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Is this plane landing or departing? (2017)

aviation.stackexchange.com

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Re: Is this plane landing or departing? (2017)

#41

Post by jessriedel »

dbatten wrote: post #4

I remember this showing up in the SO sidebar a long time ago (what a time-suck that thing is). At the time, I remember thinking that some of these people must be trolling - and I still do. For example, the people arguing that the wheels have already touched down. It seems abundantly obvious to me that the wheels have NOT touched down, and that the small strip of black asphalt running parallel to the wheels is a taxi-…

Based on the later-discovered extra photos, it appears that the taxi-way in the background (which, as you say, is clearly much further from the camera than the landing plane due to the tiny small aircraft parked along it) is nearly perfectly overlapping with the actual runway, so that at the moment of touchdown the wheels look like they are touching both the runway and the background taxi-way. The larger blacktop with yellow lines in the foreground of the picture is a second taxi-way (closer to the camera than the runway, and clearly offset from it visually). This in particular can be seen by the fourth photo in the time series, the one taken immediately after the OP photo.

The quirky features of OP photo are such a nerd snipe, and the later finding the complete photo series is just so convenient, that I'm tempted to think the whole Stack Exchange post was planned.

Re: Is this plane landing or departing? (2017)

#42

Post by joncrane »

criddell wrote: post #22
joncrane wrote: post #6

Do you think it's possible that Air Force One Pilots are instructed to land at unconventional spots on the runway to foil potential threats? Perhaps even to land at different spots on the runway on different landings? I know it sounds far-fetched, but my mom who was the "Cultural Affairs Officer" at the US Embassy in San Jose Costa Rica was instructed to take a different route from home to the embassy and back every…

I've never been able to find it again, but I distinctly remember seeing video of Air Force One taking off from Sarasota on September 11, 2001. In my memory it was far louder than normal and climbed at a very steep angle. I've always wondered if I was imagining that or if they really did act more aggressively to gain altitude quickly.

I know in combat zones military cargo planes haul ass at much steeper angles than commercial flights because comfort is not an issue. Mostly to get out of rocket/missle range. Even small arms fire can damage engines.

on 9/11 it would have made sense to tell everyone to strap TF in we're going out hot!

Re: Is this plane landing or departing? (2017)

#43

Post by criddell »

joncrane wrote: post #42
criddell wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never been able to find it again, but I distinctly remember seeing video of Air Force One taking off from Sarasota on September 11, 2001. In my memory it was far louder than normal and climbed at a very steep angle. I've always wondered if I was imagining that or if they really did act more aggressively to gain altitude quickly.

I know in combat zones military cargo planes haul ass at much steeper angles than commercial flights because comfort is not an issue. Mostly to get out of rocket/missle range. Even small arms fire can damage engines. on 9/11 it would have made sense to tell everyone to strap TF in we're going out hot!

I just searched for it and I found a story about Air Force One that morning in Sarasota:

https://www.jacksonville.com/news/20160904/anderson-morning-...

> Air Force One — the 747 that transports the President of the United States — took off in an unconventional direction and climbed nearly straight-up, like a rocket, at 8,000 feet per minute in the direction of the Gulf of Mexico. No one had ever seen such a steep and urgent ascent.

That's quite a trajectory for a 747.

Re: Is this plane landing or departing? (2017)

#44

Post by joncrane »

criddell wrote: post #43
joncrane wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know in combat zones military cargo planes haul ass at much steeper angles than commercial flights because comfort is not an issue. Mostly to get out of rocket/missle range. Even small arms fire can damage engines. on 9/11 it would have made sense to tell everyone to strap TF in we're going out hot!

I just searched for it and I found a story about Air Force One that morning in Sarasota: https://www.jacksonville.com/news/20160904/anderson-morning-... > Air Force One — the 747 that transports the President of the United States — took off in an unconventional direction and climbed nearly straight-up, like a rocket, at 8,000 feet per minute in the direction of the Gulf of Mexico. No one had ever seen such a steep an…

Nice detective work!

Re: Is this plane landing or departing? (2017)

#45

Post by na85 »

usrusr wrote: post #19
justusthane wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My uninformed intuition would be that trying to land the plane differently each time would introduce more risk than it would protect against (and what threats would it even protect against?).

You might be right with that suspicion, but if the person responsible for procedures puts up a rule demanding unpredictable runway usage they have done their job Very Well. A cautious "this might not be such a good idea actually" however will make them seem weak in certain eyes and might even make them some personal enemies, for displaying lack of trust in the pilots' abilities. I suspect that nobody without the care…

That's... not how military aviation works. The people flying the plane (Lieutenant-Colonels) are junior/subordinate to the people making the rules (usually 1- and 2-star Generals).

Re: Is this plane landing or departing? (2017)

#46

Post by nexuist »

I don't understand why nobody asked OP the exact date and time this picture was taken, which they would certainly have if they are the original photographer.

With a date and time you can easily cross reference press schedules (released by the White House) or flight plan data (archived by FlightRadar24 among others) or Twitter posts or other published photographs or....etc. AF1 isn't exactly a stealth fighter; its location at least domestically is rather well tracked.

Re: Is this plane landing or departing? (2017)

#48

Post by dehrmann »

kube-system wrote: post #31
amelius wrote: post #10

This is why I don't understand why people like to take photographs of planes. They look the same every time! (The same holds for cars).

They don’t always look the same though. Even as a very casual airplane enthusiast, I sometimes like to look back at older pictures of a plane to see what it looked like older paint schemes or under previous owners. Also, the planes/cars are somewhere in space and time, and the picture captures that.

I'm halfway interested in planes, but I actually find old liveries more interesting than seeing yet another 737.

Re: Is this plane landing or departing? (2017)

#49

Post by mannykannot »

dbatten wrote: post #4

I remember this showing up in the SO sidebar a long time ago (what a time-suck that thing is). At the time, I remember thinking that some of these people must be trolling - and I still do. For example, the people arguing that the wheels have already touched down. It seems abundantly obvious to me that the wheels have NOT touched down, and that the small strip of black asphalt running parallel to the wheels is a taxi-…

As one person pointed out on the site, the shadow of the airplane can just be made out on the actual runway, while it is clearly missing from the ramp / taxiway in the foreground.

The wheels are, in fact, off the ground, but only just, as revealed by the smoke in the next image of the sequence.

I, too, was convinced by the absense of heat blur.

Re: Is this plane landing or departing? (2017)

#50

Post by svachalek »

criddell wrote: post #43
joncrane wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know in combat zones military cargo planes haul ass at much steeper angles than commercial flights because comfort is not an issue. Mostly to get out of rocket/missle range. Even small arms fire can damage engines. on 9/11 it would have made sense to tell everyone to strap TF in we're going out hot!

I just searched for it and I found a story about Air Force One that morning in Sarasota: https://www.jacksonville.com/news/20160904/anderson-morning-... > Air Force One — the 747 that transports the President of the United States — took off in an unconventional direction and climbed nearly straight-up, like a rocket, at 8,000 feet per minute in the direction of the Gulf of Mexico. No one had ever seen such a steep an…

Wow, interesting. I used to work as a civilian for the Navy and if you needed to get to another Navy base you could usually hop on whatever plane was headed that way next. Kind of a fun experience and I thought they tended to take off more aggressively than commercial flights, but nothing like that!
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