S2000 Forums -> Aerogoddamics

	Advanced Search

Welcome to Omgili,
Omgili (Oh My God I Love It ;) is a search engine for discussions. With Omgili you can find answers and solutions, debates, discussions, personal experiences, opinions and more... To learn more about Omgili click here.

This is a complete preview of the discussion as it was indexed by Omgili crawlers. Use this preview if the original discussion is unavailable.
Click here to view the original discussion.


	S2000 Forums -> Aerogoddamics The "Checking Out" thread got me started thinking about interesting (weird) flights that I have been on. 1. I was flying from SF to London in early December. The weather in SF was nasty wet and cold. The flight was to leave at about 5:00 on Saturday afternoon. The plane was a 747 stretch, and was fully loaded. The pilot started his take-off roll and was getting up to speed when all of the sudden a 30 or 40 foot long flame shoots out of the left inboard engine. The pilot shut everything down quickly, and hit the brakes like there was no tomorrow. I thought for sure we were going to end up in the bay, but he got the thing slowed enough to make the last taxiway back to the gate. Apparently that type of engine, when fully loaded, will occasionally backfire. So when they got back to the gate, a mechanic scoped the engine, found all the blades intact, so off we went again. The pilot came on the intercom and said that it was lucky it was raining because if he had tried to brake that hard on dry pavement, he probably would have blown all the tires. The water on the runway kept the tires cool. 2. I was in a little twin engine puddle jumper flying into Lubbock, TX. We were on final approach, wheels down, flaps down, etc, when all of the sudden I hear the engines spin up, and the wheels and flaps start to come up. The pilot pulled up to the left. I was sitting in a window seat on the right side of the plane, so as he turned I could look right down the runway, and there was a funnel cloud coming straight down the runway. 3. I was in a Boeing 727 flying from Midland/Odessa, TX back to Austin. The airport had only one runway and the wind was howling at almost right angles to the runway. The pilot started his takeoff roll, and as he got up to speed, there was a loud bang from the back of the plane and the whole plane shook. He slowed down and came back around for another try. He started his takeoff roll again and the same thing happened. This time we went back and sat at the gate for awhile for the wind to die down. Apparently, the wind was blowing so hard it was causing the inlet of one of the engines to cavitate. 4. The worst flight I have ever had was from Rock Springs, WY to Denver, CO on a warm afternoon in June. The plane was a Convair 580 or 880 (not sure which one) but it only cruised at 19,000 ft. The peaks in the Rockies reach up to about 14,000 feet or so. Since it was a warm afternoon, the thermals were in full bloom. That flight felt like about every 10 seconds someone was hitting the plane with a telephone pole. People were getting sick on the plane, and many people could barely walk to get off the plane. 5. The best flight I have ever been on - Years ago, we could fly business class on any international flight. I was flying from Tokyo to London on Virgin Atlantic, and my travel agent booked me in Upper Class, which she thought was business class. It was not First Class, but Virgin had 4 classes of service on that flight - economy, business, upper and first. The plane was a 747 and upper class had the upper deck. Well, where United puts something like 48 seats on the upper deck, Virgin had put 12 seats. The seats were huge, and we had 3 flight attendants just for 12 of us. I could get used to traveling like that.


	I like #2. I flew into Guangzhou airport this year from Hong Kong, and arrived at the front end of a taiphoon (hurricane). They must have different rules over there, because we should NEVER have been in the air. When we landed, the entire plane did a power slide. I thought we were going off the runway for sure. Maybe next time...


	There was the time when I was on a flight test airplane we had to land at Renton airport because an earthquake while we were in the air had shut down Boeing field. 737s take off from Renton. They don't land there. But we did. Max thrust reverse, max autobraking. But I don't know what I was worried about. Boeing landed a 747 at Renton once. Well, almost at Renton. Actually, the plane touched down just a bit short. Http://www.fss.aero/accident-reports/look.php?report_key=65 I always heard that this was some sort of publicity stunt and/or demonstration flight. Anyway, what I've been told is that the pilot was so worried about touching down on the precise end of the runway that he was very carefully watching the radar altimeter. But he forgot to adjust for the fact that the runway is a few feet higher than the lake level. He would have made a perfect landing except for that little detail.


	Two come to mind: 1. Not really an incident, but if anyone has flown into the airport at Telluride, CO it is the second highest in the world and requires a special flight crew. The runway is on a mesa between two mountains and is not level. It goes downhill some. My most interesting (and scenic) landing. Didn't end up taking off from there, though, since they couldn't get the special flight crew and we ended up traveling two hours by van to another airport. Actually a pretty drive. 2. My ex and I took a trip to Argentina and on the way back (night flight), we encountered a storm with lots of lightning over the Amazon. A bolt struck one of the engines and something like St Elmo's Fire traveled up the wing. It was fascinating but scary. We had some turbulence for awhile, and I had visions of landing among those lovely carnivorous piranhas. My ex went and got a shot of bourbon to calm him down, which didn't really work. Some of the passengers slept through the whole thing! Max reverse comes into play every time at National here in DC. Short runways!!


	4,000 feet above ground, headed straight down, spinning, only a windshield and a propeller in front of me. That was spin training in a Citabria taildragger. The ultimate roller coaster ride. Scary part is I was the pilot! (instructor sitting behind me)


	I did the same several times during my glider training. Spin recovery is a required part of the course. Kind of fun, actually. JonasM This post is printed on 100% Recycled Electrons. Euclid, Ohio '02 Sebring/Red #2884 - "Ginger"


	A couple more "incidents" come to mind. 1. I was flying into Austin from Houston. This was the old Robert Mueller airport in the center of Austin, not Bergstrom airport. Robert Mueller airport has /had short runways. The plane was landing about the same time as a blue norther was blowing in. The wind was brisk (a euphemism for howling) and the pilot was having trouble getting the plane to settle onto the runway. He tried once, and pulled up. The second time, he got over the runway and cut the power. The plane dropped like a rock. All the exit signs and tray tables came down when we hit the runway. It is pretty telling when the exit sign is swinging back and forth from its wiring. 2. I flew to Venezuela with a guy from Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR). We were going to visit a refinery there that KBR was working on. I met him at the Houston airport and we flew on to Caracas from there. As we were landing in Caracas, he leaned over and said that KBR had arranged a driver for us, and we were not to talk to anyone else. He had the guys picture and copies of the guys passport. When we got off the plane, the first thing you see is a soldier in uniform holding a machine gun at you as you exit the jetway. As we are walking through the terminal, people are coming up to us offering us rides. Finally we find our driver. He is HUGE - 6'5" or 6'6" and must have weighed 300 pounds - and he was not fat. We get out to the car and he takes our luggage and leans over to put it in the trunk. His coat comes open and he has two pistols in shoulder holsters. When he dropped us off at our hotel - he warned us - don't leave the hotel. I will be back in the morning to pick you up - don't ride with anyone else no matter what they say. That was an eye-opening experience. Not really an airplane story but interesting none the less. 3. A couple of years ago, I flew to Israel to visit a refinery in Haifa. It was 3 weeks after Hezbollah and Israel had their dustup. If you remember, Hezbollah had been firing Scud missiles into Haifa, so everyone was on edge. There were many people walking down the street with their military weapon over their shoulder. Working at the refinery was a real interesting situation. They took my passport and kept it for about 20 minutes - I'm sure they were searching all kinds of terrorist databases. Then I had to go down this tunnel through an X-ray machine. I went through the tunnel and was gathering my stuff up. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement - in the dark behind the exit of the tunnel was a guard with a machine gun pointed at me. There were men in street clothes wandering around the refinery carrying machine guns. And, like an NRA members wet dream, there were beautiful young Israeli women wandering around the refinery with machine pistols. In the US, if you carry a gun onto a refinery - you get fired immediately if not sooner.


	I've probably lost 40 hours of my life just on Val's penguins. [Raymo19]


	Boy, John...you've had some interesting experiences in your line of work! Not plane related, but a National Geographic photographer my ex and I met in Argentina (he was in Bariloche photographing some rare trees called arajanes) had a run in with the Shining Path in Peru. He and his group were held up and all their photographic equipment stolen. He said he was lucky to come out of it alive. We brought rolls of film back to the US for him.


	There is just something about having a machine gun pointed at you that I'll never get used to. You start thinking - hmmmm I hope he doesn't have a twitch all of the sudden


	Quote: Boy, John...you've had some interesting experiences in your line of work! Not plane related, but a National Geographic photographer my ex and I met in Argentina (he was in Bariloche photographing some rare trees called arajanes) had a run in with the Shining Path in Peru. He and his group were held up and all their photographic equipment stolen. He said he was lucky to come out of it alive. We brought rolls of film back to the US for him. My job is pretty interesting in a geeky engineer sort of way. A lot of my work is driven by environmental regulations around the world, but in a cosmic sense, I have had some pretty interesting experiences in my travels. I mean who could come up with some of this stuff - A young Japanese waitress in an Indian restaurant in Hiroshima speaking English with a southern accent so strong you would think she was a Georgia peach serving tea to the pastor on the veranda of the family plantation on Sunday afternoon. I tend to look at life with a sense of amusement, and I guess life looks back at me the same way. So far none of my travails have been dangerous - however driving through demonstrators outside of the refinery in Venezuela was a mite trying


	John, have you done the bump into someone you know in a far away place yet? I've had it pop up twice so far. Sitting in a hotel in Velizy just southwest of Paris, turning and saying "hello John" and again vacationing in playa del carmen bumping into a former coworker from MA.


	Reading all these engine "compressor stall/surge" events, they must have been either GE or Rolls Royce engines. Of course I have never heard of a #2 engine on a 727 being anything but a Pratt & Whitney JT8D. That event must have been a FOD (Foreign Object Damage) issue. When I was a Pratt, there were always someone putting together a cartoon on the competitors engine. One that was very well done was showing two geese approaching a jet engine intake in flight. There were beads of sweat coming off the foreheads of the geese. In the next picture, was showing the birds being sucked in. The last picture showed blades, vanes, and tail cone coming out the back of the engine and the two birds flying away. The birds were wiping their forehead with their wings and saying, "thank God it was a GE engine!"


	Quote: The seats were huge, and we had 3 flight attendants just for 12 of us. I could get used to traveling like that. It's very easy to get used to it. Up until a few months ago I was able to use business class for international travel. I was often able to use my frequent flier status to then upgrade from business to first. Having a level 7 foot long bed to sleep in makes a lot of difference in how you feel when you arrive. It makes spending 15 hours on a plane just unpleasant instead of Hell at 40,000 feet. Now that we've eliminated business class I've turned down trips to Rome and Paris. I guess I'm spoiled. Now for the stories... I was making a day trip from Orange County to San Francisco and back. Our initial take off from OC was aborted when another plane encroached on the runway. Our landing in SF was aborted when the plane landing in front of us was too slow getting off of the runway. The landing back at OC that evening was aborted for the same reason. It was a bit like driving the S near a retirement community. If you ever want to know what it's like to get the evil eye from a hundred people, then wait until the flight attendants are half way through handing out dinners and then tell them you think you are having a heart attack. The flight will be diverted to a nearby airport. The flight attendants will quickly take back and throw away all of the meals they just handed out. Then when you get up and walk off of the plane under your own power, carrying your bag, you will get the evil eye from all of the people who will make the rest of their trip with nothing to eat. I never thought I'd miss airline food so much. I was on a flight operated by an all puddle jumper airline. I overheard a deadheading pilot in the seat behind me talking to a flight attendant. He was complaining about how he wasn't going to follow any rules and regulations just because they had been written by pompous bureaucrats at the FAA and the airline. He was a pilot, and he knew better. It sounded like he had just been disciplined for something. I sure hope this guy is driving a taxi now, and hasn't moved up to one of the major airlines. I was flying home from Salt Lake on a Friday the 13th. We were departing from gate E13, and I was seated in row 13. The woman next to me was a bit worried about all of the 13s. I tried reasoning with her. I pointed out that there are Friday the 13ths every year, but you never hear about planes falling out of the skies on those days. And that if the universe was going to reach out and smack us down just because she was sitting in row 13, but someone else sitting in row 13 wouldn't cause the plane to crash, then she must be pretty special. She admitted that her fears were irrational. I then pulled my book out of the seat back pocket, flipped open to my bookmark, and held it up for her to see: "Hey look! Chapter 13!"


	3 years back I took my beloved bride to Bermuda for her birthday. The pilot managed to land in a howling wind but it felt like we had about 30° of crabbing when we touched down. It was bad enough I could look up the runway from my window. The bumpiness coming could have scrambled eggs. The storm we had gone into continued to build for the weekend until by Sunday the hotel had chained the doors shut to keep them from blowing open. Winds were approaching 60-70 knots. So early Sunday morning all of the carriers had canceled flights since they knew they weren't getting off of the ground. BUT we were a charter put together by a travel agency in Boston. They didn't really have any clue how to handle a cancellation. They dragged us to the airport but got halfway and sent everyone back to their respective hotels. Of course everyone had already checked out. Around 8:30 that night they dragged us all back to the airport again. After sitting around for a few hours, we heard out plane hadn't left NY yet. Yep, so at 12:30 AM back to the hotel. Of course everyone had already checked out for a second time. Finally we got a flight out Monday afternoon. Funniest part was Bermuda to Boston is pretty quick. So we touched down with about 15 minutes to go on the movie.


	Quote: Reading all these engine "compressor stall/surge" events, they must have been either GE or Rolls Royce engines. Of course I have never heard of a #2 engine on a 727 being anything but a Pratt & Whitney JT8D. That event must have been a FOD (Foreign Object Damage) issue. When I was a Pratt, there were always someone putting together a cartoon on the competitors engine. One that was very well done was showing two geese approaching a jet engine intake in flight. There were beads of sweat coming off the foreheads of the geese. In the next picture, was showing the birds being sucked in. The last picture showed blades, vanes, and tail cone coming out the back of the engine and the two birds flying away. The birds were wiping their forehead with their wings and saying, "thank God it was a GE engine!"


	This is an interesting thread. I have to chuckle at the different reactions of what is perceived to be a catastrophic event, when in reality, it turns out to be an every-day occurrence. I have had my pilot's license since 1966, and although I don't have a great amount of hours (relatively), I consider myself fortunate to have never had a sphincter tensing moment, including my helicopter PIC time in Vietnam. The closest I came to an "aerogoddamics" moment is reflected in my avatar. This occurred in 2000, when a component of the landing gear mechanism broke, and I had to land gear-up. Biggest problem: calming down the wives in the back seat!


	Quote: I did the same several times during my glider training. Spin recovery is a required part of the course. Kind of fun, actually. JonasM Jonas, I never did spin training, as it isn't required for a private license, but I think it should be. It does look like fun! We have several gliders based at our airport, and I am very tempted to get my glider rating. Sounds like a goal for this summer.


	My first solo powered flight was at a little uncontrolled airport with a pattern alt of 800ft AGL. I was in a Cessna 150 Aerobat (high wing aircraft). As I was cruising downwind leg of the pattern I hear a Piper (low wing aircraft) declare downwind on the radio. I start looking around to see where he is, but can't find him. I continue preparing for the touch-n-go. As I pick up the mic to declare turning base, I hear the Piper declare base! It so happens that the Aerobat version of the 150 has 2 small porthole windows in the roof. I look up to see the main landing gear of the Piper just a couple hundred feet above and descending! I cut the throttle and put the nose down until I see the rest of the Piper enter my vision through the front windscreen. Added power and flew clear of the pattern. The other pilot was also a student and had flown over from a controlled field with a pattern alt of 1000ft AGL. He'd never seen me at all. Second oh-shit moment was while working on my glider rating. I was in the pattern headed down with my instructor...he was about to let me solo. At the same small uncontrolled field there was a skydiving operation. As I was entering downwind the jump plane announces jumpers in the air. SOP for the jump plane is to damn near dive to the runway to land before the chutes open...otherwise he's got to wait while the skydivers land first. We have a battery powered radio in the glider, so I let the jump-plane know I'm in downwind. Now understand...I'm in a glider...I have 1 shot to land...no going around for me. I see ahead the jump-plane taking a l ng final approach, about 30degrees nose down headed straight in. My instructor calls the jump-plane by name letting him know we are about to turn base. No response. At this point my instructor takes the airplane. I call out to the jump-plane by name again...no response. We swing in on base under the jump-plane (so close I can feel the vibration of his engines). Roll in on final and fight the propwash and wing vortex turbulence to land. I needed a little break before I solo'ed...and my instructor went to have a chat with the jump-plane pilot. BTW...spin recovery was required for my glider training too.


	Quote: Jonas, I never did spin training, as it isn't required for a private license, but I think it should be. It does look like fun! We have several gliders based at our airport, and I am very tempted to get my glider rating. Sounds like a goal for this summer. Spin recovery in a glider is more difficult due to the increased wingspan (spins are usually harder to get into, though). So they make sure you know instictively what to do when one wing drops. JonasM


	But at least the spins are pretty slow because of the big wing...not like vicious spins you might get in a stubby wing plane like a Grumman Tiger/Cheetah.


	Quote: John, have you done the bump into someone you know in a far away place yet? I've had it pop up twice so far. Sitting in a hotel in Velizy just southwest of Paris, turning and saying "hello John" and again vacationing in playa del carmen bumping into a former coworker from MA. Only many times. The weirdest was I was in Narita Airport (Tokyo) talking to a United ticketing agent and I feel this hand go up my back. It turned out to be the Division Manager's secretary of the company where I used to work. She was on her way back from visiting India. Back when I used to be able to fly business class, I was in the business class lounge (United) at Heathrow. It was Sunday morning and they had a F1 race on the TV. So I was pretty engrossed. It dawned on me that I was hearing a very familiar voice. It turned out to be the marketing VP at that same company. He had taken his dad over to France for the 50 year D-day observance. The first couple of international trips I took, I always ran into someone I knew.


	Quote: This is an interesting thread. I have to chuckle at the different reactions of what is perceived to be a catastrophic event, when in reality, it turns out to be an every-day occurrence. I have had my pilot's license since 1966, and although I don't have a great amount of hours (relatively), I consider myself fortunate to have never had a sphincter tensing moment, including my helicopter PIC time in Vietnam. The closest I came to an "aerogoddamics" moment is reflected in my avatar. This occurred in 2000, when a component of the landing gear mechanism broke, and I had to land gear-up. Biggest problem: calming down the wives in the back seat! I was sitting on the left side of the 747 when the left inboard engine backfired (first post). At first I thought it was a flashbulb, then I looked out the window quickly and saw the flame shooting out. In the next instant, the pilot stood the plane on its nose via the brakes. Surprisingly, I didn't feel scared, I just figured that I was going to go for a swim in the bay on a cold December evening. I even started kicking my shoes off while the pilot was trying to slow down the plane.


	Quote: have you done the bump into someone you know in a far away place yet? It wasn't far away, but it was weird. I was flying home from a business trip, and found myself seated next to an ex-girlfriend. I ran into friends from home at a hotel restaurant in Helsinki. I was there for business. They were there for a wedding. I was finishing up dinner with a coworker. Suddenly his eyes got wide, and I found myself being hugged from behind. My first thought was that our waitress was being very friendly. I struck up a conversation with a fellow stranded traveler at a bar in NY. It turned out that 20 years before he had a friend in TX who moved to CA and became my boss.

Discussion Title: Aerogoddamics
Title Keywords: S2000 Forums Aerogoddamics

Omgili Home

About

FAQ

Plugins

Usenet