Bad aviation journalism thread

iamtheari

iamtheari

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What's the worst aviation journalism you've seen today?

I'll open the bidding with this gem on Yahoo! Finance (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/textrons-txt-fleet-cessna-piston-142200615.html):

Textron's (TXT) Fleet of Cessna Piston Jets Enters Into Service
Textron Inc. TXT recently announced that a handful of upgraded aircraft from its Cessna fleet of jets have entered into service following their first delivery. These aircraft are the Cessna Skyhawk, Cessna Skylane, Turbo Skylane and Turbo Stationair. These should enhance TXT’s position in the expanding commercial aircraft market.

With this latest upgrade, Textron aims at offering its commercial customers a fleet of jets that have a modern and appealing tone like that of the newest Cessna Citation jets while maintaining the iconic Cessna piston line's well-known comfort, durability and performance.

With new features and design aspects, Cessna aircraft remain adaptable and dependable tools that allow TXT’s customers to complete a variety of missions, ranging from pilot training to business travel. The upgraded jets, which have started service recently, offer new interior design features like comfy seats with added support and padding, each seat having a power headset jack and USB charging ports for both A and C types.

The planes also include sleek black instrument panels and thoughtfully positioned side and cell phone pockets throughout. Equipped aircraft have integrated overhead air conditioning and a new center armrest available on certain models.

The article goes on to compare similar offerings from other manufacturers, in this order: BBJ 787, BBJ 737-7, ACJ TwoTwenty, ACJneo, ACJ33neo, ACJ350, G800, and G700 (which offers the "most spacious cabin in the business aviation industry" even though they had just mentioned the 787 and A350).
 
So, the real question.

Do I now get to log turbine time as a 172 pilot, or do I now have to worry about the FAA busting me for operating a turbine powered aircraft w/ a type rating?
 
Some things never change. I recall a photo from the Orlando Sentinal (IIRC) from the early '80's, that showed a 172 that had screwed its prop into a hangar door. The caption mentioned that the pilot go out of the plane and left it in gear.
 
When I had the forced landing in my Starduster one of the newscritters reported it as a "Cessna type biplane".
 
ATC cleared one to cross Runway 4 and the other cleared to takeoff. But the news say ATC prevented a collision.ATC prevents.png
 
Wouldn't it be easier to have a list of aviation stories done by mainstream media where they get it right?

I mean, along the lines of every once in a while a blind squirrel finds a nut kind of thing.
 
A number of years ago a Comanche made a forced landing on a Burbank street. There was no fire, and the occupants all walked away. A fireman, with TV microphone thrust in front of his face, said, “Those passengers were very lucky there was no fuel in the tanks …. “
 
Pilawt said:
A number of years ago a Comanche made a forced landing on a Burbank street. There was no fire, and the occupants all walked away. A fireman, with TV microphone thrust in front of his face, said, “Those passengers were very lucky there was no fuel in the tanks …. “
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That reminds me of the time I moved into an apartment and the utility company said that some woman had an account under my social security number, so I had to go to their office to deal with the paperwork. The woman at the utility company office told me, “If it’s any consolation, she has really good credit.”
 
There was another one a few years ago when the news reported a forced landing and breathlessly reported that the planes tanks were full of "high octane aviation fuel" (because it must be so much more dangerous than "low octane fuel").
 
iamtheari said:
What's the worst aviation journalism you've seen today?

I'll open the bidding with this gem on Yahoo! Finance (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/textrons-txt-fleet-cessna-piston-142200615.html):

Textron's (TXT) Fleet of Cessna Piston Jets Enters Into Service
Textron Inc. TXT recently announced that a handful of upgraded aircraft from its Cessna fleet of jets have entered into service following their first delivery. These aircraft are the Cessna Skyhawk, Cessna Skylane, Turbo Skylane and Turbo Stationair. These should enhance TXT’s position in the expanding commercial aircraft market.

With this latest upgrade, Textron aims at offering its commercial customers a fleet of jets that have a modern and appealing tone like that of the newest Cessna Citation jets while maintaining the iconic Cessna piston line's well-known comfort, durability and performance.

With new features and design aspects, Cessna aircraft remain adaptable and dependable tools that allow TXT’s customers to complete a variety of missions, ranging from pilot training to business travel. The upgraded jets, which have started service recently, offer new interior design features like comfy seats with added support and padding, each seat having a power headset jack and USB charging ports for both A and C types.

The planes also include sleek black instrument panels and thoughtfully positioned side and cell phone pockets throughout. Equipped aircraft have integrated overhead air conditioning and a new center armrest available on certain models.

The article goes on to compare similar offerings from other manufacturers, in this order: BBJ 787, BBJ 737-7, ACJ TwoTwenty, ACJneo, ACJ33neo, ACJ350, G800, and G700 (which offers the "most spacious cabin in the business aviation industry" even though they had just mentioned the 787 and A350).
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Clearly written by an AI program.
 
This thread should be a sticky.
 
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Part of my job is asking people really dumb questions (Is your computer plugged in, is the monitor plugged in, etc...), but I try to... do it with a wink-and-a-nod. This is just dumb.
 
X3 Skier said:
This thread should be a sticky.
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No need. There should be regular enough examples of the subject matter to keep it on the first page for the foreseeable future.
 
guest user said:
So, the real question.

Do I now get to log turbine time as a 172 pilot, or do I now have to worry about the FAA busting me for operating a turbine powered aircraft w/ a type rating?
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Just carry a Dustbuster* with you, and you’re covered wither way.

*Edit…I hate computers! ;)
2-Bit Speed said:
Part of my job is asking people really dumb questions (Is your computer plugged in, is the monitor plugged in, etc...), but I try to... do it with a wink-and-a-nod.
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I got a call for an RV water heater that worked on gas, but not on electric. Verified no voltage at the heating element, went inside, opened up the panel to access the water heater from the inside, and found the power cord lying on the floor next to the heater. Plugged in, worked great.
 
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MauleSkinner said:
Just carry a dipstick buster with you, and you’re covered wither way.

I got a call for an RV water heater that worked on gas, but not on electric. Verified no voltage at the heating element, went inside, opened up the panel to access the water heater from the inside, and found the power cord lying on the floor next to the heater. Plugged in, worked great.
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My Dad rebuilt and serviced player pianos, including electric player grands. He would always try to help the customer troubleshoot over the phone, even more so with one customer on the Cape (then a 3 hour drive one way). First thing he asked was if the piano was plugged in and the customer assured my Dad that it was. After trying a number of things over the phone, they made an appointment for a service call. And you know what happened, my Dad walked into the house, walks over to the piano, plugs it in, and of course it started playing. The customer was appropriately embarrassed because he knew he had said it was plugged it. My Dad needed to charge a service call, 3 hours down, 3 hours back. No complaint from the customer (this was back before a lot of customers were whiny little pains).
 
Bob Noel said:
My Dad rebuilt and serviced player pianos, including electric player grands. He would always try to help the customer troubleshoot over the phone, even more so with one customer on the Cape (then a 3 hour drive one way). First thing he asked was if the piano was plugged in and the customer assured my Dad that it was. After trying a number of things over the phone, they made an appointment for a service call. And you know what happened, my Dad walked into the house, walks over to the piano, plugs it in, and of course it started playing. The customer was appropriately embarrassed because he knew he had said it was plugged it. My Dad needed to charge a service call, 3 hours down, 3 hours back. No complaint from the customer (this was back before a lot of customers were whiny little pains).
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It's so easy to say, "Yes." It's so much harder to look. When I need to know that the ethernet cable is plugged in, I don't ask, "Is it plugged in?" I don't even ask, "Is it plugged into port xx-x-xy?" I ask them to read off the number on the port.

Sometimes, I've asked customers to unplug their monitor, and plug it back in reversed. Take the plug out of the computer and plug it into the monitor. Take the port that was in the monitor and connect that to your computer, please. Two of three times, that worked. And they didn't have to admit that the monitor wasn't plugged in, lol
 
2-Bit Speed said:
It's so easy to say, "Yes." It's so much harder to look. When I need to know that the ethernet cable is plugged in, I don't ask, "Is it plugged in?" I don't even ask, "Is it plugged into port xx-x-xy?" I ask them to read off the number on the port.

Sometimes, I've asked customers to unplug their monitor, and plug it back in reversed. Take the plug out of the computer and plug it into the monitor. Take the port that was in the monitor and connect that to your computer, please. Two of three times, that worked. And they didn't have to admit that the monitor wasn't plugged in, lol
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:) Same thing, in the days of parallel printer ports. I wouldn't say "many people don't know to tell if a printer cable is plugged in". Instead, I'd say "sometimes you have to unplug and reconnect the cable to make it work". That fixed fully 50% of printer calls.

Funniest call I ever had was in the days of the amber monochrome monitors. Customer calls that only gibberish characters were showing up on the screen. He described it, and it just didn't make any sense. Drive across town to take a look, and find the contract is turned all the way up, the brightness all the way down, so all you could see were the highlighted characters. It was tough to keep from laughing, and the admin person was concerned I'd charge them for the call. I just said "no charge, this story is going to last a long time...and I won't mention anyone by name". Well, it's lasted a long time.
 
2-Bit Speed said:
When I need to know that the ethernet cable is plugged in, I don't ask, "Is it plugged in?" I don't even ask, "Is it plugged into port xx-x-xy?" I ask them to read off the number on the port.
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I'll have to remember that one.
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I was working enterprise data support for an ISP and got a call from a guy who you could tell was having a bad day. It seems our customer had hired this guy (and crew) to upgrade their managed switches. In the interest of speed it would seem that one of the crew just unplugged all of the cables before doing any kind of documentation or labeling of cables. The guy was hoping against hope that we had some kind of documentation on our end that would help them sort out the issue. Unfortunately, we did not have anything for them.
 
guest user said:
I'll have to remember that one.
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I was working enterprise data support for an ISP and got a call from a guy who you could tell was having a bad day. It seems our customer had hired this guy (and crew) to upgrade their managed switches. In the interest of speed it would seem that one of the crew just unplugged all of the cables before doing any kind of documentation or labeling of cables. The guy was hoping against hope that we had some kind of documentation on our end that would help them sort out the issue. Unfortunately, we did not have anything for them.
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Yeah, that would be a rough day. :/
 
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