According to this article a gulfstream II was grounded for erratic flight.
The track log has a few glitches and the owner claims the erratic flight was due to errors in Flight Aware’s track log.
flightaware.com/live/flight/N104 … /KRBD/KMGJ
Here’s the part you are refering in the article to:
Reached yesterday, he blamed a computer error that showed his plane ascending, then descending, 35,000 feet in a span of two minutes. A popular flight-tracking Web site, flightaware.com, reflected those wide fluctuations, which Oppedisano dismissed as "ridiculous.
It’s badly worded. I don’t see Oppedisano blaming flightaware.com. I think he’s calling erros in an FAA computer as the source of the problem.
How the shit did the 23 year old pilot get that gig? Daddy’s friends with the owner!?
I don’t quite understand either, why were the authorities called? Did ATC witness the altitude deviations and think they were going down?..or doing aerobatics?
Good possiblity that the pilot was actually only the co-pilot. The Gulfstream requires two pilots. The pilot could have been gone by the time the fuzz got to the aircraft. Things like locking up the aircraft are quite often left up to the low man.
True, but the passengers were also questioned, leading me to believe that they were waiting on the ground when the plane landed.
ANN reports that the police where there immediately after shutdown. And the desent rate according to the numbers would be 16,000 ft/min. That’s gotta be above structural limits for a Gulfstream.
Not to mention the passenger’s stomachs…
Not necessarily…the Falcon that I fly can descend at 18,000fpm in an emergency. In a steady state descent, there isn’t any stress on the aircraft as long as the airspeed is kept within limits and there is minimal turbulence.
That’s quite a descent, over 175 knots in the vertical component alone. How hard is it to maintain a safe speed like that?
Assuming you’re maintaining approximately 300 knots, that’s almost a 55 degree angle of descent.
If theres no structural damage red line is 370 or .865Mach.
In the simulator, by maintaining red line to about 1000 feet AGL, idle power and airbrakes extended, if you hit about an 8 mile final in that condition you can cross the threshold at abut 170 kts a very “landable and stoppable” situation.
At that descent rate and speed you can go from 45,000 feet to evacuating the airplane in about 4 minutes.