Aviation BS and Photo Thread

HOLY SHIT. Thanks for sharing that.

It seems you could at least vector Route 4 directly over I-295 to that heliport/stadium location directly S of the Capitol and accordingly reroute Route 1 to the same location, and thereby gain some additional vertical separation for 0 to 180 runway approaches to Reagan. I think.

i'm not a pilot, but have done a shit ton of drinking with them.

 

Can I assume your left nut says hell yes.

 

They are pretty close friends and stick together, especially on safety issues like this. No sharp objects on keychains is a rule I live by.

 

That would have you directly overfly Joint Base Anacostia Bolling, which has some highly sensitive stuff posted on / transiting through there often. They def wouldn't approve that. (I used to work on JBAB). Then youd have to cut back to the river to avoid the Ft. McNair, Nationals stadium and the Navy Yard.

Plus the river admittedly does make for easy VFR, especially at night on NODs because it's the one slightly darker line than anywhere else in the city, with few vertical hazards that give you the altitude corridor you need.

 

Ahhhhh, wow tons of history there! And my guess is Marine 1.

 

along with a bunch of buildings with interesting stuff in them

 

Aaaahhhhhhhh, so Jimmy Hoffa, Arc of the Covenant, and those alien ships from Area 51 they modified for Capitol defense.











































I know I know, you'd have to kill me.

 

The system in place is dangerous, but has worked for a long time. A lot of things fucked up the other night, helo too high, CRJ rerouted to R33 instead of R1, which screwed up the timing, etc. The biggest thing is, the ATC only had one controller doing the commercial air and military helo traffic. The controller agreed (when requested by the helo) to allow the helo to maintain visual separation, which he failed to do, for whatever reason. The controller should have given a vector to the CRJ for the helo to look, ensuring he did see it, but he didn't. The CRJ did not know any of this, as he could not hear the helo radio traffic with ATC, he could only hear what ATC said to the helo.

Had the controller been on his game, he should have been watching the convergence of the two aircraft after moving the CRJ to R33, and told the helo to hold at the intersection of Route 1 and Route 4, which is north of the DCA approach to R33 (over the Anacostia River where it flows into the Potomac). It would only have taken a few seconds since the CRJ was on short final by then. But..... the controller was also busy with departures. Had there been two controllers in the tower, one handling helo and one handling commercial. this would never have happened.

It will be interesting in the final NTSB evaluation who they pin the blame on, the helo or ATC. God knows, FAA will not be putting any pressure on NTSB to absolve the ATC guys, because it would point the finger back at FAA for allowing the tower to operate like it was.

 

Regardless of contributing factors present in the tower operation it is the pilot in command’s responsibility to see and avoid other traffic in VFR conditions. The CRJ established on final had the right of way over the 60 flying through the airspace. The 60 pilots screwed up and a lot of people died.

 

Reminds me of the old joke…How do you tell who the pilot is at the bar? He’ll tell you.
Also….How many pilots does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Just one, because the world revolves around him

 

Oh, I agree entirely , whoever was PIC at the time in the helo screwed the pooch; just busting the 200 foot altitude ceiling was all it took. Had they been at or below that ceiling there would have been a near miss and we probably would never have seen a news report of how close it was. Aircraft on final always have precedence over the helo's there, this system of dropping the helos under the approach has been developed as a convenience for ATC as well as the high volume of helo flights in the DC area so they don't have to hold position for an arrival to pass by. DC airspace has been the most dangerous in the US for a very long time due to the conflict of military and commercial traffic and the many no-fly restricted airspaces that tend to channel air traffic into narrow corridors.

It's a sad tale and one you see on our highways a lot, since you mention right-of-way. It takes dozens of crashes at an unmarked intersection before DOT decides a traffic light is necessary, or to redesign the intersection, and usually not before a few fatalities. And though the jet did have right of way since ATC had cleared him to land, right-of-way is something you yield in order to stay safe. You can't take the right of way, but you have to see the danger coming and the jet never saw the helo until the very last second. The FDR data indicated a "change in pitch" of the CRJ a single second before impact. NTSB did not speculate if that pitch change was initiated by the pilot because they saw the helo, but I think it's safe to assume that was the reason.

 

Pure conjecture on my part…I wonder if this being a check ride had any influence on the outcome? E.g. the check pilot sees the pilot being evaluated has an altitude deviation and lets it continue to see how soon the pilot takes to realize the deviation. Or, simulated emergency (part of the evaluation?) diverts attention from aviating.

 

Yeah it may play a part. If instructor takes over other pilot fails checkride and they’d be reluctant to do that. Still, you’d expect if they noticed the deviation at some point they should intervene. Pure conjecture but who knows.

 

off to Pima air and space Museum?

 

Hilux under my Airbus’ nose…..

 

...and properly chocked. Wonder if all of their GSE is diesel powered?

 

.
...^^^... IIRC, about 1968-1969, the 3 Presidential helicopters were at that end of Boling AFB right next to the ..... Anacostia Naval Annex Building (I think that was what it was called) and the only thing that separated you from those rotary aircraft was a modest chain link fence. IF you knew someone and had some connections there, you could get a very quick (unofficial) tour of the aircraft but NO cameras.. The security there was super laxed. A small amount of Navy & Marine Corps personnel (enlisted and jr. officers) who were discharged from Bethesda Naval Hospital and already had their PEB Disability boards were sometimes sent to that Annex for a few days to await their discharge orders.