Flying and fun do not mix, heres proof

[FracCapt]

No matter what happened after the fact, flying an airplane to its' maximum certified altitude is NOT a foolish maneuver. To suggest otherwise tells me you don't find ANY "fun" in flying.

Flying an airplane at maximum certified altitude when you're OUTSIDE THE ENVELOPE(as they supposedly were) for that altitude IS a foolish...no, check that....downright stupid maneuver.

 

[I.P. Freley]

(as they supposedly were)

You hit the nail on the head with this one. Overall, my point is that there's a whole lot of jumping to conclusions here. Let's wait for the report.

All that aside, that's not the point I was arguing. Simply "going for max altitude" isn't foolish in and of itself... The point I responded to didn't say "they were foolish to go for max altitude outside of the envelope", it just said they were stupid to find going for max "fun".

Ya hear what I'm saying?

 

[Clyde]

C'mon, man, the airplane is certified to fly at that height... They'd probably never gotten one that high and figured "what the heck, we're empty, let's give it a whirl".

What is wrong with that? You never flew your airplane to max altitude just to say you did it? You never flew right up to barber pole, when you didn't have to, just to have a little break from the grind? You never landed an empty airplane and tried to bring it to a stop in the shortest possible distance?

No matter what happened after the fact, flying an airplane to its' maximum certified altitude is NOT a foolish maneuver. To suggest otherwise tells me you don't find ANY "fun" in flying.

I might be in the minority here, but I tend to put safety ahead of "fun". How much more fun is it at 410 than at 330 when you are flying straight and level?

I've been as high as FL450 before. The view isn't that much better.

 

[650 driver]

Theres nothing unsafe about going to the Max certified altitude.
They might of done something stupid since they were empty.
I been as high as 49600 in a block altitude with a AC certified to 510. We were within its limits it just could not climb anymore.

650

 

[Captain Overs]

"I don’t think he had enough gas up there; he was so slow," one air traffic controller said.

What the hell does that mean?

They were just above stalling speed and unable to maintain altitude. The controller was referring to how slow they were flying.

 

[1-tacan-rule]

One man's fun...

IP, you said:

...The point I responded to didn't say "they were foolish to go for max altitude outside of the envelope", it just said they were stupid to find going for max "fun"....

In fact, I never said they were "stupid to find going to max fun." Please read my post.

What I'm saying is that if two guys (where's the CRM?) get their kicks from going to 410....???? comon....

I've been flying since '87 and I still love just about every minute of it...and at some point I actually thought walk-arounds were "fun." I grew up. They should have as well.

 

[avbug]

Come on, folks. You're passing judgement based on the descriptions of a popular news article, filled with inaccuracies. Wild spitballing at best.

The pilot made an off hand comment that was taken out of context, and has been misconstrued to mean all sorts of things that in all liklihood, were certainly never intended.

The pilots choice of wording, including the use of "cool," was misplaced and makes him sound flippant after the fact. Almost certainly that was never his intention, or his attitude. His vernacular should not be elected as his execution device; I find the idea that he went to 410 for "fun" ridiculous, and don't believe for a moment that the purpose of going there was at all what's being carried on about here or in the article. Get a grip.

The controller queried the pilots intent, and he responded with an off hand comment. That is all. Nothing more. Did he actually mean that he got his jollies by being at 410? No, doubtful. Did he actually mean that he was thrilled by the prospect of going to 410? No, I doubt that, either. Did he actually mean that his idea of a good time was climbing to 410? No. He made an offhand commend, period.

Was he outside his envelope? I believe several posters cited that being at 410 was outside the relight envelope. That is not at all the same, or consistent, with operating at 410. We all operate above our relight envelope, and that doesn't make any of us unsafe; it's SOP. If he elected to attempt a relight after a flameout and did so outside the envelope, then that's an error, but again, has nothing to do with a decision to maintain or attempt a cruise altitude of 410.

Occasionally I request an altitude and then find that it's not working for my weight, and ask for a lower for my final or for a time. We all do. So what? You're going to crucify the man for that?

I won't say I got hopping excited about it, but I did get a kick out of flying eastbound at 350 after RVSM, and picking previously unuseable altitudes. Nothing exciting, but I did it just for the novelty. Why not? One might say that was illicit "fun," and I wouldn't describe it as fun, but I might have said, in an offhand way, "Yeah, I'll take 350 for the fun of it."

Gonna crucify me, too? Crickey, guys. Who made you undertakers?

 

[650 driver]

Since when is FL350 a new altitude? I have been using it for the past 18 years. Like I said in another post, we might know the whole story in 6 months.

650

 

[avbug]

No, it's not a new altitude...westbound. But eastbound it is...used to be "wrong way," and now it's not. That's how it's a new altitude.

Does that really require an explaination??

 

[Diesel]

the guy wanted to see what 410 was like. He probably wanted to say he'd been there to his buddies.

too bad he never got any training on how to get there safely.

Just because it's certified doesn't mean it can allways get there.