June 16, 20223 yr Here's something you don't see everyday. A combat vet Corsair just out of restoration and up for sale. https://www.platinumfighters.com/inventory/1944-chance-vought-f4u-1d-corsair/
June 16, 20223 yr On 6/14/2022 at 3:27 PM, RPM said: When I was a wee RPM I used to watch training squadrons of helos from Fort Wolters fly over day and night. There was an old Desilu show called Whirlybirds that I became hooked on. Lo and behold one of the 2 Bell 47's used on the show still survives and flies! N2838B She's been renamed "Lucy" after Lucille Ball and is owned by a Wisconsin radio station. Currently under overhaul. Damn that thing is so old I’m surprised the tail number isn’t N0001
June 17, 20223 yr https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/apd-paddle-boarders-rescue-pilot-after-plane-crashes-into-lady-bird-lake/ Looks like we have a Sully of Lady Bird Lake. Scary stuff.
June 22, 20223 yr Holey shit! Literally. Exclusive: Inside the hangar at the center of the $1 billion Airbus-Qatar jet dispute Quote The planes were grounded by Qatar's regulator after premature paint erosion exposed damage to a metallic sub-layer that provides protection to the fuselage from lightning strikes. Sporadic surface flaws on the A350s viewed by Reuters included an elongated stretch of blistered and cracked or missing paint along the roof or crown of the jets. In some areas including on the curved wingtips, the protective lightning mesh that sits between the hull and the paint appeared exposed and corroded. In other parts it appeared to be missing, leaving areas of the composite hull exposed. The paint on the tail of one of the A350s emblazoned with Qatar Airways' maroon Arabian Oryx emblem was pockmarked by cracked and missing paint that exposed the layer beneath. Airbus acknowledges quality flaws to the A350s, but denies they pose any safety risk because of the number of backup systems and tolerance built into the design. Airbus has argued that some paint erosion is a feature of the carbon-composite technology used to build all modern long-haul jets - a necessary trade-off for weight savings. Qatar Airways has questioned Airbus' explanation, telling a UK court its similar Boeing 787s do not have the same problems.
June 23, 20223 yr On 6/16/2022 at 11:31 AM, Chad Fuck said: Here's something you don't see everyday. A combat vet Corsair just out of restoration and up for sale. https://www.platinumfighters.com/inventory/1944-chance-vought-f4u-1d-corsair/ I that website is crazy. it has an F4 Phantom for sale. Legit holy shit
June 23, 20223 yr that website is crazy. it has an F4 Phantom for sale. Legit holy shit My guess is they’ll make you a deal on that Phantom. It’s been there a while. Like years.
June 24, 20223 yr We won't. We'll just put another me-too clause in and wait for Delta. Ultimately the same result I guess. God damn. Not even a me too clause in this turd. My expectations were low and UAL ALPA still managed to go below that bar. Well done. Save us American Eagle, you're our only hope.
June 30, 20223 yr Does anyone here fly GA around Austin? I'm looking to get checked out in something to take the kids up in. I recognize a few schools' names but I haven't flown around here since 2003 so I don't know who still has a good reputation and who to avoid. AUS would be preferred, but GTU and HYI would be ok too. Looking for someplace professional with a solid reputation for keeping up on maintenance, etc.. The kind of place you'd send your kids to.
July 4, 20223 yr On 6/30/2022 at 11:27 AM, Your Mom said: Does anyone here fly GA around Austin? I'm looking to get checked out in something to take the kids up in. I recognize a few schools' names but I haven't flown around here since 2003 so I don't know who still has a good reputation and who to avoid. AUS would be preferred, but GTU and HYI would be ok too. Looking for someplace professional with a solid reputation for keeping up on maintenance, etc.. The kind of place you'd send your kids to. Have a look at Coast Flight at KHYI. They seem to be a solid shop based on what I've heard here in the Dallas area (they have a location at KRBD). And I know an outstanding CFI who joined their KHYI roster recently, so they know how to hire. Edited July 4, 20223 yr by Exposition
July 5, 20223 yr Coast Flight in San Marcos is best. Do NOT under any circumstance go to VT-AAA in New Braunfels.
July 19, 20223 yr Interesting story about the development of the 30mm cannon for the A-10 Warthog… https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/13329/early-on-the-a-10-warthogs-legendary-gun-was-both-a-blessing-and-a-curse?utm_source=War+Zone+Wire&utm_campaign=a1a3299d77-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2022_01_26_08_22_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_51665f3aba-a1a3299d77-180299454 Edited July 19, 20223 yr by Armybrat
July 24, 20223 yr This big bitch flew right over my house, insanely low today. Was making dinner and had that ‘better run outside, something special is flying over’ feeling. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N522AX https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/forest-service-opening-airtanker-base-at-aus-to-help-fight-wildfires/amp/ Was quite the shock, especially being that low. Looks like they never got above 3500 feet, I wonder if they stay VFR and would assume they use flight following to avoid the bug smashers. Anyways keep your eyes peeled. Their Twitter has some cool shots from around Texas. Edited July 24, 20223 yr by Homercles
August 4, 20223 yr Interesting 4 minute video discusses info about the B-17 ball turret gun & equipment.
August 5, 20223 yr One YouTuber I follow said he was probably standing on the open ramp trying to get a look at the wheel.
August 5, 20223 yr One YouTuber I follow said he was probably standing on the open ramp trying to get a look at the wheel. Blancolirio?
August 5, 20223 yr On 7/23/2022 at 10:43 PM, Homercles said: This big bitch flew right over my house, insanely low today. Was making dinner and had that ‘better run outside, something special is flying over’ feeling. Caught her at 49th and Lamar last night and yeah - super low relative to distance from AUS, imo. Immediately recognized her from your post though - thanks!
August 5, 20223 yr I take that back. Spotted near Govalle Park, which makes the low altitude on target for landing at AUS. Not sure why I thought it was so much farther N & W.
August 7, 20223 yr On 8/4/2022 at 9:38 PM, Mighty fine said: On 8/4/2022 at 7:43 PM, Lat22 said: One YouTuber I follow said he was probably standing on the open ramp trying to get a look at the wheel. Blancolirio? I think it was Dan Gryder.
August 7, 20223 yr Like the AA 737 at DFW. In the latter case they were tugged onto the edge line instead of the centerline and didn’t realize it.
August 7, 20223 yr 1 hour ago, Gil Bang said: Oopsie at ORD That will buff out like the airbus paint issues.
August 7, 20223 yr Over on Reddit they are saying this is the second time this has happened at ORD since renovations. Other occurred in 2020.
August 7, 20223 yr 3 minutes ago, Incredulity said: Over on Reddit they are saying this is the second time this has happened at ORD since renovations. Other occurred in 2020. And also over on reddit, 19 year-old girls are shoving sharpies up their buttholes. I mean, I've "heard" that they do that over there.
August 7, 20223 yr 1 hour ago, Gil Bang said: And also over on reddit, 19 year-old girls are shoving sharpies up their buttholes. I mean, I've "heard" that they do that over there. 19, you’re in the clear.
August 14, 20223 yr On 8/12/2022 at 9:18 PM, RMac5 said: What kind of trouble does that create for the pilot? 19 year olds putting Sharpies in their butt? No trouble at all.
August 14, 20223 yr 2 hours ago, Assman said: 19 year olds putting Sharpies in their butt? No trouble at all. Username checks out
August 16, 20223 yr On 8/14/2022 at 4:14 PM, Assman said: 19 year olds putting Sharpies in their butt? No trouble at all. As long as they know I still expect them to make me coffee for the first leg the next morning.
August 17, 20223 yr 10 hours ago, Your Mom said: As long as they know I still expect them to make me coffee for the first leg the next morning. Can we trade schedules? Because the FAs I fly with were 19 back in the 50s.
August 17, 20223 yr On 8/13/2022 at 4:18 AM, RMac5 said: What kind of trouble does that create for the pilot? set back women pilots for another 50 years
August 17, 20223 yr 11 hours ago, Assman said: Can we trade schedules? Because the FAs I fly with were 19 back in the 50s. How many sharpies are they using?
August 17, 20223 yr 3 hours ago, Bobby_Batronic said: How many sharpies are they using? All of them. My guess is all of them.
August 20, 20223 yr Mid-air collision at an uncontrolled airport in California results in three people dead and two Cessnas destroyed. Here's the traffic audio: Interested to hear opinions from our GA experts here. Sounds like the twin declared a straight-in approach and came in hot (like 180 knots, still well above flap and gear maxes). Single was a student solo pilot, performing touch and goes, and had just completed base-to-final turn. blancolirio has more on the incident on his excellent YouTube channel. Tragic that stuff like this still happens.
August 21, 20223 yr I fly out of uncontrolled Airports 99% of the time. The twin driver is 100% at fault. Pattern traffic has the right of way, so his responsibility is to sequence in safely. Calling a 10 mile straight in is fine if the pattern is empty, but sounds like 3 aircraft in the pattern already, so he should have flown an upwind or deviated his route to use another safe entry like midfield cross. Dumb and 100% avoidable. Edited August 21, 20223 yr by Rv8riveter Grammar
August 21, 20223 yr Here is a bizarre story: https://www.foxnews.com/us/north-carolina-co-pilot-jumped-plane-upset-hard-landing-ntsb Plus another version of the story. New radio audio emerges from bizarre incident in which a pilot fell to his death from his plane that was about to make an emergency landing.A recording of radio calls between an air traffic controller at Raleigh-Durham International Airport and the pilot of a stricken CASA C-212 twin-engine turboprop light cargo plane involved in a fatal incident on July 29 has now emerged online. The pilot can be heard explaining multiple times that his co-pilot got up and jumped out of the back of the aircraft, which was missing a main landing gear wheel and was about to attempt an emergency landing, without a parachute and was likely dead. The clip adds new, if still perplexing details to this already bizarre story, which you can get up to speed on first by reading The War Zone's initial reporting.The C-212, which carries the U.S. civil registration code M497CA, is registered to a company called Spore Ltd LLC, which appears directly related to contractor Rampart Aviation, was able to make a successful emergency landing with the pilot remaining onboard only suffering minor injuries. Authorities subsequently conducted a search of the surrounding area where the other pilot jumped in Wake County, North Carolina, and found what was initially said to be the body of a 27-year-old male. The deceased was subsequently identified as 23-year-old Charles Hew Crooks. At the time of writing, the surviving pilot does not appear to have been named publicly. He and Crooks have both been identified as Rampart Aviation employees.Publicly available air traffic control audio recordings had previously revealed details about the basic circumstances of the incident. N497CA, which was using the callsign Shady 02 at the time, had lost its right main landing gear wheel during a rough landing or touch-and-go and had diverted to Raleigh-Durham to make an emergency landing. That clip had also confirmed that two individuals were on board after the wheel broke off.The exact circumstances surrounding Crooks' subsequent exit from the plane, which has a rear ramp, remain something of a mystery. In the new air traffic control recording of the conversation between the pilot and Raleigh-Durham's tower, which you can listen to here, both individuals, the remaining pilot and the air traffic controller, sound somewhat in shock.A full transcript of the clip, which is only one minute and 15 seconds long, and appears to come right before the plane made its emergency landing, is as follows:Pilot (P): "Raleigh Approach, Shady 02."Raleigh Approach (RA): "Shady 02, Raleigh"P: "My co-pilot just ran out the back of the plane."RA: "Shady 02, what now?"P: "He just ran out the back of the plane."RA: "So you don't have a co-pilot on you, sir?"P: "No, he just jumped out the back of the plane."RA: "Uh, roger."P: "Would you like me to circle where he leapt at?"RA: "Uh, say that again?"P: "Would you like me to circle where he got out at, or you got me on track?"RA: "We've still got you on track, but did you need something else?"P: "No, the dude literally jumped out the back of the plane without a parachute."*Seven seconds of total silence*RA: "Shady 02, did you need to do something else, circle or something, or-"P: "No, I need to land. I'm just making you aware you're gonna have a dead body out where I just called you at. He just jumped out the back of the plane."RA: "Roger, continue on your heading 0-5-0."P: "Roger, 0-5-0, 0-2."This is almost certainly what prompted Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees in the tower at Raleigh-Durham to subsequently call 9-1-1 to report that an individual had jumped from the airplane. A recording of that call emerged publicly last week, a portion of which can be heard in the video below.The War Zone reached out to Rampart Aviation about the incident after it happened and has not yet received a response. Rampart is on contract to provide parachute training and other airdrop services to elements of the U.S. military, including U.S. Special Operations Command. The aircraft appears to have been supporting training of some kind linked to the U.S. Army's nearby Fort Bragg, a hub for the service's airborne and special operations units, at the time of the incident.Photographs subsequently provided to The War Zone by a reader, seen at the top of this story and below, show the C-212 at Raleigh Durham with either the original right main landing gear wheel reattached, significantly repaired, or a new one installed in its place. Those pictures also show a missing portion of the landing gear sponson on that side of the aircraft.A close-up of N497CA's right main landing gear after the incident on July 29. Reader submissionFAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are currently investigating the incident. Police at Raleigh-Durham Airport questioned the pilot after the emergency landing and turned the contents of that interview over to FAA and NSTB investigators, according to WRAL-TV, a Capitol Broadcasting Company-owned television station in the Raleigh-Durham area.At the time of writing, no official statements appear to have been made by any of the relevant authorities regarding the ongoing investigation. Family and friends of Crooks have publicly said they are hoping answers regarding his death will ultimately emerge.Contact the author: joe@thedrive.com Edited August 21, 20223 yr by Armybrat
August 21, 20223 yr I read up on that a little bit. Totally bizarre story. Apparently the deceased was at the controls for a very hard bounced landing that damaged the gear. The other guy took the controls and climbed it back out, assessed the situation, declared an emergency, and planned to come back and land it himself with the damaged gear. The other guy must’ve been fretting over the bounced landing and probably pondering what it did to his career or his self esteem or whatever. At some point he just said something like, “I’m sorry man.” And calmly walked out the back ramp where the skydivers exit. Awful story.
August 21, 20223 yr 6 hours ago, Rv8riveter said: I fly out of uncontrolled Airports 99% of the time. The twin driver is 100% at fault. Pattern traffic has the right of way, so his responsibility is to sequence in safely. Calling a 10 mile straight in is fine if the pattern is empty, but sounds like 3 aircraft in the pattern already, so he should have flown an upwind or deviated his route to use another safe entry like midfield cross. Dumb and 100% avoidable. As I'm reading and learning more about this, I'm baffled by the twin pilot's absolute obtuse behavior and lack of situational awareness. Apparently the ADSB data is showing he was at ~180 kts within his 3 mile final. Makes zero sense why he would be that fast, aside from the fact of him being 'that guy' who busts into the pattern and acts like an ass. Assuming no new data comes out this is such a maddening and avoidable tragedy.
August 22, 20223 yr 4 hours ago, Exposition said: As I'm reading and learning more about this, I'm baffled by the twin pilot's absolute obtuse behavior and lack of situational awareness. Apparently the ADSB data is showing he was at ~180 kts within his 3 mile final. Makes zero sense why he would be that fast, aside from the fact of him being 'that guy' who busts into the pattern and acts like an ass. Assuming no new data comes out this is such a maddening and avoidable tragedy. The strange thing is he flew into that airport regularly at fairly normal speeds. So why did he fly at batshit insane speed on that particular day? Maybe he thought he could beat the 152 in? Maybe he had some medical or other issue impairing his judgment? Even if he did manage to avoid the 152, he was still going 177 kts ground speed at the end of the runway.
August 24, 20223 yr Some guy just ferried a brand new Cessna 172 from Merced California to Honolulu. A Cessna just flew 18 hrs to Hawaii
August 25, 20223 yr 11 hours ago, Pescado_Rojo said: Some guy just ferried a brand new Cessna 172 from Merced California to Honolulu. A Cessna just flew 18 hrs to Hawaii That is a big old nope for me. Every time I fly on our plane, I have to take a leak like an hour into it. 5 hour flight commercial, no problem. 2 hour flight on our C90, I’m counting down the minutes. It’s all in my head, but it is stuck there at this point.
August 25, 20223 yr Stopped by the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, CT today. A few highlights:Row of helicopters as you walk in:Lots of Kamans and Sikorskys there as they’re local boys made good. Bells and Kamans in this pic.P-47 A-26 and a very rare B-25H with the 75mm anti shipping cannon up front.A Hun and F-104 hiding in the background.
August 25, 20223 yr Hangar 2 highlights This is what I came to see. It was under restoration last time I was there a while back.Sikorsky VS-44 on left, Lockheed 10A Electra (only a couple serial numbers away from Amelia’s) and a DC-3 with various bits around.Very highly modified Mustang. Won the Thompson Trophy in ‘48 and set an unofficial (glitching official recording equipment) of 501mph in 1950. That’s fast.
August 25, 20223 yr Hangar 3:B-29They have an F4F, F6F and the XF4U-4 tucked behind but their wings are folded up and it’s hard to get a good shot of them.
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.