yutyut

>Every phone I've had in the last decade has come with GPS (which includes altitude), giros and even magnetic compasses. So they can work out the angle of attack without the need for additional sensors, or at the very least a backup!

You would need a sensor to measure relative wind. Angle of attack is the angle between the wing and the relative wind.

I appreciate the appeal to patriotism buddy but I’m right there with you in a flight suit. The fact that you are in a job that requires a flight suit says a lot less about your experience than your comments have. I don’t like to throw the word boot out but...

Synthetic aperture radar. Perhaps the full body of the world’s knowledge extends a bit beyond your small bubble.

Considering the way you lambaste ideas that it is becoming increasingly evident you don’t fully understand, I’d be interested in your credentials.

Sorry just being short on a comment that starts with lol. Look at for instance SAR mapping. I can have a “certain curr gen aircraft” SAR map a zone or AO for me and tell me A LOT (UNCLAS/open source).

See above, RE: “sensors”

Ideally you can trim a modern helicopter out much like you would an airplane however it's still a dynamically (?) unstable platform. I'm far removed from aero and nobody really thinks about the details of that stuff when they're flying. Here's a good summary:

https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/35764/are-helic...

I'm pretty sure everything in your last paragraph could be done with enough good input (sensors, approach mins, DTED, Digital Wx updates, etc) and the correct application of 1's and 0's. Not really that hard of a problem to solve unless you're operating somewhere very data-austere.

To your first point-and I think you hit it but I wanted to emphasize-some helicopters are hard to fly, some mission sets are more difficult than others; hovering with a 30 knot tailwind in a $32 million dollar aircraft with SCAS and AFCS is still a pain in the ass especially when it's low light and you're on goggles...but I guess the AI wouldn't need to be aided, so call that a win.

No. Go-around and assess the damage on the deck.

Live life to the fullest, while you still can. Find something that's meaningful to you and do it. There's time for fluff later on.

*Point 3 on meritocracy: The Marine Corps aviation community's entire qualification basis revolves around merit: your ability to plan, brief, and execute complex missions is directly reflected in your placement in the squadron.

Even rank gets thrown out the window to a degree. Our little community in particular (the HMLA) is a meritocracy that is enforced on a tribal level.

Long story short: Medical waivers; bureaucracy; initial screening and training as well as the peculiar program I was in and my place in it at the time.

I won't say (nor do I care) whether you do or don't sound like a dick but you do sound like you didn't read my post or perhaps didn't appreciate the spirit in which I wrote it.

Point 1 on bureaucracy: Generally agree. Point 2 on the feasibility of changes in career: Wholeheartedly disagree.

I was a mid-level developer at a large software company making a very competitive salary and quit to join the U.S. Marine Corps and train to become a Naval Aviator.

I'm now a 'mid-level' AH-1Z pilot.

I work longer hours and have generally a lower quality of life but there's something to be said for the immensely unique things I've gotten to do and how profoundly well-rounded the entire experience has made me.

I will be re-entering the software industry in a few years unless another passion pulls me in some new direction.

The military is obviously not for everyone but picking up the phone, ducking into a side conference room across from my cube, and giving a verbal commit to my 'recruiter' that day (after a years-long selection process) has been the best decision I've ever made.

I find that I must spend a significant amount of time on every new page of technical content to really understand it and soak it in. As I'm reading through any publication I stop after each page and mentally quiz myself on what I've just read just to be sure I'm not faking the funk. It's one thing to understand a concept as you're reading it but I would say that's not enough--you should be able to recall it from memory with the ability to explain it to someone else who has never been exposed to that concept.

This worked for me at my first few jobs and it's working for me now in learning complex systems and tactics as they relate to flying and employing military helicopters.

To augment my reading I also use the spaced-repetition app Anki. This has proved invaluable to me and I currently have over 2000 "flashcards" related to my current occupation.

Sounds like you were at Officer Candidates School or the Basic School in Quantico, VA.

Situational awareness is one of the primary tenets of aviation. It is a skill, and like any skill it can be developed and refined.

Young pilots will start out flying in their own reality, one that is completely non-representative of what is actually occurring outside. Over time the gap between what you perceive is happening and what is actually happening will narrow to the point that you can operate safely on your own.

I write this not to contradict you but to prevent your post from discouraging any would-be pilots from pursuing what can be a very personally rewarding and enriching hobby--or career.

And apologies in advance if there is some sort of diagnosed mental condition or quality at play here but ideally that is something that is picked up by FAA medical examiners before students go out and solo.

What do you actually know about the CAS mission and NATO SOP to be making such inflammatory claims?

Maybe British FACs just suck. <--I can generalize too.

Done, thanks to a mysterious pull request.

https://github.com/mmartin0/khanaas/pull/1

Infant Android Studio is already better than grown-up Eclipse.

Or use the internet and objective reasoning...

Greatly oversimplifying the situation with that terrible metaphor.

It's amusing to me that you find this extremely insignificant story worthy of mention on HN in a thread where it's not even tangentially relevant.

P. S. He was right. No way that shit counts.

Ecology blocks: http://www.tworiverssandandgravel.com/wp-content/uploads/201...

I'm not sure whether you're agreeing or disagreeing with me here.

Non-broken link to the paper:

  http://www.d.umn.edu/~dglisczi/4501web/4501Readings/Shiv(1999)FruitOrCake.pdf

Perhaps the conclusions drawn by the experiment (if they are correctly paraphrased in the post; I didn't read the full paper yet: http://www.d.umn.edu/~dglisczi/4501web/4501Readings/Shiv(199...) are valid but I think it would be pertinent to consider that perhaps rather than being 'cognitively taxed', those 7-number participants simply felt that they worked harder and therefore deserved a better prize. I often find myself making similar justifications if I've pushed myself hard in a workout or followed my diet faithfully.

It would be interesting to see an experiment that 'cognitively taxes' participants by having them perform a task that is not considered positive. Memorizing a number elicits a feeling of accomplishment that may contribute to the justification I described above.

Presumably, the visual recognition system in this case was a human.

It's remarkable to me that someone peering up at the moon right when this struck could have noticed the flash.

Love the style. Feels like Space Quest.

Seeing photos like these always serves as a reminder to me of the wonders present on our own planet just waiting to be explored. It really puts this concrete and glass jungle that I call 'home' into perspective. I need a vacation.