I was reading about where airplanes are stored in the Military section and that brought to mind the following story.
Some of these airplane boneyards also house planes, or what's left of them from accidents (crashes). One such story that I heard was the Delta L-1011 that crashed in Dallas in 1985. The L-1011 TriStar was supposed to be a state of the art jetliner that was almost crashproof. The plane crashed during a thunderstorm while attempting to land and went under a microburst just before touchdown. There just isn't much that a pilot can do if the microburst is strong enough.
I flew through a few microbursts in simulators and was successful in doing so, but It's like I told my check pilot, "Being in a simulator is a whole lot different than being out there in the wide open and having to do it." In a simulator, you know what's coming and you know what you have to do to beat it. In today's planes, they have doppler radar, which shows the pilots what lies ahead, but it doesn't make it easier, however, you can mentally prepare yourself and run through your mind what you will need to do, if this or that happens.
Years ago, not long after I was promoted to Captain, I went to a high school during career day and a student who was interested in becoming a pilot asked me if I ever crashed. I told her that I did, in a simulator. So, she corrected herself and she wanted to know if I ever crashed or "almost" crashed while flying with passengers onboard. I was honest and told her "Nope, never." That's the truth. I never "almost" crashed. I did come close to ditching once while flying from Chicago to Honolulu, but was able to recover and get everyone to Honolulu safely. That was scary. We had lost elevators over the Pacific while beginning our descent into Honolulu. I had no idea what had happened. The F/O and I tried about everything to get them to work. We ran our checklists, but nothing helped. I called United maintenance back in Denver and a first class mechanic and engineer genius named, Pete Solymos , who was very calm and who even chuckled at our predicament, (which I thought to myself, "When (if) I get this bird on the ground, I'm stopping in Denver on the way back and kick him in the seat of his pants.). So, very calmly, he asks me "Did you check the breaker?" I slapped myself in the forehead and thought BREAKER! I reached over to the breaker panel and there it was. Something had kicked off the breaker. I switched it back on and all was well. When we landed and we were all settled, I asked the Dispatcher why that wasn't in the checklists? He didn't know, but the next month when we received new checklists, it was included in the checklist for the elevators, as well as many other items.
I flew in and out of Dallas hundreds of times. Dallas is hell in the summer. They have these thunderstorms that come up from nowhere.
As rumor has it, every plane that received a part from the L-1011 became haunted. Strange things would happen while in the air and it sounded like a made-up story, but supposedly true. If you have 10 minutes to waste, here is video of that crash.
Some of these airplane boneyards also house planes, or what's left of them from accidents (crashes). One such story that I heard was the Delta L-1011 that crashed in Dallas in 1985. The L-1011 TriStar was supposed to be a state of the art jetliner that was almost crashproof. The plane crashed during a thunderstorm while attempting to land and went under a microburst just before touchdown. There just isn't much that a pilot can do if the microburst is strong enough.
I flew through a few microbursts in simulators and was successful in doing so, but It's like I told my check pilot, "Being in a simulator is a whole lot different than being out there in the wide open and having to do it." In a simulator, you know what's coming and you know what you have to do to beat it. In today's planes, they have doppler radar, which shows the pilots what lies ahead, but it doesn't make it easier, however, you can mentally prepare yourself and run through your mind what you will need to do, if this or that happens.
Years ago, not long after I was promoted to Captain, I went to a high school during career day and a student who was interested in becoming a pilot asked me if I ever crashed. I told her that I did, in a simulator. So, she corrected herself and she wanted to know if I ever crashed or "almost" crashed while flying with passengers onboard. I was honest and told her "Nope, never." That's the truth. I never "almost" crashed. I did come close to ditching once while flying from Chicago to Honolulu, but was able to recover and get everyone to Honolulu safely. That was scary. We had lost elevators over the Pacific while beginning our descent into Honolulu. I had no idea what had happened. The F/O and I tried about everything to get them to work. We ran our checklists, but nothing helped. I called United maintenance back in Denver and a first class mechanic and engineer genius named, Pete Solymos , who was very calm and who even chuckled at our predicament, (which I thought to myself, "When (if) I get this bird on the ground, I'm stopping in Denver on the way back and kick him in the seat of his pants.). So, very calmly, he asks me "Did you check the breaker?" I slapped myself in the forehead and thought BREAKER! I reached over to the breaker panel and there it was. Something had kicked off the breaker. I switched it back on and all was well. When we landed and we were all settled, I asked the Dispatcher why that wasn't in the checklists? He didn't know, but the next month when we received new checklists, it was included in the checklist for the elevators, as well as many other items.
I flew in and out of Dallas hundreds of times. Dallas is hell in the summer. They have these thunderstorms that come up from nowhere.
As rumor has it, every plane that received a part from the L-1011 became haunted. Strange things would happen while in the air and it sounded like a made-up story, but supposedly true. If you have 10 minutes to waste, here is video of that crash.