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What It Takes to be an Airline Pilot

Max Launch Abort System

NASA's Max Launch Abort System Test from PopSci.com on Vimeo.

This is a test of a proposed escape system for the Orion Spaceship. Oriion will be the next manned system to replace the Shuttle if it survives budget cuts. The Orion design currently has an escape rocket similar to the Apollo system. MLAS is an alternative answer. Testing of MLAS will continue because it's a separate budget item for NASA. Whether or not Orion goes forward, MLAS will probably be seen on future spacecraft.

Apollo 11

Where were you on 20 July, 1969? I was fishing at Pinto Lake, California with The Boy Scouts. We listened to the landing on the radio. When it was announced that the crew would skip their crew rest and go directly yo the EVA (the moon walk) we beached the boats and haul assed home to be there to see it on TV.

In Honor of the 40th anniversary of the flight of Apollo 11, the First Moon Landing, we humbling offer the following:

The only watch worn on the Moon as an Omega.

The Apollo 12 Lunar EVA checklists featured pictures from Playboy magazineSee check list here.

The lives of Armstrong and Aldrin were saved when Aldrin used his pen to reset the Ascent Engine circuit breaker. It was a Fisher Model AG7E.

Fisher Pens spent $2 million to develop a pen that would work in zero gravity. The Soviets used a pencil.See proof here.

Dr. Eugene Shoemaker, the person who trained the Apollo astronauts in Lunar geology has his remains interned on the moon.

The only person to have golfed on the Moon was Commander Allen Sheppard. He sliced a six iron.

Eugene Cernan was the last person to leave the Moon's surface.

"Tell Cernan, BEEP-BEEP my ass!"
Al Shepard's (Apollo 14)response whenever one of the crew patches for the back-up crew would float out of a locker. Cernan, Evans and Engle had taken care to stash away patches in every single locker and compartment in the spacecraft.

Sheppard was the oldest Astronaut when he commanded Apollo 14.

Colonel Bud Day

The prelude to the "response" below, from Colonel Bud Day, Medal of Honor recipient - prisoner of war survivor - reads "I didn't expect to be reminded of my treatment some 36 years ago on this holiday weekend but our politicians find it worthy to ignore what some have tried to recount to them, who have actually been there."

I got shot down over N Vietnam in 1967...a sq commander.

After I returned in 1973... I published 2 books that dealt a lot with "real torture" in Hanoi . Our make believe president is branding our country as a bunch of torturers when he has no idea what torture is.

As for me. Put thru a mock execution because I would not respond...pistol whipped on the head...same event... Couple of days later...hung by my feet all day. I escaped and got recaptured a couple of weeks later... I got shot and recaptured. Shot was OK...what happened after was not.

They marched me to Vinh... put me in the rope trick, trick. Almost pulled my arms out of the sockets. Beat me on the head with a little wooden rod until my eyes were swelled shut, and my unshot, unbroken hand a pulp.

Next day hung me by the arms...rebroke my right wrist...wiped out the nerves in my arms that control the hands. Rolled my fingers up into a ball. Only left the slightest movement of my L forefinger. So I started answering with some incredible lies.

Sent me to Hanoi strapped to a barrel of gas in the back of a truck.

Hanoi ...on my knees. Rope trick again. Beaten by a big fool.

Into leg irons on a bed in Heartbreak Hotel.

Much kneeling--hands up at Zoo

Really bad beating for refusing to condemn Lyndon Johnson.

Several more kneeling events. I could see my knee bone thru kneeling holes.

There was an escape from the annex to the Zoo I was the Senior Officer of a large building because of escape. They started a mass torture of all commanders.

I think it was July 7, 1969...they started beating me with a car fan belt. In first 2 days I took over 300 strokes. Then stopped counting because I never thought I would live thru it.

They continued day-nite torture to get me to confess to a non-existent part in the escape. This went on for at least 3 days On my knees. Fan belting... cut open my scrotum with fan belt stroke. Opened up both knee holes again. My fanny looked like hamburger. I could not lie on my back.

They tortured me into admitting that I was in on the escape and that my 2 room-mates knew about it.

The next day I denied the lie.

They commenced torturing me again with 3- 6- or 9 strokes of the fan belt every day from about July 11 or 12rh...to 14 October 1969. I continued to refuse to lie about my roommates again.

Now, the point of this is that our make-believe president has declared to the world that we ( U.S. ) are a bunch of torturers... Thus it will be OK to torture us next time when they catch us....because that is what the U.S. does.

Our make-believe president is a know nothing fool who thinks that pouring a little water on some one's face, or hanging a pair of womens pants over an Arabs head is TORTURE. He is a meathead.

I just talked to MOH holder Leo Thorsness who was also in my sq in jail.... as was John McCain ... and we agree that McCain does not speak for the POW group when he claims that Al Gharib was torture... or that "water boarding" is torture..

Our president and those fools around him who keep bad mouthing our great country are a disgrace to the United States . Please pass this info on to Sean Hannity. He is free to use it to point out the stupidity of the claims that water boarding ...which has no after effect... is torture. If it got the Arab to cough up the story about how he planned the attack on the twin towers in NYC ... hurrah for the guy who poured the water.

BUD DAY, MOH

George Everett "Bud" Day (born February 24, 1925) is a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and Command Pilot who served during the Vietnam War. He is often cited as being the most decorated U.S. service member since General Douglas MacArthur, having received some seventy decorations, a majority for actions in combat.. Day is a recipient of the Medal of Honor.

Air France HOAX!

Emails are circulating with pictures supposedly taken during the crash of Air France flight 447. They are a complete hoax. They are stills from the pilot of the television series "Lost". See the proof here.

The investigation of the loss of Flight 447 continues but hopes in finding the cockpit and flight recorders are dwindling.
The search will continue until July 10th, using submersible ROV's.

Teenager Survives Yemini Crash

Fourteen year old Bahia Bakari was the sole survivor of a Yemini Airbus 310-300 crash which killed 152 passengers and crew. The Airbus was on approach to Moroni when it crashed into the Indian Ocean. The child is a non-swimmer and spent 13 hours clinging to debris. Her injuries consisted of ONLY a mild hypothermia and a broken collar bone. She was rescued by a passing boat.

No reason was given for the cause of the crash.

Marine Fighter Pilot Dies at 86

Colonel Ed McMahon (USMC, retired) died today.

McMahon passed away peacefully shortly after midnight at the Ronald Reagan/UCLA Medical Center, his publicist, Howard Bragman, said today. He was hospitalized in February with pneumonia and other medical problems.

When World War Two broke out Ed wanted to be a pilot. He enlisted in 1943 and earned his pilot's license while being evaluated for the Navy's cadet evaluation program at Boston College. After being checked out in the Piper Cub he was assigned to the Marine Corps.

McMahon earned his wings and was commissioned early in 1945.

He flew the F4U Corsair and was immediately assigned to instructor duty at Lee Field in Florida. On 6 August he was given orders to join the Marine carrier program in California. With the dropping of the atomic bomb, his orders were canceled and he was discharged.

In 1952 he was recalled to active duty for the Korean War. He flew artillery spotting missions in the O-1E Bird Dog. Completing 85 missions, he was awarded six Air Medals. After the war he retired from the Marine Reserves as a Colonel and was promoted to Brigadier General of the California Air National Guard.

The Cornfield Bomber

On 2 February, 1970 three F-106's of the 71st Fighter Intercept Squadron were on a routine training mission out of Malstrom AFB, Montana. 1st Lieutenant Gary Faust was flying Lead of a flight of three. The other pilots in the flight were Captain Tom Curtis and Major James Lowe. Curtis and Lowe were Instructor Pilots.

Originally, the mission that February day nearly four decades ago was to be a two vs. two air combat training flight. One aircraft subsequently aborted from the mission when its drag chute deployed on the ramp. So the day’s training activity became a "two vs. one" fight.

The "one" on this eventful day was Tom Curtis. The "two" were 1st Lt. Gary Foust and Maj. Jim Lowe.

Curtis witnessed the mishap:

We took off as a flight of three. Gary Foust was leading with Jim Lowe in the chase position. We then split up I went to one end of the training air space and they proceeded to the other end of the air space. We had about a twenty mile separation. The controllers turned us into each other so we passed head on with a thousand feet separation. The ROE (rules of engagement) were we had to pass head on with no tactical advantage to either flight. After passing the fight was on. The object was to gain a tactical advantage on the opponent and maneuver in to valid firing position. After landing we would review the film and try to reconstruct the engagement. Of course, this was a big ego thing. who was the winner etc.

I figured I could handle Gary pretty easy but I did not trust Jimmy. I figured he would probably break off and come after me. With this thought in mind, I came at them in full afterburner I was doing 1.90 mach when we passed. I took them straight up at about 38,000 ft. We got into a vertical rolling scissors. I gave him a high G rudder reversal. He tried to stay with me, that's when he lost it. He got into a post stall gyration. This happens just prior to a stall. The aircraft violently rolls left and right and sometimes swaps ends, a very violent maneuver. His recovery attempt was unsuccessful and the aircraft stalled and went into a flat spin which is usually unrecoverable.

The aircraft looked like the pitot tube was stationary with the aircraft rotating around it. Very flat and rotating quite slowly. Well,. Gary rode it down to about 15,000 feet. All this time Jimmy Lowe was giving the spin recovery procedures. Part of the spin recovery procedures is to actuate the take off trim button. This trims all the control surfaces to a take off setting, which is a bout the same as for landing. So when Gary ejected the aircraft was trimmed wings level for about 175 knots a very nice glide setting.

When he ejected the aircraft straightened out and glided toward a perfect landing. I couldn't believe it ! Jimmy says "Get back in there."

After the ejection, the aircraft recovered from the spin on its own, and established a wings level low rate descent under reduced power to the ground. Ground effect broke its rate of descent, and it settled into a near-perfect gentle belly landing in a farmer's snow-covered cornfield.
Lowe parachuted safely to the ground and was picked up by some Indians on snow mobiles. A local Sheriff was first on the scene and found 58-0787 on it's belly with the engine still running. He saw the name "Major Wolfold" painted on the side of the jet and called Wolford at Malstrom AFB asking for instructions on how to shut the motor off.

When he climbed onto the jet and looked into the cockpit he found that the radar was still sweeping. It was then that the jet began to inch forward. The sheriff jumped off and decided to let the engine run out of gas. For an hour and 45 minutes, "787" scooted across the corn field for about 400 feet before the engine quit, ending up near a road.
A depot team from McClellan AFB recovered the aircraft and it was eventually returned to service.58-0787 is in its 49th FIS markings now on display at the USAF Museum.
Ex 71st FIS pilots are ragged unmercifully about the "Emergency" so dire that the aircraft was forced to land itself.

Airline Safety Announcement

Creech AFB Gets a F-15

Creech AFB added a F-15 to its inventory on Wednesday. It will be used to train Fire Fighters on Emergency Egress Procedures. When a pilot cannot get out of the aircraft on their own, this training makes sure that the Fire Department can get them out quickly and safely.
The heavy lift was performed by the 1/189th Aviation Battalion of the Nevada Army National Guard, Reno Nevada.

Passenger Lands Plane

Saving four lives, a passenger landed a twin-engine plane at Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers after the pilot died in flight.

Federal Aviation Administration officials said the pilot died on Sunday after taking off from Marco Island Executive Airport. The plane was on autopilot and climbing past 10,000 feet when the pilot died. The passenger who took the controls has been licensed for single-engine planes for 20 years, but was not certified to fly the King Air plane, a large luxury model. To instruct him, an air traffic controller called a friend in Connecticut who is rated to fly the aircraft. The plane landed safely.


Audio Only
Controller: You using the auto pilot or are you flying the airplane?
9DW: Me and the Good Lord are hand flying this. Niner Delta Whiskey.




Oh HELL YES!! The next guy that calls this Hero a redneck gets one in the kisser.

The F-22 Has Been Cancelled

The Obama administration has just canceled the F-22 program.

We are so fucked.

NO DONG Missile on Launch Pad

April 2 -- Amid reports that it is fueling a missile for launch as soon as this weekend, North Korea escalated threats on Thursday against a worried neighbor, warning that it would attack "major targets" in Japan if Tokyo shot the missile down.

North Korea has shifted MiG-23 fighter jets to its east coast, near the missile launch site, according to South Korean media reports.

President Obama, in London for the Group of 20 summit, criticized the launch Wednesday as a "provocative act" that would violate a United Nations resolution and trigger a response from the U.N. Security Council. The leaders of Japan and South Korea agreed in London that the launch, if it occurred, should be addressed by the Security Council.

The three countries have dispatched ships with antimissile systems to monitor the launch, which they describe as a test of a long-range ballistic missile that could fly as far as the western United States. North Korea is trying to miniaturize nuclear warheads to fit atop its growing arsenal of missiles, U.S. intelligence officials have said.

North Korea says the missile is part of a peaceful research effort to put a communications satellite into orbit.

F-22 Raptor Crashes- Pilot Killed

25 March, Edwards AFB- Test pilot David Cooley was killed when his F-22 Raptor crashed 35 miles northeast of Edwards Air Force Base, California. Cooley was on test mission when the 10AM mishap occurred.

Cooley was part of a joint Lockheed/Air Force team that was testing the F-22. He been with Lockheed/Martin since 2003 and a 23 year Air Force veteran.

This was only the second crash of a Raptor and the first since it became operational with the U.S. Air Force. The only other mishap was a December 2004 crash at Nellis AFB, Nevada.

The YF-22 Prototype crashed on take off in 1992.


The cause of latest crash is as of yet, unknown. The Air Force investigation continues.

Co-pilot Breakdown, Flight Attendant Takes Place

November 21, 2008- At no time before disembarking at Shannon Airport did the passengers have any clue that it was an issue with a crew member. All airline employee indicators (epaulets, company and airport id and passes etc.) were removed prior to his extrication from the cockpit. The crew was amazing. Very, very professional, respectful and calm.

U.S. Airways Flight 1539