A4
Thank you
In the so-called “good old days” (they weren’t) the aircraft we flew were prone to failures and we were kept up to speed by real emergencies. The emergencies mostly happen in the simulator now and although you can sweat bullets doing the correct procedure well enough to keep the check pilot satisfied, it is a different kind of fear.
That leads to a situation where, when something real happens, like an engine failure, it’s almost hard to accept. The last one I lost was a new engine and was so unexpected it took me a few seconds to call for the right checklist. The flying was not a problem, but the procedure was, because it was unexpected.
The older airplanes had wires connected to controls, and the airplane had a distinct feel in different situations.
I’ve never flown a Gulfstream aircraft and I understand it to be a wonderful state of the art aircraft, but I wonder what kind of language it speaks to the pilot flying it?
I quit flying about twenty years ago, just when the glass cockpit was coming on board, and the most common quote in the cockpit then was “what is it doing now?” Many times, for a while, we weren’t completely sure, and we raised our personal minimums to meet the situation.
Just about this time the controls started getting complex, feeling like simulator controls, the reverse of what had always been the norm. It was always great to get back in the airplane because then it felt like a real airplane. Not so much anymore.
My flying was of a different type in another era and I have no business on this board, and I apologize, but I used to live in PA and Lewis Katz was a huge, huge, loss. When I looked at the situation it was then – and now – difficult to understand.
Good airplane, good pilots, good weather, what happened?
What can we learn from this?
Again . ..