Went in there a lot when I was working (MD-80). Landing was bad enough, but taking off was worse, watching the freeway traffic getting and closer as you rushed towards the concrete barrier, waiting for Vr.

(Written on 03/25/2023)(Permalink)

+1... Position and Hold is far more emphatic. Line up and wait sounds more like a taxiway instruction.

(Written on 03/04/2023)(Permalink)

The early 23's were light, fast and would aileron roll so fast that you had to cage your eyeballs.

(Written on 03/03/2023)(Permalink)

Taking off out of Denver on a really hot summer day at runway-limited weight and watching the end of the runway coming up doesn't really lend itself to nuanced rotation techniques. :)

(Written on 02/25/2023)(Permalink)

All true on both sides, but this is an aviation forum, not a political forum (hopefully).

(Written on 02/25/2023)(Permalink)

This is an issue that has been around since railcars were invented. But there's so much political fighting these days that one simple fact is ignored: The railroad company is ultimately to blame. They don't have enough crew, they don't have enough maintenance, they don't have enough inspectors, and they apparently don't have any way to detect a "hot box" (or whatever they're called) while underway. Congress may also be to blame for not requiring that the railroads have some way of detecting overheated bearings on rail cars.

(Written on 02/25/2023)(Permalink)

I wouldn't exactly say that the pilots "missed it" or made any mistakes in this case, since we've relied upon automated performance data for many decades and, especially with today's high tempo operations, there is little time for crews to independently verify all of the data. Your observation in regards to single pilot operations is spot on. If four pilots "missed" it, what chance does a single pilot have?

(Written on 02/25/2023)(Permalink)

Given the wx, they could have hit a microburst out over the water just after takeoff. Reminds me of Delta flight 191 at DFW on August of 1985. I'd just passed directly over DFW about 20 minutes earlier and there wasn't a cloud in the sky around the airport. Not sure if their wx radar (or the airport radar) displayed anything before takeoff or not, but I'll bet they were doing all they could and praying hard :)

(Written on 02/17/2023)(Permalink)

Single pilot airline operations are insane unless the cockpit is specifically designed for it, and even then, the possibility of pilot incapacitation (from any number of factors) is to too much of a risk.

(Written on 02/05/2023)(Permalink)

As a retired AA Captain who was also a union rep for many years in our largest crew base, we don't "cover" for anyone and we don't "fight" cases. But we do ensure that there is no rush to judgement, such as the gentleman above, who already knows exactly what happened and has declared (without any actual knowledge whatsoever) that the crew was negligent in their duties. Thankfully for the profession, a full investigation will be conducted.

(Written on 01/27/2023)(Permalink)