#flying stuff

[katesdaycabin]

For May the 4th let me repost my favorite Star Wars fanfilm, The Lost Patrol.

Mostly decent fx and acting for a fanfilm, a rare live-action 2-seater Y-wing, and real air combat tactics including my personal favorite, the barrel roll attack.

[melyzard]

Hi! I hope you don't mind me asking, but what all is included in a pre-flight checklist for a pilot? I'm writing and I tried to search it on google and just... couldn't find a good source that summed up when the checklists were to happen and what, generally, is included. Thank you so much! :3

I don't mind, anon, but the preflight checklist, and every checklist that follows (there are many) depends on the plane. However, typically, it will start with the walk-around. You check wings, gear (both the tires and the structure that retracts them up), canopy/windshield, intakes clear of debris, flaps and slats free and unobstructed, fuselage undamaged, exhaust clear of debris, no FOD (foreign objects) laying around on the ground near the plane, and general issues like maybe panels being loose or left open, etc.

Then its interior preflight checks, where its heavily dependant on the type of plane. If youre talking about startup checklists, you'll usually check ground power connection, engine temps (yes, before you start up), and for any FOD in the cockpit. If you have an ejection seat, you check all points of contact in the harness, including oxygen hose and g-suit connecter. Then you absolutely ensure that the seat is safed before you climb onto it, in case you catch the handle and pull it by accident. If the seat is armed when that happens, you could blow yourself sky high.

Start up usually begins with the turning on the battery, then the engines, then comms, check your hydraulics, check flight control surfaces (the Wiggle), and check oxygen/cockpit environment controls. Disconnect ground power and make sure there is no dip in power/control in the plane.

Now you check all mission-relevant systems. For civilians that might be weather radar systems, any pods attached (like if its an ocean surveyor plane or smthg). For military, its usually encrypted systems, weapons, specialized pods, etc.

If you're interested in a kind of dry but detailed start up for a legacy Hornet (a C model, I believe), here is a video of a guy walking thru preflight and start up in a reasonably accurate simulator of one.

The key thing to remember is that while every pilot carries a printed out detailed checklist on their knee board for this stuff, professionals with hundreds to thousands of hours can usually rattle it all off from memory. We call it "laundry lists" and honestly there are some that I think are burned into my bones.

From a writer's perspective, I would include things like using hand signals to communicate with ground crew (very important), having emergency checklists in the back of the pilot's mind at all times (what if I turn on the engine and the plane immediately bursts into flame? There's a checklist for that, and you better have it memorized because there is zero time to flip through a book for it), and how friggin HOT it gets in a jet cockpit before the environmental controls are turned on.

[agniyagrif]

nerd chicken she used to look much worse...

[pholcidae]

What sacrifice should I make to the inflight gods to ensure my nonreving plans go well?

[melyzard]

Can you weigh in on the UFO thing "60 Minutes" ran a few days ago, with all the Navy pilots seeing them and the Pentagon saying they're legit??

I haven't seen the 60 minute special, but I have to say, seeing UFOs isn't really a big deal? I mean, UFO is a catch all term for seeing something you couldn't immediately identify, its not a shorthand for aliens among aviators. Given that most military pilots tend to fly around military aviation bases - and most test planes, concept models, and UAV short flights happen around military aviation bases - well, yeah. I saw a shit ton of stuff jn my flying career that neither I nor the air traffic controller could ID.

When the F117 was being designed and tested, no one knew it existed except those working on it, but plenty of people saw it and called in ‘alien sightings.’ For a little while, it was even shown on various alien chaser TV shows as proof of extraterrestrial life. To be fair, you can kind of see why.

The US military naturally said jack shit about it, or just nodded and said “yep, sure is weird, we have no idea what that could be, hmm, how strange” and let everyone think what they wanted to think.

This sort of thing just happens a lot. Area 51 is, after all, at least partially an aviation development lab.

So nah, I’m not really invested in this new ‘exposé’. I’ve seen UFOs while flying in a lot of places. Sometimes it was just some rich dude in his private hopper out joyflying without squawking the appropriate code and making everyone nervous. Sometimes it was probably a test flight for something I wasn’t cleared to know about. Once or twice I’ve seen a UFO that wasn’t classified or anything, it was just so...freakin....weird. Was it ever an alien? I doubt it, but if it was, they were remarkably polite about flying in accordance with local airspace restrictions. I guess they pay attention to ICAO.

[melyzard]

Comments on the accidental sky penis contrails??? Are they for real??

...Yes. They are totally, completely accidental.

See flying in a pattern like this is totally normal. And does not, of course, require that you fly under specific G-forces for a specific period of time in a very controlled and even manner. That’s normal! We fly like that all the time, and by complete and innocent coincidence, these guys just happened to be testing their airshow smoke generator. (Not every plane is rigged with that nonsense, by the way, which means if a non-show aircraft makes a giant dick in the clouds....they were really, really trying. I mean, not trying.)

So, uh, thanks for asking?

[katesdaycabin]

Oregon 🕎🎲 (@oregonthedm.bsky.social)

For a moment I thought this Korean air cargo had transflag colors and then my brain went "oh wait it's giving birth to a combat jet, this i

[katesdaycabin]

Transphobes be like, "this is still a battlecruiser".