As a longtime cargo plane guy, I will happily post this fine link to the <a href=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHOvoO-6nWQ>Blue Angels’ Fat Albert doing a JATO takeoff because it’s so freakin cool and so so much more freakin cool than another damned fighter jock jackass. Yes, I’m biased.
As for the Dreamlifter, I wouldn’t be surprised if those pilots are no longer working for Atlas Air. McConnell AFB is huge and that Dreamlifter should have the most advanced guidance systems available for commercial cargo aircraft. Seems like a pretty dumb mistake that I’m happy I didn’t make.
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Yes it was the CARGO CULT at work!
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Aren’t these airplanes equipped with some fancy navigation gear like a GPS so stuff like that doesn’t happen?
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Also, HPN itself is a pretty small airport (in terms of runway length), though according to Wikipedia, still bigger than POU.
Probably. The incident I’m remembering was a few decades back, so it’s likely I misremembered. Basics remain true, tho.
Or set up a SEP field generator.
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I was thinking along these lines:
Air Capitol of the World, bitches! I can think of at least seven commercial and private airports in the Wichita area. I’m sure I’m forgetting some. Jabara was about the best mistake that pilot could have made. There are many worse choices. We make a lot of small airplanes (and big ones). Most of the places that make them have their own runways. Plus there are many private runways like Jabara — it’s just the biggest of the small guys.
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In its heyday, my brother said you could take of and land serially at the many little air parks operated by the many manufacturers of small aircraft in Wichita. Plus the Air Force Base and two municipal airports.
I hope they filmed the take off. I’ve seen Air Force One land at Kansas City’s downtown airport (and take off too), but it used every meter of that runway, on landing ending with it’s nose way too far over the yellow ‘done’ line. The runway there is just long enough for a 747 in perfect weather conditions.
'should have opted for the vertical take-off option, tss.
Of course, there is this…
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Well, it was the leading story on the local news today. Many spectators, and they did manage to take off with the strong headwind that was coming down out of the north along with the cold front.
Some of the rubbernecking was bad enough that there was a car accident out in front of the airport.
Oh, and final count…there are nine airports in Wichita. Jabara, Beech, and McConnell are all roughly in a straight line, which could have been one cause for the mix up.
One newscaster said he got word that possibly whoever entered the destination address might have typed in the wrong one.
Wichita is nicknamed the “Air Capital of the World” for a reason. They have 2 commercial airports and a large military airbase plus 12 other smaller municipal and private airfields. Beech, Cessna, Boeing, Learjet, Stearman and other manufacturers crank out more airplanes from this spot than anywhere else in the world.
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After seeing the 747 crash in Afghanistan earlier this year, if it were me, I would be very careful about pulling back too far on the stick. But yeah, I think lightly loaded in the right weather conditions they will be able to take off ok.
Look’s like someone is going to be peeing in a cup.
Thanks for that daneel. Despite what some might say, I see JATO kind of like I see bacon–it makes everything better. As for the video, it figures that the pilots would screw the pooch and fire the rockets too early, thereby breaking the back of the aircraft. Cargo planes do not appreciate hard landings, and their mechanics appreciate them even less. What a shame nobody got to try to land a 130 on a football pitch–that’d make one hell of a story.
Without a doubt. I’m sure that happened a short time after they landed.
Runways? Where we are going, we don’t need runways.
Planning to crash the plane into a building, then?
Video of the plane taking off:
From the Kansas.com article:
After all the concern about Jabara’s short runways, the pilots [two specialty pilots from New York] needed only half the runway to take off.
