501–510 of 738 posts
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In addition, ATC is not allowed to go on strike, limiting the degree to which they can bargain for better working conditions, pay, etc.
Then why is there an ATC union if, apparently, it can't affect any change?
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Maybe if the orders weren't so ineptly or maliciously ambiguous and overly broad, then people would have more confidence that safety critical jobs aren't being cut.
DCA has two runways. The longer runway is aligned with the river’s north/south direction at that point, so planes flying the approach to this runway from the south track along the western shore of the river, leaving the eastern shore clear for other aircraft like helicopters. The vast majority of flights on approach from the south [1] use this longer runway. The secondary runway is set at a diagonal NW/SE. Planes fly…
I work at NRL, east of DCA and about 500 yards south of the crash. Can confirm that it is not unusual for flights to pass directly overhead of us, however I don’t understand the statement that this was a new flight path.
I sometimes wonder about the value of these news stories on forums and social media. It's all pretty much wild speculation with several potential causes already mentioned on this forum. News important yes, every rando with a few shreds of factoids speculating, not so much.
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Congress directed the FAA--by law--to delegate certain aspects of certification to non-FAA entities. This directive was issued by H.R. 302 - FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018, 115th Congress.
Is that the 49 USC 44736 Organization designation authorizations part?[1] [1] https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/302/...
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> over noisy radio I've been told the noise on the recordings is always a lot worse than in practice due to the location of the recording antenna not being ideal. I have no idea if this is correct or not. Maybe someone can enlighten this.
I watch a lot of pilots on Youtube. Most of them use some kind of audio splitter to record sound. You hear what the pilot hears. But minus the plane noise, vibrations, etc (unless that's mixed in via some open microphone). So, it's actually better. So, it really is that bad. Especially when flying low, on the edge of the range of the radios, etc. VHF radio is ancient technology. It's not great even under ideal condit…
The common splitters you can buy to break out your headset connector to a recorder don't account for the signal level, which is very high on the headset connectors as aviation headsets are traditionally pretty high impedance. I've struggled with the headset audio blowing out even a fairly nice recorder (a Zoom) with the gain turned all the way down. Phones and pocket reporters don't even offer a gain adjustment and the recording can end up almost unusable. In a lot of YouTube videos of pilots, even most, it's pretty obvious that it's clipping at the recorder the whole time. Perhaps even worse, a lot of people are using like a GoPro with auto-gain, so you get the worst of both worlds: it ramps up gain until the noise is loud, and then when someone starts talking, it ramps down the gain, but a little too slowly, and it's still clipping even when it hits minimum.
It's not very common to have trouble understanding the controller when in the air. AM radio at line of sight (as is the case when you're flying) is pretty robust. Maybe the hardest thing to understand are helicopter pilots because there's often rotor noise on their end.
"FAA Got Rid of Its Leader Before D.C. Plane Crash—Thanks to Elon Musk": * https://newrepublic.com/post/190942/faa-no-leader-dc-plane-c... "FAA Administrator Quit on Jan. 20 After Elon Musk Told Him to Resign": * https://www.thedailybeast.com/faa-chief-michael-whitaker-qui... "The FAA is facing a major crisis without a leader because Elon Musk pushed him out* * https://www.theverge.com/news/603113/faa-chief-musk-dc-p…
If we see more accidents a year from now, you have a point. The most you can really blame on leadership changes right now is stress from worrying about your next paycheck. Even then, this looks like a military pilot screwed up doing a routine training exercise.
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Ronald Reagan?
wasn't the situation then that the air traffic controllers walked off on strike, so new replacements had to be made to keep planes flying, which was realized by firings? (i was pretty young then, but that's what i remember reading)
source: my uncle was an ATC during the strike. I believe he was a shift lead/supervisor and was NOT part of the walk out. He was appalled at how bad the replacements were and was going crazy trying to get them up to snuff.