Airplanes

[Suvorov]

A couple photos from life at my previous company. Denver based and flying to the Western Slope and ski towns was some of the best flying to be had.


Not Colorado. Lake Michigan on arrival into O'Hare


Sunset


Arriving in GJT (Grand Junction)


Arriving in GUC (Gunnison)


Awaiting skiers in GUC.


The cloud your flight instructor warned you about.

[rayrevolver]

Recently there has been a move towards GPS approaches that rely on GPS fixes as opposed to ground based navigation systems, but the downside of these is that they are not allowed to let the airplane descend as low as the ILS approaches do. They are really useful especially for airports that lack the funding for or have terrain that prohibits the installation of ILS approaches. The latest generation of GPS approaches allow us to fly the airplane fully "coupled to the autopilot" in LNAV and VNAV down to the minimum altitudes.

OK, last story for the night.

We used a portable GPS based system for full autolands/landing perf etc. It was pure magic, especially for us. We could modify the approach for our testing, to include steeper and shallower glideslope, lateral offsets... We could get a precision approach to ANYWHERE.

Anywhere, like a dirt road. A field. And you could set it up quickly. That should give you a clue where we stole the hardware from.

[Guinnessman]

We stopped the chem-trail program when Trump got in office, but are hopeful the new administration will start it back up again. I may have some problems sleeping at night after working a "crop dusting" flight, but damn those incentive checks were AWESOME!!!

Chemtrails anyone.......🤣😜

[Oldherkpilot]

Chemtrails anyone.......🤣😜

As a young Lt, we used to have to ride back and forth all over the Pacific in whatever the USAF had going our way. One day I was on a C-141, sitting at the navigator's station (they only used navs for air drop at that time). The panel had lots of gadgets and maybe a dozen blank spaces with labels like "Provisions for ADS, " etc. One was labeled "Provisions for Photon Torpedoes." I almost spilled my coffee when I saw that!

[DC_P]

American, Alaska, and Southwest jets have them, United’s do not.

Delta's 737s have the HUD as well.

[LittleLebowski]

What a great thread.

[Suvorov]

So pilots still land commercial aircraft manually with all the navigational aids? I love that.

I remember this one. Do you know what caused that?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asiana...nes_Flight_214

Several factors here. There are folks here better suited to discuss it than I and tons of stuff on the internet if you really want to dig into the weeds. But in a nut shell the crash was caused by the crew being over reliant on automation and having a difficult time flying an approach on visual cues only AND a cultural based hesitation to question and challenge the pilot in command when they are screwing up.

[Oldherkpilot]

Several factors here. There are folks here better suited to discuss it than I and tons of stuff on the internet if you really want to dig into the weeds. But in a nut shell the crash was caused by the crew being over reliant on automation and having a difficult time flying an approach on visual cues only AND a cultural based hesitation to question and challenge the pilot in command when they are screwing up.

I'd say you summed it up nicely.

[Stephanie B]

Something to drool over: A Rutan Defiant.

[Trigger]

One of my current projects.

Van’s RV-8, showplanes fastback conversion, canopy and cowling. Started as a quickbuild kit. Currently on hold due to $$.