Comments on: The man for the hour: Captain Sullenberger http://neoneocon.com/2009/01/16/the-man-for-the-hour-captain-sullenberger/ Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:54:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: dane http://neoneocon.com/2009/01/16/the-man-for-the-hour-captain-sullenberger/#comment-99227 dane Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:31:20 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/01/16/the-man-for-the-hour-captain-sullenberger/#comment-99227 Sergey – a couple of things 150 MPH is probably close to the minimum landing speed for this particular aircraft with that weight of fuel and passengers aboard. Obviously there are many aircraft (especially small private craft) that can land at much, much lower speeds. As for it being a miracle and not knowing how it was possible ? I think of the old saying “coming in on a wing and a prayer.” I am sure while doing everything they could the flight crew was doing a lot praying as well. And it was a good thing because both were needed. Sergey – a couple of things

150 MPH is probably close to the minimum landing speed for this particular aircraft with that weight of fuel and passengers aboard. Obviously there are many aircraft (especially small private craft) that can land at much, much lower speeds.

As for it being a miracle and not knowing how it was possible ? I think of the old saying “coming in on a wing and a prayer.” I am sure while doing everything they could the flight crew was doing a lot praying as well. And it was a good thing because both were needed.

]]> By: sergey http://neoneocon.com/2009/01/16/the-man-for-the-hour-captain-sullenberger/#comment-99224 sergey Mon, 19 Jan 2009 08:39:48 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/01/16/the-man-for-the-hour-captain-sullenberger/#comment-99224 Those who are not well informed in technical issues probably can not fully appreciate enormity of danger and brilliance of pilot performance. Aircrafts are very fragile compared to everything we can imagine. They are optimized to be as lightweight as possible, that is, to withhold only aerodynamical forces - but water is 600 times thicker than air! Free fall from 15 foot altitude into water would crush them completely. 150 mph is the minimal airspeed at which the plane is controllable, and collission with water at slightly bigger speed would be fatal, too: impact force is proportional to the square of speed. There is no margin of error in each of parameter of landing - angle of descent, vertical and horizontal speed, orientation of the craft in all three planes, timing and so on. For me this is a miracle, indeed: as a mechanical engineer by training and a specialist in fluid dynamics, I can not understand how this level of precision in pilotage is humanly possible. Those who are not well informed in technical issues probably can not fully appreciate enormity of danger and brilliance of pilot performance. Aircrafts are very fragile compared to everything we can imagine. They are optimized to be as lightweight as possible, that is, to withhold only aerodynamical forces – but water is 600 times thicker than air! Free fall from 15 foot altitude into water would crush them completely. 150 mph is the minimal airspeed at which the plane is controllable, and collission with water at slightly bigger speed would be fatal, too: impact force is proportional to the square of speed. There is no margin of error in each of parameter of landing – angle of descent, vertical and horizontal speed, orientation of the craft in all three planes, timing and so on. For me this is a miracle, indeed: as a mechanical engineer by training and a specialist in fluid dynamics, I can not understand how this level of precision in pilotage is humanly possible.

]]> By: Mr. Frank http://neoneocon.com/2009/01/16/the-man-for-the-hour-captain-sullenberger/#comment-99181 Mr. Frank Sat, 17 Jan 2009 22:20:17 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/01/16/the-man-for-the-hour-captain-sullenberger/#comment-99181 It's nice to see some of the things our society used to value -- Air Force Academy, fighter pilot, experience -- coming to the fore. It’s nice to see some of the things our society used to value — Air Force Academy, fighter pilot, experience — coming to the fore.

]]> By: dane http://neoneocon.com/2009/01/16/the-man-for-the-hour-captain-sullenberger/#comment-99177 dane Sat, 17 Jan 2009 20:29:03 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/01/16/the-man-for-the-hour-captain-sullenberger/#comment-99177 when this happened I recalled seeing a story about another plane that lost both engines on a transatlantic flight but managed to glide in and land in the Azores. Link here to a Wikipedia gives pretty good account. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Transat_Flight_236 when this happened I recalled seeing a story about another plane that lost both engines on a transatlantic flight but managed to glide in and land in the Azores. Link here to a Wikipedia gives pretty good account.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Transat_Flight_236

]]> By: SteveH http://neoneocon.com/2009/01/16/the-man-for-the-hour-captain-sullenberger/#comment-99156 SteveH Sat, 17 Jan 2009 14:22:53 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/01/16/the-man-for-the-hour-captain-sullenberger/#comment-99156 This is a wonderful story. Something tells me this pilot won't feel compelled to write a book and get rich off of it. And i kinda like Art's rambling post. There was one a few days ago that if you played Dark Side of The Moon through headphones while reading it the whole thing synchronised perfectly! This is a wonderful story. Something tells me this pilot won’t feel compelled to write a book and get rich off of it.

And i kinda like Art’s rambling post. There was one a few days ago that if you played Dark Side of The Moon through headphones while reading it the whole thing synchronised perfectly!

]]> By: waltj http://neoneocon.com/2009/01/16/the-man-for-the-hour-captain-sullenberger/#comment-99154 waltj Sat, 17 Jan 2009 09:07:32 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/01/16/the-man-for-the-hour-captain-sullenberger/#comment-99154 If you want to know how hard this is, check out the videos (no link, sorry, but it's easy to find on YouTube) of Ethiopian Airlines flight 961 that ran out out of fuel during a hijacking and had to ditch in the Indian Ocean off the Comoros in 1996. Yes, it was a bigger plane (a Boeing 767 as opposed to an Airbus A320), but any dead-stick landing in an airliner is tough. The video shows the Ethiopian pilot came in with his plane at slight bank angle, and therefore caught his left engine in water. That led to the plane breaking up on impact. In the Ethiopian pilot's defense, he was arguing with three (drunk and ignorant) hijackers, who thought he was just faking the fact that they were out of gas. They just didn't want to believe he couldn't make it to Australia, because the airline's magazine clearly showed that Ethiopian Airlines flew there. Idiots. As a result, the pilot was unable to lower the flaps or raise the nose, and the plane hit at around 200 mph instead of the 150 mph in the USAirways incident. The hijackers died, along with 120 others, although the pilots and 50 others survived. If you want to know how hard this is, check out the videos (no link, sorry, but it’s easy to find on YouTube) of Ethiopian Airlines flight 961 that ran out out of fuel during a hijacking and had to ditch in the Indian Ocean off the Comoros in 1996. Yes, it was a bigger plane (a Boeing 767 as opposed to an Airbus A320), but any dead-stick landing in an airliner is tough. The video shows the Ethiopian pilot came in with his plane at slight bank angle, and therefore caught his left engine in water. That led to the plane breaking up on impact. In the Ethiopian pilot’s defense, he was arguing with three (drunk and ignorant) hijackers, who thought he was just faking the fact that they were out of gas. They just didn’t want to believe he couldn’t make it to Australia, because the airline’s magazine clearly showed that Ethiopian Airlines flew there. Idiots. As a result, the pilot was unable to lower the flaps or raise the nose, and the plane hit at around 200 mph instead of the 150 mph in the USAirways incident. The hijackers died, along with 120 others, although the pilots and 50 others survived.

]]> By: Baklava http://neoneocon.com/2009/01/16/the-man-for-the-hour-captain-sullenberger/#comment-99148 Baklava Sat, 17 Jan 2009 05:17:55 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/01/16/the-man-for-the-hour-captain-sullenberger/#comment-99148 You broke a personal length record with that comment Art ! And guess what? I read it? :) You broke a personal length record with that comment Art !

And guess what? I read it? :)

]]> By: Artfldgr http://neoneocon.com/2009/01/16/the-man-for-the-hour-captain-sullenberger/#comment-99142 Artfldgr Sat, 17 Jan 2009 04:02:05 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/01/16/the-man-for-the-hour-captain-sullenberger/#comment-99142 a wonderful outcome.. and fits "the hero motif" of joseph campbell a wonderful outcome..

and fits “the hero motif” of joseph campbell

]]> By: dane http://neoneocon.com/2009/01/16/the-man-for-the-hour-captain-sullenberger/#comment-99140 dane Sat, 17 Jan 2009 03:27:49 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/01/16/the-man-for-the-hour-captain-sullenberger/#comment-99140 What will be interesting is when he finally tells his story. I don't think that being a glider pilot was that big of an advantage in this case. Gliders are meant to glide - 250,000 pound jets are not. Knowledge of aerodynamics and flying would tell us he had to go into a steep descent to keep the speed up in order to maintain control of the plane. The truly amazing thing was his ability to do that until just before he got to the water - when he would have had to pull the nose up and keep it up as long as possible while feeling for the water with the tail of the plane. Coming in any flatter and catching a wing or an engine at 150 MPH would have flipped the plane and chances of anyone walking away would have been negligible. And all this happened in three minutes. Even given the amount of training and simulator time all these guys go through I would venture to say that if had been any of a hundred well qualified pilots flying that plane instead of him the result would have probably been disastrous. Truly a situation of the right person in the right place at the right time. Nothing short of a miracle. What will be interesting is when he finally tells his story. I don’t think that being a glider pilot was that big of an advantage in this case. Gliders are meant to glide – 250,000 pound jets are not. Knowledge of aerodynamics and flying would tell us he had to go into a steep descent to keep the speed up in order to maintain control of the plane. The truly amazing thing was his ability to do that until just before he got to the water – when he would have had to pull the nose up and keep it up as long as possible while feeling for the water with the tail of the plane. Coming in any flatter and catching a wing or an engine at 150 MPH would have flipped the plane and chances of anyone walking away would have been negligible. And all this happened in three minutes. Even given the amount of training and simulator time all these guys go through I would venture to say that if had been any of a hundred well qualified pilots flying that plane instead of him the result would have probably been disastrous. Truly a situation of the right person in the right place at the right time. Nothing short of a miracle.

]]> By: rickl http://neoneocon.com/2009/01/16/the-man-for-the-hour-captain-sullenberger/#comment-99139 rickl Sat, 17 Jan 2009 02:55:00 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/01/16/the-man-for-the-hour-captain-sullenberger/#comment-99139 Mrs. Whatsit: Great comment. Seconded. I have nothing to add. Mrs. Whatsit:

Great comment. Seconded. I have nothing to add.

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