irrational fear of flying

[72gmc]

Thank you for the notes! My wife already has Utrecht on the list, and perhaps Kunstmuseum (although I may be more of a Mondrian fan than she is). We'll enjoy looking into the rest of your suggestions.

[Chik]

I was watching an old Rick Steves travel episode and he pronounced Schiphol “skipple.” This sounded odd to me—I didn’t think it was a hard c. Is “skipple” the correct pronunciation?

https://forvo.com/word/schiphol/ The first consonant is like school. The h is articulated.

[bigbill]

We're driving to Roswell, NM, on Friday morning to watch my son fly the T-6 II. As a parent, I'm always apprehensive when he's in the field or in the air, but he has wanted to be a Marine pilot since he was 16.

[donevwil]

We're driving to Roswell, NM, on Friday morning to watch my son fly the T-6 II. As a parent, I'm always apprehensive when he's in the field or in the air, but he has wanted to be a Marine pilot since he was 16.

During my internship at Pilatus Flugzeugwerke in the mid-'80s, I performed the stress analysis for horizontal stabilizer of the PC-9 (on which the T-6 II is based). Wonderful plane, your son will be fine.

[bigbill]

During my internship at Pilatus Flugzeugwerke in the mid-'80s, I performed the stress analysis for horizontal stabilizer of the PC-9 (on which the T-6 II is based). Wonderful plane, your son will be fine.

He said the plane wants to be stable. In the simulator, if the instructor causes a stall or spin, hands off is sometimes the way to go. They're grounded for a few days due to 50 mph winds. Your beta test soap goes in the mail tomorrow morning along with a shit-tonne of huckleberry for the Grand Tetons Lodge.

[Saab2000]

During my internship at Pilatus Flugzeugwerke in the mid-'80s, I performed the stress analysis for horizontal stabilizer of the PC-9 (on which the T-6 II is based). Wonderful plane, your son will be fine.

You worked for Pilatus? That’s cool. I learned how to fly in Switzerland. Interesting place with a lot of interest in aviation. When I did it in the late 1990s it was still very old school.

[donevwil]

You worked for Pilatus? That’s cool. I learned how to fly in Switzerland. Interesting place with a lot of interest in aviation. When I did it in the late 1990s it was still very old school.

Worked there for a summer and semester between my junior and senior years of college. It was a dream job for this budding aeronautical engineer (only made possible because I have Swiss citizenship). I was offered a full-time job after graduation, but the whole CH obligatory military service complicated things. The air shows put on to impress prospective customers (primarily from the middle east) were awe-inspiring. Finale was a PC-6 on static display taking off from (and subsequently landing) within the compound.

A few friends there flew, I recall they had to be certified in a glider before moving to powered flight.

20240226_165306.jpg

[Mabouya]

During my internship at Pilatus Flugzeugwerke in the mid-'80s, I performed the stress analysis for horizontal stabilizer of the PC-9 (on which the T-6 II is based). Wonderful plane, your son will be fine.

So Bill's son should be able to pull 9 g's with no problems, right? ; )

[bigbill]

So Bill's son should be able to pull 9 g's with no problems, right? ; )

Hope so, his first flight is tomorrow. They have G suits but don't expect anything over 5 Gs, unless they have to eject.

[donevwil]

So Bill's son should be able to pull 9 g's with no problems, right? ; )

Plane would probably be fine, no opinion on the pilot. Honestly, I've forgotten what test limits were (37 years ago after all), but this was a new stabilizer for an existing plane that was scheduled to receive a significant power increase, wing hard points, etc. to offer ground attack capabilities to "developing" nations.

Hope so, his first flight is tomorrow. They have G suits but don't expect anything over 5 Gs, unless they have to eject.

Any chance you'll be taking video? I'd love to see a clip or two. Exciting times for you, congratulations.

[bigbill]

Any chance you'll be taking video? I'd love to see a clip or two. Exciting times for you, congratulations.

We're driving to Roswell on Friday so we'll see him fly on Saturday. He is off on Sunday but has a brief Sunday evening for an early morning flight on Monday. They fly in the early morning before the wind builds.

[bigbill]

Today was my son's first flight. He said unpinning the ejection seat was the scariest part.

[bigbill]

I watched my son fly today. It was emotional for me when he took off and flew south to Artesia for a series of touch-and-go. I tracked him on an app and counted 12 passes before he headed back to Roswell. In Roswell, we were in a good spot to see him fly over the runway and break 180 degrees, fly the downwind leg, lower his landing gear, and make a nice landing. I've got pictures but I'm waiting on his approval before I share. He should solo in about 12 days.

[Mabouya]

I've got pictures but I'm waiting on his approval before I share.

Bill, I spoke to him, and he said it was OK, so I'm going to go ahead and post one: ; )

[rwsaunders]

Another laptop battery fire on a plane, diverting an LAX-PIT flight to ABQ. There was smoke in the cabin and a passenger was burned trying to stomp out the fire. Masks didn’t deploy in the passenger area, as I understand that the masks only deploy in a pressure loss situation, but the pilot/FO were wearing smoke hoods. From a quick search, this looks to be occurring often enough to be rather frightening

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/352137

https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/frig...I55I3PA4KRXG4/

https://www.dailybreeze.com/2023/02/...of-california/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzanne...h=e3b3ed4bb04b

[j44ke]

Once the plane reaches 16,000 feet the door will blow off and then the masks will deploy.

[72gmc]

Worth watching (as American Experience tends to be): https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexp...s/fly-with-me/

[thollandpe]

Pilatus is a great aircraft. The PC-6 Porter is one of the ugliest (in detail) but most beautiful (in function) aircraft ever.

Boeing, sadly, is no longer a great aircraft company. As a third generation aerospace engineer who worked (but no longer works) on aircraft, I hope this situation is not terminal. Boeing deserves better than its recent management. This a brutal assessment, but damn it seems to hit the mark.



Warning: video includes description of incest, dromedary porn, and unearned shareholder value.

[bigbill]

I'll work on the pictures. We just got home from the ten-hour drive from Roswell, NM, to Hackberry, AZ. This morning, he was driving the truck with the landing lights down to Artesia as the "gear down" observer for touch and go. If they're approaching the runway with gear up, he gets on the radio and says, "Wave off, wave off, wave off," and turns on the red lights. Everyone takes a turn having that job. I remember when I was stationed in Norfolk, we'd go cycling around Pungo, and there were some outlying fields the Navy used for carrier approach touch and goes. A pilot did a gear-up touch and go a Tomcat, somehow got it back in the air, and returned to Oceana for an emergency landing. It's probably a career move.

[gregl]

I'll work on the pictures. We just got home from the ten-hour drive from Roswell, NM, to Hackberry, AZ. This morning, he was driving the truck with the landing lights down to Artesia as the "gear down" observer for touch and go. If they're approaching the runway with gear up, he gets on the radio and says, "Wave off, wave off, wave off," and turns on the red lights. Everyone takes a turn having that job. I remember when I was stationed in Norfolk, we'd go cycling around Pungo, and there were some outlying fields the Navy used for carrier approach touch and goes. A pilot did a gear-up touch and go a Tomcat, somehow got it back in the air, and returned to Oceana for an emergency landing. It's probably a career move.

Civilian aviation could use some of those gear down observers. It's very, very rare among professional, multi-pilot crews to make unintended gear up landings. Among private pilots, it's all too common. We used to say that "there's those who have and those that will" in reference to landing with the gear up. I know several good pilots who have done it. Usually happens when distracted and/or rushed. We used to joke "How do you know you forgot to lower the landing gear? It takes a lot of power to taxi..."

Speaking of landing gear, the other issue that was fun to deal with was manual landing gear extensions. We always trained for this scenario, both in simulators and during flight training/checkrides. The best training I found was to perform the actual procedure when an aircraft was up on jacks during scheduled maintenance. The process differed based on the gear system design, but it typically involved isolating the mechanism electrically (pulling circuit breaker(s)), releasing uplocks, and manually lowering the gear by a hand crank, hand pump, gravity, slipstream, nitrogen bottle, or some combination of these methods. The three times I had real system failures requiring manual gear extensions, all went exactly according to the checklists. I can still remember the sighs of relief when three green lights appeared, validating my efforts with the hand crank!

Greg