CORRECTION:
Posted on 08/17/2013 5:15:47 PM PDT by BunnySlippers
Did you have the “Duals” installed... BOTH sets of bicycle pedals?
I used to live at 6200’ elevation, flying an old, tired Bell Jet Ranger out of the back yard. One monthly mission was to pick up a medical team at 7500’ and fly to a bush clinic at 10,500’ for the day. I’d have to wait until an hour before dark to take off coming home.
BTW, this was about 1 degree north of the Equator.
When I asked for a full runway takeoff due to DA the tower operator got all smarty and cleared “Cessna N***** cleared for a full rwy takeoff” - I had to circle off airport to get to 6k before attempting to clear the pass to the east on I90
What about autoland using GPS?
A/T would primarily be to maintain the correct landing speed.
The NTSB said they had good steady speed of 161mph, so it appears the autothrottle was working.
If they weren't using GPS, they'd need some way of inputting altitude control based on what they saw from the PAPI while everything else was automated.
I once sat in a full 757 on the end of the runway at Eagle (KEGE) on an unseasonably warm day, until it cooled down enough that the pilot was happy enough with things to take off. I want to say an hour or so we waited, but it has been a few years.
I don’t think most understood what was going on. I’m no pilot, but I am an engineer and understand gas turbine engines better than the average bear. I’ll admit to having some pucker factor on that takeoff, and I am far from a white-knuckle flyer.
600 trees a minute.
So... after reading the names, i haz a question.
Were both pilots male?
The captain who was flying was male, and was a Marine helicopter pilot with thousands of hours for UPS. The copilot was female. She had type ratings in everything UPS flies including the 747.
No. The F/O was a very experienced female.
Capt. Cerea Beal, Jr., 58, of Matthews, N.C. and First Officer Shanda Fanning, 37, of Lynchburg, Tenn.
18 was only rated for non-precision approaches, which includes GPS.
GPS alone doesn’t give you accurate enough altitudes, iirc.
It just gets you to the runway.
They were using the Localizer as far as I know, and not GPS.
IIRC the runway had REILs. Big ass strobes to identify the runway.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runway_end_identifier_lights
A steady throttle would mean they didn’t do anything after hitting the trees.
One would expect them to initiate a go-around.
Hard to believe they didn’t realize they hit the trees.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeoff/Go-around_switches
Or after the 2 “sink rate” warnings.
If the system sucks that bad, get rid of it another way. The fact is this crew expected a 7000 ft cig, got a 700 and didn't do shit in the interim. No clue what they were doing in there, but it could only have rhymed with aviating.
Through the FAA/Congress (local rep) vs. an investigation. Objectivity of an investigator is what makes the investigation’s findings acceptable. Can’t be grinding an axe over a shitty system. If the wx was different to that extant there should have been action by the flight crew, there wasn’t and they didn’t do their job. The ‘why’ of that might be interesting but it wouldn’t excuse their inaction.
Never said it wasn't contributing, it isn't a causal factor. As for whether or not the pilots read and intepreted their approach plates correctly we do know they didn't go around. Lightning might be a causal factor, that is why there are mishap investigations. The fact that the pilot got a 7500' cig report, and still was IMC well below that, tells me where the screwup was. Would better wx reports be better, of course but the failure for this mishap belongs in the cockpit with the info available.
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