Nanak Flights Blog

Instrument Landing System – ILS

 

Everyone round the globe would have, at least once in their life, dreamt of flying an aircraft. Those who don’t have the guts to give it a shot, will at least want to fly in an aircraft.

No wonder, I always chose to fly in it rather than flying it. It’s just not about only directions and altitudes for flying one. It involves a lot of (indeed a lot) technological understanding before you could even sit for a course to fly.

Though I don’t believe in life after death, it would be good if we could have had Wright Brothers now.

The factor that keeps the world on its feet is “time”. Before wright brothers’ invention travelling from India to Malaysia would take 76 hours by sea and now it’s just more than a couple of hours.

One should definitely understand the importance of an aircraft and as a step to promote its importance, here we present to you the 67 year old ILS – Instrument Landing System.

ILS:

ILS was widely accepted as a standard system by International Civil Aviation Organization in 1947. ILS is a board system embedded in an aircraft with a reliable and co-operative ILS ground system installed in every airport.

What does ILS do?

It is a ground based instrumental approach that provides a clear-cut guidance to an aircraft approaching a runway. This includes both the lateral and vertical guidance of the altitudes.

How does ILS work?

It uses a combination of radio signals, lighting arrays, marker beacons, VHF localizer, glide slope and few other granular subsystems, with the localizer providing lateral guidance and glide slope for the vertical.

The localizer receiver on the system board of the aircraft is used to measure the difference in the depth of modulation of two priority signals along the runway. i.e. the 90 Hz one and the 150 Hz one. When the receiver signal stays on the centerline of the radar in the cockpit, the depth of modulation would be around 20% for each of the modulating frequencies. The difference varies based on the deviation of the aircraft from the centerline.

On a lighter note, this will not be your “cup of tea” if we you are no way related with aviation stuffs J

When is ILS used?

To maintain an efficient operation at the busiest commercial airports, ILS approach is always preferred by the pilot to ensure smooth flow of traffic. Though, ILS is not used for what it was intended to be used.

The primary intention of ILS was to ensure safe landing during the likes of low-visibility, heavy snow/rain and hail etc.

Being busy with their routine, no one would really want to understand technologies that doesn’t fall under their roof. But let’s take a day-off from our routine and understand few technologies that may be of help sometime.

After all, spending some time on gaining knowledge is not going to hurt you much. Hope you got to know a bit about ILS approach.

 

The next time you fly, look for the lighting arrays, marker beacons and the localizers and spread a word of mouth about the information you have gained today J J

 

Flying with babies: Points to be noted

 

In every real man there lies a hidden child that wants to play. If I had to pick the most beautiful creation ever by god, I would have definitely ended up choosing a bunch of children. Their weeping sounds that almost shatters a glass, their mischievous behavior that keeps us running behind them always, their wonderful expressions and many more would transform the stressful adult in you to a fun loving kid. But there are few cases, where you would really give up on kids and one such instance is while traveling. We present to you a few points that will educate you on flying with your babies.

Before we go on into what needs to be checked before you fly, let us make a note of who can fly? By which, I mean babies of what ages can fly?

Airline policies change often and it is always a better option to either check your airline’s website or to call them ahead.

Babies ideally should be at least 7 days old to fly. A few airlines indeed allow younger infants to fly, upon a doctor’s written statement, while others have 14 days as the minimal requirement for the babies to fly. None of us would want to fly a 14-day infant except for an emergency J

Now, here we go with the tips for you to fly with your babies.

Car Seats:

There are two aspects to the use of car seats. One being that, you could save money by not booking your infant a ticket, instead pay an extra baggage allowance for your car seat and the other being to free yourselves from flying with your kids sitting on your lap throughout the travel, while your better halves enjoy their flight J. Car seats these days are allowed by almost all major airlines and checked at the gates through boarding and helps ensure safety of the kid.

Medication:

The word Medication reminds me of a saying - “Prevention is better than cure”. It always good to carry an emergency sheet with your child's health information or save it on your smartphone. If in case you have a list handy and your kid needs some medical attention, the list can help you better.

That way, everything is in one place if you need it.

Food and Comfort:

This time it is not about the kid and it’s about the women. If you do breastfeed your kid, don’t forget to buy a drink after you go through the security gates, since it is very important to keep yourself well hydrated. And for those women who do not breast feed, may be for some reason are advised to carry ready-to-use formula for their babies. However, this has to be handed over to the security officers during the screening process.

Clothing:

When you are just changing a diaper, you will want to keep things simple. You will never want to take their shoes, socks and jacket on and off, every now and then. A comfortable suit would be a Pajama or their favorite tees to keep them away from weeping Turning up white and white is definitely going to be a bad option. Always carry at least one change of clothes for both you and the kid. You just can’t complain on the quality of diapers after it had leaked.

Hope these points will make some sense to add up something to your travel... Have a hilarious travel with your naughty ones

Airline Connections - How to Manage Connecting Flights and Have a Happy Journey!

 

 

Connections are bound to connect people. Sometimes, when connections don’t serve the purpose that they are intended to, the whole picture gets spoiled. With these connection citations, I am trying to connect you to the transits - “the connection points”.

Unless you are travelling to a major city with a huge airline hub, you will have to take these connection flights to fly from your place to the destination. There is always a chance of missing those connection flights if not planned properly. To ensure a smooth connection, we would recommend:

Avoid being tightly connected:

If suppose, you are travelling via Heathrow airport, which is one of the world’s busiest airports, you may end up walking to the departure gate, if in case the transportation factor between terminals is missing. Though they operate buses every six to ten minutes between terminals, passengers may find it difficult to commute to the gates for their outbound flights. With such constraints ahead, one cannot chose connecting flights with a transit time of 90 minutes. So, we would suggest you allow yourselves a minimum of 3 hours to connect to your destinations. This will not be a problem since most of the aerodrome allow up to 6 hours for connections to be made.

Baggage Transfer:

When you are not on a long trip, you won’t be carrying a lot. When you are overloaded, you are inviting trouble, if your airline doesn’t provide you the baggage transfer facility.

When your baggage is checked through to the destination at the departure airport, then you don’t have to collect baggage at transit hub since that will eat up a good amount of time from your pockets. Be sure to choose an airline that offers this baggage transfer and save time.

If these two trepidations are given sheer importance then your connection flight becomes pleasant..!!

At the worst case, if it happens for you to miss your connection flight, then what do you do? You still have a chance to fly at no additional cost. Take a look at how can this be possible?

Demand a seat to fly:

If a planned delay or cancellation of one flight segment causes you to miss your connection flight which you have booked under one booking number, then you can, by all means, demand for a seat in the next available flight. You are just a phone call away to avail this service, if you are expecting a delay. Once you land at the transit, you should look for your airline’s travel desk and follow the procedures to board the next available flight. As simple as that J

How do you manage the delay?

“Time and tide waits for none” marks the significance of time. Few things go out of control and this sort of delay falls under those few things. You will always have to be prepared to face the consequences of it. A few steps that you could take to manage this delay:

Drop by the Duty-Free shops:

Be it window shopping or shopping, for sure, it kills a lot of time. And if you have got women with you, you are already done for the dayJ. With kids onboard, the play becomes even more interesting. With women shopping and kids weeping, you can’t complain about killing time J

Plan for your stay at the hotel:

If the delay is going to be for 2-3 hours then waiting at the travelers lounge makes sense. But for a delay of more than 6-7 hours, the airline takes responsibility in arranging suitable accommodation for its passengers and incur transportation charges to the place of accommodation. Heathrow airport doesn’t have a place to stay during nights within their premises and hence in case of delays, airlines are bound to look for hotels nearby.

To be prepared, in case of such delays, let us carry an additional attire. Two pairs of clothing’s shouldn’t make much of a difference.

Hope that sums up the strategy to keep your flight pleasant through the transit!!! Safe journey!!!