theplummeter

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Everything posted by theplummeter

  1. theplummeter

    Wow

    http://www.justicenewsflash.com/2011/01/31/ca-aviation-accident-twin-engine-plane-crashed-into-big-bear-home-injured-2_201101316850.html Read the story, then look at the photo.
  2. I guess you could just ask me. My particular King Air will probably go to about 41,000' but I am unable to exceed 30,000' due to a certification limitation with the original B-90 King Air which has an operational limitation of 30,000'. The reason for the 30,000' limitation is that when originally certified that is as high as they could get it with the original 550 hp PT6-20 engines. The FAA was willing to let me go higher if Beechcraft would say OK, Beechcraft said hell no. Mike Mullins Raytheon is really turning into chickens. I had a bird strike a few months ago in an A100 King Air, and rather than patch with body filler and replace the boot the engineers had a heart attack and forced us to cut and patch a 8" wide chunk of metal over the dent. The dent was smaller than a pack of cigarettes and less than a half inch deep, and did not come even close to penetrating the skin.
  3. ATC can and regularly does waive RVSM requirements in uncrowded airspace. You don't even need FAA approval.
  4. Depending on what series King Air it is, he may be limited to 30,000 or 31,000 feet by aircraft certification as well, although there may be a way to get this waived.
  5. Messing around on youtube and I stumbled across this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9QHZSAt4cE
  6. Smell is subjective, and can be tainted by your own predisposition to pick up certain scents and tastes. Only by having an objective third party taste them could you be scientifically sure what's going on.
  7. theplummeter

    Ouch!

    Do you have the option of taking a position with the JPL or something else in that arena?
  8. I'm running kubuntu (ubuntu with the kde front) on my ancient desktop. It breathed new life in after Windows stopped working.
  9. I just figured I'd add that it's easier (by a large margin) to get the Pulse into the bag than it was the Crossfire.
  10. Infinity I44, has a crossfire 149, I'm putting a Pulse 190 into it.
  11. ...and/or pilot chute if I'm putting a larger canopy into an old container? Velocity said everything would fit but I forgot to ask about the bag.
  12. I did this all backwards, my flying got me into skydiving. I've been doing air ambulance in the rockies and plains regions (South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Colorado for the last 10 years. Enjoy private flying, doing it for a living can really make it stink. From time to time I get to fly a friend and former coworkers Dakota Cub. It has a 180hp engine and radically modified slotted wings with huge fowler flaps and a modified tail. Here is a video of the approach to his 350ft driveway/runway: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jfThl8_P68
  13. I fly for a living, and when I'm stuck sitting at a Fixed Base Operation waiting for people to show I'll pick up one of the various magazines that markets itself to the ultra rich decadent lifestyle (Jetset, Elite Traveler, etc). More often lately I'm seeing ads for things like this, adventure clubs designed to be exclusively available to the people of means with a sense of adventure. I can't remember if ISA is the one I saw last night.
  14. Otherwise would we be required to have on board oxygen above 15 k or if we're a half hour at 10k? You can be above 12500 but below 15000 for 30 minutes without oxygen, above 15000 requires immediate oxygen to satisfy FAA requirements. The actual time of useful consiousness is way above that, in the twenty minute range at 20000 for most people.
  15. I also believe that changes in scenery and/or equipment are helpful. At work we just changed planes after 9.5 years and all of the things I've gotten complacent about or taken for granted have changed, forcing me to pay attention and-god forbid-actually learn new things.
  16. I have been looking around the interwebs and haven't seen anything, but I certainly could have missed something.
  17. Stilettos are obsolete, Batwings are forever!
  18. When I was a student pilot I had a catastrophic engine failure on my first solo cross country flight. I landed in a freshly plowed alfalfa field without incident.
  19. I guess it really varies from dropzone to dropzone. I had to take a packing class before I could start the static line first jump course, and have packed (under a rigger's supervision) every single parachute I've jumped except one.
  20. I got my new parachute today. PD Pulse 190. This is better than Christmas!
  21. As someone who flies business jets, I can tell you that very few jet owner/operators will ever take their aircraft into a 4300 ft runway. Very few biz jets even have the performance numbers to operate in and out of that short of a runway. And if the aircraft is operated under FAR Part 135 the additional runway length requirements will almost certainly prevent them from going in and out of there. And that's even in clear, dry conditions! If it's wet and/or the visibility goes down you will never get in there. Sounds stupid to me. I'm trying to think of anything other than maybe a Phenom, Mustang, or a Citation I that could make balanced field length above ISA on that runway. Someone should let these local airport managers know. My dropzone moved under exactly these circumstances and the original airport has seen a marked decrease in traffic and now fuel sales.
  22. So are we talking logs or more like schools of shrimp? Sinkers? Floaters? Consistent color?
  23. According to the Rainman Quantas never crashed. Southwest has never killed anyone inside one of their airplanes.
  24. According to their website, your container will hold up to a 170 sq ft main. A pilot 188 ZPX will pack like a 190, so I would say no, that wont fit. That's what I thought too, but velocity lists the container volume at 384 cubic inches, and if Aerodyne's website is correct a Pilot 188 ZPx should have a total packed volume of 365. (I derived that number by taking the volume of a Pilot 188 in ZP and subtracting 17%). I realize that in any case it would be a tight fit, I was just wondering if anyone had done it.