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

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

#41

Post by mulmen »

rmason wrote: post #31
ls612 wrote: post #28

Man flys to the moon and back, and then 55 years later as a 91 year old dies flying a jet aircraft. Some are just built different.

In my opinion Chuck Yeager was the best pilot ever. A World War 2 ace who shot down 13 German planes. First to break the sound barrier. But Yeager took his last flight in a jet at 79 (with a copilot) and surrendered his pilots license at age 80. I am not taking anything away from William Anders but 91 might have been just too old to be responsibly flying a jet.

The T-34 is not a jet.

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

#42

Post by leetcrew »

BSOhealth wrote: post #4

All respect, this guy is was ~91. I’m uncomfortable driving with my mom. As a total layperson, what sort of tests does a person have to pass annually(?) to maintain a pilot’s license? Or is this dude just so O.G. that he was bound to go out living his dream?

overall, the bar for skills and medical is significantly higher for flying vs driving. the other comments do a good job addressing the specifics.

it's worth keeping in mind that the sky is a big place. so is the ground when you're not driving a car. it's not a great idea to keep flying in your 90s, but it's extremely unlikely that anyone gets hurt who didn't choose to be in the plane.

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

#43

Post by PyWoody »

WhackyIdeas wrote: post #33
nvy wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an open secret in the aviation community that large numbers of aging boomers are medically unfit to fly but are able to maintain their medicals, for a variety of reasons.

I personally don’t think that people that age should be driving even a car in public. Any time I am stuck behind a car driving slow, eg. doing 30 on a 60, it’s an old person. It’s dangerous, nearly seen so many accidents with people overtaking. But then again, if it’s someone’s own plane and there’s little risk to anyone but themself, then maybe fire in. But wow should the insurance be through the roof.

I try to be sympathetic to older drivers. I can't imagine what it's like to be 70+, have no immediate family or friends, but still be a half an hour from the closest grocery store.

Until we properly take care of our elders, I don't know what else they can do.

Meals On Wheels, et alia are saviours, imho.

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

#44

Post by thfuran »

leetcrew wrote: post #42
BSOhealth wrote: post #4

All respect, this guy is was ~91. I’m uncomfortable driving with my mom. As a total layperson, what sort of tests does a person have to pass annually(?) to maintain a pilot’s license? Or is this dude just so O.G. that he was bound to go out living his dream?

overall, the bar for skills and medical is significantly higher for flying vs driving. the other comments do a good job addressing the specifics. it's worth keeping in mind that the sky is a big place. so is the ground when you're not driving a car. it's not a great idea to keep flying in your 90s, but it's extremely unlikely that anyone gets hurt who didn't choose to be in the plane.

Though you still leave a big fucking mess for someone to deal with.

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

#47

Post by nvy »

glenstein wrote: post #18
nvy wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an open secret in the aviation community that large numbers of aging boomers are medically unfit to fly but are able to maintain their medicals, for a variety of reasons.

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?

I doubt there are reports. Such is the nature of open secrets. Once they're reported in an official fashion they cease to be "secret" and regulators' hands are forced.

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

#48

Post by avalys »

jrootabega wrote: post #32
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]

That’s how I plan to go out.

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

#49

Post by KennyBlanken »

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?

Crashes are most common on takeoff and landing, and that means you're over populated areas.

GA and military crashes that kill people on the ground happen all the time. Used to happen all the time at airshows, too - until airshows adopted very strict rules around planes never having a trajectory that heads towards the audience.

But that's all beside the point. A 90 year old has no business flying a fighter jet, and I don't care if he was a former astronaut or not. He certainly didn't have any business doing so alone.

Reaction time goes down dramatically with age and nothing can be done about that. Mental capacity diminishes, too; mistakes skyrocket, which is why we have so many elderly people ramming their cars into convenience stores and such. Health risks like a stroke, especially in an aircraft that can generate high g's.The body's tolerance for heat and cold goes down.

It was incredibly selfish of him to keep flying.

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

#50

Post by knodi123 »

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?

most plane crashes are at takeoff or landing, which means it's not as simple as calculating how populated their flight path is.... but yes, it's pretty rare to be smooshed by a plane.
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