Something for the aviation fans

[marcmax]

This is what it’s all about……….
 
THE NEXT TIME THAT YOU FLY, KNOW THAT THE FELLOW UP FRONT KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING.
      
Descent into Queenstown, New Zealand.

Gotta have faith in your instruments and your proficiency to fly the approach.

http://www.chonday.com/Videos/pilotnewzdalnd1

[Dustybin]

Three cheers for radio beacons and approach radar

[montmil]

Hey... What's that mountain goat doing in my cloud?

I have flown one, and one only, approach through cloud to a known field using only VOR and basic instruments. Not a happy camper but you absolutely must trust your instruments.

[clonmore1]

WOW!

That's all I can say

Just wow!

[Luca]

Yikes!  Flying through the mountains is one thing, flying through the clouds another.  Flying through both takes a set of clankers.  Looks like he used every inch of the runway too!

Up in Alaska they've started using gps in airplanes.  It has the elevation data for the terrain you're flying over, and will warn the pilot if the plane is on a collision course.  Supposedly flying in the mountains can be pretty tricky business and a fair number of pilots crash into them (without any mechanical faults).

[Dustybin]

I've heard many anecdotes from yachting circles of people using buoys as waypoints with GPS and the being surprised when they hit the buoy in bad vis!
Don't use a mountain as a waypoint!

[nhmaf]

On a related note - we've had some wayward pilots land a jumbo freight transport (Boeing Dreamlifter) at the WRONG airport yesterday in Kansas, though they had apparently flown into the RIGHT airport a few dozen times previously.    According to reports, they didn't know they'd landed at the wrong airport until some moments after landing, and the airfield and strip were too small for them to steer the plane to turn it around.   The runway was also only 6000 feet long, and the plane normally specifies 9000 foot runway for takeoff.   Fortunately, they got it turned round and flew to the correct airfield today-  
http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/Boeing-jet-lands-at-Jabara-Airport-232781081.html

[Dustybin]

That even made the news in the Uk, I am thinking members of that crew will flying a desk for some time to come!

[clonmore1]

"I am thinking members of that crew will flying a desk for some time to come!"
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For the rest of time I would say, imagine if there had been a problem, many lives could have been lost.

Where were ATC in all of this? what about the local airfield people? don't airfields have recognition beacons/signalling?

Lots of questions need to be asked!

[Dizerens5]

Us passengers miss something, sitting in our modern jets. Just scanned this photo, hope it transmits ok. Taken from a Swissair Convair (two piston engines) shortly after takeoff from Geneva (Switzerland) on a flight to London in 1956.

[Tony Smith]

And I would not fly with this pilot.
 
There is an approved instrument approach to Queenstown and the approach plates/procedure are readily downloadable from the web.
 
There is also a visual approach.
 
What the pilot in the clip has done is fly the visual approach with a small, but nonetheless important segment, flown in instrument conditions.
 
Rock filled clouds are like unloaded guns that kill people, they are entirely unexpected. There are rules for flying in Instrument conditions and the pilot in the clip breaks most of the important ones.

In fact, not only would I not fly with him (or her) I'd like to see their licence lifted before they kill people.