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Posts by convex  

Joined: 25 Nov 2009 / Male ♂ 		Last Post: 28 Nov 2011
Threads: Total: 20 / In This Archive: 13
Posts: Total: 3928 / In This Archive: 3150 		From: Wroclaw
Speaks Polish?: un poco...wait
Interests: aviation

Displayed posts: 3163 / page 76 of 106
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convex   
12 Apr 2010
News / Russian air traffic controllers ignored communication protocol of Polish pilots? [194]

Half a clue perhaps.

Well, the plane wasn't old. The crew wasn't inexperienced. And the Polish mentality, well, that's up in the air. You could say things like, Dutch mentality caused the Tenerife accident, or British mentality for the incident with the 747 out of LA, or American mentality for flying into a mountain in Croatia with VIPs aboard....
convex   
12 Apr 2010
News / Russian air traffic controllers ignored communication protocol of Polish pilots? [194]

So warning pilots means telling them of the risk of landing. Byt then you cannot say: Didn't I tell them not to land? You only can say: I warned them of the risk of landing, and these two are completely different things.

Is Smolensk controlled? I know they don't have a tower, but there is a small military presence at the airfield.

From what we know, ATC offered up Moscow as an alternate due to weather conditions. The crew told ATC they would try an approach (not unusual) and then head to Moscow if it they were unable to land...they ended up in the ditch. So the questions will be, what happened on that approach, what charts were they using, did GPWS go off, the QNH/QFE question from earlier.

The data recorder and the CVR were opened and inspected with Polish authorities, and the boxes were recovered with Polish participation. The chain of custody there is complete. There is talk that there wasn't anything off on the data recorder, lets see what the CVR tells us.
convex   
12 Apr 2010
News / Russian air traffic controllers ignored communication protocol of Polish pilots? [194]

This is exactly what i first thought when i heard about the tragedy , i immediately thought about a deficit in language communication and understanding since in Russia air traffic controllers do not get any English language training , not sure about the Polish pilots 's knowledge of English either.

Russian civilian ATC speak great English. They receive training, and are tested on their proficiency.

Russian military ATC is conducted in Russian.

Moscow Approach, have a listen and compare the controllers level of English to that of the pilots they're speaking to...
convex   
12 Apr 2010
News / Will todays tragedy effect the economy of Poland? [34]

But again - who is going to deny the dead President's brother a chance to win the Presidency in honour of his late brother?

I don't think he wants the presidency... PM gets things done, the President just vetoes things.
convex   
12 Apr 2010
News / Russian air traffic controllers ignored communication protocol of Polish pilots? [194]

And what of the theory that Russia had sth planted in the forest to wreak havoc with the operating systems of the plane? I don't know too much about aviation so I will reserve judgement.

Occam's razor. The people posting there are pilots (for the most part), and everyone is coming to the same conclusion with the facts that are available.

Here's an interesting tidbit... The plane crashed to the east of the airport, everyone has been saying that it crashed on approach. Wind was reported out of the east, so either it crashed after flying over the runway, or it was landing with the wind (not normal).
convex   
12 Apr 2010
History / Anger at yet another Polish tragedy [30]

Where do people get their bread and stuff with everything closed for so long?

24 hours? Gas stations and some restaurants were open today :)
convex   
12 Apr 2010
News / Russian air traffic controllers ignored communication protocol of Polish pilots? [194]

He was highly experienced and you had ample flying experience, convex.

Actually, I stand corrected. Maj Grzywna had 3500 hours and was with the 36th for 13 years. The engineer (Zietek) had 9 years with the regiment. The captain for that flight (Protasiuk) had 1400 hours (on the 154 and the Yak-40, not TT) and was them for 13 years as well.

Apparently the 36th has been losing pilots to the private sector and are down to a skeleton crew.

This accident looks like what you'd expect from using inexperienced crew, old aircraft and polish mentality. That is, an ill-advised NPA, straying below minima, failure to arrest the sink rate, resulting in CFIT.

Your first line is BS, the second is spot on.

I'm afraid the Russians only tried to help by strongly advising the crew to divert... but did the Polish listen.... nyet!

True, get-there-itis. The flight was doomed from the start. Diverting to alternates would have meant that the delegation would have missed the ceremony.

What was his journey path?

Warsaw to Smolensk in a Yak.
convex   
12 Apr 2010
News / Russian air traffic controllers ignored communication protocol of Polish pilots? [194]

Although local languages are sometimes used in ATC communications, the default language of aviation worldwide is English. Controllers who do not speak this as a first language are generally expected to show a certain minimum level of competency with the language.

For civilian ATC, everyone must be proficient in English. Military ATC has no such requirement (for obvious reasons). Prior to the flight, confirmation was given that the air crew could speak Russian (from the TVN interview).

To be the pilot of the President's plane is a job not given to just any old pilot. I got a character reference for him as my wife has a contact that knew him. He was the kind to follow procedure which means that he wouldn't've tried to pull off such a strange landing.

Depends on the pressure to perform. Again, there was no back up plan. Both pilots were 36, and like you mentioned, not long term veterans of the 36 SPLT. The engineer was 21.
convex   
11 Apr 2010
News / New Polish president and Russian/American relations [37]

But back on topic. The biggest long term political impact of this disaster has to be the loss of senior military officials. Presidents come and go, were going to get another one soon anyway.

In Kabul, the American who leads allied forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Gen. David Petraeus, offered his condolences. He was in Poland days earlier to meet with its military leaders.

"Almost everybody who was sitting on the other side of the table at my meeting with the general staff is no longer with us," Petraeus said.

That will probably have more of an impact than losing the president.
convex   
11 Apr 2010
History / Anger at yet another Polish tragedy [30]

Whose with me? ! ?

Might want to move to Poland first, then throw in a bit of water, sugar, some drozdze, let that rise for a while then back for 45 minutes.

What exactly are you proposing?
convex   
11 Apr 2010
News / New Polish president and Russian/American relations [37]

and it does, just look at all the condolences. It's just the media which wants us all to still think Cold War like, it's fu**ing bu**ocks man

Media sensationalism drags in weak minds.
convex   
9 Apr 2010
Life / Are Polish ppl capable of revolting? [41]

Aren't they tired enough of this "democracy" yet?

Yea, Poland needs a dictator.

We can only hope that Poland will one day follow in Ireland's footsteps and our people
won't have to emmigrate anymore.

It's getting there. There are some huge issues that need to be solved... It seems to me that there is a layer of incredibly overpaid middle management here that drag otherwise productive enterprises down. Hopefully that's being tolerated less and less..
convex   
9 Apr 2010
USA, Canada / Getting a VISA to USA by a Polish person nowadays [339]

Their CEO"s attitude towards health care leaves a hell of a lot to be desired - and they're hardly friendly towards trade unions as well. For a company which caters to the liberal point of view, they're quite disgraceful in some of their actions.

The CEO is a libertarian that pays staff decent money, offers insurance, and has health care savings plans. It's consistently voted one of the best places to work in the US. The CEO believes that unions would drive up the cost of labor without direct benefits to the workers, and that in turn would hamper their ability to pay decent wages. He's doing his part in not playing along, and has ended up making a better environment for employees. Sounds like a horrible place.