Let's talk about airplanes

An airline baggage handler in Seattle managed to start a multi-ton tug and push a large twin-engine turboprop aircraft out of it's parking bay. Not an easy task but doable by anyone who has ever driven a large trailer in reverse.

Then he got into the plane and somehow figured out how to start those two turboprop engines. Trust me, those things aren't your typical fuel-injected-electronic-ignition engines we are all familiar with in our cars. No sir, those babies are turbocharged high-power aircraft engines that require a fairly in-depth knowledge of propeller speeds in relation to manifold pressures. Too fast at too high a pressure and the engine tears itself to pieces.

After getting both engines running, he managed to taxi that large aircraft with its 93 foot wingspan along the taxiway and on to the runway. Imagine your car is 93 feet wide and the drivers seat is in the middle. Try not to hit anything making a turn!

Once he was on the runway, he gave both engines full throttle and held the plane on the centerline long enough to get it airborne.

For the most part, planes want to fly and the Q400 is no different. Give it enough forward energy and it climbs into the sky like a bird with or without any input from the pilot. The trick to flying is knowing how to not do something stupid that takes away the forward energy like put it into too steep of a climb or shut down the engines.

Now all of that is pretty amazing but it's not the amazing part.

The amazing part is that he managed to not only get the plane into the air, he also did a barrel roll and a loop. That's the amazing part.

And for the record, the Q400 is not designed to do aerobatics so I'm still kind of amazed the wings didn't rip off during the loop. Bombardier did a pretty good job designing and building those things.

After seeing how much punishment it can take, I'd fly in one. I just don't want the pilot to do any loops or rolls.

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Turns out NESN is replaying Sunday afternoon's game so I get to enjoy it again.

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