Posted on 10/16/2017 6:37:49 PM PDT by sparklite2
I’d like to see a vid of that. Anyone with the training and the guts to get behind the stick of the F-15 is a hero to me, and I have been a firefighter for 26 years!
18k might be ok for young, healthy folks. Take it down to 10k or so for me. (Yes, I’ve been higher than 10k in a car in Colorado and cable car in France, but I wouldn’t want to try 18k in a plane these days).
Yeah, I have climbed to over 14,500 in the Sierra of California. Difficult to breath properly, I was in my 20s then. It would be different in a plane at my age now 67.
Exactly what I would expect too. Why aren’t flight attendants briefed on this so they can remain calm? Just a dive right? Not a wing over to a knife edge decent... Ok, admittedly I’m not your average passenger - I’m getting some “spare time” flight lessons (in exchange for mechanic work). That stick time is in a fully acrobatic two seater, but I’ve only pulled 3 gs so far and done basic maneuvers. I think it would be a blast to see what the big jets are capable of. I’d be the fool with his hands in the air yelling “let’s do it again!” Into his oxygen mask.
My mother told me of a flight she was on that hit an air pocket and the plane plunged a thousand feet or so and she screamed when it happened. I imagine others did but she only told me she screamed. I’ve never had that happen to me. Turbulence and a few painful earaches when descending is all the fun I have ever experienced while flying.
I was on a L-1011 out of Calgary that sucked an engine strut back into the turbine. As the turbine blades were breaking one at a time, it sounded and felt like a large gun going off. Oddly enough, the thought crossing my mind at possible upcoming death was, “Well, it’s been nice.”
When I was about 9 years old I used to attend boarding school. Parents lived in Africa. On the summer vacation flight back to school from Africa (Kenya), the flight fell about 2000ft. Everyone screamed, I as a 9-year-old said, “let’s do that again.”
I know the exact mountain you climbed.
I once stood in the exact same place as you, when I was much younger and full of vigor.
I remember the strong desire to lay down right there and go to sleep, which really isn't possible at that altitude. For me, anyway: The air was too thin to go into a real sleep.
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