6

1/29/2010 8:29:57 PM

Quote :

"Maybe some of you have some theories about this recent crash?"

Not yet.




Oh ye of little faith:





Tennessee River:

2/1/2010 8:51:46 PM

In regard to the OP, the NTSB blames pilot error. In a related story, bears shit in the woods.

Quote :

"Pilots at fault in Continental Connection crash, investigators say The pilot and first officer of doomed Continental Connection Flight 3407 clearly did not take actions -- even though they had time -- that could have prevented the plane crash, which killed 50 people, federal investigators said Tuesday at a final meeting on the cause of the crash. The pilot reacted "with startle and confusion" to warnings the plane was entering an aerodynamic stall, investigators said. Most notably, Capt. Marvin Renslow pulled back on the plane's control column instead of pushing it forward, exacerbating the situation, and dooming the plane, according to the investigators. .... "There was adequate time for either pilot to take action before the stick shaker [warning]," the board staff said. Another 27 seconds passed between the onset of the warning and the time flight data recorders stopped working, presumably upon impact. "It is apparent to me the captain kept a very casual and relaxed tone on the flight," said Sumwalt, who flew as an airline pilot for about 24 years. Sumwalt said he was struck by the amount of conversation between the captain and first officer, saying it was "almost continuous." "It was as if the flight was just a means for the captain to conduct a conversation with this young first officer," he said. .... Among the errors, Colgan said, the crew did not respond appropriately to warnings that the plane was entering an aerodynamic stall, did not accomplish checklists, and failed to follow "sterile cockpit" rules which prohibit unnecessary conversation during critical phases of flight. Colgan concludes that the accident was caused by the crew's "loss of situational awareness and failure to follow Colgan Air training and procedures, which led to a loss of control of the aircraft." After the deadly accident, it was revealed that the pilot, Renslow, had failed three pilot tests, known as "check-rides," before joining the airline, but had disclosed only one on job applications. After that, he failed another two check-rides while at Colgan Air. ...."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/02/02/continental.crash.inquiry/index.html?hpt=T2

2/2/2010 1:58:41 PM

Quote :

"the crew did not respond appropriately to warnings that the plane was entering an aerodynamic stall, did not accomplish checklists, and failed to follow "sterile cockpit" rules which prohibit unnecessary conversation during critical phases of flight. . . . After the deadly accident, it was revealed that the pilot, Renslow, had failed three pilot tests, known as "check-rides," before joining the airline, but had disclosed only one on job applications. After that, he failed another two check-rides while at Colgan Air."

W-T-F?!?


On IFR flights for us, everything not flight related ceases when the approach brief is read and really doesn't pick up again until we're walking away from the aircraft. No excuse for this, especially when flying into shitty weather.

2/2/2010 3:27:54 PM

I read the complete transcript of this flight. They discussed a bunch of bullshit, such as lying in their pilot logbook, as they were approaching. The co-pilot pointed out the excess ice build-up on the spinner and the pilot said, "yeah i've never seen that much ice build up before" and they still failed to turn on the de-ice system.

2/3/2010 7:01:31 AM

i love the smell of lawsuits in the morning

2/3/2010 8:08:40 AM

pretty cool low flying stuff
http://www.fighterpilotuniversity.com/index.cfm/2009/4/21/Low-stuff

and this site will make u worthless for hours....

http://www.alexisparkinn.com/aviation_videos.htm

2/3/2010 8:13:39 AM

Anybody ever done any work on restoring an older airplane before?

Reason I ask is that my grandfather has a 1946 Piper PA-12 Supercruiser in the shop with the wings off that he wants to get restored. I would love to do the manual work on this, and she's in really good shape to not have flown for 15 years, but didn't know if anybody in here had done any vinyl recovering before. I think total cost to get the engine overhauled and everything up to flight condition is going to run about $30k. My dad is a pilot, so when my grandfather is gone, it will pass to him. But my brother has no interest whatsoever in flying, so it would likely pass to me after that. It is the second oldest serial number plane in NC and all surrounding states (one guy in Fayetteville has 12-4 and they started at 12-2; ours is very low 200s). I have become obsessed with getting this plane back in the air now. It has a lot of family history (my grandad learned to fly in it and has had it for 37 years), it would be cheap to fly (6 gallons an hour for about an 18 mpg fuel economy figure, and is approved to fly on regular pump gas) and would be the most affordable way for me to get my pilots license. Hell I can even carry the boys up since it seats 3. I know we are going to have to throw a lot of money into this, but I really want to see it done.

2/3/2010 8:38:34 AM

^^ Good video site, a lot of stuff I hadn't seen, which is odd.


^ No advice here but keep us posted, that sounds like an awesome project.

Quote :

" Nick Radosevich, one of four sons to a steel worker, had never been aboard an airplane when he volunteered for the Army in 1940. He and another young man were the first to join from their hometown of Amherst, Ohio. He stood only 5-feet-7 and weighed 135 pounds, but Nick was a solid, hard-nosed amateur boxer. And his high school education separated him from most of the other men who reported for duty at Fort Hayes in Columbus. He could read and write. Soon his superiors saw other qualities that led them to send him to California for officers training. He wanted to fly fighter planes, but his leadership skills made him best suited to command a large crew. He would get bomber training at Gowen Field in Boise, Idaho. Radosevich, now a second lieutenant, walked into headquarters on Day One. His squad commander looked up from his desk. "I just started laughing,'' Radosevich recalled. "I get that a lot,'' said 1st Lt. Jimmy Stewart. The famous actor had earned his position as an ace pilot. He would lead Radosevich through combat and many years later become a general in the Air Force Reserves. "

http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/for-30-minutes-former-wwii-pilot-flies-back-in-time/1069525

2/3/2010 4:15:57 PM

Took some pics tonight and been fighting trying to get on my Flickr account ever since. So fuck it, I just uploaded it to TWW. Here they are all shrunk down and shit:

2/3/2010 11:50:47 PM

I have absolutely no insight on restoring a plane, but it sure looks to be a ton of work. Good luck, let us know if you follow through.

2/4/2010 12:11:28 AM

Anyone here work with helicopters? I head off to Fort Rucker in late summer for Aviation Ops.

[Edited on February 4, 2010 at 2:01 AM. Reason : .]

2/4/2010 2:00:34 AM

BTW, anybody frequently been on or flew a plane that has since crashed or had something surreal happen to it? N69CL, which was the Baron we used the most, was the nicest the company had, and I had gotten to fly a couple of times was in some photos from 2003 that I took. It was sold later that year and in May 2004 she augered in, killing everybody aboard. Apparently they lost power to one engine, stalled, and entered a spin which they could not recover from according to the probable cause report. Kinda spooky, to me at least.

[Edited on February 5, 2010 at 11:14 PM. Reason : ]

2/5/2010 11:10:15 PM

A TH-67 I'd flown chewed it's own engine apart a few months back and autoed in, killing the IP but the student survived. We got issued a different aircraft every day though, so I didn't really think anything of it.

2/6/2010 1:56:01 PM

^Was the airframe salvageable or a total loss?

2/6/2010 2:15:24 PM

No clue, not privvy to the post accident report.

2/6/2010 2:16:59 PM

I flew an RV-4 a few years ago, which was sold very shortly thereafter. Just a few weeks after I flew it, the new owner somehow was stupid enough to run it out of gas and get himself and his young son dead.


I don't know of any military aircraft I've flown that crashed. Well, a buddy of mine had a ramp strike in a Prowler I've probably flown in up in Whidbey Island, but I never actually checked the bureau numbers, and it didn't destroy the jet, anyway.

I've known a few people who've crashed or ejected...known a few who died, one who broke his back, one who's dad was killed flying the same airplane he flies now (Harrier), and several who came out perfectly fine. Met one of the guys who was in the jet in my squadron back in the 90s when they clipped the gondola cable in Italy.

oh, and I flew right over the crash site on a low-level training route where my squadron in flight school had a fatal crash just a couple of months earlier. that was kinda weird.

[Edited on February 6, 2010 at 4:47 PM. Reason : ]

2/6/2010 4:46:50 PM

haha, i had a hydraulic pump fail yesterday. today, we had one jet overheat a generator drive on deck (after landing in 45 knot winds), and another have a left main landing gear indicate unlocked (that one has happened about 3 times in a row on that jet...the first couple of times, they dumped down to min fuel and brought it in for an arrested landing. This time, they just said "screw it" and landed, as it's been found to be an indicator problem both times previously).

All sorts of little mechanical gremlins running around for the last month or two...I think it's because the jets sat too much over all the holidays (and due to some other factors) in November/December.

2/10/2010 9:24:16 PM

These AV-8s?

2/10/2010 10:07:34 PM

EA-6

2/10/2010 10:16:49 PM

durr, I knew that

2/10/2010 10:50:28 PM

I worked a mishap investigation where an E-2C went down 15 seconds after a carrier takeoff, it was pretty crazy seeing the pieces of the aircraft laid out in the hanger

2/11/2010 7:24:44 AM

http://www.militarytimes.com/multimedia/video/index_da.swf?fa=armytimes&wa=armytimes&wd=575&ht=324&cp=21772&bw=&state=vid&em=false&fn=/flv/20080714_rc_f22

2/11/2010 8:29:40 AM

^^ Was that the one off Norfolk? I knew the PC in that aircraft.

2/11/2010 8:46:41 AM

^Yeah VAW-120. Sorry to hear that, it was a very sad situation

2/11/2010 11:05:42 AM

Yeah, I think I have a pretty good idea of what happened. He was good friends with one of my friends in college and we hung out at his parent's place in Martinsville a few times.






He was a good guy and he died doing what he loved . . . it's a bitch but there are worse ways to go.

2/11/2010 12:32:13 PM

one of my old roommates was in that squadron when that happened.

2/11/2010 8:31:29 PM

Does anyone know anything about the T-34 that bit it in in Louisiana a month or so ago?? I'm trying to work orders to Corpus...

2/18/2010 2:21:57 AM

Nighthawk, there is pratically no way you are going to get that place in good operating condition for 30k. From the looks of it, you have a 40k+ job.

If you send the engine off to be overhauled, you are probably looking at 20k alone. The plane will have to go through annual, and since it hasnt been flown in so long, it is probably affected by various ADs that will send an annual even for this small cheap plane well over 4-5k (maybe more). The prop probably needs replacing at this point (probably corroded to hell and back) or at the last overhauled (1-2k). The paint is a wreck (8k). You could do the interior yourself for about 3k and replace all the plastic, seat covers, panels.

It looks like it doesnt even have a working radio. Do you really want to be a NORAD? If not, then you'll have to add 3k for a radio. Many of the instruments are probably shot or close to it.

And since it is an airplane, you need to add in the 'oh shit' factor, and probably add another 25-30% to the total to get you to true costs.

And then plane will barely be worth over 30k when your done.

As far as doing the work yourself. If you plan on keeping this plane certified, and not experimental, then there is very little of the work you'll be able to do yourself, unless you know an A&P that will sign off on your work.


[Edited on February 18, 2010 at 9:50 AM. Reason : .]

2/18/2010 9:39:24 AM

^Dad has gotten some info from a guy who redoes the engines. I think he was quoted 8-10k for an overhaul. My grandfather turns the engine over every day, so its not completely ignored. But it has not been fired up in probably 15 years, so it will need a LOT of work. Dad wants to recover the wings and fuselage if possible.

2/18/2010 8:26:57 PM

10k sounds really on the low side. I hope you'd be getting new cyllinders. Also assumes the crank is serviceable. AOPA lists the overhaul price from about 18-23k. I did a quick search and found people getting them in the 13-15k range.

Its still going to be more expensive than you think.

[Edited on February 18, 2010 at 8:46 PM. Reason : /]

2/18/2010 8:45:40 PM

Yes. Obviously this will be a long-term project. Years. But the plane holds a lot of sentimental value, not just a dollar value.

2/18/2010 9:07:34 PM

just got back from flying with my buddy in his RV-6. Flew a 1.1...few trips around the pattern so he could log the landings, then he passed me the controls and let me fly around the New Bern area. Tried to find my house, but gave up on that (should've just google map'd it in my iPhone, but didn't think of that in time). Mostly just flew around the Trent and Neuse Rivers at a few hundred feet.

2/21/2010 7:01:38 PM

2/21/2010 7:55:35 PM

man, i wish i had the time and funds to get my ppl. what is the going rate for a license these days? what's this about a sport license?
btw, CarZin, thanks again for the ride. i'm still appreciative of that day.

2/22/2010 9:38:57 AM

No problem Was reviewing my log book the yesterday and saw that flight.

Planes are renting for about $100 an hour now at Empire-aviation, and $135 (I think) at RDU. The instructors are going to be about $40 an hour now.

If you knock it out in the minimum, generally only doable if you hit it hard and dont wait a lot from one lesson to another, you should be able to get it from 4500-6500 depending on where you go. I think a lot of people are getting it in the 8-10k range after 60 hours of flying. I did mine at 42 hours.

2/22/2010 10:03:46 AM

I'll do it for $30/hr if you want to do it quick. Lowballin'

Yeah, I did mine at 41 hours. Definitely saves you cash if you're ready to go once you hit the reqs.

2/22/2010 11:23:00 AM

View Larger Map

2/24/2010 2:09:30 PM

heh. i just saw that on twitter

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8530165.stm

[Edited on February 24, 2010 at 4:50 PM. Reason : what, no streetview?]

2/24/2010 4:48:53 PM

not much of it

2/24/2010 9:01:41 PM

Pretty cool:

Impressive: Building A Silent Helicopter Blade
http://www.geekologie.com/2010/02/impressive_building_a_silent_h.php

2/27/2010 3:37:18 PM

That is pretty neat, they'll still have to contend with the noise of the engines / transmission inside, but it will make a world of difference to outside observers. I wonder how it effects performance.

Though I've got to honest, one of the greatest sounds is when you're pulling in a lot of torque in a turn and you get that cavitation pop from the main rotor

2/27/2010 7:11:20 PM

Quote :

"Though I've got to honest, one of the greatest sounds is when you're pulling in a lot of torque in a turn and you get that cavitation pop from the main rotor "

POP POP POP POP POP POP POP POP POP POP POP POP POP POP

[Edited on February 27, 2010 at 7:44 PM. Reason : or is it soi soi soi soi soi soi soi soi soi soi ]

2/27/2010 7:37:02 PM

email i got today from an old army pilot:

Quote :

"Overheard on the VHF Guard (emergency) frequency 121.5 MHz while flying from Europe to Dubai. Iranian Air Defense Site: 'Unknown aircraft you are in Iranian airspace. Identify yourself..' Aircraft: 'This is a United States aircraft. I am in Iraqi airspace.' Air Defense Site: 'You are in Iranian airspace. If you do not depart our airspace we will launch interceptor aircraft!' Aircraft: 'This is a United States Marine Corps FA-18 fighter. Send 'em up, I'll wait!' Air Defense Site: ( .... Total silence)"

3/4/2010 8:13:58 PM

Interesting article on safety and glass cockpits.

http://www.ntsb.gov/Pressrel/2010/100309.html


I'd be interested in knowing how you all feel about glass cockpits?

3/10/2010 9:02:32 AM

I like them, but I've only flown one airplane with one (T-6...basically a Pilatus PC-9). Well, the Prowler has a couple of LCD displays for the pilot, but nothing on my side, and it's mostly conventional steam gauges...the displays were fitted as a mod decades after the plane was built.


I flew my ass off the last couple of days. Thankfully most of it was easy, fairly mindless flying...took off out Cherry Point on Monday morning for a basic formation flight out in the W-122 off the coast, then landed and hot pitted at Oceana, VA...took off out of there and flew the VR-042 low level route through the VA mountains...hot pitted at Oceana again...took off from there again and cruised down to Pensacola, FL.

Had dinner with my daughter that night, then went out to the beach once it was time for her to go back to her mom and go to bed. Got up the next morning and cruised on home to Cherry Point...hot pitted, took back off, and flew out to somewhere around Columbia, SC, then turned around and came home.

3/10/2010 9:25:16 AM

We've considered converting our steam gauges to Apsen Avionics digital display systems (which are relatively affordable, starting around 10k for a single panel).

Safety isnt really the driver for us. I hate the whine of the gyro gauges, and just asume they would go away. They are maintenance hogs. I hate how they are lit at night. The situational awareness with the glass is awesome. You just can't get your head burried too deep into them. With that said, I consider glass a luxury option, nothing more. I dont think it revolutionalizes flying anywhere close to what GPS did for flying. GPS is and was huge.

With that said, steam gauges are fine.

3/10/2010 1:55:53 PM

I see. Safety is big for me in designing them... as in designing the markings, lighting, data displayed, angle, etc... in order to increase situational awareness and decrease pilot workload. Of course there are a lot of things to consider such as training, single pilot vs. dual pilot, type of aircraft, the actual mission that the aircraft is going to be used in (close combat support, combat search and rescue, night time operations, etc...), and of course affordability.
Also, designing the WCA's so that they're not annoying, won't be dismissed, and are meaningful.

I've retrofitted a few older aircraft with these, and tried to work pretty closely with the pilot community to find out how they're used. Done a lot of pilot studies, interviews, and simulations. One of my biggest concerns that I've seen with the glass cockpits is that they're often designed in a way that 'buries' information deep into menus... causing the pilot to spend more time heads down.

I just hate the clutter with the older displays, that can often be avoided with a glass cockpit approach. However, most of the safety work that I've done with these is related to software safety running the system

3/10/2010 3:55:28 PM

Do you guys think SST (supersonic transport) will ever return? I am kind of disappointed things have gone a bit backwards from that. I am sure someone could design something safer and more economical than the Concorde with today's technology. Perhaps something more people could afford a ticket for as well. I read something in Popular Science about a private supersonic plane design that could break of the sonic boom into several shocks that were less powerful and would essentially not be heard or felt on the ground.

3/10/2010 5:21:09 PM

i read an article about it a few months ago that said someone was looking into possibly doing it. i believe the ticket price would have to be stupid high though.. like 5K+

3/10/2010 5:22:58 PM