Comments by "Stephen Villano" (@spvillano) on "Mentour Pilot" channel.

I'll simply say, pure balls of diamond. Did what was needed when stainless steel wouldn't suffice.
68
The clock offset and sampling rate set up an ideal race condition, which resulted in the error that caused all of the computers to fail out. One problem with "it's so one off, it'll never happen" is, with enough flights, it will inevitably happen. Thankfully, the safety pilot justified their duties by catching what got overloooked and was key to understanding what was going on. Concerning is, with dual engine failure, the recorders lose power. So, get surprised by an event in Iceland, lose all recorders really doesn't sound like a grand idea. There should be some standby power to them and their inputs for at least long enough for the RAT and/or APU to come online and provide power. This one could never be properly conveyed in "Seconds from Disaster", it could only be well covered in milliseconds from disaster!
24
@wloffblizz they had just initiated go around and the engines spooling up when ATC ordered them to go around. At that time, the incident wasn't a mandatory report event and it was reported three days after the incident. As the aircraft had been used in the days following the incident, the CVR had overwritten the flight data. NTSB recommended increasing the recording time from two hours to 25 hours.
23
@Linguaholic23 your example reminds me of an automobile insurance company argument for denying a claim. "The accident is half your fault, as if you had only stayed home, he accident would have never happened." Interestingly, the courts eventually dismissed that nonsensical claim. The tire was chopped by the Continental aircraft's engine cowl fragment, tire fragment impact caused fuel tank #5 to rupture. The fuel from tank #5 then flowed into engines 1 &2, producing asymmetric thrust that began at V1, the fuel igniting appearing to ignite in the damaged landing gear's well. The quantity of fuel isn't exceptionally relevant, post V1, aborting takeoff is unsafe with that aircraft. One can debate until proton decay if the tank would've remained patent if it was filled to 75%. Given that 5 out of 6 prior tire failures resulted in tank ruptures, one being a severe rupture, the amount of fuel isn't exceptionally relevant, especially given one side of the aircraft being plumb out of engines. Being 810 kg overweight was relevant, given the loss of thrust and damage, once past V1, the flight was doomed.
18
@1987slither bleh, Allah is Arabic for "The God", allegedly the god of Abraham. Looked more to me like Poseidon was the god involved in this debacle. Well, that or Koalemos, the minor god of stupidity.
17
@malcolm5514 I used to work both ramp and mail and freight. Much of the field is quite dark and lousy with a whole world of "I can't see shit". I nearly collided with a commuter that didn''t have his anticollision lights on as he taxied from the terminal toward the main taxiway intersection once. To avoid collision, I made an omega course well in front at my bobtail's maximum speed and fortunately, got the timing right, as we both were going a bit too fast for maximum ramp speed limit. He turned his anticollision lights right afterward. I paid closer attention to my speed after that one! I forgot that that particular bobtail didn't have a governor in it. I figured that out when I noticed that I was passing a commuter after he hit V2 and was climbing out, pegging my speed at twice the ramp speed limit. I made them replace the instrument cluster lamps after as well.
11
I could tell that he had some trouble relating the story, emotionally. Thankfully, it was a Tenerife done extra light. Both still make me nauseous.
11
There is one instrument system that I'll rarely trust, my organic sensory system. I've been fooled once by a false horizon, once fooled, twice shy. The Captain got an "this is odd" moment, which swiftly turned into "I'm about to become a submarine captain" moment, reacted properly and recovered. In some instances, the proper reaction was delayed by continued analysis, resulting in a lesson written in blood, rather than elevated blood pressure and pulse. To err is human, what one does once one realizes the error reveals the quality of the person. In this case, recovery, uneventful flight, brushing it under the rug by filing a detailed, honest report for all to eventually learn from. That reveals a top notch person in my book. Because, three words have gotten me out many troublesome resultant situations, "I fucked up". Lying by omission or commission only reveals someone unworthy of any trust or position of trust. Admitting to an error, documenting it and thereby training others to avoid that error marks one as worthy of a position of trust.
10
@EdOeuna I'm well aware of IFR training and reality. But, we differ in views on how to consider an acute burst of intracranial flatulence. By your candle, everyone that makes a mistake that results in a loss of situational awareness is incompetent and that means, in reality, no human is ever competent. Where ever driver who ever drifted out of their lane is incompetent. And anyone who walked somewhere and stumbled over a stone or nut fallen from a tree is incompetent. Such a view on life and reality, seriously disgusts me, sirrah.
9
@seriouscat2231 the sea's climb rate exceeded our own rate of climb, resulting in contact and airframe damage. Recommended action to prevent a future mishap: ground the sea.
9
And protection by management reinforcement against the biggest killer, complacency. Both can introduce very similar error chains, complacency kills far more quickly than simple fatigue, as with fatigue, adrenaline will wake you up a bit. With complacency, adrenaline only arrives belatedly.
9
@jimwilliams4532 the only kind of mom to want to have.
9
@voornaam3191 well, he was the lead test pilot for that aircraft. He was also quietly told to never do it again.
8
And for the controllers, who kept their heads when pretty much everything went sideways.
8
@daftvader4218 how fascinating your divergence of views from practicing commercial pilots here, as well as with UAL's management. It's also a shame that you became so apoplectic as to have lost the capability to craft complete sentences for over half of your comment, you really should see a licensed physician about that ASAP, as that may be a symptom of an impending cerebrovascular accident.
7
The problem is, ego writes checks that one cannot satisfy.
6
Regardless of the pre-flight being conducted properly or at all, trying to control that aircraft initially had to be like trying to fly a space alien's flying saucer, where controls are behaving in utterly foreign ways from what they should be behaving like and the spoilers and ailerons opposing literally risking stalling a wing at every moderate input. It's actually amazing the amount of abuse that the aircraft withstood and still remained even moderately airworthy enough to bring everyone safely to the ground. Between this aircraft and the 747 that lost thrust in #4 and upset, the forces were titanic against the entire airframe, in every axis, yet brought crew and passengers safely to the ground. That's some robust designs from both manufacturers!
5
None think that after an emergency. :)
5
@StinkPickle4000 what I read, in the NTSB report, 14 feet from the top of the vertical stabilizer. How they got such a precise number is beyond me, as I didn't see a reference on what band the ground control radar is and the ATC radar's band escapes my memory. Regardless, it was frighteningly close. I'm pretty sure that both were fully alert once they realized how close they came to a horrific disaster!
4
Equally fantastic is that the wheels wore so well! That's a damned good design for worst case scenario landing design! Additional lesson learned: Pilots should avail themselves of glider training, that beats simulator time hands down for preparation for such maneuvering.
4
@voornaam3191 no, not phobic, just protecting the business from financial ruin from litigation.
4
The only problem is, taste testing isn't quite considered proper sampling.
4
@ProphetAndLoss malicious negligence implies intent, which is clearly absent here. Which makes it far, far worse. License revocation kind of worse.
4
I'm familiar with it. We used to have a saying, "If you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes, it'll change".
3
@ONLYFACT_X lemme guess, it involved a Skunky work and a lake that was groomed. ;) Ran into some of their works over the decades, well, I would've ran into them, had they existed.
3
@EdOeuna as I said, intracranial flatulence. Pilot got distracted by out of profile behavior, which is always a bad idea when one's made a significant change, such as flaps setting and engine output being changed at the same time. Resulting in a pitch change that escaped notice. So, it's literally drifting out of one's vertical lane. Ideally, he could've asked the copilot to verify the configuration and kept his eyeballs on the instruments.
3
Alas, it's likely that only a test pilot would've recognized what was going wrong at that time.
3
With the cabin pressure control panel, there's another phenomenon that's bit me more than once. Seeing what you expected to see, not what's actually there. Not too much of a biggie if one is working on an electronics bench and miss a burned resistor, big deal with one's life support system when going to altitude. It's why, even when we don't have a cross check listed, I have a peer take a look to be sure something critical wasn't missed.
3
@StinkPickle4000 well, centerline is, glub, centerline.
2
Feel free to enjoy that in a rotary wing aircraft.
2
@aaronmicalowe he had what flaps he took off with. The uncontained failure debris destroyed the electrical system before it was time to decrease flaps. Handling that severe a failure, while keeping the aircraft under control and successfully navigating back to the airfield is tough, it's double tough. I'd risk saying, Cosmonaut tough. Because there is one thing worse than every alarm going off in the cockpit at once - total electrical failure removing all information that's telling what is going on with the aircraft. Just thinking :aw, shit" had to wait until after landing, shutdown and evacuation.
2
I'm more than familiar with the phenomenon, for me, it's accompanied with a hovering sensation in a situation where hovering is impossible and late symptoms is an urge to void, absent anything to void. In a crew situation, I learned to ask my crew to cover me as I "reset my mental chips after having my mind blown". Alone, it's a challenge, but first and always ensure I'm not about to select an action that'll be deleterious to going back to a stable situation. Once that's ascertained, take a deep mental breath and step back and while examining something that has nothing whatsoever to confusion, such as a cabin pressure reading or engine efficiency reading, go back to mental square one and evaluate where, what and desired goal. The effect is basically, like looking out of the windscreen to view a runway and instead are treated to a low altitude view of the moon. And landing an aircraft on the moon is an exercise in impossibility, no lift or air to feed the cabin compressors, let alone the engines and provide lift. Essentially, one develops control loops and something happens that's arriving at the moon disruption happens and the mind, losing its reference loops goes gonzo in trying to get a grip unguided. Hence, the distraction trick and taking a mental step back and an "ignore the mind blown event and see where we are and what's needed and stabilize that approach first". Because, waking up dead is really, really hard on one's weekend plans.
2
@franziskani it's referred to as the psychology of expectations. We tend to see what we expect to see, rather than what is actually there. Our senses are constantly bombarded with information and to make sense of it all, the brain filters out what it considers extraneous information. The end result could become a disaster, such as misreading gauges on a nuclear reactor, or as harmless as releasing a "duty rooster".
2
Not an accident, thankfully, it's only an incident with no injuries.
1
Usually, in fixed wing aircraft, an emergency is something one can first take time out to wind their watch. This was more like rotary wing, where split second correct responses are critical. Which typically only occur at low altitude in both cases. Makes sense, as one cannot crash into the air, but one can crash into the ground or water. Many years ago, I got fooled briefly by a false horizon. Instruments conflicted with my vision and common sense prevailed and I relied on instruments and halted a hard climb before there was a problem. To this day, I'll trust instruments over my senses, save if oh, the great wide world is about to smack me in the face and instruments say otherwise, then I'll go for getting the world out of my view and sky prominent in my view, then figure out whatinhell is wrong with my otherwise more reliable instruments.
1
Just had a UAL flight that dove from 37000 feet to 9000 feet in 8 minutes. Pressurization problem and pilots doing their job.
1
The water injection system is a fascinating design. Most consider water the enemy of fire and rightfully so, but properly harnessed, it becomes a benefit, as with the engine, cooling combustion chamber temperatures and providing additional mass to be ejected by the engine, providing thrust. First capitalized upon by the V2 rocket, which burned ethanol at 85%, the remainder, added water, lest the combustion chamber burn through and providing steam assistance in cooling the engine and ejecting additional mass. This flight, well, buzzing dense residential neighborhoods, looking at a mountain, all near stall speed the entire time, yeah, that's a white knuckle experience. It's a wonder that the crew still has fingers! There's also a chance that the engineer tried to toggle the water injection system. Rapid transits tend to get ignored, even on aged systems. Overall, bad-assed airmanship! No balls of steel there, those are solid cast diamonds all around.
1
I loved one of those "influencer" idiots, who tells her viewers to just start running. In one case, a 16 year old girl took off running from an aircraft that was evacuated for an engine fire. She ran through the smoke, to be run over by a fire truck and killed. The driver didn't even know that he hit anyone. Instead, hit the ground and find someone from the crew for directions, as there are standard assembly areas that are safe from both emergency equipment and any misbehavior on the part of an emergency aircraft. They're there for passenger safety first and foremost.
1
@ByzantineDarkwraith as mentioned, addiction may not have a harmful effect, but mere dependence. As an example, I literally have a caffeine and nicotine addiction, but there is no harmful effects from that present in life. Withdrawal, then the headaches and palpitations happen, totally unfun. The palpitations from nicotine withdrawal, the headaches from the caffeine withdrawal.
1
@QuaxC42 yeah, out of altitude, speed and ideas, there is no time. Afterward, it's code brown time, but not during. The most heartbreaking words I've heard from a CVR were, "Tell my wife that I love her very much", followed immediately by the sound of the aircraft breaking apart.
1
First, before I'd run out and play in that traffic, I'd grab the map and figure out the general bearing of the ridge, gaps and how far the ridge extends for. Losing visual reference and lift source, begin compass and altitude loss guided serpentine course and choose an altitude of safe egress, hopeully it'd be in the right direction to not taste the mountain. Go 30 -45 degree relative to what inertial course at loss of reference view would bring me and that relative magnetic couse is the way to hopefully egress. Call it the Helen Kellar maneuver. As an instructor, unless I was comfortable in entering those conditions with my entire family, I'd not allow a student that degree of risk. There are a lo of less negatively loaded dice to choose from! A GPS map device in the instructor's lap would also mitigate the exceptional risk. But then, I have gotten lost ib the woods once. After, I learned how to navigate on time traveled, bearing and sparse observations of landmarks using a map and compass only. And can accurately call out a ten digit grid accurately.
1
One protective system fails, due to out of scope contamination, turns aircraft suicidal. Because, that aircraft did a whole hell of a lot to actively try to crash itself. There's a reason I never griped that airline pilots receive rather generous compensation, this is a classic example of why. Hopefully, they also redesigned the filters, so that bypass isn't possible when something fouls it. When designing a protective system, always assume that the worst of the worst conditions are exceeded in ways you've not considered and plan for that. As an example, the water separator gets supersaturated and fails, plan for that and a fuel leak and fire, while still pumping. Basically, if it clogs, it shuts down and refuses to pump. Otherwise, one gets a bunch of mysteries that garner a shoulder shrug and ends up with a suicidal aircraft. Better to perspire on not fueling than to have a pilot trying to land an aircraft that's seriously bent on its way down. Damned fine job though, the flight crew took that crap muffin out of the flames and made a flambe! I'll take a busted ankle over being spare parts any day.
1
I'm aware of one instance of a commercial airliner that was rolled inverted and remained stable only when inverted. Alas, one cannot have anything resembling a successful landing while inverted and the aircraft upset and crashed when attempting to return into a survivable orientation. The cause of the upset was revealed to be the complete failure of the vertical stabilizer jackscrew due to improper maintenance. For the want of a few dollars of grease and a bunch of man hours, an aircraft, crew and passengers was lost. As I said when the manifest wasn't ready, screw the air freight.
1
Well, they can't. There is a stopper plug that locks inside of the tube and a manual valve that has to be released. Miss a step in the dump procedure, first you'll wear it, then you'll say it loudly, to the great mirth of one's peers in the ground crew. I never had that happen to me, but I've witnessed a few incidents where a ground crew member had to shower off and change uniforms, After all, ground crew are at the bottom and most certainly know that it does indeed run downhill.
1
I remember one in flight fire that resulted in loss of passengers, crew and aircraft that was the ultimate nightmare. Burning plastic dripping onto the flight crew. Second worst, control failure resulting in the loss of aircraft, passengers and crew. Fire on an aicraft is the worst of all worst case scenarios, there have been even structural failures of the aircraft - the fire burned through the aircraft itself, disintegrating in mid air. The only good fire on an aircraft is the fire inside the burner of the turbine engine. As for portable devices, yeah, in my pocket or in my overhead (laptop computer). Not really fond of bringing them at all, as I've personally saw LiON batteries fail and look like a damned rocket engine from hell. Inside of a plastic and aluminum hull, that effectively describes hell itself.
1
@TheLukaszpg yep, your mother certainly was, while entertaining the US seventh fleet. Still, reviews have it that you give better head than she did. And yeah, I'd say it right to your face. Then, wrap my cane around your head. But, it is nice to hear back from the poster child for their local abortion clinic. Shelly, thanks for the feedback and apologies for the ugliness. I've worked a number of emergencies, to put it mildly and been in the midst of some as well, being military EMS. Watching the video was hard, it had to be triple tough to have lived through it, watched it and commented. Even at age 62, I'm learning from some Moms! And having handled many 737's back during the Ice Age, yeah, risk busted feet vs inferno, no brainer. Notice injury much later, yeah, got that tee shirt. Indeed, part of why I need a cane now. Although, I'd probably consider walking to my destination after yet another runway incursion... ;) Most of my flights being trans-Atlantic. Kind of a tough walk, but I'm stubborn enough. I'll just get my coat...
1
@turricanedtc3764 relevant, given we're talking about nearly one US ton of excess weight.
1
@tomtech1537 there's an old joke in research. Torture P sufficiently, it'll agree with whatever results you want. In this case, torturing algorithms and datapoints into submission is basically making up one's own facts. Still, the University of Liverpool is working on examining WSPR to see if it could achieve the desired results, results are expected in around six months from now. Given the time frames involved since its disappearance and some major components of the missing aircraft being found, I suspect it's rather unlikely that the aircraft is about to crash anytime soon. So, patience as research continues is warranted. As for one question in the description, "how can one of the largest aircraft...disappear", big world, planes are tiny in comparison and the pilot evaded radar and was far off course. As for families and hope, I'll suggest to you that no feeling human wants to be the no good SOB to tell a kid that mommy or daddy isn't coming home. That some will generate false hope and generate hysteria with their claims, well, if there's a hell, I'm sure they'll get a special room there.
1