Some daring pilots deciding to push the envelope in their commuter jet, had the snot kicked out of them by the demon that lives in the thin air.
Demon:2, Pilots:0.
They were having fun while it lasted, though.
Posted by floridacracker at June 13, 2005 10:45 AMI use to fly Learjets and we routinely flew at 41000 feet and on occiasion 43000 feet to clear weather. 41 was no problem for most Lears but in rough air 43 would cause an engine flame out. In any case flying jets is demanding and jokeing around even with no passangers on board sets you up for trouble. When things go wrong they go wrong in a bad way and they go bad very fast. Oh the service ceiling on the lear was 45000 feet but I never flew one able to get there. Some of the newer aircraft get to 51000 feet with no problem.
Posted by: Jim at June 13, 2005 10:52 PMI have a friend who's a pilot and once we spent an afternoon talking about a big crash that happened down here. All the guys in the cockpit were endlessly yacking away about a light that had come on that wasn't supposed to be there. Meanwhile, nobody was flying the plane, and it slowly spiraled, spiraled, spiraled down into the Everglades, killing 100-something people.
People can do silly things -- even the extremely intelligent ones like pilots.
I'm glad you flew safely.
Posted by: Donnah at June 13, 2005 11:14 PM