Not in a Tiger Moth, if you've got a couple of thousand feet of altitude to play with and you've learnt the stall characteristics and how to recover.

http://m.liveleak.com/view?i=b97_1409965702

Hypoxia recording

I've seen a Pilatus porter take off sideways on a runway several times. They used to have a couple in the NWT (Canada). Mostly for flying hunters into mountains with very short grass strips.

It is an ugly plane for sure, but is all power and wing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEb74IquE1A

Aerobatic ice bucket challenge for lols:

Oh, thats cool, hadnt heard of that app. Its available for Android as well, but looking at the app info it says the app wants my location as well as phone number and "phone call status and called phone number". Weird. I never know what to make of all of these...

Edit: googled the permission, i guess its just so the app knows to go to stand by if your receiving/making a phone call, it cant dial. Im just sort of paranoid about those things... The app looks quite cool. Doesnt really help me understand what the hell people are saying on the frequenzies though :P

Has there been some kind of pattern change at JFK last night? We normally don't hear planes too loudly late at night/early morning but last night planes were taking off over my house non stop. Didn't bother me too much but my wife is a light sleeper and couldn't sleep all night...

It does kind of sound that way, but the plane is just flying through the mass of air, which is moving over the ground at a speed equal to the plane's airspeed. If the winds abate, the result is an increase in ground speed as the plane continues to move through that air mass. The only real problem would come if the winds instantaneously dropped to 0, which is almost impossible.

This is the reason why we carry extra speed in the approach during gusty conditions. Gusts are an instantaneous change in wind speed, and that translates to an instantaneous change in the lift being produced by the wings.

No doubt about, those guys are GOOD! Were they born with The Right Stuff, or is their skill a testament to military training? Probably a mixture of the two, but I'm not sure what the proportions would be.

There are many civilian air show pilots who also have superb flying skills, but the tight formation flying in fighter aircraft by the military exhibition teams sets them apart.

Start looking when you board an MD-88. My brother went to the left seat about six months ago and I'm going to training for MD-88 Captain on October 28. I should be back flying the line by December. (I'm going to miss the international flying. Going to Iceland this Friday.)

I used to perform Maintenance Acceptance Flights (MAFs) at ACA, but I haven't ever done one at Delta. I assume that pilots from the training department are doing those flights.

I used to regularly do "ADG drops" in the Canadair CRJ. This was a simple flight check of the auxiliary drive generator, a device that pops out of the side to the plane to provide limited electrical power in the case of a complete power failure. I'd sometimes do two or three of these in a row late at night (after the planes were done with revenue flying). We had a script to follow, which included shutting off both engine-driven generators and then verifying that the ADG deploys and then provides the necessary electrical power. This check had to be done every 180 days for each airplane. (Later models of the CRJ had an improved ADG that didn't require a flight check; it could be tested on the ground by maintenance personnel.)

To my knowledge, we never had an actual situation where the ADG deployed. Oh, and yes, I enjoyed those flights. Didn't have to wear a uniform, and I could yank and bank more than I would ever dream of doing with passengers on board.

Yes, it's possible on any turbine engine. I've never seen one yet and I can't remember hearing of more than a couple in all my years. We monitor the EGT (exhaust gas temperature) during startup and if we see it starting to head toward redline, we abort the start by shutting off the fuel. If EGT hits redline, maintenance has to be notified. They will inspect the engine and it may need to be replaced (KA-CHING!).

Isn't this in some way the switch you've previously stated that you didn't wish to make? Going from a good position on the FO seniority list to a much worse position on the Captain list?

On the ER, I'm currently 227 out of 395...not even in the top half. On the MD-88, I would currently be number 115 out of 115. So I'll obviously have no bidding power. It will be life on Reserve for the foreseeable future.

When the ER was 100% international flying, life was very good and I was happy to camp out on it. But for the last couple of years, we've had a reduction in international flying (many of the plum trips have gone to the Airbus 330, 767-400 and the 747) and, especially in the winter months, it's been a steady diet of domestic trips in the 757...mostly transcons.

MD-88 flying will be a lot of shorter milk runs, much like my old commuter days, but it's a good pay bump (about 33%) and I vaguely remember that the left seat is much more comfortable than the right seat. I'm sure I'll miss the 757/767, but it's just time for a change.

I didn't fly that night, so I couldn't say. There are certain approaches which are more rarely used than others, all dependent on the winds. The approaches to runways 13L and 13R are not used often...maybe 10% of the time or less. Do you live in the Rockaways by any chance, or anywhere NW of the airport?

So I guess your I should look now for both brothers on the MD-88 fleet... I am heading to SEA this Friday. But, it is 6 hours or so before your report time to the Iceland flight. If you do feel like changing the schedule and taking a transcon to SEA... (who would give up a trip to KEF?)

Thank you for the detailed answer. Sounds like fun! wish I can 'jump' on a check flight just for the kicks.

Ouuuch!

The good think about being on that spot is that you can only go up the list :-) That's also a way to look into that. And the nice pay raise too

Is that remaining the case even after the retirement of 25% of the 74s fleet? I thought putting back more ERs would make sense to compensate for the reduction in the 74s. I guess someone in Revenue Mgt thinks differently.

I presume that because it's been years since you were on the MD-88 fleet it requires you to take the entire course again (not abbreviated). Does the MD category consist of other variants as well? (MD-90 and MD95/now B717, more specifically)

I live directly east of the airport. These must have been planes taking off from 13L happens often during the day (and I love watching them) but not usually during late night/early morning.

Yes, it will be the full course, about 30 days. When I used to fly the MD-88, I only flew that model. But now, I'll be flying both the 88 and the 90. The 717 is a different category.

I'm kind of looking forward to the first time I fly the MD-90. It's got about 33% more thrust than the 88 and it's the same airframe (28,000 lbs of thrust per engine vs. about 21,000 lbs of thrust for the 88).

Look at the bright side, at least now you're only 115 from the top instead of 227

Once you know what your first flight would be, please let us know. I'd come to get my boarding pass autographed (I presume IOE will be scheduled and not on reserve)

I'll let you know.

This is the most interesting thread on 2+2 . thanks for it !

How have FAR 117 rules affected you? My dad seems more exhausted than ever but hes also getting up there in age! Wish he would bid reserve.

FAR 117 is very confusing to me, but tbh I haven't really taken a lot of time to try to figure it out. I've been affected by two new aspects of 117 so far. The first is that they now allow a duty period with more than 8.0 hours of block time (gate to gate). I recently flew from LAX to ATL and then back to LAS. it was blocked at 8.3 hours, which would have been illegal prior to this year. This strikes me as somewhat odd, since the real impetus behind this overhaul of rest/duty/flight time limits was the Buffalo crash a few years ago. One of the contributing factors was fatigue for the pilots. Seems the FO had commuted in late the night before and gotten inadequate rest prior to the flight.

The other affect was that I recently tried to pick up an extra trip that was in Open time. It was a Frankfurt trip that would have put me at 107 hours for the month. Prior to FAR 117, the flight time limits were 100 hours per month for domestic (or two man crew flying) and 120 hours per month for international flying with three man crews. The new reg puts a limit of 100 in any 28 day period, so my request for the trip was denied.

Just landed in Keflavik, Iceland. On the bus to our layover hotel in Reykjavik (the van has WiFi). Brief nap then I'm taking a tour of the island (first time here). Kind of a weird feeling knowing that my dad flew out of Keflavik for six months when I was two years old. Got to get lots of pictures for him.

Our return flight to NY tomorrow marks the end of our service to Iceland until next Spring.

I just watched a BBC documentary called Bomber Boys. It was done by the actor Ewan Mcgregor and his brother who is an airline pilot. It was about British bomber command during World War II. The show culminated with Ewan's brother flying the last active Lancaster Bomber.

Is there a plane in history you'd like to fly? A B-17? A B-52?

Top of the list for me would be the P-51D. Another retired plane I would love to fly is the F-14. And,yes, I'd jump at the chance to fly a B-17.