In the News
There have been so many interesting links in my inbox this week, I spent the day reading fascinating aviation pieces. I’ve collated my favourites as a Flying Around the Web round-up to share with the rest of you.
Here are the links, with a warning: If you have any intention of being productive, stop reading right now!
Steve Weaver’s history is amazing and this blogpost is charming for its healthy combination of nostalgia and horror at just how naive he started out.
Steve Weaver: Flying with the Newly Dead
The Six had arrived at our airport with much fanfare and as I was admiring it and getting ready to hang out my new ‘Charter Flights Available’ shingle, a friend who worked for a large charter operator out of state came by. As we stood talking about my new venture into the people transport business, he asked if I’d had trouble getting my 135 certificate from the Feds. My deer-in-the-headlights look was followed with a gulped ‘what is a 135?’ My friend proceeded to enlighten me about how the days of having a Commercial License and an airplane with a 100 hour inspection was enough to do charter were over, and had been since half the country stars in Nashville had been wiped out by airplane crashes. I discontentedly placed a call to the FAA.
NYC Aviations coverage of this YouTube video is worth the read.
Video: Passenger Captures Engine Cover Shattering During Takeoff | NYCAviation
This is what happens when you use an electronic device during takeoff: The engine cover breaks off and hurls itself into the side of your plane.
The Professional Pilot’s Rumour Network says that we need an investigation: why on earth was the golf course closed on a sunny weekday?
WSVN-TV – Door detaches from plane, lands on golf course
The main cabin door fell from the airplane and landed onto the golf course near the Westin Diplomat Hotel & Spa, Wednesday afternoon.
The incident occurred shortly after the jet took off from Opa-Locka Executive Airport.
The door seemed to have fallen in between two condominium high-rises and crashed through some trees before hitting the ground, skidding 15 feet and coming to a stop on the golf course.
A tongue-in-cheek look at aviation history.
5 Recklessly Stupid Attempts at Human Flight (That Worked) | Cracked.com
We like to think of early aviators as careful, studious men who cautiously weighed every possible design decision, knowing full well that somebody would be trusting their life to those calculations at the prototype stage. It turns out that wasn’t quite the case; it was more a matter of slapping as many of whatever they had lying around the workshop together and getting a running start off the nearest cliff. The truly crazy part? Sometimes it actually worked.
Alls well that ends well but the whole situation was a bit of a mess.
There was congestion on the radio frequency which delayed him requesting a heading change to get out of the cell. About 30 seconds after receiving the instruction to immediately turn left the crew requested an “immediate heading of 090”, ATC advised they could expect the turn in 30 seconds, the crew repeated they needed the heading “NOW” and were cleared to turn onto 090. The aircraft subsequently flew clear of the weather and continued for a safe landing in Brisbane. No injuries occurred, the aircraft received no damage.
And finally, I’ve watched this video a dozen times and it just never gets old…
On Tuesday, May 22, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon capsule on a demonstration flight towards the International Space Station. The launch occurred at 3:44 a.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
SPACEX LAUNCHES DEMONSTRATION FLIGHT TOWARDS ISS – YouTube
