I don’t recognize the people or situation described in that article. In my experience, pilots are typically sharp and often self-deprecating, though there is the minority subset that has a huge ego. As a group, pilots do tend to be conservative. In my crash pad, Trump supporters outnumbered those of who are sane.

It doesn’t affect us in any way, though I agree with you about the security aspect.

Flew an Aerolineas Argentineas A330 to Iguazu Falls (largest waterfall in the world) the other day. Pretty cool flight, the plane was almost empty and climbed all the way up to 30-something thousand feet faster than any aircraft I've ever been on. I don't know if it was my mind playing tricks or if the angle of climb was actually steeper, but it almost felt like being on board a spaceship. When we got close to Iguazu, the stewards started taking pictures through the windows -- they said they don't ever get to fly there normally, but that Aerolineas randomly used an A330 instead of the usual smaller plane that day. The approach was a full scenic loop around the falls as well.

Unfortunately it was a cloudy day, so the pictures didn't turn out that great.




You mentioned earlier that you're going to do a tour of places you didn't get to fly to once covid is over -- any updates on your plans? I assume Finland and the Baltics might be on your list as Delta doesn't fly there, so let me know if you end up in this corner of the world. The northern lights season starts in about three months

have you been asked about beebo the skyking? how much credit do you give him for flying this thing without proper training? he said he has quite some experience flying playing video games.

I didn't watch the video, but you're aware that WOXOF flew with a guy, Sparks I think, who took off, flew, and landed a small plane, having never taken a lesson other than a computer simulator? That was a really great follow.

no I'm not.
the thing is this guy did a barrelroll with a commercial airliner. lol something not even a experiences pilot would or could do with that airplane. and he was enjoying the f out of this ride. it's funny but it's sad.

I'm not so impressed with a guy flying a smaller airplane bc I think most of us could pull that off. it's a stick and a throttle. all you you need to know is a couple things, at what speed you can pull up etc.etc.
landing might be a different issue though.

this on the other hand is imo a whole different league. that's why they celebrate him on the internet as beebo the skyking. man this guy was so nice, really likeable. it's a shame. low wages he said or they said was the reason.


I messed around with a flight simulator as a kid, there are a whole lot of buttons and switches on a boing 737 let me tell you... lol this was no small Cessna.

I didn't realize this was that guy. I'll definitely watch that when I have the time. I was working in Seattle when that went down.

Really? Thats amazing!

He almost touched the ground making this barrel roll did you know this? completely incredible. Yeah, you should. Ill post some more stuff. The whole thing is on tape.

I really dont want to glorify this. That was probably inconsiderate and Im an idiot- I didnt think of this. Life has has up and downs, whats important and whats makes us stronger is how we deal with the set backs. Where is down there is up,its always a balance. Sometimes we forget that and its hard to see when being in that spot, but knowing this might help . Im in a similar situation as Eye is, dealing with depression. I believe we all have a purpose in life and the ups are coming we just need to deal with the set backs. Eye please contact me if you want to talk, Im in very similar spot and learned a few tricks that I could share with you.



This is propbably the better audio btw, there are so many radio tapes about this.


https://youtu.be/NUt-W8Fcpyw






To be more positive, this guy faked an emergency and crashed his plane to gain popularity. It all backfired and he lost his licence as a result. The guy is a maniac. Here is his video, he is all faking it which is visible by his poor acting. He is now the joke on the internet. Apologies if you already talked about his itt.

Pilot gives the finger to Washington State.
https://www.q13fox.com/news/plane-gi...ight-map-shows

For those of you who weren't around when this occurred, here's a link to the thread by Sparks with the entire story:

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/3...t-try-1200028/

Thumbnail

Sparks made a prop bet with someone that he could fly a small plane with zero prior experience in an actual plane. He would rely solely on the skills he got from Microsoft Flight Simulator.

The guy he was going to make the attempt with (a CFI) dropped out. I saw the thread and was so intrigued that I offered to meet Sparks in Las Vegas for the attempt. It was right around Thanksgiving and I jumpseated from D.C. to Las Vegas. Sparks drove from Las Vegas to meet me. We flew out of the North Las Vegas airport.

To rent a plane (we used a C-172, four seater), it was necessary for me to get "checked out" by an instructor with the rental operation. (Airplanes are not rented solely based on being licensed, as is done with cars. Insurance requirements dictate at least an hour of flying with one of their instructors to make sure I'm going to bring the plane back in one piece. It doesn't matter at all that I had around 20,000 hours of flying logged at the time.)

Sparks paid for the checkout. Then he and I went to do the deed. He had brought a couple of Go-pros which he mounted in the cockpit. The videos are in the thread. I'll let you go to the thread for the rest of the story.

Note: we had ideal conditions; not a breath of wind. I think this was an important factor in his success. Also, I slightly broke my intention of not saying even one word of instruction which I nudged him with an "airspeed" callout. Still...very impressive.

How large are the takeoff corridors around a major airport?

Noticed this morning that flights leaving DEN were pretty much straight overhead. Normally, they're noticeably north--I'd guess 40-50 degrees up from the north horizon.

Seems as if to me, that's on the order of miles of difference. I wouldn't have guessed the corridors for takeoffs is that large.

If it matters, it's nice, barely a breeze, some high clouds. I'm about 20 miles WNW of the airport.

This is incredible, I have zero recollection of it, and can't wait to read it.

the video is awesome

Yeah, that was a great ride

That was pretty awesome. It definitely shows that the rudders on the simulator are a lot different than real rudders which he would need to get a feel for, which is why he was drifting off the centerline before taking off. He did good on final too since he knew when to add power, reduce power, etc. There's so much more to flying than on a sim but he still did a great job for a first timer, and great job W0X0F for helping him with the challenge and taking the time to go on the checkrides.

Was flying from Denver to St. Louis this morning and was looking out the window and below me a United plane zipped on by in the opposite direction. I'm assuming it was 1,000 feet below me.

As a pilot how often did you see other planes zipping around? Did you ever have knowledge that there were other planes near by that you could look for? Ever get to wave at other pilots?

If the plane looked close, then you are probably right that it was a thousand feet below you. We fly odd altitudes going west and even altitudes going east.

You almost always know about planes is close proximity, either because ATC calls out the relevant traffic, or you notice the plane on TCAS. It’s kind of surprising how hard it can be to pick out passing traffic. ATC will often call out opposite direction traffic at distances up to 20 miles. At cruise altitude, the closure rate can be over 1000 mph, so that 20 miles closes up in just over a minute.

At 20 miles, the only chance of picking out the traffic is if they are leaving a contrail. Even a 747 looks microscopic at 20 miles. Also, the controller will call out relative position, e.g. “Traffic at your one o’clock and 20 miles is a United 737.” That relative position is with regard to your flight path. This, if you’re tracking 090 with a 100 kt wind from the south, the nose of your aircraft might be pointed to 115 or 120 degrees and that traffic at “one o’clock” could actually be to the left of the plane’s nose, rather than right of the nose, which is the one o’clock position.

I don’t think I’ve ever been close enough to make out a pilot in the cockpit, though I’ve heard facetious comments to that effect. I remember Approach control calling traffic kind of late for an aircraft going into Newark and the pilot responded “Yeah, we’ve got the Airbus in sight. Looks like they’re having the shrimp scampi today.”

Have you heard of Mentour Pilot? Guy called Petter Hörnfeldt who does YouTube videos on the aviation industry and videos on crashes/incidents etc

His videos have helped my fear of flying a ton

Thanks, that's awesome.

In retirement, do you still receive any official/unofficial perks from Delta? Do you automatically choose Delta when flying or have you opened up your range?

I like his videos and I also like the channel called 747Gear, which features Kelsey, a 747 First Officer for a cargo company.

I get free flights until the day I make that final flight west. But it’s space-available and my priority falls below all active employees. I also have free flight benefits with United because my sister-in-law is a retired United flight attendant and she added me to their eligibles list. (The ability to name a “companion” is one of the things that we don’t have at Delta.)

I just realized that the YouTube channel is 74 Gear.

Beat me to it!

Also follow Dutch Pilot Girl.

Thanks! Will check it out