Patrick Chiles

@SciGuySpace Is it just me or does that look like they rendered it in Kerbal Space Program?

This would be super cool if it happens. arstechnica.com/space/2026/03/…

Whoever did this deserves a raise.

Unsung hero - the guy who added the Jaws OST 😅😅

Celebrate the coming spring (and banishment of winter) with a great hard sf audiobook deal. ESCAPE ORBIT is 50% OFF through March 20! audiobooks.com/promotions/pro…

@CynicalPublius It’s what plants crave!

My first thought when reading this was "Brawndo."

@MCCCANM Been a while since I’ve done runway analysis work, but this is a complex subject and frequently misunderstood (i.e. assuming certain “margins” every takeoff). If it’s a true balanced field length (accel stop=accel go) then there is no margin to stop after V1.

“Rejecting” or “aborting” a takeoff is something we practice in the simulator. Below 100 knots, you can reject for anything. Maybe the cargo door comes open…just reject. Above 100 knots, we are in the “High-speed regime” & rejecting is risky. Even done perfectly, it’s a lot of energy for the brakes to absorb & they are already warm from taxiing. They may fail. More likely is a brake fire; past a certain temperature, special “fuse plugs” on the tires melt & let out the air to prevent an explosion, but the brakes are going to burn & the rubber of the tires eventually will, too. Occasionally a jet will suffer a brake fire just by taxiing excessively…they didn’t even try to takeoff. Last I remember an American 737 had this happen at DEN maybe two years ago. The brakes & tires happen to be located right under the fuel tanks in the wings. Not ideal, obviously, but you’ve got some time before a fire can burn through to the fuel. It would be plenty of time to evacuate & for the fire department to arrive, but maybe don’t stick around (and watch out for responding fire trucks…people fleeing get hit by them). Anyway, back to Rejected Take Off (RTO). As speed increases, so do the risks. At my airline, there are only 4 things to reject for when over 100 knots: 1) Engine Fire 2) Engine Failure 3) Windshear 4) Unsafe / Unable to Fly The last, Unsafe / Unable, is judgement based, but we’re talking about epic things, like a wing falls off. We’re going airborne with a hydraulic, electric or pneumatic issue…it’s safer to get away from the ground, deal with it & come back. In this video, the rising nosewheel & speed indicate the crew may have been past “V1”, which is the speed you are no longer able to reject & stay on the runway. You are going off the end. That speed changes for each takeoff based on conditions; we calculate new speeds each time. Procedurally, when the pilot not flying announces “V1” during takeoff, the pilot flying removes their hand from the throttles. This signifies that no attempt to reject will be made. There could possibly be a good reason to reject & stay on the ground after V1, but you’re gambling here. Are people more likely to get hurt in the air or on the ground? There are not many scenarios I can think of to keep it on the ground. The 4 things to reject for above 100 knots don’t count past V1…you take an engine fire or failure airborne. So, your next question is probably “but how did they stay on the runway in this reject, if they passed V1?” It’s a good question. In some situations, we may calculate a takeoff starting from an taxiway intersection with the runway, effectively shortening the runway’s length. The tower sometimes directs us to do this, to keep ground traffic moving behind the takeoff. It’s safe to do it, since we know how much runway is remaining at these points. If you planned an intersection takeoff, but are then allowed to use the whole runway, you *might* be able to stop after V1, but you don’t know for sure…yes, there is extra distance available now, but the brakes may go over their design limit. You don’t know. That’s just a guess; I wasn’t in the cockpit & can’t tell you how any of this unfolded. I’m glad they didn’t go in the grass & I’d assume there were few injuries. A reject is in itself unusual, but among rejects, this is another level. Lots of questions.

No cover art finalized yet (okay, not true... I have the art but not the comp), but all the stories for the Chaos and Consequences anthology have been edited and turned in! This anthology should come out in November of this year from @BaenBooks! Here's your table of contents: INTRODUCTION by Jason Cordova MORE THAN SURVIVAL by @MelissaOlthoff END RUN by @SarahAHoyt EMBRACING THE SUCK by @PatrickChiles ALONE by @thewriterike AN OMNISHAMBLES ASSESSMENT by @Marisa_comeaux, David Shadoin, & H.Y. Gregor MURDERPLEX by @holowriting WHEN THE THIRD MOON RISES by @KB_Carlisle THEY SHOULD CALL US GODS by @JoellePresby BOHEMALOWDOWN by Nick Steverson HUNTER OF DEMONS by Jason Cordova #anthology #BaenBooks

@MCCCANM Considering most accidents happen in the takeoff / landing phases, adding a fuel stop also introduces more risk.

We could make “chemtrails” disappear tomorrow. We know the conditions they form under. We have enough weather balloons aloft daily to have a good grasp of conditions. Military does it; stealth bombers leaving giant contrails aren’t very stealthy. There’s just the matter of the massive delays & cancelations this would cause. We’d have to put an altitude cap on air traffic in different, moving areas of the country as the conditions in the upper atmosphere changed, sometimes hourly. The atmosphere isn’t a monolith; a mile or two away the conditions may be right for contrails, then wrong again, then right, ad nauseam. This is why contrails sometimes seem to “turn off & on” as jets traverse at 7 miles or so a minute. The conditions don’t even need to change that much. A small jump in pressure, a small dip in temperature or a change in humidity will do it. Check the chart…as it so happens, temperature & pressure are related, so one effects the other & both will change, while humidity is variable over distance. Anyway, there is already a model for how we’d have to compress the traffic: thunderstorms. Particularly long lines of storms on the East Coast & Florida. When these hit, ATC becomes “Flow Constrained” & resorts to “Severe Weather Avoidance Procedures” (SWAP). The jets must have both minimum vertical & lateral separation. Storms roll in & remove the most of the options for lateral separation. So, now half of your separation options are gone…the amount of traffic you can squeeze in drops dramatically. ATC starts their delay programs. Delay programs spiral into cancelations. We’d still have to do this for storms, but now we’d also have to do it for contrail avoidance. Not just in the areas with storms, but at random spots across the country. Even on days with no storms. How much would air traffic need to shrink? How much more often would flights be delayed or cancelled? Sorry, I don’t know the answer. I can tell you there are a lot more aircraft up there than you may think…the FAA handles about 45,000 flights a day. At peak, there are something like 5,000 planes in the air at a time in the U.S. alone, covering maybe 7 miles or more a minute, separated by 1,000’ altitude blocks up to 41,000’ (higher for business jets). Take away 10,000’ or more of that airspace & it’s going to be a mess. On a cross-country flight, if I have to fly 5-7k’ lower than my optimum…I’m probably not going to make it w/ sufficient fuel reserves, as you burn more at lower altitude. The tanks aren’t big enough for much more fuel, and even if they were, we couldn’t take off on the existing runways…too short. We can kick a bunch of passengers off, or we can make a stop for fuel. Airports have a maximum number of jets they can handle any given hour & crews only a certain number of hours to fly, so a stop is going to have a major impact. Kicking a quarter of the passengers off every flight is a pretty big number at the end of the day…not a cancelation, but the quarter that got kicked off won’t see the distinction. Widebodies could do these flights, but that’s not the fleet we have & even if we went all widebody, the airports couldn’t handle it. Many of the gates aren’t far enough apart & many airports have no room to expand. Anyway, yes, the white lines in the sky could go away tomorrow. You just wouldn’t like what that means for your vacation / business schedule or the economy.

What it was like living near Heathrow Airport when Concorde was taking off!

THIS IS THE GREATEST THING EVER. This is unironically an amazing advertisement for Waffle House. Roll this out nationally IMMEDIATELY. 💀💀💀

One more week to get the FRONTIER audiobook 50% OFF! audiobooks.com/promotions/pro…

This is what pure joy looks like

The FRONTIER audiobook is 50% OFF through Feb 20! audiobooks.com/promotions/pro…

100% Preventable - Strong words here from NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy on 2025 DCA Midair Collision: "We should be angry, because for years no one listened. This was preventable, this was 100% preventable...having a helicopter route crossing runway...with only 75 feet of vertical separation...at best separating a helicopter a civilian aircraft, nowhere in the airspace is that ok. Nowhere! This shouldn't have existed." 📹 NTSB

@In_JakeWeTrust @MCCCANM It’s called ETOPS. There’s a lot more to it, but twin engine aircraft have to get specific approval to fly extended overwater routes.

@MCCCANM Great info! Can you share just very briefly an example of why one 737 can traverse the ocean, while a different may not be able to? Totally based on type of 737? Or something else? TIA!

As we keep an eye on American today (currently holding at 16% cancellations, a big improvement), thought I’d do a “Scheduling Appreciation” post. Just point out how complex the system is. I sometimes marvel it functions at all: • Big airlines like American may have 50,000+ crew, dispersed around the country • Pilots can only fly one type of jet, FAs can fly them all • You have to match crews to the jets & it must be fully staffed. You can’t go without FAA minimum crew • Jets have their own kind of rest requirements in maintenance & inspection cycles • Not every jet in a fleet can perform the same mission. Some 737s can fly over the ocean, some can’t • Pilots sometimes require “special qualification” for certain airfields, FAs do not • Some airports will not allow landings or departures overnight during “quiet hours” • Calling a pilot while off-duty for a work function interrupts & resets their rest cycle, making coordination difficult • Many pilots & FAs are commuters; they don’t live where they are based. If the commute flight(s) cancels, they can’t get to work • If a trip “breaks down” at a non-hub, you don’t have anyone there to replace crew • Pilots & FAs have different duty day & rest requirements • Pilots have a maximum number of flying hours in a month & a year, FAs mostly do not • Pilots & FAs have different labor contracts w/ different requirements • Pilots “duty day” starts when they show to the airport. They don’t get paid until they fly, but their duty clock starts ticking toward timing out. Mostly same for FAs • Maximum duty day & flying hours in a day for pilots varies by what time they start, based on their “home base” time even when on the road • The maximum number of legs they can fly also varies based on this “home base” start time • Narrowbody crews are often scheduled for 3 or even 4 legs in a day. A failure early quickly cascades • Contracts limit how much you can force crews to do, like stay on the road an extra day • Pilots have a maximum number of days they can work continuously (usually a contract thing) • If you do force a crew to stay on the road an extra day, that may mean having to “restore” a day off later, messing up the schedule in a week or more from now Ok, that’s all I can think of for the time being. There are more factors, and crews generally get really savvy on the contracts & FAA rules. In part because they can make more money, but also because they can get in trouble for violating the FAA rules. Shrugging your shoulders & blaming it on scheduling will not work…you are just as responsible. Airlines have tools they can use to entice crews to come in & help, like “premium pay” or a form of overtime (which can be very lucrative…some flexible pilots use this to their advantage but scheduling has been getting better), but they generally can’t force them to come in. I fear I’m not portraying this as complex enough. It’s honestly more complicated than I think I can explain; entire academic papers have been written on this & a lot of money is made by developing software to help. I did scheduling in the Air Force at Squadron & Group levels, and just that was enough to make your head spin. Anyway, hopeful that American has pulled out of the dive it was in yesterday. I think it looks decent so far, but I really don’t know where the breaking point is…it might look good now, but if you’re using every reserve & pulling every lever to fix it, that has consequences a couple days down the road, too.

So they’re like leaving a soda can in the freezer?

When imaginary people are having arguments in your head while you’re just trying to take a shower, it means you’re either: a. Schizophrenic, or b. A writer. I chose option b.

prime numbers distribution

PLEASE let Swedish Chef singing Rapper’s Delight be one of the songs featured on Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets: