civilservant

Space Shuttle (More accurately STS ) at full liftoff thrust.

I never got to experience Concorde, but I saw a lot of XH556 after her return to flight. I miss her.

Cynic

The Conways in a VC10 were really distinctive; probably my favourite aircraft having flown and worked with it for 25 years. The last taxying version will also go with Bruntingthorpe's demise.

Steerpike

We have some big fires going on here in AZ right now, and they showed a pretty big plane on TV last night dropping retardant from a very low height. Unfortunately, I can't find an online video of it right now ... but it was very impressive!

What is in those red retardants? I was chatting with some old Americans last week who were in Vietnam and were on the ground as 'agent orange' was dropped from above, literally raining down on them as they advanced through the jungle. Every one of the guys who experienced that had suffered some form of cancer!

Pulaski

AFAIK phosphates and borates, which seem to be used primarily as a wetting agent, to stop the water just running off whatever it comes into contact with, whether a tree, grass, or the ground. The colour is just so it can be seen. It is certainly nothing like agent orange which was a toxic "defoliant", which is just a fancy word for a weedkiller.

zzrmark

I wonder if the borates used knockout the resident termite populations?

johnwoo

I was working for Boeing on the 747. We were originally then going to work on to the SST.
The original design was for a Swing Wing design, which was abandoned for a Delta wing design. The project was then cancelled due to many factors. Not least public apathy due to, sonic boom, and cost among others, then the government removed funding. The fat Lady had sung,
and that's how I ended up in California.
Many British and other Expats were working there then, and many returned to their home countries. Those that had bought homes just left them and returned with what they could take with them.

Pulaski

Not sure, but if a smoke jumper gets caught it might make his gear easier to launder when he gets home.

scrubbedexpat091

"Fire retardant is 85 percent water, 10 percent fertilizer and 5 percent minor ingredients such as colorants, anti-corrosive material, thickeners (clay or natural gum), stabilizers and bactericides, according to the USFS public affairs specialist Jennifer Jones.

The fertilizer consists of ammonium phosphate, a salt, which causes it to stick to plant material and repel flames. The Phos-Chek is mixed with water according to guidelines supplied to pilots by the USFS, Witter said."

https://www.sgvtribune.com/2016/07/2...e-environment/

Seems its considered safe for mammals including humans, but is toxic to aquatic life, and should be used in close proximity to aquatic habitats.

audio

PIA 8303

Not sure why the cabin crew are partly responsible

audio

AAIB preliminary report

Full report in 12 months.

markonline1

Here’s a overview of the report if you don’t want to read the whole thing.
https://aeronewsglobal.com/pk8303-cr...een-published/

Wow! It was pretty much a cluster****, by both the aircrew and ATC. Remind me never to fly internally in Pakistan!

Pulaski

Never mind that, it's a mere detail when further down the report it says:

"However, the minister told the lower house, that out of the total 860 pilots in Pakistan, 262 pilots did not sit for the exams. Someone else sat in the exams for them, he claimed. Based on this, Khan said, 40 per cent licenses are “fake”, and the pilots don’t have the required flying experience."

WTF!?!?!?

I don't care what anyone says about my thought process or motives, I will continue to prefer airlines run out of the UK, North America or Western Europe, or one or two other places, such as Australia, over airlines run out of third world countries.

audio

Never mind that? It's not fair to blame the CC for anything, they had nothing to do with this whatsoever unless they were having drinks, fun and other stuff with the F/D crew at TOD.
IMHO, I would add US corporate pilots to your list of concern.
I did hint on the validity of crew licenses, my post 800

Pulaski

I agree it's almost certainly totally unfair, but it's noise, a distraction. On a scale of importance, I would place it low compared to "potentially unlicensed pilots".

markonline1

Why end it at corporate pilots. I’ve been issuing the same NOTAM for the last month closing the airport at night for work. Last week an airline that will remain nameless was approximately 20 minutes out before being told by ATC that the airport they were hoping to go to was in fact closed LOL.