Latest Posts – Page 121
A Visit to Blackpool ATC
Visit ATC Day is an annual event coordinated by the Airspace and Safety Initiative in the US, allowing pilots to sign up for tours at Air Traffic Control units around the country. This year, the event was held with events in October and November. I couldn’t make the Prestwick date but I was lucky enough…
Read more… 7 Dec 12
Concorde Crash, Spitfires and KFC all in today’s Aviation News
Today’s good news is that the criminal case against Continental and its mechanic have been dropped. Criminal charges can only hamper air accident investigations, which need to focus on how to avoid issues degenerating into fatal crashes, rather than looking to allocate blame. BBC News – Concorde crash: Continental Airlines killings verdict quashed A French…
Read more… 30 Nov 12
Five Things I Never Knew About Lasers
1 Lasers have many legitimate uses in airspace. Everyone else probably already knew this but with all the press about lasers in cockpits, I wondered whether the US and the UK would end up as a blanket ban on laser beams in (potential) airspace. I wasn’t aware that lasers are regularly used to signal aircraft.…
Read more… 23 Nov 12
Turning into the Dead Engine
The two pilots were co-owners of VH-CNZ. She was a commercial pilot with over 10,000 hours, 600 of them on type. One blog post at the time said that she was a flight instructor. He was a private pilot with just over 2,500 hours and 120 on type. VH-CNZ was a Piper Twin Comanche which…
Read more… 16 Nov 12
Aviation Entertainment
Some times, there’s just too many fun links to get down to work. Here’s a collection of new websites I was reading / watching when I should have been writing you a new post… Landing short and checking out my balance in my Wild West Aircraft Highlander (Just Aircraft) Rockwell Collins brings head-up flying to…
Read more… 9 Nov 12
Boston John
Air Traffic Controller John Melecio, also known as “Boston John,” is one of the most famous ATC controllers today. When he was controlling from Boston Tower, he was always lively and humourous, gathering a following all over the world. Listeners on LiveATC.net posted to the forums whenever he was on air so fans could tune…
Read more… 2 Nov 12
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…
