The plane enthusiasts thread

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

midlife

Guru
Last Wednesday 16th Oct, 2 off B52's over the Cotswold escarpment. Then later another (one of the two or a different one?) sighting. Knocking on a bit are they not?

And going to still be here in 2050!
 

Cycleops

Legendary Member
Location
Accra, Ghana
If you've ever stood a longtime a B52 on the ground the fuselage looks like a badly made shed with it's wrinkly sides, nothing to do with old age but depressurisation of the very long airframe.
They always make me think of Dr Stranglove and Slim Pickens as Major Kong sitting on the bomb. Great film.
 

midlife

Guru
Strangely the NHS uses a B52 crash to train staff, there was a crash in 1994 which was due to pilot (aka staff) and procedural (aka institutional) errors.

Mainly to prevent errors in operating theatres.
 

Drago

Legendary Member
If you've ever stood a longtime a B52 on the ground the fuselage looks like a badly made shed with it's wrinkly sides, nothing to do with old age but depressurisation of the very long airframe.
They always make me think of Dr Stranglove and Slim Pickens as Major Kong sitting on the bomb. Great film.
The B52 scenes were incredible. They couldn't get to look round a real B52, but they did get to nosey about inside a B36, which on the inside wasn't terribly different. One of Kubricks crew had served on the Air National Guard, and gave advice about where to chop and change to make it look like a 52. The result was so realistic that Kubrick faced accusations of sonehow getting aboard a real 52 to research it.
 

Handlebar Moustache

Well-Known Member
Location
Scotlandia
Strangely the NHS uses a B52 crash to train staff, there was a crash in 1994 which was due to pilot (aka staff) and procedural (aka institutional) errors.

Mainly to prevent errors in operating theatres.

The Fairchild AFB crash. Quite sad that one - the co-pilot was on his last flight before retirement and they had everything ready for the little ceremony afterwards. He managed to eject IIRC but it was way to late by then.
 

midlife

Guru
Blimey!
 

Joey Shabadoo

My pronouns are "He", "Him" and "buggerlugs"
I'm not sure I would have been too chuffed with that pilot tbh. Surely a divert would have been the easier option?
 

figbat

Slippery scientist
I‘ve watched a lot of crosswind landings - that one was awesome. No need to go around when you can put it down like that. Would have been a bit hairy in the rear seats.
 

DaveReading

Don't suffer fools gladly (must try harder!)
Location
Reading, obvs
Just watched a clip on the BBC coverage of storm Dennis showing an A380 landing crosswind

Is that the autopilot or is the pilot actually flying it hands on?

Modern aircraft can typically use autoland in a crosswind component of up to 25 knots. Recent conditions have been well in excess of that limit, so it would have been a manual landing.
 

Mike_P

Guru
Location
Harrogate
Impressive more due to the A380, similar landings are pretty common at Leeds Bradford unless it's a Manchester based crew it which case you can guarantee they will divert for fear of having to commute by road or train across the Pennines, sod the passengers.
 

newts

Veteran
Location
Isca Dumnoniorum
We landed in an A320 at Bristol yesterday afternoon at the second attempt. The first was aborted when only a few feet from the ground. second time the rain/wind had dropped off, we were bobbing left to right & the nose a good bit offline from the runway. By now the smell of vomit in the air was very pungentxx(, we'd be diverting to Sheffield should this attempt be aborted. Passengers were applauding & whistling as we were skidding along the runway. Captain was at the flight deck door milking the adulation as we disembarked for avoiding a trip to Sheffield^_^
 
Top Bottom