or any other flight...or worse yet, in the brief. nothing worse than failing a flight before you ever strap into the airplane.

5/20/2009 12:24:43 AM

Page 2 needs a picture




[Edited on May 22, 2009 at 12:59 PM. Reason : need a better camera ]

5/22/2009 12:57:53 PM

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123150668

Quote :

"5/22/2009 - EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., (AFNS) -- An Air Force test pilot student died May 21 when his jet trainer crashed north of Edwards Air Force Base. Captain Mark P. Graziano, 30, died when the T-38A Talon he was piloting crashed about nine miles north of the base here, near California City, Calif. Captain Graziano was assigned to the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School here, where he was undergoing training to become a test pilot. His crew member, Maj. Lee V. Jones, was injured upon ejecting from the aircraft. He was transported to Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, Calif., where he is listed in stable condition. Major Jones, a senior navigator, is also assigned to the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School, undergoing test navigator training. "

5/22/2009 1:54:14 PM

I got back in the air yesterday for the first time since September.

I still fly fine after a long hiatus, I just forget absolutely everything about radio calls.

5/22/2009 3:07:44 PM

Don't feel bad...last week I was practicing some pattern work and before I turned final I said "Allegro traffic..."
which was the type of plane I was flying instead of Sanford traffic.

5/22/2009 4:28:53 PM

My biggest regret about initially learning to fly is that I operated out of a small airport and avoided larger ones. By the time I was licensed I was unprepared to deal with the radio work at big airports.

The worst is forgetting to switch frequencies and having the ATC tell you "[facepalm]...this is still the tower. departure is....."

Oh yeah, and I saw Michael Jordan's plane. Gulfstream with a Carolina blue stripe down the fuselage and up the tail with the Air Jordan silhouette on it. Here's a picture from online:



N236MJ. Any clue what the 6 means?

[Edited on May 22, 2009 at 4:46 PM. Reason : .]

5/22/2009 4:35:45 PM

I was lucky in that they had to repave my home runway so we were operating out of the international airport for a few weeks. I got all the radio calls in and stuff there, it was pretty nice.

5/22/2009 6:50:58 PM

We had a family day down here a few months ago and they let my mom up in the tower while I was in the pattern. Yeah, she (inadvertently) dimed me out on the air.

5/22/2009 7:08:07 PM

We had to operate out of Honolulu Intl. when they closed OUR home field, those guys HATED US. Massivly busy airport and we're shutting it down for sonobuoy continuity loss.

We're back in K-bay now though!

5/22/2009 11:04:53 PM

They are shutting my home field down again in a few weeks so we'll be back over at Huntsville international. There was a really cute girl that worked behind the counter of the general aviation desk when I was there before, I'm hoping she'll still be there. Although I'm sure she's immune to the "Yeah, I'm a pilot" approach since she interacts with pilots all the time.

5/22/2009 11:39:46 PM

In some industries, you just can't tempt fate.

5/23/2009 2:48:07 AM

Quote :

"Any clue what the 6 means?"

He got 6 NBA championships.

5/23/2009 8:31:28 AM

^^^

http://www.fbohotties.com/

5/23/2009 1:54:20 PM

5/23/2009 2:10:21 PM

Duke have you heard anything about the 60 that went down in SD??

5/23/2009 4:55:34 PM

no report yet, but that unit hadn't had a class A accident in 19 years.

5/24/2009 1:13:10 PM

http://amfix.blogs.cnn.com/2009/05/28/floridas-pilot-factory/

CNN story about the 'pilot factory' in Fort Lauderdale that produced the pilot of the Buffalo crash.

The reader comments are hilarious.

5/28/2009 4:08:12 PM

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,523701,00.html

Quote :

" A massive search is underway for an Air France jet carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris believed to have gone down off the northeast coast of Brazil a few hours after takeoff. The jet lost contact with air traffic controllers after flying into a strong thunderstorm over the Atlantic Ocean and signaling it had an electric problem. Chief Air France spokesman Francois Brousse said "it is possible" the plane was hit by lightning."

6/1/2009 3:30:45 PM

ooooooooooh, a big time class A mishap? >1mil or death.

time for some xtra fod walkdowns



[Edited on June 1, 2009 at 4:04 PM. Reason : .]

6/1/2009 4:03:59 PM

I know where they are.

6/1/2009 4:22:41 PM

On another note, this is a pretty funny story:
http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/Above--Beyond-Shooting-Up-a-Shooting-Star.html

6/1/2009 5:05:00 PM

^ Great find. I bookmarked the site so I can check out the rest of the stories on there.

6/1/2009 6:19:45 PM

Rent or buy? Question for those of you not in the military.

I remember the old saying:

If it flies fucks or floats its cheaper to rent it.

6/3/2009 7:10:12 AM

i've got some pretty good pics from the Seymour Johnson (teehee) air show back in April. hopefully i can get those up today sometime

6/3/2009 8:46:09 AM

^^ something I'm thinking about myself...

It depends on how much you fly. The other consideration is that you are limited in what kinds of aircraft you can rent (i.e., you can rent a Cessna or a Cherokee, but good luck with renting, say, a Pitts.) Also, if you own, you can take your plane on a trip somewhere, and it's up to you when you bring it back.

The very rough rule of thumb I've heard is that at least 100 hours per year is the break-even point. That's a pretty good bit of flying for one private pilot. If you co-own the airplane with one or two other people, it can become much more attractive. That's what I'll do whenever I end up buying an airplane.

6/3/2009 12:17:31 PM

As a part owner of a Piper Arrow, I find it very hard to justify owning 100% of the plane unless you have a massive amount of disposable income. In my partnership, expenses are split 4 ways, and it is still very expensive. I fly anywhere from 50 hours->125 hours a year (just depends on the year). The partnership has been so good, that I'd probably never consider owning 100%.

If you want to know all the in's and out's, send me a PM and I can call you. Too many for me to detail here.

6/3/2009 3:36:09 PM

Seaplane crash in Alaska. Not too exciting.

http://www.foxnews.com/video/index.html?playerId=011008&streamingFormat=FLASH&referralObject=6043077&referralPlaylistId=playlist

[Edited on June 16, 2009 at 3:41 PM. Reason : .]

6/16/2009 3:41:03 PM

this is one of the hottest pics ive ever seen. It looks so perfect i suspected it of being CG

6/18/2009 6:45:11 AM

Haha no its not CG. It was a picture of The Horsemen flying at Cherry Point this year. Shot it with the D80 and a 300 mm telephoto. Don't even think I had to do any cropping to it. Glad you like it. It was probably my favorite from the day as well.

6/18/2009 8:08:45 AM

Best airline idea ever?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfIY24BErBE

6/23/2009 8:51:55 PM

bad couple of days for the military:

an F-16 crashed today in Utah, pilot was killed:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,528450,00.html


and a TH-67 crashed here in Alabama yesterday, one pilot was killed and one survived:
http://tinyurl.com/lnyhnh

6/23/2009 9:01:40 PM

^

Military jumper died two days ago in Yuma too.

6/23/2009 9:53:31 PM

I ran across this mouse and thought some of you pilots might like it.

6/23/2009 10:42:41 PM

Hey guys, just curious about something. If you have never served active duty, what are the requirements to join the AF Reserves or ANG to be a pilot? Is there a max age or vision limit? I assume I would have to finish my bachelors, correct? Also if you do not have your flight training completed, will they send you to school for that? And how often do the Reserves/ANG meet?

Just curious since I don't have my stuff completed yet; it would cost a lot of money I don't have to get all my stuff done, and if I did it, I want to stay where I am right now. I know I could call a recruiter, but they would hound the shit out of me and tell me fucking anything to get me to do it. I basically would like to get flight school paid for, keep my current job/house/etc., and report whenever they need me for training and shit. In a perfect world I would love to fly an A-10C in an ANG or AFR unit, but I know the nearest of those units got shifted from Pope to Moody by BRAC.

6/24/2009 9:09:43 AM

They should train you, I know the Army does. Vision and age will always have limits but there are waivers for everything. However, you're not going to be commissioned in the US military without a 4 year degree and you're not going to get a waiver without pre-existing skills.

If you're still in college, talk to the ROTC department. They're not generally as high pressure as recruiters would be and would be more knowledgeable about officer tracks than an enlisted recruiter.

6/24/2009 10:42:38 PM

^^ i think that there are only like 1-2 pilot training spots per year for the ANG, but I may be wrong.

(so you're sayin' there's a chance!)

6/24/2009 11:45:45 PM

I talked to a couple fixed wing friends of mine today about the possibilities in the Air France crash. Apparently the Scarebus has had some issues with icing on the airspeed indicator (I don't think it is actually a pitot tube, but I could be wrong). They theorize that with the autopilot on, and given the icing conditions present in a thunderstorm, that the indicator may have become obstructed, indicated lesser values than the actual airspeed, the aircraft attempted to correct by accelerating, went trans-sonic and disintegrated. Composites being what they are, they tend to fail catastrophically rather than weaken over time.

This probably isn't anything anyone didn't know but I thought I'd post it anyway.

6/25/2009 5:43:19 PM

Nobody liked my mouse? Nobody?

6/25/2009 5:46:21 PM

Hitler's Stealth Fighter

Quote :

"SUN JUN 28 9P In the final months of World War II, American troops discovered a top-secret facility in Germany with an advanced batwing-shaped jet fighter. If Nazi engineers had had more time, would this jet have ultimately changed the outcome of the war?"

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/hitler-s-stealth-fighter-3942/Overview

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/090625-hitlers-stealth-fighter-plane.html

6/28/2009 8:02:59 AM

Quote :

"aircraft attempted to correct by accelerating, went trans-sonic and disintegrated"

I find that hard to believe. Most airliners already tread into the transonic region, probably 0.85 or so. There's NO WAY it would be able to break Mach in level flight, and I find it VERY hard to believe that the engineers would've designed it to be able to be able to go fast enough in level flight to induce a catestrophic failure. There's just no way.

Now, if the static ports were iced over, too, maybe it went into a steep descent on the autopilot, but again, there is always a safety margin engineered in--I can't imagine that it pitched down enough to go fast enough to break apart in mid-air without the pilots noticing and taking action.

6/28/2009 8:28:12 AM

Yeah, commercial aircraft aren't my body of expertise, I just thought I'd pass it on.

6/28/2009 3:30:56 PM

Talk about STOL:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfeMLQNe57E

6/30/2009 2:44:20 PM

[Edited on June 30, 2009 at 2:45 PM. Reason : OH SHIT! INTERNAL SERVICE]

6/30/2009 2:44:29 PM

^x5 That was a very interesting show and a good post. Frankly, I don't appreciate you people ignoring it--I've got a good mind not to return to this thread.

6/30/2009 5:41:34 PM

^

Good you aren't offering anything meaningful other than nick nacks and trivia. Most of us it seems all fly to some degree and are interested in how to be safer and better pilots, not what some old guy who doesn't fly saw on TV.

6/30/2009 5:51:24 PM

I shall trouble you here no more.

6/30/2009 6:08:36 PM

I didn't mind it, but a number of countries used laminated wood in aircraft construction. It wasn't an issue of stealth at all, but rather an issue of having indigenous aircraft production that wouldn't be hampered by short supplies of metal. The deHavilland Mosquito was a notable example.

Also I'm tired of seeing late war designs that yielded a single (if any) prototype and then hearing that it could have won the war for Germany if it had been produced in large numbers before the end of the war.

Had it made it to large scale production then Hitler would have made it another bomber like Me-262 so that he would have the badass offensive aircraft that he wanted, but not the defensive fighters that were needed to protect german towns and factories. The brilliance was in the weapons that were created, not in the idiotic ways that Hitler deployed them.

7/1/2009 1:21:37 AM

Speaking of plywood, here is a little bit of the Mossie:

7/1/2009 8:33:18 AM

^ I had to look it up, but apparently another Mosquito has been restored to airworthy status in the past year or two. The last flyable one crashed in 96.

7/1/2009 2:16:35 PM

Quote :

"Most of us it seems all fly to some degree and are interested in how to be safer and better pilots, not what some old guy who doesn't fly saw on TV."

FWIW, I created this thread largely as a generic aviation thread.

It'd be a good idea to keep it professional, but the occasional drooling over bizarre aircraft and warbirds completely out of our monetary reach is entirely appropriate.

7/1/2009 5:59:55 PM