Crew did not "get" flying jets! Many were fresh off of pistons and did not grasp the concept of staying ahead of the airplane. The flaps weren't so much of an issue as the sink-rate and slow spool-up of jet engines. With 40 degrees of flap you had better keep N1 at about 80% if you needed to toga.This was un- natural to many crew new to the jets. It ended up taking decades for the crews to learn that the jets had to be flown by the book not the seat of their pants.

(Written on 06-07-2020)(Permalink)

The early days for the L188 were pretty dicey. However, air travel back then was also dicey compared to the level of safety prevalent today. Boeing had a reputation for not putting enough tail on their aircraft. (307,314,707) Douglas had a reputation of relying too much on old design. Lockheed had a reputation of designing for speed on the cutting edge. Chronic flutter issues. (L14,P38,L188). Yes, the L188 was a great aircraft. Too bad it took a generation of jets to prove how good it was, especially as a niche aircraft. I miss them terribly.

(Written on 05-07-2020)(Permalink)

I was living in TPA at the time. NA and NW were big -10 users. After the grounding It seemed strange when the -10's suddenly disappeared. The media kept the turmoil on the front page for weeks. It was one of those "dark times" in commercial aviation. All the airlines that ops L-1011's made a big fuss about their "Tri-Stars" and "Lockheed" aircraft, they were so panicked that the public might associate the "10" in "1011" as being a "DC-10"! (They are going to do the same thing with the 737-Max, you watch!) It was so bad McDac knew they would never sell another "DC" anything, so they made the switch to "MD". When the grounding was lifted it took a while for the public to get used to the -10's again. NW was competing (like everybody else) and trying to run Air Florida out of business in the State of Florida. NW had an afternoon DC-10 flight out of MIA to ORD that stopped in TPA. You could buy a ticket between MIA and TPA for about $18.00 at that time and find the airplane nearly em

(Written on 09-06-2020)(Permalink)

It was a very spectacular crash. A lot of people witnessed it. The media was wild. The FAA had the spotlight on them so they did what all Government agencies do under pressure---look for someone to blame. That is not to say that the people who were performing unauthorized (McDac) maintenance proceedures were innocent. There was PLENTY of blame to go around. It did not help that a lot of lawsuits left over from the TK crash in the spring of '74 were just being settled with spectacular payouts. Never mind what was uncovered during discovery. Also the lawyers were able to [prove that the pax. on TK knew they were going to die and thus had horrible mental anguish up until impact. The same would be proven for the pax. of Flt.191, It was a mess. The ripple-effect was huge on the airlines ops the -10's.

(Written on 08-06-2020)(Permalink)

I grew up in the Atlanta of the 1950's. At one time I lived about ten years in a war-zone ghetto. I have seen all kinds of racism and hatred. However, I do not buy into the "born into white guilt" manipulation of the American people by the extremely biased corporate mainstream media. If white Americans are so racist then how did Obama serve TWO terms as President? After all, black people are about 13% of the population and have been for decades. In any event the spineless politicians on both sides are not setting a very good example. By turning their heads to all the violence, they are condoning it. Division of the American people seems to be the goal. The racisism issue is just a helpful catalyst. What a shame it has come to this.

(Written on 07-06-2020)(Permalink)

Not surprising. Desperate people do desperate things. Airbus has every right to hold a customer to a contract. However--------suing can get tied up in court for years and the cost of the legal teams will go through the roof. The only ones that end up "winning" are the lawyers. Airbus will get a reputation for alienating their customer base. Once the bad blood starts to flow it is very hard to stop the bleeding. And negative word of mouth is VERY effective. It will be interesting to watch this play out.

(Written on 06-06-2020)(Permalink)

Those were really good old windmills. I would gladly fly on them today. Too bad they are so rare. I'm sure the FAA cringes at the thought of any of them carrying pax.

(Written on 01-06-2020)(Permalink)

Well, what if they tried to raise the gear before positive rate established? Wouldn't be the first commercial aircraft to sink to the runway, happened all the time back in big radial days.

(Written on 23-05-2020)(Permalink)

The Company is going to do whatever it has to do to survive. There are a lot of things going on behind closed doors that we the people will never know. We are trying to survive an economic and human disaster perpetrated by a hostile and aggressive Government that is serious enough to use Germ Warfare to achieve it's goals. I will miss the T7's. They were not a large part of the fleet, however, they were good workhorses for The Company while things were good.

(Written on 16-05-2020)(Permalink)

Too bad it's taken a pandemic. No telling what people contracted over the years from those miniature pillows and (sometimes "crunchy") blankets! Or rug-rats wiping the results of a sudden sneeze on the upholstery.

(Written on 10-05-2020)(Permalink)