Random Posting

[Citra47]

4 hours ago, Paul53 said:

In El Paso I saw C-5's coming out of Biggs Field. It's awe inspiring in several ways. For obvious reasons the C-5 has been called the "Aluminum overcast." Seeing something so big looking like it was flying far too slow messed with my senses. And due to the high bypass engines it was far too quiet. A J-3 cub makes more noise at take off.

While the C-5 is a great plane I still hold a special place in my heart for the C-130.  It's still the go-to, do anything tactical plane in the cargo and sometimes attack category (AC-130).  The first time I saw the C-5A was in late 1970 or early '71.  As it landed at Kadena AB it lost a wheel that went bounding down the flight line and the plane was grounded for a few weeks while it got a really good safety check and spare parts were flown in on a C-141 Starlifter.. 

[tous]

I remember building models of the C-130 as a lad and I'm almost 70 years old.

Great aircraft.

[DWARREN123]

Loved the C-130 as a Airborne grunt and have flown in the C-5A a few times, big bird.

[Citra47]

4 minutes ago, tous said:

I remember building models of the C-130 as a lad and I'm almost 70 years old.

Great aircraft.

Me too, accept I think I have you beat by a couple years …………………………………...?

[tous]

So, you know the wisdom of, When in doubt -- nap.

[Sigobsessed]

I’m ready for a nap!!!!!!!

[Silentpoet]

[pipedreams]

[Paul53]

[Paul53]

You'd think they would tell you this before  you arrive!

 

Edited April 16, 2019 by Paul53

[Paul53]

[Silentpoet]

[Eric]

[janice6]

One of the great Formula 1 drivers in the world years ago was asked if he was afraid of being hit by other cars when he flipped upside down.  

He said no, that as soon as he felt grass in his face, he new there were no other race cars on the grass!

[pipedreams]

[Paul53]

Has anybody posted about the 737 debacle? A stall warning sensor on the wing is so simple it seems laughable.

If I understand what happened, Boeing engineers managed to complicate the design wit competing sensors and computer code so that a perfectly good airplane insists it must crush. State of the art plane over designed to become dangerous. Or are my interpretations off the mark?

[tous]

When errors in automated systems are found, most folk just say, Well, duh! 

It isn't that simple.

I spent most of my professional career designing and constructing flight control systems and SCADA systems for nuclear power plants, natural gas distribution plants and chemical factories.

The number one goal was to make sure that the aircraft or plant didn't turn into a big smoking hole in the ground.  Based on the relative rarity of smoking holes, I suggest that we did and still do a damn good job.

Consider, you have a system that is receiving 5,000, 10,000, 100,000 inputs per second from from 500, 1500, 5000 sensors.  Every data point means something. 

We used redundancy for critical data, but also consider: two sensors disagree.  Which one is wrong?

Keep in mind, the system may have milliseconds to decide before things get kersplody.

Add more redundancy, you say?

That increases the cost and complexity of the system a thousand times.  More sensors equals more computer horse power and more lines of code to decide, What happens next?

So, based on an almost impossible situation, we did and still do rely on the best computer going: the human watching all the dials and blinking lights.

 

Commercial aircraft flight control automation is not in its infancy, but I suggest it is at the toddler stage.

The goal is to never allow the aircraft to stop flying when it should be flying, no?

We must still rely on the squishy computer in the left-hand seat as the final arbiter.

We don't have a star ship Enterprise control system -- yet.

We're getting there.

Edited April 16, 2019 by tous

[Dric902]

11 minutes ago, tous said:

When errors in automated systems are found, most folk just say, Well, duh! 

It isn't that simple.

I spent most of my professional career designing and constructing flight control systems and SCADA systems for nuclear power plants, natural gas distribution plants and chemical factories.

The number one goal was to make sure that the aircraft of plant didn't turn into a big smoking hole in the ground.  Based on the relative rarity of smoking holes, I suggest that we did and still do a damn good job.

Consider, you have a system that is receiving 5,000, 10,000, 100,000 inputs per second from from 500, 1500, 5000 sensors.  Every data point means something. 

We used redundancy for critical data, but also consider: two sensors disagree.  Which one is wrong?

Keep in mind, the system may have milliseconds to decide before things get kersplody.

Add more redundancy, you say?

That increases the cost and complexity of the system a thousand times.  More sensors equals more computer horse power and more lines of code to decide, What happens next?

So, based on an almost impossible situation, we did and still do rely on the best computer going: the human watching all the dials and blinking lights.

 

Commercial aircraft flight control automation is not in its infancy, but I suggest it is at the toddler stage.

The goal is to never allow the aircraft to stop flying when it should be flying, no?

We must still rely the the squishy computer in the left-hand seat as the final arbiter.

We don't have a star ship Enterprise control system -- yet.

We're getting there.

Training should include the off switch when there is an anomalous input.

 

.

[Dric902]

she’s growing up.

gonna have to move the gun cleaning table to the living room.

 

.

[Dric902]

K

[Dric902]

[tous]

She is going to see some wonderful things during her life.

Remind her that she can be part of making them.

Geeks.

With slide rules.

Edited April 16, 2019 by tous

[kerbie18]

10 minutes ago, Dric902 said:

she’s growing up.

gonna have to move the gun cleaning table to the living room.

 

.

She is a real cutie. She looks very much like my own daughter. And yes, the boys that come visiting understand I own multiple AK-47's and know where to hide bodies...

[Dric902]

8 minutes ago, tous said:

She is going to see some wonderful things during her life.

Remind her that she can be part of making them.

Geeks.

With slide rules.

She still wants to be an engineer.

Purdue is close

 

.

[pipedreams]