More Pilots Like This on the Horizon

[Retired W4]

We were in TH-57s and I was hooked the first time we backed up!

I used to see you guys and your TH-57s down in the panhandle. Busy traffic pattern.

As for pilotless aircraft, some one or some thing still has to make critical decisions during operations. I would rather it be a highly experienced professional pilot than a computer programed by some geek who has never been strapped on to 100 tons of flying machine moving through the atmosphere at mach .87. Same with ATC; Ground control/tower, approach/departure control or center control.

 

[Lee in Quartzsite]

Two interesting photos. First is a C-17 pilot with a purse, the second was almost a wheels up landing of a P-3 fire bomber...never touched the ground!

 

[glenwolde]

It's not just COVID vaccinations, though that is not a positive. The airlines aggressively cut staff when everybody quit flying. At the same point in time, potential new pilots decided to wait it out rather than go to flight school many of which had problems dealing with COVID protocols.

Many of the ones that got cut didn't come back at the same time we lost almost an entire incoming class of new pilots.

 

[Retired W4]

Two interesting photos. First is a C-17 pilot with a purse, the second was almost a wheels up landing of a P-3 fire bomber...never touched the ground!

What makes that especially disturbing is the purse is hung on the emergency fire handle for the left outboard engine. Just plain dumb, especially considering what happens when it is pulled, intentionally or accidentally.

The pic of the borate bomber looks like it was taken at McCall, ID, from Pioneer Aviation.

 

[Lee in Quartzsite]

That was my first impression as well! Not a good choice for purse hanging!

 

[fordson]

And is she a LT(jg)/1st LT flying left seat? Hm…….could be with an IP……

 

[MDF4]

Two interesting photos. First is a C-17 pilot with a purse, the second was almost a wheels up landing of a P-3 fire bomber...never touched the ground!

Just my opinion but I think the purse pic' is more for effect than reality. I've known several high time female pilots and they're dam good at what they do and would never skirt (no pun intended) protocol. As to AF pilots; it is a known fact that all A/F male pilots have a designated area behind the chair for their golf bag..

 

[jcs266]

Last flight I was on was 1999. I'm tired of being treated like cattle. I can drive where I want to go & be more comfortable. No more flying for this guy.

Same here. I enjoy road trips. I have zero desire to ever leave the 48 states, so a car trip is easily done.

 

[sigp220.45]

Not only NO but HECK NO!

That's the same thing people said about getting in an elevator without an elevator operator. Seen one lately?

To be fair, the pilots I know acknowlege there will be some humanoid sitting there at first, but it won't be Sully.

How much of the time during a flight do you think the pilot actually flies the plane? It ain't much.

 

[Exaviator]

Personally, On departure, I would hand fly until passing the mach/transition altitude, around 20,000ft, and on the descent from around the transition altitude (10-13000ft) to completion of the flight. But, I am of the "Old school generation of aviators." Occasionally I would have to give one approach and landing away to the auto-pilot to maintain Cat3 qualifications.


Today, it's very much "Gear Up, auto pilot engage and it stays engaged until after touch down". The job today is very much one of flight deck management and finger inputs to the computer systems.

 

[Absalom]

.
Today, it's very much "Gear Up, auto pilot engage and it stays engaged until after touch down". The job today is very much one of flight deck management and finger inputs to the computer systems.

The overriding reality today is that commercial aviation does not exist to provide satisfying hands-on experiences to old-school aviators, but to get a horde of people from A to B in the statistically safest way possible.

And flight management systems have attained an impressive safety record compared to hand flying. Just look at (nowadays largely fly-by-wire) commercial vs. general aviation and their respective accident record. Calculations of the ratio vary depending on whose numbers you use, but a trip in a Delta or United 787 is something like 40 or 50 times safer than a ride in your friend's little Cessna.

A fascinating case to study is Air France Flight 447, an Airbus 330 which disappeared into the South Atlantic in 2009. When a perfectly manageable weather-related crisis occurred, the flight management system's computers performed perfectly as they were supposed to, but three reasonably experienced pilots (with 11,000, 6,500, and 3000 hours) failed completely to even understand what was going on and over the course of five minutes managed to force a perfectly good airplane 40,000+ feet down into the deadly splash.

Those cases where superior human mental flexibility and experience can find a fix around a technical malfunction obviously exist, but they are not the rule, but the exception.

 

[Retired W4]

Just my opinion but I think the purse pic' is more for effect than reality. I've known several high time female pilots and they're dam good at what they do and would never skirt (no pun intended) protocol. As to AF pilots; it is a known fact that all A/F male pilots have a designated area behind the chair for their golf bag..

I was instructing at Ft. Rucker when the first female helicopter students showed up, mostly West Point grads. Some were very good students, some very bad. Oh, the stories I could tell. Maybe some day.

 

[Nevada Ed]

Here in Nevada you need a "Special" driving license with a special sticker on it......
as well as a birth cert., SS card and two prof of address items , to receive this card.........
just so you can get on a plane, here in Nevada.

Any more red tape and I might be looking into Greyhound.

 

[fordson]

I have/had several friends and colleagues who flew F/A-18 Hornets. The F/A-18s was equipped with an ACLS/PCLS. Few, if any of them relied on or even used the system. They all preferred hands on approach. Old School aviators can be hard to change………

 

[Retired W4]

It has been my experience, regardless of how sophisticated an aircraft is, when systems begin to fail you better know how to aviate!