Official Aviation Thread...

[LateFan]

I love DB Cooper stories. Such a great mystery, so many crazy theories.

People said no way could you survive a 10,000' jump into the wilderness in the winter in a sport coat. People said he banged down the stairway from turbulence and died in the jump - why no bones after all these years? People said he likely died in the woods from exposure. People speculated he had a cache of equipment on the ground (how did he hike to find it?) They speculated he worked at SeaTac and was familiar with the plane. Some kids found that cash (but only a little of it) in a sand bar on the Columbia. At one point people said there was an older, quiet guy who looked a lot like him, who bought a farm with cash and lived out a quiet life by himself in rural WA.

Maybe he lived out his life with his bigfoot wife and they had some weird looking kids.....

[george graves]

Also - for DB cooper fans.... Here's a somewhat detailed flight path/story.

Funny, I didn't know they landed at SEA for fuel - and sucked up one or two trucks. And on their way to RNO....at one point there was so many chase planes (5-7?). And that none of them saw a staircase open?!?!? How can you be a F-106 pilot with eyes on the plane and not see it drop a staircase drop out of it's butt?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8MwA4iaPoY

[george graves]

Its also out on bluray and is awesome. Its worth buying.

Will

Got it in 1080p - and it's not as good as it was on the big screen. So far this is the only film I would upgrade to a 4k projector for. Oh well. Some day. Bigger fish to fry.

The film really is awesome despite the resolution you see it in.

[LateFan]

Miss Montana the DC-3 has left Europe and is headed from Iceland to Greenland today. Here is the itinerary on their Facebook site -

"Our Last night in Germany... Our trip home begins tomorrow. We are still in high spirits but bummed we have to leave this UNBELIEVABLE journey behind.
Flight plan is as follows....
1. Duxford England
2. Prestwick Scotland
3. Reykjavík Iceland
4. Narsarsuaq Greenland
5. Goose Bay Labrador
6. Presque Isle Maine
7. Oxford Connecticut
8. Destination Unknown
9. Up For Grabs
10. Manhattan,Kansas
11. Somewhere Surprise, MT
12. MISSOULA MONTANA 👏👏

We have been so blessed with all of our great support to get this airplane and her crew to Europe. We are planning on several stops on the way home to share this beautiful aircraft with the community. If you have any great ideas on where we should stop on the way home we would love to hear from you!"

[LateFan]

737 MAX

This discusses the probable reasons why the throttles weren't backed off in those crashes. "Between a rock and a hard place."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/sd9LGK2S9m/battle_over_blame

[BlackbirdM3]

If you missed the new "Apollo 11" doc in the theatre....not to fear, it going to show up on CNN in a few days. I highly recommend recording it. These aren't the 2-3 second clips of upscaled NASA images you've seen in the past - 90% of it was shot in 70mm cinemascope. 70mm FILM! So this new doc, that is almost 50 years old is in 4k. You can see everything. It's amazing. And the documentarians let the camera roll for a lot longer then you'll see in any discovery channels show. A must see.

Its also out on bluray and is awesome. Its worth buying.

Will

[LateFan]

^^ Sounds cool.

There's a PBS doc series coming up (3 nights in a row?) called Chasing the Moon, which is supposed to be very well done. About the whole Apollo program. Uses all original footage from the time rather than talking heads like typical.

[george graves]

If you missed the new "Apollo 11" doc in the theatre....not to fear, it going to show up on CNN in a few days. I highly recommend recording it. These aren't the 2-3 second clips of upscaled NASA images you've seen in the past - 90% of it was shot in 70mm cinemascope. 70mm FILM! So this new doc, that is almost 50 years old is in 4k. You can see everything. It's amazing. And the documentarians let the camera roll for a lot longer then you'll see in any discovery channels show. A must see.

[LateFan]

Well "our" airplane is in Germany now, for the Berlin Airlift ceremonies. They've had quite a ride. I think they made two drops over Normandy, and got invited to be part of the Presidential flyover formation, where they were next to airshow professionals who do this all the time.

Apparently we were something of an underdog - the other crews were coming up to ours soon after they arrived, saying "We never thought you'd make it!"

Not sure when they're headed back across.

[LateFan]

Just to clear up any confusion - I wasn't there. Those are all shots off of our plane's Facebook page.

[ThatM20Guy]

This was on a museum tour - never seen this plane before. What is it?

[ATTACH]127875[/ATTACH]

That's a DeHavilland dh88 Comet! Very cool you got to see one. I think there are only a couple in existence!

Just saw varg beat me to it.

[LateFan]

June 6 - today's the day.

[LateFan]

That’s a badass looking plane. Has a really interesting wing shape. Thanks.

[varg]

-Valve adjustments, plugs, checking hoses, chasing leaks. They're doing unusually long flights on old restored airplanes and it's prudent to shorten maintenance schedules.
-Yep, oil cooler, all of those old radial planes require massive oil coolers to keep the oil temps down since oil is doing a lot of the engine cooling.
-DeHavilland DH88 Comet, a famous racing plane from the '30s.

[LateFan]

Flying across Greenland