# The Great Ongoing Aviation Thread (general and other) (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 23, 2011, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499 "2011-10-23T02:17:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 98
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/1942 "2021-04-15T18:06:32Z")
There was a plane crash at BLI yesterday afternoon. [Small airplane crashes at Bellingham International airport | Bellingham Herald](https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article250680614.html) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/1943 "2021-04-15T19:00:47Z")
> **[How Did Microsoft Make Flight Simulator Seem So Real?](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/flight-box-180977303/)** > > With the latest version of the popular software, players can recognize city streets and feel shifts in the wind. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/1944 "2021-04-15T19:39:02Z")
Microsoft Flight Sim 2020 is such an eye-opening demonstration of Microsoft’s Azure cloud capabiluty that after seeing it I went and bought a bunch of Microsoft stock. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/1945 "2021-04-15T19:43:56Z")
It did, however, have some infamous glitches at first, such as the “Melbourne Monolith” > **[Planet Earth From Above](https://aiweirdness.tumblr.com/post/627344542828544000/planet-earth-from-above)** > > Melbourne, Australia: home of kangaroos, botanical gardens, and a surreal monolith, jutting impossibly tall and narrow above its unassuming neighbors. > > \[images from a video by reddit user fulltimespy, in a successful completion of the Monolith... ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/1946 "2021-04-15T20:31:31Z")
Ha! Those are some great ones. And flying under the Eiffel Tower sure looks like fun. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/1947 "2021-04-15T23:18:22Z")
but can you still land at Meigs Field? ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/1948 "2021-04-15T23:59:25Z")
I wish. I’ll never forgive Mayor Daley for that. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2021, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/1949 "2021-04-16T01:15:57Z")
If you are a private pilot (you do not have a commercial pilot’s license) does that mean you have to refuse any money someone offers to fly you from one place to another? For example: You live in a remote area of the country and your neighbor asks you if you can fly him to a city 200 miles away. He says he will pay for the fuel to get there and back. Do you have to refuse his offer to pay for the fuel? You either fly him for free or not at all since you do not have a commercial pilot’s license? ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2021, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/1950 "2021-04-16T01:16:36Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > I’ll never forgive Mayor Daley for that. I landed there years ago as a student pilot en-route to Oshkosh. they should add a B-17 to the plane mix along with Daley’s house as a yearly flight simulator competition. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2021, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/1951 "2021-04-16T01:18:54Z")
I had a friend who was a private pilot fly up to visit and he told me parking fees for his plane overnight at Meigs Field were less expensive than parking a car in a paid garage for the night. I looked it up. He was right…it was cheaper. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2021, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/1952 "2021-04-16T01:38:14Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > If you are a private pilot (you do not have a commercial pilot’s license) does that mean you have to refuse any money someone offers to fly you from one place to another? Not exactly. It’s nuanced. See this article for more. > **[Compensation: The FAA knows it when they see it](https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2013/december/02/compensation-the-faa-knows-it-when-they-see-it)** > > The difference between a private pilot flight operation and a commercial pilot flight operation depends on whether there has been any compensation exchanged for the flight. If money passes from the passengers or the person responsible for the cargo... ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2021, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/1953 "2021-04-16T01:48:20Z")
Thanks. Reading that it seems safest to never collect any money or other compensation. You could probably get away with it if it was truly innocent, just flying a buddy this one time for his cancer treatment and he paid for the gas. But any time it is open to this much interpretation I am not sure I would want to risk my hard earned pilot’s license for a tank of gas (I know that can be expensive). ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2021, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/1954 "2021-04-16T09:35:48Z")
The lawyers are writing scare stories; the FAA has better things to do than bust folks flying their friends to lunch or cancer treatments. At the same time there are a lot of “enterprising” pilots who think “Uber can do it, why can’t I?” Real quickly helping a friend turns into helping a “friend”, turns into running a side hustle advertised on TwitFace. Those guys deserve the Federal enema they soon receive. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2021, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/1955 "2021-04-18T14:38:56Z")
A TBM Avenger ditches in Florida. > **[WATCH: WWII-era plane makes emergency water landing at Cocoa Beach Air Show](https://www.wftv.com/news/local/brevard-county/plane-lands-ocean-after-mechanical-issues-cocoa-beach-air-show/MLPSBYMU2JDKZHFBIRTOCBNO6Y/)** > > A World War II era aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing in the ocean during the Cocoa Beach Air Show on Saturday. > Officials said a TBM Avenger performing in the warbird parade had a mechanical issue and the pilot was able to bring the plane down close to the shore… > > No injures were reported on the ground or in the water. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2021, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/1956 "2021-04-18T20:35:46Z")
The pilot must be super pleased with that landing. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2021, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/1957 "2021-04-18T20:51:04Z")
The TBM Avenger is famous for the fact that five of them made up military flight 19 which **[disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle in 1945](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_19)** – all five of them, without a trace. And then a Martin PBM Mariner that was sent to search for them also disappeared. I presume that they are all now somewhere in the Andromeda Galaxy. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2021, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/1958 "2021-04-18T21:00:23Z")
I saw in a really good 1977 documentary that the Avengers, at least, eventually turned up in Mexico. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2021, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/1959 "2021-04-19T00:25:13Z")
Wiki said it was a training mission that was supposed to involve dead reckoning. If a control tower told them to use the sun for navigation that suggests it was visible. Sad. Makes me wonder how bad the maps were for navigating. There was also radio transmissions that indicated some of the other pilots disagreed with their location and the heading to take. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2021, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/1960 "2021-04-19T17:55:34Z")
Not a bad forced landing. IIRC procedure would have been to open the canopy before ditching; it’d suck to make a nice landing, but tweak the canopy rails just enough that you were trapped inside the cockpit as the aircraft sinks. Even worse to have it sink in 6 feet of water and watch the water surface 12 inches above the canopy top while the cockpit you can’t escape fills with sea water. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2021, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/1961 "2021-04-20T16:33:13Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > . Yes. Oddly I would think of this as PIC as part of a mental checklist but the one time I was a passenger during an engine failure I didn’t think to pop the door open. It as a twin and the PIC was rather busy at the time. I sat motionless so as not to disturb his train of thought. When we finally cleared some trees I looked back and could see the prop wash on the upper branches. Whether it’s water or a ground ditching you can’t find yourself locked into a cockpit because the windows cannot be broken out from the inside. It would take a crash ax to break one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499.md?page=97) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499.md?page=99)