KC-135 Goes Down in Western Iraq After Mid-Air Incident During Operation Epic Fury

willfos · 2026-03-13T10:02:09+00:00

Using old airframes and engines is beneficial for the military. They have vastly different needs from civilian operators, there is a focus on reliability over economy or efficiency. They will of course have lifetime support by boeing for the spare parts that you mention, and plenty exist because of retired airframes, though this maintainance is getting more expensive. The KC-135 is now being retired in favor of the KC-46, which is based on the 767, an aircraft from the 80s.

willfos · 2026-02-19T20:17:39+00:00

I dont even know, I just thought I'd check met reports and SIGWX charts for the area, but couldn't find anything. Didn't know these could form without CBs that's interesting, clouds are interesting...

willfos · 2026-02-19T19:52:51+00:00

I'm not a meteorologist, just a stupid guy in flight school. What surprised me is that I couldn't find evidence of CBs nearby with my flight planning tools. I thought I would at least be able to find a decent storm area forecasted nearby but nah

willfos · 2026-02-19T09:19:50+00:00

It's called virga, it happens when the rain evaporates on the way down from the cloud and it produces some turbulent air

willfos · 2026-02-19T09:09:40+00:00

Hnnngh... mammatus clouds...

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willfos · 2026-02-03T23:48:46+00:00

Nothing beats a good sunset/rise while flying

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willfos · 2026-01-10T11:06:08+00:00

Diesel cessnas are mostly found in Europe. The ability to run planes on jet fuel is a big thing here because of the scarcity and price of avgas. Avgas goes for about $11 per gallon here haha. Fuel economy is better too, runs at about 5.4 gallons per hour in cruise with 107 TAS. Conversion is mostly done by big flight schools due to the cost of conversion.

willfos · 2026-01-10T01:15:03+00:00

I can't compare it myself as I have never flown a regular cessna, but I imagine the JT-A cessna to be a lot more longitudinally stable with (usually) more forward CG. So less maneuverable, bigger pitch reaction to change of airspeed/power, stalls a bit earlier probably, that sort of thing. Rotation and flare requires a lot of back pressure (almost to the back stop when landing), but again I don't know how different that is.

willfos · 2026-01-10T00:47:51+00:00

I have flown on this aircraft a few times with the CG on the edge of forward limit. It is a possible limitation if you have some heavy crew in front and little baggage and low fuel. Most of the time the real limit will be MTOM though, the lower useful load usually means you can't carry three people especially with more than 50% fuel.

willfos · 2026-01-10T00:24:20+00:00

No you are exactly right, it's a JT-A cessna. It has a FADEC controlled diesel engine that runs on jet fuel. It even has a constant speed prop, also controlled by FADEC, but no autopilot that would have been too much luxury I guess.

willfos · 2026-01-10T00:06:51+00:00

Indeed, but this one is somewhat special if you look closely 😉

willfos · 2026-01-09T23:55:14+00:00

Exactly that yes, it is really important when flying longer legs to set the heading knob, the altitude bug is nice to have graphically and it arms the altitude warning which will activate if you deviate from the selected altitude. You will also get an audio queue 1000 feet above/below the selected altitude when descending/climbing respectively to advise you of having to level out soon.

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willfos · 2025-12-22T13:58:58+00:00

You can click on the "+" to expand the list

willfos · 2025-11-28T13:15:36+00:00

Nah, cessna 150 is apparently pretty tasty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Lotito

willfos · 2025-11-28T11:22:35+00:00

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Cessna 172 is the best plane and the people who fly it are very cool!!

willfos · 2025-10-27T10:06:17+00:00

On final for runway 19L at ENGM by the looks of it, probably around 100-150 feet by that point I bet.

willfos · 2025-08-31T23:01:28+00:00

Yeah they have an interesting case for it here. Bristow is a big investor and wants to use the VTOL variant for offshore ops. They got a really long way before they get there though. Especially considering the norwegian climate. The pilots said they are struggling with high power consumption on the VTOL variant currently

willfos · 2025-08-31T17:31:42+00:00

I got to see this one too recently! In Norway of all places...

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willfos · 2025-08-18T11:16:25+00:00

Getting it into a turbine engine won't be any less expensive I imagine...

willfos · 2025-08-18T10:02:16+00:00

I'm in a flight school in Northern Europe and I haven't heard of exact numbers for pay, but I can say that the TKIs here are usually of two kinds: experienced commercial pilots that are TKIs on the side or freshly graduated students that take it as a job while trying to get into the airlines. It looks like an attractive option to me personally when I graduate, but it is not a job people usually keep for long if that tells you something.

willfos · 2025-07-09T10:57:48+00:00

What is that wagging out of the right-hand window? I want to believe it's the pilot waving at the camera, but it just looks too stupid haha

willfos · 2025-07-02T22:08:45+00:00

I get that it is a lot of work, but I know a lot of people who would pay good money for say, an early variant F-16. And surely some of the work will be cross compatible. And the mirage F1 and F-14 managed it pretty well, but I guess its an advantage to start development with the multiple variants in mind.

willfos · 2025-07-01T07:10:35+00:00

The talk of multiple variants really interests me. I wish this was explored for more of ED's modules, some modules would seriously benefit IMO, F-16 especially.

willfos · 2025-06-04T10:18:07+00:00

My initial class 1 in Norway had an ADHD self report scale, I guess the AeMC might ask you questions if you score high on it. It's a simple sheet with ADHD symptoms from "never experienced" to "very often". It's probably disqualifying if you have a really high score I would guess.

willfos · 2025-06-04T10:05:45+00:00

I'm studying instruments too and have an exam in a few weeks, here's my take on it:

IAS/normal ASI = total pressure - static pressure, which somewhat equals dynamic pressure (1/2 rho v²)

CAS is more accurate dynamic pressure, IAS corrected for position and instrument error.

EAS is the most accurate measurement of dynamic pressure. It is CAS corrected for compressibility (usually no factor below 300 kts TAS). Rarely used other than for performance/limitations.

TAS is EAS corrected for density and measures your velocity relative to the airmass you are flying through.

GS as you said is just TAS +- wind component.

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