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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

#381

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…

All sorts of transportation are very fragile. Everyone with a driver's license is trusted with operating tons of steel that can move at enormous speeds. Society's based on some amount of mutual trust. We can't lock everything down and treat every person as a potential criminal. That leads to an inefficient and dystopian country.

> Everyone with a driver's license is trusted with operating tons of steel that can move at enormous speeds.

That's why you have to pay for insurance (in most places at least) so that you are pre-paying for your liability.

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

#382
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think you're talking about alpine climbing or mountaineering. Rock climbing in the modern sense does not mean that, and overhangs (not undercling, that means something else) are very common.

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

#383
post #365
post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the non-pilots: if ATC gives you a phone number to call after you land, it means you really screwed up. (It's the number for the supervisor, who is thinking about filing a "pilot deviation report" with the FAA.)

This thread spurred me to listen to some clips, and I just happened across an 'I'll give you the number when you're ready to copy' example: https://youtube.com/watch?v=mUSUXnr4dSo

Another one

https://youtu.be/OrRRMoDC_jA

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

#384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few /thousand/ feet AGL is more than enough time for the autothrottle to recover without the autopilot (or the PF) needing to sacrifice speed to maintain the glideslope (assuming no other systems on the plane were damaged, of course). At even 1000 feet, you're still more than a minute from touchdown, which is enough time for the PNF to recognise the problem and run the engine shutdown checklist. It would be much mo…

Definitely more detrimental on takeoff than on landing I would think.

The so-called V-speeds are calculated before takeoff; the 3 most prominent are V1 (the speed at which, during the takeoff roll, it is no longer safe to abort the takeoff, because you are going too fast. If anything goes wrong past this point, you continue the takeoff anyway), Vr (rotation, i.e. pulling the yoke/stick back, getting into the air), and V2 (the safe single-engine-failure climb-out speed).

Immediately before takeoff, the autothrottle is configured to maintain V2 speed; so no, an engine failure on takeoff is an event you are always already prepared for.

EDIT: For the 777 for example, and (that I know of) all other Boeing aircraft and probably Airbus too (but don't quote me on that), you can also see your V-speeds on the speed tape during the takeoff roll. This video shows them on the 777, they're the green numbers on the far left. The flight crew also calls them out. Finally, the green arrow pointing upwards or downwards is the projection of what your speed will be 10 seconds from now. Note how the programmed speed (top left, purple) is the V2 speed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw9P-aMFYE0

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

#385
post #67
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zapata’s Flyboard Air has much the same capabilities, as doors the Gravity Industries suit.

Seem not, maximum 100 mph (edit: for flyboard. Gravity Industries max is 84 mph) https://atlanticflyboard.com/flyboard-air https://gravity.co/experience/

Oh cmon, 16mph difference in top speed is still "much the same".

Yves Rossy's wing: Optimized for forward flight, has VTOL capability, bulky.

Zapata's flyboard: Good middle ground, VTOL with decent speed, restricts ground movement.

Gravity jetsuit: Optimized for hovering, lightweight, can walk in it.

They're all doing much the same thing though, strap some jets onto a human and allow them to fly with VTOL.

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

#386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever I watch this video and the other jetman videos I can't help but try to find anomalies or something wrong in the video to somehow try and prove that it is CGI (which I know it's not).

From another viewpoint: people fly turbine-powered model aircraft all the time. Why wouldn't you believe it?

Those turbine-powered models aren't carrying 100+ kg of payload?

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

#387
post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

"There's a guy on rollerskates doing 85 on the freeway... oh my bad, it's actually a Ford Fiesta."

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

#388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need a TWR anywhere near 1.0. You need that to take off vertically, but if you are willing to jump out of a helicopter you can probably get away with TWRs closer to 0.35 to maintain level flight.

Even the Helicopter may not be necessary if you can start with a BASE jump. Or set up a catapult.

Or a kite!

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

#389
post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 2020 the sitting US president was impeached, we saw a massive stock market crash, a global pandemic, the worst civil unrest in the US in 50 years, massive wildfires all over california, and are heading into what will almost definitely be a contested election where we won't know who won the most contentious presidential election in the last century likely far past what the inauguration date is supposed to be. I thi…

> In 2020 the sitting US president was impeached Coming from someone who has used this against Clinton many times, having a congress with majority control by the opposition party pass articles of impeachment along party lines isn't really that big a deal. > a global pandemic The global campaign to make people aware of it would not have been as effective without modern information infrastructure. Think about Google, f…

You are missing the forest for the trees. Yes we have access to more info than before, but for example not much more than we did in 2010. In fact in 2010 the signal to noise ratio was much higher.

I am not going to go point by point with you because frankly I don’t feel like it, but I can tell you that you are way off mark on all of them. As a sampling:

This pandemic has affected everything in a way that no other pandemic in the past has. The Ebola outbreak was the last thing we had dealt with as far as global health crises go and it pales in comparison. The Spanish Flu was in the era before TVs. Yet it was clearly such a huge global event that we all still know about it. 100 years from now COVID will be talked about abs studied. It is huge.

Trump’s admin couldn’t exist without Twitter. In a nutshell the GOP could tell that progressives as well as establishment democrats were starting to gain momentum under Obama while the Tea Party did major damage to the image of the GOP as the grown up party. So they sold their party to Trump and got his followers in the bargain. His followers are young, tech savvy, and very enthusiastic so short term it’s a good gamble. But imagine if any one of the Trump scandals has dropped for any other President. None of them could have survived it because none of them had the kind of blind cult behind them. Also, our president has a fucking cult. How is that not rare?

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

#390
post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From another viewpoint: people fly turbine-powered model aircraft all the time. Why wouldn't you believe it?

Well for one, where is the fuel? Seems like it would take a tremendous amount of fuel and there are no visible fuel tanks on the jetpack.

That depends on how long you want to fly for.
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