Posted by aviator on 07.01.2006, 04:14 AM:
quote: Originally posted by Phyrra
I'm bet that you'd be one of the first people to buy a glider though, Aviator
What sort of regulations are aircraft subject to? Apart from flying into things, and landing on top of things...
you're right, I wouldn't mind having one of those at all !!!!
As far as regulations goes, as Roarkiller mentioned above, believe it or not there are right of way rules, which is one of the functions of the red/green light you may have noticed on wingtips of airplanes: if another airplane is getting closer to you at night and you see his red light wing tip (the one closer to you), you're supposed to divert behind him, if you see his green wingtip, he's supposed to give you right of way. But that's a small part of right of way rules, some categories (balloons, airplanes, gliders, helicopters, Goodyear blimps, ...) of aircraft have right of way (usually the least maneuverable ones) over others, aircraft about to land have priority, faster aircraft have to divert around (to the right of) slower ones, and aircraft in an emergency have priority over pretty much anything.
There are speed limits depending on the type of airspace you're in. There's also instruments, radios and equipment requirements on board for both visual and instrument flights, and on airspaces around towered airports (the busier the airport, the bigger and more restricted the airspace) you have to talk to, and be controlled by, air traffic control (ATC as we pilots call them). There are minimum visibility and distance from clouds and fuel requirements. There are regulations which pertain to helicopters only, which I imagine would also be applied to VTOL aircraft, and if these would be more maneuverable than helicopters, I'm pretty sure new regulations would have to be made just for them. Obstacle clearance requirements for visual flights (I'm not even going to get into instrument flight!) are probably less restricted for helicopters than for airplanes because helicopters are so much more maneuverable and spend most of their time a lot closer to ground than we do! but if air traffic significantly increases I'd imagine they'd increase restrictions including spacing between aircraft (right now formation flight is perfectly legal) which only aircraft controlled by ATC are subject to (this is a key point isn't it, probably air vehicles of the future would have to be computer flown in busy areas).
All in all, this is also a small part of regulations, mainly pertaining to flight operations. There are also required maintenance and aircraft certification/airworthiness requirements, and another set of regulations governing pilot certification and currency requirements.
I hope I didn't bore you do death, usually regulations are one of the least exiting things about flying, unfortunatelly because they're so important.
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