Indeed, I suspect @David_Spardo would also agree, having spent a lifetime on the roads.
I think planes *are* inherently more dangerous, though that is mitigated by an industry which takes safety seriously and far, far better pilot training than driver training. Also there are way fewer planes than there are cars and the sky, as they say, is a very big place which helps.
However, although I agree if we trained drivers like we trained pilots the roads would be much safer I am not sure this is actually feasible economically.
not quite so… bees round a honey pot in some areas where GA airplanes are squeezed down to lower levels particularly in the vicinity of VORs, airfields and other navigational aids. It’s why, owning a complex airplane, I upgraded my flying skills to include an instrument rating and commercial ticket allowing me access to controlled airspace, radar controllers and instrument approaches to land.
Yeah, been there, done all that. On Microsoft of course.
Haven’t ‘flown’ for years though, no longer got a big enough screen for it, Is it like riding a bike though, once learned never forgotten?
Would I still be able to land that 747 without crashing it? I did, actually, perfect landing, only problem was I forgot to read the bit about stopping it and demolished half of the airport.
A guy I worked with once had a private pilot’s licence, apparently was shooting his mouth off about how he could land a 747 on the principle “it’s just a bigger Cesna really” and found himself in a flight sim with the instructions “go on then, big boy”.
He says he got it down, but it was the worst landing he ever did - I’ve only got his word for it though
The Flying Reporter on a PPL landing a 737 will be entertaining watching… I remember as a PPL pilot being in the jump seat on a 737 as a guest of the Captain (a personal friend) landing at an international airport in North Africa and then back again at Gatwick later the same day. My first impression on the approach was how high we were on the approach when the mains touched down on the runway… On the other side of the coin, I took my Captain friend to lunch in Le Touquet in a PA28 to return the favour and his horror at being so close to the runway when we touched down (not with my flying, I hasten to add ). He’d learnt to fly in SA (in the SA military) many years previously so had all but forgotten the experience.
Thoroughly enjoyed that, my own Flight Sim experience goes back to before MS took over I think and I enjoyed many hours in lighter aircraft. I also planned and flew longer distances, even flying myself from Nottingham to here. Later, when it became more sophisticated I could fly around familiar cities like Sydney, picking out places I knew, but I haven’t done it for years. Nice memory.
I remember the space race being described as the Nazis captured by the the Russians competing with the Nazis captured by the Americans
Though being a card carrying nerd, I’ve visited Peenemünde (complete waste of time apart from seeing Prora pre redevelopment), Mittelbau-Dora and the V2 launching complex in Normandy.
If you think stealing Nazi rocket scientists was bad, have a ponder on how Germany had managed to gather more data on how human beings reacted to extremes of atmospheric pressure, temperature and lack of oxygen than any other nation by 1945.
Ahhhh, Dachau, We happened to be in Munich on our honeymoon tour in ‘82 and stumbled across it. We went in and as one would imagine it’s grim. As we were leaving we queued up to note our impressions in the comments book. We waited while German visitors ahead of us wrote extensive, very extensive, comments.
a crowd gathered… the vehicle moved back and forth with little progress shunting first the car in front and then the one behind before, eventually after some time, it had created enough space and angle to emerge from its parking place… This was the main street in Abbeville Centre, Northern France. Very entertaining and fascinating to observe - French driving skills at their best
Seen that a few times in Paris, groups of young peopke literally shifting adjacent cars back and forth manually, so they can get their own car out. long ago though.
Google Hubertus Strughold, the so-called “Father of Space Medicine”.
While he may not have personally carried out experiments, he authored reports based on the data recorded on behalf of the Luftwaffe and was most likely present when the SS (particularly utter filth such as Sigmund Rascher) carried out these inhuman experiments.
It’s just one big pork barrel. 20 billion dollars to develop, from what was supposed to be ‘cheaper’ already developed components. Six years late. Four billion dollars for every launch, and they haven’t even finished spending the multiple billions. It’s obscene.
Wasn’t sure whether to post this here or on @John_Scully 's old ‘China Worries Me’ thread - but decided to put it here because despite the headline it emphasises BIG technologies like driverless high speed trains and renewables alongside data and chips - and for me raises the question of whether it’s just in ‘the west’ that progress has stalled?
). He’d learnt to fly in SA (in the SA military) many years previously so had all but forgotten the experience.
