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Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders ID'd in WA plane crash

fox13seattle.com

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Re: Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders ID'd in WA plane crash

#131

Post by sokoloff »

parsimo2010 wrote: post #23
glenstein wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any more you can say about (1) how you know this and/or (2) whether there are reports or books that talk about this at all?

This is the main way: https://www.faa.gov/licenses_certificates/airmen_certificati... Lots of old pilots in the general aviation community are on BasicMed.

FAA studied the results of BasicMed and found no statistically significant differences in crash rate between BasicMed and FAA/AME issued physicals.

https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/data_research/resear...

Re: Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders ID'd in WA plane crash

#132

Post by ojosilva »

larodi wrote: post #112
tzfld wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate this reasoning. Why is this a fitting way to die? What would be a fitting way to go for a cook or an athlete then?

Because an unfitting way to die is to be stuffed with tubes, half conscious in a bed, shitting your pants uncontrollably. The perspective of dying lying helpless in a hospital or care house is not very appealing to people who had an active life.

Dying in a last scream of fear, angst and struggle regretting a thousand things that may have gone wrong or maybe were just your fault, without having the chance to tell your loved ones how much you love them, and being remembered not only by the incredible flights where no one had gone before, but finally and uttermost by the one that ended your life which will be replayed endlessly in the internets.

Not sure what would be fitting to be honest.

Re: Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders ID'd in WA plane crash

#133

Post by cladopa »

wszrfcbhujnikm wrote: post #62
AmVess wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Intentional loop. He entered it too fast and too low. On the descent, he was going too fast for his aircraft to have any type of control authority and he was a passenger at that point. The aircraft basically stalled out in a dive, and with no cohesive airflow over the control surfaces, the aircraft continued to stall to the point of impact.

What could be the reasons for this? Misread the altitude? Sudden wind?

When doing loops there are rapid changes of acceleration, specially on inverted loops. It can make you pass out easily, even if you are young. Being 91 years old, I would be extra careful.

Re: Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders ID'd in WA plane crash

#134

Post by lordnacho »

ojosilva wrote: post #132
larodi wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because an unfitting way to die is to be stuffed with tubes, half conscious in a bed, shitting your pants uncontrollably. The perspective of dying lying helpless in a hospital or care house is not very appealing to people who had an active life.

Dying in a last scream of fear, angst and struggle regretting a thousand things that may have gone wrong or maybe were just your fault, without having the chance to tell your loved ones how much you love them, and being remembered not only by the incredible flights where no one had gone before, but finally and uttermost by the one that ended your life which will be replayed endlessly in the internets. Not sure what w…

I'm going to visit someone who is having it worse, in my opinion.

He's slowly deteriorating from Alzheimers. He won't acknowledge it and has become seriously grumpy. He used to know everyone in his town. He was a good guy. Now, everyone thinks he's an asshole. Everyone who didn't meet him before he started this decline has had a terrible time with him. He curses all the time.

Last week, he forgot to shut off the gas and was found unconscious by the fire department. Now, he will be in a care home against his wishes until the inevitable. This is not the first incident where police had to be phoned, either.

So he's gone from a week liked, active member of the community to being the grumpy old guy that the authorities have to be phoned about in just a couple of years.

I'm going to go see him for a final farewell later this month, I hope he recognises me.

Re: Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders ID'd in WA plane crash

#135

Post by pcl »

rconti wrote: post #117
TMWNN wrote: post #2

I learned about this from Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/1daolaw/rip_bill_and... >. Title edited by me from "WA" to "Washington State". Besides making history as the first human expedition to the Moon, Apollo 8 produced not one, but two future CEOs of Fortune 500 companies: Anders (General Dynamics) and Frank Borman (Eastern Airlines). Jim Lovell "merely" survived Apollo 13.

As a WA native: happy for the edit of the ambiguous and US-centric acronym WA -> Washington. Also as a WA native: screw those DC assholes, why are we the only state that have to append "state" to our name?

Well, at least you get representation in Congress!

Re: Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders ID'd in WA plane crash

#136

Post by gradascent »

ojosilva wrote: post #132
larodi wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because an unfitting way to die is to be stuffed with tubes, half conscious in a bed, shitting your pants uncontrollably. The perspective of dying lying helpless in a hospital or care house is not very appealing to people who had an active life.

Dying in a last scream of fear, angst and struggle regretting a thousand things that may have gone wrong or maybe were just your fault, without having the chance to tell your loved ones how much you love them, and being remembered not only by the incredible flights where no one had gone before, but finally and uttermost by the one that ended your life which will be replayed endlessly in the internets. Not sure what w…

Or maybe the final moment was a sigh of acceptance and gratitude for the live he lived. Nobody knows but him.

Re: Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders ID'd in WA plane crash

#137

Post by szvsw »

cjk2 wrote: post #130
tzfld wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate this reasoning. Why is this a fitting way to die? What would be a fitting way to go for a cook or an athlete then?

As a mathematician I'm going to fall on a slide rule and poke my brain through an eye socket. Yeah doesn't work does it.

Choke on chalk, nerd!

Or maybe have an aneurysm trying to remember some latex command.

Re: Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders ID'd in WA plane crash

#138

Post by simonh »

ojosilva wrote: post #132
larodi wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because an unfitting way to die is to be stuffed with tubes, half conscious in a bed, shitting your pants uncontrollably. The perspective of dying lying helpless in a hospital or care house is not very appealing to people who had an active life.

Dying in a last scream of fear, angst and struggle regretting a thousand things that may have gone wrong or maybe were just your fault, without having the chance to tell your loved ones how much you love them, and being remembered not only by the incredible flights where no one had gone before, but finally and uttermost by the one that ended your life which will be replayed endlessly in the internets. Not sure what w…

> Dying in a last scream of fear, angst and struggle regretting a thousand things that may have gone wrong or maybe were just your fault…

I think you’re projecting. I didn’t know him obviously, but from what people who did have said about him, that doesn’t seem like the way he’d go out.

Re: Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders ID'd in WA plane crash

#139

Post by krisoft »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #118

An absolute legend going out like a total badass. I know people will disagree but there is much to be said for living your life on your own terms and accepting the potential consequences without reservation. He was clearly one of those guys. He probably did not expect to die that day, but he knew he would die some day and he wasn’t going to nerf his life to buy a few more years.

My grandad at a ripe old age had a stroke and the doctors told him and the family that he won’t ever be able to walk. So he got a wheelchair and was eventually sent home to recuperate. A few days later my mom visited him and found him wheeling around in the wineyard. It seemed that my grandad (her dad), ever the engineer, pimped his ride to make it more off-road worthy and was in the process of figuring out how he can continue with yard maintenance in his new state.

My mum was very angry with him. From her perspective her dad was “risking his life” doing what he was doing. I tried to gently point out that while she is right that staying in bed would be safer for him, wouldn’t he be one step closer to the grave if he were to give up on his favourite activities?

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