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Quote:Me, too Belt. It's the little kid in us.

Good way to describe it.

(01-15-2014 03:24 PM)Broncobelt Wrote:  To this day I never get tired of watching jets come and go. Most exciting job I ever had was in the Navy, working on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier.

When I was growing up there was an air force base in town. I big Friday night was dad taking us to A&W, getting food to go, and parking at the end of the runway watching planes take off. Like you, I still like watching them. Had to be very cool watching them on a carrier.

MHB

Quote:You could stand by that fence and have the big jets come overhead not 75 feet above you.

Never get tired of these St. Martin videos

(01-15-2014 03:24 PM)Broncobelt Wrote:  To this day I never get tired of watching jets come and go. Most exciting job I ever had was in the Navy, working on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier.

You ever visit the USS Midway Museum in San Diego?

I was out there last month. Freakin' incredible.

And yeah, I'm biased, but jet noise never gets old.

Great pictures and article STDAT. I have not seen the museum. In fact when I was in the Navy the Midway was still in service, and I recall seeing it on several different occasions. Midway originally had an old straight deck but was later modified to a modern angled deck (which it had when I saw it).

A lot of the pictures taken on the ship look all too familiar.

(01-16-2014 09:36 AM)Broncobelt Wrote:  Great pictures and article STDAT. I have not seen the museum. In fact when I was in the Navy the Midway was still in service, and I recall seeing it on several different occasions. Midway originally had an old straight deck but was later modified to a modern angled deck (which it had when I saw it).

A lot of the pictures taken on the ship look all too familiar.

Very cool. It wasn't there last time I was in San Diego (over a decade ago) so it was nice to see on this most recent trip. I'd seriously go back just to spend a whole day on the ship.

However, for those of you who lived and worked on them, I suspect the carrier might conjure up some slightly less awe-inspiring feelings!

Perhaps the tower wasn't closed?

Quote:Southwest Pilots Were Visual To Wrong Airport

The NTSB says the pilots of a Southwest flight that landed at the wrong airport last week simply followed the wrong bright lights after opting for a visual approach to what they thought was Branson Airport in Missouri. According to the board's preliminary report, the crew was told by the Branson tower that they were 15 miles from the airport and cleared for a visual approach for Runway 14. The welcoming lights of Runway 12 at M. Graham Clark Downtown Airport, in Hollister, Mo., about six miles north of Branson, caught their eye and they set up for an initially uneventful landing on the 3748-foot runway. "They confirmed that they utilized heavy braking to bring the aircraft to a stop and then advised the Branson Airport tower that they had landed at the wrong airport," the NTSB said in its initial report released Friday.

The captain of the flight had never been into Branson and the FO had only flown there once in daylight. Both are experienced Southwest pilots and told the NTSB the flight management system was properly programmed. As of Monday they were suspended but their final fate has not been released. There were 124 passengers aboard and Branson was an interim stop with Dallas as the final destination. Buses took the passengers and their bags to Branson where another Southwest plane arrived to pick up the Dallas-bound passengers a few hours later. The empty 737 took off from the other airport on Monday.

http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/10...-full.html

What's tougher, a 737 taking off from a short runway or landing on a short runway?

(01-20-2014 04:31 PM)thegeneral Wrote:  What's tougher, a 737 taking off from a short runway or landing on a short runway?

Takeoff.

The general wisdom in aviation is that you always have to be careful when picking an arrival airport. It's quite easy to land somewhere you can't take off from.

First thing my pilot friends were saying is they wanted to see that takeoff when the news broke that they landed on a short runway. That Youtube of it shows quite the impressive performance by those GE's on the three seven. Sure it was low on fuel and light as possible, but still, that's quite the big piece of chicken to get up in that short of time.

Yep.

I may or may not have multiple friends that work for GE Aviation... clearly I'm in the wrong line of work!

Good group to be aligned with for sure. They pay.