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The Airplane Fanatic Thread


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On 3/28/2022 at 11:57 AM, Chad Fuck said:

I hear you on the KC-46, but I'm not sure if an airframe design that dates back to the late 70s/early 80s is the answer.  Of course, the "brand new" P-8 says "hello."  

Speaking of the KC-46, what a shitshow that procurement process was.  And deliveries seems to leave something to be desired.  Boeing really lost it's mojo when they sent their beancounters and C levels to live in Chicago rather than Seattle.  They lost their touch with the people actually making the airplanes and it shows.  

The ongoing issue with their hybrid 3D visual for the boom operator is the saddest part of that mess.  Drop a dollar to pick up a dime.  
 

These huge contracts tend to work out over time, the F35 gets justifiable derision but most accounts seem to say it’s a deadly instrument in the right hands and even bounds ahead of the vaunted F22 in regards to dominating the information space.  
 

The KC46 is slowly progressing towards a fully operational refueler but I’m not surprised it’s having issues and just hope Boeing in general has used the MAX/787/Pegasus to revamp their culture.  
 

Of course the P8 seems to be a much better run program, but it seems to have been better suited to the traditionally-conservative military mindset via incremental changes to the airframe without anything too fancy.  

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On 3/25/2022 at 9:45 PM, DalTxHornFan said:

If it works, it works.  No telling how many generations of comm and chaff evasion devices those hulks have had in them.  Love those C-130 mods with the cannons!

giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47i9z1555mfabb6pcjzu

 

I did not know that existed.  Had to google.  Very cool!!!!

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On 3/31/2022 at 8:29 AM, 956 Worldwide said:

A couple shots from some days I’ve been out on various aprons over the past couple weeks.  B-52H, Antonov AN-124, and a pretty special VC-25.

image.thumb.jpeg.4026f4b25f985935f18a1304e930c832.jpegimage.thumb.jpeg.8bfb35fc9fe6bbdd0c6016351f38fad7.jpegimage.thumb.jpeg.59012cb840f1f3896e5e149d41994c43.jpeg

Last time I looked on google maps, there was an AN-124 parked on the ramp by the south terminal at AUS.  Took me a few glimpses to know that’s what I was seeing 

The B-52 is incredible to me, I don’t think anyone at the time expected the design to still be flying 60+ years later.  It’s outlasted the B-58 and XB-70, both of which were incredible feats of engineering.  
 

Only thing to say about the VC-25 is they better not fuck with that classic paint job.  I know it was under discussion in the previous admin and the floated design was (IMO) dragging-balls horrible.  
 

Random side note…when my folks were stationed in Incirlik (Northern Watch), the prez was in some nearby country on a diplomatic mission and they parked the Kneecap/NEACP/E4 on the vast apron…ringed by four serious dudes with rifles.  
 

Living there was an airplane fanatics dream as everything from E3’s to C5’s to KC-135 to F15C/E to old ass Turkish F4’s flew out of there regularly with easy viewing of the flight line, but the E4 was definitely the highlight. 
 

Turned into a nightmare as I was there for this, with a friend’s dad getting sick the night before and missing it:  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Black_Hawk_shootdown_incident

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6 hours ago, HiggyBaby said:

Air France in the news. Plane was “unresponsive” to commands. Can hear the AP disconnect so who knows. Guess we’ll find out in the coming weeks.


https://simpleflying.com/unresponsive-air-france-boeing-777-aborts-landing-paris/amp/

SimpleFlying comes up on my google news a lot, and while I appreciate their short summaries there’s frequently stuff that makes me shake my head a bit at it’s overt lack of technical detail and poor wording.  A.net is good for volume but PPrune tends to have better perspective as there are more actual pilots there it seems. 
 

Apparently cockpit sounds were both autopilot disconnect and over speed/landing confit warnings.  Makes me think of Helios when they confused the cabin alt alert with takeoff config warning, as it was the same horn…did AF retract gear too early in the GA?

Someone was theorizing ILS interference and they didn’t catch it quickly enough, or that the FMC was setup for wrong approach.  Would be very surprised if this turns out to be a technical failure and not ‘children of the magenta line’ lack of focused monitoring of automation when it started to stray.  

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9 hours ago, DaysOff said:

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdHbCsr9/


Idiots. Don't do this.

Shit I know that’s a famous steep approach with short runway and a PC-12 has to be aiming for the earliest bit of runway it can grab to start the rollout…but that seems quite a bit low even for that airport.  But yeah someone could have gotten killed.  

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Anyone around Marlin, TX? 

Quote

Two people were killed Tuesday when the small plane they were flying in crashed near a Central Texas airport, officials said.

Those aboard the single-engine Cessna TU206H were a man and a woman, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. No identities were immediately available, DPS Sgt. Ryan Howard said.

The six-seat aircraft was en route from Houston Executive Airport to Waco Regional Airport when it went down just before 1 p.m. near Marlin Airport, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) short of its destination, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. 

The aircraft crashed about 70 yards (65 meters) from the end of the airport's lone runway, said Marlin City Manager Cedric Davis.

No cause was immediately determined. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate. 

Marlin is about 110 miles (180 kilometers) south of Dallas.

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14 minutes ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

Anyone around Marlin, TX? 

Sad story:

3d04e83f-eaba-4676-85f5-ebb5d7c34858_1140x641.jpg

https://www.kcentv.com/article/news/crime/small-plane-crashes-near-marlin-texas-airport/500-dd5d33f9-41b9-4eab-91e5-5aae6a106e86

This story says that they were doing pipeline patrol:

https://www.kwtx.com/2022/04/05/dps-identifies-two-people-killed-after-plane-crash-near-marlin-airport/

Edited by DalTxHornFan
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4 hours ago, DalTxHornFan said:
Quote

Johnson said Sands was piloting the plane while (Cinnamon) Franklin was his observer. 

----

Johnson said Sands and Franklin worked for New Era Technology. He said it was Franklin's first day on the job

Damn, that is some real shitty luck. 

Edited by shadow_operative2.0
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Overweight landing, faster approach speed, semi-high elevation airport, no thrust reversers, probably max braking...  perfect recipe for blown tires and brake fires.  Can't tell if that's runway 25 or 7, but 25 has significant downslope too.  

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8 hours ago, Your Mom said:

Overweight landing, faster approach speed, semi-high elevation airport, no thrust reversers, probably max braking...  perfect recipe for blown tires and brake fires.  Can't tell if that's runway 25 or 7, but 25 has significant downslope too.  

AVHerald says it was 07 he was landing on.  Read that LH hydraulics loss removes nose wheel steering on the 75.  

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On 4/6/2022 at 6:32 PM, Homercles said:

SimpleFlying comes up on my google news a lot, and while I appreciate their short summaries there’s frequently stuff that makes me shake my head a bit at it’s overt lack of technical detail and poor wording.  A.net is good for volume but PPrune tends to have better perspective as there are more actual pilots there it seems. 
 

Apparently cockpit sounds were both autopilot disconnect and over speed/landing confit warnings.  Makes me think of Helios when they confused the cabin alt alert with takeoff config warning, as it was the same horn…did AF retract gear too early in the GA?

Someone was theorizing ILS interference and they didn’t catch it quickly enough, or that the FMC was setup for wrong approach.  Would be very surprised if this turns out to be a technical failure and not ‘children of the magenta line’ lack of focused monitoring of automation when it started to stray.  

“This lawn supervisor was out on a sprinkler maintenance job and he started working on a Findlay sprinkler head with a Langstrom 7″ gangly wrench. Well, just then, this little apprentice leaned over and said, “You can’t work on a Findlay sprinkler head with a Langstrom 7″ wrench.” Well this infuriated the supervisor, so he went and got Volume 14 of the Kinsley manual, and he reads to him and says, “The Langstrom 7″ wrench can be used with the Findlay sprocket.” Just then, the little apprentice leaned over and said, “It says sprocket not socket!”
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On 4/13/2022 at 8:22 PM, Armybrat said:

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/driver-crashes-into-private-jets-fuel-truck-at-love-field-airport-police/2936439/

Drunk driver crashes into Dallas Love Field hangar and damages two private jets.

Millions of dollars, easy.  I’m sure there’s all kinds of inspections for the wing too, even after it’s fixed. 

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1 hour ago, Cajun said:

 

97EB9F4A-C1B7-40AC-9562-87B063492BB3.jpeg

I had absolutely nothing to do with the restoration but several friends of mine did. Through some sort of osmosis I feel some ownership. I was always waiting to be asked to help but the call never came. The list of volunteer machinists that wanted to be part of the project was looong.

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2 hours ago, Mittens said:

Not too long ago a couple of Ospreys flew low over downtown Austin headed E>W and I was blown away.  Loudest flying vehicle I've ever heard. Chinook and C130 don't come close, IMO.

I get them over my house quite often (Camp Pendleton) and yeah, the fuckers are way loud

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On 4/26/2022 at 2:33 PM, Shoxthemonkey said:

That is some cool shit.

Read a very long interview with the F35 pilot who created the demo routine.  Believe it was on The Avionationist.  That it can do such sharp box loops and pedal turns without thrust vectoring is impressive.  
 

That thing gets a bad rap but he makes a lot of good points.  
* It flies more like an F18 than an F16, in that it likes high alpha…you can point the nose with authority at angles of attack that’d have an F16 out of control = after the merge when energy levels are dropping, you can flip the script from defensive to offensive quite easily

* The M1.6 limits are with full weapons store…the fabled M2.5 of an Eagle are only attainable in clean, non-combat configurations = never gonna happen in real life

* It takes a different mindset to be an effective dog fighter and thus you need time in the jet to get comfortable with the sensors, handling, ability to rapidly slow down and power = deadly in the right hands

* He didn’t think former MiG pilots would ever get fully combat ready in it as the flows, switchology and trust in the flight computers are much more akin to an F16 = allies used to central control in analog jets are going to forever struggle 

* More internal fuel and modern engine = better combat radius and loiter time

* The sensor suite and ability to share tons of data in a directional, stealthy manner really is a game changer = it’ll never fully integrate with Gen 4 aircraft as Link16 is omnidirectional and can’t share what they ‘see’ without exposing themselves to the enemy

* In a combat environment like Ukraine, the F35s would probably dominate, being able to take out air defenses in a hurry and clear the way for more traditional airframes to ground pound = natively excels at Wild Weasel-style missions so you don’t need a dedicated SEAD platform

Overall the guy has a vested interest in talking up the airframe…but I take more stock in those voices than the ‘OMG it’s slow and a waste of money’ crap from non-aviation news sites.  It’s a long read but if nothing else, I thought his views on legacy RU-airframe pilots transitioning to the F35 was very interesting. 
 

https://theaviationist.com/2022/04/07/f-35-interview-with-billie-flynn/amp/

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11 hours ago, Homercles said:

Read a very long interview with the F35 pilot who created the demo routine.  Believe it was on The Avionationist.  That it can do such sharp box loops and pedal turns without thrust vectoring is impressive.  
 

That thing gets a bad rap but he makes a lot of good points.  
* It flies more like an F18 than an F16, in that it likes high alpha…you can point the nose with authority at angles of attack that’d have an F16 out of control = after the merge when energy levels are dropping, you can flip the script from defensive to offensive quite easily

* The M1.6 limits are with full weapons store…the fabled M2.5 of an Eagle are only attainable in clean, non-combat configurations = never gonna happen in real life

* It takes a different mindset to be an effective dog fighter and thus you need time in the jet to get comfortable with the sensors, handling, ability to rapidly slow down and power = deadly in the right hands

* He didn’t think former MiG pilots would ever get fully combat ready in it as the flows, switchology and trust in the flight computers are much more akin to an F16 = allies used to central control in analog jets are going to forever struggle 

* More internal fuel and modern engine = better combat radius and loiter time

* The sensor suite and ability to share tons of data in a directional, stealthy manner really is a game changer = it’ll never fully integrate with Gen 4 aircraft as Link16 is omnidirectional and can’t share what they ‘see’ without exposing themselves to the enemy

* In a combat environment like Ukraine, the F35s would probably dominate, being able to take out air defenses in a hurry and clear the way for more traditional airframes to ground pound = natively excels at Wild Weasel-style missions so you don’t need a dedicated SEAD platform

Overall the guy has a vested interest in talking up the airframe…but I take more stock in those voices than the ‘OMG it’s slow and a waste of money’ crap from non-aviation news sites.  It’s a long read but if nothing else, I thought his views on legacy RU-airframe pilots transitioning to the F35 was very interesting. 
 

https://theaviationist.com/2022/04/07/f-35-interview-with-billie-flynn/amp/

I’ve run into a few guys who teach/train in the F35 and to a man they proclaim it a winner. 
 

I think the issue with the speed is not so much the lack of it. The Hornet is no speedster by modern standards either. It’s that the planes are limited to very little time above certain Mach numbers or their vertical stabilizers start suffering damage to their radar coatings which can lead to structural issues and sensor loss. 
 

The block IV mod is supposed to address most remaining concerns is my understanding. You’re right that the 35 doesn’t need to get in a turning fight with a clean (insert competent dog fighter here) but at a war load out it can hold its own. 

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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/egyptair-plane-crash-likely-caused-cigarette-documents-reveal/#:~:text=An EgyptAir crash in 2016,in documents revealed on Wednesday.

 

An EgyptAir crash in 2016 that killed 66 people in the Mediterranean was likely caused by a fire that started in the cockpit, according to the conclusions of French experts contained in documents revealed on Wednesday.

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14 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/egyptair-plane-crash-likely-caused-cigarette-documents-reveal/#:~:text=An EgyptAir crash in 2016,in documents revealed on Wednesday.

 

An EgyptAir crash in 2016 that killed 66 people in the Mediterranean was likely caused by a fire that started in the cockpit, according to the conclusions of French experts contained in documents revealed on Wednesday.

Shocker.  I had two business trips to the Philippines back in 2007, both were 8-weeks long so I had time to do some island hopping…and get a girlfriend, but that’s another story (I was single at the time but saw at least three marriages end there).  
 

Coming back from Boracay we were on some ATR-whatever.  Cockpit door open, pilots smoking, and some janky clip-on GPS taped to the glare shield.  I’m no nervous flyer but was glad the weather was severe-clear that day.  
 

Flew in there on a BaE 146 which was my one and only time on that curiosity.  Flying into Caticlan airport, whose runway basically bisects the whole island, was interesting.  Touched down so hard a few bins popped open. 
 

So yeah…not shocked a bird in Egypt went down from questionable airmanship.  

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