5 ms·

I think the article and this mishap is an example of the reason why - if you can't find a dropped and loose object in the cockpit then you can't fly the aircraf

I think the article and this mishap is an example of the reason why - if you can't find a dropped and loose object in the cockpit then you can't fly the aircraft because it may move in flight to somewhere where it can interfere with the controls. In writing this answer it struck me you might be reading AC as Air Conditioning, instead of AirCraft, which I suppose could have lead to your question asking about weight reduction.

lukeschlather 3y ago
Out of context I read AC as "alternating current" with "grounded" taking on a totally different meaning.
- dylan604 3y ago
  Hopefully, we never need an aircraft to be fully grounded with a tethered cable. That'd be ridiculous. As a kid, I had a plane that was tethered and would only fly in circles. Oh, where the mind wanders on a Friday
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - WastingMyTime89 3y ago
    > Hopefully, we never need an aircraft to be fully grounded with a tethered cable. That’s one way of landing an helicopter on a boat in a rough sea. It works surprisingly well.
    - dylan604 3y ago
      Speaking of grounding a helicopter, it reminded me of the Hunt For Red October scene of trying to get a person from a helicopter to a submarine. It always seemed like such a complicated something as opposed to just putting someone in the water to let a diver collect them, which is precisely what wound up happening anyways
      - Arrath 3y ago
        My cousin was picked up from a submarine by a helicopter, I'll have to ask him how that was orchestrated.
        dylan604 3y ago
        To me, it's still a helicopter that can hover. If your cousin had been picked up from a submarine with a sky hook, then that's over the top.
  - chipsa 3y ago
    When planes are on the ground, they usually are fully grounded with a tethered cable for ESD reasons.
  - Arrath 3y ago
    Its standard to ground out a helicopter carrying a sling load before the load is touched/handled (it may even have a longer grounding cable that drags across the ground as it descends) because it can gather some pretty dangerous levels of charge.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
rsynnott 3y ago
Oh, sure, I get that if something gets lost you need to find it. My impression from the comment was that military cockpits were designed such that it was easier for stuff to get lost than it might be, tho, which is what I was curious about.
- TylerE 3y ago
  Military cockpits are a moving target in more ways than one. The cockpit of an aircraft like the B-52 is unrecognizable from when it was built.
- HumblyTossed 3y ago
  Why would one waste money (and weight) building a cockpit that was more than just utilitarian? It is a war machine which may get lost in war (or war practice).
  - dTal 3y ago
    Avoiding the need to ground and strip the aircraft every time someone drops a pen seems pretty utilitarian.
  - rsynnott 3y ago
    One way to get lost, in war or otherwise, feels like someone dropping an iPad where no iPad should be. And these things aren't _generally_ exactly built on the cheap.
  - sitkack 3y ago
    Sounds like a design flaw if there is so much open machinery that a dislodged part can jam everything up. Stuff comes apart. A general engineering design principle is that things degrade smoothly so that there aren't abrupt changes in performance. The aircraft controls should be protected such that foreign objects should have a low likelihood of jamming them. That there aren't things preventing someone from clearing any blockages and there aren't places where they could lever themselves in. My car has a design flaw with respect to the floor mats and the accelerator pedal (its not a Toyota). Between how the lever arm and the pedal surface itself are design and the aftermarket floor mat, if the mat slides forward it can jam the accelerator down. These are the deep groove mats for catching mud and water. The designers didn't think of this, if the pivot point for the pedal was further up the firewall. The pedal also has a hard square edge. Both of those things are in general a design flaw for pedals. The NHTSA (National Highway Transportation Safety Administration) should and maybe they have (my car is old) the design of the pedal linkage and the shape of the pedal to reduce this kind of risk. The hooks for securing floor mats should also be standardized to help keep them in place. The hard mount points for child seats are a great positive example of this.

lukeschlather 3y ago

Out of context I read AC as "alternating current" with "grounded" taking on a totally different meaning.

dylan604 3y ago
Hopefully, we never need an aircraft to be fully grounded with a tethered cable. That'd be ridiculous. As a kid, I had a plane that was tethered and would only fly in circles. Oh, where the mind wanders on a Friday
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- WastingMyTime89 3y ago
  > Hopefully, we never need an aircraft to be fully grounded with a tethered cable. That’s one way of landing an helicopter on a boat in a rough sea. It works surprisingly well.
  - dylan604 3y ago
    Speaking of grounding a helicopter, it reminded me of the Hunt For Red October scene of trying to get a person from a helicopter to a submarine. It always seemed like such a complicated something as opposed to just putting someone in the water to let a diver collect them, which is precisely what wound up happening anyways
    - Arrath 3y ago
      My cousin was picked up from a submarine by a helicopter, I'll have to ask him how that was orchestrated.
      - dylan604 3y ago
        To me, it's still a helicopter that can hover. If your cousin had been picked up from a submarine with a sky hook, then that's over the top.
- chipsa 3y ago
  When planes are on the ground, they usually are fully grounded with a tethered cable for ESD reasons.
- Arrath 3y ago
  Its standard to ground out a helicopter carrying a sling load before the load is touched/handled (it may even have a longer grounding cable that drags across the ground as it descends) because it can gather some pretty dangerous levels of charge.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

rsynnott 3y ago

Oh, sure, I get that if something gets lost you need to find it. My impression from the comment was that military cockpits were designed such that it was easier for stuff to get lost than it might be, tho, which is what I was curious about.

TylerE 3y ago
Military cockpits are a moving target in more ways than one. The cockpit of an aircraft like the B-52 is unrecognizable from when it was built.
HumblyTossed 3y ago
Why would one waste money (and weight) building a cockpit that was more than just utilitarian? It is a war machine which may get lost in war (or war practice).
- dTal 3y ago
  Avoiding the need to ground and strip the aircraft every time someone drops a pen seems pretty utilitarian.
- rsynnott 3y ago
  One way to get lost, in war or otherwise, feels like someone dropping an iPad where no iPad should be. And these things aren't _generally_ exactly built on the cheap.
- sitkack 3y ago
  Sounds like a design flaw if there is so much open machinery that a dislodged part can jam everything up. Stuff comes apart. A general engineering design principle is that things degrade smoothly so that there aren't abrupt changes in performance. The aircraft controls should be protected such that foreign objects should have a low likelihood of jamming them. That there aren't things preventing someone from clearing any blockages and there aren't places where they could lever themselves in. My car has a design flaw with respect to the floor mats and the accelerator pedal (its not a Toyota). Between how the lever arm and the pedal surface itself are design and the aftermarket floor mat, if the mat slides forward it can jam the accelerator down. These are the deep groove mats for catching mud and water. The designers didn't think of this, if the pivot point for the pedal was further up the firewall. The pedal also has a hard square edge. Both of those things are in general a design flaw for pedals. The NHTSA (National Highway Transportation Safety Administration) should and maybe they have (my car is old) the design of the pedal linkage and the shape of the pedal to reduce this kind of risk. The hooks for securing floor mats should also be standardized to help keep them in place. The hard mount points for child seats are a great positive example of this.