Posted on 12/30/2014 6:08:41 AM PST by SeekAndFind
It is becoming clear that the probable fate of Air Asia 8501 is that it is at the bottom of the ocean after losing controllability at high altitude in heavy thunderstorm activity.
Fair enough, except none of those things should have made the least difference to a safe landing. Pilots encounter thunderstorms every day worldwide. It’s a routine part of the job. So why did this one make a difference?
The problem is not the thunderstorms but with modern aviation practices.
As a retired high time international airline pilot, I feel qualified to give you a look at the practices in an airliner cockpit.
A professional pilot always expects things to go wrong. Nothing is normally taken for granted in the cockpit. The fact that a flyer flips a switch is no guarantee that the selected system is going to operate. Everything a pilot does in the cockpit is checked, crosschecked by the other pilots and then monitored by all to confirm it’s indeed working -- but it is never just assumed to be working. That’s called good airmanship.
A dangerous over reliance on automation and subsequent degradation of pilot hand-flying skills has led to a change in the traditional pilot mindset. Pilots now assume everything selected will function and if it doesn’t, the computers will warn them or take care of it.
Is this a unique Asian airline problem that has no bearing on American or European carriers?
Unfortunately not. Air Asia pilots have precisely the same training and skill requirements as any other airline in the world. What happened to them can happen to any other operator. And has happened.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Developing pilotless drones reliable enough to carry people will require investment but it will be achieved sooner than many commercial pilots will admit. Like self-driving automobiles, self-piloting drones will enable Americans to live farther from the cities. Americans that live in high density cities vote for big gov while those that live in low density areas vote for freedom. Pilotless drones will be an important technology for continuing the trend of cities turning into reservations for the welfare class.
bingo
Had a flight leaving Beirut and it was my only time flying out of there so I don't know if it was normal , but the plane banked so hard to the left immediately after take off that it looked like we would clip the runway with the wing. It literally looked like it was a few feet from the ground.
Got stuck on an Aeroflot flight out of Singapore in the early 90s because my Singapore Airlines flight out of Bangkok was cancelled. The plane was an old Pan Am jet (I recognized the apholstry on the seats from a previous trip in the late 60s - might have been the same damned plane). Full of Russians (was going to Moscow first then Germany), smoking during the whole flight, and water leaking from the AC onto the seats.
how much training, knowledge or experience would have saved them if a meteor sliced the plane in half?
airbus seems to be overly confident in the use of composites - when the empennage falls off one of their planes, they say the pilot should not have done what their plane allowed him to do
All of the modern airliners now have weather radar.
Is the issue how what it displays is being interpreted by the pilots?
Parachutes
Good analysis. Because over-reliance on auto systems saves airlines money, however, the practice will not stop. Back in my day, Navy pilots flew P-2s and P-3s almost totally by hand. NFOs did almost all trans-oceanic navigation with a sextant, DR plot, and compass. Changes have not improved safety. The Navy and Air Force stopped teaching celestial navigation years ago.
Once on a flight up from Ecuador toward Bogota, the pilot announced that the plane had encountered a serious malfunction and we had to make emergency landing; once on the ground I spoke to the stewardess to gather some info about the problem; she pointed to the pilot who was sitting under a tree munching a sandwich. “El Capitan was very hungry; said he couldn’t make another hour to Bogota without eating”.
Pilot knew bad weather was ahead and asked central planning to alter his altitude. It was denied.
It may be the driver. Here are too many examples of Asians driving. I assume their pilots are the same.....
http://tinyurl.com/mdy4rr8
Having grown up in the Bay Area, I have a lot of first-hand experience with Asian drivers. When I first started driving, that was one of the first thing I noticed. I had a lot of “what the heck?” moments because of them.
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