2 April 1942: After loading sixteen North American Aviation B-25B Mitchell medium bombers and their crews of the 17th Bombardment Group at NAS Alameda, the recently commissioned aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8) departed San Francisco Bay with her escorts and headed for a secret rendezvous with Admiral William F. Halsey and Task Force 16. The […] The post 2 April 1942 appeared first on …
3 April 1926: Virgil Ivan Grissom was born at Mitchell, Indiana, the second of five children. Upon graduation from high school during World War II, he enlisted in the U.S. Army. After the war, he went to Purdue University and earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in engineering, then joined the U.S. Air Force and […] The post 3 April 1926 – 27 January 1967 appeared first on This Day in Avi…
3 April 1933: Lord Clydesdale—at the time, the youngest Squadron Leader in the Royal Air Force and in command of 602 Squadron—as Chief Pilot of the Houston Mount Everest Flying Expedition, flew a modified Westland PV-3 biplane, G-ACAZ, in formation with a Westland PV-6, G-ACBR, piloted by Flight Lieutenant David F. McIntyre, over the summit […] The post 3 April 1933 appeared first on Thi…
3 April 1941: North American Aviation test pilot Robert C. Chilton takes his first flight—a one hour familiarization—in the company’s prototype of a new Royal Air Force fighter, the NA-73X, NX19998, at Mines Field. The airplane’s maiden flight had been flown by free-lance test pilot Vance Breese, and another test pilot, Paul Balfour, had flown […] The post 3 April 1941 appear…
3 April 1962: At NAS Point Mugu, Ventura County, California, future NASA astronaut, U.S. Navy test pilot Commander John W. Young, set a new Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) time-to-altitude world record by flying his McDonnell Aircraft Corporation F4H-1 Phantom II, Bureau of Aeronautics serial number (Bu. No.) 149449, from the surface to 25,000 meters (82,020.997 feet) […] Th…
4 April 1917: First flight of the famous World War I fighter, the SPAD S.XIII C.1. Designed by Technical Director Louis Béchéreau and manufactured by Société Pour L’Aviation et ses Dérivés, as well as several other companies, this was an improved version of the earlier SPAD S.VII. It used a more powerful Hispano-Suiza 8Be engine […] The post 4 April 1917 appeared first on This Day …
4 April 1940: Curtiss-Wright’s Chief Test Pilot H. Lloyd Child flew the first production P-40 Warhawk, Air Corps serial number 39-156, on its first flight at Buffalo, New York. The P-40 Warhawk (Curtiss Model 81) was similar to the XP-40. Considerable testing at the NACA wind tunnel at Langley Field had produced a very streamlined […] The post 4 April 1940 appeared first on This Da…
4 April 1943: A brand-new crew with a brand new airplane, assigned to the 514th Bombardment Squadron, 376th Bombardment Group, Ninth Air Force, departed Soluch Field (now, Benina International Airport) on their first combat mission, a night attack on Naples, Italy. First Lieutenant William J. Hatton, USAAF, and his crew of eight men were flying […] The post 4 April 1943 appeared first on…
4 April 1945: 0928 at 51°31′ N., 10°18′ E, east of Hamburg, Germany, a Messerschmitt Me-262 Schwalbe twin-engine jet fighter shot down this B-24 with an R4M rocket. The four-engine bomber was a Ford B-24M-10-FO Liberator, serial number44-50838—a very long range heavy bomber assigned to the 714th Bombardment Squadron, 448th Bombardment Group (Heavy) and based […] The post 4 Ap…
4 April 1968: At 07:00:01 EST, Apollo 6 (AS-502), the second and last unmanned Apollo mission, was launched from Launch Complex 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida. The purpose of the flight was to determine that an all-up Saturn V could attain Trans Lunar Injection. Because of engine difficulties, it did not do so, […] The post 4 April 1968: 12:00:01 UTC, T minus Zero app…
4 April 1975: Operation Babylift. As the end of the Vietnam War approached it was decided to evacuate 2,000 orphans, most in the care of an American hospital in Saigon, and to take them to safety within the United States. The first flight was aboard a U.S. Air Force Lockheed C-5A Galaxy heavy lift transport, […] The post 4 April 1975 appeared first on This Day in Aviation.
I have been using an Android app to track flights. Their information is pulled from their own proprietary database, and some (with 5 minute delay) from the FAA.
I was thinking about making an app that would do this as well by pulling from multiple data sources.
What are some good APIs, either ...
@GlenTheUdderboat any airplane can, given a strong enough headwind.
@GlenTheUdderboat A cessna 172 could do it pretty easily. In a strong wind while performing slow flight you can hover or move backwards with respect to the ground.
The main problem is going to be the need for a constant wind with height to really do a vertical profile easily.
hey @casey you might know -- Is **/** (mix of steady snow and....more steady snow) actually a thing that can show up on a real SIGWX chart? (asking for a friend :-))
@ratchetfreak Indeed. My understanding is that some older aircraft (Pipers & Mooneys, at least) weren't shipped with gust locks, so pilots use the seatbelt as a gustlock - which holds the yoke full back.
The airplane in that video looks relatively new, though I don't recognize the model.
@casey so you can't take off with the gust lock installed? :-) (How you'd get through the control surface checks with the lock installed being the better question...)
@casey And that's what I though about the SIGWX chart - but I do vaguely recall seeing the same thing on the images for my written. I have to go look through my books again.
@voretaq7 a WTF look from the CA at why the FO didn't do his job, and if the FO was particularly bad, you get the triple chime and a takeoff config warning (flaps, trim, t/o data not set)
@ratchetfreak the gust lock disengagement is on the before takeoff checklist, you can do everything after the preflight checks with it engaged, except takeoff :)
@ratchetfreak I have to say I've never forgotten to remove the control lock... nor do I think it's really possible to do so if you're giving even lip-service to a preflight inspection
though it's certainly impossible to do if you use the pilot's seatbelt to hold the controls because you can't even climb in with the yoke full-back.
it would be hard in a cessna to do it, as I recall the metal pin has a long extension that blocks something important so you'll notice it. In the piper we used the seatbelts, so it would be hard to miss that
@casey I've only ever flown in my friend's Cessna and she usually removed the control lock before I got in. I did steal the Cessna gust locks to use as a wrench when people would tighten the dipstick on the Pipers with a fucking air wrench or something though
(evidently there were some people at the flight school with fingers substantially stronger than mine, who were terrified of the dipstick coming out in flight?)
it's weird how when I started answering questions again, I started gaining rep. I'm starting to sense a causality effect. I've almost worked my way back into the top ten all time. Don't want to be the blacksheep moderator.
I went ahead and re-created mh370-incident since we have a few questions that are really MH370 specific now. We'll probably need to be vigilant to keep crap from piling up there...
Hey, we have mostly 3's. And I have a retina mini... speaking of which I need to get depressurization testing for that one and submit it... sigh The work is never done.
@ratchetfreak ...and if EMI had anything to do with that I would concede that the test is sensible - after it does contain a <horror movie announcer voice> LITHIUM BATTERY </horror movie announcer voice> :-)
On the bright side, now that the FAA has relaxed their PED policy, once we do the testing we can "allow" our passengers to use theirs too. Not that it ever stopped them before, but hey....
@Lnafziger I have determined that the major risk in the Cherokee is if your damn cell phone is too close to your headset cable it makes the speakers crackle when we descend back in range of the cell towers and it wakes up to find service.
(surprisingly it doesn't make the VOR/GS needles jump...)
I still tell people they should turn their phones off, but that's more because the battery will be dead when we land if they don't.
I have been using an Android app to track flights. Their information is pulled from their own proprietary database, and some (with 5 minute delay) from the FAA.
I was thinking about making an app that would do this as well by pulling from multiple data sources.
What are some good APIs, either ...
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The Hangar