LongRoadBob
Cleared for Takeoff
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/flying-taxis_us_58d5e2aae4b03692bea63b72?iu580ys5jqfk249529&
of course, this article is devoid of details, and badly written, but people read these things (and if you see comments whenever stories like this come out the ignorance of the general public about all things flight related is staggering...but they VOTE!) and think "yeah, cool!"
First off, ten mile range? Does that include reserve "fuel" or power? Can go up to 11000 feet? How does that affect range? What about people that get apoxia at lower levels? What about weather?
Or controlled airspace? Or restricted airspace?
What about seperation, radio communications, weather issues? What about the general publics fear of flying? Emergencies?
The thing I don't get at all, companies with savvy investors pour (I assume) millions into projects like these and how can they have considered the real issues about this?
Maybe it's me. As a student I am in awe of how much knowledge just a regular PPL certificate takes, how much one has to know about everything related to flying including weather, navigation, flight systems, theory of flight, instrumentation, medical issues, the laws and regulations, best practices, and have demonstrated a level of mastery, and then you are still just a newbie until you out hours of the right kind of flying under your belt. I'd be, or I will be, proud of that knowledge and skill.
And I have huge respect for pilots.
But in a dumbed down world, where in the old days a pilot was repected, and people seemed to understand some of this, nowadays they get in an airliner thinking it's easy, and like some living room that just ends up in Chicago, or New York magically.
I watch people ignore everything about the flights in commercial flights, amazed they aren't checking out the view (when it is there) either of the landscape or the billowy clouds beneath, instead in their own little worlds playing games or watching movies. I've never understood that.
Take those same people up on a mountain and take away their iPads, and they'd go "oooh..." and "ahhh" "what a fantastic view" but put them in a window seat and they usually put down the shade or ignore it.
But many of them also would see this story and say "yeah, why not. Cool!"
I guess I'm a student pilot curmudgeon.
of course, this article is devoid of details, and badly written, but people read these things (and if you see comments whenever stories like this come out the ignorance of the general public about all things flight related is staggering...but they VOTE!) and think "yeah, cool!"
First off, ten mile range? Does that include reserve "fuel" or power? Can go up to 11000 feet? How does that affect range? What about people that get apoxia at lower levels? What about weather?
Or controlled airspace? Or restricted airspace?
What about seperation, radio communications, weather issues? What about the general publics fear of flying? Emergencies?
The thing I don't get at all, companies with savvy investors pour (I assume) millions into projects like these and how can they have considered the real issues about this?
Maybe it's me. As a student I am in awe of how much knowledge just a regular PPL certificate takes, how much one has to know about everything related to flying including weather, navigation, flight systems, theory of flight, instrumentation, medical issues, the laws and regulations, best practices, and have demonstrated a level of mastery, and then you are still just a newbie until you out hours of the right kind of flying under your belt. I'd be, or I will be, proud of that knowledge and skill.
And I have huge respect for pilots.
But in a dumbed down world, where in the old days a pilot was repected, and people seemed to understand some of this, nowadays they get in an airliner thinking it's easy, and like some living room that just ends up in Chicago, or New York magically.
I watch people ignore everything about the flights in commercial flights, amazed they aren't checking out the view (when it is there) either of the landscape or the billowy clouds beneath, instead in their own little worlds playing games or watching movies. I've never understood that.
Take those same people up on a mountain and take away their iPads, and they'd go "oooh..." and "ahhh" "what a fantastic view" but put them in a window seat and they usually put down the shade or ignore it.
But many of them also would see this story and say "yeah, why not. Cool!"
I guess I'm a student pilot curmudgeon.