IMO there’s a medical gap in their examinations. There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of testing for clogged arteries.
I lost a close friend who had a heart attack at about the same age. Not only is there a gap in this area but pilots are incentivized to avoid getting such tests because it puts their medical in question.
There are companies who travel the country giving ultrasounds. I imagine you could get one under the radar to see if you have problems.
WZAZ in Chicago where disco lives forever is the first thing I thought of after hearing that KKOB radio tower collapses in ABQ after being hit by a hot air balloon
Just happened a little bit ago. The balloon landed safely & no reported injuries, I’m sure it’ll ultimately be pilot error…unless they somehow determine the tower jumped into his way at the last minute. 
I know balloons have mass but I can’t help but think that a properly constructed & maintained tower should be able to withstand a balloon hit & not collapse, I’m guessing authorities may be thinking the same thing because they’re checking the other tower for ‘precautionary reasons’
I’m guessing the balloon hit a support wire. The videos appear to show an antenna field that the balloons launched into. If this is an organized event then they may have just bought an antenna.
But again you would expect the wire to be strong enough to withstand that.
You’d think so. Years ago I almost hit a TV tower while flying a small plane. It just fell over a month later. Makes me wonder how sturdy they are.
There’s no mention that he contacted a second tower but the fact that they created an exclusion zone & evacuated homes & inspected the other towers makes me think that the authorities were questioning how stable the tower was before it was hit & decided they needed to check out all the towers in that group.
When I did my long solo before getting my license, one leg was from St. Paul to central-Wisconsin. There was a 2,000 foot tall antenna on the route. I made sure to be above it, but I was low enough to see it.
Maybe they’re worried that some part of the first tower might have hit the guy-wires of another tower as they fell.
Please excuse the off-topic interruption, here, but I have some questions that, while not directly related to aviation, I believe aviators would be most likely to have the answers I seek.
It has to do with instrumentation to be used in a ground vehicle, to measure parameters that are similar to those more commonly of interest in aircraft.
My thread on the subject is at…
It sounds like you want a vertical speed indicator which measures how fast you’re moving up or down in feet per minute.
This is just one example but you could look through phone apps for cheap or free versions of cockpit gauges.
^ Dead link
More bad news for you-know-who:
An EA-18 Growler out of NAS Whidbey Island crashed east of Mt. Rainier on Tuesday. The wreckage has been found, but the pilots are still missing. It’s not said on the news, but I assume that if the pilots were not found that they were able to eject. But each would have been equipped with a survival radio. If they ejected, it’s not a good sign that they have not used their radios.
Yeah, that’s a tough story. I’ve been following it best I can from down here. Looking at the ADSB tracks of the search aircraft and reading what’s been released, they had what sure looked like an awfully large area to search. Much larger than what I’d expect if there were any radio signals, automated or not, to home in on.
Nitpick since we’re in a thread for aviation enthusiasts, not the Unwashed Masses ,
An EA-18 has one Naval Aviator and one Naval Flight Officer who are both crewmembers who collectively form a “flight crew”. IME both groups are rather prickly about the difference between their titles and the shape of their uniform wings.
I just knew someone would call me on that. I tend to become verbose when I try to be very accurate, and decided the short post would not benefit from explaining the difference.
It took me a long time to force myself to default to “crew” rather than “pilot(s)”. I get it; I totally do.
Are both stations set up for redundant flight and can the weapons be released in a redundant manner?
What I am reading on the PPRuNe message board is that the Navy does not fit controls in the back seat of the EA-18Gs.
USAF does, Navy doesn’t. Navy doesn’t fit dual controls unless its for specific trainers.
Interesting. I suppose there’s no reason if it’s all carrier based landings. I’d think they would go for similar set-ups with the Air Force to keep things simple.