Let's hear from the old schoolers

[con-pilot]

I can't remember exactly what the component is or what system it's tied to, but there is a push-pull type control under the lower part of the captain's control panel. It does something with either cockpit ventilation or windscreen defogging,

You're pretty close. It is to redirect cockpit air to the windshield defrosting vents. However, I never could tell it did a dang thing except to make more noise.

Now, you haven't forgot the old little u and the big U have you?

 

[Princedietrich]

You're pretty close. It is to redirect cockpit air to the windshield defrosting vents. However, I never could tell it did a dang thing except to make more noise.

Now, you haven't forgot the old little u and the big U have you?

Oh how could I ever forget the little-u-big-U. There's that, the "free beer" gear horn silence handle, and the gimmick of going from the top down to make sure essential doesn't dump, all the other tricks I can't remember since I'm so long removed from the three-holer.
:beer:

God I hated that gear horn lever. Damn thing cost me a day's worth of perdiem my first trip out. :angryfire

 

[avbug]

Shut up Avbug.

As always, the professional and the lady, you are. Just not a very good one. Sadly for you, you will need to do better than that, as it's not within your purview to demand, or receive.

Just refer to the FIRST response on this whole thread, and then take a good look at yourself.

Ah. That would be the post which specifically asked me by name, and continud to state that the board isn't what it used to be. This is true, and while anyone is free to respond to any thread, I was addressed as a requested respondant, and therefore quite within my right to reply. I made my reply regarding what the board has become, and the fact that the poster is right; it is not what it once was. Perhaps you should make an effort to read the original post yourself, babushka. Or just concentrate on your comprehension skills, which have always been lacking,

Sadly, the board is filled largely with people such as yourself, those who are truly what is wrong with this industry. People with no experience but who feel they know one end of the airplane from another, people such as you who couldn't get hired but by buying your job, people who get drunk to handle the terrifying fearsome experience of seeing a landing gear light out. Look at what forums are in use at any given time, see safety with one or two, regulations with one or two, and the regional pilots forum with eighty or ninety viewing. It's become a riddle kid ipod backpacking baseball cap wearing gaggle of pilots too young to shave who say "dude" and "tool" too much.

Many of the most experienced participants, indeed most of the truly valueable contributors, have gone elsewhere. Very few of us still post here.

So far as sharing stories...certainly where applicable to a particular question or topic, but for the most part, it's become a matter of casting pearls before swine. When I say that, rusky, I'm talking about people just such as yourself. You know who you are. Or at least, some of you do.

 

[Alamanach]

Sadly, the board is filled largely with people such as yourself, those who are truly what is wrong with this industry. People with no experience but who feel they know one end of the airplane from another, people such as you who couldn't get hired but by buying your job, people who get drunk to handle the terrifying fearsome experience of seeing a landing gear light out. Look at what forums are in use at any given time, see safety with one or two, regulations with one or two, and the regional pilots forum with eighty or ninety viewing. It's become a riddle kid ipod backpacking baseball cap wearing gaggle of pilots too young to shave who say "dude" and "tool" too much.

Well shoot, as green as those guys may be, I make 'em look like Chuck Yeager. Do I have to quit posting? I rather like that I can come here and hang out with people who know more than I do. avbug, I expect you wouldn't know what that's like; judging from your posts, no one ever knows more than you. Ever. Were you born that awesome or did they have to grow you this way?

 

[pilotyip]

BTW Chuch Yeager did not have college degree

 

[CrimsonEclipse]

Shut up Avbug.

You have just helped to prove that some of the the "old guys" do a great job ruining most of the good threads on this website. More so than the newbies. Just refer to the FIRST response on this whole thread, and then take a good look at yourself.

meh....get off my lawn!
(lousy kids)

CE

 

[Swass]

So much for the stories. It wasn't even until the 25th post that someone posted a story. This thread is exactly what I was talking about in the first post. A microcosm of FI right here, in one tidy thread. What's the names of the other forums again?

 

[momalley81]

So much for the stories. It wasn't even until the 25th post that someone posted a story. This thread is exactly what I was talking about in the first post. A microcosm of FI right here, in one tidy thread. What's the names of the other forums again?

We'd post it, but we're not allowed to here :-(

 

[avbug]

Well shoot, as green as those guys may be, I make 'em look like Chuck Yeager. Do I have to quit posting? I rather like that I can come here and hang out with people who know more than I do.

I don't believe I, nor anyone else here, suggested that anybody quit posting. Nothing remotely close. You cite experience, but that's really irrelevant, here. The thread began with a request for stories, and I have addressed the reason I do not post them beyond what's applicable to a specific topic in real time. The originating thread also addressed the fact that the board is not what it once was, and I have addressed that, too.

The commentary is frequently on the level of a fourteen year old. If one may attribute that to lack of flight time, so be it, but that's really your own imaginings...the board has largely become the domain of regional pilots, for better or worse. The experience level of participants has dropped substantially, to be sure, but many of the posters who formerly contributed quality material have moved elsewhere to escape what has become of this place. Few posters are able to address the thread topic, but instead quickly dive into insults and attacks. The juvinile nature of many posts (not to single anything out, but the recent spat of "human female hunting" posts is a good example) drags down the maturity quotient here to that of a mental pygmie.

Participate all you will, but by all means, do so in a constructive, professional manner. You needn't be chuck yeager, but then being chuck yeager isn't exactly a positive thing, either. Be yourself, and stick with the thread by contributing something germain to the thread. That alone will serve to improve the quality of posting here, and that will have to be enough.

 

[AngelKing]

Oh, ya want stories, eh? Well, there was the time I got caught in a box canyon -- big headwind and no groundspeed -- walls too close to turn around and too high to climb out. Had to throttle 'er down and back out! Flew into a tornado once -- took full right rudder to hold heading. The F/A screamed "Oh God!", but I said "Naw, just 'Captain'." Had the cockpit fill with smoke during an ILS -- couldn't see the flight director, so I broke the glass, touched the indicators, and felt my way down. Then there was the short-field landing on a spermwhale -- oh, yeah, I already told that one. Hey, come back here! I ain't told you about the night that Santa Claus got lost and I had to join up ......

Read this a bit ago and still LMAO.

AK

 

[AngelKing]

Participate all you will, but by all means, do so in a constructive, professional manner. You needn't be chuck yeager, but then being chuck yeager isn't exactly a positive thing, either. Be yourself, and stick with the thread by contributing something germain to the thread. That alone will serve to improve the quality of posting here, and that will have to be enough.

The Russian and I have become "penpals" if you will. Have never met and would still like to when the paths cross.

Avbug, I have to humbly admit, the more I read your post, the more I enjoy reading your style and quality of writing. I know I have made some post in the past that were slanted against you, and for that I apologize.

A lot of the younger pilots and indeed the older ones(myself) can learn a lot from your experience if they choose to open their eyes long enough to read.

This all my ego will allow me to say on the matter at this time.


AK

 

[Princedietrich]

Here's a pair of interesting episodes from the brief saga known as "PrinceDietrich in the 727, or What the hell do all these lights mean anyway?"

One sunny afternoon had us on a descent towards Cancun, Mexico. Being the engineer, it was my job to just sit there and keep my pie hole shut. As we descended through 10k, I flipped on the light in the cabin that says to the flight attendants "we're in sterile cockpit, so leave us alone." Sure enough, 10 seconds later the chime rings. Being below 10k, it was my duty to politely but annoyingly ignore it. I could hear over the intercom in my headset as the FAs in the back talked to eachother.

"Hey make sure Prince (not my real name of course) knows to turn the AC all the way down, it's hot down there."

"Ok, I'll tell him."

Um, hello? Ya think I don't know it's hot in Mexico in July? I got the sucker cranked all the way down to penguin heaven, which means it'll get down to 80 in the cabin.

Anyways, the PF was in the right seat so the captain has a few moments to expound some right-stuff wisdom on us youngins in the cockpit. He was a mid-50s Georgia good-ol-boy, complete with half cut glasses and white hair and southern drawl. He turns to the side so he can see the other two schleps in the cockpit with him.

"Yah know, Ah reeley hayte flahyin dayown theeis low too duh grayownd. Dis here is where bird strahkes cayun happun."

As if it were scripted and perfectly on cue..... SCHPLAT!!!! A big seagull gets introduced to the front of the plane, making a direct hit on the windscreen panel right behind the captain. It left a nice bloody, chunky and feathery smear up the middle of the window panel and very likely made a nice snack for the #2 engine. Scared the bajeebus out of me.


In another episode, we were on climbout from Baltimore on our way down to Nassau. The weather was not the greatest and a fairly good rain storm was brewing in the area. As we climbed through 8k, it was again my job to just sit there and keep my yap shut. I happened to look up and out the front windscreen at the precice moment that a bolt of lightning nailed us on the radome. A bright flash and a loud bang are two things you don't want to experience in an aircraft, and we just had both. For the next 2 or 3 seconds, the deckplates rumbled and vibrated as the lightning bolt traveled its way through the plane and came out the tailfeathers.

The captain, a North Carolina good-ol-boy with white hair but no glasses this time, turned to us and acted like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"Well boys, we jus got struck bah laahtnin."

I, on the other hand, had just discovered religion and decided that it was a pretty cool idea. For one thing, we were alive. For another thing, I didn't get a 9 light trip and a completely fried electrical system. I did, however, become infinitely grateful for the sheer brutish power of the sphincter muscle.

At 10k, I turned off the sterile cockpit light and counted to three. Right on time, there was a frantic knock of the door. I opened it and a completely freaked out flight attendant came in.

"OHMYGODTHEREWASABIGBANGANDTHEFLOORWASSHAKINGANDTHENOISEANDITWASSCARYANDOHMYGAWDWEALLGONNADIEAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

I let the captain do the talking to calm her down, because if I'd opened my own mouth a stream of terrified gibberish like that would likely have erupted out of me too.

Two hours later we get down to Nassau thinking that we'll have a nice two or three day vacation, courtesy of the airline, because of the massive lightning damage done to the radome. We all had visions of a charred melted mess up there and were ready to break out the swimsuits and margarita shakers. We landed and the mechanic took a look at the nose, and all he found was a tiny pinhole sized dot where the bolt got us. He never did find the exit wound in the back of the plane. Needless to say, we were headed back to Baltimore an hour later.

 

[Midnight Flyer]

Prince,
which airline was that if you mind me asking?
I guess the good ole days of flying the tri holer with passengers is over for the most part.
The only pax airlines that still fly it is some of the charter airlines, like Champion.

 

[Princedietrich]

Prince,
which airline was that if you mind me asking?
I guess the good ole days of flying the tri holer with passengers is over for the most part.
The only pax airlines that still fly it is some of the charter airlines, like Champion.

It was Sunworld International, based out of CVG. I rode the panel there from Feb '01 to Oct '01 when I got furloughed. Very similar setup to Champion as it was primarily a 121 supplemental, but they also had a scheduled run to the Caymans and back every Saturday. Last I'd heard, the certificate still exists but the airline is defunct due to the last plane in the fleet being reposessed. I also picked up a couple of photos from airliners.net of the other plane (they only had 2) sitting at the end of "death row" at the Pinal Airpark boneyard.

 

[Publishers]

Now children, it is time for bed. Wash your faces and brush your teeth.
Mom and Dad want some quiet time.