And I suppose Erik that "flagship" Moskva is not actually sitting at the bottom of the Black Sea right now??? Courtesy of a "losing" country!

(Written on 2022年 04月 21日)(Permalink)

How quickly some people would like to just airbrush away what happened with Germanwings.

(Written on 2022年 01月 14日)(Permalink)

I don't think that batteries are actually the issue here.

(Written on 2022年 01月 01日)(Permalink)

Well said Randy! Airports (like seaports) are fundamentally a strategic asset in the widest sense of that word, including (but not limited to) military defence.

(Written on 2021年 12月 31日)(Permalink)

No matter how strong the tailwind is it has absolutely no effect on the Mach number that the aircraft is cruising at, just as a strong headwind cannot cause the aircraft's wing to stall. (i.e. to reach it's stalling angle of attack or AOA). A tailwind will ONLY increase the groundspeed and a headwind will reduce the groundspeed.

(Written on 2021年 12月 30日)(Permalink)

This will be a really interesting investigation, with (no doubt) the NTSB being extremely closely involved. The GIV was clearly still under good control which enabled the PIC to plan his diversion for about 20NM track miles across to the East where a longer runway was available.

(Written on 2021年 12月 17日)(Permalink)

I looked at the distance from Tampa down to Recife which is right up on the NE corner of Brazil. But even that sector seems to be at least 3200 NM, which would take more than 6.5 hours. I hope they can find a way to squeeze in some extra belly tankage without ending up with not enough underfloor hold volume remaining for Pax's baggage.

(Written on 2021年 12月 07日)(Permalink)

A very interesting story. I'm surprised that they were not limited by MAX certified landing weight on arrival in Antarctica. They still had on board the massive weight of fuel needed to safely fly 2500 NM (plus reserves) all the way back up to Capetown, plus of course all the weight of freight on board that they were bringing into the frozen continent.

(Written on 2021年 11月 23日)(Permalink)

I hope the crew did not feel they were under pressure to get their passengers to their destination by a certain time.

(Written on 2021年 11月 06日)(Permalink)

Clearly he felt he was under pressure from upper management. Would not have happened back in 1963 when the company was flight testing the radical (for the time) B727 and their engineers rightly held sway.

(Written on 2021年 09月 17日)(Permalink)