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To: LindyBill who wrote (258752)	7/22/2008 12:51:54 AM
From: ManyMoose	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 794293

Buff Down Buffs are older than the guys who fly them now. My brother-in-law flew one for fifteen years, and he's been retired for ten. I think his planes were older than he was too. Talk about your $1000 toilet seats, have you ever been in one of those things? It would be like spending a 20 hour mission in a Volkswagen bus. The ejection ports are no bigger than a car window, and if you don't fold in your arms and legs you lose them. The instructor pilot seat where my BIL sat (he was an instructor pilot) was nothing but a fold-down bench. He said it took him a week or two to get over a long mission. Those babies are big, but there's almost no people room in them. The interior space is occupied by electronics and weapons. The Military Channel rates the Buff as #1 in their bomber top ten show. It rates high in innovation, effectiveness, payload, cost, and longevity.

To: LindyBill who wrote (258752)	7/22/2008 10:21:08 AM
From: MrLucky	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 794293

At that height, flying over the open ocean, it becomes more difficult to ascertain your altitude from visual cues; In daylight and clear, that isn't a problem. Nighttime is a different issue. That said, these guys are trained for low level ops and have a bucket of gauges and dials which tell them exactly how high they are above the surface. I am waiting to see if bird ingestion occurred. At one thousand feet, they were low enough for such an event. Losing a couple engines of the same wing changes all flight handling and impacts maneuvering quickly. Especially, on a high speed pass (flyby). I presume this flight was on some kind of training mission. Very unfortunate for the crew and families.