It is kind of a soft extortion we learned about in aviation law class, but it applies to the FCC as well as the FAA. You very much can appeal a fine or other punishment until you are in a federal court and not dealing with an ALJ any more. The feds will try to crush you there if they can pour encourager les autres.

Thanks! I can't stand liquid glass, why did someone think this is a good idea?

If you ever fly through and above fog, it is very evident it is a cloud at ground level probably a few hundred feet thick.

There is one. My mother was over and picked what looked like a generic Hallmark and it was for much of it. Suddenly it veers off course with the main male character hugging the female lead and saying "Feel that! This is a hard as a man gets" and later a couple old ladies in town try to get him to whip it out, saying "Come on, we want to see the magic ding-a-ling". My wife and I were ROFLMAO x1000 and my mother was looking like she wanted to hide under the couch.

They will be lucky to be able to fly an airplane a decade from now. OTOH the moon is probably a better place for a Russian reactor than anywhere on this planet, so there is that.

Airplanes at uncontrolled fields may not even HAVE radios, so they could get a surprise.

No, pilots generally do not do that. At 22,000 feet you have time to get out the oxygen if the pressurization fails. (2) Whenever a pressurized aircraft is operated at altitudes above 25,000 feet through 35,000 feet MSL, unless each pilot has an approved quick-donning type oxygen maskâ" (i) At least one pilot at the controls shall wear, secured and sealed, an oxygen mask that either supplies oxygen at all times or automatically supplies oxygen whenever the cabin pressure altitude exceeds 12,000 feet MSL; and (ii) During that flight, each other pilot on flight deck duty shall have an oxygen mask, connected to an oxygen supply, located so as to allow immediate placing of the mask on the pilot's face sealed and secured for use. Every now and again there is an issue where the plane does not ever pressurize in the first place and no one notices. Not every airplane has a cabin pressure alarm.

Not really. It is really cool, the other outcome is a totally unguided airplane landing on any random thing including your house or my airplane. I am thinking through things that might go wrong and how the product could be improved. A logical next step is data link with the ground to send the airplane to a desired runway and away from one that is not suitable for one reason or another.

Say 99.5% sure. I am a pilot and have followed this project with interest for some time. I never have read anything that even hints at the system taking input from the ground or having some kind of synthetic vision to look out for obstacles.

More: What if the plane was landing at a non-tower or part time tower airport after hours? Someone not listening to the radio, and radios are not required at non-tower airports, could get quite the surprise! Does it at least look at ADS-B to see if someone is in the way? Not that all planes have that, but it would be better than nothing. * imagining some comical radio traffic at Cletus's Airport and Auto Salvage Yard: Robot: I am landing on runway 09 Cessna N123: No you ain't! Imma set to take off on 27 dagnabitt and you can wait your dang turn! Robot: I am landing on runway 09 Cessna N123: Now them is fightin words! How about you meet me behind the old Buick back by the gas pump and we'll settle this! Robot: I am landing on runway 09

This is absolutely amazing tech and congrats on the first save! That said, this could have ended badly. The robot would ignore the tower telling the plane to go around. It would ignore a big X on the runway and a bunch of workers repainting the lines. I think the next step is a way for ATC to send data to the plane directing it to a preferred airport and/or runway.

The manual trim on a 737 takes forever, that trim wheel takes something like 100-200 turns from one end to the other. Do you mean manually running the electric trim?

Last time I flew from DC to NY I used a plane that gets 20 MPG and doesn't sit in traffic jams. I can't say that is especially bad for the environment.

No it isn't. There was a toilet, not a literal hole in the floor, but it very much did dump out on the tracks. There is a bridge over a river that fishermen liked to fish under near me and back in the day every now and then one would get nailed from above by a passing Amtrak train.

This is a well-known issue. Most petro-states lag in productivity and development, "free money" from the well short-circuits it. Norway has done better than most at avoiding it, but apparently not completely. Spain had the same thing with endless gold and silver from their colonies back in the day, the only thing Spain ended up being good at was spending money.