|
Post by Tom Goodrick on Jun 20, 2014 6:06:28 GMT -5
Tuesday afternoon a Westwind II bizjet crashed between the runways at KHSV while on a practice/check flight. It carried an instructor pilot and two experienced pilots getting a periodic check flight. There was a relatively high level of experience in the cockpit. The three pilots ranged from 60 to 67 years in age. They worked for a finance company in Birmingham. They were the sole occupants. The aircraft climbed to about 50 feet from 18L (I think) and made a steep right bank then went into the ground between the two runways (18L, 18R). The three men suffered fatal injuries.
The NTSB is investigating and will issue a short report soon. There was a report they wanted to climb quickly to a point directly over the airport and then begin an ILS to Birmingham (KBHM). The weather was warm (low 90's) but with light winds and no storms in the area.
|
|
|
Post by Tom Goodrick on Apr 17, 2014 7:48:48 GMT -5
There are more aircraft operations described in the later Stone Barrington books by Stuart Woods. On Amazon.com some catalog listings show chronological positions of the books within the series such as 15/27 or 21/27. In the early books he did not use interesting airplanes though he mentioned in one book when he was able to set aside a few thousand $$ he took lessons and started using the airplane for some business trips around the New York / New England area. That is a pretty good place for using a small plane. You can beat the airlines in a lot of cases. (But it depends on whether your Company will allow you to fly by yourself or with a friend on business trips. I worked for the Army when I lived up there and the Army did not allow it except when using Army aircraft and pilots. I made several trips along the East Coast in a Twin Beech Flown by a pair of Army pilots. The funny thing was that NASA encouraged use of private aircraft. Most the guys who did that had full instrument ratings. Aircraft I heard of included Cessna Skylane RG, Beech Bonanza and a couple of Mooney's. My office preferred King Airs and a Gulfstream turboprop which I rode in several times. I passed up some rides with the Laboratory Director in his Mooney. (I didn't like him and sitting with him for a few hours in bumpy air did not sound like fun.
In the Stone Barrington Series of books, Barrington is a lawyer doing various jobs for a large New York firm. He lives in NYC and flies out of Teterboro. He is also a consultant to the CIA and gets some interesting assignments that way. In one he is assigned to a mission to pick up a defector in Europe in a C-17 (he is just a passenger) and bring him back to the US without the "bad guys" finding out about it. The guy they pick up drives his Mercedes slowly up the ramp into the aircraft while parked on a road in Germany and then, when locked in place they bring the car and the man back into the US. But the guy gets scared and bails out with the car - then jumps with a gliding chute when they cross the Long Island coast. The car ends up crashing into a swimming pool behind a house! Yes, a bit of a strange stretch!
I have written several book reviews. If there is any significant aircraft activity I usually mention it.
I started reading Hawkings' book back in the '60's and haven't finished it yet. I have also noticed that my mind cannot handle complex ideas anymore. I even have trouble with complicated plots in mystery books.
|
|
|
Post by Tom Goodrick on Apr 5, 2014 13:24:32 GMT -5
One of the reasons I do not put in many notes on my flying these days is that I am very busy reading mystery books. But I have found a series of books by Stuart Woods that are good mysteries and also contain a lot of references to flights the main character makes. I warn that while these are from the NY Times Best Seller lists, they do contain many references to sex unrelated to the plot, some people might not like them for that reason. I don't mind it. You can also find many reviews in the catalog of Amazon.com including many I have written. While most of my reviews give these stories from three to five stars, my results vary. This is on the 18th book of the series - [LUCID INTERVALS] and will receive the rating of 5 stars, I just reported the previous book [KISSER]in the series at 1 star because it had very little plot and it not much content except sex. The main character is Stone Barrington, an attorney and retired detective on the NYPD force. Stone lives in New York City. He has owned and flown many aircraft out of Teeterburro. He has just had his Piper Malibu converted to a propjet. In this book he takes some assignments from the owner of a Security business who pays for him to transition to and get rated in a Cessna Mustang jet. The first thing he does after getting his rating is fly his girlfriend (of the moment) to his 3rd house which is in Ilesboro, Maine. It has a 2450 ft runway. There is a good description of his training - ground and flight - and his early flights in the jet. I think he may "inherit" the jet after this story because the president of the company gets assassinated at the end of this story. For more info see my review of the book on Amazon.com.
|
|
|
Post by Tom Goodrick on Nov 21, 2013 14:42:24 GMT -5
Last night an Atlas 747 with a 1.5 x fuselage enlargment (circumference) - in other words a jumbo jumbo, landed on a 6,000 ft runway instead of the planned 10,000 ft runway at McConnell AFB in Kansas. On the ground, the crew had no idea what city or what airport they had landed on. It seems the stop was mainly for fuel, so they are offloading fuel and then a special Boeing Expert Crew will fly them to a safe place where they can top the tanks and fly on to Europe with their intended cargo.
Alan and I are familiar with this airline because it makes weekly flights between the US (Huntsville, AL) and Europe where it often stops at Glasgow to adjust fuel. This appears to be a special aircraft with its over-stuffed fuselage. They are clearing roads and even a highway on the take-off path.
Perhaps they had it planned right but the weather changed. The fact that the crew was lost after landing does not give confidence in Atlas Airlines.
|
|
|
Post by Tom Goodrick on Nov 20, 2013 8:45:43 GMT -5
Huntsville has two hospitals. The second is Crestwood which I used only this time will not be used again. Both my "family DR" and this urologist are owners of Crestwood. I doubt it will be a problem to stick to the other even if I need to drop the Docs.
Each day brings improvement. I have wondered at the wisdom of being off blood thinners since a week before the operation (which had no incision). Now I see no more red in the stream so I am resuming the blood thinner can be used. At times I thought the pain was leading to a heart attack because of the stents clogging up. Looks like I lucked out.
|
|
|
Post by Tom Goodrick on Nov 18, 2013 4:45:17 GMT -5
(Local Time 3:19) Moving on to new and amazing experiences, I am enjoying the Post Op Phase of Prostate Surgery. My "family Doctor" (no one else in my family will go to him) recommended a check with a urologist after having much trouble finding a suitable drug for my Type II Diabetes that does not adversly influence my urination. So the urologist found I have Prostate gland with an unusual shape. So I agreed to some exploration and wound up with a Laser-directed procedure. It has not been entirely successful at anything except causing pain and extreme embarassment.
I was kicked out of the hospital in the middle of the second day after surgery because the nurses were sick of cleaning up my messes. I sprayed urine and blood in very remarkable patterns. Alas, they don't have an artistic performance category. So, before I could manage my discharges to any reasonable extent, they discharged me. As I began dressing for the street, I made another mess in the bathroom in my room. This adversely affected my wife's attitude toward the hospital and to seriously question our marriage vows. "Can I kill him and then part with him right here?"
Fortunately I have made no major messes at home - fortified with double underwear and "grandpa diapers."
The pain can be considerable each time I go. Indeed I wonder if I my heart will pop and I will just continue to pass on! I have a narcotic pain reliever that gives me a taste of "La La Land" but really does not limit the pain much.
So I am set up so I can fly any place in the world - as long as I stay close to a bathroom. I guess that means I have to fly around in a Beech King Air. I'll get busy on that.
|
|
|
Post by Tom Goodrick on Apr 30, 2013 9:44:49 GMT -5
Update: Scott is still flying his R/C copters. He had to fight off, or "reach an understanding" with the FAA and with the aviation department within the Forest Service who were insisting R/C pilots had to have pilots' licenses. His copters are not armed. Some of them do have cameras. Mostly they take local atmospheric data.
I have had more heart trouble that has resulted in the destruction of half my heart muscle. This keeps me tired most the time. My heart acts up when I get frustrated and that happens every time I try to fly FS9. I generally deploy landing gear early in the approach. Then as I round out over the runway and settle in, I find a gremlin has pulled up the gear! I think there is an incorrect key-interaction. I spend brief periods working on this. But I might just go back to fixed-gear aircraft.
|
|
|
Post by Tom Goodrick on Mar 13, 2013 22:06:47 GMT -5
The problem with any of the versions of FS is that they do not show terrain effects on wind. The wind can get nasty near a "saddle". I saw some effects flying in the gentle New Hampshire mountains. I believe all of the stories about wind effects in the West where the pressure gradients near mountains are much stronger. A lot of pilots in the west find turbochargers useful for climbing out of downdrafts.
|
|
|
Post by Tom Goodrick on Feb 8, 2013 20:34:37 GMT -5
Your wife - and possibly you - would benefit from a pair of ANR phones. ANR = Active Noise Reduction. Bose was the inventor of this type for aircraft. Now they are used in many steady noise environments. They are best in aircraft because they can match the background noise quite well and can then eliminate it. Transient sounds like the radio or intercom pass with no reduction. Technically they make sense. A signal 180 degrees out of phase with the noise is generated and fed into the phones so it cancels the noise leaking into the phones. They cost a bit more, closer to $500. The aviation mags claim they work and can save a flying family suffering from noise. My son Scott flies a lot on airlines and has a pair of Bose ANR phones so he can read or watch TV without the engine noise intruding. This type of headphone is even used in target shooting to protect ears. I have not yet tried them. I use the old fashioned design when shooting.
|
|
|
Post by Tom Goodrick on Dec 23, 2012 7:23:10 GMT -5
Never Generalize! Now I see a forecast for the week and it is for considerable cloudiness and rain all week! Of course I still have shopping to do.
|
|
|
Post by Tom Goodrick on Dec 23, 2012 7:17:35 GMT -5
Here in Northern Alabama, we have been watching rain fall on those portions of Alabama along the Gulf Coast and plenty of rain and some snow in Tennessee. Any clouds headed our way dissipate within 50 miles. I even see this in FS. I take off to the south and see blue skies. Turn north and get near the Tennessee border and the clouds close in. We have had some periods of rain. But they are brief. So we're not trying to grow anything this time of year anyway.
Sunny skies are nice. Surviving the 2012 apocolypse is ok too!
|
|
|
Post by Tom Goodrick on Dec 16, 2012 9:01:29 GMT -5
According to the Jan issue of FLYING, in order to recover from bankruptsy, Beechcraft is dumping its jet line but will keep its turboprop and piston lineup for the time being. They have trashed their maintenance work and warranties on all jets.
Maybe the Diamond brand will come alive again in Japan and the Hawker brand in England.
|
|
|
Post by Tom Goodrick on Dec 10, 2012 11:04:06 GMT -5
Regarding the condition of the right engine: "The pilot rated passenger said they informed him that they were losing oil pressure and were returning to Monett, followed by, “We shut the engine down.”" (from the NTSB note)
The only weather problem was darkness and an unlighted field.
|
|
|
Post by Tom Goodrick on Dec 9, 2012 15:40:50 GMT -5
I don't think it was sheer luck your friend was not in the right seat. I would have walked away after the mechanic was called out for the second time. The weather was barely at minimums or below; only one of the pilots was rated for multi-engine aircraft; it was actually a test flight on an overhauled engine; and there were known prop and gear problems requiring the gear remain up.
Sorry, but this flight was doomed from the start. I did some checks in the Baron, lightly loaded at low speed on one engine. Slow it down as on an approach and then decide to go around. It would take someone very familiar with that particular aircraft to avoid stalling out when trying to transition to climb. Add a misbehaving prop and it becomes just about impossible.
|
|
|
Post by Tom Goodrick on Dec 7, 2012 20:57:37 GMT -5
The NTSB report can be found at: www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=20121104X20957&key=1It looks like they let the airplane get too slow and too low so they could not overcome the drag of the lowered gear and climb on one engine. They found themselves behind the power curve due to the additional drag of the gear. That plane was not known for having a lot of power when one engine was out. It had a very high safe-takeoff speed.
|
|