For the past 10 years it has remained one of the modern era’s greatest mysteries. A commercial airliner with a strong safety record carrying 239 people vanishing from the map, spawning a wide variety of competing theories, books and documentaries and leaving the families of those left behind asking themselves every March 8 — what happened to those aboard Malaysia Airlines flight 370?
In an era when black boxes have been successfully hauled up from the very depths of the ocean and whole chunks of a downed airliner painstakingly pieced back together to determine what caused a catastrophe, the fate of MH370 remains infuriatingly elusive. It is a plane crash without a plane. A disaster without conclusive proof of what happened to its victims. A story that anyone who embarks on a commercial flight can instantly relate to but one that, for now at least, doesn’t have a closing chapter.
[…] This week, many loved ones of those missing returned to Malaysia to urge local authorities to relaunch a search ahead of Friday’s anniversary. […] Aviation experts tell CNN that improved detection technology will likely bring families closer to the missing plane than they ever have been, if a search were to be relaunched. But that will not be cheap. Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent scouring more than 710,000 square kilometers of the Indian Ocean until 2018, but nothing transpired that moved our understanding on from that already available since the very early days.
Category: aviation
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10 years on, is the world any closer to finding MH370?
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New aviation resources, updated flight training materials
I’ve added a new section to the site: Aviation and Flight Training Resources, an index of important links and publications for pilots and students .
I’ve also updated two of the most popular pages on my website:
- Preparing for your private pilot checkride: Here’s what you need to know, which now includes more than 100 questions that are eligible to appear in your Private Pilot oral exam.
- Also, instrument Rating oral exam questions, updated for 2024
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Jim Tweto, beloved Alaskan aviator, has died
Jim Tweto, the revered figure from “Flying Wild Alaska,” has passed away following a plane crash, according to his daughter Ariel Tweto.
Jim’s adventurous spirit, passion for flying, and warm personality made him a favorite among fans worldwide. As the former president of Era Alaska, he ensured remote communities had access to vital supplies and transportation. Through the show, Jim inspired countless individuals to pursue their dreams and appreciate both aviation and Alaska’s rugged beauty.
Today, we mourn the loss of a true aviation legend, and a caring individual. His legacy lives on through his contributions to aviation. May he rest in peace, and may his memory soar high in the Alaskan skies.
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Nostalgic Instruction
I used to record my flights with a GoPro camera so that I could go back and debrief myself without having to rely on in-flight notes. I always enjoyed watching the videos after each flight, taking in sights and sounds I had missed while aviating and navigating. The videos allowed me to be a passive passenger on my own flights.
The pandemic put a squeeze on my flying. Now that I’m preparing preparing for a Biennial Flight Review, my old flying videos are proving helpful once again as my old self is serving as a teacher to my current self.
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OpenAirplane Shuts Down
OpenAirplane, the operation that attempted to make renting general aviation aircraft as simple as renting a car, is shutting down. I’ve completed two Universal Checkouts in the OpenAirplane system, but like many pilots, I never exercised the privileges.
I’ve been a follower of Rod Rakic for some time, and I’m sorry to see his endeavor didn’t make it:
General aviation is a bit like teenage sex. Lots of people talk about it, even when few are doing it. Survey data is not anywhere close to being as valuable as being in the market and following real money. Consumers are fickle, and humans are terrible at estimating utilization. Long before we launched OpenAirplane, we surveyed thousands of pilots. They told us they would fly an average of 10 hours a year more than they do today. That did not come to pass. Demonstrating to us at least that surveys are a terrible way to capture intent. While the idea of OpenAirplane won us praise, fans, and even super fans, the reality is that too few pilots took to the skies to make the operation sustainable.
If there’s one thing that we learned the hard way, it is that it’s tough to get pilots off the couch and into the cockpit.
To add to that, it’s getting harder to justify $!50+ per rental hour to fly. The GA industry needs to allow for innovation if it’s going to survive.
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A Little More Than a Year Ago I Went Home
YouTube recently reminded me that it’s been about a year since Lauren and I returned to Champaign-Urbana and took a 172 out over the city. We visited one of my favorite teachers, and also had dinner with the parents of one of my very best friends from childhood. We walked the rows of apple trees at Curtis Orchard and watched the staff at Prairie Gardens begin to unpack Christmas decorations.
Via Aerial Tour of Champaign-Urbana from Frasca Field – Michael Castellon – YouTube
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WWII Air Combat Techniques
The American Volunteer Groups –– or Flying Tigers –– were volunteer air combat units organized by the United States government to assist China against Japan in the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Erik Shilling, a former Flying Tiger, describes the air combat techniques required to engage with Japanese fighter aircraft:
We used to listen to Tokyo Rose quite frequently. On several of her broadcasts, she called the Flying Tigers cowards because we refused to stay and fight, then challenged us to stop running away. We thought this was quite humurous, and at the same time, knew our tactics were hurting.
Also on some of Tokyo Rose’s broadcasts, the number of AVG aircraft that the Japanese claimed to have shot down, was the exact number Japaese aircraft that we had destroyed. (We only lost 4 pilots in aerial combat.) This was the figure I used in giving our kill ratios. It had no bearing on the number of aircraft we or they destroy. Even [Daniel] Ford has said that we killed approximately 400 air crew.
To show a couple examples of attacking enemy fighters: If you attack head on, which the enemy was reluctant to do, because our guns outranged the fighters, they would normally pull up. (If he started turning away, he would already be at a disadvantage.) You started firing at Max range, and then dive away, under these conditions we didn’t turn and tangle with a Jap fighters.
Attacking the enemy from a 3 to 6 o’clock position.
Why roll rate was important, is that one must remember that all maneuvers, except for a loop, started with a roll. The slower the roll rate the longer it took before the turn began.
1. If he turned away, he set you up on his six. A most undesirable position for him, because he would be a dead duck.
2. The enemy invariably turned toward you which was normal and anticipated. With his slower roll rate, you could beat him into the turn, get a deflection shot at him, and when you slowed down to where he started gaining on you in the circle, you rolled and dove away before you were in his sights. If you haven’t tried it don’t knock it.
Michael Castellon 