Aviation BS and Photo Thread

I hear the turbines are pretty amazing. Former company I worked at had a 690b one of the owners let me look at every now and then - I think once I even climbed in the plane when he wasn't around LOL

I hear the piston twins are a dream as well - super stable. Mx rumors / history scares me a bit.

 

Although you’re in the business and know more than I claim to know...My only thought on it, with it having been out of production for a long time would be:
AD compliance
Parts availability
The engines are still around so shouldn’t be an issue with mx
BobHoover didn’t fly it for so long if it wasn’t a good bird but he did, I’m sure, have a full time maintenance team.

 

All true... commander AD's are legendarily awful... It's best to avoid the Shrikes I hear. The 500b's are pretty solid from an AD perspective I believe.

 

They had a great ambassador when they were new in the market...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT1kVmqmvHU

p.s.
Yeager called Hoover the best pilot he ever knew.

 

No personal experience, but Mag Aero Canada operates a fleet of 500's and 690B's that bird dog for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources tankers. Have been since long before I was flying fire crews, tanker crews, equipment, and fire mappers around, etc, around during the summers in late 90's, early 2000's. Back then they were called Hick's and Lawrence.

 

the 690s have strong presence down here as air attack due to visibility, pressurization and single engine performance.

Of an interesting note, Coulson Aviation will be using Citation 550s as lead / birddog aircraft for next fire season. They bought 4 (i think 4) total 550s from customs and border protection and converted into IR mapping / bird dog aircraft... should be exciting to see how they perform.

 

Yeah, piston Commanders seem to be popular for that work. They also used the C90 from the company I use to work for for a couple of seasons. After I had moved on unfortunately. Would have been an interesting assignment I would think. Conair was rumoured to be looking at Citations for the bird dog task because the Convair 580 is such a fast airplane. Fast enough that unless it got a good headstart, it would likely be at the fire before the Aerostar that they used for lead in. Think they went Turbine Commander though. Not really sure. Fire suppression isn't my scene.

 

Where are we going?

 

32 years ago Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland. Sad day for Aviation.

https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19881221-0

 

Pic from my crew in Tampa... I miss water... LOL

 

There is an AD with spar inspections on the 500 series. About a decade ago I performed a couple of those inspections and the owners were on pins and needles until it passed inspection. Apparently if the components I was inspecting were cracked, the entire airframe was junk due to the high cost of repair, BER (beyond economical repair).

 

The sight of a lit up runway in front of me, on a nice stabilized nighttime approach, will always make me warm and fuzzy.



Sorry for the craptastic iPotato photo quality. Just reveling in the wake of my celebratory flight, 1 year since getting my PPL. Took the club's 152 for a victory lap around my old training drome, KBHB. Then again felt like an ant touching down on KBGR's 11200x200 runway lmao

 

That's a cool picture. I often look back on my flying days 15 years ago in college and wonder how I managed to do it at night. This is the only snapshot I have but now it's way easier.

 

I get warm and fuzzy when I pop out at minimums on an ILS and the runway is right where I wanted it to be. That still gets my heart beating!

 

Haven't done that just yet. Ink is still wet on my IR and temps up here are keeping me out of the soup until it warms up a bit. Looking forward to getting more time in actual. Most I've done on approach is pop through a few puffs so far.

 

Crystal clear and super windy going through Vegas.

Merry Christmas!!!

 

It happens every year:

 

Had a cockpit observer 5 years ago. He just appeared to check if we were doing ok

 

As another year comes to a close, I look back and realize what a wonderful life I have in this career. Even though I’ve missed many Christmas’, when I was junior, I still spent half of each year at home not having to worry about answering the dreaded call from work. One year ago this week, we celebrated the last chemo treatment for our 23yo daughter and now we’re celebrating our 21yo son getting over COVID. I truly believe that if it wasn’t for this career choice, it would’ve been really hard to be there for them.
As I said on my union message board one time going into a new year:
Love your family
Never go to work mad
Always call and talk with the fam. Even if it means staying up past your bed time for an early show.
As our daughters diagnosis proved to us, you never know what’s in store for you the next day, it could prove to be too late if you put off the above.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of y’all! And, Happy New Year

 

Fort Worth Center shut down as we were about to launch two jets from our ramp...they published the NOTAM with a 4 minute heads up! Of course we didn’t see it so now we wait. I’m thankful they catered this flight for us!