Whitey Grandad

The altitude readings were from the radar which is acknowledged to be less accurate at longer ranges. It all depends on the quality of the kit but whereas you can get range reasonably accurately you're relying on an accurate measure of the dish elevation, then there's curvature of the earth and the rest. From what I saw they could see that the altitude fluctuated but perhaps not as extremely as was indicated.

My daughter reckons they're discussing whose turn it is to make the tea.

Why does anybody have to bring up race whenever a black person is involved?

Of course, he has to. It was his final decision.

Gentlemen, this is undignified. Let's spare a thought for the relatives and loved ones of those who are missing.

And the sun was in the ref's eyes. No excuse for the assistant though.

He presumably relied upon advice from his assistants. Not a red card anyway, the ball was going well wide of goal, just a yellow. Michael Owen knows nothing about the laws.

Now, now young Pap. There is a whole range of experience on this forum and each has his own knowledge to contribute, all of it worth respecting.

Yes indeed, the first A in ACARS originally stood for ARINC. We made some speed indicators for Concorde that took information off the ARINC data bus and showed the passengers the Mach number. The data information can be carried over alternative media depending on location.

Blu-Ray, surely? (VHF of course, 131.55 MHz and others)

ACARS information would normally be sent on VHS over land because it's cheaper. It's possible to build your own monitoring equipment if you're an enthusiastic amateur: http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/decoders/acars.pdf The FMS info was apparently sent via ACARS just before it and the transponder were switched off/stopped working. It was this info that alerted the Malaysian authorities to the fact that the change of course had been programmed in.

Always good for a laugh. Who's going to own up to this one.

Let the poor lad wear it. It will help him overcome the disappointment of seeing his team let in four or five goals. Or six... Or seven...

This seems to be the crucial question. If the co-pilot (apparently) was the last to have contact with ATC then surely he must have known that this was programmed in? I presume it's possible that data was being exchanged automatically with the ground at this stage before it was later disabled.

I readily admit that my days of designing avionics and working in satellite comms lie many years in the past but the basic explanation concerning handshake pings with no next-level data seems plausible to me. What I do find unsettling is the assumption that some people seem to have that somebody must know something more than they are admitting or that some government is operating a cover-up. It's a symptom of the modern world that everybody expects instant information about everything but sometimes the simple explanation is that nobody knows anything.

Er... what does that statement say, exactly?

The last time I was in a box there it came with parking in the Northumberland Park School right behind the ground, but that was a good few years ago.

Not for me at my age but I can't see the problem with designated areas for those who want it.

It might have been when a customer found a fur ball in a cat burger that she had sold. Or was that cat burgler, I may have misread it?

No it didn't have to have a GPS fix. The ping is only the start of the message exchange and that is all that was received. It means that the only part of the system that was working was at the very basic level. It's all explained in the link I gave earlier: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/03/18/why-mh370-could-still-talk-to-satellites-after-its-other-comms-went-dark/ A ping is just to check that the receiver is there, that's all the information that the reply contains. Each receiver has a unique identifier.

I think it's not so much the age of the aircraft as the cost of using the ACARS service. The figures I read were $10 per flight but Malysian weren't prepared to pay it.

The GPS satellites are separate to the ACARS Inmarsat ones.

More about the pings here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/03/18/why-mh370-could-still-talk-to-satellites-after-its-other-comms-went-dark/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/03/19/heres-whats-odd-about-that-map-of-mh370s-final-satellite-ping/ http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/se-asia/story/missing-mh370-how-satellites-communicate-plane-malaysia-airlines

I always thought that they were with their values written down over the length of their contract.

Yup, simply this.