Flying and aviation stuff

Yes, I heard of the missing aircraft story. The 777 could be located, assuming the flotsam is indeed the A/C, thru the use of ROV submersibles. This would be tedious, long, hard work. The voice and flight data boxes would be the golden nuggets for extracting what went wrong. At the same time the crash site would have to be treated with the upmost respect for the deceased and the families of the deceased.

DBCassidy

 

I thought this was funny and had to share it with you guys

 

When the search was near shore and on 200 m deep water I was optimistic. Both factors are less favorable in the current search area. Anyone know why the Orions and Posiedons cannot be refueled inflight? They are not getting much time on station.

 

doubled

 

I spent some of Friday in meetings at the Chinese Embassy in Canberra - not about the plane, about other stuff. But some of my meetings were curtailed because everyone - even the commercial team - were tied up dealing with the search.

The amount of work going on there to coordinate the search is extraordinary. A lot of it is just admin stuff - getting permissions signed off so that Chinese Air Force planes can base themselves out of Perth, and things like that. But all of the information-sharing that's going on between all of these countries (even countries that hate each other, like China and Japan, or countries that have fallen out quite badly recently like Australia and Indonesia) is actually a nice thing to see. It's a shame that it takes a disaster (and everyone being annoyed at Malaysia) to get everyone to work together, but it would be nice if we could all learn something from it.

 

Well, yes. But what I meant was that it would be nice if we could learn something from the fact that, when necessary, countries that don't get on very well can actually cooperate and work together.

 

Not much '...difference..." between PIPE-DREAM smoke and WAR-COMBAT smoke.

 

Indeed. It was really nice to see what was happening at the Embassy, though.

 

They did experiments with adding IFR to the Orion when they were doing ASuW work-ups with the Harpoons. Since the P3-Charlies already have 13 hours of endurance, crew fatigue rather than fuel becomes the limiting factor.
Cruising around at 30,000 feet for 13 hours is one thing. Getting jostled about at search altitude is quite another!!!
I'm thinking that if the pointy-heads at NavAir would have proposed an in-flight refueling mod for the Orions, then they would have met with more than a little resistance from the folks out on the sharp end.
The P8 Poseidon is already IFR capable, and they have crew rest bunks, however (comma!) I don't think the juice would be worth the squeeze by committing tankers to this mission.
Remember....UNLIKE most other parts of the federal government?
The military has to operate on a for-real budget, and they're probably already 8 figures into what could be a non-domesticated goose grope.
If a military unit runs out of cabbage, then ships stay welded to the pier, and planes stay in the hangar until somebody opens their wallets, or FY-next happens.

If this were SAR? It would be a different matter, but this isn't that.

YMMV....

 

Pre-dating the USN's P3 Orions and current P8 Poseidons were the receiprocating "round-engine" Lockheed EC-121 "Warning Star" planes which had fuel capacity to stay aloft for close to 20 hours (8,760 gallons of 115/145 AVGAS at 100 gallons per engine (4 each) per hour), although the longest flights that I had usually lasted only about 16 hours. And, many of those hours were below 500 feet chasing typhoons in the pacific. Barrier flights were higher, between 5K and 10K.

 

I liked this piece

Opinion: How mechanical problem could have downed Flight 370 - CNN.com

favoring 'problems' over 'bad pilots' as an explanation. Please have a look.

No one credibly offers hope for the souls on board. May they rest in peace. A quick cabin depress, quick unconsciousness would have been mercy. From any cause.

We need a piece of the airframe suitable for forensics to find the cause. Considering the current search area, we might not get it.

 

Fact be known, we are not privileged to all the facts up to this point. Only that which has been released to the press. It is my hope and belief that rapid progress be made in the following days, weeks and months that (1) gives grieving friends and families closure so they can begin healing process, and (2) so that changes deemed necessary can be enacted in effort to prevent another such catastrophic loss of life.

 

I looked and the speculation is full of holes and wishful thinking.
Let me just add some more facts about the captain.
-2. The wife learned about the affair and moved out one day before the tragic flight. The captain called the girlfriend before the flight and things were not well either.
-1. The captain attended a court session the day of the flight. His opposition party idol was sentenced to 5 years of prison for sodomy charge that was fabricated by the government.

 

Notice the picture at the top of this flight 370 article and the caption.

Opinion: Did flammable cargo doom Flight 370? - CNN.com

 

Where does it mention a Prius? Anyway, CNN is the "news" network that suggested a black hole might be the culprit. I kid you not.

 

Must have been flammable aliens who came out of the black hole and hijacked the plane. They could be jealous of the Prius since it gets 60 mpg and is so damn quiet.

 

I don't see a picture of a prius or a prius mentioned anywhere. Maybe it is because I'm reading in my phone?