Giant. Thing. NSFW.

[owequitit]

yea and apparently noboday cares anymore.

Yeah, I am sure that is why there is ongoing dialog...

[MikeW]

I care. Im all about learning new things and absorbing peoples knowledge. I like watching, and listening, to people talk about things they know ALOT about.

Scott, what you said reminds me of a line I heard somewhere. It was by a pilot and he said something like, "We call it, and tell you it's, a 'water landing'. There's no such things. We're really crashing into the water as best, and safe, as we can."

[owequitit]

I care. Im all about learning new things and absorbing peoples knowledge. I like watching, and listening, to people talk about things they know ALOT about.

Scott, what you said reminds me of a line I heard somewhere. It was by a pilot and he said something like, "We call it, and tell you it's, a 'water landing'. There's no such things. We're really crashing into the water as best, and safe, as we can."

Yes, sometimes that is true. And that was Captain "Sully" Sullenberger from the US air Hudson flight that said that. If it ain't a seaplane, it ain't supposed to land in water.

The real key is to try to always have at least one contingency plan. Hopefully, you can have two or three. That is why aviation has so much redundancy and consideration built in. Contrary to this apparently developing self center focus on behalf of most humans, the universe really doesn't give a shit if you live or die, and the rules don't change because of it.

I guess that is where I digress from the safety concept of the automobile industry. We essentially have been programming people over the last 10-12 years that they don't need to worry about anything, because the car will take care of them.

"Don't worry about looking to cross the road, if the other driver hits you it's his fault." Or "If the car hits you, you are protected because it has a pedestrian friendly front end."

"Don't worry about rearending anyone, you have ABS and front airbags."

The new TL is a good example: "Don't worry about losing control of the car and sliding backward into a pole at 50 MPH, because the car is designed to protect you from that." I mean WTF?

Ultimately, it doesn't matter whose fault it was if you are dead; and at some point, no amount of steel or airbags is going to save you.

This is a passive safety perspective. It is essentially mitgating the damage AFTER an accident has occurred, rather than the proactive stance of preventing the accident in the first place.

If you crash a car, there is a fair chance you won't die in a car accident. If you don't crash a car, there is a 100% chance you won't die in a car accident. See the difference? This philosophy also saves us from having to have literally truckloads of safety features designed to protect us from stupidity, which in turn saves size, weight, fuel efficiency and makes it EASIER to prevent an accident because the car will be more maneuverable. Airplanes do NOT really have tons of safety features. They would be too heavy to be economical. However, the statistics quite clearly show that despite the number of people flying, the number of miles traveled etc, we kill a lot fewer people than motorists do. The reason is not miraculous. It is simply because we strive to PREVENT the accident rather than survive it.

Now, that is not to say that cars don't need some safety features. Obviously, there are going to be those situations where you just can't physically prevent an accident. For that we need safety features, and we have them. However, when we have gotten to the point where the car will hit the brakes for you, tell you there is someone in your blindspot, keep you in your lane for you, wake you up if you go to sleep etc, we have gone too far.

Interestingly, the medical field has started to adopt a lot of the same concepts that the aviation (and other) industries have been using for years in an effort to reduce the number of needless deaths in the medical field. It is really amazing how many tools are accidentally left in the patient, or how many things go wrong, but nobody says anything because they don't want to question the doctor. That stopped in the airlines in the 1970's and 80's after several notable accidents that could have been prevented.

[owequitit]

This should actually all be in my aviation thread. Oh well.

[4CYLPOWER92]

There's a new show comming on Discovery channel this friday about flying in Alaska. Looks like it's going to be pretty good

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/flying-wild-alaska/

[owequitit]

There's a new show comming on Discovery channel this friday about flying in Alaska. Looks like it's going to be pretty good

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/flying-wild-alaska/

Yeah, I want to watch that. Definitely a different breed of pilot. Some of the stuff they do is REALLY fucking stupid.

I have a friend who was from Fairbanks and worked there after college, and he said some of the shit he saw was absolutely retarded (he was also a safety guy on the side, as am I), and he said the worst part was that it was just normal behavior. The conditions up there are harsh, but a large % of the death rate among those guys is because of some of the stuff they do.

[Daheavyking]

Watch out!!! There's anal probing going on there!!!!

[Night Wolf]

Watch out!!! There's anal probing going on there!!!!

like in southpark