Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

thedrive.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 486 posts

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

#211

Post by dang »

vinalk wrote: post #63
bitcharmer wrote: post #28

Earlier 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.

I suppose that people were always this way and that the internet has just brought the phenomenon to mass visibility.

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

#212

Post by adrianmonk »

sandworm101 wrote: post #81
martinflack wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Yes. They use left/right. Port/starboard is useful when you have a crew of people running around doing jobs aboard a three-dimensional ship. Pilots are never more than two people sitting in fixed seats facing forwards. It is a much more linear environment than a ship.

More linear does make sense. "Full astern" is a thing for ships but not planes.

But it makes me wonder about helicopter pilots. Do they say left and right?

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

#213

Post by failuser »

Yizahi wrote: post #129
joosters wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A quick recap of 2020: https://imgur.com/gallery/x2o7JOi "Anything else?" ..."I'm still in January"

"Two dudes" was a nice touch :)

ISS has a leak and they had to isolate in the Russian module to trace the leak.

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

#214

Post by goodcanadian »

chrisseaton wrote: post #127
GuB-42 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, pilots say left/right, although it is more common to use clock positions for that. For example "traffic 3 o'clock" means there is someone on you right. Port/starboard is not used in aviation and I don't know of any equivalent besides left/right.

> Port/starboard is not used in aviation Some things seem to have been carried over though - you still almost always board an aircraft from the port side, don't you? And port/left is still a red light, and starboard/right is still a green light, on aircraft. A good way to remember all this is 'port is red and is passed to the left'.

I've always heard, "Hell is on the left."

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

#215

Post by pc86 »

sandworm101 wrote: post #27
imglorp wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if it's not Rossi, whose design has been years in the making, I think a copycat is most likely here. Rossi's wing operates at 4000+ feet and 189mph, which is comparable to jets slowing down on long final. Those hobby jet engines are very expensive but off the shelf, and anyone can build a wing in their garage. The FAA would classify it as an aircraft (already has), and would like to talk to this operator. I thin…

It is also odd that they said "in a jetpack" rather than wearing or riding on/under a jetpack. Might this also be a very small but conventional aircraft? Might it be a mannequin mounted inside a smaller drone? Size gets distorted in these situations. (FYI those hobby jets are one option, but there are considerably more capable small jets available, mostly used for cruise missiles and heavy drones.)

Airline pilots typically earn their 1500-hour minimum for their license in "small but conventional aircraft" so the odds of them mistaking one for a jetpack is approximately zero.

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

#216

Post by [deleted] »

kumarvvr wrote: post #157
Johnny555 wrote: post #91

As amusing as this is, it highlights how fragile air travel is -- someone managed to fly a 200 lb payload within a couple hundred feet of an airliner on final approach. And apparently did so anonymously since there was no mention of who or exactly what it was. It wouldn't be hard to maneuver it right in front of the airliner and cause a collision. While the aircraft would likely survive an engine strike, at only a fe…

Yup. Air Travel is very fragile. That is why I never understand people who back flying car projects.

[deleted]

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

#217

Post by hinkley »

snapetom wrote: post #210
elteto wrote: 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's probably recordings publicly available somewhere, but I thought the same thing when listening to the Columbia disaster. It was the first space disaster play out in real time over the internet. NASA streamed mission control communication on their site. We got everything unfiltered. The nation just lost a pride and joy, and mission control was incredibly calm and professional throughout. I was constantly hittin…

I was still in school, and science class happened to line up with the [Challenger] disaster. We had a substitute so I was used to that class being Bedlam anyway.

I walked in and didn't believe people when they said what happened. (I had a similar reaction when my spouse woke me up at the crack of dawn by announcing "They knocked down the Towers!") Then the sub rolls in a TV cart. Oh.

The other thing that struck me was that nobody editorialized what they were seeing. I knew that the twin smoke trails spiraling off to the sites were the SRBs, three seconds into the video. There was nothing else they could possibly be. But the announcer was very clear to say they might be the SRBs but we don't know anything yet. As an adult having sat through many lower-stakes RCA and production outage situations, I can respect their reserve. As a child it just made me even more upset.

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

#219

Post by hinkley »

tezza wrote: post #184

Maybe it was Elon Musk, bored with the Pig already ?

"God damnit Elon, this is not an appropriate way to celebrate jumping to #1 on the Richest People list."

Seriously though, pissing off the FAA would be, I think, the last thing a board member of SpaceX would want to do.

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

#220

Post by jimktrains2 »

smachiz wrote: post #133
jimktrains2 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Listening to the atc recording of Southwest 1380 incident, the pilot goes "we have an engine failure and I'm told a passenger has been sucked out" there's a pause and ATC goes, with some shock in his voice, "what?" Before the pilot responds, he quickly recovers and goes "it's not important, which runway would you like" and carries on as normal.

Amazing professionalism - and the whole thing is worth a listen to, but there wasn't any shock - he didn't even mention it, just presumably updated the medical team he was sending to the runway. https://youtu.be/FkVTdvcghHc?t=377

https://youtu.be/cnSizWZVyD4?t=387 at 6:50ish in this one at responds. "You said there is a hole and someone went out? It doesn't matter, we'll work it out. The airport is just off your right." I guess it's not as "shocked" or "in disbelief" as I remember it being the first time I listened to it. (I vividly remember the first time I heard this, hence why I had to go look for it or figure out what I was remembering.)
Post reply on HN