forgot to bid

I didn't realize you said Missouri. Read right past it. But I get what you're saying, when you're an F-15 dive bombing a battleship, they all look the same...


F-15 Dive Bombing A Battleship (picture courtesy of the Lufthansa)

BTW did you ever do any air demos at LFI?

buzzpat

....and how did they deal with that obnoxious horn with the gear down and the flaps at least to 15?

Mike Hancho

And in keeping with the great ones go in threes, Slim Whitman dead at 90. True, he is no David Alan Coe, but if you haven't seen MARS ATTACKS it will give you a new appreciation for him.

buzzpat

We used to have Slim Whitman parties in college. Which dates me, I know. He was cool before cool was cool.

forgot to bid

So I had a GSO turn today and went asked about the hail marry MD-88. It did happen and it flew out of GSO today.

The radome was replaced, at least one windshield was shattered, the engine 1 cowling may have been replaced, 500ish dents on the leading edge of the wing. Slats were replaced but whether it was all of them I do not know. And I don't know if it's fixed and ready for work it if it was just ferried back for more work. I can't tell you more because that's all I was told.

buzzpat

Sounds like they got the sh!t kicked out if them. I used to fly the -88 but its been awhile. Whats the wx radar like?

Dehav

Actually that was the FO taking the video.

Jughead

It's a good radar - does the job just fine. It's not hypersensitive like the 800 (or 717) which I prefer. I'll be interested to read the report on this one, if it's ever released for viewing. Did this happen in ATL or after the divert to GSO?

Carl Spackler

Admittedly it's been a while since engineering school, but the flash point of fuel is the minimum temperature where the fuel's vapors can ignite (as in catch fire). Not explode, ignite. For jet fuel to provide an explosive force, the fuel air mixture has to be highly compressed prior to the introduction of an ignition source. All fuel tanks are vented, so it's impossible for those vapors to have been compressed at all, much less what is required for the fuel air mixture to explode.

So let's stipulate that the nearly empty center fuel tank was above the flash point temperature. Any source of ignition should have only started a fire on the surface of the fuel pool since the vapors weren't being highly compressed. Also, I've had the 747-100 in places like Muscat and Jeddah where the ATIS temperatures were 127F. The ramp was even hotter. And all three packs were running. And no fire...and certainly no explosion. Why? What was I (and all the other middle eastern operated 747's) unwittingly doing right to prevent a fire/explosion if flash point of uncompressed vapors had anything to do with this?

That is what a compressed fuel-air explosion looks like, but see above regarding uncompressed mixtures.

Carl

newKnow

Do Dah Dippity.....

The Choice is Yours?