Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-31 Thread Randy Bennell
The one thing you did not mention, was that as Captain on this monster 
landing in the dark and the snow storm, your life is on the line along 
with that of the passengers.


Hopefully, you are not the gambling sort and wish to live to fly again 
another day.


RB

On 30/03/2015 5:45 PM, G Mann wrote:

Andrew,

You play the part of Pilot In Command for a bit..

You are responsible for the lives of 200 people on board, perhaps $200,000
worth of cargo in the hold, an airplane valued at $70,000,000.00, and your
reputation as Captain, which took you 15 yrs of long hours and hard work to
get.

Now.. it's dark, it's known ice conditions, the winds aloft are at near
gale force, and your experience tells you those sensors are prone to
malfunction in ice, or may give false readings.. AND you know you must have
met Runway Visual Range Rules to land .. ..

Do you rely on the automatic system or do you use every resource at your
disposal to safely land the aircraft or deliver it to a safe location?

You decide.. you have less than 8 minutes during the approach to landing..
tick toc...tick toc... tick toc Your approach speed is 186
kts. your landing weight is 230,000 lbs, if you descend into dirt it's
gonna hurt... a lot.. still feeling comfortable releasing control to all
those little electronics?





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Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-31 Thread Rich Thomas

And the pilots are the first ones at the scene of the crash.

--R



On 3/31/15 10:52 AM, Randy Bennell wrote:
The one thing you did not mention, was that as Captain on this monster 
landing in the dark and the snow storm, your life is on the line along 
with that of the passengers.


Hopefully, you are not the gambling sort and wish to live to fly again 
another day.


RB

On 30/03/2015 5:45 PM, G Mann wrote:

Andrew,

You play the part of Pilot In Command for a bit..

You are responsible for the lives of 200 people on board, perhaps 
$200,000
worth of cargo in the hold, an airplane valued at $70,000,000.00, and 
your
reputation as Captain, which took you 15 yrs of long hours and hard 
work to

get.

Now.. it's dark, it's known ice conditions, the winds aloft are at near
gale force, and your experience tells you those sensors are prone to
malfunction in ice, or may give false readings.. AND you know you 
must have

met Runway Visual Range Rules to land .. ..

Do you rely on the automatic system or do you use every resource at 
your

disposal to safely land the aircraft or deliver it to a safe location?

You decide.. you have less than 8 minutes during the approach to 
landing..
tick toc...tick toc... tick toc Your approach speed 
is 186

kts. your landing weight is 230,000 lbs, if you descend into dirt it's
gonna hurt... a lot.. still feeling comfortable releasing control to all
those little electronics?





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Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-30 Thread WILTON

Your good, your good.   ;)

Wilton

- Original Message - 
From: Rich Thomas richthomas79td...@constructivity.net

To: Mercedes Discussion List mercedes@okiebenz.com
Sent: Monday, March 30, 2015 9:45 AM
Subject: Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale



It Depends

--R



On 3/30/15 7:07 AM, Max Dillon wrote:

Adult diapers could have prevented this whole thing!



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Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-30 Thread Rich Thomas

It Depends

--R



On 3/30/15 7:07 AM, Max Dillon wrote:

Adult diapers could have prevented this whole thing!



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Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-30 Thread Rich Thomas

Thank you, I'll be here all week!

--R



On 3/30/15 10:28 AM, WILTON wrote:

Your good, your good.   ;)

Wilton

- Original Message - From: Rich Thomas 
richthomas79td...@constructivity.net

To: Mercedes Discussion List mercedes@okiebenz.com
Sent: Monday, March 30, 2015 9:45 AM
Subject: Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale



It Depends

--R



On 3/30/15 7:07 AM, Max Dillon wrote:

Adult diapers could have prevented this whole thing!



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Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-30 Thread Curly McLain

It Depends

--R



On 3/30/15 7:07 AM, Max Dillon wrote:

Adult diapers could have prevented this whole thing!





Everyone throw rotten tomatoes at Rich!

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Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-30 Thread WILTON
Or a urinal in the cockpit, or pee tubes as in days of yore - B-47's, for 
example.


Wilton

- Original Message - 
From: Max Dillon dillonm...@gmail.com

To: Mercedes Discussion List mercedes@okiebenz.com
Sent: Monday, March 30, 2015 7:07 AM
Subject: Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale



Adult diapers could have prevented this whole thing!
--
Max Dillon
Charleston SC
'87 300TD
'95 E300
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Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-30 Thread Max Dillon
Adult diapers could have prevented this whole thing!
-- 
Max Dillon
Charleston SC
'87 300TD
'95 E300
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Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-30 Thread arche...@embarqmail.com

This is a rare type of accident. When the fuss dies down, airlines will go back 
to their old ways. Student pilots often spend huge amounts of borrowed money 
before they can go to work for a budget airline where they will be paid only 
$20,000 or so per year initially.
Gerry
P.S. Did you ever get christened while looking up a pee tube to see if it was 
clear, Wilton? That was a WW-2 initiation.

WILTON wrote:
 Or a urinal in the cockpit, or pee tubes as in days of yore - B-47's, for 
 example.
 Wilton
 
  Adult diapers could have prevented this whole thing!
  -- 
  Max Dillon
  Charleston SC
  '87 300TD
  '95 E300

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Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-30 Thread Andrew Strasfogel
Not sure what that means but it sounds pretty nasty.

On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 11:16 AM, arche...@embarqmail.com 
arche...@embarqmail.com wrote:


 This is a rare type of accident. When the fuss dies down, airlines will go
 back to their old ways. Student pilots often spend huge amounts of borrowed
 money before they can go to work for a budget airline where they will be
 paid only $20,000 or so per year initially.
 Gerry
 P.S. Did you ever get christened while looking up a pee tube to see if it
 was clear, Wilton? That was a WW-2 initiation.

 WILTON wrote:
  Or a urinal in the cockpit, or pee tubes as in days of yore - B-47's,
 for example.
  Wilton
 
   Adult diapers could have prevented this whole thing!
   --
   Max Dillon
   Charleston SC
   '87 300TD
   '95 E300

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Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-30 Thread G Mann
Come to the airport Andrew.. I'll demonstrate it to you...

Back in the day when there were wooden ships and iron men. Something you
missed in your education.

On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 8:19 AM, Andrew Strasfogel astrasfo...@gmail.com
wrote:

 Not sure what that means but it sounds pretty nasty.

 On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 11:16 AM, arche...@embarqmail.com 
 arche...@embarqmail.com wrote:

 
  This is a rare type of accident. When the fuss dies down, airlines will
 go
  back to their old ways. Student pilots often spend huge amounts of
 borrowed
  money before they can go to work for a budget airline where they will be
  paid only $20,000 or so per year initially.
  Gerry
  P.S. Did you ever get christened while looking up a pee tube to see if it
  was clear, Wilton? That was a WW-2 initiation.
 
  WILTON wrote:
   Or a urinal in the cockpit, or pee tubes as in days of yore - B-47's,
  for example.
   Wilton
  
Adult diapers could have prevented this whole thing!
--
Max Dillon
Charleston SC
'87 300TD
'95 E300
 
  ___
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  To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/
 
  To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to:
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Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-30 Thread Mitch Haley

arche...@embarqmail.com wrote:

This is a rare type of accident.


Accident?

Mitch.

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Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-30 Thread WILTON
A rubber or plastic tube with, usually, a cone-shaped top end (entry), with 
spring-loaded valve at its base, placed near lower, front edge of the 
crewman's seat (low between his legs) and readily/easily accessible and 
usable for the crewman's relief - a relief tube.  'Could discharge into 
a receptacle/can aboard the aircraft or overboard.  If discharging 
overboard, be carful of the suction created by the slipstream across the 
discharge end in flight.  For those discharging overboard, there's a 
possibility that the discharge end can become blocked with ice.


Wilton

- Original Message - 
From: Andrew Strasfogel astrasfo...@gmail.com

To: Mercedes Discussion List mercedes@okiebenz.com
Sent: Monday, March 30, 2015 11:19 AM
Subject: Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale



Not sure what that means but it sounds pretty nasty.

On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 11:16 AM, arche...@embarqmail.com 
arche...@embarqmail.com wrote:



This is a rare type of accident. When the fuss dies down, airlines will 
go
back to their old ways. Student pilots often spend huge amounts of 
borrowed

money before they can go to work for a budget airline where they will be
paid only $20,000 or so per year initially.
Gerry
P.S. Did you ever get christened while looking up a pee tube to see if it
was clear, Wilton? That was a WW-2 initiation.

WILTON wrote:
 Or a urinal in the cockpit, or pee tubes as in days of yore - B-47's,
for example.
 Wilton

  Adult diapers could have prevented this whole thing!
  --
  Max Dillon
  Charleston SC
  '87 300TD
  '95 E300

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Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-30 Thread WILTON

No; never tried to look up one.

Wilton

- Original Message - 
From: arche...@embarqmail.com

To: Mercedes Discussion List mercedes@okiebenz.com
Sent: Monday, March 30, 2015 11:16 AM
Subject: Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale




This is a rare type of accident. When the fuss dies down, airlines will go 
back to their old ways. Student pilots often spend huge amounts of 
borrowed money before they can go to work for a budget airline where they 
will be paid only $20,000 or so per year initially.

Gerry
P.S. Did you ever get christened while looking up a pee tube to see if it 
was clear, Wilton? That was a WW-2 initiation.


WILTON wrote:
Or a urinal in the cockpit, or pee tubes as in days of yore - B-47's, for 
example.

Wilton

 Adult diapers could have prevented this whole thing!
 -- 
 Max Dillon

 Charleston SC
 '87 300TD
 '95 E300


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Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-30 Thread OK Don
True Andrew, however Grant's point is more relevant to the Air France
accident over the Atlantic - where they think a sensor iced over and was
giving bad readings. The computer can't keep you in the air with bad
data. All of these large aircraft are too many small parts flying in close
formation.

I fly by wire - wire cables between the control wheel and the control
surfaces!

On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 9:47 PM, Andrew Strasfogel astrasfo...@gmail.com
wrote:

 So the computer in the Germanwings disaster was listening to a human and if
 left alone would not hav e crashed the plane.  Perhaps we need MORE
 technology and less reliance on potential human error.




-- 
OK Don

NSA: The only branch of government that actually listens to US citizens!

*“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of
our people need it sorely on these accounts.”* – Mark Twain

There are three kinds of men: The ones that learns by reading. The few who
learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence
for themselves.

WILL ROGERS, *The Manly Wisdom of Will Rogers*
2013 F150, 18 mpg
2012 Passat TDI DSG, 44 mpg
1957 C182A, 12 mpg - but at 150 mph!
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Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-30 Thread Peter Frederick
Oh, they arrived all right.  Probably never gonna fly that particular  
plane out again though.


Something strange happened, it's not like winter weather is an unusual  
event  in Halifax, nor is an Air Canada A320 landing in a snowstorm.


I'm sure there is more to the story than we have heard yet.  In this  
day and age, an 1100 foot undershoot on a runway is very, very uncommon.


Peter

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Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-30 Thread G Mann
Amen and AaMen...



On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 3:24 PM, WILTON wilt...@nc.rr.com wrote:

 Divert.  Spending the rest of the night somewhere else and coming back
 later is better than NEVER arriving.

 Wilton

 - Original Message - From: Andrew Strasfogel 
 astrasfo...@gmail.com
 To: Mercedes Discussion List mercedes@okiebenz.com
 Sent: Monday, March 30, 2015 6:19 PM
 Subject: Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale



  But if you're making an approach in the dark and can't see 10' in front of
 the cockpit due to blizzard like conditions wouldn't it be wise to trust
 the automatic controls?

 On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 2:23 PM, OK Don okd...@gmail.com wrote:

  True Andrew, however Grant's point is more relevant to the Air France
 accident over the Atlantic - where they think a sensor iced over and was
 giving bad readings. The computer can't keep you in the air with bad
 data. All of these large aircraft are too many small parts flying in
 close
 formation.

 I fly by wire - wire cables between the control wheel and the control
 surfaces!

 On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 9:47 PM, Andrew Strasfogel 
 astrasfo...@gmail.com
 wrote:

  So the computer in the Germanwings disaster was listening to a human 
 and
 if
  left alone would not hav e crashed the plane.  Perhaps we need MORE
  technology and less reliance on potential human error.
 
 


 --
 OK Don

 NSA: The only branch of government that actually listens to US citizens!

 *“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many
 of
 our people need it sorely on these accounts.”* – Mark Twain

 There are three kinds of men: The ones that learns by reading. The few
 who
 learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence
 for themselves.

 WILL ROGERS, *The Manly Wisdom of Will Rogers*
 2013 F150, 18 mpg
 2012 Passat TDI DSG, 44 mpg
 1957 C182A, 12 mpg - but at 150 mph!
 ___
 http://www.okiebenz.com

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Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-30 Thread Andrew Strasfogel
But if you're making an approach in the dark and can't see 10' in front of
the cockpit due to blizzard like conditions wouldn't it be wise to trust
the automatic controls?

On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 2:23 PM, OK Don okd...@gmail.com wrote:

 True Andrew, however Grant's point is more relevant to the Air France
 accident over the Atlantic - where they think a sensor iced over and was
 giving bad readings. The computer can't keep you in the air with bad
 data. All of these large aircraft are too many small parts flying in close
 formation.

 I fly by wire - wire cables between the control wheel and the control
 surfaces!

 On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 9:47 PM, Andrew Strasfogel astrasfo...@gmail.com
 wrote:

  So the computer in the Germanwings disaster was listening to a human and
 if
  left alone would not hav e crashed the plane.  Perhaps we need MORE
  technology and less reliance on potential human error.
 
 


 --
 OK Don

 NSA: The only branch of government that actually listens to US citizens!

 *“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of
 our people need it sorely on these accounts.”* – Mark Twain

 There are three kinds of men: The ones that learns by reading. The few who
 learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence
 for themselves.

 WILL ROGERS, *The Manly Wisdom of Will Rogers*
 2013 F150, 18 mpg
 2012 Passat TDI DSG, 44 mpg
 1957 C182A, 12 mpg - but at 150 mph!
 ___
 http://www.okiebenz.com

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 To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to:
 http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com


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Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-30 Thread WILTON
Divert.  Spending the rest of the night somewhere else and coming back later 
is better than NEVER arriving.


Wilton

- Original Message - 
From: Andrew Strasfogel astrasfo...@gmail.com

To: Mercedes Discussion List mercedes@okiebenz.com
Sent: Monday, March 30, 2015 6:19 PM
Subject: Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale



But if you're making an approach in the dark and can't see 10' in front of
the cockpit due to blizzard like conditions wouldn't it be wise to trust
the automatic controls?

On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 2:23 PM, OK Don okd...@gmail.com wrote:


True Andrew, however Grant's point is more relevant to the Air France
accident over the Atlantic - where they think a sensor iced over and was
giving bad readings. The computer can't keep you in the air with bad
data. All of these large aircraft are too many small parts flying in 
close

formation.

I fly by wire - wire cables between the control wheel and the control
surfaces!

On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 9:47 PM, Andrew Strasfogel 
astrasfo...@gmail.com

wrote:

 So the computer in the Germanwings disaster was listening to a human 
 and

if
 left alone would not hav e crashed the plane.  Perhaps we need MORE
 technology and less reliance on potential human error.




--
OK Don

NSA: The only branch of government that actually listens to US citizens!

*“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many 
of

our people need it sorely on these accounts.”* – Mark Twain

There are three kinds of men: The ones that learns by reading. The few 
who

learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence
for themselves.

WILL ROGERS, *The Manly Wisdom of Will Rogers*
2013 F150, 18 mpg
2012 Passat TDI DSG, 44 mpg
1957 C182A, 12 mpg - but at 150 mph!
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Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-30 Thread G Mann
Andrew,

You play the part of Pilot In Command for a bit..

You are responsible for the lives of 200 people on board, perhaps $200,000
worth of cargo in the hold, an airplane valued at $70,000,000.00, and your
reputation as Captain, which took you 15 yrs of long hours and hard work to
get.

Now.. it's dark, it's known ice conditions, the winds aloft are at near
gale force, and your experience tells you those sensors are prone to
malfunction in ice, or may give false readings.. AND you know you must have
met Runway Visual Range Rules to land .. ..

Do you rely on the automatic system or do you use every resource at your
disposal to safely land the aircraft or deliver it to a safe location?

You decide.. you have less than 8 minutes during the approach to landing..
tick toc...tick toc... tick toc Your approach speed is 186
kts. your landing weight is 230,000 lbs, if you descend into dirt it's
gonna hurt... a lot.. still feeling comfortable releasing control to all
those little electronics?

On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 3:19 PM, Andrew Strasfogel astrasfo...@gmail.com
wrote:

 But if you're making an approach in the dark and can't see 10' in front of
 the cockpit due to blizzard like conditions wouldn't it be wise to trust
 the automatic controls?

 On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 2:23 PM, OK Don okd...@gmail.com wrote:

  True Andrew, however Grant's point is more relevant to the Air France
  accident over the Atlantic - where they think a sensor iced over and was
  giving bad readings. The computer can't keep you in the air with bad
  data. All of these large aircraft are too many small parts flying in
 close
  formation.
 
  I fly by wire - wire cables between the control wheel and the control
  surfaces!
 
  On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 9:47 PM, Andrew Strasfogel 
 astrasfo...@gmail.com
  wrote:
 
   So the computer in the Germanwings disaster was listening to a human
 and
  if
   left alone would not hav e crashed the plane.  Perhaps we need MORE
   technology and less reliance on potential human error.
  
  
 
 
  --
  OK Don
 
  NSA: The only branch of government that actually listens to US citizens!
 
  *“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many
 of
  our people need it sorely on these accounts.”* – Mark Twain
 
  There are three kinds of men: The ones that learns by reading. The few
 who
  learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence
  for themselves.
 
  WILL ROGERS, *The Manly Wisdom of Will Rogers*
  2013 F150, 18 mpg
  2012 Passat TDI DSG, 44 mpg
  1957 C182A, 12 mpg - but at 150 mph!
  ___
  http://www.okiebenz.com
 
  To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/
 
  To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to:
  http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
 
 
 ___
 http://www.okiebenz.com

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Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-30 Thread OK Don
What they said --
There are old pilots, and bold pilots, but no old, bold pilots.

On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 5:26 PM, G Mann g2ma...@gmail.com wrote:

 Amen and AaMen...



 On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 3:24 PM, WILTON wilt...@nc.rr.com wrote:

  Divert.  Spending the rest of the night somewhere else and coming back
  later is better than NEVER arriving.
 
  Wilton
 




-- 
OK Don

NSA: The only branch of government that actually listens to US citizens!

*“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of
our people need it sorely on these accounts.”* – Mark Twain

There are three kinds of men: The ones that learns by reading. The few who
learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence
for themselves.

WILL ROGERS, *The Manly Wisdom of Will Rogers*
2013 F150, 18 mpg
2012 Passat TDI DSG, 44 mpg
1957 C182A, 12 mpg - but at 150 mph!
___
http://www.okiebenz.com

To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/

To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to:
http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com



Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-30 Thread clay
Speaking of wooden ships, and climate change

There are no longer enough of the big old trees around for the construction of 
the mighty sailing ships.  Trees are too tiny to provide masts without glueing 
them together.  Used to be you needed a mast, limp into a suitable harbor with 
trees, and send ship's carpenter out to procure himself a suitable tree.

clay

On Mar 30, 2015, at 8:43 AM, G Mann wrote:

 Come to the airport Andrew.. I'll demonstrate it to you...
 
 Back in the day when there were wooden ships and iron men. Something you
 missed in your education.
 
 On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 8:19 AM, Andrew Strasfogel astrasfo...@gmail.com
 wrote:
 
 Not sure what that means but it sounds pretty nasty.
 
 On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 11:16 AM, arche...@embarqmail.com 
 arche...@embarqmail.com wrote:
 
 
 This is a rare type of accident. When the fuss dies down, airlines will
 go
 back to their old ways. Student pilots often spend huge amounts of
 borrowed
 money before they can go to work for a budget airline where they will be
 paid only $20,000 or so per year initially.
 Gerry
 P.S. Did you ever get christened while looking up a pee tube to see if it
 was clear, Wilton? That was a WW-2 initiation.
 
 WILTON wrote:
 Or a urinal in the cockpit, or pee tubes as in days of yore - B-47's,
 for example.
 Wilton
 
 Adult diapers could have prevented this whole thing!
 --
 Max Dillon
 Charleston SC
 '87 300TD
 '95 E300
 
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 http://www.okiebenz.com
 
 To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/
 
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Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-30 Thread clay
This is why I am not at all interested in using Google cars or other human 
devoid vehicles.  Computers only do what they are told.  Garbage in, garbage 
out, and human error writing the code.  Rich was able to provide an example of 
pilot error, but the pilots were making choice and did not abrogate 
responsibility for the safety of the aircraft to a box.  They could have, but 
did not trust the box to be right.  Now, we have trained technician at the 
controls, not the seat of the pants artists of prior years.  Today, the 
computer will handle it, were before, you took your life in your own hands and 
judgement.  Nazi soldiers gave up their personal responsibility and just 
followed orders, no matter how morally wrong they felt the order to be.  Same 
goes for the dumb box.

clay



On Mar 30, 2015, at 3:45 PM, G Mann wrote:

 Andrew,
 
 You play the part of Pilot In Command for a bit..
 
 You are responsible for the lives of 200 people on board, perhaps $200,000
 worth of cargo in the hold, an airplane valued at $70,000,000.00, and your
 reputation as Captain, which took you 15 yrs of long hours and hard work to
 get.
 
 Now.. it's dark, it's known ice conditions, the winds aloft are at near
 gale force, and your experience tells you those sensors are prone to
 malfunction in ice, or may give false readings.. AND you know you must have
 met Runway Visual Range Rules to land .. ..
 
 Do you rely on the automatic system or do you use every resource at your
 disposal to safely land the aircraft or deliver it to a safe location?
 
 You decide.. you have less than 8 minutes during the approach to landing..
 tick toc...tick toc... tick toc Your approach speed is 186
 kts. your landing weight is 230,000 lbs, if you descend into dirt it's
 gonna hurt... a lot.. still feeling comfortable releasing control to all
 those little electronics?
 
 On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 3:19 PM, Andrew Strasfogel astrasfo...@gmail.com
 wrote:
 
 But if you're making an approach in the dark and can't see 10' in front of
 the cockpit due to blizzard like conditions wouldn't it be wise to trust
 the automatic controls?
 
 On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 2:23 PM, OK Don okd...@gmail.com wrote:
 
 True Andrew, however Grant's point is more relevant to the Air France
 accident over the Atlantic - where they think a sensor iced over and was
 giving bad readings. The computer can't keep you in the air with bad
 data. All of these large aircraft are too many small parts flying in
 close
 formation.
 
 I fly by wire - wire cables between the control wheel and the control
 surfaces!
 
 On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 9:47 PM, Andrew Strasfogel 
 astrasfo...@gmail.com
 wrote:
 
 So the computer in the Germanwings disaster was listening to a human
 and
 if
 left alone would not hav e crashed the plane.  Perhaps we need MORE
 technology and less reliance on potential human error.
 
 
 
 
 --
 OK Don
 
 NSA: The only branch of government that actually listens to US citizens!
 
 *“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many
 of
 our people need it sorely on these accounts.”* – Mark Twain
 
 There are three kinds of men: The ones that learns by reading. The few
 who
 learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence
 for themselves.
 
 WILL ROGERS, *The Manly Wisdom of Will Rogers*
 2013 F150, 18 mpg
 2012 Passat TDI DSG, 44 mpg
 1957 C182A, 12 mpg - but at 150 mph!
 ___
 http://www.okiebenz.com
 
 To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/
 
 To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to:
 http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
 
 
 ___
 http://www.okiebenz.com
 
 To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/
 
 To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to:
 http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
 
 
 ___
 http://www.okiebenz.com
 
 To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/
 
 To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to:
 http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
 


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Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-29 Thread Andrew Strasfogel
So the computer in the Germanwings disaster was listening to a human and if
left alone would not hav e crashed the plane.  Perhaps we need MORE
technology and less reliance on potential human error.

On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 10:42 PM, G Mann g2ma...@gmail.com wrote:

 Rich,

 Nice bit of aviation history. While I salute your well earned hard work in
 all the FBW software, as a pilot I still hesitate to give command of the
 airplane over to a machine that runs on tiny bits of electrical signal..
 There is simply to much that can fail or render a false signal which
 affects control of the airplane. There have been many instances where
 pilots then failed to recognize what was wrong and took incorrect action to
 correct the sensor/computer problem, and people died.

 While I'm sure it's a lovely system, we now have a syndrome among pilots
 where they are so busy flying the computer they forget to fly the airplane,
 their ultimate responsibility.

 The term Pilot in Command means exactly that, in the most draconian
 sense. I'm old school and I'm draconian. No excuses.

 In the recent case of GermanAir crash. The PIC left the cockpit because
 Pilot Relief Tubes have been removed, and reliance on a computers ability
 to fly the airplane regardless of having a low time, less skilled Second
 Officer in control, which the PIC apparently did not trust to make the
 landing, based on CVR info.

 The old aviation wisdom that says all airplane crashes start on the
 ground, in my opinion, apply in this recent case. Far in advance of a
 deeply off balance Co-Pilot being given control of the aircraft, decisions
 were made about how the airplane could and would be controlled other than
 by the crew. The PIC released the aircraft because he was, we now know,
 dying to take a pee, and trusted the computer to fly the airplane,
 apparently, while not completely trusting the man left in charge..

 If you work backwards to discover the logic which drove such a decision
 making process, I believe I see a logic breakdown, influenced by over
 dependence on computer control.

 Of course, I come from a group of old school pilots who would pee their
 pants rather than release control of the aircraft, and some did.

 On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 3:15 PM, Rich Thomas 
 richthomas79td...@constructivity.net wrote:

  So back when I was in kawledge I had summer internships at NASA Langley.
  One summer I was in the Flight Research Division, having worked the
  previous summer in the Flight Simulation Division, wherein the aircraft
  being simulated I was then working on in the real world.  The primary
  aircraft was a 737 called the Terminal Configured Vehicle, which had a
  replica flight deck in the back cabin, from which the airplane could be
  flown by wire with the safety pilots up front being able to manually
  override the pilots in the back.  We did all kinds of tweaking of the
  software to allow the plane to take off, fly, and land, all either
  automatic or by the wire inputs to the flight computer.  I flew the
  simulator quite a bit while we were tweaking things, we would do a
  simulation of something then my colleagues would twiddle with the
 software
  (running on CDC Cyber computers, which were about the size of my 30 cuft
  refrigerator) and then we would see what happened.  If stuff worked OK
 then
  it would be uploaded to the airplane, probably on tapes or something, I
  never saw that process.
 
  As far as I know this airplane and the software was the precursor to
  pretty much all the FBW stuff in all the planes today, so it is kinda fun
  to think back on that and whatever small role I might have had in that
  progress.
 
  One day while I was in the Flight Research group someone came to me and
  said there was some problem in the autoland algorithms, pull the flight
  data and go over to my previous group and see what we could figure out.
  The problem was that when the plane was landing on one particular runway,
  it would pound in hard.  The safety pilots would think it was descending
  too rapidly and then try to correct and the result was a hard landing.
 Of
  course the pilots, whose man-equipage needed its own seat, were never to
  blame for this.
 
  So I printed off all the data, made plots, looked at all the control
  loops, we put it all in the simulator and flew the same landings with
 no
  problems.  I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the problem.  One
 day
  I was driving to lunch on the other side of the airfield and noticed
 there
  was this big drainage ditch off the end of that runway, and the runway
 was
  10 or 12 ft above the ditch. H I am thinking, remembering some radar
  altimeter data. (Langley sits on the marsh on a backwater of the
  Chesapeake, and is about 2ft above sea level, pretty much like my place
 is
  now)
 
  So I get back and look at all that, and sure enough you could see a big
  altitude jump right before landing, where the altimeter was sensing
 that
  ditch and 

Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-29 Thread arche...@embarqmail.com
Fascinating! This group needs more in person tales like this, and like 
Wiltons.
Gerry

Rich Thomas wrote:

 So back when I was in kawledge I had summer internships at NASA 
 Langley.  One summer I was in the Flight Research Division, having 
 worked the previous summer in the Flight Simulation Division, wherein 
 the aircraft being simulated I was then working on in the real world.  
 The primary aircraft was a 737 called the Terminal Configured Vehicle, 
 which had a replica flight deck in the back cabin, from which the 
 airplane could be flown by wire with the safety pilots up front being 
 able to manually override the pilots in the back.  We did all kinds of 
 tweaking of the software to allow the plane to take off, fly, and land, 
 all either automatic or by the wire inputs to the flight computer.  I 
 flew the simulator quite a bit while we were tweaking things, we would 
 do a simulation of something then my colleagues would twiddle with the 
 software (running on CDC Cyber computers, which were about the size of 
 my 30 cuft refrigerator) and then we would see what happened.  If stuff 
 worked OK then it would be uploaded to the airplane, probably on tapes 
 or something, I never saw that process.
 
 As far as I know this airplane and the software was the precursor to 
 pretty much all the FBW stuff in all the planes today, so it is kinda 
 fun to think back on that and whatever small role I might have had in 
 that progress.
 
 One day while I was in the Flight Research group someone came to me and 
 said there was some problem in the autoland algorithms, pull the flight 
 data and go over to my previous group and see what we could figure out.  
 The problem was that when the plane was landing on one particular 
 runway, it would pound in hard.  The safety pilots would think it was 
 descending too rapidly and then try to correct and the result was a hard 
 landing.  Of course the pilots, whose man-equipage needed its own seat, 
 were never to blame for this.
 
 So I printed off all the data, made plots, looked at all the control 
 loops, we put it all in the simulator and flew the same landings with 
 no problems.  I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the problem.  
 One day I was driving to lunch on the other side of the airfield and 
 noticed there was this big drainage ditch off the end of that runway, 
 and the runway was 10 or 12 ft above the ditch. H I am thinking, 
 remembering some radar altimeter data. (Langley sits on the marsh on a 
 backwater of the Chesapeake, and is about 2ft above sea level, pretty 
 much like my place is now)
 
 So I get back and look at all that, and sure enough you could see a big 
 altitude jump right before landing, where the altimeter was sensing 
 that ditch and commanding the aircraft to go down a bit to compensate.  
 But in the simulator, once it crossed the threshold and got over the 
 runway, it would pitch up a bit to maintain proper descent to landing.  
 At that point it was maybe 30ft above the runway, the ditch made it 
 think it was like 40+ ft.  So I look at the simulator, and quite clearly 
 the flight computer caught this, and the airplane was responsive enough 
 to the computer, that it would land properly and smoothly, no drama.  
 But when the pilots got in the loop, they were of course much slower to 
 react and command the aircraft, so it would not pitch up to compensate 
 and would pound in, sooner than the touchdown point the computer would 
 land it.  The pilots basically were the problem.
 
 So a few days later we had a meeting to go over what was going on, and 
 my older colleagues say, Rich how about you go over what you found.  
 So I do that, we took the data, ran the simulations, no problems, then 
 hey look at when the pilots took over because they thought it was going 
 to land short or hard, then BANG it lands short and hard.  If you had 
 let the system do its job, no problems.
 
 So, the pilots then had a shitfit and start in on me, 
 whothehellisthiskidwhatdoesheknowblahblah, and I see the guys smirking 
 at me, they had set me up to deliver the news and catch the flak from 
 the guys with the big egos.
 
 So then a coupla days later one of the pilots comes charging in our 
 space and walks over to me and says, THOMAS YOU'RE COMING WITH US!  I 
 of course about evacuated, but followed him and he goes to the airplane, 
 tells me I am going, and they are going to fly the profile a few times 
 and see what happens.  So I take a seat back behind the aft flight deck 
 where I can watch what's happening, and after 3 or 4 touch and gos we 
 come back, nothing is said.  So we get back to the office and a couple 
 of the other guys who were on the plane are all laughing at me and 
 saying those guys were pretty damn quiet, huh, looks like you were 
 right!  So, shonuff, the computer landed the plane fine, the pilots 
 tried it and pounded it in. Vindication!  Of course the pilots never 
 admitted it but they treated 

Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-29 Thread G Mann
Rich,

Nice bit of aviation history. While I salute your well earned hard work in
all the FBW software, as a pilot I still hesitate to give command of the
airplane over to a machine that runs on tiny bits of electrical signal..
There is simply to much that can fail or render a false signal which
affects control of the airplane. There have been many instances where
pilots then failed to recognize what was wrong and took incorrect action to
correct the sensor/computer problem, and people died.

While I'm sure it's a lovely system, we now have a syndrome among pilots
where they are so busy flying the computer they forget to fly the airplane,
their ultimate responsibility.

The term Pilot in Command means exactly that, in the most draconian
sense. I'm old school and I'm draconian. No excuses.

In the recent case of GermanAir crash. The PIC left the cockpit because
Pilot Relief Tubes have been removed, and reliance on a computers ability
to fly the airplane regardless of having a low time, less skilled Second
Officer in control, which the PIC apparently did not trust to make the
landing, based on CVR info.

The old aviation wisdom that says all airplane crashes start on the
ground, in my opinion, apply in this recent case. Far in advance of a
deeply off balance Co-Pilot being given control of the aircraft, decisions
were made about how the airplane could and would be controlled other than
by the crew. The PIC released the aircraft because he was, we now know,
dying to take a pee, and trusted the computer to fly the airplane,
apparently, while not completely trusting the man left in charge..

If you work backwards to discover the logic which drove such a decision
making process, I believe I see a logic breakdown, influenced by over
dependence on computer control.

Of course, I come from a group of old school pilots who would pee their
pants rather than release control of the aircraft, and some did.

On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 3:15 PM, Rich Thomas 
richthomas79td...@constructivity.net wrote:

 So back when I was in kawledge I had summer internships at NASA Langley.
 One summer I was in the Flight Research Division, having worked the
 previous summer in the Flight Simulation Division, wherein the aircraft
 being simulated I was then working on in the real world.  The primary
 aircraft was a 737 called the Terminal Configured Vehicle, which had a
 replica flight deck in the back cabin, from which the airplane could be
 flown by wire with the safety pilots up front being able to manually
 override the pilots in the back.  We did all kinds of tweaking of the
 software to allow the plane to take off, fly, and land, all either
 automatic or by the wire inputs to the flight computer.  I flew the
 simulator quite a bit while we were tweaking things, we would do a
 simulation of something then my colleagues would twiddle with the software
 (running on CDC Cyber computers, which were about the size of my 30 cuft
 refrigerator) and then we would see what happened.  If stuff worked OK then
 it would be uploaded to the airplane, probably on tapes or something, I
 never saw that process.

 As far as I know this airplane and the software was the precursor to
 pretty much all the FBW stuff in all the planes today, so it is kinda fun
 to think back on that and whatever small role I might have had in that
 progress.

 One day while I was in the Flight Research group someone came to me and
 said there was some problem in the autoland algorithms, pull the flight
 data and go over to my previous group and see what we could figure out.
 The problem was that when the plane was landing on one particular runway,
 it would pound in hard.  The safety pilots would think it was descending
 too rapidly and then try to correct and the result was a hard landing.  Of
 course the pilots, whose man-equipage needed its own seat, were never to
 blame for this.

 So I printed off all the data, made plots, looked at all the control
 loops, we put it all in the simulator and flew the same landings with no
 problems.  I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the problem.  One day
 I was driving to lunch on the other side of the airfield and noticed there
 was this big drainage ditch off the end of that runway, and the runway was
 10 or 12 ft above the ditch. H I am thinking, remembering some radar
 altimeter data. (Langley sits on the marsh on a backwater of the
 Chesapeake, and is about 2ft above sea level, pretty much like my place is
 now)

 So I get back and look at all that, and sure enough you could see a big
 altitude jump right before landing, where the altimeter was sensing that
 ditch and commanding the aircraft to go down a bit to compensate.  But in
 the simulator, once it crossed the threshold and got over the runway, it
 would pitch up a bit to maintain proper descent to landing.  At that point
 it was maybe 30ft above the runway, the ditch made it think it was like 40+
 ft.  So I look at the simulator, and quite clearly the flight 

Re: [MBZ] Bad week for A-320 -- A Langley Tale

2015-03-29 Thread Rich Thomas
So back when I was in kawledge I had summer internships at NASA 
Langley.  One summer I was in the Flight Research Division, having 
worked the previous summer in the Flight Simulation Division, wherein 
the aircraft being simulated I was then working on in the real world.  
The primary aircraft was a 737 called the Terminal Configured Vehicle, 
which had a replica flight deck in the back cabin, from which the 
airplane could be flown by wire with the safety pilots up front being 
able to manually override the pilots in the back.  We did all kinds of 
tweaking of the software to allow the plane to take off, fly, and land, 
all either automatic or by the wire inputs to the flight computer.  I 
flew the simulator quite a bit while we were tweaking things, we would 
do a simulation of something then my colleagues would twiddle with the 
software (running on CDC Cyber computers, which were about the size of 
my 30 cuft refrigerator) and then we would see what happened.  If stuff 
worked OK then it would be uploaded to the airplane, probably on tapes 
or something, I never saw that process.


As far as I know this airplane and the software was the precursor to 
pretty much all the FBW stuff in all the planes today, so it is kinda 
fun to think back on that and whatever small role I might have had in 
that progress.


One day while I was in the Flight Research group someone came to me and 
said there was some problem in the autoland algorithms, pull the flight 
data and go over to my previous group and see what we could figure out.  
The problem was that when the plane was landing on one particular 
runway, it would pound in hard.  The safety pilots would think it was 
descending too rapidly and then try to correct and the result was a hard 
landing.  Of course the pilots, whose man-equipage needed its own seat, 
were never to blame for this.


So I printed off all the data, made plots, looked at all the control 
loops, we put it all in the simulator and flew the same landings with 
no problems.  I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the problem.  
One day I was driving to lunch on the other side of the airfield and 
noticed there was this big drainage ditch off the end of that runway, 
and the runway was 10 or 12 ft above the ditch. H I am thinking, 
remembering some radar altimeter data. (Langley sits on the marsh on a 
backwater of the Chesapeake, and is about 2ft above sea level, pretty 
much like my place is now)


So I get back and look at all that, and sure enough you could see a big 
altitude jump right before landing, where the altimeter was sensing 
that ditch and commanding the aircraft to go down a bit to compensate.  
But in the simulator, once it crossed the threshold and got over the 
runway, it would pitch up a bit to maintain proper descent to landing.  
At that point it was maybe 30ft above the runway, the ditch made it 
think it was like 40+ ft.  So I look at the simulator, and quite clearly 
the flight computer caught this, and the airplane was responsive enough 
to the computer, that it would land properly and smoothly, no drama.  
But when the pilots got in the loop, they were of course much slower to 
react and command the aircraft, so it would not pitch up to compensate 
and would pound in, sooner than the touchdown point the computer would 
land it.  The pilots basically were the problem.


So a few days later we had a meeting to go over what was going on, and 
my older colleagues say, Rich how about you go over what you found.  
So I do that, we took the data, ran the simulations, no problems, then 
hey look at when the pilots took over because they thought it was going 
to land short or hard, then BANG it lands short and hard.  If you had 
let the system do its job, no problems.


So, the pilots then had a shitfit and start in on me, 
whothehellisthiskidwhatdoesheknowblahblah, and I see the guys smirking 
at me, they had set me up to deliver the news and catch the flak from 
the guys with the big egos.


So then a coupla days later one of the pilots comes charging in our 
space and walks over to me and says, THOMAS YOU'RE COMING WITH US!  I 
of course about evacuated, but followed him and he goes to the airplane, 
tells me I am going, and they are going to fly the profile a few times 
and see what happens.  So I take a seat back behind the aft flight deck 
where I can watch what's happening, and after 3 or 4 touch and gos we 
come back, nothing is said.  So we get back to the office and a couple 
of the other guys who were on the plane are all laughing at me and 
saying those guys were pretty damn quiet, huh, looks like you were 
right!  So, shonuff, the computer landed the plane fine, the pilots 
tried it and pounded it in. Vindication!  Of course the pilots never 
admitted it but they treated me a bit nicer for the rest of the summer.


Here's a blurb about the research fleet, the bottom pictures of NASA 515 
show the airplane.  My office was in that hangar to the left