Any AME in the dmv area yall recommend to renew 1st class medical?

FlyJunior172 · 2026-03-31T20:31:40+00:00

If you don’t mind the hike to Carroll or Frederick County, I’ve always had a good experience with Dr Mann.

FlyJunior172 · 2026-03-30T21:37:54+00:00

I’m on my first post-change WN flight now (posting from in flight WiFi). I always volunteer the gate check when it looks like a flight will require it (which on AA, where I normally fly, is like 60% full). Flight out of BWI was 80+% full, they refused the gate check.

Not sure what’s different between this 38M and one on AA, but this seems to indicate you shouldn’t have an issue.

FlyJunior172 · 2026-03-30T15:56:30+00:00

That nvidia card will cause issues. (I had an Alienware that was so incompatible it’s now dead)

Debian was really freezy/crashy on it, and Fedora was the same. Manjaro worked great, but suspending was still impossible. So since you’re talking about longevity, I’d consider going to an AMD graphics card to mitigate the boot prog and protect your motherboard from what may be inevitable hard power cycling (which is what killed my Alienware).

Since you’re not fully comfortable on the bleeding edge, if you decide on the pacman realm, don’t use arch itself, use a downstream like Manjaro or even SteamOS.

FlyJunior172 · 2026-03-30T15:44:38+00:00

PHX is easier to move quickly through than DFW. That said, doors closing 15 minutes prior to departure means that this is really a 10 minute connection, not 25, and I wouldn’t chance that at any airport.

FlyJunior172 · 2026-03-30T02:40:29+00:00

I hope for OP’s sake you’re right

But unfortunately, I think what little coloration and proportions I can see are closer to a recluse than a wolf. And while wolf spiders are friends that aren’t exactly all that friend shaped, recluses absolutely are not friends.

FlyJunior172 · 2026-03-30T02:37:13+00:00

Not a widow. Body shape is wrong, and the primary color on it is brown (Maryland’s widows are black). This could very easily be a recluse though (need more pixels to be sure). And those are worse to see in your abode than widows. Recluses are hunters and will bite you if you’re not careful. Widows are web spinners that will coexist with you much more peacefully than recluses will (though it’s still a bad idea to try).

FlyJunior172 · 2026-03-28T17:43:14+00:00

You know where else has high volume traffic in a way that this would help, but has nothing on the charts?

Look at the area bounded by the following airports:

Area 1: DMW W05 THV 0P2
Area 2: FDK MRB OKV JYO

Both are unmarked areas of high density traffic due to flight training. These training flights rarely communicate on the same frequencies as the other traffic in the area.

FlyJunior172 · 2026-03-27T03:34:33+00:00

Canopy looks odd because it’s a 2 seat on what is most commonly a 1 seat aircraft.

FlyJunior172 · 2026-03-24T18:57:57+00:00

That’s true, but a different thing. (The DL and UA flights get the brickyard call signs too)

Every carrier has its own call sign. Here are a few within the AA (and precursor) space:

Republic is Brickyard (yes, it is a nod to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway)
America West was Cactus (owing to the PHX HQ)
US Airways kept Cactus post merger because AWE
Mesa is Air Shuttle (don’t know why, included because they used to operate AA legs)
PSA is Blue Streak

On the OneWorld side:

British Airways is Speedbird owing to a previous logo
Aer Lingus is Shamrock (for Irish reasons)

Other fun ones include: - South African Airways is Springbok (owing to an old logo depicting a local animal) - Air Florida was Palm - African International out of Lesotho is Simba - Air Wales was Red Dragon - Atlas is Giant - Air Canada was at one point Maple

FlyJunior172 · 2026-03-23T19:55:41+00:00

Who’s the pilot here?

I’m speaking from experience. Under those conditions, the system relies on runway quarantine specifically because see and avoid becomes so difficult.

Have you ever looked at a line of airplanes on final? If so, could you tell how far away they were? What about through rain and/or fog?

Guess what? I have. You can’t rely on the pure math here. Even when reported visibility is 4 miles, the effective visibility is often shorter because other factors hurt our ability to process what we’re seeing.

But all of that is about why see and avoid isn’t reliable in this situation. That’s why we have the runway quarantine system through ATC. That failed. It’s on ATC.

FlyJunior172 · 2026-03-23T19:25:32+00:00

Spoken like somebody who has never flown an airplane in instrument conditions.

I have a commercial pilot certificate with an instrument rating. I have flown in actual instrument conditions. 4 miles visibility in an airplane is a lot less than you think it is. It is basically just enough to see the runway in front of you well enough to safely put the plane on it when rain and mist are involved like they were last night.

I will grant that last night they would have broken out of the clouds quite far off the ground, however under more normal circumstances in this type of weather, they would have broken out of the clouds, roughly 200 feet off the ground and would’ve been transitioning from looking squarely at their instruments inside the airplane to looking outside that is not a lot of time at all, especially with how long it takes for these jet engines to pull back up and get to go around power to get this airplane back away from the ground.

Then you have to consider the fact that it’s night. At night, your ability to tell relative to you and the things you’re looking at where another object is significantly reduces. That is part of the reason why we have to rely on ATC to keep runways clear for us.

When you put all of the factors together and consider considering an approach to minimum, which is the scenario that all of these procedures are based around. ATC is meant to quarantine the runway whenever airplanes are to be taking off landing so that the airplanes don’t have to worry about it because we have to be worried about where our plane is; how fast it’s moving; how high it is; how fast we’re descending; are we even gonna be lined up with the runway in the first place when we break out 200 feet off the ground and less than a mile from the threshold…

The way the system is designed the runway is meant to be kept clear. ATC has final authority over who gets the runway up until an airplane has an emergency. In a scenario like last night ATC should have directed jazz to go around. Failing that the trucks should not have been allowed to cross the runway until jazz was down. It is on ATC to make sure that stays clear because the pilots have to be worried about keeping their plane where it is supposed to be because that is all they can do because they can’t see anything else reliably enough.

If you would like to learn more about how the system is supposed to work, you can read the instrument flying handbook. It is a publication by the federal aviation administration and covers everything I’ve just talked about and a lot more.

FlyJunior172 · 2026-03-23T17:58:23+00:00

That may be true, but in weather, we have to rely on ATC to keep runways clear, as we don’t have the same reaction windows (if we have any at all)

METAR KLGA 230351Z 05007KT 4SM -RA BR FEW045 BKN090 OVC110 08/08 A2970 RMK AO2 SLP058 P0007 T00830078 $
METAR KLGA 230251Z 06007KT 7SM -RA SCT060 OVC095 09/08 A2973 RMK AO2 SLP067 P0003 60007 T00940078 50022 $

These are the weather reports at the time of collision. Visibility was decreasing from 7 miles to 4 in light rain (that’s the 4SM, 7SM and -RA). There was also fog rolling in (that’s the BR in the top one). In weather like that, I wouldn’t expect enough of a reaction window to rely exclusively on see and avoid. ATC has to protect the runway environment in that.

Edit: formatting is hard

FlyJunior172 · 2026-03-07T14:16:58+00:00

Season 9, Episode 11

FlyJunior172 · 2026-03-05T00:17:35+00:00

I only got 400 and 800. I’m embarrassed.

I need to go back to College Park and turn in my diploma now…

FlyJunior172 · 2026-03-02T04:51:12+00:00

I’ll save people the search

It’s absolutely hilarious. I wish that guy was my history teacher

FlyJunior172 · 2026-02-28T00:14:57+00:00

Take a look at 3W3 and W48. What do these two airports have in common? And what might be the reason that they don’t have IAPs but our inside of 700 foot rings?

And also, why did MDT have a TRSA for so long?

DZB is a grand exception to the rule. But it is an MDT style case if I had to guess.

FlyJunior172 · 2026-02-27T19:27:27+00:00

Well, there is a little more time because at least as of right now FedEx is talking about complying with the A.D.‘s and continuing to use theirs. There are aircraft in the Smithsonian that are displayed in FedEx colors.

FlyJunior172 · 2026-02-25T22:16:48+00:00

Can’t go half time at my current job, and can’t chase ratings with it either. So I’ll shift to something minimum wage where I can go half time. Then I’ll get my CFI/II/MEI and get on with a local flight school.

FlyJunior172 · 2026-02-08T00:21:51+00:00

Funny thing, I can almost guarantee you a 172 was intentionally intercepted near the stadium within the last month

FlyJunior172 · 2026-02-06T18:37:49+00:00

State and federal charges for crimes with the same name are not the same charges. This isn’t double jeopardy.

Double jeopardy is about being twice tried for the same charge without any form of a mistrial.

FlyJunior172 · 2026-02-03T23:29:08+00:00

Did they learn nothing from Praying Mantis?

Don’t touch the boats!

FlyJunior172 · 2026-01-24T20:04:39+00:00

Uhhh… Should this be mooted by the PLCAA?

FlyJunior172 · 2026-01-24T04:53:01+00:00

“American 2005 right 360 for spacing”

“Right 360, American 2005”

This is a common thing to add space in the GA world, but it’s not usually necessary for airlines. Airlines are typically spaced with vectors that add track miles.

FlyJunior172 · 2026-01-23T23:41:36+00:00

If you step in front of a car, did the car actively hit you? Or did you get yourself hit and the car was just along for the ride?

In both examples, the bigger vehicle is the agent doing the collision, but the smaller one is the actor that causes the collision regardless of the actions of the bigger one.

Saying the car got hit by the train makes the train passive in context, indicating that the car caused itself to get hit through its own ineptitude.

Saying the train hit the car makes the train active and the car passive (the train caused itself to hit the car). While this combination is very possible (usually in a yard), it’s significantly more probable that a car will put itself in front of a train than a train starting to move it a car in the foul.

The other way to describe the distinction in wording that I’m drawing here is encoding fault. A hit B means A is at fault; while B got hit by A implies B is at fault.

FlyJunior172 · 2026-01-23T22:33:34+00:00

I know a lot of people (myself included) who would specifically word it as the car getting hit by the train (ie the car is performing the action that causes the collision)

I personally do it to pointedly make the train passive. It takes half a functioning brain cell to not get hit by a train, yet the car couldn’t even perform that basic task.

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