American facing extradition from Argentina for murder

[orwellian]

Pilots (well trained, of course) land planes on relatively narrow runways (compared to the "width" of the Pentagon). The TP had a pretty big target.

You do know the guy is a pilot right?

 

[steveinbsas]

You do know the guy is a pilot right?

Which guy?

 

[orwellian]

The text from the guy you just quoted: gunt86

 

[gunt86]

Pilots (well trained, of course) land planes on relatively narrow runways (compared to the "width" of the Pentagon). The TP had a pretty big target.

Even for a good pilot, it is much much easier to center the plane horizontally relative to a runway than it is to achieve vertical precision at a given distance. This is partly why runways are long but not wide! What i mean by vertical precision relative at a given distance is, can the pilot have the wheels touch down at exactly a predetermine linear distance on the runway, say at 100 yards past the start of the runway. That is near impossible to do for any rookie pilot. There is this little thing called the wind which makes vertical precision very difficult. In pilot training there is a procedure called Short Take Off and Landing. Half of that procedure involves trying to land the aircraft within the first third of the runway. It is very difficult for most rookies. AND that is with a leeway of 1/3 of the runway!! Imagine if it was only a few feet with an aircraft you had no experience with.

There is something else about landing a plane that makes this all even more difficult. On approach the pilot is angled towards ground while trying to maintain a certain speed (too fast and he overshoots, too slow and he loses control in a stall). At about 20 feet (for a Cessna 172), the pilot rotates the angle of approach to zero and makes the plane fly parallel to the runway, all the while letting the speed decrease by ever increasing the nose of the aircraft upward. This is called flaring. We can assume that the alleged pilot of the attack did not attempt to flair, but instead made an abrupt change in the angle of approach from say 25 degrees downward to zero at exactly 20 feet or so above the ground, AND then he maintained this vertical distance with the ground (altitude) for a mile or so until hitting exactly inside the 77 foot target with his 44 foot arrow. And all of this happened at speeds in excess of 150 knots/hour. In order to maintain this 20 foot elevation about the ground the pilot has to have exactly the correct power setting on the engine, too little and aircraft loses altitude, too much and the aircraft rises. That is very advanced flying technique. And to make matters worse, even if he could read a 'glass cockpit', the elevation figures would not be very precise as this area is not a runway. And that assumes that the pilot had tuned into the local airport to get the current MSL/barometric pressure figures and entered them successfully into the instruments within the 15 minutes before landing.

I will give you a little example of how hard it is to land an aircraft you are not familiar with. I had been flying for quite a while when i decided to train for a seaplane permit. Seaplanes stand much higher from the 'ground' because of the height of the pontoon assembly. When i tried to make my first landing, i underestimated my vertical distance from the water when i entered the flare. I thought my pontoons were about 20 feet above the water when in fact i was probably 40 or more. It's just hard to figure out when so many things are happening inside the cockpit. And you know that if you let the pontoons touch the water when you are still in approach angle, then the plane will flip over head first and kill you. So you underestimate the vertical distance. Because i entered my flare at 40 feet, when i finally lost enough speed during the flare for my tail to land, the tail fell about 20 feet in a second. Quite a hard landing and very stressful on the pontoons. Would have been even worse on the aircraft if it was a wheeled plane on tarmac.

 

[gouchobob]

I think people here are losing I.Q. points the longer this goes on, the planes could and were flow into the buildings, not that tough to do, even for someone with minimal training, more nonsense.

http://www.pprune.org/spectators-ba...ur-pilot-ability-high-speed-low-altitude.html

 

[gunt86]

... not that tough to do, even for someone with minimal training, more nonsense.

what evidence do you have that this can be done with only minimal training on a Cessna 172 and then applied to a Boeing 757?

 

[gouchobob]

what evidence do you have that this can be done with only minimal training on a Cessna 172 and then applied to a Boeing 757?

This can be thoroughly debunked in the link below.

http://www.pprune.org/spectators-ba...ur-pilot-ability-high-speed-low-altitude.html

 

[gunt86]

This can be thoroughly debunked in the link below.

http://www.pprune.org/spectators-ba...ur-pilot-ability-high-speed-low-altitude.html

Do you even read? That link says nothing about hitting a low altitude building like the Pentagon ! It is entirely about hitting the WTC which is a piloting skill of horizontal precision, exactly what i said was NOT required to hit the Pentagon.

 

[gouchobob]

Do you even read? That link says nothing about hitting a low altitude building like the Pentagon ! It is entirely about hitting the WTC which is a piloting skill of horizontal precision, exactly what i said was NOT required to hit the Pentagon.

I'd give it up. What are you saying now an inexperienced pilot could hit the WTC and not the Pentagon? Then somehow there is a conspiracy involved in the Pentagon and not in the WTC, they just happened on the same day by coincidence? Pilots even inexperienced ones could easily hit the Pentagon. Go back to the link and read it carefully. One quote from these professional pilots I will leave with you.

"Conspiracy theorists in my humble opinion show disrespect to the poor innocents that died for no reason."

I very strongly agree with this statement.

 

[gunt86]

I'd give it up. What are you saying now an inexperienced pilot could hit the WTC and not the Pentagon? Then somehow there is a conspiracy involved in the Pentagon and not in the WTC, they just happened on the same day by coincidence? Pilots even inexperienced ones could easily hit the Pentagon.

Read my posts and you will understand my position. I am a pilot.