Aviation

#101
#101
AirVol said:
Been on a few when we had to shut down an engine. Flying over Atlantic once and low oil light #4 came on, diverted to beautiful Iceland. Had a hot brake on taxi, damn thing caught on fire and I was on my check ride, had to unload and load back on another plane for airdrops.
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I'd like to visit Iceland.
 
#102
#102
SpaceCoastVol said:
It is better to get back into the air rather than land with some sort of issue. A missed approach or rejected landing is a very safe maneuver. It is a little uncomfortable sometimes for passengers as it is fairly abrupt and the perception is unusual because you are going from a descent to a 2000 foot per minute climb. I always try to make an announcement as soon as possible to explain why we are going around. There are many reasons, but there is no need to be worried. (I know, easy for me to say)
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Ever have a problem with KIFIS ??
 
#104
#104
rs16 said:
Ever have a problem with KIFIS ??
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I have no idea what that is.

rs16 said:
The GI Bill paid my way there with money left over.
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I would think that is about the only way it is affordable. It might be better going forward because there is going to be movement at the big airlines, but for the guys that went there and got stuck at the regionals for 10 years, their debt load must have been daunting to say the least.

And for anybody (or anybody's kid) that is thinking about flying as a living: You need a 4 year degree, and please please please don't do anything aviation related. If... when there is a downturn and if you are one that gets furloughed, there... will... be... no... aviation... jobs.... Go into engineering, fashion design... anything else. I have flown with way too many guys that had this exact problem and it ain't pretty.

Are you flying now?
 
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#105
#105
Thunder Good-Oil said:
How familiar are you with specific tail numbers? Do you usually fly the same plane? Always fly the same plane for a while? Fly so many different planes that you aren't familiar with the exact plane? Putting it another way, how many different planes do you fly per year and do they seem very different? Do certain planes get a reputation as clunkers that you wish you weren't assigned to? Or is a 757 a 757 is a 757 and a 767 is a 767 is a 767?
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Step up into the cockpit, 767. Step down, 757. After that they are all the same with minor differences. Some guys can tell you that tail number 168 has this or that idiosyncrasy, but I don't have that many brain cells. As to how many different ones I fly each year I really don't know. But it is pretty rare to fly the same one even twice in the same day. Whenever we go thru a hub we do bag drags to the next one which is always 2 concourses away. I am not sure how many of each type we have now, but I will see if I can get that and update this post.

We have some 757s that are tricked out with big seats for the NBA charters. (The NBA actually bought them from us and we fly them) They have a bathroom in the front that is so big it is called the Shaq Lav. I was supposed to do a Warriors charter last month but wound up going to Santiago Chile instead.
 
#106
#106
SpaceCoastVol said:
I DO feel blessed. I love what I do and I get paid to do it. You hit a ton of points in your post that I'll comment on, so sorry if this gets a little long. Embry Riddle is VERY expensive. Frankly I am amazed that anybody will go to school there. That is a different discussion though. The service academies are very tough to get into, and with drones there are fewer and fewer flying slots anymore.

If there are any youngsters reading this, and I am talking about anybody in the low 20s, flying airplanes is going to be a great profession for about the next 5-10 years. Our retirements alone will require something like 10,000 pilots in the next 10-12 years just to tread water and that doesn't include growth. There are numerous ways to get qualified as well. If I had it all to do over again, I would go the Air National Guard route. Go out to TYS and talk to those guys about joining them. Since the Guard units belong to the state, if you join them you know what you will be flying whereas with the USAF or USN it is "needs of the service". That being said, whatever airplane you get assigned you will fall in love with. I wanted A-6s but flew C-130s. Best thing that ever happened to me.

Don't give up on that dream marcus.
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I am working on my second degree from Embry Riddle, third overall. Yeah, its pricey for sure.
 
#107
#107
SpaceCoastVol said:
I have no idea what that is.

I would think that is about the only way it is affordable. It might be better going forward because there is going to be movement at the big airlines, but for the guys that went there and got stuck at the regionals for 10 years, their debt load must have been daunting to say the least.

And for anybody (or anybody's kid) that is thinking about flying as a living: You need a 4 year degree, and please please please don't do anything aviation related. If... when there is a downturn and if you are one that gets furloughed, there... will... be... no... aviation... jobs.... Go into engineering, fashion design... anything else. I have flown with way too many guys that had this exact problem and it ain't pretty.

Are you flying now?
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Primative DC8 system.

No.

Don't you hate it when one of the FCCs screws up your FMC ??
 
#109
#109
rs16 said:
Primative DC8 system.

No.

Don't you hate it when one of the FCCs screws up your FMC ??
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We have pretty good systems on the 767 now. Easy to use and pretty stable. My concern going forward is when the next generation of pilots finds themselves facing problems (systems problems like you probably see on a daily basis on the -8) They will have no systems foundation to deal with them. If it ain't in the book, they have no way to know what is REALLY going on with the airplane. Our guys now don't even have to type in the flight plan. it is uplinked from the mother ship. Maybe that is the old guy in me.
 
#110
#110
SpaceCoastVol said:
We have pretty good systems on the 767 now. Easy to use and pretty stable. My concern going forward is when the next generation of pilots finds themselves facing problems (systems problems like you probably see on a daily basis on the -8) They will have no systems foundation to deal with them. If it ain't in the book, they have no way to know what is REALLY going on with the airplane. Our guys now don't even have to type in the flight plan. it is uplinked from the mother ship. Maybe that is the old guy in me.
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Just systems monitors.
 
#111
#111
SpaceCoastVol said:
Have ya'll seen Apollo 13? The scene where they are all yelling at each other and then realized they were on hot mike talking to Houston and the Joe Cool voice came out. That is so true.

This is kind of like the autopilot question in that it is an individual thing. Some of us are more engaging than others. Some prefer to do just the bare minimum. I feel that since ya'll are paying my salary the least I can do is say good morning and tell you a little about the flight. And yes, I know that everyone wants to watch TV so I don't say much in flight.

But let me ask you guys a question: I was coming back across the Atlantic the other day and we were passing over the southern tip of Greenland. Most of the passengers are probably sleeping or watching TV and would miss it unless they happened to have the window open. It was really beautiful. Lots of mountains and the fjords were full of icebergs. Would you want me to say something about that so that you could see it?
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personally yes, for two reasons. 1 to actually see it/know what I am looking at. 2. even with inflight information given it would be nice to know a general location every once and a while to get some bearings, especially over the oceans.

Question for you. Do you "own" a plane. you say you fly the 767 but is it the same one? or do you never know which you are going to get. Pretty sure you just get random planes but wanted to see. and do you get to choose/refuse the plane if random? and do you get to inspect the planes before flying?
 
#112
#112
If the planes can fly and land themselves, how long until commercial air travel can go pilot-less? Planes crash now with pilots... even by a pilot's suicide. How many drones crash that weren't brought down by missiles?
 
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#115
#115
Thunder Good-Oil said:
If the planes can fly and land themselves, how long until commercial air travel can go pilot-less? Planes crash now with pilots... even by a pilot's suicide. How many drones crash that weren't brought down by missles?
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I don't know much about drones, but this is an interesting topic. People are all gaga about Google cars that drive themselves. Think about this for a minute. You are driving your car down the 2 lane road at 70 mph, and a driverless car is coming at you from the other direction at the same speed. closure rate of 140 mph (200 feet per second). On a 2 lane road, you will pass each other by 6 to 8 feet. If that driverless car loses satellite lock for a fraction of a second, you will probably die. And you THINK you have control. Airliners are in the most regulated environments on the planet, and when we have a "near miss" of 1000 feet or so, everybody is all panicked. the "control" issue is a fantasy.


But to answer your question more directly, I think - my opinion - that you will probably see cargo planes flying over the oceans to coastal airports being the first to go pilotless. The milleniums will be far more accepting of the technology that will have them get onto a pilotless airplane themselves because they truly believe in technology. I'll be long gone by then thank God.
 
#116
#116
LouderVol said:
personally yes, for two reasons. 1 to actually see it/know what I am looking at. 2. even with inflight information given it would be nice to know a general location every once and a while to get some bearings, especially over the oceans.

Question for you. Do you "own" a plane. you say you fly the 767 but is it the same one? or do you never know which you are going to get. Pretty sure you just get random planes but wanted to see. and do you get to choose/refuse the plane if random? and do you get to inspect the planes before flying?
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I get enough flying at work. I would much rather go sailing.
 
#117
#117
SpaceCoastVol said:
I don't know much about drones, but this is an interesting topic. People are all gaga about Google cars that drive themselves. Think about this for a minute. You are driving your car down the 2 lane road at 70 mph, and a driverless car is coming at you from the other direction at the same speed. closure rate of 140 mph (200 feet per second). On a 2 lane road, you will pass each other by 6 to 8 feet. If that driverless car loses satellite lock for a fraction of a second, you will probably die. And you THINK you have control. Airliners are in the most regulated environments on the planet, and when we have a "near miss" of 1000 feet or so, everybody is all panicked. the "control" issue is a fantasy.


But to answer your question more directly, I think - my opinion - that you will probably see cargo planes flying over the oceans to coastal airports being the first to go pilotless. The milleniums will be far more accepting of the technology that will have them get onto a pilotless airplane themselves because they truly believe in technology. I'll be long gone by then thank God.
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You gave a scenario of a driverless car going 70 mph, loosing a satellite link, and endangering the vehicle heading in the opposite direction. What's on the road is far more dangerous right now... drunks and sleepy drivers to name just two. But the bigger flaw in the scenario is that a driverless car would immediately be out if control if a satellite link is lost. Realistically, by the time it's common that they're doing 70 down some road, the technology will include all sorts of perfected sensors and recognition systems that will know where the car is relative to landmarks and beacons. The live data link from a satellite wouldn't be the exclusive source of navigation information. Downloaded data would be buffered and also if there was a malfunction then the vehicle would have an abort procedure to get to a safe location... even if just the shoulder. If GPS was the only system to rely on, then yes it would be dangerous. But aren't 50,000 people getting killed on highways right now already? Driverless cars will increase safety. With planes already able to fly without a pilot, it may not be that far off that commercial flights could be pilot-less. The airlines' biggest battle will be with pilot unions and legislation... not the technology. New planes can cost hundreds of millions of dollars already... those systems don't add to much to the cost and airlines will be looking at how much labor costs they'll save. Weird, but maybe not that far fetched. The internet hasn't even been widely used for two decades yet and look at how far that technology has advanced in that brief time. Actually, "airline pilots" might could be sitting behind a console somewhere flying multiple planes at once pretty soon. Remember, Josh Dobbs will have his aeronautical engineering degree pretty soon.
 
#118
#118
SCV, are you ATL based? I've been slummin' on the Mad Dog for waaay too long. Now that the kids are older, planning on bidding over to the ER on the Aug/Sep bid.
 
#119
#119
Vol737 said:
SCV, are you ATL based? I've been slummin' on the Mad Dog for waaay too long. Now that the kids are older, planning on bidding over to the ER on the Aug/Sep bid.
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NY. Come on in, the water's fine.

Oh, and please jump in on the thread as well. It is always good to have the narrowbody POV on some of these things
 
#120
#120
Thunder Good-Oil said:
You gave a scenario of a driverless car going 70 mph, loosing a satellite link, and endangering the vehicle heading in the opposite direction. What's on the road is far more dangerous right now... drunks and sleepy drivers to name just two. But the bigger flaw in the scenario is that a driverless car would immediately be out if control if a satellite link is lost. Realistically, by the time it's common that they're doing 70 down some road, the technology will include all sorts of perfected sensors and recognition systems that will know where the car is relative to landmarks and beacons. The live data link from a satellite wouldn't be the exclusive source of navigation information. Downloaded data would be buffered and also if there was a malfunction then the vehicle would have an abort procedure to get to a safe location... even if just the shoulder. If GPS was the only system to rely on, then yes it would be dangerous. But aren't 50,000 people getting killed on highways right now already? Driverless cars will increase safety. With planes already able to fly without a pilot, it may not be that far off that commercial flights could be pilot-less. The airlines' biggest battle will be with pilot unions and legislation... not the technology. New planes can cost hundreds of millions of dollars already... those systems don't add to much to the cost and airlines will be looking at how much labor costs they'll save. Weird, but maybe not that far fetched. The internet hasn't even been widely used for two decades yet and look at how far that technology has advanced in that brief time. Actually, "airline pilots" might could be sitting behind a console somewhere flying multiple planes at once pretty soon. Remember, Josh Dobbs will have his aeronautical engineering degree pretty soon.
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The only thing I will say about this is that to be the nirvana that these things are being made to be there will have to be a ton of infrastructure as well. You even said so yourself above. Meanwhile we have bridges that are becoming critically unstable all over the country and $19,000,000,000,000.00 in debt. It's coming, I don't deny that, but not tomorrow or next weekend. When 'pilotless' airplanes become reality - and I think someday they probably will - your scenario is probably right as well. One dud in his jammies operating multiple flights. I guess when #2 fails over the ocean it just isn't those people's night, but those will be exceptionally rare events. ;)
 
#123
#123
SpaceCoastVol said:
Love it. Nothing better than when the internal combustion thingy is turned off.
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Cool, I sail as often as time permits. Heading back to the Caribbean next month with the fam for a week in the Sir Francis Drake channel.

My kids sail competitively and are going to be responsible for keeping my glass and main sail full.
 
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#124
#124
SpaceCoastVol said:
Love it. Nothing better than when the internal combustion thingy is turned off.
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How big a boat you skipper? I've done a little sailing on a 25 or so footer and thoroughly enjoyed it but living in TN a sailboat just isn't practical.
 
#125
#125
Septic said:
Cool, I sail as often as time permits. Heading back to the Caribbean next month with the fam for a week in the Sir Francis Drake channel.

My kids sail competitively and are going to be responsible for keeping my glass and main sail full.
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You renting? If so what company do you use?
 
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