I don`t remember if we talked about my job at that time. I`ve always been in for my interest in flying. We had a really good time with someone shooting down Migs with Harms,, or reading the stories with what what you guys did online. Good times. I know there was some norwegian ATC guys that were members at Frugs and I did some PMs with them. I remember once that we had a discussion about "free speed" terminology once. You may know that there is a 250 kts speed limit below FL 100. Also there are speed limits on a departure or a arrival route.
When I called up the "delivery" frequence the day after to get our clerance the ATC controller ended it with "free speed". This happened after every frequency change on that flight,also on ground frq. Even over swedish territory. So that required a lot of coordinating. My captain didn`t understand what was going on, but he had a good laugh when I told him.
Yes I talked with BBall several times on PM. As a matter of fact my nick is a result of him misspelling my nick at the time that was "Norwegian". I used that name in the early Frugal days because coming from Scandinavia wasn`t that common. I remember I discussed with him that I planned to write a book of colleges that had tried to kill me.
Yeah I have some stories.

You are right, it was painful to watch that video.
When you are used to do careful planning on every take off it `s just plain wrong.
Even in Russia you have to do this.
You have to do a balanced field calculation that meets the requirements of the actual runway and the terrain surrounding the airport.
You have to calculate a V1 speed ( a descission speed ) so you know that you can stop on the remaing runway or continue the take off if you lose an engine or have another critical condition.
With the condition in this video this would be impossible because there is no graph when conditions are so far from the limitations of the aircraft.

Them was the days. Cheer Wigean, and I like hearing the story about how you nick came to be.

Norwigean?

Actually, he accidently used some sort of texan slang(?) and called me `Wigean.
I later stopped using Norwegian because another airline surfaced that used that name. Which I hated of course.
The mods here were kind enough and changed it on my request.

OG has titulated me Widgeon a couple of times in the past, which is not so bad as it is in some ways related to flight.

Great insight from the Norwegian Widgeon Wigean...I hope I got that right.

Not sure why F4U went off, he's usually a fairly level headed guy. One must remember that this is an internet board, where most girls are guys, most heroes are pansies, and many experts are totally full of crap. Darn, almost sounds like a new government agency.

I have to defer to semmern; pretty sure he's a Norwegian Widgeon Wigean, has been hanging around here for a few weeks or so, and from his few vids I have seen, a darned decent pilot.

He also has been flying the 737 class, so maybe you two should talk and clear this up for all of us.

In my line of work we called boat drivers in the oilfield like that pilot, "Oilfield Heroes". They were the ones that hurt the most people.

Wigean, I never meant it demeaning. I think it happened with autocorrect, but can’t be sure.

Close enough Nixer.

You are right about the internet. Strange place. That is why I asked the mods to may be lift the ban of F4U. Allthough I feel he was unfair.

I have PM`ed with semmern. He works in my old airline , but he sadly were laid off after New Year I believe. Have not been talking with him since. If he reads this may be he can give us an update.

I share your opinion about semmern. I am impressed with what he does, both with old and new aircrafts. I really hope everything works out for him.

I see him in other forums where he does not know who I am, and we share many views with regards to aviation.

"Oilfield Heroes", hope you stay away from them Nixer.

No worries OG.

I googled it and learned something new.

Yep, lost my job due to the bug, along with almost 600 others. We do have a five-year right of return, so I will be back once things pick up, whenever that might be. It’s not a nice feeling to be laid off, though!

That resonates with me as a former air traffic controller. The really skilled ones make it look easy - the “wild rides” are the work of the finger crossing few. Good decision-making keeps you from ever falling back on pure luck.

Yep, my point exactly. Luck should never enter into the equation in aviation. As a Swedish skiing champion once said when a journalist said he was lucky to have won: «I have found that the more I train, the luckier I get.»

It is clear to me that the pilot of the Antonov in the video had no idea whether he would make it off. He used every inch of that runway, and even then the curvature of the Earth just barely fell away beneath him

Only 1 in the world, first flight in 1988, and it's still flying.

That's a big beast!

Welcome back NFB

He didn't even wait for the paint to dry from his parole.

My release date was last Friday morning, I didn't come back right away. Busy bee elsewhere.

went to watch it locally last year. It taxied past a Cargolux 747 - yup, not small

They should just call it "The Flying Hotel".

I recall a tale of my parents' trips to soviet Russia in the 1970's, via Intourist, travel to rthe USSR still being a rarity then.
An internal Aeroflot flight, Moscow to Odessa I think. One of the 4 prop engines wouldn't start. A geezer with cigarette dangling climbed some rolling steps, hit the offending engine with a hammer and the thing fired up.
My mother witnessed this, my father was otherwise occupied with his seat seemingly not affixed to the floor.

"This is how we did it at Stalingrad so we could beat those suka Hun".

Reminds me of the little stone we keep in the built-in step on the starboard side of the forward fuselage on the Tiger Moths. It occasionally comes out when the impulse magneto needs a knock when the impulse coupling hangs up. I make a point of showing it to my poor passengers