Non-Military Aviation

Shyster
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Postby Shyster » Tue May 17, 2022 4:49 pm

Hoo boy. The actual article is paywalled, but the WSJ is reporting that people close to the investigation into China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 are now saying that it was an intentional act. Both flight recorders were heavily damaged, and the NTSB has some of the best facilities in the world to read damaged recorders, so the chips were all sent here to the US for recovery and reading. The NTSB was part of the investigation (with the Chinese in overall control) because under treaty, the nation where the aircraft's manufacturer is located is automatically part of an incident investigation. That's generally why either the US or France is involved in just about every major commercial-airliner crash, because those are the home nations for Boeing and Airbus.

I think there were hints that this might have been the outcome. The aircraft's plunge from level flight is hard to explain by a mechanical failure, especially when there are no signs of a bomb or anything like that. China Eastern initially grounded its entire 737 fleet, but they were all quietly put back into service maybe a month later even though no cause had been announced. That said to me that they weren't finding any sort of mechanical failure that would impact any other aircraft. If it wasn't mechanical, then it had to be human.


tifosi77
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Postby tifosi77 » Tue May 17, 2022 5:08 pm

Yikes x10, that's insane.

scb147
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Postby scb147 » Tue May 17, 2022 7:39 pm

Definitely, and unfortunately not the first time it's happened

NTP66
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Postby NTP66 » Tue May 17, 2022 8:35 pm

Just truly awful, but also preferable to malfunction, IMO.

RonnieFranchise
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Postby RonnieFranchise » Mon May 23, 2022 9:21 pm

Stayed at the Hyatt Regency at PIT last week due to an 0-dark-30 flight out. Got in late and left early unfortunately but had a top floor room overlooking 10L-28R. Pretty incredible views there.

DigitalGypsy66
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Postby DigitalGypsy66 » Sun May 29, 2022 8:02 am

A banner advertising airplane crashed in Myrtle Beach yesterday, killing the pilot. Evidently, he crashed during banner pickup. For some reason, I thought the plane took off with the banner attached but rolled up. Nope, the banner is actually picked up off the ground via hook. :shock:


RonnieFranchise
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Postby RonnieFranchise » Sun May 29, 2022 9:30 am

The son of a friend of mine did this in OCMD for the summer one year. I never really thought about who flies the banners, but it's mostly college aged kids looking to get hours. Doesn't pay great but not a bad way to spend your summer doing what you love.

redwill
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Postby redwill » Sun Jun 12, 2022 1:41 pm

This is (fortunately) not really military-related. But maybe kind of.

A B-29 flew over my house today while I was outside. I presume it was headed to McConnell AFB in Wichita for a function or maybe elsewhere. So many B-29s were built in Wichita during WW2. Possibly a celebration of this great and terrifying machine.

Anyway, I see them on average once a year or so, sometimes in triad formation. When I see them, I still can't help thinking of myself as a Japanese civilian looking up at the sky, waiting for the destruction to rain down. Certainly no excuses for the Japanese assault on humanity during WW2, but that feeling of powerlessness, of impotence, of ... innocence ... comes over me.

tifosi77
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Postby tifosi77 » Mon Jun 13, 2022 7:10 pm

There are only two airworthy '29s left (Doc and FIFI). One of them is based in Wichita, so there you go (I know they're mid-restore on a third). One of them operated out of VNY for a week or so, giving high dollar rides, when we lived in Encino. Only saw it in the air from a few miles off, but I know the feeling you talk of.

Meanwhile, Hiroshima is misspelled in the Enola Gay log book, and Paul Tibbets' personal log doesn't even record a bombing mission on 8/6.

DigitalGypsy66
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Postby DigitalGypsy66 » Mon Jun 13, 2022 7:21 pm

Very much regretting passing on an hour flight in a B-17 about 15-16 years ago. It was $150 or so. Easily double that now on similar aircraft.

Shyster
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Postby Shyster » Mon Jun 13, 2022 8:18 pm

Just ran some math. A B-29 holds around 7,000 gallons of fuel without using extra tanks. At around 8 bucks a gallon for 100LL, that's $56,000 for each fill 'er up.

Shyster
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Postby Shyster » Wed Jun 22, 2022 12:47 am

Video of a RED Air McDonnell Douglas MD-82 suffering a gear collapse and fire today at Miami.



Wikipedia says that RED Air "was founded in 2020 as a joint-venture between the Venezuelan airline LASER Airlines and Domenican fixed-base operator SERVAIR Domenica." Yeah, nothing says reliability and excellent maintenance like "joint Venezuelan / Domenican airline."

tifosi77
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Postby tifosi77 » Wed Jun 22, 2022 1:18 pm

Or even Dominican!

But seriously, imma nope myself on outta dis.

NTP66
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Postby NTP66 » Mon Jul 04, 2022 7:00 pm

I posted this in the travel thread, but I quite enjoyed my first flight on a 772. The turbines up close are absolutely massive, and holy hell did it get to cruising altitude quickly.

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Postby RonnieFranchise » Mon Jul 04, 2022 7:25 pm

**** I thought I would never hear: NTP liked a Boeing.

NTP66
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Postby NTP66 » Mon Jul 04, 2022 7:32 pm

I think I'd still give the edge to the A321 compared to the 737, but the cushion in the 738 I was in makes it very close. Before this weekend, most of my Boeing experience had been on 757s, though that was long ago.

This can go in the gear grinding thread, but the newly redesigned cabins in AA's Airbus fleet (mainly the neos) has these tablet holders in lieu of a seat back screen. I was against this at first, but after thinking about it, came around since it means no media box taking up leg room under the seat. However, the tablet holders do not fit a 10" Kindle Fire. You can get an 8" tablet in there, but that's it. Literally just an 1/8" short. So dumb.

tifosi77
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Postby tifosi77 » Mon Jul 04, 2022 8:51 pm

Round trip to SEA this past weekend, Alaska Air 738 to and a 739 fro. The quality of the aircraft is entirely dependent on the operator and their priorities. The interior condition of the 3-8 was like it was on loan from Shitbag Airways (perma-dirt trays, torn upholstery, etc). The 3-9 was a 'hero bird' with high viz livery (U-S-A!) and looked like it was on its cert flight fresh of the line.

Both flights were 2 hrs of completely glassy skies, so I didn't really care either way. Also, I'm the guy in the Progressive commercials; coming home we flew directly over our house intercepting glideslope and I was like "Oooh, honey! Look!" lol

NTP66
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Postby NTP66 » Tue Jul 05, 2022 6:36 am

The 738 I was on was 24 years old and had an old 6" video in the seatback with DirecTV.

dodint
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Postby dodint » Tue Jul 05, 2022 1:15 pm

Trying to decide how far ahead on my personal timeline I want to get my PPL. Big issue for me is that plane ownership is still 10-15 years away so I'd be part of a flying club....

I've wanted a PPL since I was a teenager, used to really be big into the flight sim stuff. It's not a new interest but one that is starting to show up on the horizon as doable.
I'm turning 40 this winter and have decided that pursuing this "in 10 years" isn't going to cut it anymore. So I've decided to take the written exam in January and get my medical done. At that point I'll join the flying club at Latrobe airport and train with them. If the Private Pilot Certificate goes well I'll try and add my instrument rating. I figure if I don't rush it will take two years for each. Maybe less for the private certificate if I want to try and get it faster. That puts me IFR qualified at 45 years old at which point I would start plane shopping.

My computer is already a driving simulator. I'm going to buy a yoke and MSFS and start self-training for a lot of this. The minimum hours to get a PPL is around 40, but most people take 70+. That's about a $4500 difference. Training in the sim decreases the learning curve and gets you closer to that 40 hour mark so for a couple hundred bucks it should be worth it.
Building a sim is a big rabbit hole though, I hope to not get sucked up into that. I was looking and the discipline has advanced so much since I quit flight simming back in 2006. You can buy full replica Nav/Autopilot units that are encased in their manufacturer hardware, its great (but expensive).

Should be a fun adventure, I'll post the highlights here as I go.

tifosi77
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Postby tifosi77 » Tue Jul 05, 2022 3:11 pm

How much private MSFS time can count as sim time towards cert? I would've thought the sim time had to be supervised. Or is this just FYI type stuff to build reps?

Suggest you follow Airforceproud95 on YouTube. His videos are always top notch simming, full of 100% by-the-book ATC. Absolutely no chuffing about.

NTP66
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Postby NTP66 » Tue Jul 05, 2022 3:16 pm

Training is a much better use case for MSFS than for fun. I uninstalled the game pretty damn quickly, personally.

dodint
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Postby dodint » Tue Jul 05, 2022 3:27 pm

It just helps me build muscle memory and familiarization. Both for in-craft controls and nav/scenery. It doesn't count towards hours.
There are certified sims that can count toward IFR hours. They are usually owned by schools or flying clubs.

I will probably buy this content, it looks really well done: https://www.justflight.com/product/pa28 ... -simulator

It's a similar plane to the flying club, and has the Garmin 430 I will have to learn.

We've talked about AFP95, good channel. I used to be suggested his more absurdist stuff but maybe I will sub to catch up.

Shyster
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Postby Shyster » Tue Jul 05, 2022 5:02 pm

A minor incident at PIT a couple weeks ago. On June 21st, a United Boeing 737-9 Max performing flight UA-2627 from Chicago O'Hare to Pittsburgh was originally told to expect a visual to Runway 32. That was then changed to a visual to Runway 28C, which the pilots accepted. On approach, the pilots report that the FMC "blanked" on them, and in the process of dealing with the issue they aligned with Runway 28L and not 28C. The flight crew were cleared to land on 28C and read back their clearance for 28C, but they landed on 28L. The tower controller did notice the aircraft was lined up for the wrong runway when it was on short final, but decided that it was more appropriate to allow the airplane to land rather than go around. Traffic was light at the time, so there were no conflicts. Weather was clear and the time was around 09:00.

I think I would put this on the pilots. Yeah, a computer glitch on final could be very distracting, but the aircraft was cleared for a visual approach, and that means the pilots looking outside the aircraft and flying the plane. I don't know how familiar the pilots might have been with PIT, but Runways 28L and 28C are directly adjacent to one another, and if one is cleared to land on a runway with "Center" in its name, then that cannot possibly be a runway that doesn't have another runway over farther to its left, and that should have been obvious on a nice clear morning.

http://avherald.com/h?article=4fb1fae4&opt=256

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Postby shafnutz05 » Tue Jul 05, 2022 5:18 pm

Good luck @dodint, that's exciting.

dodint
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Postby dodint » Tue Jul 05, 2022 5:20 pm

Thanks. I've been wanting to do this for so long that the local schools and flying clubs keep changing. :lol:

When I was a teen I wanted to go to Jimmy Stewart Field in Indiana because that was the closest place. Looks like I can probably do it in Latrobe now.

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