Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders ID'd in WA plane crash • Hacker News Board

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

#181

Post by ominous_prime » Sat, Jun 08, 2024, 12:44 PM UTC

tjohns wrote: post #25

parsimo2010 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve seen a few people mentioning medical certifications, but nobody has mentioned that 8 years ago the FAA passed a system called BasicMed which allows pilots to continue flying without getting a medical examination as long as they meet certain conditions. The plane must not exceed 6,000 lbs and must carry less than six passengers. You also can’t have failed your last medical exam. The plane he crashed had a maximum…

You still need to get a physical (and sign off) from your primary doc every few years under BasicMed. Just not a full FAA flight physical. If someone has not had a documented physical at all in 8 years, they're not legal to fly. This is also a matter of public record, you can look up exactly what medical class he's operating under and when his last physical exam was on the FAA website. There no need to speculate. Edi…

The FAA only knows when you last took the BasicMed quiz and attested that you will follow the rules. Getting a physical, storing the form signed by the doctor, and maintaining a valid drivers license are up to the individual.

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

#182

Post by detourdog » Sat, Jun 08, 2024, 12:46 PM UTC

insaneirish wrote: post #67

toomuchtodo wrote: post #3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Anders He took the Earthrise photo, which Nature photographer Galen Rowell described as "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthrise https://www.abc.net.au/science/moon/earthrise.htm

> He took the Earthrise photo, which Nature photographer Galen Rowell described as "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthrise Heh. I'd never read/heard that quote before. But no one's photos have touched me more than Galen Rowell's, so it bears an incredible amount of weight to read. Thank you for sharing it.

I don't know how true this story is but here is one version of the creation of the photo.

https://www.coquelicot-translation.com/picture-earth-earthri...

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

#183

Post by lotsofpulp » Sat, Jun 08, 2024, 12:58 PM UTC

sethammons wrote: post #177

TechDebtDevin wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the obvious degradation of the body's capabilities and its potential failure points (potentially increased by traveling 300mph at 10,000 ft). Commenter is right, 90 year olds shouldn't be driving cars let alone flying. Incredibly irresponsible. Also there's really nothing that cool or heroic about dedicating your life to testing and operating flying death machines on behalf of a military. Get a grip.

Get outta here with this ageist crap. I've know several 90+ year olds who are fully capable of independence and driving. My grandma was one of them. Hell, I watched a 93 year old deadlift 450lbs. While the likelihood of some 90 year old being too old for something is high, that means less when looking at an individual.

And 10 to 12 year olds can drive too. I wonder why governments of developed countries ban them from driving outright. Most places don’t even let 14 to 15 year olds drive.

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

#184

Post by jrootabega » Sat, Jun 08, 2024, 1:04 PM UTC

sillysaurusx wrote: post #39

jrootabega wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Does a solo plane crash have a statistically smaller chance of hurting anybody else?

I don't think it matters. Too much risk of a crash, hurting multiple people, one person, damaging property, triggering emergency response, is reckless.

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

#185

Post by SigmundA » Sat, Jun 08, 2024, 1:04 PM UTC

MobiusHorizons wrote: post #59

jefftk wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

nit: the T-34 Mentor is a propellor plane

Turboprop, I guess you are both basically right

Turboprops are not jets, it is the wrong term.

A turbine engine may be a jet engine or it may not in the case of a turboprop.

Jet aircraft use jet propulsion not propeller propulsion.

A jet gets significant thrust from exhaust gases, a turboprop gets almost none from exhaust gases, some turboprops actually are reversed intake in the rear pushing exhaust out the front like the PT6.

Turbofans are considered jet propulsion as the both the exhaust gas and fan gas are pushing though an exhaust orifice rather than the fan being in open air as is the case with a turbo-prop.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_propulsion

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

#186

Post by sethammons » Sat, Jun 08, 2024, 1:15 PM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #183

sethammons wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get outta here with this ageist crap. I've know several 90+ year olds who are fully capable of independence and driving. My grandma was one of them. Hell, I watched a 93 year old deadlift 450lbs. While the likelihood of some 90 year old being too old for something is high, that means less when looking at an individual.

And 10 to 12 year olds can drive too. I wonder why governments of developed countries ban them from driving outright. Most places don’t even let 14 to 15 year olds drive.

There is a difference between having something and then losing it vs not having it yet. If you get a license to do a thing you should be able to keep doing it until you are deemed incapable and that will vary between people.

Also, plenty of children those ages drive on private property, especially farms. There are kids doing backflip jumps on dirt bikes at those ages. Many of them are likely safer to be driving than others who are of "prime" age. I drove with a 30yo who terrified me with his dangerous lack of skill.

People are variable in capacity and skill. The bureaucracy finds it more manageable to put policy in place than to determine individual skill.

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

#187

Post by robohoe » Sat, Jun 08, 2024, 1:28 PM UTC

K0balt wrote: post #175

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.

This is precisely why I have elected to put off my riskier hobbies until my later years. I find my tolerance for risk goes up as I become less instruyan in the lives of my loved ones. One day, I’ll feel free to take the risks implicit in my stupider ambitions.

If you make it that long

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

#188

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jun 08, 2024, 1:31 PM UTC

INTPenis wrote: post #153

bicx wrote: post #5

I saw the headline earlier, and my first thought was "I hope he was the pilot, because that would be a fitting way to go for a legend." Not only was he the pilot, but he was flying solo at 90 years old.

[flagged]

[deleted]

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

#189

Post by throwup238 » Sat, Jun 08, 2024, 1:38 PM UTC

krisoft wrote: post #139

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 ca…

> 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?

More than one step closer! Being bedridden is usually the beginning of the end. Once you can’t even get basic exercise done, everything starts to degrade rapidly.

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

#190

Post by iamtheworstdev » Sat, Jun 08, 2024, 1:40 PM UTC

satisfice wrote: post #144

I once met Bill Anders on Orcas Island. Years ago I was making a video about describing a stone that I found on an Orcas beach, and I was consulting with geologists and biologists. I met at a local cafe with a marine biologist to get her opinion about barnacles on the stone. As we were talking, a man at the next table mentioned that he thought the stone was possibly volcanic. He also said he had a petrologist friend…

> I suspect his crash was a suicide.

I wouldn't count on that. Most of us wouldn't do that to the aviation world. Decreases plane availability, especially for something like a T-34 Mentor, increases insurance rates, increases FAA stance on already asinine policies, etc.

occams razor - he misjudged his aerobatics.