irrational fear of flying

[bigbill]

My son is doing Powered Flight as part of his Naval Academy summer training. If you're in Northern VA, Southern MD, keep your head on a swivel.

[Scott G.]

Here’s a closeup of a Pratt & Whitney R-2800 in a P-47D Thunderbolt…ask and ye shall receive.

18 cylinders x 2 spark plugs per cylinder, per P 47, then x4 for a B-29, so 144 plugs to check for fouling.

B-36 had 6x 28-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-4360, so 336 plugs. No wonder jets took over.

[Dave Thompson]

Geez I love big round engines! When I was USAF in the early 60s I worked on Douglas C124 transports. They used 4 Pratt & Whitney 4350 (cubic inch) 28 cylinder, 3500 hp, 4-row radial engines, four of them. I often went on test flights when our work was finished just to be able to listen to the music of those engines. Lovely.

[thollandpe]

B-36 had 6x 28-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-4360, so 336 plugs. No wonder jets took over.

How about one R-4360 in a Hawker Sea Fury?



I got to see an R-4360 up close, it’s incredible (and full of PCBs). But have you ever seen a J-58? The jet game was not about simplification.

[gregl]

But have you ever seen a J-58? The jet game was not about simplification.

An example of an engineering masterclass!

Greg

[j44ke]

Awesome paint stripper!

[GeneK]

If you don’t mind, where were these photos taken?

[rwsaunders]

If you don’t mind, where were these photos taken?

My pleasure…The Museum of Flight in Seattle.

https://www.museumofflight.org/

[GeneK]

Thanks! I’d like to visit some day.

[thollandpe]

My pleasure…The Museum of Flight in Seattle.

https://www.museumofflight.org/

Thanks for sharing. You do nice work.

Reminds me that I need to get back the Rhinebeck Aerodrome https://oldrhinebeck.org/ again this summer. And bring a damn camera.





Photo credits https://generalaviationnews.com/2018...eck-aerodrome/

[rwsaunders]

High prices, no parking, long lines, TSA, small seats, small snacks, mask mandates, unruly passengers and now self-service craft beer…egads.

[rwsaunders]

So we are getting a new $1.4B smaller, post-911 airport to replace the $1.1B (1992 dollars) airport that was essentially built to suit the specific needs of USAirways, which initially used 53/76 gates. Well, 2 bankruptcies, a relocation to Philadelphia and a merger into American Airlines later, the airport has never been the same and there is really no chance that it will ever serve as a hub again. Oh, and it will be paid for through a bond issue, but not by the taxpayer, just the users. Wait, aren’t most of the people who use an airport taxpayers too?

I’m also trying to understand the need to start from scratch, as I certainly wouldn’t raze a 30 year old home, just to build a new one, but I’m not a County Commissioner who’s promising 5,500 construction jobs and playing the shell game with tax dollars and floating bonds. We saw the same thing here when they built 2 new sports stadiums, to replace a 30 year old stadium, after the voters nixed the plan on a referendum. SOS…the taxpayers aren’t smart enough to make these decisions…right.

Oh well, no sense spending money on something as exciting as repairing the 400 bridges that we have in the County, or developing an improved public transportation system, such as converting the trolley lines that lie below several of the main urban arteries, into part of a practical light rail system. If I’m above ground 30 years from now, I’ll post a similar note on the OT, when we build another airport.

https://pittransformed.com/

https://www.post-gazette.com/busines...nes-Newsletter

[rwsaunders]

Last leg for the month.

[rwsaunders]

Monday Night Football was in town and the Goodyear blimp was setting new speed records at 4kts.

[bigbill]

This year's Army-Navy game is at the Meadowlands Stadium. Normally there's a flyover by the Blue Angels and a parachute jump by the Black Knights. Last I checked, there are a few airports in the area. I'll have excellent seats.

[Dave Thompson]

Crossing the Columbia River on the last leg of our last leg from Florence. Near 14 hours in the air, 9 time zone changes and now a half hour from home!

[Mabouya]

Near 14 hours in the air

Without a "bed" to sleep in or a walking trail to exercise on that must be brutal.

[Dave Thompson]

Without a "bed" to sleep in or a walking trail to exercise on that must be brutal.

Not too bad, Delta has relatively comfortable seats. At my age I get a little stiff if I can’t move around much. But I can sleep well on planes. I trained(!) on long-haul flights on military transports when I was USAF.

[rwsaunders]

I was wondering why a simple trip from DTW-SEA was going to take 4h40m, although we were warned in advance about the weather front that passed through the PNW...check out the headwind and the altitude.

[Saab2000]

You were down low due to likely high altitude turbulence. In spite of that high wind, it may have been higher at a higher altitude.

I took a screenshot of a generic DTW-SEA flight plan on our weather app and the route you would have taken likely flew through areas of known or forecast bad rides. The green areas are generated to show areas of likely turbulence, with the boxed ones depicting moderate turbulence and the round ones light to occasional moderate. The orange splotches are based on winds at altitude AFAIK and also predict turbulence. Both are WAGs in my experience. But this can be a useful tool at times.

Flying lower is almost always better in my experience and you likely had a better ride at 26,000' than you would have at 36,000'.

Airbus A320?