Some of my mates say when they are bored they turn off the auto throttle to see the FO’s wet themselves as they know they cant fly without it…
They have also started to brings trained dogs into the cockpit to bite the FO if they touch anything especially the undercarriage lever in a go around
There are some accents I don’t want to hear when the captain makes an announcement and there are a number of airlines that now I’m retired, I can choose not to fly with.
In 1979-80 I was on a drillship working in the South China Sea. We crew changed via Matak Base, Anambas Islands.No airport yet so we flew from Selitar Airport in Singapore, via Tg. Pinang with an old Albatross flying boat and landed in the bay at Matak.
The head pilot was an old American who always had a cigar in his mouth (but only lighted it when taking off or landing)
He claimed to have been a test pilot when the Albatross first flew in 1947. He also said that there there were only two types of “large” aircrafts that was worth flying, the Albatross and the DC3. Everything else was just “flying busses”
His co-pilot was a young Indonesian. He got a smack in the fingers if he tried to touch the throttles, which we could see, since the door between the pax cabin and the cockpit was open during takeoff and landing.
CONOCO had three of them in Singapore; one that was flying, one under repairs and a third one they took spare parts from.
Interesting times, especially during the NE Monsoon when only the inner part of the bay could be used.Taking off was inward, towards the coconut trees and hill at the end of the bay. Hairy when heavily loaded. It happened that the bottom of the flying boat touched the top of the trees.
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If anybody have missed it; Japan wants to be in the forefront of development for autonomous ships and digitalization in shipping:
one of my mates father was a pilot on those flights, a kiwi who flew flying boats during the war.
Flying boats always interested me, I asked a family friend who flew them in the lates 1940s what they were like. He said he only flew PBYs and they were a physical workout and “ponderous”. Responded slow to everything. The only thing they did quick was burn fuel and oil. I recall him saying the oil tanks were 50 gallons.
One time, about 5 min.after taking off from Selitar Airport in Singapore we noticed black oil leaking from one of the engines. We allerted the Pilot and he turned around.His knuckles on the throttles turned white on approach, but we landed safely back on the ground at Selitar.
PS> That was the only time I saw him light his cigar while in the air.
We were told to wait a while they cannibalized some parts from the “spares aircraft”. Then we took off again for an uneventful flight to Matak
(As “uneventful” as any of those flights could be)
BTW; One plan was in flying condition, one under repairs at all times. They brought in “new” planes to cannibalize for spares from time to time.
That was possibly the Second Pilot that flew when the American Head Pilot was on time off.
He had a tendency to “play with the throttles” all the time on landing in the water at Matak. Unnerving, like he couldn’t make up his mind.
Sunderland flying boats used to do touch and goes that I could see from my classroom window. Teachers had a never fail process that returned your attention to the lesson, not available to teachers today.
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I had to return to my naval duties after a yacht race up the coast of about 150 miles. Rather hungover after finishing the previous afternoon I boarded a Grumman Wigeon for the flight home, sitting in the right hand seat with 4 other passengers seated behind us.
The pilot could hear nothing over his headset and I said I would have a quick look. The old fashioned jack plug had a disconnected wire when I unscrewed the Bakelite cover and the pilot told me there was a toolbox in a locker at the rear of the plane by the entry door… I went back and returned to the cockpit past the less than reassured passengers with a screwdriver and fixed it. The amphibians flew to all the outlying islands but now days they have a small planes flying to airstrips on the islands.
here he is Brian McCook
http://www.michaelprophet.com/News_articles/PeterStuyv.html
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Can’t remember the name of either of the Pilots (if I ever knew) that flew the Albatros between Singapore and Matak for CONOCO back in 1979-80.
The airport at Matak didn’t open until sometime in the 1980s:
PS> I have made a lot of trip to/from there from Halim Airport in Jakarta by Pelita charter flight.
I’ll just leave this here:
And peel back the onion more and it will burn more…
Licenses doesn’t make anybody proficient and Pakistan isn’t “the world”. (Not even “All Asians”)
PS> This is being discussed in a different thread.
Getting back on track here. Will autonomous ships have any fire fighting equipment apart from fixed installations in the engine room? There will be a lot of electronic equipment installed.
Most likely they will. It would be kind of stupid not to consider all possible scenarios and all things that can go wrong on an autonomous and unmanned ship.
Will something be missed initially? Very possible, but that is how things have been improved in the past and will be in the future.
If anybody know everything that can go wrong in advance they must be “stable geniuses” and there ain’t too many of those. (Even so, they may be wrong at times)
I had a reason for asking the question and it is based on reading the latest casualty reports on the MSC Zoe and APL England.
Who maintains the exposed fire fighting equipment to take one example? In my experience the 3rd mate does the leg work under the mates direction with input of the deck crew when required.
When I have looked at the invoices where shore based maintenance is involved the costs are many multiples of the crew wages so I have difficulty in seeing any economic benefit on an autonomous ship.
I think you have to imagine vastly different ship including the propulsion it will be far simpler engineering wise.
I can guess they will be modular so when at a port major components could be changed out so they might be more like a powered barge than a ship we know today?
MOL to test autonomous sailing and berthing/unberthing of a ferry and a coastal container ship this year:
Autonomous boats to take over a boring task:
https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/new-autonomous-guard-vessel-concept-design-set-to-revolutionize-offshore-wind/