For a while now I've been coming across comments online about people clapping when their plane lands. They've all been derogatory and belittling of the people who do it. (Some do allow that if your pilot saves you from calamity, that clapping might be okay.) While I haven't ever said anything mean about this, I could see their point. Why clap about something that's so routine?
Then I read that article about the Delta flight that scooted into San Juan, Puerto Rico before the brunt of the storm hit the island and it mentioned that the 173 people applauded when they landed in New York. It was such a cool story, but it started me thinking about clapping on landing.
(As a brief aside, I wish I'd blogged about the Delta flight and hurricane Irma. Sorry that I didn't think of it.)
Anyway, I heard that back before flying was so inexpensive that people applauded all the time when they landed. I guess back then that an airplane flight was an occasional experience and that colored their perspectives. Also, back then flying was more dangerous than it is now. If you watch Air Disasters, you'll know what I mean. :-)
On the one hand, it's pretty cool that many people fly often and that no one really worries about having an issue in flight because it's pretty rare these days. On the other hand, it's a shame we've lost our wonder over flying.
Think about it. A hundred years ago, they were flying the Sopwith Camel. Now you can board a plane built from composite (787 and A350) and fly from the US to Australia or Seoul or China without needing to stop along the way. And fifty years ago, the 747-100 was not flying yet. It didn't take to the skies until 1969. If you board a 747 now, it's probably a 747-400--which came into service in 1989 and is currently being retired across many different airlines.
Flying is a wonder. It's an amazing thing. You can board a plane in Los Angeles and 13 hours later, go through customs in Sydney. How cool is that? And why isn't this miracle of engineering and invention, and even bravery from the earliest pilots not worth marveling over? Yes, it is common to fly, but it's still pretty miraculous when you really think about it.
Showing posts with label airplanes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label airplanes. Show all posts
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Tuesday, April 01, 2014
How'd I Miss This?
One of my favorite television shows is Air Disasters. I'm not sure why I like the show so much. Maybe it's because I'm fascinated by all things aviation. Last Saturday, I tuned in right at noon and saw a Northwest Airlines 747-400. I immediately went, huh?
The show was about an incident that happened in 2002. I worked for Northwest in 2002, heck, I worked in Technical Operations in 2002, and I had no memory of this incident.
To recap the show for you, in October 2002, NWA flight 85 from Detroit (DTW) to Tokyo, Japan (Narita Airport NRT) was midway across the Bering Sea when the lower rudder of the 747-400 aircraft went hard over left and was stuck there. The plane turned back to Anchorage, Alaska and made an emergency landing.
Thanks to the skill of the pilots, the plane landed safely and stayed on the runway. There were no injuries, no deaths, and no damage to the aircraft except for the lower rudder which started the whole incident.
Because I hadn't heard of Flight 85, I knew the plane would make it down safely because if it hadn't, there's no way I wouldn't know about it.
Air Disasters is kind of an interesting show, but somehow I think it's lacking in some accuracy. Like after the rudder goes hard over the plane is in clear trouble, they have the copilot just sitting there, waiting for instructions. I might never have worked in Flight Operations, but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't happen.
I also took note of what they used for the Northwest Airlines Cockpit Operating Manual and went, NOT! We had a copy of it in our department and I revised it whenever a change came out. It was thicker than shown and a three-ring binder, not a spiral bound book. Okay, so I forgave them for that. That's nitpicky stuff and there aren't that many people that would realize that.
The show also showed the Air Traffic Controller not allowing flight 85 to descent to 14000 feet over Cook Inlet. Maybe that did happen, but I had to wonder about it. My understanding was once a plane declares an emergency, ATC pretty much accommodates any request the pilots make. If someone knows for sure, please let me know.
Because the flight to Japan was so long, there were two sets of crew. During the show, they basically show the other two sitting around the cockpit until nearly the very end. Again, I'm not an expert on what goes on in the cockpit or Flight Ops, but I'm pretty sure everyone would be doing something even if it's simply monitoring a system.
Despite the issues I have with the show (and this episode is not the first time I've noticed things that bug me because they don't ring true), I still enjoy it and recommend it. It's on Smithsonian Channel on Saturday at Noon Eastern time.
The show was about an incident that happened in 2002. I worked for Northwest in 2002, heck, I worked in Technical Operations in 2002, and I had no memory of this incident.
To recap the show for you, in October 2002, NWA flight 85 from Detroit (DTW) to Tokyo, Japan (Narita Airport NRT) was midway across the Bering Sea when the lower rudder of the 747-400 aircraft went hard over left and was stuck there. The plane turned back to Anchorage, Alaska and made an emergency landing.
Thanks to the skill of the pilots, the plane landed safely and stayed on the runway. There were no injuries, no deaths, and no damage to the aircraft except for the lower rudder which started the whole incident.
Because I hadn't heard of Flight 85, I knew the plane would make it down safely because if it hadn't, there's no way I wouldn't know about it.
Air Disasters is kind of an interesting show, but somehow I think it's lacking in some accuracy. Like after the rudder goes hard over the plane is in clear trouble, they have the copilot just sitting there, waiting for instructions. I might never have worked in Flight Operations, but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't happen.
I also took note of what they used for the Northwest Airlines Cockpit Operating Manual and went, NOT! We had a copy of it in our department and I revised it whenever a change came out. It was thicker than shown and a three-ring binder, not a spiral bound book. Okay, so I forgave them for that. That's nitpicky stuff and there aren't that many people that would realize that.
The show also showed the Air Traffic Controller not allowing flight 85 to descent to 14000 feet over Cook Inlet. Maybe that did happen, but I had to wonder about it. My understanding was once a plane declares an emergency, ATC pretty much accommodates any request the pilots make. If someone knows for sure, please let me know.
Because the flight to Japan was so long, there were two sets of crew. During the show, they basically show the other two sitting around the cockpit until nearly the very end. Again, I'm not an expert on what goes on in the cockpit or Flight Ops, but I'm pretty sure everyone would be doing something even if it's simply monitoring a system.
Despite the issues I have with the show (and this episode is not the first time I've noticed things that bug me because they don't ring true), I still enjoy it and recommend it. It's on Smithsonian Channel on Saturday at Noon Eastern time.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Flight 370: A Kind of Rant
As I'm writing this on Sunday evening, the plane is still missing. Searchers are checking the south Indian Ocean where satellites have found possible debris.
I've tried not to weigh in on what happened to Malaysia flight 370 because at this point no one knows anything other than the plane is missing. However, after listening to CNN and their experts cover this topic, I finally couldn't take it any longer.
I don't mind CNN's wall to wall coverage of the missing plane, although there are certainly other news items that are more critical such as the situation in the Ukraine. What is irritating me is some of the ridiculous theories that keep getting covered over and over. I know it's because they have next to nothing to talk about, but it's still annoying.
That shadow plane theory for example. This is the theory that the plane flew close enough to another jumbo jet to evade every country's radar as it traveled northward. All the pilots CNN have had on have said it's extremely difficult, and while it is possible, it's highly unlikely. The pilots have all pointed out that this is a wide-body jet and not a fighter plane. That hasn't stopped the anchors for an instant.
I'm also annoyed by this constant harping that the pilots must have had nefarious motives. We don't know this! So far there hasn't been a shred of evidence that this is the case, but that hasn't stopped anyone from smearing the reputations of these men.
Maybe they are guilty, but if the hardest piece of evidence they have is that the cockpit door is difficult to breach, it's not enough. Difficult is not impossible.
The other thing making me crazy is the expensive "fixes" some of the experts and the CNN anchors have proposed to make sure "this doesn't happen again." Right. So we're going to spend millions of dollars to fix something that a) hardly ever happens and b) we don't know what--exactly--should be changed.
I don't know anything either about what happened to the plane, but I believe that it crashed. I also believe that something catastrophic occurred on board that plane.
To draw a parallel, Air France flight 447 had something small happen--the pitot tubes had ice crystals build up and give them incorrect speed indications. The pilots on board that A330 made a series of errors that ended up bringing the plane down. My guess is something similar happened with flight 370.
Notice I said "guess." Notice that I didn't spend 2 weeks talking about this. Are you listening CNN?
I've tried not to weigh in on what happened to Malaysia flight 370 because at this point no one knows anything other than the plane is missing. However, after listening to CNN and their experts cover this topic, I finally couldn't take it any longer.
I don't mind CNN's wall to wall coverage of the missing plane, although there are certainly other news items that are more critical such as the situation in the Ukraine. What is irritating me is some of the ridiculous theories that keep getting covered over and over. I know it's because they have next to nothing to talk about, but it's still annoying.
That shadow plane theory for example. This is the theory that the plane flew close enough to another jumbo jet to evade every country's radar as it traveled northward. All the pilots CNN have had on have said it's extremely difficult, and while it is possible, it's highly unlikely. The pilots have all pointed out that this is a wide-body jet and not a fighter plane. That hasn't stopped the anchors for an instant.
I'm also annoyed by this constant harping that the pilots must have had nefarious motives. We don't know this! So far there hasn't been a shred of evidence that this is the case, but that hasn't stopped anyone from smearing the reputations of these men.
Maybe they are guilty, but if the hardest piece of evidence they have is that the cockpit door is difficult to breach, it's not enough. Difficult is not impossible.
The other thing making me crazy is the expensive "fixes" some of the experts and the CNN anchors have proposed to make sure "this doesn't happen again." Right. So we're going to spend millions of dollars to fix something that a) hardly ever happens and b) we don't know what--exactly--should be changed.
I don't know anything either about what happened to the plane, but I believe that it crashed. I also believe that something catastrophic occurred on board that plane.
To draw a parallel, Air France flight 447 had something small happen--the pitot tubes had ice crystals build up and give them incorrect speed indications. The pilots on board that A330 made a series of errors that ended up bringing the plane down. My guess is something similar happened with flight 370.
Notice I said "guess." Notice that I didn't spend 2 weeks talking about this. Are you listening CNN?
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Sound Barrier
For those of you who don't know, I work for a major US airline, so I'm more than a little geeky over airplanes. This is a short video that actually shows a plane breaking the sound barrier in front of a crowd. Pretty darn cool!
Thursday, November 29, 2007
No Need To Yell "Fire" Last Night
Wednesday wasn't nearly as exciting as Tuesday. Thank goodness. :-)
I was able to see the A380--the really humongous plane from Airbus--again yesterday. It was parked right next to the hangars not that far from where I park my car. I was able to see it from nose to tail, and with the lighting on it, the plane looked way cool! It left today for Los Angeles and I was able to see it take off again, too. I got lucky both days on seeing it--somehow my timing on that was just perfect.
I had a surprise when I got home. As I went up the street, I hit the button for my garage door and turned in the driveway to see my dad standing there--and the door was going down. I was like, huh?
After a minute, the door opened again. It turns out that my dad and one of his lodge buddies were checking out my garage. You see, the electrician didn't put any switches for my garage lights inside the garage. Yep, I know. I never thought to look for them because who would put the only switches inside the house??? Anyway, my dad's friend can do electrical work and he was checking it out to add switches for me.
The story, however, doesn't end at 3:30 in the afternoon. About 7:15 or so last night, the phone rings. Now my parents have developed this awful habit of calling me constantly for nothing and I figured that's what this was, too. I was close. It was my dad, but it wasn't nothing. His lodge buddy was coming over in about 20 minutes to put a new bulb in my garage door opener. Of course this meant I had to pull the SUV out and give the thumbs up on the new bulb wattage. It turns out that the guy who installed the door put in a candelabra bulb instead of a real one. No wonder my garage was so dark!
My plan was to go to bed really early last night, but they were still out in the garage, actually doing stuff for adding switches. Finally, around 8:30, I was allowed to pull the car back in the garage and my dad said he'd lock up and shut off all the lights if I wanted to go to bed. I did.
So I'm almost asleep and the phone rings. It's my mom. She's looking for my dad because he has a couple of phone calls. Gah! Now she's developed an awful habit of no matter where Dad is or what he's doing, if that phone rings, she'll go and get him. What's up with that? He could be in their backyard, trimming hedges, and she'll leave the person sitting and walk all the way out to bring him in. I don't know how many times I've told her to just take a message instead of bothering him, but she won't. Last night this really bit me. Looks like I'll be having another conversation with them about calling my house whenever they feel like it for no good reason. Sigh.
I guess I should just be relieved that nothing resembling a crisis happened. :-)
I was able to see the A380--the really humongous plane from Airbus--again yesterday. It was parked right next to the hangars not that far from where I park my car. I was able to see it from nose to tail, and with the lighting on it, the plane looked way cool! It left today for Los Angeles and I was able to see it take off again, too. I got lucky both days on seeing it--somehow my timing on that was just perfect.
I had a surprise when I got home. As I went up the street, I hit the button for my garage door and turned in the driveway to see my dad standing there--and the door was going down. I was like, huh?
After a minute, the door opened again. It turns out that my dad and one of his lodge buddies were checking out my garage. You see, the electrician didn't put any switches for my garage lights inside the garage. Yep, I know. I never thought to look for them because who would put the only switches inside the house??? Anyway, my dad's friend can do electrical work and he was checking it out to add switches for me.
The story, however, doesn't end at 3:30 in the afternoon. About 7:15 or so last night, the phone rings. Now my parents have developed this awful habit of calling me constantly for nothing and I figured that's what this was, too. I was close. It was my dad, but it wasn't nothing. His lodge buddy was coming over in about 20 minutes to put a new bulb in my garage door opener. Of course this meant I had to pull the SUV out and give the thumbs up on the new bulb wattage. It turns out that the guy who installed the door put in a candelabra bulb instead of a real one. No wonder my garage was so dark!
My plan was to go to bed really early last night, but they were still out in the garage, actually doing stuff for adding switches. Finally, around 8:30, I was allowed to pull the car back in the garage and my dad said he'd lock up and shut off all the lights if I wanted to go to bed. I did.
So I'm almost asleep and the phone rings. It's my mom. She's looking for my dad because he has a couple of phone calls. Gah! Now she's developed an awful habit of no matter where Dad is or what he's doing, if that phone rings, she'll go and get him. What's up with that? He could be in their backyard, trimming hedges, and she'll leave the person sitting and walk all the way out to bring him in. I don't know how many times I've told her to just take a message instead of bothering him, but she won't. Last night this really bit me. Looks like I'll be having another conversation with them about calling my house whenever they feel like it for no good reason. Sigh.
I guess I should just be relieved that nothing resembling a crisis happened. :-)
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Argh!
My parents' plane was due in yesterday at 2:30--exactly the time I get off work at the EDJ. Since I work close to the airport, I knew I'd have to hang around until they landed, got off the plane, and retrieved their luggage. I was really hoping they'd get in early so I wouldn't have to waste valuable revision time.
It started off so promising. Their plane pulled away from the gate 7 minutes early and they were scheduled to arrive in Minneapolis 15 minutes early. Yea! That meant I'd only spin my wheels for maybe 10 or 15 minutes. Only the next time I checked to see how their flight was doing, I saw they were delayed. For 50 minutes. Argh!!!
Yes, I ended up sitting at work until nearly 4pm--there was no point in fighting traffic back and forth. The airport was crowded and some woman in a Jaguar blocked me in and then stands in the road behind her car (and in front of mine) talking with her passenger. How rude! By the time I got out of there, dropped my parents off and got home, it was after 5:30.
I open up my windows. It's been really hot here the last week and I've been running the air conditioning a lot. Besides, what's there to worry about? I haven't seen any wasps hanging around for a while. As I'm 0pening the fourth window, grass falls. Yes, the grass carrying wasp had built a nest. Argh!!!
This necessitated an SOS to my dad, and while I was waiting for him, I started getting some review copies ready to be mailed. How long can it take to address a few envelopes, write a short letter and seal them? Apparently, longer than I realized.
Anyway, the books are ready to be mailed, the wasp nest is gone, and I think I finally have the prologue finished. Yes, my friend found a ton wrong with it and it took me all the writing time I had today to fix it. Thank God my parents aren't planning any more trips for a while.
And there you have it, my frustrating ARGH! day.
It started off so promising. Their plane pulled away from the gate 7 minutes early and they were scheduled to arrive in Minneapolis 15 minutes early. Yea! That meant I'd only spin my wheels for maybe 10 or 15 minutes. Only the next time I checked to see how their flight was doing, I saw they were delayed. For 50 minutes. Argh!!!
Yes, I ended up sitting at work until nearly 4pm--there was no point in fighting traffic back and forth. The airport was crowded and some woman in a Jaguar blocked me in and then stands in the road behind her car (and in front of mine) talking with her passenger. How rude! By the time I got out of there, dropped my parents off and got home, it was after 5:30.
I open up my windows. It's been really hot here the last week and I've been running the air conditioning a lot. Besides, what's there to worry about? I haven't seen any wasps hanging around for a while. As I'm 0pening the fourth window, grass falls. Yes, the grass carrying wasp had built a nest. Argh!!!
This necessitated an SOS to my dad, and while I was waiting for him, I started getting some review copies ready to be mailed. How long can it take to address a few envelopes, write a short letter and seal them? Apparently, longer than I realized.
Anyway, the books are ready to be mailed, the wasp nest is gone, and I think I finally have the prologue finished. Yes, my friend found a ton wrong with it and it took me all the writing time I had today to fix it. Thank God my parents aren't planning any more trips for a while.
And there you have it, my frustrating ARGH! day.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Who Said the EDJ Is Boring?
Okay, I work in the office so I didn't actually see this firsthand, but sometimes working at the airline can be downright interesting. Check out this close encounter. I wish I could put the picture right in the blog, but it's copyrighted. It's definitely worth the click, though.
BTW, this happened yesterday morning and there were no passengers involved.
Edited to Add: The vehicle underneath the plane is a tug, what's used to tow the planes to the gate or push them back from a gate.
BTW, this happened yesterday morning and there were no passengers involved.
Edited to Add: The vehicle underneath the plane is a tug, what's used to tow the planes to the gate or push them back from a gate.
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