Want an award?jakeandelwood wrote: ↑Mon Dec 02, 2019 8:35 pm" backing into the loading dock at Wal-Mart" wow, if it were that easy! I've never backed into a Wal-Mart loading dock ever, but I've taken a rocking back and forth loaded fuel truck into places that most people wouldn't take their 4x4 pickups intoMeatservo wrote: ↑Mon Dec 02, 2019 4:59 pm Cat Driver, I want to start by apologizing for my comment about the hollowed-out watermelon. I was drinking after work (flying planes) and it seemed like a funny comment to make at the time.
I've been thinking about your question, and I believe the truth can be found by breaking things down into discrete actions that are representative of the various tasks at hand. In order to be completely objective of course one has to account for what particular oeuvre one is talking about, so I'll try to be clear as to which vintage of machine or time in history I'm referencing.
1: "Getting there"
PLANE: finding heading by referencing the nautical almanac to find the greenwich hour angle of Aries, converting to local hour angle (presuming you've been careful and you know your longitude), using the chart to correct for sidereal hour angle to find local hour angle of the star you've managed to spot, using astrocompass to sight the star and then set your gyro, mark that on the chart and continue dead-reckoning until you pick up the beacon more or less where you were hoping it would be
TRUCK: Stay on right side of yellow line; look out for signs
WHICH IS HARDER: PLANE
2: "Docking"
PLANE: sail an Otter in floats into its spot between two other Otters on a busy dock in gusty wind with no swamper
TRUCK: Back your trailer into the loading port on the side of Wal-Mart "
WHICH IS HARDER: DRAW
3:"STEERING"
PLANE: Co-ordinate roll, pitch and yaw to maintain altitude, speed and course using instruments without being able to see out the window
TRUCK: Stay in right side of yellow line; look out for signs
WHICH IS HARDER: PLANE
4: "NOT PLOUGHING INTO STUFF"
PLANE: flying through the air
TRUCK: rolling along the ground
WHICH IS HARDER: TRUCK
5: "Mental Math"
PLANE: magnetic variation, zulu time, descent angle, depressurization rates, rate of turn, VHF reception distance, available hold times, cold weather corrections, holdover times, tide charts
TRUCK: what time the all-night Denny's closes
WHICH IS HARDER: PLANE
6) "Staying Fit"
PLANE: technical exam every year, performance test including emergency scenarios requiring memorized procedures every six months
TRUCK: Whatever.
WHICH IS HARDER: PLANE
7) "Parking"
PLANE: Beach, Esker, Field, Rocks, River, Snow, Slush, Tundra...
TRUCK: WAL-Mart
WHICH IS HARDER: PLANE
Now I could be a dick and go on and on and on, but I truly believe that truck-driving is honourable, honest work and I wouldn't normally denigrate it like Cat Driver constantly does by comparing it to aeroplane flying. I also believe that modern 705 copilots are dissipated, whiney, underachieving, pampered little pricks who would be too timorous to even attempt driving anything with a manual transmission, let alone without an FMS and autopilot. So, I'm not actually sure where I stand on this issue.
Go land a plane at minimums on a 2500' ice strip with a 35kt gusting crosswind. At night, with dim potlights that barely qualify as runway lighting.
Nothing you say can make me think driving truck is harder than flying. What so ever.