NTSB update released yesterday leaves many questions unanswered.
The report goes into great detail about the wreckage information (what was found where, etc) but not much that tips their hand as to where the investigation is going. I know these folks are great at their jobs as investigators but one has to wonder how they can figure out what happened when so little information is available.
The plane, which appears to have never had any maintenance performed on it and who’s fuel was found to be free of contamination or anomolies, just appears to have dropped out of the sky. Speculation abounds on whether this might have been an in-flight breakup given the pilot’s report to line staff at his last stop about turbulence that really had him shaken up to the point that he waited out the winds for over 2 hours before continuing on with his journey. However weather reports for the time don’t really indicate that this would be the cause.
Well keep posting more on this as we find out more about it.
Tags: sad
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For those of you who’ve been following this blog, you’ll not be surprised about my enthusiasm for this event! I’ve posted before about the Antilles Super Goose which seems to be very similar in terms of philosophy: take a venerable flying boat design from the middle of the last centrury and bring it up to date with modern composits, engines and avioinics.
You can find more information about this project at the Gweduck website. Their first flight took them up to 1500 feet over Lake Washington in Seattle. When you look at the fuselage in profile, it seems that they have taken quite a few departures from the Widgeon that inspired it. Most notably, it takes on more of the shape of a modern float than the more bulbous shape of the old Grummans.
Anyone got one on order that they could take me up in? Or if you were there for any of the flight testing, please leave us a comment below. Or leave us a note even if you are just interested in the rebirths of the flying boats!
Tags: seaplanes
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Ah the joys of Vista… Just recently finished rebuilding my laptop after Vista refused to cooperate any more. Now running with a fresh install and have re-installed all my applications (ok, still finding ones each day that I forgot) and figured it was time to get my podcatching solution in place.
Previously I had been using Juice but I’ve been hearing that it didn’t play well with Vista so I figured I’d see if there is anything else available. There were also some other quirks that felt I could address by trying a new podcatcher. That led me to PodBreeze; so far so good.
Unfortunately, I hadn’t saved an OPML file of my subscribed podcasts so I’m having to rebuild from scratch. As a public service (and so I can find it again in the future), here are my Aviation (and other) podcasts:
Professional and Other Guilty Pleasures
That’s about it for now. Anyone else have any other shows that they prefer to listen to? Chime in using our comments below.
Tags: podcasts
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