Meadowbank
I cannot leave your last post unanswered.
You wrote:
<< Quote:
the driver was on 027m, and must have turned the Horizontal Situation Indicator course selector (not the heading bug) - the course selector that your track bars work off when you're referring to a radio navaid or STANS waypoint - a whole 8 degrees
There is no 'must have' here. A pilot flying towards the end of the Mull has most probably selected it as an unmistakable feature with vertical extent, which he could probably see from 30 miles away and would therefore have no need of the course track bars.>>
From Aldergrove to getting their feet wet was about 24 naut miles, about 10 miles of it over the Antrim hills; this left them 16 n miles to the Mull.
On a clear day you would have to be above the Antrim hills to have LOS to the Mull.
A contributor on this thread who was flying in the Antrim hills area that day has said that vis was sh**ty there.
Boeing’s analysis concluded that they had held 027m closely from Aldergrove to the posn of waypoint change.
Are you seriously suggesting that a professional pilot in those conditions, the one that was doing the driving, would not have had that track (027) on his HSI course selector? – and that he had held to that track for so long and so well in those conditions without doing so?
And that it just happened to have been left on 035? – a coincidence?
And you wonder why I cannot take statements from you lot at face value.
The other points briefly:
Heading bug – I was agreeing with you that it wouldn’t have been worthwhile setting it for such a small turn but I was also clearing up your apparent confusion between the Attitude Indicator and the Horizontal Situation Indicator in a 47D/HC2 – try reading that bit again.
<<Quote:
suppose the altimeter settings didn't matter either
I guess you're making this remark somewhat facetiously but, actually, in the big scheme of things they didn't. If flying VFR, the altitude reference would be the Radalt and even that would not be followed exactly.>>
Was it not Cazatou who commented some time ago that there was a requirement to have the regional QNH set on the baro alts unless immediately approaching an aerodrome? The handling pilot’s baro alt was set as per a QFI at the level of that landing area.
That one of the RADALT alarms was set at minimum suggests an imminent landing or close pass in marginal conditions.
So you are saying that they were not following basic practices? – or that it was another coincidence that the settings were found as so?
<<Quote:
And I suppose the locals were mistaken about Chinooks landing near waypoint A
No, they may be right about Chinooks having landed there in the past, but that simply isn't relevant. There's no evidence that there was ever any intention of landing there during this flight that was intended to ferry passengers from Aldergrove to Inverness, without stopping on the Mull to pick up or drop off anybody.>>
“… isn’t relevant.” !!!!!????? Whatever they were supposed to have been doing, does it not merit mention that they crashed within a few hundred yards of a known landing area for that a/c type? Should this not have been brought up at the inquiries? With what little is said to be known about this crash, could this proximity to a suitable landing area have been considered as an indication that they were in trouble, for example, and wanted to land? Why was it not even brought up? Especially when waypoint A was spot on for an inner marker for this area.
Your comparison of my suggested scenario <<, such as a 3rd party luring ZD576 to its doom on the hillside, in much the same way as mermaids are supposed to have done to sailors.>> didn’t have to relate to anything mythical – others have given examples of false signals deceiving a/c on this thread in the recent past.
If this is the best that you can do, it is you who should be embarrassed.
While I do not enjoy being embarrassed myself, it is a small price to pay to ask questions that I think may be relevant, or to put forward suggestions for others to think outside the box – I have always hoped that by boldly pushing forward such views, I may have opened the scope for others to contribute who, for obvious reasons, may have been reluctant.
I do not abide by Homer Simpson’s First Rule of the Playground: “Never say anything unless you are sure that everyone around you will agree” – seems like many of you share the intellectual courage of Homer.