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TSF - The School of Flight - Die Schule des Fliegens

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What’s going on here? What are the basic ideas? What’s the goal?

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Click 01 — Discover this Project on the Hydrogen & Battery Summit Click TraiL >>

Welcome to The School of Flight! Just follow the blue boxes and markers to discover this Zero Emission Aviation Project and somewhat special elementary flying school of mine. Click on each headline to go to the next waypoint or choose one of the links below. On April 8 and 9 2025 I, PB, was attending the Hydrogen and Battery Summit for Sustainable Aviation at the Aero air fair in Friedrichshafen (Germany) again, a two day marathon of engineers and developers discussing the latest developments in batteries, hydrogen tank systems, fuel cells, electric engines, airfoil designs .. I named this click trail after it. Enjoy the views ..

PCB (Author) • Battery and Hydrogen • Clicktrail

1 Click > 2 Sphere > 3 Who > 4 Learn > 5 Web > 6 Books > 7 Birds > 8 Logs > 9 Co2 > 10 Spaces > 11 School > 12 Stairs > 13 Patrons > 14 TRS > 15 Tools > 16 Tech > 17 Rebel > 18 Lexicon > 19 Wing > 20 Yellow

< Enter name and password (as stated) once to continue on the trail ..

Matt Groening and the Bilingual Comic Birds

Maybe I, PB, watched too many episodes of The Simpsons. But comic style birds and planes might help making this subject matter here a little bit more accessible for the average human being than most scientific publications and aviation materials can. There are many good teachers and authors out there but they don’t have cartoon style illustrations and onomatopoeias like SWOOSH, BANG, PING, BZZZZZ, RRRR or BOINK! And one more thing: because of Matt and some other reasons explained elsewhere, this website will be bilingual — English and German. Even small planes can go very long distances nowadays, which makes English communication mandatory. The big boys and girls in the sky have to do it and it is by far the best language for use in the cockpit (and a great language anyway). German has a lot to offer in written form and for use in non-time-critical situations, it is my mother tongue, and it will add a lot to the whole project. At this point in the development, it’s all English with a few German translations here and there, but that will change as soon as the whole database is „up and running“. I’ll be trying to put both languages on one page. Let’s see how that works. See also „Building this Website“ ..

PCB (Autor) • language • teach and learn

PS. Ein nach hinten verlagerter Massenschwerpunkt und etwas zusätzlicher Auftrieb

Was hat es mit den Vogelskizzen oben auf sich? (1) Der Massenschwerpunkt (Center of Gravity, CG) von Flamingos, Schwänen (..) mit ihren langen Hälsen befindet sich weit hinten Richtung Schwanz. Der CG ist der der Punkt um den sich der Vogel (oder das Flugzeug) ausbalanciert, und da sich in diesem Fall das Zentrum des Auftriebs (Center of Lift, CL) an den Flügeln ebenfalls weit hinten befindet, liegt der Vogel immer noch sehr stabil in der Luft. Je weiter dieses Zentrum der Schwerkraft und die Kraft des Flügels auseinanderliegen, desto instabiler werden Tier oder Fluggerät. Bei (2) geht es darum, dass die langen Federn an den Flügelenden von Falken, Raben (..) beinahe wie Slots funktionieren, (eher seltene) spezielle Klappen, die Spalten und Flächen an den Vorderkanten von Flugzeugtragflächen bilden, um den Auftrieb zu erhöhen. Außerdem teilen die einzelnen Federn den großen Luftwirbel am Ende des Flügels in mehrere kleine Wirbel auf und reduzieren so den Luftwiderstand. Wow! So früh schon so viele kuriose Wortschöpfungen und Effekte! Aber keine Sorge, wir werden ihnen noch öfters und in allen möglichen Gewändern begegnen. Für den Falken besonders wichtig: Dieser Extra-Auftrieb an den Flügelenden erlaubt es einem solchen Vogel, engere Kreise in der Thermik, einer Säule von aufsteigender Luft, fliegen zu können, um Höhe zu gewinnen ohne dabei viel eigene kostbare Energie zu verbrauchen.

An aft Center of Gravity and some extra Lift

So what about the bird sketches? (1) The center of gravity (CG) of flamingos, swans (..) with their looong necks is positioned waaay back towards the tail. The CG is the point around which the bird (or plane) is balanced, and since, in this case, its center of lift (CL) at the wings is aft as well, the bird still has a great deal of stability when flying through the air. The further this unified force of gravity and the wing force are set apart from each other, the more unstable the bird or plane would become. And (2) the looong wingtip feathers of falcons, ravens, (..) almost act as slots at the leading edges of some airplane wings, special gapped flaps that create some extra lift. Plus: the single feathers also split up the big vortex at each wingtip in several small vortices and thereby reduce drag. Wow. That’s quite some fancy words and effects so early on, but no worries, we’ll get back to them again. Especially important in the falcon’s case: this extra lift at the wingtips allows such a bird to fly tighter circles and stay in a thermal, a column of rising air, so it can climb while conserving most of its own precious energy.

PCB (author) • Aerodynamics • Birds

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Building it Step by Step .. this Website is still a Design Model

This blog and project is growing slowly but steadily at this point. I, PB (author number one), am learning, teaching, writing, sketching and building this whole thing here one click, thought, pen stroke, coffee at a time. I am presenting the core ideas here but in the end (wich is near) it will all be very much refined by a designer and programmer. There is more to come. Stay tuned.

Current upload is: Step 4 (Beta Version 0.9.4)

Access all 20 steps of the Click Trail via the Login page. Some sections are still „lean cuisine“.

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to liftoff (errr) Step 4, the next major update and upload

Scroll down here for more info and prior steps ..

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„20 Steps“ Upload 4 (planned) with all 20 steps, a new domain, new articles and a subscription

„A New Navigation“ Upload 3 on May 25, 2025 with a reworked navigation, new connections & articles

„7 Steps“ Upload 2 on May 19, 2025 with major navigational and lyrical improvements ..

„Landing Page“ Step 1 from May 3, 2025 — The first upload of „The School of Flight“ ever, still on the „Rebellion der Vernunft“ domain .. showcasing the design and core ideas of this new endeavor here ..

Being Part of the Third Revolution in Aviation. Let’s get Electric!

After the first motor driven flights at the beginning of the twentieth century .. and the dawn of the jet age in the 50s and 60s .. the next big thing is „going electric“ accompanied by some fundamental fuselage and airfoil changes. The challenges are huge: weight and volume issues in aircraft design, a new infrastructure is needed on the ground, business models have to be adapted, long and difficult certification processes loom, financial hurdles, changes in workflows to name only a few. Two key things I’ve learned so far:

1 — The simple fact that it is so difficult makes it so damn interesting and motivating

2 — Like in every transformation there are the ones who want to keep things the way they are because they feel threatened by change in general or question the validity of scientific research or question the benefits of going down this new path, seek to avoid financial burdens or all the above combined. I, PB, consider these reactions to be quite normal or maybe I should say „human“, but the task remains to expose people to all those new electric ideas, dive into the specifics, touch and feel them, be inspired by them, discuss them over and over again ..

I think every company manufacturing planes could and should have a full-hearted electric transformation program inhouse or as a cooperation with other companies or entities. Maybe this Grundschule (elementary school) can play a role in promoting the need and great potential of going „E“ to all involved: manufacturers, pilots, passengers, pedestrians (birds are already very familiar with zero emission concepts). With that being said, it does not make much sense to be puristic here - here will always be a place for the good old fuel burning engines, but electric is where the future is and where the real fun begins. Exiting times!

PCB (author) • Technology • Propulsion systems

The Dream of Flight

Leonardo might be a little bit overused these days .. Leonardo here .. Leonardo there .. not too long ago you could see his infamous Mona driving a Fiat Cinquecento, now you’ll find his Vitruvian Man on every electronic healthcare card in Germany, but still, hey, he was a really special guy! No wonder all those people and companies love him so much. And as far as the flying goes — he might be impossible to match, no one really can fill this huge space from ground breaking art to flying machines the way he did. So much for the introduction. Now a little quote:

„Leonardo draws these fantastic flying machines .. maybe it was Leonardo’s biggest dream to be able to fly like the birds in the sky .. because flying means the biggest freedom of motion any living being can have“ Carlo Vecce, one of da Vinci’s biographers. I would assume that most humans share that dream. And I vow to search, find, and describe many more visionaries that fill those spaces I mentioned.

PS. Sketch on the right: PB tries to imitate LDV, the master (at least it’s a first step)

go to section > Mensch

PCB (Author) • Dream of Flight • Spaces • Sketch

General Aviation can Play an Important Role in Decarbonizing all of Aviation

The smaller planes are not just some toys by rich people flying around aimlessly polluting the skies above your head, but they are many, many things at the same time and they can actually lead the way in the transformation from fuel burning engines (kerosene, gasoline, diesel) over sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to much cleaner hydrogen burners and finally completely emission free motors powered by batteries and/or hydrogen fuel cells. It takes decades to achieve a major transformation in this field for all of aviation and it never has to be a 100 % but you gotta start somewhere and from my point of view there is a very simple motto to this:

Create new solid tech platforms and patterns. Transform. The more — the sooner and faster — the better.

P.S. for those not familiar with the term „General Aviation“ (GA) — it is the smaller cousin of „Civil Aviation“ with its medium to big sized passenger planes. GA entails a wide range from business aviation (the jets most hated by environmental groups because of their sometimes pretty lousy fuel burn to passenger/cargo ratio) down to the smallest ultralight planes used mainly for basic training and sports flying whose newest models today are beating cars in efficiency, so GA is quite a diverse field.

PCB (author) • discussion • technology • combustion engines • climate

This School is for Everyone — Dreamers, Engineers, Activists, Low Time Pilots and (or) Professionals

No matter whether you are an airline pilot in search for comic birds, someone who always dreamed about taking the controls of a machine in the air or eager to take off in a physics lab with two wings (even the smallest planes have crazy instrumentation today), an environmental activist tired of glueing him- or herself to the runway who wants to try out a control stick for a change, someone who actually took a lesson or two once and maybe shies away from the costs of flight training and/or struggles to understand the world of licenses and flight schools. Whatever your goal is, I’d say: when there’s a will - there’s a way. It does not have to be a license, but I do believe that the more of the average population knows and understands about flying and gets a feel for it, the better. Dreamers and low time pilots can check out the Air Stairs Project hidden somewhere in this blog (or whatever you might call it).

PCB (author) • teach and learn • Grundschule • Air Stairs

BEWARE!!

This is not a certified flight school. The information given on this site is not to be used directly in any real world flying situation. It is meant to complement the educational material, techniques and procedures provided by licensed flight instructors and schools or aerodynamical engineers. In other words: Don’t try this in the air without consulting a flight instructor first!

A Vast Field — Understand, Present, Promote & Work on a Modern, Clean & Powerful Aviation

There is a saying that every human has his or her own acre to plow and no other human has the right to criticize what’s going on on this acre — it can be messy, super clean, just soil or with a house on it. Well, I certainly do have my own acre, but what I am plowing here with this aviation thing is enormous. You might even say it is endless because it also has this airspace sitting on top of it. And since it exceeds the size of any personal acre by a large degree, since it actually mushrooms up like those representations of a defined and partly restricted airspace above an airport, since it is public domain, it will be quite rightly criticized from all sides of the political, societal and aerodynamic spectrum. That’s part of the game, I guess. It’s even part of the process.

PCB (author) • discussion • technology

PS. on Mushrooms (the Airspace Kind)

Just a quick note since I mentioned it the paragraph above and since I love depicting things that you can‘t see: The sky over your head hides quite a lot of structures that only show on flying charts. On these maps, every zone has a top and bottom height stated next to it, but sketching it in a side view, the volumes of air become clearer: Airports have airspaces sitting on top of each other that makes it look like a mushroom. I take a little detour first to get to the fungal fella above: The international Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) defines the rules for the airspaces A, B, C, D, E, F and G — what you are allowed to do there and whether you have to ask permission to enter. Each country then defines where those zones begin and end, depending on the topography and infrastructure (..) on the ground. So what’s with the letters? In Germany C (Charlie) is usually from 10.000 ft or 3048 m on upwards (13.000 feet in the Alps) and is reserved for instrument flight (IFR) only, Air Traffic Control (ATC) clearance is needed. It is used mostly by passenger aircraft or small „pros“ of any kind. Airspace D (Delta) is controlled, ATC clearance is needed as well, but visual flight (VFR) is allowed. It is often a CTR, yet another acronym, wich means „Controlled Traffic Region“ around and above an airport from the ground on up. And I’ve got two more airspaces for you .. they are the most important patches of sky for hang gliders, paragliders and light single engine aircraft: G (Golf) from the ground up to approximately 2500 ft which is not controlled (see and be seen) and above „Golf“ is E for „Echo“ with visual flight rules (VFR) and air traffic control „on the line“ until we reach the already familiar and more restricted C (Charlie) again. So much for airspaces. Quite a lot for a „Welcome Page“ PHEW!

PCB (Author) • Navigation • Charts

This Elementary Flying School Explores it All — From Natural to Technical Flight

< Flight in a hang glider (tandem with an instructor) on July 2024 near Berlin and > night flight at Larnaka Airport, Cyprus, October 2024 (also with an instructor)

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