It’s not about the big bang. It’s about fear and vulnerability. Once that manifests itself, the population will do their own damage to themselves far above and beyond some explosives in a small plane or a hijacked full tanker truck.
Right. I think the discussion of overloading an aircraft was hypothetical and not intended to imply that this 172 was.
But, given favorable takeoff conditions (cool day, long runway, decent headwind) that load may be considerable. Consider that a C-172 at max gross weight has no trouble doing a 40-degree banked turn, and that in such a turn the wings must generate lift equal to 130% of the plane’s weight.
This can be avoided by flying faster. Compared to a correctly loaded airplane, the ratio of the airspeed necessary for the same amount of control will be the square root of the weight ratio.
This is, of course, the same ratio that will apply to stall, takeoff and landing speeds (IAS).
E-vile.
Remember, Evil is cool, and Good is dumb.
In Canada, psychiatric bills are covered though our socialized health care. To keep our taxes down, we have to find ways to offload medical costs. One way is to ship patients to the USA, as was done with this fellow. Confederation College gets lots of promotion for its aviation program and gets its plane back. Ontario reduces its ongoing medical costs now that the nut is safely locked up the the USA. NORAD and Air National Guards from three states get to flex their muscles. Everyone’s happy. Well, except for the fellow who stole the plane.
Logical.
Flawlessly logical.
Hey, he had his 15 minutes of fame.
So, it turns out that the Air Force pilots involved were in fact trained for almost exactly this sort of situation. It seems that one of the services provided by the Civil Air Patrol (the US Air Force civilian auxiliary) is acting as teaching aids for training pilots in how to intercept slow, low flying civilian aircraft. The type of aircraft most typically used by the Civil Air Patrol is the Cessna 172.
I’m sure that in that case no one had any intention of causing harm. Also, the Tri-Pacer would have to cross the wake of the jet, and the wake is not some 360 forcefield.
When I see small/large airplane fly-bys the small plane usually (though not always) passes over the larger, which would allow it to completely avoid the wake even when flying in close proximity. The way extends behind and below the airplane and is of limited size, and thus is avoidable if you are aware of it.
The Wisconsin capital building had been evacuated and thus even if the airplane had crashed into and done anything more than flattened itself again the building and maybe scratched up the siding, there was no risk of any person coming to harm other than the pilot.
He’s hardly the first to cross the border in a small airplane without permission. Student pilots near the border get lost every so often and wind up on the wrong side. Some idiot think he can cross it without being noticed. This has been happening for decades. Since the vast majority aren’t criminals or terrorists - just lost or jerks - the first impulse is to follow them until they land and can be dealt with in a non-violent manner rather than simply shooting to kill.
What do you think will happen? There just isn’t that much a Cessna 172 can do to cause destruction.
An airliner crossing without permission will, I assure you, attract much more aggressive attention because a big Boeing or Airbus IS a threat, as we all now know.
Yes, but mostly down by Mexico and they have beefed up border observation so it’s a lot harder for them and they’re switching to methods like homemade submarines.