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What a plane crash feels like - United 232
Brad Griffin had his hands on the first class seat in front of him, which was the first row in the airplane. Gerald Harlon Dobson, a retired state trooper from New Jersey, sat with his wife, Joann, dressed in their festive Hawaiian clothes directly across from Rene Le Beau’s jump seat. Griffin had been meditating. He felt no fear, even though he could feel how unusually fast the plane was going. “And when we hit the runway,” Griffin recalled, “my seat belt pops.” He was stunned for a second,… (www.salon.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Seems like most of us on here have had some kind of EMT/first responder experience of some kind. The two main themes running thru all these posts of those that have had it is 1. It is not as much fun or as glamorous as it looks to some and 2. That it takes it toll on you personally after a time. It is something you never forget but once away from it you don't necessarily want to go back thru it.
Very well put preacher1. Another thing I am only just starting to appreciate is what my children involuntarily gave up, what with me on the ambulance full time and my wife working the ER...countless birthdays and holidays lost or partially celebrated. Missed school and sporting events, and even more days when I was home but mentally and physically beat. On a brighter note I do remember a fellow medic, mentor, and great friend coming to the ER to see me after I ran my first serious accident scene. He was smiling because he saw the glow I had from doing what I was trained and born to do. That was a cool moment. His name was Dave and his father flew Skyraiders off of the USS Wasp in Korea. Never got to meet his Dad, though - he died many years before I knew Dave.
Even though there was such a loss of life and injuries, there would have been many more but for the superb airmanship. They told Haines later that 4 pilot groups had ran that scenario in the SIM and all totally crashed. It wasn't pretty but when you lose everything, you got to know how to FLY YOUR PLANE.
That last sentence is the crust of airmanship!
I've flown many crash scenarios in sims and I'm sure you have also. Hind-sight makes many of them easy to "live" through and the sim, due to still not yet 100% realism, makes some of them more difficult than in real life. I've flown this one three times, no hydraulics and jammed controls, except in a different type of aircraft. Each time we got the aircraft basically on an approach path similar to UA232 but red screened "crashed" due to the sims 5 degree bank limitation at touchdown. I don't remember what UA232's bank was at touchdown, but thank God we didn't have to ride through the rest of their arrival.
I've flown many crash scenarios in sims and I'm sure you have also. Hind-sight makes many of them easy to "live" through and the sim, due to still not yet 100% realism, makes some of them more difficult than in real life. I've flown this one three times, no hydraulics and jammed controls, except in a different type of aircraft. Each time we got the aircraft basically on an approach path similar to UA232 but red screened "crashed" due to the sims 5 degree bank limitation at touchdown. I don't remember what UA232's bank was at touchdown, but thank God we didn't have to ride through the rest of their arrival.
Bill - wanted to tell you I love your profile picture, Grumman aircraft at the close of WWII were some of the finest piston aircraft ever made. I wish the Bearcat and the Tigercat could have seen combat. They had everything - speed, maneuverability, firepower, toughness. I'm not sure offhand if they had range capability similar to or comparable to the great Mustang, but they sure had every other good fighter quality in abundance!
I just took a quick look at Wiki and did a quick Google search and saw no reference anywhere to Bank Angle, specifically on 232
It's hard to make any sort of comment after reading that.