Yeah, that surprised me as well. We did it in the 60 and 70s while working out avionics for Cobras and LOHs."Never heard of nap-of-the earth?" Really?
That's why TFR (terrain following radar) was developed.Yeah, that surprised me as well. We did it in the 60 and 70s while working out avionics for Cobras and LOHs.
Bobby
John Nagle (left), Norman Surplus (center), John Craparo (right)
My deepest condolences and prayers to you Rod and for the family and friends of Norman during this time of sorrow and pain. RIP Norman.In case you weren't aware, Norman Surplus - the first man to circumnavigate the globe in a gyro - also passed on recently, of natural causes. RIP.
Lovely, lovely guy. RIP
Most turbine engines are Borescoped on a scheduled basis. Cracks in the turbine blades are one of the things that they are looking for along with erosion of the blades and the condition of the burner can or cans as the case may be.I have never worked on a turbine engine. Some of the participants in this Forum have, however. So a question for them:
Would it really have been possible to detect the onset of cracking in the turbine blades by just LOOKING at them (even if the engine were partly disassembled)? Or would such cracks show up only with a dye test or other lab-grade inspection technology? And, if the latter, are such tests done in such periodic inspections?
IOW, would it have made any difference had the operator followed the more stringent inspection program? Or had the engine in fact exceeded its "real world" safe operating hours?
If nothing else, this horrible crash proves yet again that limited-life components are limited for a reason. We build aircraft to be light. To accomplish that, we frankly trade away the sort of over-building that makes, e.g., beat-up old dump trucks indestructible. 'Tain't so with flying machines. Compared with dump trucks, aircraft are flimsy and don't stay put together forever.
Nasty Gnarly "tiger-terrain" ...TRUE!Had they been in a more favorable area, they probably would have been able to land without a problem. West Virginia is gnarly... I go there to ride dirtbikes every now and then and there isn't a ton of places to make emergency landings in a aircraft.