On my run this morning, there was a truly beautiful sight - numerous hot air balloons over the central valley. As I plodded around on my course, it made me think, presumably they must be VFR, do they file flight plans, are they ever any trouble to your drivers of the big metal?
Finally (and this may be getting beyond your area(s) of expertise which is a challenge I will say - you guys are amazing), but what sort of license do balloon pilots require?? Will a fixed wing do it?
On my run this morning, there was a truly beautiful sight - numerous hot air balloons over the central valley. As I plodded around on my course, it made me think, presumably they must be VFR, do they file flight plans, are they ever any trouble to your drivers of the big metal?
Finally (and this may be getting beyond your area(s) of expertise which is a challenge I will say - you guys are amazing), but what sort of license do balloon pilots require?? Will a fixed wing do it?
On my run this morning, there was a truly beautiful sight - numerous hot air balloons over the central valley. As I plodded around on my course, it made me think, presumably they must be VFR, do they file flight plans, are they ever any trouble to your drivers of the big metal?
Finally (and this may be getting beyond your area(s) of expertise which is a challenge I will say - you guys are amazing), but what sort of license do balloon pilots require?? Will a fixed wing do it?
Lurker
Yes, they are VFR. I would suppose they could file a VFR flight plan for flight following purposes only. Since it is pretty hard to file an exact course since you are at the mercy of the wind, probably a start point and end point and maybe a couple points in-between just in case they had to go look for you. I don't fly balloons so I'm not really 100% sure on what their procedures are.
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These views are my own and do not represent the views of United Airlines or the ALPA.
Hello. Not sure what you are asking, but if you are asking if I ever had to avoid balloons, not too often. They tend to hang pretty low to the ground and away from airports. I have seen some out of ABQ and IAD before, but not that often. I've never had a situation personally where I had to alter course to avoid a hot air balloon.
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These views are my own and do not represent the views of United Airlines or the ALPA.
Met a balloon at 1200AGL at about 3 nm from TVL. Tower asked me for a distance and some identifying features of the balloon. They were obviously not in communication and I had the feeling the tower planned on 'busting' them.
Good story, flying helicopter out of LGB. Tower called "blimp traffic, 12 oclock, 2 miles". Yea like I was able to not see it--it was filling windscreen.
Question asked and lots of speculation but no definitive answers whether UA 777's could operate these routes. (Under a "normal" payload; I'm sure an empty plane could make it.)
Can you give me some context for this? What would be your FPM on an average landing?
Thanks!
just from the geometry of the ILS 3 deg approach combined with approach speed, you can calculate the following (before flare and touchdown of course when the speed will be bled off rapidly):
140 knots (rough approach speed for large jets) = 161.1 mph
= 14176 feet per min airspeed
= 741.9 feet per min descent rate on 3 deg glideslope
140 knots (rough approach speed for large jets) = 161.1 mph
= 14176 feet per min airspeed
= 741.9 feet per min descent rate on 3 deg glideslope
Each way to do that is take your ground speed, cut it in half, add a zero. 140kts becomes 700fpm. That gives you a good target for the vertical speed. i.e. if you're half-a-dot high on the glide slope and your vertical speed is 800fpm then you are correcting. If it's 500fpm then it's getting worse and you need to make an adjustment.
This little calculation shows why a flare is necessary. Imagine how hard a landing would be if there were no flare at all.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lurker
On my run this morning, there was a truly beautiful sight - numerous hot air balloons over the central valley. As I plodded around on my course, it made me think, presumably they must be VFR, do they file flight plans, are they ever any trouble to your drivers of the big metal?
Lurker
On the hot air balloon ride I took, the pilot was asked about other aircraft possibly causing problems. Well, the answer was that the launch site and area to be covered in a 1 hour flight would be outside of commercial air routes and not near any airports. If they had been a possibility that the flight would have gone near air routes or an airport, the balloon pilot would need a radio to communicate with the tower or ATC.
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Today (Mon 9/15) SEA to ORD / UA 462
We had leveled off and were smooth sailing - Channel 9 was quiet and all of the sudden we hit an air pocket and what felt like we bounced, and then started to climb.
UA 462: United 462 - reporting t-cast descent; climbing up to 36,000 (or something similar)
I'm curious because I've heard of this happening in the past...
What is a t-cast descent? Is it because of other traffic out there and we were a victim of their 'wake'? Was it important to notify ATC because of the way traffic flows?!
Thanks!
Last edited by FlyinHawaiian; Sep 16, 08 at 10:46 am..
Reason: moved from "fun things heard on channel 9" thread
Location: Newport Beach, California, USA (Recently of San Francisco)
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Posts: 10,877
Quote:
Originally Posted by seakobi
Today (Mon 9/15) SEA to ORD / UA 462
We had leveled off and were smooth sailing - Channel 9 was quiet and all of the sudden we hit an air pocket and what felt like we bounced, and then started to climb.
UA 462: United 462 - reporting t-cast descent; climbing up to 36,000 (or something similar)
I'm curious because I've heard of this happening in the past...
What is a t-cast descent? Is it because of other traffic out there and we were a victim of their 'wake'? Was it important to notify ATC because of the way traffic flows?!
Thanks!
Probably not "t-cast" but TCAS. TCAS is a collision avoidance system. When the system detects another plane on what would be an interesecting course, it gives instructions to the pilot, "Pull up! Pull up!" or something similar, while the TCAS system in the other plane would instruct its pilot to go down. The net result is that the planes miss each other which is, of course, what you want to happen.
That wasn't an air pocket you hit, but collision avoidance. You may have been uncomfortable but, happily, all systems worked as they should have.
We had leveled off and were smooth sailing - Channel 9 was quiet and all of the sudden we hit an air pocket and what felt like we bounced, and then started to climb.
UA 462: United 462 - reporting t-cast descent; climbing up to 36,000 (or something similar)
I'm curious because I've heard of this happening in the past...
What is a t-cast descent? Is it because of other traffic out there and we were a victim of their 'wake'? Was it important to notify ATC because of the way traffic flows?!
Thanks!
He probably meant TCAS, a automated collision avoidance system. And you almost certainly didn't hit an air pocket. Basically if two planes are getting too close to each other, the system will command one plane to climb, and the other to descend. The pilot was reporting his descent and subsequent climb back to altitude to ATC.
