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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

#271

Post by nunez »

natcombs wrote: post #32
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 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."

> I don't think any ATC lost their cool in any of the recordings I've listened to.

Tune into LGA or JFK on any given Thursday; examples for miles

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

#272

Post by sudosysgen »

intotheabyss wrote: post #128
snarfy wrote: post #16

I recognize those 'jetcat' engines. https://www.jetcat.de

Those are a lot cheaper than I expected them to be

Swiwin makes even cheaper, more powerful ones. 6000$ retail for a 400N jet. Though, it is a Chinese company, so I would test the engines pretty carefully and a carry a parachute just in case.

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

#273

Post by greyhair »

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?”

My father was a corporate pilot. Occasionally he had flights alone where he was picking up or delivering materials or light freight. He used to occasionally pull me out of school as a kid if he was flying alone, and I would ride in the right seat.

Once, flying from Western NY to Peoria Illinois, the tower came on to ask if he could find a pilot in the area, single engine, that was lost and in a slight panic. They new where he was, he had his transponder on, but were having difficulty getting him to follow directions. We were flying a light twin turboprop (Mitsubishi MU2-B) which can easily drop to low air speeds. We found the guy, and he followed off our left wing, so my father could keep an eye on him, and we took him to where he had clear visual of his destination airport. We then just continued on our way.

I had a headset on, and the flight controllers were so calm talking to that other pilot. It was like listening to Fred Rogers. I think my father only said a dozen words the whole time, acknowledging the request, declaring visual, and declaring visual on the airport.

We just continued our trip, but we did hear the other pilot declare base and final.

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

#274

Post by Mountain_Skies »

jcrawfordor wrote: post #263
sudosysgen wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Derailing a train is an ordeal, though, and it's fairly easy to surveil against it. I'm fairly certain just blowing up the locomotive is less effort against modern networked rails.

Interference with railroad property, primarily oriented towards theft and even hijacking trains, was a very serious problem for much of railroad history. Ongoing issues with everything from train robberies to theft of the actual rails is what lead to major railroads forming some of the first nationwide law enforcement organizations. The FBI, for example, was directly modeled on the Union Pacific Railroad Police. Whil…

A used rocket launcher was found next to the tracks for the transit system in Atlanta a few years back. Don't know if they ever found out how it got there but it certainly gave some uneasiness that there might be someone around looking to blow up passing passenger rail cars.

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

#275

Post by kens »

pjc50 wrote: post #179
achow wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well at the risk of sounding pedantic, things on rails - railways, metro/subway etc. are not in same category.

Wasn't there a guy who crashed the train he was driving because he'd been radicalised by Q nonsense?

Yes, a train engineer at the Port of Los Angeles intentionlly crashed his train in April because he was suspicious of the nearby Navy hospital ship Mercy.

'“You only get this chance once. The whole world is watching. I had to," Moreno told investigators, according to the complaint. "People don’t know what’s going on here. Now they will.”'

(Nothing about this story makes sense to me.)

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-military/2020/04/02/trai...

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

#276

Post by sandworm101 »

pc86 wrote: post #262
sandworm101 wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I probably have 5000+ hours driving cars. That doesn't mean I don't occasionally confuse one type of road vehicle for another, especially when dealing with odd/rare types.

Would they confuse two particular models of twin-engine piston Cessna? Maybe (but still, probably not). Will they confuse a seaplane for a blimp? No.

Or report a weather balloon as a UFO? Or see a plastic bag and report it as a drone? Or try to land on the taxiway thinking it is a runway? Such mistakes happen regularly. Given the lack of photography in this case, I lean towards misidentification rather than a rocketman on approach to LAX.

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

#277

Post by jschwartzi »

ahelwer wrote: post #84
rozab wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Some weight would be supported by aerodynamic effects once you start moving (I've seen videos where they have a squirrel suit-like web between their legs). Holding yourself up like that is probably comparable in strength/endurance requirements to other sports like rock climbing, which still manage to be very popular. This design has a fitness prerequisite, which is okay. It's probably only the extreme sports crowd th…

Mostly you climb with your legs not your hands. Undercling is considered comparatively really beefy vs pitches that are mostly vertical.

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

#278

Post by Mountain_Skies »

solarkraft wrote: post #246
sudosysgen wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Derailing a train is an ordeal, though, and it's fairly easy to surveil against it. I'm fairly certain just blowing up the locomotive is less effort against modern networked rails.

Anecdote time: I was in a train that hit a bunch of concrete slabs at medium speed (60 km/h?) and all I noticed was that it rapidly stopped. But that was a relatively undetermined attack. What if someone welds something directly on to the rails or cuts something out? It may get noticed in tens of minutes, but is that really fast enough? Similarly it seems like it wouldn't be insanely hard to poison water supplies, do…

Years ago I knew someone who worked for the local waterworks and asked what they do to prevent the water supply from being poisoned. He said while they do test on a regular basis, the real security is in the dilution factor as you'd need a really large quantity of any poison to effectively contaminate a reservoir. A biological contaminate that reproduces would be an easier attack but I'm guessing that's where the frequent testing comes in to catch it before it gets to a deadly concentration.

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

#280

Post by TT3351 »

vultour wrote: post #252
mrlala wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surprised there are not cameras recording what the pilots can see outside? Even if it's overwriting itself every few hours or something.. just to keep a record in case of something weird like this.

There aren't even cameras recording what's happening inside most airplanes.

This is fascinating to me, so many municipal buses are loaded with cameras (thinking particularly of Washington, DC), but they also are dealing with everyone who wanders in the bus off the street.
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