Lynx7725

News reports are pretty consistent with saying a nose-first impact at 300 mph. Not necessarily a nose dive, of course, but can't rule out a low-altitude loss of control and subsequent nose-first impact at 300+ mph. Thing is, there's a lot of things I can't confirm for this incident. First, at what altitude did the collision occured? From here, it seems that the airliner was at FL 360 (36000 ft?). Silkair 185 took a nosedive (uncommanded rudder deflection was a possibility, but so was pilot suicide) from FL 350 (35000 ft?), and it disintegrated -- into tiny tiny bits, IIRC. So a direct decent from FL 360 is unlikely to leave much. Yet we have pictorial evidence that sufficiently large structures survive the impact. Reading between the lines on Internet reports (which is always dubious), it seems like the 737 was still up for a while after the collision, with it was spotted making strange maneuvering and losing altitude by people. I don't think you can see an airliner perform strange maneuvers at 36000 ft... So it's probable that the airliner made it down to somewhat low altitudes. I think we can rule out turbulence (though it's always a possibility).. I think the collision impact did some damage, the crew tried to bring the plane around (no reports of radio exchanges though, at this time), nursed it somewhat, but something broke (again) and sent the plane down. Crew assessed impact, decided not flyable, locked the gear down to lower airspeed, decended for emergency landing but somehow got out of control and augered? Or an act of desperation, locked down the gear to drop speed, but (obviously) didn't succeed. What it doesn't sound like is the wee little jet got clip by the big bad Boeing and the Boeing immediately nosed over and dived into the jungle. I think that simply can't happen, not with the wee little jet surviving.

You got a scan? I can't recall where I dumped the C1 instructions, and my actual C1 is in cold storage.

Can't tell till NTSB get its investigation done. From what CNN is reporting though, the 737 impacted the ground at around 300 mph, in a concentrated area. This looks like a nose-dive to me. Hmm. From another report, this is a practically a brand new 737, so maintenance defects shouldn't be a problem.. I think most like what happened is that it clipped the smaller plane and the debri either FODded the engine or some control surface, sending it into an uncontrolled dive. Probably rolled it around if it landed belly up (which is fairly fatal), or the plane compressed and flipped on landing. Google Earth community reports the crash site as 10º 29' south and 53º 15' west, which is literally in the middle of nowhere. Being only an armchair pilot, the only comment I can say is that even with such controls -- and I think there might be -- it might not have been possible to save many of those aircraft. In AA191's case, the pilots may not have known they lost an engine, much less the condition of the slats. All they really had time to realise was that their aircraft was rolling in a way that's waaaaay out of specs. Had they had the time to troubleshoot, they might have been able to bring the aircraft back, but they didn't -- they just acted according to their training, but the training didn't (and indeed couldn't) address what to do in such an odd situation. According to the wiki, only pilots who knew exactly the extent of damage could recover the aircraft in simulators. I take it that this meant every other pilot augered to various degrees.. Thing is, airliners ain't fighters; can't throw them around the sky the way fighters can. 10,000 feet might be enough for a fighter to recover from some oddball situation, but the airliner's likely to pancake at that altitude, and even if you do figure out what to do, you might end up compromising the structural integrity of the aircraft doing it. While having some way of "setting to neutral" the control surfaces might be a good idea, I can't help but feel it might not be that useful -- even if you set it back, you might be way out of the airliner's performance envelope to recover anyway, and you still auger.

FODded? Well, technically a collision would be by default a FOD, but I was thinking more engine injestion of the parts. If memory serves, didn't the 737 have a problem with uncommanded rudder deflection, which is probable cause for no less than three 737 crashes? As for it flipping over, might it be similar to American Airlines Flight 191? Hard to say this early, of course.

Man those look good. And my 'Zabi looks loney.. damnit, too many things that I want to get.

Porn actors-in-suits. Look at that pelvic thrust! RvT Dougram wasn't that awesome. It's a neat toy but some of the mecha poses are awkward because of the spread legs. Soltic I guess I have to get. I got 2x Dougrams because they are Shadowhawks in Btech, so I sort of have to continue with the Soltic/ Griffins. Hope a Battlemaster comes along.

:D Just had to annoy you a bit on that. Don't worry, it's going to be worth the wait. Thing's great sitting on the monitor, though you might need to blu-tack it if you are using a LCD -- sucker's got a big footprint. What I really would like to see is a (fictional) Sazabi-B, a non-Newtype commander-type MS with missiles in place of the Bits. This actually did appear in a manga side story.

Well, I got my cam out to take some photos, so Sazabi goodness: And for some goofiness, Gaia GERWALK!

A tripod attachment? That's a new one. I can't wait to see the first Kamphfer scrunch up behind that..

There are two problems with the Robotech RPG. First is the current publisher, Palladium. I don't need to say much more about their system, since yellowlightman already touched on that. The second problem is the company holding the license. Yup, our beloved Harmony Gold. Whatever gives you the idea that they would release it to a competent RPG company? The way HG and Palladium does business, well, looks to be two bedfellows there...

As interesting as this is, can we move back to aviation? What's the latest on the F-35? Haven't heard anything negative in the last 3 months or so, which is rather strange.

Which is odd, because they won't fit in my city. Most of the overhead bridges in my area has a height limit of 4.8m or so, and they are everywhere. Which means the Ingrams can't step under. They also probably don't have the mass to push through quickly (and collateral damage is an issue...) and might not have the height to step over the bridges. So, no Ingrams for my town. I suppose Dante because it's not that popular (comparatively), and Eva because there's just a whole sh!tload of them.. It was hard to see a Dougram on display in my area.

Largish Mecha. These are designed to work within the confines of a city, so they are considerably smaller than the usual large robots. I think they should be under 5m in height, total, but my recall of the Patlabor stats is weak at best. I do remember that revolver is supposed to be a 37mm.. Back to the RvT. Good looking, here's hoping they come out with a Unit 3 and a Type Zero. I'm looking forward to building Special Vehicles Section 2. As for the "Griffin", looks like I'll be getting that one to supplement my "Shadowhawk"... Hope they come out with the "Battlemaster".

Gee thanks lots Promie. Here I have been writing short reviews of EMSIA Freedom and Justice, and there you go asking if anyone has comments on the EMSIA figures. Makes me warm and fuzzy within, thanks. Anyhow. EMSIA pretty much utilizes a single skeleton/ joint system consistently across the line. As in, the neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, knees and ankle joints of all EMSIA are similar if not outright identical parts. This is a huge plus point, especially since they got the joints done very well; the posability of a basic unit like a Zaku II is quite good. The joint system is, as spoken, solid and generally doesn't wear very badly over time for most MS. Posability is very good; folding forearms for the rifle-up look, and knee joints that (barring MS design issues) allow for kneeling positions. Foot joints are a bit wonky for certain designs but otherwise excellent. The problem is only when a particular MS design is clearly not very realistic, such as the Gundam Seed types -- too top heavy, guns are too long, etc. Those do create problems in both posability and joints, but the design on their own aren't very playable to begin with. The only joint I'm unhappy with is the neck joint. While it does provide better look-down capability for the MS, it's a tad too high and makes the head pop up more. On a Gundam it looks ok, but on a Zaku II (with its lower dome head) there is a noticable gap between the torso and the head. But it's a minor gripe. Overall, the paintwork and quality is a significant cut better than the MSIA. If you have any GFF or Zenography, they are just slightly below; no tampo markings, material is a softer plastic (but IMO better than GFF stuff which I worry about shattering). Paint-wise the quality is similar but GFF is just a tad better. Overall, EMSIA are great and the lineup they have are not the whor-ish MSIA type (where they have everything and anything...). If your favourite MS are in EMSIA, I suggest you pick them up. As for the Sazabi in EMSIA, given the design (from the HCM Pro that I play with occassionally while I post from home... ), it should be quite spectacular. The basic MS design is sound and flexible, and the joints look to be achievable, and there are no real design elements that are over-the-top (such as the Freedom's wings). The only worry I have is the overall weight, and the Bits' storage. The overall weight might be too heavy for the joints, as the Sazabi is a hefty MS -- this depends largely on the engineering though. The Bits though, is always a bit tricky. It's a notoriously small part stored in a fiddley container hung out on a gimball on the back of the MS. The gimball isn't an issue, but the doors could be.

"Surprise! Another Zaku!" Shrug. Anyway, what's the Green Divers? Saw a bunch of them at a dept store a few days ago. Zeta and Ass-Hammer..

You mean you don't have HCM Pro Sazabi?? I've had it for a couple of weeks now -- ordered from HLJ some time ago. Sweet stuff. Hard plastic, not the MSiA ABS. It's also deeper red than the photos would suggest. Looks quite good.

I think with the improvement in technologies, there's a marked increase in large objects. Sedna is a good example, as is "Xena". Previously, most astronomers only look for planet-like bodies on the ecliptic (sp?). Sedna and "Xena" are found way above that particular plane, so it stands to reason that more astronomers are now looking in odd orbits -- and the odds are good that more of these biggish bodies would be found, or are already found. So yeah, there's some urgency involved.

YAY! Board is back! Anyway, EMSIA Freedom, it's not as good IMO as the other EMSIA, mainly due to posability and design issues. The basic joint system is sound, it's just that the silly thing is carrying a huge lot more mass than the usual OYW designs (like the Zaku II -- now that's a good EMSIA). But then again, Seed designs are pretty super-robot-ish. But oh so fun, I recently got the MSIA Blitz, Strike Dagger and BuCue. While not as good looking as EMSIA, they are a lot more fun to play with. Though, the Blitz is a bit loose in the joints, partly IMO due to the design.

Without trying to get this thread locked, I suspect that humanity would, sooner or later, have gone through that religious hysterial, and that it's actually a necessary part of the evolution of humanity from a "natural" being into an "unnatural" being. It's just something that had to happen at some point, and I can see the benefits of getting all that messy burning-at-the-stakes stuff out of the way earlier rather than later. (I'm seriously not trying to discuss religion here, but religion is, after all, the opiate of the masses. It's strong motivational force that is still a major driving force in our progress -- and regression, in certain places. Without such a force -- and the birth pangs/ death throes that comes with it -- it might not have been possible to achieve what we have today.) Err, that might take a while (accounting for everything within 70-90 AU). It's a big volume of space and as good as our tech is currently, we still miss some stuff. I think the term "dwarf planets" is meant as a peace offering to the traditionalists. If you think calling Pluto a "dwarf planet" is bad, think about the stink resulting from calling Pluto an asteriod...

Nah, it actually is a good thing. We know we are very very unlikely to find another body the size of the 8 planets, and we know at least dozens of Pluto-sized objects are floating around out there. Biting the bullet now and calling it 8 would prevent future mindless paper pushing when our solar system expand to say, a 13- or 15- or 24-planets system.

Astronomy Picture of the Day came up with a nice aircraft related pic. If the pic doesn't load, you can go here for a BIG version: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/060...el_usaf_big.jpg

I want some of what they are smoking..

For some reason, he reminds me of William Hung....

I know we shouldn't be feeding the troll, but right now it's more like taunting 427599[/snapback] Why bother? Not like it's particularly entertaining. Especially if you have to go into the mud to do it too. Much better things to do than to watch a train wreck.

I fail to see the purpose of this thread. I fail to see how this thread contribute to MacrossWorld. I fail to see how forumites contributing to this thread would enhance its value in any way.