Plane Stopped in Midair

John T Lowry wrote:

A pilot acquaintance of mine in Montana (Larry) flies a Super Cub to
inspect pipelines. Sometimes, when it's windy, he confounds drivers on
the Interstate by flying backwards above them. Not a problem; it's only
airspeed that matters.

Hmm. Perhaps the idea of a nose-dragger originated when a tail-dragger
landed in a stiff wind.

- Andrew

"C Kingsbury" wrote in message
link.net...
Methinks the man doth protest too much.

Are you saying that we ARE the dangerous boogey man that the general public
thinks we are? Why on earth would you say such a thing?

"Todd Pattist" wrote in message
...
Give her a break, Peter, she asked politely and responded to
the answers.

Yes, she did respond to the answers, refusing to accept them.

It's something that concerned her, and if GA
is to survive, we don't want to be scaring the general
public.

The general public is already scared. For no good reason. That's my point.

The illusion she encountered is quite overpowering.

Most optical illusions are. So what? That's what makes it an *illusion*.
An easily ignored illusion isn't really much of an illusion.

I look at planes every day. Every week I drive by Stewart
where they land the C5A. Its size gives me the same
"stopped in midair" illusion every time I see it. It
always looks like it's just hanging in midair.

But, it is NOT just hanging in midair. It's one thing to ask for expert
advice to confirm one's intuitive sense that an airplane can't just hang in
midair. It's yet another to repeatedly reply that the expert advice is
simply unbelieveable.

I'm getting a little sick and tired of folks who run in a panic every time
they see an airplane doing something they don't understand. "Debbie" has
made very clear that this isn't just about her trying to understand a visual
paradox.

Her *primary* concern is that an airliner might come to a complete stop over
a populated area, and then having done so, fall straight down and kill her.
Statements like "it was quite disturbing", "No fun", "I've been very
concerned", "this bothered me", "the crash would have been extraordinarily
disastrous", and "I'd like to be reassured this is not a common occurrence"
make it very clear where she's coming from, and she's not coming from "I'm
curious about this optical illusion" frame of mind.

Pete

"Peter Duniho" wrote in message
...
"Todd Pattist" wrote in message
...

I'm getting a little sick and tired of folks who run in a panic every time
they see an airplane doing something they don't understand.

Would that they all came to r.a.p. and asked nicely about what they saw
instead of demanding immediate satisfaction from equally uninformed
government officials.

You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

-cwk.

In article ,
Dylan Smith wrote:
Especially the giant Antanovs - they look like they are barely moving on
approach, despite really moving at 150 knots or so. By comparison,
a C140 approaching at 55 knots looks like it's just racing along.

I remember reading something about this. The conclusion was that we
perceive speed as a function of aircraft lengths per second. So a large
jet, such as a 747, seems to be crawling, while a smaller aircraft, such
as a Lear, will seem to be moving much faster while actually at the same
speed. Recalculate their speed in terms of aircraft lengths per second,
and you can see the correlation, since a 747 is several Lears long.

I would imagine you'd experience the same thing if you were to compare
the visual perception of the speeds of an Amtrak train and a fast car
travelling at the same rate.

- Nathan

C Kingsbury wrote:

You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

and B.S. beats them both.

George Patterson
If a man gets into a fight 3,000 miles away from home, he *had* to have
been looking for it.

Nathan Gilliatt wrote:
In article ,
Dylan Smith wrote:

Especially the giant Antanovs - they look like they are barely moving on
approach, despite really moving at 150 knots or so. By comparison,
a C140 approaching at 55 knots looks like it's just racing along.


I remember reading something about this. The conclusion was that we
perceive speed as a function of aircraft lengths per second. So a large
jet, such as a 747, seems to be crawling, while a smaller aircraft, such
as a Lear, will seem to be moving much faster while actually at the same
speed. Recalculate their speed in terms of aircraft lengths per second,
and you can see the correlation, since a 747 is several Lears long.

I would imagine you'd experience the same thing if you were to compare
the visual perception of the speeds of an Amtrak train and a fast car
travelling at the same rate.

- Nathan

The vehicle length per second is often cited as a reason of why
motorcycle racing is so exciting to watch. The bikes are tiny in
comparison to cars, so they look like they're going even faster than a
car going the same speed. It is quite thrilling to see these racers
pushing the edge while scraping the ground with their knee pucks!

-Aviv

"C Kingsbury" wrote in message
ink.net...
Would that they all came to r.a.p. and asked nicely about what they saw
instead of demanding immediate satisfaction from equally uninformed
government officials.

What exactly would a person like Debbie request of the "equally uninformed
government officials"? To pass a regulation prohibiting airliners from
stopping in mid-air?

You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

We weren't catching any flies with the honey.

Its called parallax. Your motion, the motion of the plane, and the
background were in the right configuration so that the parallax made the
plane appear to be stationary when in fact it was not...


"DM" wrote in message
...
Yesterday I saw a cargo jet (a major air express company) come to what
seemed like a dead stop in midair as it was making its ascent. After
about 20 - 30 seconds of hanging without dropping out of the sky, it
continued climbing and apparently did not crash. There's been nothing
about it in the local news but I've still been very concerned. Could
someone here explain how such a thing is possible?

Some details: the temperature was about 50 degrees F, the sky was mostly
clear, and the time was around 0645. I was traveling by car at about 40
MPH on a street that is parallel to a regular flight path. From this
street it's common to see 3 or 4 planes per minute either climbing or
descending; the airport is about a mile or two away from this particular
street.

As I was moving relatively slowly compared to the how fast the jet
should have been moving, I noticed that I was gaining on it. I quickly
eyeballed the area for tall buildings and other geographical reference
points so I could be sure that I had a good perspective and wasn't just
"seeing things". The object was either not moving or it was moving
*very* slowly, and it was not a helicopter. For a few seconds I was
stopped at an intersection looking at this hanging plane and at the
people in the other cars around me. No one else seemed to be paying any
attention to it besides me.

The main reason this bothered me so much is because had the plane
fallen, it would have landed less than a half mile from where I and
about 30 other running cars were, in addition to several warehouse-type
buildings and auto repair garages, plus a 6 or 8 lane freeway filled
with morning traffic. Since the plane had just taken off and was
probably full of fuel, and was still low enough for its markings to be
readable from the ground, the crash probably would have been
extraordinarily disastrous.

I've done a lot of Googling to try to get an understanding of what I saw
and really haven't learned anything meaningful. I'm hoping someone here
can explain how a "regular" jet--versus a specialized military jet--can
apparently stop in midair and not drop from the sky. As a daily traveler
near a major metro airport, I'd really like to be reassured that this is
not a common occurrence.

Debbie

Perhaps the bong you were holding obscured your view.....j/k

"DM" wrote in message
...
Yesterday I saw a cargo jet (a major air express company) come to what
seemed like a dead stop in midair as it was making its ascent. After about
20 - 30 seconds of hanging without dropping out of the sky, it continued
climbing and apparently did not crash. There's been nothing about it in
the local news but I've still been very concerned. Could someone here
explain how such a thing is possible?

Some details: the temperature was about 50 degrees F, the sky was mostly
clear, and the time was around 0645. I was traveling by car at about 40
MPH on a street that is parallel to a regular flight path. From this
street it's common to see 3 or 4 planes per minute either climbing or
descending; the airport is about a mile or two away from this particular
street.

As I was moving relatively slowly compared to the how fast the jet should
have been moving, I noticed that I was gaining on it. I quickly eyeballed
the area for tall buildings and other geographical reference points so I
could be sure that I had a good perspective and wasn't just "seeing
things". The object was either not moving or it was moving *very* slowly,
and it was not a helicopter. For a few seconds I was stopped at an
intersection looking at this hanging plane and at the people in the other
cars around me. No one else seemed to be paying any attention to it
besides me.

The main reason this bothered me so much is because had the plane fallen,
it would have landed less than a half mile from where I and about 30 other
running cars were, in addition to several warehouse-type buildings and
auto repair garages, plus a 6 or 8 lane freeway filled with morning
traffic. Since the plane had just taken off and was probably full of fuel,
and was still low enough for its markings to be readable from the ground,
the crash probably would have been extraordinarily disastrous.

I've done a lot of Googling to try to get an understanding of what I saw
and really haven't learned anything meaningful. I'm hoping someone here
can explain how a "regular" jet--versus a specialized military jet--can
apparently stop in midair and not drop from the sky. As a daily traveler
near a major metro airport, I'd really like to be reassured that this is
not a common occurrence.

Debbie