Wednesday, January 29, 2003|
Wear your seatbelt! It snowed heavily last night - not a night for inexperienced drivers. A sixteen year old girl was driving her 13 year old sister and talking to her about how to drive in bad weather. She hit a patch of ice wrong, their car went off the road, down an embankment, flipped and hit a tree. The air bags popped open and their seatbelts held them in place. Both girls went home with some bruises and a couple scrapes - nothing worse. Without seatbelts they may well have gone to the county coroner, instead. 8:33:02 AM  Comments?()
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My notion of what it means to pilot an airplane changed last night. I had a conversation with a pilot who has been flying for 23 years. We talked about some of the changes that have occured over that time and the increased importance of computers. He told me that he flies the newest version of the Airbus - a large, long-haul aircraft. It is also, according to him, the most technologically advanced. All he has to do, he said, is punch in the right numbers and the plane is capable of taking off, flying the correct course and landing, all by itself. He said they still do takeoffs and landings manually - with one exception.
The FAA mandates that if visibility is less than 500 feet, they are required to use the computer to land the plane automatically. He said it was a little nerve racking to be able to see nothing and suddenly see lights and the landing strip coming up very close and fast. It makes sense to me to rely on computer guidance in that situation, but I hope we never get to the point where we take the pilot out of the cockpit. |
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David
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Last update: 7/12/04; 13:19:43 .
Last update: 7/12/04; 13:19:43 .
