Alright guys, we nee to talk about something serious. And that is aviation misunderstandings. Being the RC, FlightSim, and full size pilot that I am, aviation is one of my greatest loves. But just about anywhere you speak about it, there's always one group of people who swear up and down that they would never get on an airplane because the engine might quit and kill them. ......That only happens if you try to land in the middle of the ocean or a forest. Any licensed pilot is capable of landing an airplane after an engine failure. It;s all about picking your spots and using supreme decision making skills. Take my RC airplane for example: Due to some idle mixture problems, my engine has quit on each landing. I set it down safely. It didn't just drop like a lead boulder. The main problem here is movies, newspapers, or anybody who trusts the other two rather than the actuall dynamics and physics that let an airplane fly. In movies, an engine quits, even on a 4-engine airplane, and it goes down killing 200 people. A newspaper says an airplane RAN OUT OF FUEL CAUSING A CRASH. That's an unacceptable excuse. Below is a story of a tragedy that happened at my local airport last year.
A pilot was giving 10 minute rides in his airplane. When the airplane left for it's fifth flight, a departure stall caused the airplane to crash about a half-mile away from the airport. The crash killed the pilot, a man and his 6 year old son. This was a bad thing. My condolences.
The next day (when I still worked there) my manager, I, and a few others helped get the airplane ready to be carried off. We noted that it still had fuel in it. And the mixture was still lean. What I'm getting to is that the media said the airplane had run out of fuel. OUR DIRECT OBSERVATIONS indicated that the pilot had forgotten to richen the mixture after descending. He applied power to takeoff again, and the engine quit. Makes since right? It better. Because that's what WE found.
My neighbor and I got into a big argument over this because he beleived the news and not the person who scrapped the airplane. But never the less, no one ever believed us, airport workers. And went with the media's story. I think it's bull crap to listen to someone who does newsreporting for a job rather than an aviation entusiasts like us.
I'm sorry this has been such a tremendously long post, but below our some things to remind people of if they diss you for being a pilot or having anything to do with airplanes:
1. Aircraft engines are 99% less likely to quit than an automobile engine.
2. They run a way more efficient fuel.
3. Tey use less energy to move at higher speeds.
4. They are built out of finer materials than what busses are made out of.
5. Airplanes are responsible for 95% of the tranportation of overseas good including, food, clothing, and spices.
6. If they're so dangerous, how come there are so many airports just in one state (or county).
7. They have a lot less moving parts than most vehicles, which means less things to go wrong.
8. And remind them of this: If you can't trust something that rides on air, don't get back in a car. Why? You would think the car sits on the tires. This is true. But what do the tires need to hold the car up? ......Air! And beleive me, a car with no air in the tires is much worse than a stall!!
Those are some very serious things. I agree with you that people should listen to others who are in aviation rather than someone who does newsreporting. I like No. VIII on your list of arguments.
A good example would be that outrage from passengers aboard that Sri Lankan A340 after being told they were going to make a flight with no winglets. The winglets had been removed following a taxi accident with a British Airways 747-400's winglet.
The media reports it like the airplane had no engine and was only going to fly with one engine. But, c'mon... Do a little research, and you'll quickly see that flying without a winglet is just like driving a car with its spoiler or radio antenna temporarily removed. Of course, you lose functionality of something, but that doesn't mean you can't drive the car.
Well, if you were a passenger who was always scared of flight and they told you the plane was missing some parts because of an accident
wouldn't you be scared to?
Now of course the media should not make a big deal about it, maybe they should do a little program that shows that it was safe instead of trying to scare everyone so they could have a juicy story.
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