irrational fear of flying

[rwsaunders]

I thought that I could see the 62 across when this plane buzzed us and then we flew over the Great Salt Lake and my eyes were really working hard.

[monadnocky]

35 down is "pots"
to make 43 across "Toni"
keep up the photos, RW!

[BBB]

59 down is ABBA!

[Colinmclelland]

58 Down is Scar, so 69 across is Real

[BBB]

56 down is Elba and 66 across is Alba!

[rwsaunders]

35 across turned out to be pansy not poppy as 25 down was muslincloth...I do screw up a word now and then and usually the simpler ones.

[mnoble485]

9 across is smoke making 12 down keno.

I'm sure you don't need our help but maybe we could do a Sunday Times.

Mike

[htwoopup]

I have stayed quiet about this but now I just can’t.

From the Wall St Journal....

« The Four-Second Catastrophe: How Boeing Doomed the 737 MAX
In designing the plane’s flight controls, the aerospace giant assumed that pilots should be able to sift through a jumble of contradictory warnings and take the proper action 100% of the time within four seconds. That’s about the amount of time that it took you to read this sentence. »

I worked at a different company in a different industry with some of the senior management of the company and some of their directors. And having read some of their statements that, because I know them and their history, I find incredulous.

So, I must say I just sense this was a culture problem that emanated from the top down and it makes me very discouraged about the American enterprise system.

[rwsaunders]

American Airlines' last MD-80's head to the desert....Roswell to be precise...most of them anyway. Cool video in the link with a "wing wave".

Inside the American Airlines Super8 Send Off | Flightradar24 Blog

[bigbill]

American Airlines' last MD-80's head to the desert....Roswell to be precise...most of them anyway. Cool video in the link with a "wing wave".

Inside the American Airlines Super8 Send Off | Flightradar24 Blog

I can go up on the roof and see dozens of MD80's parked outside. They're painted in United livery. Kingman, AZ is a major repository of commercial aircraft. Most have their engines removed. Every once in a while a plane will fly out.

[htwoopup]

Granted this is an opinion piece and it is from the Guardian, but it is apropos of the comment about a culture problem at Boeing. It does take it further than I did saying it affects the whole economic system (so maybe this link belongs in illuminating journalism?) but I do think it is relevant in the Max and Dreamliner discussions.

« As Scott Hamilton, an aerospace analyst and editor of Leeham News and Analysis, puts it: “Boeing Commercial Airplanes clearly has a systemic problem in designing, producing and delivering airplanes.” « 

Boeing's travails show what's wrong with modern capitalism | Matt Stoller | Opinion | The Guardian

[gregl]

Granted this is an opinion piece and it is from the Guardian, but it is apropos of the comment about a culture problem at Boeing. It does take it further than I did saying it affects the whole economic system (so maybe this link belongs in illuminating journalism?) but I do think it is relevant in the Max and Dreamliner discussions.

« As Scott Hamilton, an aerospace analyst and editor of Leeham News and Analysis, puts it: “Boeing Commercial Airplanes clearly has a systemic problem in designing, producing and delivering airplanes.” « 

Boeing's travails show what's wrong with modern capitalism | Matt Stoller | Opinion | The Guardian

Our capitalist economy once had some balance between labor, management, and government. Now the labor has been outsourced and the government has been sold to management. Industry is now to a great extent self-policed. That policy allowed the 737 Max debacle to play out. Expect more of the same going forward...

Greg

[jclay]

Our capitalist economy once had some balance between labor, management, and government. Now the labor has been outsourced and the government has been sold to management. Industry is now to a great extent self-policed. That policy allowed the 737 Max debacle to play out. Expect more of the same going forward...

Greg

That is a succinct summary. Greg gets it.

And in a related vein, I can't help but shake my head in wonderment when folks claim the Democratic Party is "left" or socialist or other nonsense. Would that it were merely progressive. The dem party abandoned labor a long time ago and has been a subscriber to the neo-liberal economic school of thought at least since Clinton. It's not as regressive as the current incarnation of the R party but it's certainly to the right of the party of Nixon. And since we are all the beneficiaries of progress I am always puzzled by folks who profess to embrace conservative thought. Few of us would choose to live in the eras of yore.

[rwsaunders]

The 46 across wasn't just the double weather delay that I dealt with yesterday, some numbnut marketing professor decided to teach a remote class from the Sky Club at AUS because he missed his flight...well over an hour. No kidding, he took up a entire table with two laptops, had the headphones on and was lecturing via video in his professorial (I am the most important person in the room) voice. Just short of a mutiny, several of us raised our hands in mockery when he asked his class to raise their hand if the answer "D" was correct...a woman across the room choked on her a drink because she was laughing so hard at our reaction. Near the end of the class, the room started to make a lot of noise because this fellow was so damn rude and if they ever allow calls on a plane, I am certain that there will be mayhem in the air.

[SteveP]

I await the Boeing bankruptcy and bailout after this fiasco.

[rwsaunders]

Needless to say I didn't see Air Force One nearby...

[thollandpe]

Two weeks ago I heard the unmistakable rumble of four Pratt & Whitney radial engines, and stopped riding to search overhead. There it was, the one-of-a-kind silhouette of a Boeing B-17 making its way across the western Massachusetts sky.

Today that airplane crashed, and many were killed. What a tragic loss.

7 people killed in B-17 crash at Bradley | News | wfsb.com

[rwsaunders]

Saab...do you think that this IPA logo was designed by pilots?

[Saab2000]

Saab...do you think that this IPA logo was designed by pilots?

Most pilots wouldn't have the artistic talent to draw anything more creative than their signature. On the other hand, the other day I flew with a really talented flight attendant. On our flights the flight attendant gives us the final passenger count (which is to verify the info we have from the gate as a crosscheck) and they give it to us on the company cocktail napkin. This particular flight attendant is a bit more creative and artistic than most. I've flown with her before and I can't throw these away after the flight. They're too good.

[rwsaunders]

Most pilots wouldn't have the artistic talent to draw anything more creative than their signature. On the other hand, the other day I flew with a really talented flight attendant. On our flights the flight attendant gives us the final passenger count (which is to verify the info we have from the gate as a crosscheck) and they give it to us on the company cocktail napkin. This particular flight attendant is a bit more creative and artistic than most. I've flown with her before and I can't throw these away after the flight. They're too good.

That is true talent my friend.