Recent content by Retattack

I know Mary Schiavo said that in her interview (here's another, where she says basically the same thing): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqFgf7ezwv8 But . . . she's wrong. The engines "failed" after landing, when the weight was on wheels but the landing logic was incomplete, and the pilots...

Restarts are tricky. If the engines are working properly, you can get the required compressor speed by air pressure (~270 Knots, obviously not an option in this case) or by using the APU/starter combination. My experience is on a 767, where the APU is started manually. But the 787 is...

I suspect the other pilot didn't notice right away (which is the main reason I posited the Captain as the one who moved the switches). Loss of thrust would be apparent immediately, but you'd have to look around a bit to figure out the switches were in the wrong position. The exact timing and...

Concur. If the report is correct, I can't see any plausible scenario other than the Captain as pilot monitoring turned the switches off while the FO made the takeoff.

This guy appears to me to be a bit of a conspiracy theorist. Here is a lengthy interview where he discusses the report: https://www.thequint.com/videos/aviation-expert-sanjay-lazar-on-air-india-crash-report He laments the lack of a CVR transcript and discusses at length the ten seconds between...

One of my buddies was the test pilot for the hovering portion . . . and it wouldn't (or at least not well). I've long believed that the hovering requirement was ill advised, and screwed up the F-35 design.

Absolutely! Always wanted to fly a warbird, and this is a very suitable substitute. Just wish I wasn't such a greenhorn when I did it. Fantastic model. I thought it was a photo of the actual bird at first. Was looking for the oil leak . . .

It was at NAS Whiting in 1981 . . . I soloed in it.

Hey Jens, Your positioning seems correct to me, but I don't know much about the layout of a Wellington and even less about how they trained. I'm very doubtful that either pitot heat or altimeter setting would be significant, but in any event it would be the pilot's job to confirm they were...

Thanks. I was hoping someone would apply a critical eye to that report when posting it, and that is the most glaring point. Anything more than about 10 degrees seems aggressive to me, but I don't know anything about their procedures and am only familiar with much faster aircraft. 22 degrees...

Thanks for the transition plan, that's interesting. Back in the day, the T/O for light attack was 8 squadrons of 19 aircraft. I asked my first OpsO "why 19?" and he said "it used to be 20, but we crashed some." When we converted to Harriers, about ten years later, it was back to 8x20 (at...

Not at all. Only wish I had more to offer. There are some inconsistencies or unknowns in the report (turning/not turning, cloud height, icing), so it's necessarily guesswork. Also, a cynical read of the reviews by successive seniors suggest they're typical of mishap reports in that they tend...

Hey Alan, Just wanted to add my appreciation. I had no idea such data was available, and found the whole process fascinating (especially accessing Canadian records). Thanks.

Hey Jens, again can't shed any light on the records themselves, but I do have some pertinent experience (flying and accident investigation in the US). I cut and pasted the major narrative sections from the report (from Alan's superb link above relating to Sgt Mitchell): Your interpretation of...

Yes, it's changing again, F-18s are going away and being replaced by F-35Cs (VMFA-314 is the first to undergo transition). I expect the new order will be the old fighter squadrons flying F-35Cs aboard the big decks and old attack squadrons flying F-35Bs aboard the amphibs. But the airplanes...