Good point. I think the fastest I've ever had it is 120 mph...lower than the landing speed on even a lightly loaded 757. I think the lowest ref speed I've ever seen on a 757 (empty plane) was 118 kts or about 135 mph. The 767 speeds are a bit higher because of its greater weight.

Idk how retirement is treating you, but if you have some cool aerial pics then feel free to spam your own thread withem, a thread btw has lasted almost 400 pages with a basically nil troll factor bc flying is ****** awesome

Much as I agree with this you're doing it wrong. 93 pages ftw!

That old chestnut oughta warm WOXOF's cockles.

11 years and still going strong. Can't remember the last time I contributed to a poker thread on this site, but W0X0F is as good a reason as any to keep coming back.

This one is not an aerial pic, but I kind of like it. I took this after flying an empty 757 from JFK to Cleveland's Burke Lakefront airport (BKL), July 9, 2019. We flew in to pick up the Red Sox coaches and players who took part in the All-Star game.

This is one of our modified 757s, with seating for 70-ish rather than the normal 180 or more. Club seating (seats facing each other, with a table between them). I know I took pictures of the interior but I can't find them right now.

Lots of biz jets on the ramp, belonging to various team owners. There was another Delta 757 on the ramp, there to pick up the Dodgers. We were the only two large jets there that evening.

That's a nice shot. A little lower to the ground than I had hoped

More coming...

Looking forward to whatever you got

I'll get some airborne pics uploaded soon, but I just came across this one of another 757 on the ground. Specially outfitted inside for the Stones' tour.

Must have been some crazy times in that jet. All my flights the last 4 years have been 787-9. Really enjoy those flights

No idea why this occurred to me.

Would you say, in general, that pilots are cautious auto drivers?

I could see this going either way: 70 mph and only two dimensions is boring, so they tend to be aggressive, or that safety's so drilled into them that it's part of their being, and they are cautious.

My guess is the latter.

Don't ask WOXOF that, he already told us his Tesla goes 0-60 in 2.5 seconds

Ha, good one john.

If you ever read The Right Stuff, you'll remember that military test pilots used to be known for driving fast cars. I don't know if that's still the stereotype or not. Back in the early days of test flying, when the sound barrier was still considered an impenetrable wall, the fatality rate was pretty significant and maybe they had more of a "live for the moment" attitude. Probably not as prevalent today.

I do know that, with me, my wife used to often have to remind me "you're in a car now, not a plane. You need to pay attention." She had a point. In a plane, especially in cruise flight with the autopilot on, you can divert your attention from the flight path without compromising safety. Not a good thing to do in a car.

I've seen the whole spectrum in pilots I've driven with, so I don't think you can generalize. One thing that most pilots are good about is wearing a seat belt. It's just so ingrained in us to have our seat belt fastened before engine start.

James May did a segment on the cars astronauts drove on an episode of "The Grand Tour". It's season 3, episode 9 if you have Prime.

Two this time:

1) Watching some movie, the hero needed to pull up immediately to avoid the mountain or some such. Of course, it was a huge effort, and he had to grimace and put his whole body into it to pull the controls back for this emergency.

Movie cliche, or is it really that hard to manipulate the controls quickly?

2) Another from the movies: On long-distance flights, is there a rule that the captain & FO (or some parts of the flight crew) have to have different meals? Just in case something like, the fish is contaminated.

On the first one, I'm "guessing" the scene you're referring to is Timothy Dalton (as James Bond) in the movie "The Living Daylights". It's (mostly) special effects, but he has a close call with a mountain flying a stodgy transport plane.

lol, it's like that in pretty much every "airplane has a close call" movie there ever has been

If I am listening to ATC communications from a nearby major airport (tower frequency, for takeoffs and landings), is it safe to say that the pilot speaking to the air traffic controller is not the one flying the plane at that moment?

For commercial carriers, that's probably a safe assumption since they fly at least two person crews, so one can handle the radio and monitor things while the other person runs the controls.

For general aviation, the pilot flying is most likely also running the radio, although there are times where a couple people both proficient in flying may be in a small plane so one can handle coms while the other flies. See 310pilot or Barronpilot on YouTube for guys who fly while their partner does radio calls.

For the airlines, it is the non-flying pilot (PNF) handling the radios. There are times, however, where the flying pilot (PF) will handle ATC and that's whenever the PNF must leave the frequency, e.g. to make a PA or to go off on comm #2 to check ATIS or call operations.

At Delta, the need to go off and use the secondary radio is pretty rare. ATIS is retrieved via ACARS at most airports these days and there is not usually a need to contact Ops since Out/Off/On/In (OOOI) times are reported automatically. But there are still airports (e.g. most of those in the Caribbean) where ATIS must be copied from radio transmissions.

The other situation which might require the PF to handle ATC is during an abnormal situation. This could be a mechancial problem, requiring a radio patch to our dispatcher and maintenance via Atlanta Radio, or a medical situation in back requiring a radio patch to STAT MD, again via Atlanta Radio on comm #2.

And, lastly, if one pilot leaves the cockpit to use the lav, the remaining pilot handles all of the big three tasks: aviate, navigate, communicate.

W0X0F,

Have you read Randal Monroe's book "How To" which gives ridiculous but accurate advice (for instance, it talks about the number of electric kettles and the power required to turn a river to steam so that you can walk across without a bridge) on how to do things?

If so, any thoughts on the chapter that's a Q&A on how to make an emergency landing with test pilot/astronaut Chris Hadfield?

No Garick, I haven't read that book. But I'm just about to head to the library (yes, I'm one of the few old fossils that still enjoys a public library) and I'll look for it. I'll take it as a homework assignment and get back to you on that chapter.

I misspelled the last name, it's actually "Munroe." Sorry.