The General Airplane Thread

  • Thread starter Crash
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RACECAR
I think its just the regular business jets being so common, that they don't really seem all that interesting (though I've seen quite a few King Airs here in Dallas all my life so there's THAT exception).

My personal favorite Turboprop (and something I have yet to still see in person or at all) is the Piaggio P180

Piaggio_P-180_II_ext.jpg


Loved this thing ever since I first saw it on a recording of Paris Air Show 87'
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Hi guys, I don't post in here very much but I like to stop by and check out all the photos every once in awhile. I'm a corporate pilot and while I don't fly them, my company has a handful of P180s in their fleet. A good friend of mine flies them and loves it. I've played around inside them and they are very cool. The cabin is bigger than most small business jets, it's much faster than any other turboprop competitor, and the Avanti IIs have a really nice avionics setup.
 
Bleached
Hi guys, I don't post in here very much but I like to stop by and check out all the photos every once in awhile. I'm a corporate pilot and while I don't fly them, my company has a handful of P180s in their fleet. A good friend of mine flies them and loves it. I've played around inside them and they are very cool. The cabin is bigger than most small business jets, it's much faster than any other turboprop competitor, and the Avanti IIs have a really nice avionics setup.
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Could you tell us some more stuff about the P180s? I love to learn about private aircraft. :)

By the way, if someone were to become a P180 pilot, do they need to be trained by Piaggio, or will any private training company that operates them work?
 
Yeah it's a pretty cool design. Very ahead of it's time when it was originally designed. Those aren't canards up front, they're forward wings which the piaggio pilots are quick to point out. The fuselage produces 20% of the lift in cruise. I hear it's very much Italian - fast and good looking, but it spends more time in the shop than on the road.

I can't speak for other countries but in the US it's certified for single pilot ops and doesn't require a type rating so technically all you need is a multi-engine rating on your certificate to fly it. We fly it two crew for charter ops and send our pilots to a private training company where they go through sim training before they fly the actual plane.
 
Bleached
Yeah it's a pretty cool design. Very ahead of it's time when it was originally designed. Those aren't canards up front, they're forward wings which the piaggio pilots are quick to point out. The fuselage produces 20% of the lift in cruise. I hear it's very much Italian - fast and good looking, but it spends more time in the shop than on the road.

I can't speak for other countries but in the US it's certified for single pilot ops and doesn't require a type rating so technically all you need is a multi-engine rating on your certificate to fly it. We fly it two crew for charter ops and send our pilots to a private training company where they go through sim training before they fly the actual plane.
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Awesome. What are some of the main differences between the first and second generation of the Avanti?
 
Dan
Awesome. What are some of the main differences between the first and second generation of the Avanti?
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There might be some updates to the some of the systems, but I know the biggest difference is the avionics. The Is were mostly analog and the IIs have ProLine 21 avionics.
 
Bleached
There might be some updates to the some of the systems, but I know the biggest difference is the avionics. The Is were mostly analog and the IIs have ProLine 21 avionics.
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Oh, nice. I remember watching this very in-depth walkaround video of the Avanti, and the pilot said that the plane can still be operated in an emergency with just one tiny display off to the right side. Not sure if that was a gen-I or II.
 
Dan
I can't really tell with these specific shots, but how is the visibility in the cockpit? The metal frame for the windshield seems like it would get in the way.
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It's pretty good, the frames don't really bother you.
 
I can't believe I just discovered this thread. I'm former Air Force (Staff Sergeant back in the '80s, stationed at RAF Upper Heyford in the UK, Columbus AFB in Mississippi, Incirlik AB in Turkey and Nellis AFB in Nevada), my dad is retired Boeing, and I live just outside Seattle, home of the Air and Space Museum. Let me show you some of my favorite planes (a lot of the photos are courtesy of http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/):


Republic XF-12 Rainbow, a prototype photo-reconnaissance plane, designed for high speed. It's job was to get in fast, get the photos and get out fast. Everything about the plane was designed to make it as smooth (and therefore as fast) as possible. 470 mph, 45,000 ft ceiling, and 4,500 mile range. Unfortunately, it came too late in the war to go into production.


Martin B-57A Canberra. I've always liked the look of this one, especially without the wing-tip fuel tanks.


Lockheed XF-90, a sexy little fighter that was just too heavy to go into production. Still, it was so good looking, it became the standard plane of the Blackhawk squadron in DC's comic books.


North American XB-45. It's more the photo I love than the bomber. The pilot is gears up at just 20 feet off the deck. That takes some real intestinal fortitude.
 
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Populuxe Cowboy
I can't believe I just discovered this thread. I'm former Air Force (Staff Sergeant back in the '80s, stationed at RAF Upper Heyford in the UK, Columbus AFB in Mississippi, Incirlik AB in Turkey and Nellis AFB in Nevada), my dad is retired Boeing, and I live just outside Seattle, home of the Air and Space Museum. Let me show you some of my favorite planes (a lot of the photos are courtesy of http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/):


Republic XF-12 Rainbow, a prototype photo-reconnaissance plane, designed for high speed. It's job was to get in fast, get the photos and get out fast. Everything about the plane was designed to make it as smooth (and therefore as fast) as possible. 470 mph, 45,000 ft ceiling, and 4,500 mile range. Unfortunately, it came too late in the war to go into production.


Martin B-57A Canberra. I've always liked the look of this one, especially without the wing-tip fuel tanks.


Lockheed XF-90, a sexy little fighter that was just too heavy to go into production. Still, it was so good looking, it became the standard plane of the Blackhawk squadron in DC's comic books.


North American XB-45. It's more the photo I love than the bomber. The pilot is gears up at just 20 feet off the deck. That takes some real intestinal fortitude.
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If you and your father have any stories to tell, I'd love to hear them. :)
 
Dan
If you and your father have any stories to tell, I'd love to hear them. :)
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I don't know that I have any very interesting stories. I was stationed at RAF Upper Heyford near Oxford England from '82 to '84. During that time we transitioned from F-111s to EF-111s. I was then stationed at Columbus AFB in Mississippi from '84 to '86. It was a training base for pilots, so the only aircraft we had were T-37s and T-38s. I then went to Incirlik AB near Adana Turkey from '86 to '87. We had no aircraft of our own. All aircraft were rotated out of airbases in Germany. Mostly F-15s and F-16s. Finally I was stationed at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas from '88 to '89, home of the Thunderbirds. The Diamond Crash was still fresh in everyone's memories at that time.
 
When I was stationed at RAF Upper Heyford, I worked in munitions. One day I had to drive a lift truck from one side of the airfield to the other. That included having to cross the runway at the far west end. Only problem there were two F-111s taxiing into position to take off from that end. I didn't have any ear defenders on me since I didn't think I'd need them. I stopped at the line as the F-111s taxied past me and then stopped. After a minute, both planes fired up their afterburners. The sound was deafening. I could feel the sound all the way through my body. The violence of the noise and the heat from the engines was the most powerful thing I'd ever felt. Finally the pilots must have gotten the order to take off, as the brakes were released and the two aircraft roared down the runway and lifted off. I will never forget that feeling.

This is a lift truck, also called a jammer. It's used to load munitions on trailers for transport from the bomb dump to the flight line, and from the trailer to the aircraft, and vice versa. As you can see, the driver is totally exposed to the elements.
 
Populuxe Cowboy
When I was stationed at RAF Upper Heyford, I worked in munitions. One day I had to drive a lift truck from one side of the airfield to the other. That included having to cross the runway at the far west end. Only problem there were two F-111s taxiing into position to take off from that end. I didn't have any ear defenders on me since I didn't think I'd need them. I stopped at the line as the F-111s taxied past me and then stopped. After a minute, both planes fired up their afterburners. The sound was deafening. I could feel the sound all the way through my body. The violence of the noise and the heat from the engines was the most powerful thing I'd ever felt. Finally the pilots must have gotten the order to take off, as the brakes were released and the two aircraft roared down the runway and lifted off. I will never forget that feeling.

This is a lift truck, also called a jammer. It's used to load munitions on trailers for transport from the bomb dump to the flight line, and from the trailer to the aircraft, and vice versa. As you can see, the driver is totally exposed to the elements.
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Man. That sounds awesome. :D

Since I work with business jets all the time, I always use foam ear plugs. They block out enough noise to allow me to have conversations with my crew or pilots. If I was working with 777s, then I'm definitely going for over-the-ear protection. Even when a plane is far from our ramp and taking off, some of them can be at stupid volume levels like Hawker 800s or Lear 60's. If I'm watching one of those take off without ear plugs, they usually hurt my ears/leave a crackly sound. Their APUs are ridiculously loud, too. Take a hairdryer, put it on max setting, and point it directly into your ear. Multiply the volume by ten. Now multiply it by 100. That's how loud these things can get.
 
The Avalon Airshow is back this year, yay! Should be a blast (no pun intended) considering we get pretty much no airshows down here in Melbourne. Apparently the B1-B and F-22 are making an appearance...:D
 
CLowndes888
The Avalon Airshow is back this year, yay! Should be a blast (no pun intended) considering we get pretty much no airshows down here in Melbourne. Apparently the B1-B and F-22 are making an appearance...:D
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STOP IT! You're making me so jealous!
 
The demo of the F-22 is unbelievable if the best you've seen before is an F-14 or -15 or -16. Even the Superhornet is a bit clumsy next to it!

And the B1-B will be the loudest aircraft you've ever heard, unless you've been near a Concorde taking off.
 
wfooshee
The demo of the F-22 is unbelievable if the best you've seen before is an F-14 or -15 or -16. Even the Superhornet is a bit clumsy next to it!

And the B1-B will be the loudest aircraft you've ever heard, unless you've been near a Concorde taking off.
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Yeah, I've heard one before
 
I've noticed it on 757s and 747s but never really seen a good video. Kinda funny too because it seemed like he was approaching the end of the runway a little bit faster than he wanted to be lol.
 

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