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Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

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Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#141

You know it’s true because it’s 2020. Remember that whole alien thing back in April? Me neither because about 10 years worth of events has happened in the past four and a half months.

That's because we are in the cool zone: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pkypdg/were-all-living-in...

Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#142
post #17

ATCs 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."

Not ATC but here's a classic viral recording of a frazzled ground controller herding cats at JFK airport in NY:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BMDkwfkXv0

Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#143
post #9

Earlier 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?

UFOs are just unidentified flying objects. It's pretty hard to identify flying objects when you're moving hundreds of miles per hour, looking at another object moving hundreds of miles per hour, from a distance of miles, and you're looking at it through a camera lens.

Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#144
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incidentally, do pilots say left and right? They don't have a special word (port / starboard) like naval vessels?

They say left and right as others have noted, but the main boarding doors on planes are supposedly on the left for the same reason the left is called the “port”. It appears to be a relic of the flying boat era of aviation.

There are a lot of such relics in aviation, for example distance is measured in nautical miles, speed in knots and the uniforms and ranks are also very much like their naval counter parts.

Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#146
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you be able to provide a link to the paper? Sounds like an interesting read.

It may well be this classic from my old office colleague https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Rich...

Thank you, his air traffic control paper was definitely one of the papers involved, but I couldn't quite remember the right name of the design field - "computer-supported cooperative work"[0] - so I failed to find it again. I also read few other ones, including one about the London underground that described a situation where these traffic controllers were both looking at their screens, but also constantly listening to their colleagues in their periphery. This let them adjust their strategies for handling emergencies on-the-fly as new information became known[1].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-supported_cooperative...

[1] http://www.academia.edu/download/48677152/Collaboration_and_...

Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One would think that there would be higher fines for this sort of misbehavior.

As it turns out, you can't just make up laws just because someone did something unsafe for the purpose of punishing said person

Isn't this the difference between common law and civil law? That under common law the existing body of written laws doesn't need to cover every eventuality, because equitable principles and "natural" law can be applied when necessary

Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#149
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is quite admirable. I respect someone able to communicate effectively in a high stakes situation.

I recommend listening to the flight director loops from the Apollo missions. There are thousands of recorded hours available (various places, but try lunarmodule5’s playlists on Youtube, or https://apolloinrealtime.org/ for a museum exhibit style) - including practically the entirety of missions 8 to 13, and most especially try the notorious manual burn of 13 during which everyone sounds like they’re discussing where…

"1202" Which translates as The guidance computer just crashed.

https://www.wired.com/story/apollo-11-mission-out-of-control...

Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#150
post #47

I don’t imagine it was these guys but another “Ironman” type flight suit I’ve been following is the tech from https://gravity.co/ - it looks like so much fun although I’m sure it’s much harder to use that the videos suggest.

I think those look really exhausting and unnatural since you have to carry your whole bodyweight on your arms. Seriously, try suspending yourself with your hands on two chair backs. Now imagine doing that for many minutes at a time, while also withstanding heavy vibration and precisely controlling your flight.

Yah, that was my first thought too. I wonder if there is some supporting structure inside the suit, along the arms to at least help.
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