part and parcel of being here, i.e. 'Oh, let me be weighed in a just balance and let Him weigh me, that God may know my integrity'. Sometimes individuals or corporations are guilty of being short sighted and mismanaging. We find an antidote for our resentment in Proverbs 24: 19, i.e. 'Fret not because of evildoers, neither be envious of the wicked'.

Proverbs 25: 4 might apply to those about to go through the furnace of being laid off, as hundreds of aviation employees do just before the Christmas season. Job 25: 4 offers some insight why we sometimes undergo trials and tribulations, i.e. 'Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth (the material for) a vessel for the silver smith to work up'. Right in the Beginning God put mankind to the test of faith and obedience. In Genesis 2: 15 & 16 He forbade Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For faith to last, it needs to be tested. Don't we believe in the structural integrity of our aircraft, because it has been tested to 1.25 times above the certified load limit? In Job 28: 1 &2 we read how silver, copper and steel are melted after being taken from the earth.

I have seen a freight aircraft after it had gone down with a too far aft C.G. It had lost power on one engine. Many of us get away with 'undetected' shortcomings. We thrive on 'luck'. Some pilots fly passenger aircraft like 'mini-freighters'. Poor discipline can result in freight not being properly secured with nets; or trim sheets not being done properly or at all. We can even 'kid' ourselves the weight is within 'single-engine climb weight limits' in twins. But, if the load is too far aft and one engine becomes inoperative, or should we have inadvertent load shift with unsecured baggage, we have a problem. The moment arm between the aft CG and the rudder's side force vector would result in an aft 'force couple' pivoting through the CG and the rudder being way too short. The 'aft couple' of the rudder side force may not be able to balance or overcome the drag vector of the inoperative engine acting over a longer, hence stronger forward moment arm. The insidious effects may be discovered once it's too late. May both our flying and character protocols withstand the 'tests' and 'trials'. Fly safely!

Johan Lottering - Focused Flying
Aviation Safety