It has been over a month since Valentine’s Day, but I really liked my gift. It was not jewelry, flowers for the garden, or candy.
I was given this–
Yep, it is a paper wasps’ nest.
Detail of Wasps’ Nest
Flip Side of the Wasps’ Nest.
The wasps’ nest was found at the airport, under the wing of this plane–
Fouga CM.170 Magister is a 2 Seat, 2 Engine, French Military Plane
The Yellow Arrow Points to the Previous Location of the Nest
Wasps can be particularly dangerous for 3 reasons–
Wasps like to build nest in air vents. When the plane is in flight, if the pilot opens the air vent the result can be a swarm of wasps inside the cockpit.
Wasps will make their nests in fuel vents preventing air getting into the fuel tank and the engine starves. If you have no gas in the engine it will stop running.
If wasps make their nests in a pitot tube, there will be no air speed indication. What does this mean?
The way you get an airspeed indication is that air pushes into the pitot tube and moves the dial in the airplane. If no air gets into the pitot tube, then airspeed reads zero.
The interior of the Fouga is quite small, a bit claustrophobic. It was a plane used for instruction, with the instructor seated behind the student.
The plane was most likely built in the 50s.
The interior reminds me a bit of my 1968 Volvo.
The plane information was supplied by Touring Machine. I supplied graphics for the site, including a six pack simulator for Unusual Attitudes.
I made the six pack instrument graphics in Flash. Each instrument has multiple layers so they could function properly. I handed off the graphics to the programmer, Michael Whipp.
Last week I read a CBS News story about bees causing a flight delay.
This is a screenshot of the image that accompanied the article.
Yep, bees can be just as dangerous as wasps.