irrational fear of flying

[takashi]

"flight arriving at Toronto Pearson Airport from Minneapolis appears to have overturned while landing"

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17/w...ane-crash.html

lord what's next

[rwsaunders]

I was on a delayed flight from PIT-SEA last evening and the runways and tarmac in PIT were pretty slick when we took off around 9:30pm. So much so, that when the plane started to taxi from the gate after being pushed back, you could feel that the front tires weren't going in the same direction that the crew was steering the plane. I think that the kids call that drifting A few gingerly thrusts forward, 10 minutes at de-icing, then we roared down the runway into the snow and wind and off to the Emerald City. Plenty of people at PIT had been diverted from other departure cities, that were originally going to LGA, JFK, EWR, PHL and BOS.

[echappist]

Cars have snowtires. For the pilots here, do landing gears use similarly softer compounds in the depth of winter?

[j44ke]

Wind is strong. We've had gusts to 40mph all day and there have been stronger. I could see it in the trees. Can't imagine landing a small commuter jet in those conditions. They are just very lucky.

[gregl]

Cars have snowtires. For the pilots here, do landing gears use similarly softer compounds in the depth of winter?

Nope. Same tires year round.

Greg

[rwsaunders]

From the polka song by Sonny (Dave) Daye

where do I work
where do I get my pay
Southside Peetsburg (Pittsburgh sung with Polish accent)
Pennsylvane I A

[Saab2000]

A couple of pilots from this tiny Texas-based carrier deserve a gold medal today.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/25/us/ch...nes/index.html

[Clyde]

For sure, excellent decision making by both of them.

[rwsaunders]

That was pretty close….imagine if weather conditions and visibility were bad.

[echappist]

We had a tale of two flights when we visited NYC from our flyover country home.

Flight into EWR was by far the most comfortable flight I've taken, with the last 15 minutes of the descent being extraordinarily bumpy. Wind was recorded at 25-30 mph with gust of 45 mph. The ERJ-175 was constantly vertically buffeted by the wind, and what felt like a fun first 5 minutes of a rollercoaster like experience soon turned into severe motion sickness. Like the saying about bankruptcies, our discomfort level followed the path of "at first, a little; then all at once". My wife had to use the barf bag; and I had cold sweat followed by an hour of nausea. I don't fly nearly as often as others here, but I don't ever recall experiencing that before this flight.

It was still somewhat windy on Monday, but the conditions were much better. We actually actively located the barf bags, as we somehow missed them while fumbling through the contents of the seatback pocket. Just a pleasant flight overall.

[rwsaunders]

Write it off as experience and Dramamine can be your friend...still not fun.

[echappist]

Thanks for the kind words.

Packing anti-emetics for future trips.

[rwsaunders]

Thanks for the kind words. Packing anti-emetics for future trips.

My lovely bride really suffers on the descents if she doesn't take Dramamine and as your experience tells you, once motion sickness kicks in, it takes quite a while to get your land legs back. Believe it or not, when we hit the heavy stuff, I start playing Solitaire on my phone and that seems to provide enough of a distraction for this simple mind, to forget about the movement. If it's at night, I put on the headphones and listen to a podcast or two, three, etc. How the FA's and pilots deal with it every day is beyond me, especially on the regional planes.

[bigbill]

My son's flight school class may complete as early as November. The issue is the T-45 and engine failures and having enough airframes to complete all the requirements. His USNA classmates that selected multi-engine (C-130, E-2, Osprey) are getting their wings now. The USNA payback for aviators is eight years, which starts when a pilot gets their wings, so he'll have almost 12 years in the Marines before he can get out. He's doing what he loves, I just wish he could finish up school and start flying F-35s. The Marines are shifting to have more C models (tailhook) over B models (Harrier replacement).

[takashi]

"President Trump announced that Boeing has won the contract for the next-generation fighter, which he said would be called the F-47 — a number clearly chosen to memorialize his presidency. He described it as a very stealthy fighter, though it has been highly controversial, in part because many experts believe that by the time it is fielded, manned fighters will be outdated and outmaenuvered by autonomous and semi-autonomous aircraft."

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/03/21/us/trump-news

LOL

[72gmc]

It pains me to say this as a PNW lifer but that is the most appropriate airplane manufacturer + politician pairing I can think of at this point in time.

[gregl]

So like its namesake, will the F-47 be overweight, have terrible performance, and be very noisy?

Greg

[Walter Sobchak]

So like its namesake, will the F-47 be overweight, have terrible performance, and be very noisy?

It already smells like shit, too.

[vertical_doug]

"President Trump announced that Boeing has won the contract for the next-generation fighter, which he said would be called the F-47 — a number clearly chosen to memorialize his presidency. He described it as a very stealthy fighter, though it has been highly controversial, in part because many experts believe that by the time it is fielded, manned fighters will be outdated and outmaenuvered by autonomous and semi-autonomous aircraft."

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/03/21/us/trump-news

LOL

My understanding is the F-47 is like the node of the hub which flies with a hive of support drones as autonomous wingmen.

Eventually everything becomes like science fiction, we just need to kill the hub to take down the hive like in independence day or ender's game.

[Scott G.]

My understanding is the F-47 is like the node of the hub which flies with a hive of support drones as autonomous wingmen.

Eventually everything becomes like science fiction, we just need to kill the hub to take down the hive like in independence day or ender's game.

More like Battlestar Galactica, the USAF is building Cylons, those worked really well, didn't need any humans.
For our European friends, think flying Daleks.