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Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them
71–80 of 486 posts
Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just in case someone on HN still haven't read the famous SR-71 speed check story: https://www.thesr71blackbird.com/Aircraft/Stories/sr-71-blac...
This is truly one of my favorite aviation stories of all time and reread it anytime it gets linked here. Not sure why you are downvoted, it's the most relevant and humorous explanation of the calm, professional ATC "Houston Center" voice out there.
I haven't downvoted it personally, because I would really really really love it to be true - but it's been "debunked"(if you can call it that). I suspect some of it is true - but not exactly as told.
https://np.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/8x5ndw/til_wh...
Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you referring to the documented cases of UFO sightings by the US navy? AFAIK there were also numerous pilot testimonies and radar logs to prove what was happening. Or is it a different case?
It’s fascinating to me that people with zero experience to be in that situation or use the equipment are saying what the pilots saw was wrong. Everyone is an expert on the Internet.
It is equally fascinating to me that people who do not work with aircraft, pilots, ships, radars or aviation in general automatically assume that the pilots are not incorrect. being a military pilot doesn't make one an expert on all aircraft/weather/radar etc. The scope of their expertise is far smaller than popularly believed.
Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them
#74ATCs have a reputation for never losing their cool and that really shines through here: “Tower, there’s a guy in a jetpack flying outside.” “Copy. To your left or your right?”
There are youtube videos of ATC recordings (with transcripts) of pilots losing their cool. You are right, I don't think any ATC lost their cool in any of the recordings I've listened to. This quote from the article made me smile: >> Another pilot chimed in: "Only in LA."
Stakes are higher when you're on the plane...
Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them
#75And nobody on the plane recorded it?
The passengers probably couldn't see it.
Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them
#76ATCs have a reputation for never losing their cool and that really shines through here: “Tower, there’s a guy in a jetpack flying outside.” “Copy. To your left or your right?”
Incidentally, do pilots say left and right? They don't have a special word (port / starboard) like naval vessels?
Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them
#77This sort of cowboying is how cool technologies end up getting banned and set back years.
It's better when problems with technology are recognised during its development than when that technology is already widespread.
What good can bring one of the most wasteful ways of travel imaginable to be worthwhile? It is not cool to emit an anual carbon footprint equivalent of small city in the poor part of the world to take off. Hence it will be better to ban jetpacks for personal travel.
Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them
#78ATCs have a reputation for never losing their cool and that really shines through here: “Tower, there’s a guy in a jetpack flying outside.” “Copy. To your left or your right?”
I listened to the audio book of “The Only Plane in the Sky” (do recommend), and they played real recordings of ATCs on 9/11 as the planes were hitting buildings. It was surreal listening to them talk about the catastrophe but all while maintaining a total sense of calm.
During my Interaction Design master I had to read a paper about the interface design for tools aiding people in these kinds of jobs. The designers spent a lot of time observing them at work and concluded that one specific feature of this work environment was that it doesn't have a "normal" situation and "emergency" situation, it's a non-stop juggling of emergencies all the time. Which I guess is part of why they stayed calm: you can't switch to panic mode if you're already constantly in that kind of stress situation, and anyone who can't handle that will be filtered out of those kinds of jobs very quickly.
Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are youtube videos of ATC recordings (with transcripts) of pilots losing their cool. You are right, I don't think any ATC lost their cool in any of the recordings I've listened to. This quote from the article made me smile: >> Another pilot chimed in: "Only in LA."
Stakes are higher when you're on the plane...
Negative. Pilots only ever have to worry about one plane. ATCs have to worry about all of them.
Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most of that alien stuff was miscalculating velocities by not taking into account field of view (zoom in/out) changes in the camera.
Are you referring to the documented cases of UFO sightings by the US navy? AFAIK there were also numerous pilot testimonies and radar logs to prove what was happening. Or is it a different case?
The most prominent was from a pilot who had a history of UFO pranks (flying in over campfires silently then turning on afterburners; his story about doing that showed up in an online UFO report contemporaneously with when he described doing it).