Davin News Server

On Wed, 13 Aug 2025 15:40:56 -0700,  Alan says...  

> > This ain't no "Hunt for Red October"!
> 
> Straw man.

[sniff]

Whah whah whah! 

100 mile range.

Not cool to lose battery power in a VTOL, which can't glide.

LOL

100 mile RANGE and that's it.

50 miles there... 50 miles back.

MAYBE 75 if the FAA lets them.

Nope.

I'm actually amending my trip numbers.

LESS than a 100 miles.

That's a very important question that gets to the heart of aviation safety regulations. The short answer is no, the FAA would not 
simply hold them to a 100-mile trip. THE ACTUAL OPERATIONAL RANGE FOR EACH FLIGHT WOULD BE MUCH SHORTER, because the FAA has strict 
rules for flight planning that prioritize safety above all else.

The FAA's regulations are designed to ensure that an aircraft has enough energy (fuel or battery power) not just for a planned 
trip, but also for contingencies. This is a crucial distinction.

Here is a breakdown of how the FAA would regulate a flight based on your example, likely under FAR Part 135, which governs on-
demand air taxis and other commercial charter operations.

The FAA's Three-Part Flight Plan

For any commercial flight, a pilot or company must ensure the aircraft has enough energy for these three requirements:

Fuel/Power to Destination: The aircraft must have enough energy to fly from the departure point to the destination.

Fuel/Power to an Alternate: The aircraft must then have enough to fly from the destination to a pre-selected alternate airport. 
This is required in case of unexpected weather changes, an airport closure, or any other issue preventing a safe landing at the 
primary destination.

The Reserve: On top of the first two requirements, the aircraft must have a specific reserve of power for an additional amount of 
time. For Part 135 operations, this is typically 30 to 45 minutes of flight time, depending on whether the flight is conducted 
under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) or Instrument Flight Rules (IFR).

Applying Your Example

In your scenario, the company's stated "100-mile range with a 50-mile reserve" is a total capacity, not an operational limit. THE 
FAA WOULD VIEW THAT 50-MILE RESERVE NOT AS A MARKETING CLAIM, BUT AS A CRITICAL SAFETY BUFFER.

For a trip to be approved, the flight plan would look something like this:

Operational Trip = (Trip to Destination) + (Trip to Alternate) + (Reserve)

Let's say the company wants to fly a 75-mile trip. If the closest alternate airport is 10 miles away, the flight would require at 
least:

75 miles (to destination)

+ 10 miles (to alternate)

+ ~25 miles (for the 30-minute reserve, assuming an average speed of 50 mph)

= 110 miles of total required range

As you can see, even a 75-mile trip would exceed the 100-mile portion of the capacity, eating into the reserve. A 100-MILE TRIP 
WOULD BE NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE UNDER THESE REGULATIONS, as there would be no energy left for an alternate airport or the required 
reserve.

This regulatory framework is designed to prevent pilots from running out of energy in an emergency, ensuring that every flight has 
a significant safety margin built in.

Suck on that, rich boy.

========================

In case you want to know the same answer to the question of eVTOL aircraft only...

That's a very important clarification because the FAA has developed specific regulations for electric vertical takeoff and landing 
(eVTOL) aircraft, which they classify as powered-lift aircraft. While the core safety principles remain the same, the specifics are 
adapted for battery power.

The FAA would not simply hold the company to a 100-mile trip. THE ACTUAL OPERATIONAL RANGE FOR EACH FLIGHT WOULD BE MUCH SHORTER, 
because the FAA mandates a strict flight plan with specific reserves.

FAA Regulations for eVTOLs (Powered-Lift)

For a commercial eVTOL operation under Part 135, the flight planning rules require that the aircraft have enough power to do the 
following, in sequence:

Fly to the Destination: Have sufficient battery power to reach the planned destination.

Fly to the Alternate: Have enough power to then fly from the destination to a designated alternate vertiport or airport, in case of 
an emergency or unforeseen conditions.

The Reserve: On top of the first two requirements, the aircraft must have a specific energy reserve. The FAA has considered 
different approaches for electric aircraft and has moved toward a time-based reserve similar to what is used for helicopters-
typically 20 minutes of flight time at a specified power setting.

Applying Your Example

In your scenario, the company's "100-mile range with a 50-mile reserve" is a total capacity, NOT AN OPERATIONAL LIMIT. The FAA 
WOULD NOT ACCEPT A SELF-DEFINED "50-MILE RESERVE" AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR THEIR REQUIRED TIME-BASED RESERVE.

Let's use a hypothetical example with your numbers:

Total available range: 150 miles

Your stated trip: 100 miles

Required FAA reserve: Let's assume the aircraft's cruising speed is 100 mph. A 20-minute reserve would equate to a reserve of 
approximately 33 miles.

To operate a 100-mile trip, the pilot would need to ensure the aircraft has enough power for:

100 miles (to destination)

+ Trip to the alternate (e.g., let's say the nearest alternate is 10 miles away)

+ 33 miles (the FAA-mandated 20-minute reserve)

Total Required Range: 143 miles.

Even with this aggressive flight plan, A 100-MILE TRIP WOULD USE UP ALMOST THE ENTIRE TOTAL CAPACITY OF 150 MILES AND LEAVE VERY 
LITTLE MARGIN FOR ERROR. A pilot would likely BE REQUIRED TO PLAN FOR A MUCH SHORTER OPERATIONAL RANGE (e.g., 60-70 miles) to 
comfortably meet all of the FAA's safety requirements and have a real buffer for unexpected events.


[giggle]

Are you now going to whine about me "accepting your pivot" vs. staying on topic?

LOL

===============================================================================

"Trump Derangement Syndrome" Is a Real Mental Condition

All you need to know about "Trump Derangement Syndrome," or TDS.

"Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) is a mental condition in which a person has been driven effectively insane due to their dislike 
of Donald Trump, to the point at which they will abandon all logic and reason."

Justin Raimondo, the editorial director of Antiwar.com, wrote a piece in the Los Angeles Times in 2016 that broke TDS down into 
three distinct phases or stages:

"In the first stage of the disease, victims lose all sense of proportion. The president-elect's every tweet provokes a firestorm, 
as if 140 characters were all it took to change the world."

"The mid-level stages of TDS have a profound effect on the victim's vocabulary: Sufferers speak a distinctive language consisting 
solely of hyperbole."

"As TDS progresses, the afflicted lose the ability to distinguish fantasy from reality."

The Point here is simple: TDS is, in the eyes of its adherents, the knee-jerk opposition from liberals to anything and everything 
Trump does. If Trump announced he was donating every dollar he's ever made, TDS sufferers would suggest he was up to something 
nefarious, according to the logic of TDS. There's nothing - not. one. thing. - that Trump could do or say that would be received 
positively by TDSers.

The history of Trump Derangement Syndrome actually goes back to the early 2000s - a time when the idea of Trump as president was a 
punch line for late-night comics and nothing more.

Wikipedia traces its roots to "Bush Derangement Syndrome" - a term first coined by the late conservative columnist Charles 
Krauthammer back in 2003. The condition, as Krauthammer defined it, was "the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in 
reaction to the policies, the presidency - nay - the very existence of George W. Bush."