March 7, 2007: Plane barely survives 20,000 feet freefall

[SquadRat1]

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

That would be ironic, don't ya think? :p

Like rain? On your wedding day?

[Saraax]

Or a free ride. When you've already paid.

[xoxoxoBruce]

A friend of mine that works at Embry-Riddle flight school in Florida, told me they use a bunch of this type of plane. Rugged and reliable is their reputation.

Fortunately there were no passengers, so they didn't have to disinfect the seats.

[Elspode]

I once saw Bob Hoover do a ten minute power-management flight demo (translation: flying with the engines off) in a Rockwell AeroCommander, which I think may have been a predecessor, or at least a pretty close copy, of this aircraft. These things are *awesome* planes.

There's no way these guys won a lottery. They used up their entire lifetime supply of luck surviving this.

[tulzscha]

Originally Posted by Elspode

I once saw Bob Hoover do a ten minute power-management flight demo (translation: flying with the engines off) in a Rockwell AeroCommander, which I think may have been a predecessor, or at least a pretty close copy, of this aircraft. These things are *awesome* planes.

And Bob Hoover knew what he was doing...

With the advent of camcorders, Hoover added a flourish to the act by pouring a cup of tea from a Thermos, while performing a slow barrel roll (a 1G maneuver). Video of this has been widely distributed, to the pleasure of Aero Commander enthusiasts.