Steve Giordano

Airways Magazine @airwaysmagazine · 1d

🔴 The Airbus A350-1000ULR has set a Guinness World Record after flying 12,503 nautical miles (23,155 km) non-stop from Melbourne to Toulouse in 24 hours and 24 minutes during Project Sunrise flight testing,

View quoted post on X

JetPhotos @JetPhotos · 2d

Air-to-air with a Mexican National Guard 727. jetphotos.com/photo/12268198 © Juan Carlos Alvarez

View quoted post on X

Flightradar24 Verified account @flightradar24 · Nov 3

The NTSB held its second and final on scene media briefing regarding N722BD this afternoon. The agency says it recovered the aircraft’s left elevator in three pieces between 1.3 and 3.8 miles from the crash site. flightradar24.com/blog/flight-tr…

View quoted post on X

Steve Giordano Verified account @SteveNomadic · Nov 3

Regarding the radar question, older radar units require some crew input to manually adjust the vertical “tilt” of the radome which scans laterally constantly.

Depending on altitude, pitch, and proximity to the cell, the tilt needs to be adjusted to paint an accurate picture or it could be looking under (ground returns) or over the cell itself. It can also paint erroneous returns if thick ice is built up on the radome.

Moderate to severe turbulence (600-700’ deviations) with the nose swinging wildly around would also obscure the view and make adjusting the tilt knob quite difficult - as would the workload of trying to maintain control of the “bucking bronco”.

Finally, radar shadowing could also be a factor. A dense cell could mask the returns of another cell behind it giving a false sense of security to an area that may actually weather.

We may never know sadly. FYI newer radar units have an “auto” function where gain and tilt are adjusted and cycled automatically drastically reducing crew workload and increasing the reliability of the returns.

View quoted post on X