Next headline: "Teterboro controller indulged in trans fat rich lunch."

http://gothamist.com/2009/08/20/teterbo ... out_ba.php

Z......it sells newspapers, ads, gets your attention...shock factor! "Tune in tonight folks..listen to the cat frying FAA controller...he jokes while people die." Now wouldn't that get YOUR attention?
Not very funny!!....but to some of our media folks it gets them recognition.
"Teterboro controller indulged in trans fat rich lunch." What's next...mandates on what FAA controllers eat for lunch while handling planes at O'Hare?
Just my 2 bits.
HC

I don't understand what you mean Zane. The news looks perfectly normal to me. No change in the quality of information content that I can detect!

I found it interesting that the fact that the Controllers Union went public with the transcript showing that the controller making the phone call had already handed off the Piper pilot, and could not contact him automatically excludes the union from a seat at the table in the accident analysis. And, the NTSB is pontificating on how terrible it was for the union to defend its controller.

Considering that the NTSB is the one that's been publicly hanging the controllers out to dry ever since the accident. Someone should exclude those unprofessional a-holes from participating in the accident investigation.

I'm not a big fan of unions of any flavor, but I have developed a real dislike of the NTSB. They definitely have agendas that do not favor pilots or controllers, AND nobody ever tells them to shut up and act professionally.

Grrrrr.

MTV

Ignorance of aviation. Rushing to get a story. Lack of experience and/or professionalism.

A friend of mine recently flew his Stearman to a nearby fly-in, and a local reporter was present. She reported that a "711 Navy Stearman" was there, complete with a very nice picture.
1. It's not a "711," it's a PT-17.
2. It's painted in Army colors.
3. It is actually a Stearman.
So, 1 out of 3 isn't all bad, is it?

ASW.

I love how every time there is anything aviation related, Foxnews calls on their resident "expert," one of their reporters who has a PPL and a Cessna. When the airliner went down in the Hudson, they called on him to offer his insight and opinion. Sure he has a PPL, but he is far from an aviation expert, unless he is dumbing it down for the masses...

Once you understand that the news is only another entertainment program, subject to the same ratings and market pressures as your average sitcom... does it all start to make sense.

There is no mandate, or no oversight, that addresses them telling the whole truth and not skewing it one way or another. So you get Rush Limbaugh on one side making it seem one way and Al Franken on the other side making it seem another way. Do you ever notice that all three major TV news networks all run the same stories in the same order? That's not a coincidence, it's because they don't want you changing channels to see the most "interesting" story someone else is showing first.

The news program does not get money because they tell the truth. They get money because you tune in to them instead of the other news. That's why all the girls and guys have to be pretty even if they're idiots. If you tune in to NBC because the stupid girl's boobs are bigger than ABC's more talented and educated girl's boobs, NBC wins the ratings and the money. So next week ABC fires the smart girl for a hotter redhead with absolutely no brains, and you tune in to that so they win. CBS does secret sleazy research and finds out that there is a big surge in internet porn downloads of older women seducing younger men, and hires a sexy 45 year old woman newscaster with cleavage and a younger innocent boy next door type... and orders them to be a little flirty on the air to tease the audience... Bingo, their ratings go up and they get more money.

What does this have to do with aviation?

1) They don't give a S**T whether their aviation "expert" is a pre-solo student pilot or a 20,000 hour airline check pilot. If their guy looks right for the part and appeals to the right demographic, he's the expert they want.

2) They don't give a S**T whether small airplanes are safe, because if they can paint a picture of imminent danger in your mind, you tune in to see when and where the sky is falling.

3) Once again the accuracy or factual content of the TV news has very little to do with whether they win their game or not. They have no care in the world whether they create or promote fear and distrust in the public toward aviation. Matter of fact, the fear is at least something they can turn into ratings.

You'll have to trust me, this is something I unfortunately know a little about. That "TV culture" which dominates most of people's world today was invented by my dad about 60 years ago.

Like when the twin went down (both engines quit) in the desert out of Minidoka a couple weeks ago: "The pilot tried to take the first landing, but was too high, he turned to bring it around, and then the wind shifted, so he spotted a airstrip, but going across a road hit a rough patch and tipped it over." Convoluted or what!! It was of course described as a "small" plane. The pilot lives a mile away from me, and he and his wife were alright, misfueling is suspected.

A Stemme motor glider, one of several visiting from California, went down last week in the mountains outside Copper Basin. The 77 yr pilot (super experienced in type, had flown it to S.A. and Alaska) was killed. I had been in Arco the day before, and drooled over them, 75' span and being used for touring AND soaring. They are the ones where the nose slides forward and the prop pops out, when put away they are super clean, retractable tail draggers no less. The pilot was a pretty cool guy in my book to still be getting it on like he was at 77. His buddies are a similar vintage, according to airport manager Bruce. I wish I could have got to meet them. The press actually got the basic facts correct in that case, one of the few.

EZFlap wrote:Once you understand that the news is only another entertainment program, subject to the same ratings and market pressures as your average sitcom... does it all start to make sense.
Good stuff snipped
You'll have to trust me, this is something I unfortunately know a little about. That "TV culture" which dominates most of people's world today was invented by my dad about 60 years ago.

Sad, but very true. The general mess the country is in is not going to get better until the populous is better informed. I don't see it happening any time soon.

tom

Back in my flying for a living days, I had to make flight in and then out of a high mountain airport (7052 ft altitude) in the middle of the night. The airplane was a cessna 310 non-turbo with a single engine service ceiling of 7000 ft. The take off was fine until about the departure end of the strip and at about 60 ft off the deck, the left (critical) engine blew, busted the case in half, oil all over the place. I cleaned the plane up fast but couldn't hold altitude, if I turned right that would put me into the middle of town, so holding min. control speed I turned left 180 deg. An over cast night made it as dark as the inside of a cow and I was trying to stay close to the runway lights, by the time the turn was completed, I only had about 20 ft under me and I decided to set it down going accross the runway lights so as to know where the ground was. I turned the landing lights on and all I saw was big piles of malipi rocks.I just cleared the lights then set her down, we rolled out through the rocks until nearly stoped before hitting a rock that broke the nose wheel off and we landed on the nose.

The next morning we pulled the tail down and towed it back to the ramp to tie the plane down while telling the story in answer to a newspaper reporters questions about what happened. When the paper came out it said "Accident happened because pilot missed the runway". All in all I figure I got off pretty lucky news wise.

goldfinch wrote:When the paper came out it said "Accident happened because pilot missed the runway". All in all I figure I got off pretty lucky news wise.

Facepalm.

Nice work.