Page 111 - Flight Engineer News Today

>> theyre leaving this gate every day on foot and in vehicles, knowing whats out there. and if they can do that, ill do anything to make sure they get out all right. >> reporter: but today the call came to save afghan locals. its a critical part of the u.s. strategy to win the hearts and minds of afghan civilians. we are now into the golden hour. most trauma patients who die of blood loss die within an hour unless we can stabilize them. so we have 20 minutes to fly. 20 minutes to get the patient...

Horsepower than any tanker out there. >> reporter: captain cliff hale hit the california wildfires hard this week. flying this modified 747 supertanker right into the fire zone. >> he arms it, and that gives me control up here or the other pilot as well. weve got to drop -- drop button right here on the switch. >> reporter: flying low at 300 feet, captain hale has to focus on his target. youve got to be a pilot and a bit of a marksman. how good a shot are you? >> pretty good at this point. >> re...

>> reporter: fighting the fire from the air -- choppers, turboprops, even jets. but this is the big kahuna. >> we have more excess horsepower than any tanker out there. >> reporter: captain cliff hale hit the california wildfires hard this week, flying this modified 747 supertanker right into the fire zone. >> he arms it and that gives me control up here, or the other pilot as well, weve got a drop button right here on the switch. >> reporter: flying low at 300 feet, captain hale has to focus on...

Two-way radios. they do have their eyes and ears. theyre supposed to talk to each other. in most cases, they do that very safely. on average, seven their collisions each year. bill: you flew over washington, d.c. how congested did you find this e sky? >> we did not see a single plane until labor landing gear this is very close to washington, d.c. i flew with the president of the aopa. his aide and structural -- is an instructional pilot. heres some of what we discussed in the cockpit. >> i have ...

Area, theres not that much. suddenly, you will not see them until they get fairly close. -- secondly, you will not see them until they get fairly close. >> bruce allowed me to handle the controls. fortunately, he was there to land the plane. bill: why not put a collision avoidance system on these airplanes? is it an issue of cost? >> it is cost. it could be $10,000 for some of these plans that in some cases only cost $40,000. pilots are not anxious to spend that kind of money. in most cases, the...

>> when we are flying out the hinterlands of kansas or new mexico and there is not another airplane within 100 miles, it does not make sense to have that kind of equipment, and the statistics support it. >> i have not seen any air traffic. >> in the uncongested airspace, even close to a metropolitan area, theres not that much. second, you will not see them until they get really close. >> we did not see a single other plane until out -- although it through our 40-minute flight yesterday until nea...

Go anywhere without restrictions. jane: specific recommendations, how far has that got in? >> they are proposing it and it is not the first time that they have proposed this type of legislation or regulations. we should point out that mid-air collisions are very rare across the nation. only seven on average each year across the u.s., that is considering the millions of flight hours flown by these airplanes, including the small private planes like the one on saturday. just by way of explanation, ...

Trace: the crash is now calling attention the types of safety regulations involve for the airplane involved in the crash. some are calling for collision avoidance systems to be mandatory on all planes. why are they not ready? >> those systems cost thousands of dollars and pilots say that one size does not necessarily fit all. every pilot does not necessarily need one. we are 40 minutes north of the d.c. area, and at the time i was talking to an instructor. >> i have not seen a single

Pilots do not even have to file a flight path of anyone, and that is true of most of the nation. >> look at this. we are flying. >> with a bit of instruction and a small fee, almost anyone can take the controls of a single- engine piper, joining more than 215,000 pilots already licensed to fly private airplanes in the u.s. seems like it would be pretty easy not to see another airplane. >> you are right. it would be. >> mid-air collisions are rare, but it might prevent them by collision avoidance...

Airplane or helicopter or anything. nothing since we have been here. you have proved >> and two points. in the and congested airspace, even close to a metropolitan area, there is not that much. secondly, you will not see them until they get fairly close just because of the dynamics of spotting a small target. >> he did have a transponder on his plane and it showed all the other ones that have transponders, but not everyone is required to have one. trace: what about calls to limit traffic over th...