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Re: irrational fear of flying
Heard a plane pass over a few days ago (I'm in central New Hampshire). Quite loud. It was pretty low for some reason, so you could clearly see four underwing engines. I assumed it was a 747 cargo coming out of MHT (does that happen?) but it looked... well, odd. Stumpier than a 747. A quick check of Flight Aware revealed it to be one of these big guys. I've never seen an An-124 before. Apparently it was at Pease (used to be an air base, now a civilian airport at the NH seacoast). I wonder why it was there?
Attachment 125361
Do current US-Russia tensions impact contracting these fellas?
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Re: irrational fear of flying
There are a handful of Anatovs in the world that belong to charter companies to deliver large items. Fun fact, their cargo holds aren't pressurized. A decade or so ago, the Army contracted an Anatov to move a bunch of helicopters across the Pacific. Helicopters don't fly at 35K+ altitudes but the Anatov does. Most of the helicopters had damaged instrumentation.
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Re: irrational fear of flying
Quote:
Originally Posted by
bigbill
There are a handful of Anatovs in the world that belong to charter companies to deliver large items. Fun fact, their cargo holds aren't pressurized. A decade or so ago, the Army contracted an Anatov to move a bunch of helicopters across the Pacific. Helicopters don't fly at 35K+ altitudes but the Anatov does. Most of the helicopters had damaged instrumentation.
I know that they can be pretty instrumental in disaster relief and delivering very large cargoes (huge water pumps, crane assemblies, and so forth) in addition to military stuff. Love to know what it was delivering to a relatively small airfield in New Hampshire.
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Re: irrational fear of flying
I'm guessing an An-124 is pretty darn loud. Do they retrofit planes like this for noise and emissions? Or just grandfather them in and let 'em fly?
bigbill, I concur with other comments here, I'd ride around with you just to hear you say "I can't tell you that" repeatedly and then tell me again about the time you kicked a fish. Thanks for sharing what you do.
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Re: irrational fear of flying
Snip:
Quote:
Originally Posted by
72gmc
I'm guessing an An-124 is pretty darn loud. Do they retrofit planes like this for noise and emissions? Or just grandfather them in and let 'em fly?
According to this air cargo charter site, the AN-124s were updated to meet current ICAO noise requirements. I have no idea how they currently operate outside of Russia with the sanctions imposed due to the war in Ukraine.
Greg
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Re: irrational fear of flying
Good point about the sanctions. It appeared the Canadians seized a similar aircraft in 2022.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...a-volga-dnepr/
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Re: irrational fear of flying
Quote:
Originally Posted by
bigbill
There are a handful of Anatovs in the world that belong to charter companies to deliver large items. Fun fact, their cargo holds aren't pressurized. A decade or so ago, the Army contracted an Anatov to move a bunch of helicopters across the Pacific. Helicopters don't fly at 35K+ altitudes but the Anatov does. Most of the helicopters had damaged instrumentation.
When I worked at Zurich, I met the crews of many of these airplanes and learned some fascinating things. I was a student pilot at the time and a sponge for all things aviation. They were eager to explain when they learned I was learning to fly. This was all civilian stuff. No military connection on my end. This was in the late 1990s.
IIRC, the fuselage/cargo hold can in fact be pressurized but then they are severely limited in maximum altitude and their fuel burn is significantly higher. The flight deck of this airplane is enormous, with room for a dozen people working at various stations. The non-flying crew (cargo handlers, etc.) fly in a pressurized compartment in the rear of the airplane, that looks more like a barracks than an airplane cabin.
The tensions between these nations is unfortunate because most of the folks I met when working at ZRH from Russia and other places we don’t interact with as much in the west were lovely people and wanted to be friendly and learn about us too. I was fortunate to be in a place that existed as a bit of a middle point between worlds.
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Re: irrational fear of flying
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Saab2000
The tensions between these nations is unfortunate because most of the folks I met when working at ZRH from Russia and other places we don’t interact with as much in the west were lovely people and wanted to be friendly and learn about us too. I was fortunate to be in a place that existed as a bit of a middle point between worlds.
All my dealings with Russian military members have been great. When I was stationed at Pearl Harbor, we would occasionally get a Russian ship during some kind of exercise. The ships were Soviet era rust buckets but the sailors are sailors. This one time, I had a watertight door in the back of my shipyard truck that I brought to the weld shop for repairs. My guys fabricated and welded on a new hinge. I helped the Russian sailors rehang the door and had a shot of vodka on the pier before I headed back to my office. Their ships are nasty, all the bulkheads have a yellow tint from nicotine. All things considered, I enjoyed working with the Australians more than the Russians.
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Re: irrational fear of flying
Quote:
Originally Posted by
monadnocky
Heard a plane pass over a few days ago (I'm in central New Hampshire). Quite loud. It was pretty low for some reason, so you could clearly see four underwing engines. I assumed it was a 747 cargo coming out of MHT (does that happen?) but it looked... well, odd. Stumpier than a 747. A quick check of Flight Aware revealed it to be one of these big guys. I've never seen an An-124 before. Apparently it was at Pease (used to be an air base, now a civilian airport at the NH seacoast). I wonder why it was there?
Attachment 125361
Do current US-Russia tensions impact contracting these fellas?
I don't have a direct answer however, I lived on the NH coast up until 3 years ago, and my office was on the decommissioned Peace base. Our office building was about 1/2 of a mile from the actual runway. A lot of large aircraft training exercises take place there. Touch and goes, midair refueling, etc. It is conceivable that it was there for training and was coming out of Pease when you saw it, considering it is not too far from MHT.
Fun fact - The Peace base was considered a backup landing site for the space shuttle because the runway is 2 miles long.
Fun fact 2 - They used to hold an annual airshow at Pease. The Thunderbirds and Blue Angles would rotate through on different years. I never attended the actual shows because I didn't have to. The different acts would start practicing a few days before the show to get used to the airspace and they used our building as one of the touch points (almost literally). If we had a meeting during their practice times, I would have to tell whoever was on the other end of the video, "This better be highly interesting/important to keep our attention. Otherwise reschedule. You are competing with jet fighters showing off outside our windows".
Fun fact 3 - The Pease base is/was on the list of Superfund sites. The water for the base, and business tradeport the base became after it was decommissioned, comes from on-base wells which were highly contaminated from decades of dumping jet fuel, solvents, paint stripers, etc into the ground . I am sure this is why I am bald on top and ride much slower now.
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Re: irrational fear of flying
... aaand the An-124 just went over my house again. Such a distinctive noise. Actively tracking it on Flightradar to see where it goes - again, it came out of the Pease airport, again.
So curious what they're up to.
Update: the website booted me off right as the flight was over the general NYC area, and I'll never re-aquire it with the hundreds of flights shown.
Oh well. It remains a mystery.
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Re: irrational fear of flying
Quote:
Originally Posted by
monadnocky
... aaand the An-124 just went over my house again. Such a distinctive noise. Actively tracking it on Flightradar to see where it goes - again, it came out of the Pease airport, again.
So curious what they're up to.
Update: the website booted me off right as the flight was over the general NYC area, and I'll never re-aquire it with the hundreds of flights shown.
Oh well. It remains a mystery.
Update to the previous update: Found it. It is heading to Mobile, Alabama of all places. How odd.
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Re: irrational fear of flying
My son aced all his instrument simulators, so he'll do a cross-country flight in the next few weeks. When he flies, he is alone, with no instructor. He is trying to figure out a route with three legs in each direction with airports having a government contract for fuel and support. At the end of the outbound legs, he'll get to spend the weekend before flying back on Monday.
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Re: irrational fear of flying
Sometimes I see single military jets landing or taking off from SUS (Spirit Airport, just west of St Louis MO) so I assume they have a contract for that.
https://www.spiritairport.com/
If he does go through there, he might fly relatively close to my house.
Some other guys who stop by every now and then: (not my house in the background)
https://media.ksdk.com/assets/KSDK/i..._1920x1080.jpg
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Re: irrational fear of flying
Quote:
Originally Posted by
BBB
OFAC and Sanctions are complex, but things are not sanctioned. It is the owner when it is a legal entity or individual on the list, that is sanctioned, and then the item is unable to transact in dollars, so becomes stranded. The issue is for you to comply with sanctions you cannot pay or receive funds from a sanction entity without a waiver. If you owned an old russian tank or plane prior to sanctions, you can do whatever you want with it. There are specialty fire fighting aircraft from Russia which are used all over the world.
There is a Czech Defense contractor who specialized in repairing and modifying Russian equipment. Since sanctions went into effect against Russian Military contractors, the czechs are the only legal game in town who can repair old russian equipment. The owners have become billionaires since the war started.
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Re: irrational fear of flying
Quote:
Originally Posted by
vertical_doug
OFAC and Sanctions are complex, but things are not sanctioned. It is the owner when it is a legal entity or individual on the list, that is sanctioned, and then the item is unable to transact in dollars, so becomes stranded. The issue is for you to comply with sanctions you cannot pay or receive funds from a sanction entity without a waiver. If you owned an old russian tank or plane prior to sanctions, you can do whatever you want with it. There are specialty fire fighting aircraft from Russia which are used all over the world.
There is a Czech Defense contractor who specialized in repairing and modifying Russian equipment. Since sanctions went into effect against Russian Military contractors, the czechs are the only legal game in town who can repair old russian equipment. The owners have become billionaires since the war started.
This is a classic Czech business. Keeping engines going is their forte. There are so many nice machine shops in garages in Czechia. Everyone’s dad is making something crazy. We visited a friend whose dad had a go-cart with a huge engine in it. I asked him where he got the very interesting looking seat for it. MiG he said. I thought he was joking. He was not joking.
Glad to see they are making money.
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Re: irrational fear of flying
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mabouya
One of the jet training bases is in Meridian, MS, so it would make sense that the students would fly to smaller fields like the one near St Louis.
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Re: irrational fear of flying
Bud Anderson died yesterday at 103 years of age. He was a triple ace in World War II, a test pilot, and flew chase planes when Yeager was breaking records, and wrote a fascinating book To Fly and Fight. Jocko Willink did a three-hour podcast with Bud a few years ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ2Hid1PbKk
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Re: irrational fear of flying
Quote:
Originally Posted by
vertical_doug
OFAC and Sanctions are complex, but things are not sanctioned. It is the owner when it is a legal entity or individual on the list, that is sanctioned, and then the item is unable to transact in dollars, so becomes stranded. The issue is for you to comply with sanctions you cannot pay or receive funds from a sanction entity without a waiver. If you owned an old russian tank or plane prior to sanctions, you can do whatever you want with it. There are specialty fire fighting aircraft from Russia which are used all over the world.
There is a Czech Defense contractor who specialized in repairing and modifying Russian equipment. Since sanctions went into effect against Russian Military contractors, the czechs are the only legal game in town who can repair old russian equipment. The owners have become billionaires since the war started.
Thanks!
The legal entity in this case would be Volga-Dnepr Airlines, which is a Russian company. I would have thought one of its assets (ie the plane) would have been covered by the sanctions. It seems it wasn't just the Canadians that confiscated the Antonov, with 4 out of the 10 planes owned by Volga-Dnepr Airlines being confiscated.
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Re: irrational fear of flying
4 out of the 10 Antonovs that is.
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Re: irrational fear of flying
I assume most have seen the news story of the deadly turbulence on the London>Singapore. One dead and 71 injured.
This must have been some severe turbulence. Question to the pilots in the group: How did this happen? I would assume modern instrumentation would keep you out of such severe disturbances. What went wrong?
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/21/world...kok/index.html
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Re: irrational fear of flying
Quote:
Originally Posted by
AngryScientist
I would assume modern instrumentation would keep you out of such severe disturbances.
I'm not sure what that flight hit, but if it was this, there's no easy way for them to see/detect it ahead of time:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear-air_turbulence
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1 Attachment(s)
Re: irrational fear of flying
Quote:
Originally Posted by
AngryScientist
I assume most have seen the news story of the deadly turbulence on the London>Singapore. One dead and 71 injured.
This must have been some severe turbulence. Question to the pilots in the group: How did this happen? I would assume modern instrumentation would keep you out of such severe disturbances. What went wrong?
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/21/world...kok/index.html
Onboard radar will detect areas of precipitation and potential turbulence associated with convective activity (https://safetyfirst.airbus.com/optim...weather-radar/). Pilots still need to interpret the radar display and make decisions on how to best avoid areas that could be dangerous. Clear Air Turbulence (CAT) associated with jet stream winds will be noted on your flight plan as areas of predicted vertical wind shear. Crews can use this data to plan cabin service and ensure pax and crew are seated and belted in when approaching potential turbulence.
In this case, at least one news source is postulating that the crew was flying in an area of rapid thunderstorm buildup (see attached FlightAware screen grab). Thunderstorms need to be avoided both laterally and vertically. Trying to go over the top of rapidly growing thunderstorms has caused multiple aircraft incidents and accidents over the years. A thunderstorm cell can climb so quickly that an aircraft cannot safely go over the top. My $0.02: the crew in this accident tried to overfly an area of rapidly growing thunderstorms, leading to the turbulence encounter. The investigative authorities will review all the aircraft and weather data as they develop their report.
Greg
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Re: irrational fear of flying
I would also SPECULATE (just speculating) that they flew into a convective event. This was likely not pure clear air turbulence.
Oddly, just last week I was operating a flight from Houston to Tampa (KHOU-KTPA) and there was a report (PIREP - Pilot Report) over the Mobile area of severe turbulence at 37,000’. This was about an hour before our passage over the same point. We got the info from our company and also from ATC. There was an east-west line of storms north of us but we were well clear of this, by 40 or 50 miles at least. So in clear air. We proactively descended to 35000’ and were listening for a comment from an airplane out in front of us about 30 or 40 miles going over this spot. They reported moderate turbulence with a gain and loss of about 15 knots of airspeed, right over Mobile, AL. So we were ready for it and sure enough, that’s exactly what we got. There seemed to be no reason for it. We were quite a ways from the weather to our north and there was a crosswind that should have seemingly moved whatever was causing this bizarre turbulence off our flight path. But sure enough, we encountered it. It only lasted 10-15 seconds and I had advised the cabin crew to be seated as we transitioned the area. We got out of the area and the flight resumed uneventfully.
Air Traffic Control was great and advised all traffic of this area of known turbulence.
We use a couple apps on our inflight iPads that show areas of turbulence and PIREPS. Severe turbulence is pretty rare and is usually reported by Cessna 172s or similarly small airplanes as they get tossed around from low level winds and thermals. But when a larger airplane reports severe turbulence, especially in a clear air environment, it gets everyone’s attention. I’ve had honest-to-dog severe to extreme turbulence once and that was one time too many. It is not fun.
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Re: irrational fear of flying
The photos of the cabin and galley show a real mess, with ceiling panels missing and ductwork dangling. Apparently the passenger who died had a pre-existing heart condition and it sounds like the turbulence event put him over the edge. We had quite a rollercoaster climb and cruise out of ORD last evening as apparently strong storms were quickly approaching, and sitting in the last row (27) on an Airbus A319 only made for a more "pronounced" experience.
Backstory...I'm at the gate waiting to board and across the way, I can see a gentleman waving his ball cap in what looked to be, my direction. Turned out to be my wife's cousin and his 86yo Mother coming back from visiting his brother in LA. She needs a wheelchair to board and as the chair wasn't there yet, I boarded first and waited for them to board soon after. I then asked the FA if I could trade seats with my wife's aunt, so that she could sit in 1F. When her aunt boarded and I made the trade, she was blown away as she has never ridden up front, which made her day and quite frankly, mine too.
We told her to take it easy on the Prosecco, and I then went to the back of the bus with my wife's cousin and we had a good time catching up on life, crammed in with the "little people" as he called it, and we shared our row with a kid rom Carnegie-Mellon, who had been visiting his folks in India. As we were going through the bumps, the kid made a comment about the turbulence, and I said "don't worry, because if we go down, at least you're sitting in the row with a priest, who will gladly read us all our last rites". The kid smiled a bit and then my wife's cousin (who is a RC priest) leaned over and said that he doesn't wear his collar when he's on vacation (he had an FBI t-shirt on as his brother is a G-Man), but he could still read us our last rights as needed and would be happy to do so, but that we needed to pass the basket first...good times were had in row 27 and 26 for that matter as we were all busting a gut.
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Re: irrational fear of flying
The weather is something else this spring. Predict a shortage on framing lumber and sheetrock. A glut of toothpicks though.
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Re: irrational fear of flying
Quote:
Originally Posted by
rwsaunders
The photos of the cabin and galley show a real mess, with ceiling panels missing and ductwork dangling. Apparently the passenger who died had a pre-existing heart condition and it sounds like the turbulence event put him over the edge. We had quite a rollercoaster climb and cruise out of ORD last evening as apparently strong storms were quickly approaching, and sitting in the last row (27) on an Airbus A319 only made for a more "pronounced" experience.
Backstory...I'm at the gate waiting to board and across the way, I can see a gentleman waving his ball cap in what looked to be, my direction. Turned out to be my wife's cousin and his 86yo Mother coming back from visiting his brother in LA. She needs a wheelchair to board and as the chair wasn't there yet, I boarded first and waited for them to board soon after. I then asked the FA if I could trade seats with my wife's aunt, so that she could sit in 1F. When her aunt boarded and I made the trade, she was blown away as she has never ridden up front, which made her day and quite frankly, mine too.
We told her to take it easy on the Prosecco, and I then went to the back of the bus with my wife's cousin and we had a good time catching up on life, crammed in with the "little people" as he called it, and we shared our row with a kid rom Carnegie-Mellon, who had been visiting his folks in India. As we were going through the bumps, the kid made a comment about the turbulence, and I said "don't worry, because if we go down, at least you're sitting in the row with a priest, who will gladly read us all our last rites". The kid smiled a bit and then my wife's cousin (who is a RC priest) leaned over and said that he doesn't wear his collar when he's on vacation (he had an FBI t-shirt on as his brother is a G-Man), but he could still read us our last rights as needed and would be happy to do so, but that we needed to pass the basket first...good times were had in row 27 and 26 for that matter as we were all busting a gut.
Was the "little people" a Blade Runner reference I wonder?
When you fly from Australia and head towards the Middle East you will encounter turbulence in the warmer areas over the Indian Ocean. Likewise if you are flying north(ish) towards other areas in Asia. I think wearing a seatbelt when you are seated is probably a sensible idea in these circumstances given what happened to the Singapore flight.
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Re: irrational fear of flying
For the life of me I don't know why people don't wear their seatbelts when not going to the heads. I don't like to get into the territory of blaming people for their own misfortune (unless it was something actively, truly stupid), so I'm not going there. But it's like wearing a seatbelt in a car (and I live in the only state in the Union where adults don't have to (!!!)) - what possible reason might anyone have for not?
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Re: irrational fear of flying
Quote:
Originally Posted by
monadnocky
For the life of me I don't know why people don't wear their seatbelts when not going to the heads. I don't like to get into the territory of blaming people for their own misfortune (unless it was something actively, truly stupid), so I'm not going there. But it's like wearing a seatbelt in a car (and I live in the only state in the Union where adults don't have to (!!!)) - what possible reason might anyone have for not?
I agree. The other thing I'm uncomfortable with is the lap infant policy. It just strikes me as dangerous to have a tiny baby unsecured in any meaningful way on a vehicle moving 400+ mph through the air.
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Re: irrational fear of flying
Quote:
Originally Posted by
BBB
Was the "little people" a Blade Runner reference I wonder?
Borrowed from Leona Helmsley’s quote of “We don’t pay taxes…only the little people pay taxes”. Her quote was made of course prior to being convicted for tax evasion. My wife’s family uses the term “little people” when making fun of each other, when on occasion someone is being snobbish.
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Re: irrational fear of flying
Quote:
Originally Posted by
monadnocky
For the life of me I don't know why people don't wear their seatbelts when not going to the heads. I don't like to get into the territory of blaming people for their own misfortune (unless it was something actively, truly stupid), so I'm not going there. But it's like wearing a seatbelt in a car (and I live in the only state in the Union where adults don't have to (!!!)) - what possible reason might anyone have for not?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
AngryScientist
I agree. The other thing I'm uncomfortable with is the lap infant policy. It just strikes me as dangerous to have a tiny baby unsecured in any meaningful way on a vehicle moving 400+ mph through the air.
People light themselves on fire, blow themselves up and electrocute themselves daily. Why would you expect them to wear a seatbelt anywhere?
The baby thing is ridiculous though. That's just a product of cost and lack of accommodation, which is also about cost. There was a woman I saw on a recent flight from Paris who put on a baby harness and put the baby in the harness and then seat belted herself into the seat. Looked purpose made for flying because I don't think a normal Baby Bjorn or Snuggly would allow sitting in an airplane seat with a seat belt on.
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Re: irrational fear of flying
Quote:
Originally Posted by
AngryScientist
I agree. The other thing I'm uncomfortable with is the lap infant policy. It just strikes me as dangerous to have a tiny baby unsecured in any meaningful way on a vehicle moving 400+ mph through the air.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
j44ke
People light themselves on fire, blow themselves up and electrocute themselves daily. Why would you expect them to wear a seatbelt anywhere?
The baby thing is ridiculous though. That's just a product of cost and lack of accommodation, which is also about cost. There was a woman I saw on a recent flight from Paris who put on a baby harness and put the baby in the harness and then seat belted herself into the seat. Looked purpose made for flying because I don't think a normal Baby Bjorn or Snuggly would allow sitting in an airplane seat with a seat belt on.
I was never comfortable with the "baby under 2 allowed to be in parent's lap" concept when I was a pilot. Once I had my own child, I was 100% against the concept. My ex and I would always purchase a ticket for our daughter when she was under age two. We would use our aircraft-approved child car seat. On one flight, a "know-it-all" flight attendant demanded that we take our daughter out of the child seat and hold her in one of our laps. When I politely disagreed with her, she said we couldn't use the seat because we hadn't paid for it. I showed her the ticket, hoping this would end the discussion amicably. Nope, she then said we couldn't use the child seat because it wasn't approved. I then flipped the seat over and showed her the approval label. Thankfully, she stopped arguing after that... Here's the FAA's official position on child seats and restraints on airlines: https://www.faa.gov/travelers/fly_ch...20or%20marking.
Greg
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Re: irrational fear of flying
My son was promoted from 2Lt to 1Lt (O-1 to O-2). He is the Marine in the middle, and the other two are Navy classmates. He is finishing up instrument flying, doing 3-4 flights a week. Since he soloed a few months ago, unless it is a certain training flight, he is by himself in the T-6 II.