That cockpit shaking during landing seems a bit overdone - nice framerate despite all the trees through.
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Reminds me of something Dart said just about a decade ago in one of his articles.
Other observations:
The graphics of the Real World could use an upgrade. While the cockpits were rendered beautifully, my first flight was set to Summer Haze, reducing the draw distance considerably, desaturating colors, and was generally disappointing in appearance. Objects on the ground tended to “pop up” in clearings of the forest as we approached; in fact the Shelby County Airport itself did this, suddenly appearing as we approached from the west. Today was much better since we had some wind to make things crystal clear and the vibrant greens and browns came out, but the light scattered clouds had an obvious repetitive shape, especially a low layer that looked like the teeth of a saw blade pointed upwards.
Draw distance for other aircraft needs to be improved. While I spotted a helicopter at five miles, it started out as a small black dot above the horizon and was very slow to resolve to a recognizable shape. A white Citation was invisible to both the instructor and me even though we were told where it was until less than a quarter mile away — and it was only 1000 feet lower than us! Something is screwy when you can’t see a white plane over green forests at one o’clock in the afternoon in clear skies.
Flight Modeling is suspect in the Cessna and control response likely wrong in CTLS. To be blunt, the Cessna 172 flies like it is on rails! Just about everything is under done, from adverse yaw to entering and exiting turns. In the CTLS, the elevator response to control input is exaggerated; one need only apply the slightest back pressure to induce noticeable pitch either way, and there is no menu to adjust input curves. While it is much livelier than the Cessna, it remains in many ways much easier to control and keep flying than anything in a combat flight simulation.
Flight Sim to Flight Line: [spoiler]https://www.simhq.com/_air13/air_451a.html[/spoiler]
Wheels
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Pretty good article over at ArsTechnica about the medical samples flights:
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Ha…those Quest guys are everywhere in the wee hours of the night. I run into them all the time. Nice to see them getting the recognition they deserve. I can’t tell you (well, actually, I can) how miserable it must be to out there on the ramp in the pouring rain or snow sorting those loads when the trucks roll up.
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Good Quest Kodiak video. Oddly enough, I am searching for these after my recent X-Plane purchase 
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Delta will retire the MD-88 and MD-90 aircraft earlier than previously planned, with both aircraft types exiting the fleet effective June 2020. The accelerated retirement schedule of both aircraft is a result of the COVID-19 pandemic as we reduce capacity systemwide. Delta cut its overall active fleet by about half, parking more than 600 mainline and regional aircraft in the last two months.
Delta has been able to react quickly to the COVID-19 crisis by parking aircraft and considering early retirements of older, less efficient airplanes.
The 149-seat MD-88 was previously set to retire by the end of 2020. As of February this year, prior to the coronavirus-driven fleet reduction, there were 47 MD-88s and 29 MD-90s operating.
Both aircraft operated across much of Delta’s domestic network and have been workhorses for the airline.
Delta continues to evaluate its broader fleet plan and will consider additional aircraft retirements to focus on a modern, more simplified fleet going forward.
Meanwhile at American:
“American has officially retired the Embraer E190 and Boeing 767 fleets, which were originally scheduled to retire by the end of 2020. The airline has also accelerated the retirement of its Boeing 757s and Airbus A330-300s. Additionally, American is retiring 19 Bombardier CRJ200 aircraft operated by PSA Airlines.”
These changes remove operating complexity and will bring forward cost savings and efficiencies associated with operating fewer aircraft types. It will also help American focus on flying more advanced aircraft as we continue receiving new deliveries of the Airbus A321neo and the Boeing 737 MAX and 787 family. American’s narrowbody fleet also becomes more simplified with just two cockpit types – the Airbus A320 and the Boeing 737 families. This benefits American’s operational performance through training efficiency and streamlined maintenance.
I wonder how long it will take for the general public to have faith in the 737 MAX. It seems the airlines are pretty determined that we will be flying on them. They should have just kept the 757 program on the back burner.
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Maybe they can rebrand it. Is there such a thing as a 737NGX? Something. I think they will need to drop the MAX.
Avianca is filling for bankruptcy. Sounds like they were already on the ropes and the COVID-19 travel collapse sealed the deal. I’m amazed that airlines are actually able to get loans (I assume that is the bond payment they are getting ready to miss). I can only imagine the risk assessment that is assigned to giving airlines money.
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Ugh! That’s like Honda dropping the Civic. Or the USAF dropping the F-16. The 777 has historically been the most efficient widebody currently made. To drop it in favor of the A350 says a lot about the A350. The US airline industry is clearly in serious trouble. But a glut of 777s combined with the continuing cancellation of Max orders and options puts US aviation manufacturing, at least the non-corporate portion of the industry, in even greater doubt. No amount of taxpayer funding can save a company which sells widgets that nobody wants. My use of the spoken English language has mostly consisted of a single syllable: “Ugh!” It’s all I want to say anymore.
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Wow. I’m surprised to say the least. I can’t wait to read the Tweet-storm about this decision.
At first blush, it only makes sense if things will never return to normal, or…a nice tax write-off.
A lot of the COVID-19 fallout reminds me of that story that I often reference from the book Chickenhawk. I’m totally paraphrasing the story, but the gist of it was:
A helicopter was shot down in Vietnam and destroyed. All of the maintenance and supply troops, seizing the opportunity, would pile all of their missing inventory onto said missing/destroyed helicopter in order to clear their books of the “unaccounted” supplies. By the end of the investigation into the crash, it was determined the helicopter probably did not go down due to enemy fire, but rather because it weighed 800 tons. 
The point of the story is…this crisis is probably going to be seen as an opportunity for many. Put all the supplies on the missing helicopter. Price to earning ratios were too high?..the company was going to crash eventually anyway, but now we have a helicopter to put it on. Labor relations going poorly? Blame it on the crashing helicopter…time to renegotiate. Have a gentleman’s club that was doing poorly and didn’t have a rainy day fund? All my strippers were on that helicopter…!
Is Boeing too big to fail? Probably. Sadly. A little failure here and there would balance things out naturally. We’ve gone so tilted though now that instead of pulling a Band-Aid off quickly, now we are covered in duct tape. If only we would learn.
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You’re not wrong. But I don’t buy the comparison entirely. (I loved Chickenhawk!) Boeing wasn’t bloated. Nor is Delta. They were both thriving 4 months ago. Delta is a well-run business that competes very competently in the marketplace. Boeing is more problematic but was doing OK. I am not saying that the taxpayer should bail them out nor should they my airline. But none of us were wrong-sized for the market. We just got hit over the head with a hammer much like the rest of the economy. The 777, even the old ones, is the greatest twin-engine airliner ever made. It is so jarring to hear of them being parked. A better example of what you are talking about might be happening at my airline. We have a dozen or so Pratt and Whitney powered 757-200s that are older than half the people reading this. It was arguably a POS even when it rolled new out the Boeing hangar in the 80s. This isn’t like 911. That event actually saved airlines which would likely have failed had 911 not happened. Back then airlines sailing toward the rocks used government support and bankruptcy laws to cut fluff and shaft labor. For them, the attacks were a gift from the gods. But this is an opportunity for no one who isn’t flying cargo. It’s just a horror show.
I will say though that I do like how my airline is handling this with us. We may well not survive past 2020. But we seem to be facing this in good spirits and humor. Our town halls are way more tongue-in-cheek than woe-is-us morose. Maybe the same spirit is evident at Boeing and other airlines. I hope so. We need to face our fate like Londoners in 1940; with a smile and a scotch.
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Ah…removed…the numbers get hilarious and I think we can both support our arguments, so it won’t really work. I would say Delta was the best of the worst with regards to keeping cash in reserve (Alaska might have edged them out, but the numbers don’t really tell all the story). I think it is complex.
Whatever the case, though the rumblings are there, we haven’t yet seen the true fallout. I listen in on every conference call my wife is on and, like your airline, there is a lot of “make sure you have compassion…because a LOT of us have been through this multiple times…but a lot of our employees have not…” I don’t see much panic, but you can sense some futility knowing that the stay of execution is temporary and artificial (CARES act).
We are taking the stance of either of us could be out of a job at any point right now and we’ve significantly altered our spending. We are like a microcosm of probably what the airline industry was like…though probably not quite as footloose with our cash during the great last decade.
With anything aviation though…this too shall pass.
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In the same vein - I might have already said something about it in this thread - I heard that Alaska Airlines is thinking about returning to their all Boeing roots. Perhaps even going with 737 MAX and getting rid of their Airbuses… That could be a shot in the arm to the MAX if they can get over that hump…
GREAT book. A classic!
This seemed appropriate:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/guid/0414F65E-6929-11EA-9113-79BAEFEE335A
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