@voretaq7 haven't attack helicopter pilots had that for a while already?

@Articuno Not as easy as it should be apparently . . .

@Articuno The big application I can see is airspace situational awareness. If TFRs appear as a big red curtain wall in front of you there's no way you're flying into that accidentally. Also having your airway projected on the screen would be nice as opposed to having to look at the needle (think flying in actual IMC)

@falstro Interestingly MY plane is not placarded against spins. The substantially identical airframe manufactured I think 3 years later IS placarded with Intentional Spins Prohibited. My opinion about spinning a Cherokee should be pretty obvious :-)

my PhD advisor texted me last night a picture of a nice microburst on radar as he was departing MCO. I grabbed the tower ATC feed from that time and these guys were operating with ATC telling everyone "wind shear alert microburst warning, 70 kt loss."

I think I would have waited that one out

and from the sounds of it they were the last, or nearly the last plane to decide to depart ahead of the storm the microburst was embedded in. The plane behind them took a look for themselves and declined to depart

@casey Be a man, strap JATO bottle to a 152 and GO FOR IT! :-P

The wind shear scenario (modeled after the fatal at DFW) was the only sim scenario I crashed. And my sim partner crash. Then we crashed it again. Finally the sim instructor stops giving us shit and looks at his console. "oops, i set it at 200% rather than 20% of the DFW shear profile, no wonder you guys kept killing everyone"

I almost "crashed" the performance decreasing wind shear event at my first captain PC. I was in the turn to line up with 19 at DCA (coming off of the Rosslyn LDA). You make that turn short final and at or around 500' AGL, and in the middle of that turn I get the red windshear EICAS alert. Rolled level, wasn't quite over the runway, kept sinking, I was ready for the impact and my FO finally yells "POSITIVE RATE!". Radar altitude 5 ft. :)

brought it back around for a single engine ILS and during the break my sim partner was shaking in his boots at how "hard" my PC was and if he was up to that challenge.

The instructor gave him the IAH profile, which I suppose is "easier". The DCA profile was a lot more fun though

@casey "No wonder you guys kept killing everyone" -- Things you only want to hear in sim training?

@voretaq7 yep, and at least in my opinion, the harder they try the more fun the sim training is

@casey Agreed. Though I will say the simulator at NFI has tried to kill both me and my instructor WITHOUT BEING ASKED TO and THAT is disconcerting

@voretaq7 hah. I'm fine with the sim instructors trying, but not the sim maintenance (or lack thereof) guys

(Fun Facts: In the Redbird FMX simulator you can't overpower the autopilot -- if Otto decides he wants a 1000FPM descent on short final you can pull the yoke all the way back to your chest and the sim is STILL GOING TO DESCEND AT THE COMMANDED RATE)

nice

Fortunatey the Redbird is dinky enough that it can't kill you. It might maim you a little if you stand inside the motion arc, but it can't really kill you :)

in our sims if you didn't catch a trim runaway event really fast, it took both of you to fly, if you could maintain control at all

well the mechs should know better than to stand under the sim when it is in operation

@casey yeah we actually paused the simulation about 50 feet above the runway to figure out what the hell was happening -- something about "full throttle and the yoke in your chest but we're still descending?! What the fuck??"

@casey this would be the equivalent of "Here, hold this wire. What? Would I make you hold it if it were live?!"

just like that engine guys know to respect the intake arc around the engines

The 737 engines (probably others) have a big red vertical line painted on the side of the engines -- ahead of the line is the death zone

@casey trim runaway is my nightmare scenario. I always make sure I have the location of the breaker memorized before I go.

I know some flight attendants that were unfortunate enough to witness a mechanic forget that and get sucked into an engine during a static runup

@casey object-lesson

@falstro memory items "trim disconnect -- press and hold". The trim breakers in our EMB-145s all had special collars so you could find them very fast

There's a better one I can't find online with one train in the station and you see people just running past the gates to make it. The last one gets splattered by an express going in the opposite direction - they pulled that one because it wasn't computer-generated, it was an actual video from the Bethpage crossing

@voretaq7 I never understood people doing that... I only imagine how bad it would be if we had actual high speed trains

@casey The bethpage crossing is especially bad - I think in 1995 it was the deadliest grade crossing in the country

@casey there should be a sign on the gate: a 300tonne machine is coming this way, please stay of the tracks

@ratchetfreak We have poles, bells, and flashing red lights - people are STUPID.

I used to work by a 3-track line, we'd have at least one impact a month without fail because the gates would come down a full 3 minutes before the express comes through and people would get tired of waiting

and it's like "Uhhh, really guys - if he hit the emergency stop the second those poles came down the engine is still going through this crossing. They're doing 75-80mph and they don't stop very well!"

@ratchetfreak "These trains go fast. Very fast. You won't see it coming but it will still hit you." at least if we had trains that regularly exceeded 55 mph. (yea, there are a few on the east coast, I know)

@falstro its amazing how thorough the prelim is (though since the FAA, and presumably some NTSB reps, were there it's not surprising)

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing

@Federico sure is

skyvector.com/airport/OSH/Wittman-Regional-Airport

@Federico IIRC there was a time when it was a temporary tower (just for airventure) - I could be misremembering though

it's a part-time tower though (not 24x7)

@Federico yeah I think that's what they're getting at - It was a controlled field at the time (tower in operation) as opposed to uncontrolled (off-hours -- which during Oshkosh actually means "NOTAM'd Closed")

@voretaq7 ever been to Oshkosh?

@falstro no, I do intend to at some point though

Maybe I'll go next year

A friend of mine flew her gyroplane there this year.

It's difficult arranging a week off (because c'mon - if I'm going I'm going for the week!), and at the moment the plane is in pieces (but all the fucking paint is off finally!!!)

And said she accidentally squawked 7700 for a while upon leaving.

@BretCopeland It's legit - going back to the real world after spending time at Oshkosh seems like an emergency to me!

@voretaq7 if you decide to go next year, we should go together.

"Crap! I have to go back to work! I can't stand around and ogle planes anymore!"

@BretCopeland that is definitely an arrival I would want another pilot with me for. Have you ever flown in to the airshow?

nope

I know a number of people who have

they say it's crazy

the arrival bit doesn't look hard, I know a few guys who have done it and they say it's pretty hectic but do-able

That's what I would expect considering the high success rate.

the spot landings bit - grrrr. Yes i can manage spot landings, no I'm really not thrilled about doing it with pretty much all of US GA standing there holding rate-a-landing cards :P

My landings are always better under pressure.

(also I hear tell that if you fly in at certain times of day the multicolor dots are actually varying shades of "Freakin' sun glare!" -- just in case it wasn't challenging enough :P)

My landings are generally better after I've had the shit kicked out of me enroute -- so by that logic I should do beautifully at Oshkosh!

I would need to locate my tent (or acquire a new one) -- low-wing aircraft not so much with the "camp under the wing" ("wake up, sit up, and impale yourself on a fuel vent")

Do you think I could convince Stack that it should count as my tech conference?

@BretCopeland print up some aviation stickers and such ==> "Seems Legit" :)

that "One Week Wonder" thing they did this year is fucking impressive!

@voretaq7 no idea what you're talking about.

I was figuring they'd bang it together with bare-minimum Day VFR instruments and get it taxiing, but it's fully functional with a pretty nice panel

They built that over the course of the week

That's more than I've done in the last week.

I did go roller skating yesterday though.

SE Summer Party. aka "Mandatory Fun Day"

@BretCopeland "The beatings will continue until fun is had!"

I kind of feel like I got a beating. I'm a little sore today from the football and frisbee activities.

Though that was more of the after party.

I mean, we were hard at work yesterday working on these "sites"

@BretCopeland Yeah I hear you guys have a couple of those :P

@voretaq7 I'd tag along too for sure if you can spare a seat. ;)

@falstro . . . who wants to sit in the back of a (pre-stretch) PA28? :-D

And spot landings are more or less a necessity at most fields I fly in and out of :)

@voretaq7 watch me! Just hold my beer will ya? ;)

I used to get to do more interesting spot landings when I was renting from NFI (they're all the way on the north end of the field, so landing runway 1 I'd ask for a long landing and try to hit a spot)

Now it's more "I don't want to taxi back to the ghetto tiedowns for an hour - put the wheels down near the numbers and make the early turn-off or the intersection!"

how far is the turnoff?

@falstro Depends which runway :)

@voretaq7 oh, that's where your parking spot is?

@BretCopeland general vicinity thereof :)

I thought you were on the west side.

It is certainly possible to make G1 or G4 but I never try unless I'm drilling short-field landings since I have to pay for tires and brakes :P

Nah I'm in the ghetto tiedowns :P

It just seems like you've talked about the bravo side before.

(which is nice because when I have to take the cowling to bits to chase out the birds the whole airport isn't watching)

@BretCopeland there was a whole month where I could not catch a break and had some kind of jet chasing me down final every damn time so I would make the turn-off onto B just to clear the runway

@BretCopeland yeah that's about the only time - or once or twice tower told me to exit on bravo because of traffic heading down golf

@voretaq7 cool, so around 1500 ft on average? that's pretty decent

(at which point I have to ruin their day by telling them "Uh, going to alpha ramp")

@falstro give or take yeah, I really hang out the laundry on short final because I don't like a long-ass roll out

@BretCopeland The worst is when you can't hit D1 because you had to come down short final at 80 knots to avoid being a Citation's hood ornament - that pretty much condemns you to making the hairpin turn onto alpha. I squeaked tires on that one.

For some reason, it's pretty much never busy when I fly out of FRG.

So they never seem to care what I do.

@BretCopeland Has it been at all busy lately? Brookhaven has been dead but it's also in the middle of East Nowhere

The last time I flew was July 12th

@BretCopeland how long have you been flying?

@falstro got my license December 2012

Tomorrow is my one year in New York. Tuesday is my one year at Stack.

@BretCopeland Awesome

you like it?

yep. I like the responsibility I have now. I wasn't particularly happy for a few months while a lot of things were in flux, but it's better now.

@BretCopeland I go out every week or two to stare at the plane in pieces -- I'm hoping I remember how all those switches and levers and stuff work when it's back together! :P

It's been.... since June 7th

(you'd think I'd have more disposable income but I had to go and buy landing gear legs and gyros. <grumble>)

@voretaq7 and even more to the point, you hope they still work at all when they're put back together.

@BretCopeland well I'll ascertain that before it leaves the ground

I do NOT want to be one of those "Died because the controls were all rigged backwards" stories!

I don't think they did either.

@BretCopeland . . . then they should have done a proper preflight!

It's "Flight controls - Free and Correct" not "Flight controls - Yeah they look like they're kinda attached I guess...."

@voretaq7 yeah, a lot of people forget the correct part.

@falstro <appopleptic sputtering and wild gestures at deflected control surface and stick/yoke> !!!!!

Somewhere on Youtube there was a "sabotaged" cessna for people to preflight and some of the items were "Yeah I can see how someone might miss that on a Day VFR flight" (nav light lenses swapped), but one of the items was the ailerons were rigged backwards

like... uh.... you were told the plane was sabotaged. That's the sort of thing you should look for anyway but how do you not think to check it on a sabotaged plane?

@voretaq7 You'd be surprised how many are unaware that you can actually stand outside the aircraft/squat on the wing and reach in and manipulate the yoke to check the elevator movement

you can generally see the ailerons from the seat.

On the piper you can stand on the right side of the tail and move it while watching the yoke

the rudder is the only one you can't really check because it's bolted to the nose gear (and there's no back window)

@voretaq7 yeah, checking the rudder is hard, I asked a question about that

On cessnas with the back window it's easy because you can stomp on the pedals (they're bungees so you can watch the tail move) or you can look while taxiing out

@Lnafziger mentioned that some have bungees so you can actually move the rudder while the nose gear is immobile

but it's bolted on with rods in the TB10

yeah on the pipers it's little steel rods - you're not moving the rudder without moving the nosewheel - and you're definitely not moving it by pushing on the rudder, you'll crease your tail before you turn the wheel :)

I suppose you could stomp on the pedal and scrub the nose tire then look out the door (or hold a mirror out to see the tail from the pilot's side) - easier to just check the rigging by jacking the nose though :)

(Bonus - you can also check the nose wheel stops)

Although, when it's bolted, you can at least check the nose wheel turns the same way as the rudder while pulling it out of the hangar

@falstro True...

and at least the way the Cherokee rudders pedals are rigged it's pretty much impossible to fuck that connection up (opposite pedals on opposite sides are connected to the nosewheel - you'd have to saw through the torque tubes to get things turning the wrong way)

@voretaq7 Don't underestimate the stupidity of man. I'm sure someone at one point or another went "hmm, this don't fit no more, I need to saw through this thingy her to make it work, here hold my beer"

@falstro Such stupidity was foreseen - cut through the tube and one half of the rudder pedals will fall off :)

@voretaq7 Don't underestimate the power of duct tape! ;)

@voretaq7 couldn't you just switch the parts left for right, effectively switching the pedals around?

@falstro I don't think so, let me find the better picture of the linkage

ah here we go

see the two little fittings left and right of that center piece? The rods connect there - one to the left side and one to the right side. It's just a straight rod with two bushings

@voretaq7 couldn't you just turn the entire assembly around? I mean the footrests would be on backwards, but perhaps you wouldn't notice