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A 21st Century Scavenger Hunt The search for Malaysian Flight 370 Anthony Carpeneti Staff Reporter More than two weeks after Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 disappeared during its regularly scheduled flight between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing, no trace of it has ever been found. So far, an area nearly the size of the United States, which amounts to nearly 3 million square miles, has yielded some leads but no proof of where the Boeing 777-200ER is or what even happened to it. Searchers have used everything from ships, to aircraft, to even satellites. Here, we look at some of the technology being used to locate the wreckage. From above the Earth, satellites are being used to try and find places in the ocean that have suspicious objects floating up at the surface. China has a couple Satellites searching in the new southern corridor area, which was triggered by a Chinese satellite. NASA is also positioning a satellite in that area. This particular satellite will be used to look for the Pingers coming off the black boxes and where they might be. Still above the Earth, but not as far up as the satellites, we have aircraft. There are Reconnaissance aircraft searching the seas from Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and China helping in the search. One aircraft that is trying to help find pieces of wreckage is the Lockheed P-3C Orion. Built in the 1960s during the height of the Cold War, this aircraft is used as a Submarine hunter. Because of its long-range, long-loiter capability, the P-3 can remain in the air for up to 16 hours, which has made it a benchmark for maritime patrol aircraft. Another aircraft being used in the
search is the P-8A Poseidon, which is a new addition to the U.S. Navy’s arsenal. The P-8A is being phased in as a replacement for the P-3 Orion in the U.S. Navy. It is built on the reliable Boeing 737 airframe, has a maximum speed of 490 knots, can fly up to 41,000 feet, can cover more than 1200 nautical miles in four hours, and is arguably the world’s most sophisticated anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare aircraft. Yet another aircraft being used in the search is the Ilyushin IL-76. These four engine, medium range Russian jets can be used as a commercial freighter or military transporter. The Chinese Air Force is using these jets. Something interesting about the Il-76 is that it has an Aerial-Delivery System (ADS) for dropping cargo and other useful equipment while in flight, something that may be useful if a crash site is found, but might not be necessary. And last but not least, there are the ships of various navies being used in the search. A Chinese Icebreaker, which was involved in the rescue of a Russian research vessel stuck in the Antarctic ice earlier this year, changed course and is steaming towards the new wreckage location spotted by Chinese satellites. The British Royal Navy has sent a coastal survey ship to join the search. That ship is designed to carry out a wide range of survey work. The U.S. Navy’s 7th fleet has been a major contributor to the search from the get-go, providing ships, aircraft and considerable technical know-how. As a precautionary measure in case a debris field is located, the fleet is moving a “black box” locator into the region, which would provide a significant advantage in locating the missing aircraft’s own flight data recorder. For a search of this magnitude, it is really amazing to see all the assets in the area being used for a noble cause. This really is a multinational search effort.
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Hawaiian Spring Break A personal account from the trip
Dayton Drugovich Correspondent For those of you who know about domestic and flag operations, HNL is considered Flag Ops by the FAA. Unfortunately, it is considered domestic by the airlines which means no food on board. For a 9-hour flight, no food is a pain, especially since you will be on the plane for both lunch and dinner time. The flight itself was not anything exciting or worthwhile. United does play the half way to Hawaii game in which you try to guess what time you will reach the halfway point and you have the chance to win a decent prize. On our flight, 1st place was a bottle of champagne and 2nd was a Lonely Planet book about Hawaii.
Photo Courtesy: Dayton Drugovich
United’s domestic 777’s are not the best birds to be on in terms of comfort. Their first class section is made up of just normal seats that can be found up front on a 737 or Airbus. In coach, the seating layout is 2-5-2 which is terrible if you have that
middle seat in the section of 5. However, I actually lucked out and got a row of 5 all to myself. I think these seats are actually better than first class on this particular flight. The other problem I have with these ships is the IFE (In Flight Entertainment).
They have decided to go with streaming on your own device, similar to what you do with a Netflix account, which I’m perfectly fine with (although I would have liked a larger selection, there was enough for the duration of the flight). Continued on A3 >>
Fit for Flight Aviation Gear Cole Shenk ERAU Alumnus Hey there, I’m an ERAU Alumni and I’d like to tell you a little bit about how I got into my aviation career and where it has taken me. I started at the Embry- Riddle Daytona Campus 1993, and I graduated in 1997 with a Bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical Science. I am currently an FAA approved check Airman for my company in the Hawker 800/850XP fleet. I have just over 7,000hrs total, 5,000 Jet PIC. Our company is a 135 charter Company that has 70+ jets. Our fleet consists of both Hawker 400XP (formerly Beechjet), 800/850XP’s, and we are just getting into the large cabin market with Challenger 604/605’s. We currently have over 200 pilots and growing.
I graduated Embry Riddle with all ratings including CFII/MEI. I started building time flying banners out of Flagler. I went on to Flight Instruct and fly charter for about 2 years. It was mainly small charter flying along with flight instructing in Cessna 402’s and 421’s. I then started flying King Air’s and started building turbine time. Once I had enough turbine time, I got hired into a Beechjet 400, and worked my way up from there to where I am today. I have three years international experience as well, and was an instructor pilot in Russia on the Hawker 850XP’s with Proline 21 for Russian crews that were newly type rated. I have also flown in Europe and Southeast Asia extensively. A few years back, a good friend and fellow Pilot Jeff
Garrone and I realized we couldn’t find any aviation-related clothing that we wanted to wear. So, we decided to start a clothing line geared toward active pilots that we called V1 Industries. My friend, Jeff, is also a ERAU grad and currently a captain at a major airline. The name comes from something we use on a daily basis while flying jets. V1 is defined as the maximum speed during takeoff at which a pilot can safely stop the aircraft for an emergency or continue the takeoff without running out of runway. We are also both avid moto cross racers and love extreme sports. V1 began with some edgy t-shirt designs and continues today with an ever evolving line of merchandise to include: t-shirts (men and women), hats, and an innovative backpack-cooler
flight bag. We now own and operate our own printing company. This gives us a distinct advantage to produce quality apparel. We also have the advantage of being commercial pilots, so we really love to focus on finding and developing items that fit into our lifestyle. ERAU students can always enjoy a discount while shopping at v1industries.com. Just use the promotion code ERAU at checkout for 10% off of any order. We update our shopping cart monthly with our newest designs. We also are starting a program where you can submit your own designs for print on our website. Visit our website and signup for our newsletters. Your information is safe with us and you get monthly updates! !!and chances to win cool aviation gear!