-------------------- "And slowly, you come to realize, it's all as it should be, you can only do so much. If you're game enough, you could place your trust in me. For the love of life, there's a tradeoff, we could lose it all but we'll go down fighting...." - David Sylvian FreeSpace 2, the greatest space sim of all time, now remastered!
Registered: Mar 1999
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Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
I stolidly support the autopilot feature on modern aircraft. The only human pilot should be napping in the cockpit to conserve his mental alertness in case he's ever needed for something.
Fun party game: Take bets on how serious I'm being and fight over it!
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
I knew that allowing pilots to lock themselves into the cockpit was a mistake...imagine the Black Box recording if the plane went down. We'd be bailing out the airline industry after all the wrongful death lawsuits were done.
There's zero coverage of this in the states. Un-fucking-believable.
quote:After February's incident, Mr Oltman was diagnosed with "severe obstructive sleep apnea" which causes people to stop breathing repeatedly in their sleep, preventing a restful night.
Then he should be on permanant disability and not fucking flying a plane.
More proof the FAA are fucktards.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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WizArtist II
"How can you have a yellow alert in Spacedock? "
Member # 1425
posted
Had it been from say, Dallas to Honolulu that would have been one thing.....but a 45 minute flight?
-------------------- There are 10 types of people in the world...those that understand Binary and those that don't.
Registered: Nov 2004
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Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
Jason: I've got moderate obstructive sleep apnea. Are you telling me I can get money from the government for that?
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Daniel: I wouldn't go that far. But I think what Jason was saying is that the asshole shouldn't be operating major machinery with a hundred people's lives in the balance.
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
Yeah, deathtoll from ground-based casualties eclipses that of the plane's passengers. I can see an unintentional sleep apnea fuckwead version of 9/11 as a plane hits some hawaiian luxury hotel on the beach. Then the Bush administration would invade....er..Iran. Possibly the Canary Islands.
Daniel, I doubt you can collect anything except a free sleep study off the government but, by law, an employee could go on at least short-term "disability (for up to 90 days) with a doctor's approval. It has to be doctor ordered and the condition has to prevent you from doing your job or puts others at risk (I.E. a communicable disease or in my case, a badly damaged leg that prevented me from standing for long periods). The law is the FMLA and covers all sorts of stuff that employers would otherwise just replace you for. "Moderate obstructive sleep apnea" sounds like you snore, or possibly stop breathing in your sleep- if you sleep for a living, you're elegible, if you die in your sleep, you're SOL.
Registered: Aug 2002
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Saltah'na
Chinese Canadian, or 75% Commie Bastard.
Member # 33
posted
quote:Originally posted by Daniel Butler: I stolidly support the autopilot feature on modern aircraft. The only human pilot should be napping in the cockpit to conserve his mental alertness in case he's ever needed for something.
Fun party game: Take bets on how serious I'm being and fight over it!
It is possible. Apparently, according to an episode of Mythbusters, the modern autopilots can be set to automatically land a plane, no human assistance required.
-------------------- "And slowly, you come to realize, it's all as it should be, you can only do so much. If you're game enough, you could place your trust in me. For the love of life, there's a tradeoff, we could lose it all but we'll go down fighting...." - David Sylvian FreeSpace 2, the greatest space sim of all time, now remastered!
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I think they designed the A380 with the capacity to land on it's own.
-------------------- I have plenty of experience in biology. I bought a Tamagotchi in 1998... And... it's still alive.
Registered: Apr 2005
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Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
I have to wear a CPAP or I become a shivering crying wreck of a pale sleepless monster. Doctor said I'd've died by 40 of a heart attack if I hadn't gotten it; my SO2 while I was asleep was below 85%. I actually don't know if that qualifies for 'moderate' or not...
I had read that 60% of pilots in an anonymous survey reported they had let the autopilot take the whole journey on its own. I was under the impression that an autopilot in most commercial aircraft *can* take off and land the plane with minimal assistance.
Registered: Jul 2005
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Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
Yes, it's true that most modern airliners have the capability to fly the whole trip with minimal pilot input. I'm not sure how I feel about trusting my life to a computer at 30,000 ft though.
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
I honestly feel better about it than trusting it to a human. Especially at 30,000 feet where a human would get really bored just holding the plane steady for several hours (at least I sure would). Plus the computer can feel the gyros going over and correct faster than a human, I'd expect.
Registered: Jul 2005
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