Category: Miscellaneous –  Page 5

Questions and Answers

I think it is time for another edition of Questions and Answers for discussion in the comments. We had some great conversations last time and a few more questions have come up that we might enjoy looking at. If you have an aviation question that you would like to ask, please post in the comments.…

Read more… 18 Feb 22

Old and New Aviation

This week, I have a great collection of articles for you to read, ranging from World War II to A.I. fighter pilots. Surviving War’s End by Werner Schwantje is a great story expanded into Survivor on the Canadian site, Vintage Wings. His name was Werner Schwantje, an elegant, well-turned out 70-something government lawyer with Revenue…

Read more… 21 Jan 22

The Most Popular Posts of 2021

Last year, I commented that the most popular posts tended to be older ones which I thought was maybe because people had more time to read in lockdown and went back through the archives. But having investigated more, it is clear that it takes some time for posts to peak in popularity. This year is…

Read more… 31 Dec 21

Merry Christmas!

It is Christmas eve and it is snowing and I am lounging around in my pyjamas making mulled wine and braising beef for a special meal for tonight. You mostly know Cliff from his quick fixes to the server, (although he is the one to thank for the design and functionality of this entire website!)…

Read more… 24 Dec 21

There Will Be No Accident Left Behind

I have long lists of accidents that I’d like to know more about and I keep adding new ones, even though there are already more in my files than I could cover in a dozen lifetimes. The problem is that I really hate deleting anything. I’ve tried to do a clear out with the result…

Read more… 22 Oct 21

Former 737 MAX Chief Technical Pilot Indicted for Fraud

Yesterday, a federal grand jury indicted Boeing’s former Chief Technical Pilot for fraud, specifically accusing him of deceiving the FAA’s Aircraft Evaluation Group during their evaluation and certification of the 737 MAX and of scheming to defraud Boeing’s US-based airline customers to obtain “tens of millions of dollars” for Boeing. “Forkner allegedly abused his position…

Read more… 15 Oct 21

Accident Analysis

The Anatomy of an A350–CRJ Collision at Atlanta

On the 10th of September 2024, an Airbus A350 took the tail off of a Bombardier CRJ at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia, USA. Delta Air Lines flight 295…

Why KLM Cut the Steering Cables on Two Perfectly Functional Boeing 737s

Last month, we looked at the night of 28th of November 2004 at Barcelona Airport. KLM 1673 ran off the runway at high speed, stopping just short of a canal.…

Demystifying

How Important is Having a Sterile Cockpit?

This question was posted to r/flying by a private pilot who wanted to know: do airline pilots ever engage in small talk about irrelevant things during taxiing, run-up, takeoff, and…

Someone has to write the TAF

It turns out that there a person sitting there deciding what the weather is going to do. Which seems obvious, except that I had somehow never asked msyelf who “someone”…

History

The CIA's Shark Screen

Today we have a guest post from the CIA! In their archives, researching something completely different, I found the answer to a question I never thought to ask. I immediately…

The First Jet to Land on an Aircraft Carrier (Deliberately)

“The Vampire was the first jet to land on a moving aircraft carrier deliberately.” This quote from Airshow Luke, our MC at the Legacy of Liberty airshow, made me almost…

Fun Stuff

Bird Strikes, Balloon Landings and Falling in Love with a Boeing 777

The exciting news on Fear of Landing this week was a huge scare about critical vulnerabilities in PHP. PHP is widely used on the web, including in WordPress, which is…

Petrified, Petrified, Petrified

There’s been some interesting reporting in the UK media about a “near disaster” over Canary Wharf involving the captain having to intervene (the horror!) after air data systems failed on…