When I was at ACA, we had service into Elmira for about a year. I used to bid for those layovers because my sister lived nearby in Horseheads, NY. So I got to see my nieces and play golf with my sister and brother-in-law. Any layover where I can play golf is a good one.

Fun Fact: Elmira airport is home to the Schweizer Aircraft Corporation, maker of helicopters and some of the best sailplanes in the world.

I've never heard "deer on the runway" as a euphemism for a hot approach. I did have a time where I had a deer on the runway: about 1 am at Martinsburg, WV while I was doing 15% rides for a few new hires (15% ride is their first time in the actual plane; each guy gets three takeoffs and landings). I find it very believable that he was being literal.

You can definitely see aircraft on approach. It's routine for both pilots to check for landing traffic before crossing any runway. The Captain says "Clear left" and the FO says "Clear right."

Good question.

First, you should know that it's safe. For every landing plane, the airspace needed for a go-around is protected and kept clear.

The time needed to resequence the plane could be as much as 15 to 20 minutes depending on the traffic flow to the airport. The controllers will try to give the go-around aircraft priority, but it's not always possible to put them back in the front of the line.

At an uncontested airport, they might just direct the plane to fly a visual pattern right back for landing. This wouldn't take more than five minutes.

Those planes are usually about 5 miles in trail. Having only 20 seconds between landings would require an approach speed of about 900 kts. A more realistic approach speed when fully configured for landing is probably 130-150 kts, depending on the type of plane. 150 kts is 2.5 nautical miles per minute, so there would be at least two minutes between landings.

A lot of my buddies are scrambling to take the ATP before the rules change. I haven't jumped on the boat, but mostly just due to my lack of interest as a follow on career. What are your thoughts on the new regulation changes? Should I be scrambling even though it's for a just-in-case? What are the new rules gonna do to the community?

I wasn't aware of any pending changes with regard to the ATP. What's changed? It used to be that an active duty military pilot could get a civilian ticket based solely on military flight experience. I'm not sure what limitations there were (i.e., was this method only good for a private license, but not for commercial license or ATP?). I knew an Air Force major I worked with in Japan who had a multi-engine license and wanted me to give him instruction for his single-engine rating. He had flown only multi-engine aircraft in the military and that's why his civilian ticket was only for multi-engine aircraft.

So educate me on what's going to change. And if you think there's any chance you'll be interested in an aviation career after the military, then you should definitely get that ATP.

Military experience is only good for a commercial+instrument and type ratings. I just read up on the new ATP requirements, sounds brutal. Jihad I would jump on that bandwagon. I wasn't planning on flying post-military either but I found a sweet job offer and fortunately I had my FAA stuff in hand already. It sounds like military jet pilots won't have an easy transition to airlines anymore without spending a minimum of 5 figures for an ATP. That's a similar price to what helicopter pilots are paying now if they get out of the military with less than 1000-1500 hours and need to get a CFI ticket to build more hours. IME no one ever pays it, they just move on to new careers.

Man this is a disturbing post/name combination.

Worry not, I'm a hero.

D10 pretty much covered the generality of the change, in that it's gonna be a lot harder for military guys, specifically us fighter types, to get the ATP. But I'm ok with having to fork up some extra bucks in the future if my "0%" becomes me actually looking into that market. It's definitely the right fit for many of my colleagues, just not me.

D10 what was said sweet offer?

Here is a fresh doc, up to date as of today July 9th:

PDF - 2p2 thread - 1669(!) pages

And as an added bonus, here is the equivalent PDF summary of the ongoing thread with W0X0F that's also underway on flyertalk.com (although this thread seems to have died back in July 2013, so I haven't updated it since then):

PDF - FlyerTalk thread - 278 pages

Would you go this far OP?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-28232814

That's a great story. I'm sure I would like that Captain.

Back in 1999, when I was flying the J-41, I had the same crew all month and we had this one particular day trip three times a week all month. It started with a round trip to Albany and then a round trip to JFK (this was out of Dulles airport). At JFK, we had a two and a half hour sit. We would kill the time sitting in the rampers' little office space, where they had their lockers and an eating area with a TV.

The first time we were there, I asked the ramp guys if there was a good pizza place that would deliver. I arranged to have them buy three pizzas when we flew in, which I paid for and would share with the crew and ramp workers.

When we fly to a destination, we would send an "in range" message when we were about 30 minutes from landing. This ACARS message would have our estimated landing time and any special requirements we had (e.g. wheelchairs needed; unaccompanied minors on board). There was a free text portion on that ACARS message and I'd send "PIZZA PIZZA PIZZA," so that they would know it was me and order the pizzas for our arrival. We would sit around eating pizza and watching "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," which was a hot show at the time.

I had one time where a passenger bought food for me. We were at Philly and there was a major weather delay going on that turned into a three hour wait. It was frustrating for everyone and this guy wanted to get off the plane to get something to eat for himself and his wife (we were still at the gate and there were only about eight passengers on board). I let them (and others) off to make a food run (J-32 days...no flight attendant and no snacks on board). When he came back, he had two extra sandwiches for me and the FO. I was pretty stunned by that.

Aren't you not allowed to take food from passengers? Or was that before that rule came around?

"When he came back, he had two extra sandwiches for me and the FO. I was pretty stunned by that."

Obv you're a pizza fan. What was in the sandwich? I did the exact same thing once but it was (unfortunately) McDs at Dublin airport.

Some passengers have compassion eh

I was curious about that, as well. There might also be an exception for pre-packaged food that couldn't be tampered with. Seems like a lot of airport food is sealed up pretty tight.

You're right about that rule. I don't know if that was in effect at the time, but I didn't even give it a thought. He got two extra cold cut sandwiches at the deli in the terminal and I was hungry.

...and some pilots too! 😀

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/w...ding/12585989/

CMIIW but not being able to retract the flaps isn't being "abundantly cautious", the plane may not have been in danger of crashing but you can't really fly all the way to NY with flaps extended can you?

No, you can't. And that's a really strange choice of words for this spokesman to use. Although having flaps extended is not a threat to safety, it will place a speed limit on the plane and increase drag (and therefore increase the rate of fuel consumption), making a flight from Tel Aviv to New York impossible.

Each flap setting has a maximum airspeed associated with it and exceeding that airspeed could cause structural damage. If we ever inadvertently overspeed the flaps, we put a write-up in the logbook and an inspection must take place before the plane is returned to service. In the 767, the maximum speed for "flaps one" (this is one degree of trailing edge flaps and extension of the forward edge flaps, aka slats) is 240 or 250 knots, depending on the specific model. Max speed for flaps five is 220 or 230 knots, and so forth for each flap setting. For flaps 30 (the maximum flap setting) we must be no faster than 165 kts.

So, the max speed for this particular flight would depend on where the flaps stuck. Additionally, we have a limitation on the max altitude at which flaps may be extended. We can't use flaps above 20,000. For this plane to continue to NY at such a low altitude would increase fuel consumption so much that they wouldn't make it.

If necessary, we can get special dispensation from maintenance to fly a plane in a non-standard configuration (e.g. with flaps and/or gear down). This might be necessary if the plane was at an airport that didn't have the facilities to effect the repair. In that case we would get a ferry permit to fly it to a maintenance base. This permit would spell out the special configuration, and appropriate performance penalties would be applied so that realistic fuel burns could be taken into account. No passengers would be permitted on a ferry flight.

Bottom line on this story: the decision to return to land was a no brainer. Any other action would have made the FAA and the company very unhappy, and probably would have landed the crew in hot water.

I'm flying a 172sp so it has the fancy GPS but I've flown using all methods. My preferred is VOR to VOR so far. I definitely need to work on my pilotage and dead reckoning. The class B covers most of Phoenix but down south is a perfect practice area. However, this being AZ, its SUPER busy! See and be seen! I have a hood already, I was required to have some time under it for the PPL.

The weather has actually been kinda crappy lately what with the haboobs and all but I'm looking forward to getting out there!

Getting an instrument rating is great for your flying precision and radio work. It makes you much more confident. There are some other things you can learn to make you more well-rounded though:

-aerobatics training
-low-flying and strip training
-mountain flying
-taildragger training

I'd also plan some cross country flights that incorporate challenges that you want to 'tick off.' Mountain flying and strip training in particular are good to hone decision making skills and 'captaincy.'

edit: If possible, try and get around to a maintenance facility when they do the 100-hr checks on your 172s. You can learn a whole lot from the engineers there about the aircraft, preflighting, common faults, etc. Most of them are more than happy to share the craft with you.

Also, try and get a visit into your local control tower. Especially once you start your instrument training.

What is the reason Airbus has side-sticks instead of control columns?

Quite possibly because the flight controls are all fly by wire, and all you are doing is making suggestions to the computer that is really flying the airplane. No need for any mechanical advantage here.

Cold water, more likely.

The 777 and 787 are also fly-by-wire yet they use a central control column. Apparently it's a Boeing/Airbus thing and I'm pretty curious about the pros and cons of each.