Military Channel, "The Chain"

jshawley

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Nov 26, 2005
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Jim Shawley
So watching this program now, and learn that NorthCom "worries" about 200,000 private airplanes being loaded with explosives. Then N7889N enters the DC-3 zone at 2,400ft, at 60kts, then descends to 150kts (can a C172 make it to 150?) before... Of course, 7889N is owned by USAF, and it was a drill, but...

But I must give the narrator credit: he points out the first and best line of defense in a comm'l flight will be the pax who won't allow a hijacking to even occur.

Just bums me out about the misinformation re. the bang for the buck a Cessna/Piper/Beech/Grumman would have...:(
 
jshawley said:
Just bums me out about the misinformation re. the bang for the buck a Cessna/Piper/Beech/Grumman would have...:(

Don't get me started on the misinformation the media provides regarding the dangers of our little aircraft. While a Ford Taurus with explosives would be more effective, it doesn't have the sensationalitic, fear factor of a airplane. :hairraise:
 
jshawley said:
Just bums me out about the misinformation re. the bang for the buck a Cessna/Piper/Beech/Grumman would have...:(

I think a biggest part of the problem is that outside the aviation community, the only information the general public drones get about GA is the bad stuff. Very little to no information is supplied to them that does not involve a ball of aluminum in a hole somewhere. To them, 100% of GA results in crashes and death. To them a pilot license = death sentence. Then the next step is that those same people are suddenly the self titled expert talking heads on the 5pm news. So the rest of the public drones watching the talking head experts just have their assumptions reinforced as truth and the self reinforcing assumption circle continues.
These people simply do not know and are unable to determine for themselves without significant effort that a CE150 is incapable of 450mph, can not carry 8 tons of __fill in the blank___, does not land at 140mph, does not weight 18000 lbs, is not made out of battleship hull steel and is not the size of a F-111. They simply just do not know this. Those individuals have seen the same nonsense information over and over and over and over and over until the false information becomes undeniable fact to them.
The most amusing (to us) and educational (to them) thing you can do to those individuals is take them flying in a CE150. Don't take them out to a CE172 or Cherokee or a G-V, take them up in a CE150. They will literally fall down when they see the teeny toy airplane they get to hand pull to the fuel pumps for a measly 24 gallons that also weighs less than their car engine and on a good day putters around at highway speed limits and lands only slightly faster than bicycle speeds. It's like turning on a trillion candle power search light in a small room.

IMO, the only way to cut down on the problem is to educate the public drones about the OTHER side of aviation that they are completely oblivious to.
 
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