General aviation/airplane news and chat

[T & P]

I know the aviation industry is set up with clauses in contracts governing slot fulfilment at airports. But given that there is a worldwide pandemic, this is fucking stupid…

Airlines flying near-empty ‘ghost flights’ to retain EU airport slots | Airline emissions | The Guardian

Analysis from Greenpeace finds deserted flights are generating millions of tons of harmful emissions

amp.theguardian.com

 

[2hats]

Or top trolling...

Mysterious Aircraft Spotted At Area 51 In Unprecedented Satellite Image (Updated)

A delta-shaped tailless fighter-sized aircraft that looks like nothing we've seen before calls the secretive base home.

www.thedrive.com

See also:

Let's Talk About This Intriguing Object Seen In The Scoot-And-Hide Hangar At Area 51

A recent photo taken of Groom Lake by a private pilot shows what appears to be a dagger-shaped object in one of the facility's aircraft shelters.

www.thedrive.com

 

[DownwardDog]

Or top trolling...

Mysterious Aircraft Spotted At Area 51 In Unprecedented Satellite Image (Updated)

A delta-shaped tailless fighter-sized aircraft that looks like nothing we've seen before calls the secretive base home.

www.thedrive.com

See also:

Let's Talk About This Intriguing Object Seen In The Scoot-And-Hide Hangar At Area 51

A recent photo taken of Groom Lake by a private pilot shows what appears to be a dagger-shaped object in one of the facility's aircraft shelters.

www.thedrive.com

F-16XL? One's at the USAF museum at Wright-Patterson and nobody knows what happened to the other one...

 

[Dogsauce]

It’s just a cardboard cut out to put fear into the bad guys watching via satellite. Keep them guessing.

 

[T & P]

Tailless airframes are all the rage at the moment. A satellite orbiting above China spotted a similarly shaped contraption at an air base recently.

 

[A380]

Friday 18 February. Live stream from LHR threshold watching landings in storm Eustace. Amazing.



He's very enthusiastic with his commentary.

 

[spitfire]

It’s all done by computers nowadays. The pilot is just a passenger really.

 

[Spymaster]

It’s all done by computers nowadays. The pilot is just a passenger really.

Is that genuine? They really shake the stick about like that?

 

[spitfire]

Is that genuine? They really shake the stick about like that?

Not done it myself but looks real to me.

 

[spitfire]

We’ll have to wait for Downward Dog to wake up for confirmation. Or A380 if he hasn’t spent himself watching BigJet TV all day.

 

[Epona]

Or A380 if he hasn’t spent himself watching BigJet TV all day.

He might have been diverted to another airport to land, we might have to wait for a bit.

 

[Spymaster]

Not done it myself but looks real to me.

I've done it in sims and it's nothing like that. Not a lot more movement than a steering wheel whilst driving, but perhaps in the wind it's different.

 

[T & P]

I've done it in sims and it's nothing like that. Not a lot more movement than a steering wheel whilst driving, but perhaps in the wind it's different.

To the best of my layman knowledge in fully manual mode the pilot operates a pretty similar amount of controls with the stick as with a yoke. I guess the stick makes it more effortless, but the skillset required is surely the same.

 

[Spymaster]

To the best of my layman knowledge in fully manual mode the pilot operates a pretty similar amount of controls with the stick as with a yoke. I guess the stick makes it more effortless, but the skillset required is surely the same.

Those movements just look weird. Is he really counteracting wind?

A380 DownwardDog ?

 

[2hats]

Is that genuine? They really shake the stick about like that?

Doesn't look unreasonable for the conditions on approach.

 

[A380]

I’ve only ever flown little planes, people who fly heavy aircraft have said it’s slightly easier as they have a bit more inertia but I’m not sure autoland is going to cope with conditions like today. Normally on final you would be looking at tiny delicate control movements- in fact on a good approach you set up trim and don’t move the controls at all till the flare ( like I’ve ever managed that more than once…). Then on a day like today with lots of gusts like today some BIG control inputs would be needed as the aircraft doesn’t just move left or right in gusts but also up and down, buildings trees and other stuff on the ground will also cause movements in the air that can throw the aircraft around and also need big control inputs. It’s not the crosswind so much as the gusts causing the issues. Smooth crosswinds (within limits) aren’t too bad, once it’s gusting though you get all kinds of fun.

Probably more for DownwardDog for real world experience.

I did once go flying on a day like today, early in my time flying gliders I was too inexperienced to know the day was going to be blowing a hoolie otherwise I wouldn’t have even bothered driving to the airfield. . Three or four other people turned up and the CFI, ex army air corps with about a million rotary and glider hours, thought it would be educational if we took one aircraft out and did some dual work. It was astounding basically the two seater would go straight up off the winch to what felt like twice it’s normal height, there was a little wood about three miles away from the airfield and the air kicking up over that was like mini wave and enough to keep the glider up in. We could also fly backwards down the runway- the glider was flying normally at 40 but the air was moving quicker than that. Then on decent it was basically hovering over one spot on the ground. It was awesome, even if I would have died had I tried it on my own… The CFI said that we were probably the only GA flying in the whole SE that day.

 

[T & P]

Could be wrong but apart from the yoke vs stick issue, older Boeings don’t have fly-by-wire controls, which move flight control surfaces by electric motors, but rely on hydraulic systems that require muscle power from the pilot. Having said that I’d be surprised if anything newer than a 737NG still lacked it.

 

[2hats]

That one was a 777-300ER; fly by wire (fresh from the factory in 2018). Operating under MVFR at the time. Crosswind. 36 gusting to 49 knots.

EGLL 181320Z AUTO 25036G49KT 9999 BKN029 09/02 Q0988 BECMG NOSIG

Though technically 37 gusting 50 at the very moment of touchdown.

 

[DownwardDog]

Probably more for DownwardDog for real world experience.

Didn't watch the Heathrow spotter frenzy and never flown an Airbus but with the FBW in normal law it has alpha protection, load factor limitation, etc. so you don't have to be particularly gentle on the control inputs.

When I was on the 400F I saw our greybeard TRE (ex RAAF P-3 driver) do 120 control inputs in the last 20 seconds of an approach to HKG during a tropical cyclone.

 

[Lancman]

Is that genuine? They really shake the stick about like that?

Autopilots used to be amount/amount machines. If an aircraft diverged from its planned path by say 5 degrees then the autopilot would correct it by 5 degrees. But sometimes it would correct by only 4 degrees and inaccuracies would increase as the flight continued unless the pilot monitored them closely and made continuous corrections.

Modern autopilots are rate/rate machines which detect the rate by which an aircraft is being disturbed and immediately move the flight controls to correct that disturbance. This makes for a much smoother flight. So much smoother that the majority of passengers don’t even know that anything has happened.

In that video Captain Khalifa Al Thani shows that he is a rate/rate pilot, and a good one too.

 

[T & P]

Any pilots here who’ve flown both yoke and stick? I’ve seen one or two threads over the years discussing their pros and cons in the Airliners forum, and the consensus seems to be that commercial pilots prefer the yoke on principle as a more enjoyable and responsive flying experience, but most of those who switch from the yoke on a Boeing to the stick on an Airbus say they actually love it and wouldn’t go back to the yoke- at least as the plane you have to fly everyday as your daytime job.

 

[Sprocket.]

It’s all done by computers nowadays. The pilot is just a passenger really.

I was under the impression that computers were capable of landing in fog and are used a lot in those conditions. But wind, especially when gusting with changes every few seconds need the experience and training only available from a pilot.
Computers in my experience of working on robots for the last twenty years are incapable of dealing with rapid, unexpected changes.

 

[DownwardDog]

Helicopter crashes into water at south beach Florida

A helicopter crashed into the water close to shore at Miami’s South Beach. Two passengers with broken backs were rushed to the hospital as beach goers were let shaken. Investigators continue to investigate what caused the pilot to fly so close to shore.

www.nbcnews.com

Another Robinson experiences rapid unscheduled disassembly. Still not getting one.

 

[A380]

 

[T & P]

I know to some degree it's an optical effect, but still, this footage is bloody mindblowing...

 

[High Voltage]

Watched this last night with Mrs Voltz. Only on Netflix, I'm afraid.

Amazed Boeing got off as lightly as they did tbh

 

[dylanredefined]

Helicopter crashes into water at south beach Florida

A helicopter crashed into the water close to shore at Miami’s South Beach. Two passengers with broken backs were rushed to the hospital as beach goers were let shaken. Investigators continue to investigate what caused the pilot to fly so close to shore.

www.nbcnews.com

Another Robinson experiences rapid unscheduled disassembly. Still not getting one.

"I'd rather walk "
"An apache pilot to a robinson owner when offered a flight in one"
Two engines all the avionics and crash worthy seats in a roll cage . Its a really big machine and you can climb all over it. While the robinson is tiny and light wieght.

 

[Gromit]

"I'd rather walk "
"An apache pilot to a robinson owner when offered a flight in one"
Two engines all the avionics and crash worthy seats in a roll cage . Its a really big machine and you can climb all over it. While the robinson is tiny and light wieght.

Danger spins from the sky: The Robinson R44, the world’s best-selling civilian helicopter, has a long history of deadly crashes

Safety issues have dogged the Torrance manufacturer over its 45-year history. Both the company and the FAA have been slow to address the problems.

www.latimes.com

Reading this and about mast bumping

 

[2hats]

Unsurprisingly it looks like the An-225 is no more.

 

[teuchter]