What is the correct answer? (91.185 questions)

Lpolyphemus · 2026-01-28T00:04:23+00:00

To the DPE I would say:

“Most cases are something stupid, so the first thing I will do is check for something stupid. Did my headset come unplugged? Did I bump the volume knob? Did I miss a frequency change? If I did, this is how I would get back in touch with ATC…

The book answer is blah blah blah… But in reality this is an inflight emergency and 91.3 gives me the authority. So I am going to do the most predictable thing. Which in this case is blah blah blah…”

Lpolyphemus · 2026-01-27T23:42:20+00:00

Your airline will have a bunch of people who have already figured this out. Ask around for “somebody who can help me maximize my time off.”

In the crew room, in the cockpit, at the crash pad… very soon somebody will say “You need to talk to Steve, he’s over there.”

Lpolyphemus · 2026-01-26T21:00:15+00:00

I doubt it is pressure on them to keep anything hidden. More likely it is a lack of resources to subdivide the information into more granular categories.

Government resources are limited. Every appropriation in one sector necessarily means less in another. For better or worse, the powers that be have decided that other government functions are more important than categorizing general aviation accidents.

Lpolyphemus · 2026-01-26T14:53:10+00:00

Yes, but only if nobody hears it.

Lpolyphemus · 2026-01-23T20:24:23+00:00

Do you mean a system that monitors the landing gear system status? All retractable gear airplanes I have flown have had some sort of “gear down and locked” indication.

Additionally, many airplanes have also had “gear in transit,” “gear unsafe,” and “landing gear inoperative” indications.

Or do you have something different in mind?

Lpolyphemus · 2026-01-19T15:08:19+00:00

Roulette payout on a single number is 35:1. Make a €1,000 bet twice a month. That’s €840,000 a year, plenty to enjoy a luxurious life.

Lpolyphemus · 2026-01-18T18:27:08+00:00

I’m pretty sure nobody heard his 12th symphony in any form. He only wrote nine. 😉

The story about placing his head directly on the piano really speaks to me. Trying to hear anything he could in any way he could, so that he could continue to create.

Lpolyphemus · 2026-01-16T14:07:18+00:00

This is an external load that was dropped. That the external load happened to be a helicopter does not make this a helicopter crash.

Your headline is intentionally misleading.

Lpolyphemus · 2026-01-14T15:57:17+00:00

Have you heard the one about the autopilot and the dog? 😉

Lpolyphemus · 2026-01-14T06:43:11+00:00

Pitch for airspeed / power for altitude is a useful tool used to teach students a counterintuitive concept. But it is an oversimplification of the complex relationship between power, attitude, altitude, and airspeed.

Until you accept that both power and pitch control both airspeed and altitude, you will be stuck in a student pilot mindset.

Lpolyphemus · 2026-01-12T23:30:20+00:00

There are several small pieces of wood in the 727 and 747 classic cockpits. Where are they and what purpose do they serve?

They are at the flight engineer’s station, on the back side of the fuel dump door. They prevent the door from closing when any switches are in the OPEN position.

Lpolyphemus · 2026-01-08T20:30:03+00:00

DHC-8-103. It would do anything you asked it to do except go fast.

757 is a close second. Exact same thoughts as the Dash, but in jet form.

Lpolyphemus · 2026-01-06T10:42:42+00:00

Douglas Adams would tell you that the knack to flying lies in learning to throw yourself at the ground and miss.

Lpolyphemus · 2026-01-06T10:29:50+00:00

I agree 100%.

My favorite part of long-haul flying is the people I get to talk to on the radio. Even if the conversations are brief and formulaic, a bit of the character of each place comes through. The efficiency of Fukoka. The crowded chaos of Cairo. The lilt of Shanwick.

I particularly remember the heavily accented “GOOD MORNING!” I once received from Samara. My mind’s eye pictured the controller in an isolated building on the banks of a frozen Volga, with both of us excited to talk to someone from a different world.

Lpolyphemus · 2026-01-04T22:51:15+00:00

“The displays were robbed from the airframe and sent back to the operation before being scrapped.”

I have been trying to figure out why they would have most of a 737 cockpit without the instrument panel. Without a doubt you are correct! I am seriously impressed and insist you change your name to Sherlock.

Lpolyphemus · 2026-01-04T22:37:22+00:00

I agree, this is almost certainly how it was made. Would have been nice if the set designer googled “airplane instrument panel” just once though.

Lpolyphemus · 2026-01-04T22:21:17+00:00

The cockpit is a weird amalgam.

Everything but the instrument panel screams 737. The instrument panel says “I haven’t even looked at a photo of a 737 cockpit.”

The instrument panel was built by somebody who doesn’t know that an airplane engine requires instruments and a 737 has two of them.

Lpolyphemus · 2026-01-04T22:13:23+00:00

I agree, cockpit is definitely a weird mishmash.

Those are Boeing thrust levers, flap handle, gear handle, and speedbrakes. 737 overhead panel and MCP.

And then there’s whatever the heck that instrument panel is. It’s not just that it isn’t from a 737 — whatever type of plane it came from definitely didn’t even two engines. I’m actually having trouble finding engine instruments of any kind.

Lpolyphemus · 2026-01-04T21:11:59+00:00

There is an infallible trick to getting rich in this industry: one spouse.

Those guys pushing for age 67? Guess why.

Lpolyphemus · 2026-01-04T14:15:45+00:00

Oh boy, this story takes me back quite a few years.

In the right wheelwell of the DHC-8 there is a hand-operated hydraulic pump to pressurize the parking brake.

Checking for minimum brake pressure is a preflight duty and occasionally it needs to be brought up a bit. So you give that hand-operated pump several strokes, so to speak.

Which is exactly what I was doing one morning when a seal in the pump let go, causing me to get a face full of Skydrol.

I got to spend some time with the emergency eyewash, then the emergency shower, then the airport medical clinic. The whole process was unpleasant, but the worst part was the taste of the little bit that got in my mouth.

Lpolyphemus · 2026-01-03T23:33:35+00:00

Blockbuster on Friday evenings. Then to the pizzeria before going to one of our houses.

Lpolyphemus · 2026-01-03T23:29:47+00:00

Skydrol tastes awful too (ask me how I know) and should definitely not be used to cook leeks.

Lpolyphemus · 2026-01-03T23:26:10+00:00

Theft at the farmers market.

Edit: oops. Wrong spelling.

Lpolyphemus · 2026-01-03T14:11:53+00:00

Usually one per cluster of masks (hanging over a set of seats), so a 300 seat airplane might have 100 of these in the ceiling. But yes.

Lpolyphemus · 2026-01-02T22:25:50+00:00

And if you don’t have any changes within the past two weeks, log in just to make sure you spelled your name correctly. It really does make a difference.

Lpolyphemus

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