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Steve P — 16 years ago(May 22, 2009 12:40 PM)
"I can certainly see your point about Towns and Dorfmann going in the Phoenix and sending back help, but a party? I hardly think the men were in any condition for that. When they got back and had recovered, maybe, but until then, those poor men were in way too bad of a shape to be having any kind of party. "
Please tell me you're joking, and that you really do know the meaning of the term "rescue party". -
PKLarkins — 16 years ago(May 12, 2009 01:24 AM)
I have to imagine that nobody wanted to be left behind at that point, not knowing whether the plane would ever reach a destination. They would rather risk quick, certain death from the plane's crashing than slow death waiting and wondering if help would come.
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Zlik — 14 years ago(May 07, 2011 07:50 PM)
As a viewer and Having little to no understanding of aero dynamics and such. With Time being a huge factor in their lives "3 lost". Not without considering all matters as best could under those circumstances. Thinking of not taking all the men at once, was never a question. So why? They All built vessel with their muscle and Sweat, etc. A Captain and Authority on Cue, finally. Good decision.
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WyldeGoose — 14 years ago(July 23, 2011 07:42 PM)
The reason why they left with everyone was because there was no guarantee they'd be able to find them again.
The Sahara Desert is a huge place (world's biggest desert). I'm a pretty good pilot, and I'd like to think I'm pretty good at dead reckoning navigation, but I don't think I'd do too well out in that desert, flying a contraption that has virtually no trim characteristics whatsoever so that I'd have to fight it every inch of the way to that oasis. Afterward, I wouldn't be too clear on which direction I came in from, and if I'm off by so much as five or ten degrees there would be little to zero chance I'd find the crash site.
The world looks different from the air than on the ground. On the ground, you pick out landmarks that help you keep an idea of where you're at. In the air, you pick out larger landmarks that you can clearly see from the sky, and that requires something big and distinctive. If you try to pick out, say, a small building like a gas-station amid a sea of other small buildings from the air it might not do you too well. The desert can be a horrible place to fly over for this because landmarks are not very forthcoming.
What's more, there is the prospect of sandstorms. A sandstorm can bury that fuselage and any markers the remaining survivors put out in a matter of minutes. -
WyldeGoose — 12 years ago(June 14, 2013 05:10 PM)
I rewatched that film today, and going over it, I really don't think I would've been much better at flying that thing than Towns was. Certainly I wouldn't have been more confident in my ability to fly it. I'm so comfortable and cozy with my modern conveniences of flying that I wonder if I'd have the guts to get behind the cockpit of that contraption. Towns isn't kidding when he says that engine could very well kill them all; if that engine isn't seated right, if the weight and balance of the aircraft is off by so much as 5% or more, that engine could kill everyone before they got off the ground. I'd give it a try, but I might need a drink first.
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WyldeGoose — 12 years ago(July 26, 2013 04:22 PM)
God Bless Paul Mantz, and all other aviators like him. It's due to their sacrifice and courage and heroism that allows us all the luxury of knowing the demons that lurk out there. God Bless them all.
Frankly, I work with a lot of idiots. People, men and women, who dare call themselves pilots but haven't a damn clue about anything remotely concerned with real flying. I and many others I know devote our lives to knowing and understanding the Air as well as our mere machines based squarely on their sacrifice that I look on these others that dare call themselves pilots as charlatans. Charlatans who will get themselves and others killed.
I realized how good I was when I was able to land a twin engine Honda private jet on approach with a 50 knot crosswind in Oklahoma in the middle of what would be considered tornado weather. The guy next to me, who called himself a pilot, didn't know or understand how I was able to do it without the plane flipping over and crashing. I basically side-landed in, letting the air carry me in. All from feel. I merely turned to him and said, "Because you do not understand, that is why you fail." -
tea-rex — 12 years ago(June 13, 2013 01:48 AM)
In this situation, would you volunteer to stay behind, relying on Towns' and Dorfmann's promise to send help back if they were successful? Or would you demand to be strapped to the wing and take your all or nothing chance for immediate salvation?
If the plane doesn't make it, those left behind are done for anyways. And even if the plane makes it, there's no guarantee they are picked up in time. So anyone in his right mind would want to go.
I did not save the boy, God did. I only CARRIED him. -
gcattanach — 12 years ago(September 26, 2013 06:51 AM)
Also, wherever they end up flying to, as 'civilization', most likely would not have any resources to perform any kind of rescue operation. I got the notion they have to fly 200-300 or more miles to get out of there, and all they ended up at was that oil rig station. It's not like there is an airport there with airplanes ready to go. Likely they get resupplied by air or truck once a month or something.