Behind The Yoke

The nerd in me made me post this.  I loved it.

Can’t afford your learjet anymore? Take cover.  Salon News has a great article about a man who’s responsible for stealing back big expensive aircraft from people that aren’t paying the bills . He’s the super repo-man.

“Popovich’s first rule of firearms is pretty simple: The man who tells you he’s going to shoot you will not shoot you. So without so much as looking back, he got on the plane and flew it right to Chicago. “My job is to grab that plane,” Popovich says. “And if you haven’t paid for it, then it’s mine. And I don’t like to lose.”

The lear jet repo man

The National Air and Space Museum has a wonderful interactive demonstration on the principles of flight called How Things Fly. Don’t forget to get your kids! For a more detailed explaination go here.

WikiHow’s take on How to Land an Airplane in an Emergency.

A huge list of aviation humor.

Fighter-Planes.com is a very informative and entertaining source for well, you guessed it, military aircraft.

The list will end today with some amazing 2008 aviation and motorsport  photography by Tim Adams.

If you haven’t heard it yet, ATC Monitor has a great mp3 of a passenger landing a King Air 200 after the pilot passes out and dies in mid take-off.

Here is cool but unsettling diagram of a commercial airliner showing your chances of survival depending on where you’re sitting during a crash. When I fly commercial I make it my duty to sit in the seats near the emergency exits in the aisle; be one of the first out of the plane and more leg room.

An article by the Times Online based upon research of 105 accidents and personal accounts from 2,000 survivors states, “Passengers sitting towards the front of the aircraft had a 65 per cent chance of escaping a fire, while the survival rate for those at the rear was 53 per cent. The survival rate in aisle seats was 64 per cent, compared with 58 per cent for other passengers.”

The article continues by pointing out that human behavoir during a real crash is very different than in a simulation so the numbers above may be off. Even though the people may exit the plane in an orderly fashion in a simulation, it could be complete chaos when the real thing happens. Hopefully we’ll never have to find out if this is true.

Right around Thanksgiving I posted a cool video of the ICON A5 Seaplane from Icon Aircraft. Well, treat this post as a continuation of the former and direct yourself to these wonderful and exciting images of the ICON A5 from 2008. What a way to close out the year! Hope you enjoy!

Happy holidays everyone! I just had to post a little something about NASA putting their Space Shuttle fleet up for sale once the program is over in 2010. The shuttles will cost approximately $42 million plus $6 million for shipping and handling. I imagine that the only interested parties will be science/aviation museums and other educational institutions. Interested buyers have to respond to NASA by March of 2009. A press release from NASA says it’s goal is to develop “strategies for eventual placement of two space shuttle orbiters and a minimum of six disassembled space shuttle main engine display “kits.” My only criticism of this whole deal is that NASA isn’t offering free shipping? C’mon guys, at least give me some sort of incentive to buy. Do I get to choose the color?

Continuing on the video kick this was just way too cool to ignore. Check out the new ICON A5 Seaplane from Icon Aircraft.

I marvel at the fact that I’ve never seen any of the Space Shuttle launches before. The program is scheduled to end in 2010 so I better take advantage. I didn’t know how big an event a launch was until I started watching some videos on You Tube.  Seeing one defintely takes effort but the payoff is amazing. Here are the tentative mission dates posted on NASA’s website. Below is a very cool Endeavor launch earlier this year. Enlarge the You Tube player for the full effect.