W0X0F, you’ve got an awesome thread and I’ve enjoyed reading it for years! I’ve got a quick question for you: How long do you think it’ll take for the NTSB to determine/release the cause of the Glen de Vries plane crash?

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Hard to say. I don’t know any of the particulars of this crash. The investigation could take months, unless the cause is immediately obvious (rarely the case).

I remember a local crash of a C-172 when I was in private pilot ground school (1977). I can’t recall how long the investigation took, but the final determination was that the pilot’s seat was not fully locked into position (a problem I had sometimes encountered on the 172) and slid aft during maneuvering, causing loss of control because the yoke was out of reach of the pilot and he could not regain control.

The NTSB will look at the wreckage to determine if there was structural failure (rare). They’ll tear down the engine to see if that had issues. They will check any transmissions that were made during flight and, if necessary, they’ll also do autopsies to look for medical incapacitation (heart attack or stroke). All of this can take months or a year.

(I just noticed the time stamp on my posting above. It is Zulu (GMT) time. Is this a new thing on TwoPlusTwo? I don’t recall this in the past.)

No, when they implemented the new look it reset some settings/changed them to default. Unfortunately, any settings they jacked up will have to be put back in order by you.

Flying Blind

https://www.npr.org/2021/11/29/10597...th-the-737-max

Back around the 2000-2001 timeframe, I worked with a lady engineer - a self-described "airplane nut" - who had worked for McDonnell-Douglas in St. Louis around the time of the Boeing merger. (She worked on the military [Aviation] side of McDonnell-Douglas.) The CEO of McDonnell-Douglas was a man named Harry Stonecipher. Mr. Stonecipher was known for being a notorious cost cutter. With the Boeing merger, Mr. Stonecipher managed to get himself installed in a senior level executive position within the new [combined] corporation.

Mr. Stonecipher was quick to push his cost cutting philosophy down through the ranks of Boeing. Stonecipher was not well liked - especially among the engineers. (My engineer lady friend told me that, back in St. Louis, they not-so-affectionately referred to Mr. Stonecipher as "Uncle Harry".) Under Mr. Stonecipher's leadership, cost and profitability began to outrank "other considerations" - such as schedule and safety. Given that mindset at the top, it's no great surprise that something like the 737-MAX fiasco was bound to happen.

Mr. Stonecipher wasn't shown the door at Boeing because of a belief that his emphasis on "cost cutting" (above all else) contributed to Government procurement scandals and problems with the development of the 787 Dreamliner. No, the married "Uncle Harry" couldn't keep his hands off a female Boeing employee.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Stonecipher

After news of the affair broke, Stonecipher's 50-year marriage to his wife Joan ended. She filed for divorce.

Interestingly enough, when McDonnell-Douglas merged, the "new boss" (it's not clear to me if this was James McDonnell or David Lewis) had the same penny-wise and pound foolish obsession with cost-cutting, according to my grandfather, who was a VP at Douglas.

My grandpa told me that the new regime made a rule that no long-distance phone calls could be over ten minutes long, and the "new boss" came out of his office and hung up my granpa's phone when a call went over ten minutes... a call with the Vice President of the United States.

I've been reading How To by Randall Munroe (of xkcd fame).

It's got a chapter on the best ways to handle plane emergencies.

For reasons I can't really explain, I think you'd enjoy the whole thing, but especially this section.

Fatal Hampton plane crash was not due to mechanical failure, NTSB says in initial report

Interested in hearing from W0X0F as well as any other pilots here…

When you drive a car, do you attempt to operate the vehicle with the same level of alertness, caution, and precision that you use when flying a plane? For example, do you have any “checklists” or rituals you go through when approaching dangerous driving scenarios (e.g., freeway merging, busy intersections with pedestrians, etc.)?

Do you make more mistakes while driving than when flying?

I wish people treated driving as a high-reliability activity.

I wish I could say that I did but I'm sure I don't drive a car with the same attention to procedure and detail that I do when flying. A simple checklist wouldn't be a bad idea however. I will say that I have always been a fanatic about using the seatbelt, even before every car came equipped with annoying reminders to buckle up. That's probably a carry-over from flying.

Yes. And part of the reason might be that I'm driving "solo" without the benefit of a another crew member to back me up.

I'm pretty sure having a co-pilot in a car would cause many more crashes.

W0X0F, moar stories please!

It certainly causes more fights over the radio.

I'm acquainted with a couple who, over the holidays, flew to Seattle to visit one son, then is going on to Norway to visit the other. We were talking about the possibility of seeing the aurora borealis from the plane.

Have you ever seen the aurora from the air? Any different than seeing it from the ground?

Hope you and all others ITT are having pleasant and safe holidays.

as an addition to golddog's question, any pics of said borealis from the air would be greatly appreciated.

Any thoughts on the Learjet incident at Gillespie Field near San Diego?

ATC comms was heartbreaking. He took a challenging approach at night in sketchy IMC however.

At any point in your flight training, did you ever take runs through a canyon like the "Star Wars" canyon shown in this video? If not, what's the closest you came to flying like this?

Nothing quite like that. There were many times I flew along the Potomac River low enough that we were looking up at the trees along the banks. Out near Leesburg VA, there are high tension wires across the Potomac. I’ve flown under those a handful of times (probably 50’ of clearance between the water and the wires).

When I lived in Hawaii, I flew just above the water on the a north side of Molokai, right next to the sheer cliffs rising from the ocean. I also flew low over the pastures of Molokai heading towards the north shore. This makes for a very dramatic sensation as you cross the cliff edge. One second you’re fifty feet above the land and in the next second you’re over 1000’ above the ocean.

In Japan, I once flew a Cessna 172 around the rim of Mt. Fuji (~10,000 msl). I also flew low over Tokyo at night which was a pretty awesome view.

Have you ever got lost after you've landed? Is this totally the crews fault or is someone supposed to be directing them in this kind of weather?
https://www.aerotime.aero/30093-chin...ggage-palettes

I've never gotten lost on a taxiway, which use ICAO markings the world over. I actually think the U.S. airports do the best job of providing clear markings. At many airports outside the U.S., the use of clear direction signs is not as thorough and they rely on painted markings on the taxiways. Every pilot has a detailed taxi chart available which leaves little room for excuses if a wrong turn is taken. Still, it happens. And unless it results in a runway incursion, it will not bring any kind of punitive action by the FAA (or local aeronautical authority outside the U.S.).

Once you've left the safety net of the taxiways and entered the ramp area, all bets are off. These areas are not under the control of ATC and company policies and procedures take over. Ground equipment is parked in areas which provide safe clearance from planes following the painted yellow taxi lines. Often a red line borders these areas, providing assurance that the equipment is safely away from the taxi path.

When taxiing into the gate area, wing walkers are used to provide extra assurance. In fact, our SOP prohibited us from proceeding without wing walkers, even if we can see that all equipment is clear.

In the instance you cited, snow cover added risk by obscuring ground markings. This would be a situation which calls for extra vigilance and, if there's any doubt, wing walkers should be requested to accompany the plane to parking.

The January 28 episode of Science Friday had a segment on electric-powered aviation. Might be interesting to you?

W0X0F - i'm guessing you've seen videos, but i'm curious about your opinion on how precise the flying needs to be to pull off an in-flight refueling operation.
this is a very popular vid that seems to be extremely casual, but my hunch is what we're seeing is not as easy as the participants make it seem.

And here's what it looks like when it goes wrong.

Since flying in storms seems so popular at the moment, I do recall flying during a storm.

There was a particularly nervous passenger on board.

The flight attendant reassured him by saying :-

“Don’t worry, the landing will be absolutely awful “

Sometimes on avherald, I read about an engine that failed or had to be shut down but was subsequently restarted in flight. When that happens, does it sound just like an engine starting up on the ground? Or does it sound different? It’s hard to imagine hearing the slow low-pitched growl of a jet engine starting up at tens of thousands of feet.