Aviation MegaThread!!!!

Who trusts fuel gauges ever?

Flying floatplanes in the bush is how many commercial pilots in Canada cut their teeth.. You paid your dues. I don't do it for work so its still enjoyable. Glad you have good memories of those days.

Interesting day on the aircraft.

Let's just say that violently pushing the nose over and pushing negative g's does interesting things to any loose items in the troop compartment.

The crew are now firm believers in seat belts when seated.

I'd hope so!

I used to undo my shoulder harness, loosen my lap belt and kick back a bit in cruise after turning the AP on. I was over Kansas in a C-172XP in light chop one day decades ago, sitting kinda diagonally in my seat with one eye on the instruments when I found my way into moderate to severe turbulence in an instant. Of course the AP disengaged with me barely in my seat, then I hit my head so hard on the roof of the cockpit that my neck hurt for weeks. I remember that it was rough enough that I was talking to myself out loud...things like, "Holy Shit," and WTF was that?" Now, no matter what I'm in, when I'm seated,my belt is on and snug enough to make sure I stay there!

I learned to fly at a private airport with a little grass strip. The runway is lined with houses, all of them pilots and most of them flying old taildraggers (Cubs, Champs, etc). The owner is a guy in his 80's that we'll call Fred. One of the home owners, Jim (who's also in his 80's), keeps a rain gage in his yard and every morning checks the runway on his golf cart and sends out an e-mail with the rain gage reading and how squishy the runway is. What he doesn't know is that for several years Fred has been fucking with his rain gage. Some nights he'll add water, some nights he'll dump it out. Here's this mornings runway report:

It rained yesterday and last night. I know it rained. I saw it, I heard
it, and the sidewalk was wet this morning. But there was only a tiny drop
in the bottom of the rain gage this morning! I thought maybe the gage had
cracked and leaked out all the water. So I checked the runway. No
standing water, even in the taxiway, no squishy sounds anywhere! So the
runway is in great shape. Enjoy.

Jim

(I brought the rain gage in and filled it with water. I'm letting it
stand for an hour or two just to make sure is doesn't have a leak!)​

hey

I was in uniform (AF Blues) may years ago on a commercial flight. They had served breakfast a bit before (yes, Virginia, they actually served breakfast in coach way back when). We hit an air pocket, and dropped a couple thousand feet. I held onto my tray as it floated up, but the guy in front of me didn't, and I got to wear his breakfast.

One of the stewardesses was taken off on a stretcher as she had floated to the ceiling.

I was in uniform (AF Blues) may years ago on a commercial flight. They had served breakfast a bit before (yes, Virginia, they actually served breakfast in coach way back when). We hit an air pocket, and dropped a couple thousand feet. I held onto my tray as it floated up, but the guy in front of me didn't, and I got to wear his breakfast.

One of the stewardesses was taken off on a stretcher as she had floated to the ceiling.

Don't get me wrong I still love floats. I used to do float endorsements years ago the best part: throwing the female graduate off the dock, to be more precise, pulling her out of the water with her wet T shirt!!!
Today skis are better more places to land.

I watched many pilots get to the flight level and undo the shoulder harness part.
I can honestly say that I have never removed mine, it's on from T/O to landing.
I never did enforce it on other crew, but if I leave the flight deck I request harness back on and O2 mask on.

I've had the aircraft drop and slam me up into the ceiling of the troop compartment. That was fun. Not. That was an air pocket decending into Yokota AB.

This time it was a emergency breakaway from behind the tanker, and not the planned practice kind. This time it was a "holy crap we are going to hit the tanker" kind. No warning at all. I'm betting the boomer had to change his shorts after it was all said and done.

I mean seat cushions came off of seats, the arm rests flew up, the EPOS and seat trays flew everywhere, a couple of overhead panels sprang loose. And the latrines look like a blue water bomb went off in them.

I won't even tell you how far into the negative the g-meter went.

So far, except for a level 5 thunderstorm (which, thankfully I've not been in) there's but one word: Santa Ana's...about every third year when the Santa Ana's blow 50-70 kts at ground level at ONT or BUR and you're on the lee side coming in over the mountains......cement yourself to the seat, slow down and turn the igniters on...so violent I've had a flame out(*) and the shaker activate. It's a trip at night, too...just seeing all the LA basin lights blur into a real swirly light show.(* that's how I now remember the igniters).

Yep I miss those good old days of deicing my own plane, loading and unloading it. Janitrol heaters that would make you pass out, but without them you froze. AND I sure like those cookies!

In-flight refueling, pax on board with trays and toilets!
what were you flying??

Hay Ewe

Ummm...just a guess...maybe the aircraft in his avatar...

C-5. Local training flight, no pax onboard.

had some interesting sights over the last week



billion dollar drone program

Nanchang up the ying yang.



S.C.

Spring is here, get you gliders ready!

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/42977768" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/42977768">Hang gliding Soca valley ride</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/matjazklemencic">Matjaz Klemencic</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

Ladies and gentleman, we are in full airshow mode!


Ready to move into show positions:



One of the big girls



Some little friends come for a visit




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