haha yes indeed the first time.

what plane?

our lav was up front behind the FO seat, when the toilet flush motor would run it would run slightly out of sync with the prop sound so it sounds like the right engine just sh*t the bed... thats a nice wake up call.

LOL!

There has always been aircraft in the family, everything from a Piper Tri-Pacer to a Balanca Super Viking, decked out with an all digital cockpit. This particular aircraft in the story above was an E model Aztec, with full de-ice and modified. Had a STOL kit on it, and long range tanks (1200 nmi range). The STOL kit was put on to cut down on approach speeds. It dropped stall speed to about 49 knots dirty. It allowed us to get into airports otherwise inaccesable. Approach speed dropped by about 20 knots as well - putting us well under 3 digits unlike before.

Its kind of left unused mostly these days. I should go get certified and fly it. It needs to be used. Right now it gets its engines run-up once every 1 to 2 months. It is expensive to fly that thing though, but it does have a 248 MPH cruise capability at 24K. Ceiling is 30K.

-S

PS. Of all the aircraft I miss, that Balanca was it. 300 HP, 520 cu/in Continental on it. That is no longer in the family. It had unheard of radio's - a permanent trial by NARCO with 25 WATTS power (normal is about 7 WATTS). You could talk to Seattle ATC from anywhere (on the ramp) you wanted in that thing and they were always surprised you could raise them. Not sure if NARCO ever went on to produce them commercially, but that is just one thing that Balanca had. It probably had a $250K cockpit. And you wore that plane. I can remember coming over the crest and into the crater in Mt. St. Helens at over 200 kts, dropping a wing to take pictures and it was such and unstable platform it would not try to correct itself and it would leave that wing down there if you took your hands off the controls. Then pulling out on the other side. You needed the speed and the power to make sure you didn't get caught in the downdraft on the other side. I could go on all day about that plane. It was not a Mooney. It was not a Bonanaza. It was special and only those that flew it know what I am talking about.

The Aztec is a great airplane:up:

Something different, in the Marchetti SF260 cockpit I noticed a label reading:

"Turn off strobe lights when taxing in vicinity of other aircraft..."

Okay until here, but then:

"... or during flight through cloud, fog and haze."

????

I'm not a pilot, but I'm guess that it's either a misprint or is the result of the way water refracts light, making it seem as though something is in a different position than it actually is.

Just an uneducated guess, though...

pretty much correct.

the idea is that repeated strobing lights in Instrument conditions contributes to disorientation during flight.

turning off strobe lights on the ground is pretty much a courtesy thing as it is very annoying and distracting while on the ground (we are not talking about the red beacons... but the white strobes)

this placard has been present in just about every aircraft i have ever flown.

Btw, does anyone know how difficult it is to retrieve the so called black box from around that area, presumably from the bottom of the sea? Does it emanate a homing signal or something? Wonder if it would be possible to implement a floating black box, one that would rise to the surface after the crash.

edit. Hmm, looks like they might never find the flight recorders.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/am...=googletoolbar

The French send the 'Pourquoi Pas' a joint french navy and some deep sea research institute ship with the Nautile (one of the sub who discover the Titanic can dive to -7000m), the ship is specially built to minimize the noise and had a lot of sonar detection system aboard , it will be on the area in 7 days and has 21 other days to find the 2 blackbox.

this ship help to recover blackbox from an egyptian aircrash in the red sea some years ago.

Ignoring for a moment that you are not well-advised - and may even be prohibited - to intentionally fly into a cloud formation, especially with a small plane maybe even lacking a radar or TCAS, isn't this switching off of the strobes - the brightest light indicators on a plane short of the landing lights - compromising security, since it makes the plane harder to spot for any other traffic in close proximity?

any aircraft operating on an IFR flight plan can enter clouds because they are required to be communicating with air traffic controller, and they are also required to have a working - altitude reporting transponder.

we would typically turn strobe lights off when flying into clouds or fog for a long period of time. the first few flashes are not a big deal, but after it becomes obvious that you have flown into a rather large cloud, its best to switch them off.

When you fly through a cloud, everything becomes white out - in extreme cases you can barely see your wingtips.

You see... flying through a cloud or fog causes the entire immediate area of your aircraft to flash white like lightning on and of and on and off as it refracts off of every water molecule around your plane. its not the sharply defined flash you see when you look up at night at a passing airliner.

if you are close enough to another aircraft in flight in such low visibility conditions as i have described above; to see the strobe lights of another aircraft means its already to late to avoid collision. in some cases you might not be able to tell the flashes of another aircraft's lights and your own.

given that IFR aircraft are separated from one another by very specific air traffic control separation minimums (the air traffic controller makes sure the dots on his radar screen dont touch other dots) the greater risk for pilots is to suffer from "flicker vertigo" or to suffer from disorientation caused by strobe lights in extreme low visibility - thus causing him to possibly lose control of his aircraft.

when flying through clouds with strobe lights ON, your intire world outside the windows starts looking like it is occuring at 1 or 2 frames per second, while the inside world (instrument indications, head and hand movements etc) is occuring in real time. its something that is hard to describe - but once you experience it first hand it is very easy to think "Okay.... i can see where this would be a problem"

EDIT: in lieu of strobe lights - you can activate your landing lights if you will be in a cloud for a long period of time, this way the white light is constant and not flashing so you do not suffer from strobe vertigo.

Fascinating article "How to find a plane at the bottom of the ocean"

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,524861,00.html

Yes its fox news... get over it.

Ah, that clears it for me. Now it makes sense. Well, I never experienced such a foggy weather on sea or on the ground - just a really bad sandstorm in North Africa.

I have about 3000 hours in A330s and loved every minute of it.

i have heard an equal amount of praise and scorn for the aircraft to be honest.

No Matter What.......R.I.P.....Oh World Travelers.....You Go Before Us All...................