| Porsche-O-Phile |
10-21-2011 01:38 AM |
Tune, ID, Twist (center the needle). Just remember "TIT". Should be easy enough to remember, right?
This also was a modern commercial airliner - I'm sure it had more than just rudimentary steam gauge instrumentation (the kind of stuff I actually prefer). The new moving map stuff is far more complicated and if you're not familiar with that particular equipment or have been trained on it, it can be very difficult to figure out/use and navigate through. Most likely a lot of rhe displays were already showing the most useful sort of navigation information and didn't have to be fiddled with but who knows... There are some certain basic similarities from one type of "glass cockpit" MFD (multi function display) to the next, but one thing I always like about "old school" instrumentation is that it's standardized and stoopid simple. Basic instrumentation ("6-packs") and VOR/HSI displays havent changed in 50+ years. You can hop in any airplane with such a setup and figure it out instantly.
There's a lot of conspiracy theory stuff out there that says that flight WAS in fact shot down, but I've not seen anything which would convince me. Likely it went down according to the official report.
At low altitude they'd be burning a LOT of fuel - most jet engines are optimized for about 36,000' and they get very thirsty below 10,000. Don't know what altitude they were at, and since they'd deliberately hijacked long-haul flights (maximum fuel on board for maximum damage/fire potential) it may not have been a concern.
I strongly suspect a few bursts at the wing root or empennage would have taken out the a/c - even with redundant systems. A-A rounds are meant to do this kind of damage - they're not little .22s or even .50s - the rounds are huge, powerful, heavy and pack a mean whallop. I saw a static demonstration of an A10 cannon a few years ago and it was shockingly devastating - yes, different airplane and role (ground attack/anti-tank) but don't think just because something isn't a missile that it can't really ruin someone's day.
I sadly suspect that all of the pax on 93 were fully aware of what was going on, right up until the altimeter read terrain elevation.
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