Top 10 Tips to Make a Top 10 List

1 - Start with an irrelevant life story.

You need to start your blog entry with something that has nothing to do with your list. Make sure it’s long, unengaging and most importantly: fill it with run-on sentences. Describe how some trivial event in your life changed your whole worldview. Include stories about your grandmother or paternal aunt that you claim inspired you. Get some ideas from online recipes where the back story is longer than the recipe itself. Trust me, this fluff is really important for a successful blog. The introduction should include how these tips have changed your life and made you a famous superstar.

2 - The list should be about something grandiose filled with platitudes.

Don’t discuss actually interesting and specific things like lists of the most useful instructions for a Motorola 68000 processor. Keep it generic and make sure it’s about some major aspect of our lives such as vague success, making a ton of money and being ‘smart’. Pretend that the reader has never thought of these ideas. Bonus points for something clickbait.

3 - Don’t do any research or give out references.

A successful list should be filled to the brim with inaccuracies. Things that win people over are usually brain chemistry and hormone claims that will activate us and keep us healthy. Say generic things and use original research with expressions such “research has shown” or “scientists have demonstrated”. Don’t ever include references to actual sources, you’re not writing a Wikipedia article here.

4 - Claim that you found a way to become a millionaire with some trivial work.

Everybody loves get quick rich schemes especially if they’re easy to do. The truth is, these schemes actually do work and world economists don’t want you to know this. They want us to be slaves to this insipid 9-to-5 grind. Show off your bank account with photoshopped balances. Fabricated or unproven passive income tips will win you a lot of readers too, trust me.

5 - Try to shove your book into their throats.

Every famous blogger has written a book about obvious things and included this list in it. Don’t make the book too long; keep it superficial. Ensure that your poor writing skills demonstrated by your blog are well reflected in that book. Sell, sell and sell this miracle that you’ve created. Unlike the ads and sponsorships on your blog, the book is what will make you a bit of disposable income. Even better, have a plug for an eBook reader that has the ultimate features despite it being too simplistic.

6 - Include stolen photos.

Photos are a great way to space out an article and make it look longer than it actually is. Don’t use your own photographs because your photography skills are above and beyond what the article deserves. Use your Google Photo search skills and copy and paste whatever you find. Don’t pay attention to the fact that some photos need attribution and royalty-free ones actually cost money to include.

7 - The list should introduce nothing new.

Medium has shown how popular blog posts that are carbon copies of another. Repeat what others have said and keep it short because you don’t want to expose your lack of knowledge in a certain subject. Somewhere in your list, you should highlight the importance of sleep and eating vegetables. The best tips are the ones that are not actionable. If you’re making a list of content such as books, just pick some random ones from a Goodreads list and even better, some that you never read yourself.

8 - Claim that you have overcome a serious and chronic condition.

Everyone wants to live a great healthy life and not bogged down by diabetes. Mental conditions are starting to surface in discussions. For example, if you’re bipolar, make sure to write that you conquered it while you’re having a manic episode. Forget the relapse that you’re already having and stop taking your medication. Great ideas are using untested and poorly research homeopathic medicine and supplements. Include a conspiracy about big-pharma and how they want us to stay sick. I mean you can sell them yourself. You need to go against the grain when it comes to what it contains. Good examples are “gluten-free”, “grain-free”, “meat by-product free”, “no genetic modifications”, “organic”, “keto-friendly”, “vegan” and so on.

9 - Fill it to the brim with conspiracy theories.

Our world is full of fear and unknowns. Why not abuse it and create some juicy conspiracy theory. There’s so many of them online with movements promoting them. Using misinformation will empower your readers and in fact keep them coming for more. Don’t be surprised that people love the craziest of ideas, especially when they’re too good to be true. People will believe anything with a good production value.

10 - Say that social media is bad for you.

So much research has been done (see, I’m not referencing anything here) to show that social media is dangerous for our well-being. Include a variation of the previous sentence and add some pizzaz to it just to make a bigger impact on your visitors. Keep the hypocrisy going with having a strong social media presence and asking people to read your tweets, follow you on Facebook and subscribe to your amazing vlogs on your YouTube channel.

Build a (Poor Man's) Arcade Machine - On a Budget of 200$ or Less!

I was watching a bunch of YouTubers who were creating arcade machines from scratch. What they did was really impressive but I didn’t have the handyman skills or equipment (or money) to match them. I still wanted to make a game machine however and ignore how scrappy it is. Whatever it ends up, I’ll be proud of my work. It’s all about improvisation anyways, right?

My goal was to build an arcade machine (that didn’t look like one) with things that I already have avoiding buying new parts. A rummage in the basement storage locker presented me with quite some surprises. I’m encouraging you to use as much as what you already have.

Just because you’re on a tight budget, doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. We’re stretching it thin and keeping the total cost under 200$. That’s much less than experts who spend thousands of dollar on tools, wood, expensive TVs, arcade controls and so on. I, in some way, envy them because looking at these builds make me feel skilless (and poor).

Keep in mind that this budget is for the minimum required to build a working machine. You may opt for higher end parts or have many of them already lying around. I personally didn’t have to make any new purchases since I had the components needed.

Let’s take a look about how you may find yourself into the way of fun without overdrawing your account.

The Parts You Need

The Computer

Obviously, you’ll need something to actually run your arcade machine and run the emulators and ROMs so you can play them. A local store, The Trailing Edge, sells refurbished PCs that office businesses discarded them. They had a pretty old machine that was priced for just under 100$. The reason I had it was for testing my software on a slower and older machines to see how it performed. I no longer needed it when virtual machines had support for reducing the execution cap thus emulating a slower machine. It sat in my closet doing nothing and collecting dust.

Some much cheaper alternatives are Raspberry Pi Boards. They provide a very compact system that is very inconspicuous and silent. These systems have become powerful enough to run retro games with no fuss. There are other single-board computers for about the same prices but I prefer the RPI because it’s the most popular one and has the best software support.

Don’t forget to check eBay for refurbished laptop and desktop computers for a very cheap price. You don’t need anything more powerful than a Celeron processor and 4GB of RAM. You could probably get away even less.

Check you’re existing inventory of computer devices. Over the years I’ve purchased many Raspberry PIs and single-board computers hidden in messes of drawers. Some old laptops were hanging around too but I’ve sold most of them.

Cost: 35$ - Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (1GB RAM)

The Software

Emulator front-ends have developed beautiful interfaces and easy setup. There’s so many choices and I’ll only list a few. Keep in mind setup can be a bit clunky and keep the official documentation handy and don’t be afraid to ask online for some advice.

If you’re using a PC, my favourite frontend is without a doubt LaunchBox/BigBox. It does cost some money but I already had purchased a license for my HTPC. There are some free alternatives with beautiful UIs such as Lutris and Playnite. There’s also EmulationStation which is very popular with Raspberry Pi users.

The games themselves are not that hard to find on the Internet but there’s huge moral concerns over obtaining them. While owning the game is usually enough, some take it far and dump the ROMs from the cartridges. Both solutions are expensive and it seems unreasonable that you’ll be chased around for software that’s more than 30 years old (unless you’re Nintendo).

One advantage of using a PC is that you can include other games such as your collection from Steam or whatever else you may have. Of course, the limited performance of these puny single-board machines that you got your hands on might not be able to play more demanding and serious games.

In the Gems section on this website, in the Piracy section at the bottom, you’ll find ways to obtain these ROMs. I’m also making a shameless plug for my curated ROM collection TopRoms which will shrink the footprint of having every game in existence rather than just the popular and high quality ones.

Of course, the frontends can’t actually run the game. While some projects like RetroPie and Recalbox will already have emulators configured other software will require you to download an emulator yourself. RetroArch is currently the most popular multi-emulator software with great compatibility and performance. One thing you’ll need to keep in mind, there’s a lot of manual setup to get things working properly so you’ll need to be stuck with documentation and using online queries.

The emulators and frontends currently available have never made it easy to get things up and running. The technical nature of these software caters more to those who have a good understanding of computing in general.

Of course, you can use the operating system of choice whether it’s Windows or Linux. Take a peek at AlternativeTo find the software that works for you.

Cost: 0$ - RetroPie

The screen

Many business are putting away their screens for something bigger and maybe better quality. Although virtually every monitor on sale these days are 16:9, this can be a little jarring since most classic games run at 4:3 aspect ratio. So the extra wide screen space won’t be useful.

There are many places where you can find cheap monitors for very low prices. Checkout liquidation centres, thrift stores and eBay. You may find something that costs less than 40$.

Personally, the monitor I had was a hand me down. It’s 10 years old now but It still works well. One frustration is that I lost the base for the screen and had to secure it by improvising with book ends and sticky tac.

Some purists may prefer CRT screens since they provide better response times and keep that authentic look because these older games were designed to run on them. You’ll usually find on them on classified ranging from free to unusually expensive prices.

One last thing to keep in mind, it’s likely that you’ll be standing while playing on the machine. As a result, the screen needs to be tilted very far back, almost at a 45 degree angle. It’s possible your screen stand that doesn’t move that far so be ready to improvise.

Cost: 35$ - Refurbished 17” Monitors

The Controllers:

I have to admit that controllers can make or break the gaming experience. So perhaps this is a place you can spend a bit more money. You can find cheap ones all over. In my opinion, the best bang for your buck is the Logitech F310. The buttons are firm, the D-pad reasonable and some nice shoulder buttons. Taking a quick at local stores, you can obtain one for 25$. If want something wireless, you might be paying double. But, if you want that authentic arcade experience, you’ll have to shell over 200$ for arcade style controls or buy a DIY kit which is only a bit less. I personally had some 8BitDo classic controllers lying around unused so they got connected to the PC.

Cost: 2x25$ - Logitech F310 Gamepad

Keyboard and Mouse

It’s almost certain that you have some old keyboards and mice lying around in a closet or storage room. You really don’t need anything fancy for the seldom cases where you need to configure the machine.

Look at local stores, thrift shops and liquidation centres. You can probably find a combo for less than 5$. The feel and accuracy of the mice and keyboard might leave quite a bit left to desire but it will enough for the rare times you will use it.

Another alternative is the air-mouse/keyboard combo that many HTPC enthusiasts use. I had two lying around from old HTPC projects. Finding one for less than 30$ is not impossible though.

Cost: 15$ - iCAN Keyboard and Mouse Combo

The Speakers

An acceptable set of PC speakers can be found for as low as 25$. You can also use Bluetooth speakers if you have one that you’re not using. Your screen may even have built-in speakers. The sound quality doesn’t have to be amazing, just enough to transmit the bleeps-and-bloops from our beloved classic games.

Cost: 22$ - AmazonBasics USB-powered Speakers

The Stand

This is the part where you probably have the most freedom. A quick look through Amazon and Ikea reveals many candidates for keeping your machine off the ground. Try finding high dining tables with casters, a small desk, a tall chair and so on. You’ll find furniture everywhere from thrift stores, to IKEA and many other places selling cheap furniture.

I personally used a sofa table with casters to keep things up. I was planning to use it for eating on the couch but it was too high. So it found new use after some minor changes.

Cost: 33$ - Furinno Just 3-Tier Turn-N-Tube End Table

The Odds and Ends

Remember you’ll need cables and power strips to get everything tied together. Some cable management ties might help keep your system clean. I tend to collect cables and I was able to find everything I needed. Otherwise head out to various online stores like Amazon and Monoprice and so on. Also take a peek at dollar stores.

Conclusion

There we have it folks, the total comes to almost exactly 200$ (192$). Taxes and shipping were not included since they vary based on your location. If you’re reading this blog post, you’re probably a technology nut like me having wasted much money on things that became useless and obsolete quickly. Anything that you’re not using is an opportunity to save money and reuse something that was destined for the electronics recycler.

This is what my system looks like after completion. It looks like a hack job but it does exactly what I need it to do, play games!

However, don’t forget to add your magic touch to your build and keep the pride of what you have managed to do on a shoestring budget. 

Feel free to share in the comments below what kind of setup you have managed to build. It would be awesome to share pictures of your masterpieces whether it was a glued together rush job or a fully fledged arcade cabinet. There’s no floor or limit here.

Bringing a Taste of Linux to Windows

For a good part of my life, I was a Linux zealot. I preached it like I was preaching a religion. I felt superior to others because I could handle something so daunting and intimidating. I realized that most of my day was spent configuring the operating system rather than actually getting work done. As my responsibilities in life grew and my career as well, I didn’t have time anymore to deal with all the shenanigans and challenges that this operating system brought to my life.

Eventually, I got disillusioned with Linux and was tired of wrestling with it because the new update just borked my GPU drivers once again being presented with a black screen when booting up my system. I had to sift through documentation and wikis for hours to find out a solution and since I only owned one system, I had to relegate myself to my phone’s tiny screen. I was done. I made some backups and wiped everything out for a Windows 10 install.

Linux has spoiled me quite a bit and I got used to some its applications, features and quirks. Moving to Windows created some gaps in my workflow that I felt slowing and holding me down. Going back to Redmond’s offering has forced me to search extensively for software that would fill in these holes requiring quite some experimentation.

(Keep in mind the Headings can be clicked to go to the application’s website)

Windows Subsystem for Linux

The confusing name for WSL made it hard to understand what this feature was for the one who was uninitiated. However, Linux started to become an infatuation at Redmond and they became to embrace it starting with Azure. Windows 10 brought the surprise that I would be finally able to run my favourite Linux tools without needing a virtual machine and complex setup of shared folders. It was light and fast. Basically, WSL is Wine backwards: it runs Linux ELF binaries translating the Linux API calls into equivalent Windows NT ones.

All the beautiful Unix commands were finally available to prune through files easily, automate tasks and of course use magical tools to deal with obscure situations. You could even pick what distro WSL would run. I just picked Ubuntu because it provided a polished bash experience alongside a great package manager APT for pulling in your favourite packages and building your arsenal.

Shortly after, I customized it a bit by installing ZSH and doing various tweaks to make it just perfect for me. However, the built-in Windows terminal emulator left a lot to be desired and have a good solution:

ConEmu

I have no memory of how I discovered this tool however it was quite the revelation. It rendered the colours and symbols that Linux command line tools used. You could choose to start the shell you wanted even in administrator mode. The great Quake-style dropdown was available. And of course, a nice tiling functionality reminding you of your good old days in awesome tiling window managers. Tabs were not left out either.

You can even have ConEmu be part of your context menu so you can launch it straight from explorer.

Admittedly, the keyboard shortcuts are clunky and quite the mess, thus making them harder to remember. There’s so much to customize like colour themes, fonts and way more, but the settings window is a bit hard to decipher and quite difficult to navigate. I guess that’s the price you pay for all that customizability.

AutoHotkey

Linux’s probably most powerful feature is scripting. There are so many command line tools and APIs that you could create the most sophisticated scripts that did exactly what you wanted. Want to download a YouTube video on your hard drive? You’re covered. Need to rearrange displays when plugging in your dock? You got it. What about starting a bunch of applications per workflow? You’re set.

This is where AutoHotkey comes in, bringing the ability to automatic tasks via a huge swath of commands available at your disposal. Whether you want to move your pointer to the center of the screen or have a keyboard command bring up your note taking application. It’s all possible

Just like when scripting in Linux using bash or python, there’s quite a steep learning curve to get a hold of the power of this beast. Thankfully, the official documentation is excellent and like always, there are forums and stackoverflow to save you.

I personally use AutoHotkey to switch between applications and start the terminal. I don’t have ideas yet on what else I can do, but I don’t doubt that this scripting language will allow me to do whatever I need to suit my workflow.

Divvy

In my opinion, the biggest showpiece that Linux has was tiling window mangers. It was a whole paradigm shift from floating windows to making them well organized and neatly stacked. My favourite WM was definitely i3 because of it’s ease of use and intuitive way of tiling windows. It was well tested and easy to configure as well.

When I left Linux land, I had to content with a disorganized mess of floating windows again. There was some honorable attempts (such as b3 and bug.n) at porting them to Windows but they were clunky and often didn’t work seamlessly. The truth is, the APIs on Windows for manipulating windows is quite complicated and often generated inconsistent results. The poor developers had to content themselves with these trying to shoehorn the power of tiling managers into an operating system that just couldn’t accept it and clearly wasn’t made for it.

In comes Divvy, a piece of software a friend introduced to me many years ago. Although it didn’t automatically tile the windows for you, you were able to organize your windows into tiles by selecting the area of the screen you wanted to fill. It’s very intuitive and quite customizable such as adjusting the size of the tiles and their count. You can even have gaps between the tiles. A featured so loved by /r/unixporn users who ran a modified version of i3 called i3-gaps.

Now, my desktop can be organized but unfortunately, I have to do it manually. It’s not bug free either sometimes windows not being moved or resized properly.

Groupy

A feature that I fell in love with was provided by the lightweight window manager Fluxbox. You could merge multiple windows into a single title bar being able to switch them just like you would switch tabs in a web browser. This really helped with the mess experienced by floating window managers and provided more comfort.

I knew Stardock for it’s amazing customization tools bring powerful features to the Windows Desktop. I often kept an eye on their new releases and played around with what they had.

Groupy is one of their more recent creations. It allows Windows to be groups in tabs cleaning up your desktop quite a bit. You chose how you organized your windows whether it was by application type or easy workflow switching.

Unlike many of the other available solutions, Groupy looks clean and professional with a bit of configurability such minor appearance tweaks and keyboard shortcuts. It’s very intuitive: you simply drag a title bar of one window to another and that’s it. You have merged two windows into a tab.

Conclusion

These were a sampling of applications that brought creature comforts of Linux into Windows. I still think that Linux is awesome and use it extensively in VMWare for web servers and deploying software for those I work with. Every year is the year of the Linux Desktop but I don’t think we’ll ever get there. At this point, in terms of the general public, Windows and macOS own 100% of the desktop market share.

One plug and shout-out to AlternativeTo that helped me find equivalent applications for both Linux and Windows.

Please share your ideas on this topic in the comment sections below. Are you still a Linux user who managed to make a living out of it and comfortable with the OS? Or have you moved to another OS?

How to fix a Linux computer according to the Oatmeal

Staying Comfortable in our own (Social Media) Bubble...

It’s pretty discomforting how much various websites keep track of every move as a way to sell that information and make you the product. I have worked on analytics systems myself and it’s jarring how much information is being recorded about you. While some are benevolent such as gathering data to enhance UX and optimize the application for the user, others have ulterior motives. I’m guilty of having extensive analytics on my website as well though I don’t sell it to anyone and it’s only for personal use: keeping track of my traffic. That doesn’t make it a good thing though.

The Bubble

Social media has been using this goldmine to have you more engaged with the content and hopefully click on ads. While when you sign up for the first time, the content is more varied, soon, without realizing it, the content you get is based on your political views and beliefs. If you’re liberal, most of the content you’ll see is posts about liberal politics while if you’re a conspiracy theorist, you’ll find articles that fit your views.

Your hobbies and interests are also taken into account and suddenly the ads will match your automotive passions with ads for selling car parts. It’s scary how websites know what search queries to suggest because of a conversation you had on the platform.

The bubble keeps us comfortable and protects us from content that we find bothersome or even offensive. You’ll constantly see things that match your views isolated from everything else. It’s not a coincidence that social media websites use subtle cues to discover your preferences. Every website has its own metrics and techniques but I’ll keep this outside of the scope of this discussion for simplicity.

Escaping the Bubble

This is the tricky part, you need to start viewing things that you don’t agree with. Visit websites from people with views opposite to yours and follow those with whom you disagree.

I’ll keep my political views aside for now but I noticed that content that seemed ridiculous to me is what others believe in. I used to judge these people but I’m starting to realize that those with opposing viewpoints are actually windows to other people’s minds. The truth is, they are just as confident as I am in what they read. The production quality of popular mediums about any opinion is excellent. So it’s tempting for all of us.

In addition, reading opposing news has made me realize that I could be wrong about something, and maybe, what other people are saying is actually true. It opened my eyes quite a bit and now my opponents sound less crazy.

This kind of behaviour is what prepares you for good conversation and finesses your debating skills. You’ll be forced to listen to the other one say something while you compare it with your own ideas. Just admit it, when watching debates online, you skip the parts of the opponent to listen to your preferred orator.

Minimize Tracking and Ads

With ad-blockers such as uBlock Origin, you can block tracking domains and leave your traces as much as a secret as possible. Almost every website has at least Google Analytics plugged in and it will be made useless for tracking you. Also, the ads will be invisible so you’ll be free from solicitation.

Conclusion

We’re living in a world where specialization in academia is keeping us in a test tube life where you only know what you’re studying. We stay home only knowing our families and nothing else. Our world is becoming more and more homogenized and even worse isolating. Even within our own circles, debates become awkward silence. Valuable conversations become impossible and our selection process becomes tuned to those we agree with.

Our perception of reality is black and white and the nuances won’t appear until you take off your rose-coloured glasses. The world we live in is imperfect and what other way to be mindful and accept it like that is by seeing all the different colours.

Widen you’re breadth and see your views grow, foster and become more varied.

The Sad Demise of Propulsion Controlled Aircraft

Sioux City Crash

In July 1989, a DC-10 chartered by United Airlines, Flight 232, crash-landed in Sioux City after a disastrous loss of all hydraulics rendering the plane uncontrollable. One-hundred and twelve souls lost their lives in that accident considered one of the worst air disasters in US history. The hydraulic fluid, which actuates the flight controls based on pilot input, leaked out after an uncontained failure of the tail engine severing the lines.

The hopeless last moments of United Airlines Flight 232

One off-duty training captain, joined the cockpit after hearing the explosion from the back. Through experimentation, he discovered that by manipulating the throttle controls, he could control the plane slightly and attempt a safe landing. While everything seemed under control, at the last seconds before impact at Sioux Gateway Airport, the plane banked hard and flipped over and burst into flames.

The terrifying final moments of JAL123 recorded on CVR.

Japan Airlines 123 Disaster

Four years before, in August 1985, Japan Airlines 123, was the subject of the world’s worst single aircraft disaster in aviation. An improper repair of the rear bulkhead caused it to rupture after several cabin pressurization cycles over hundreds of flights and slowly tore the rear tailfin. All the hydraulic pipes ran through the tail and their breakage caused again, all the hydraulic fluid to leak leading to the subsequent loss of all flight controls.

Again, the pilots followed the technique of the Sioux City flight. They wanted to fly back to Haneda airport but despite all the heroic efforts to control the plane for an incredible 30 minutes, fate was against them and they crashed into the mountains near Mount Fuji. As the single worst aircraft crash in history, 505 people lost their lives.

DHL Takedown

It seemed at this point that the aviation industry still didn’t learn their lessons after two similar crashes. Years later, in 2003, a DHL Airbus A300 cargo took off from Baghdad, Iraq towards Bahrain and shortly got hit from by a man-portable surface-to-air missile from Fedayeen terrorist group. It struck the left wing causing damage to it and subsequent fuel leak. The hydraulic lines ran through the damaged wing and all three leaked and failed. Again, the pilots lost all flight controls.

Captain Éric Gennote was forced to improvise again using the same technique as in the previous incidents. He managed to turn back to the airport but had to make two approaches because the first final was too close. As an incredible feat of flying, they managed to land the plane safely with a damaged wing, leaking fuel and no flight controls though they went off the runway. It was the first instance of a plane crippled by lost hydraulics managing to land safely at an airport without injury.

Other Incidents of Flight Control Failure

Many more incidents occurred over aviation history counting over a dozen. Wikipedia lists a comprehensive compilation of these types of incidents.

Throttle Only Control

All the pilots in the flights above learned that by controlling the throttles they could slightly control the plane with throttle commands alone. To climb, more power would be needed to increase the speed of the plane thus increasing lift. To descend, the opposite would be done dropping lift. Turning was done through asymmetric adjustment of the throttles while the engine with more power would cause the plane to lift from that side to turn in that direction.

However, despite the effectiveness of said technique, the flight paths tended to be erratic with constant pitching movements would cause a phugoid cycle. The plane would climb until it lost enough speed and pitch down and lose altitude. During the descent, the plane would gather up speed until it started climbing again. This rollercoaster ride made it hard to stabilize the aircraft and be the cause of quite the terrifying maneuvers.  

An amazing demonstration of a flight control-free landing in a simulator.

PSX Simulation

The developer of Aerowinx PSX, a Boeing 747 flight simulator, has created an excellent demo where they manage to control an aircraft with only throttle commands. As seen in the video on the side, we can see the first landing attempt to be aborted (go-around) only to return back for another approach and make a successful landing. While this is only a simulation, it shows that it is possible to control an aircraft without flight surfaces and only throttle control instead.

PCA Tests

Little did these pilots know, there was already software in development that would save the plane in cases like these. In 1993, NASA with the cooperation of McDonnell-Douglas, managed to create a system that would control and land the aircraft safely without any flight controls. It was dubbed Propulsion Controlled Aircraft (or PCA). The principle was similar to what the pilots in the mentioned incidents above attempted to do (by moving the throttles up and down) but done so systematically and automatically. However, since the system was run by software, it could be more precise and generate a more stable flight.

It was first implemented on an F-15 tested in the Dryden Facility and was demonstrated to safely land the plane that looked exactly like a normal landing. The increased stability was dramatic and the increase in control would be impossible to replicate by even the most skilled of pilots. They also tested the system on a passenger MD-11 aircraft with similar results. The MD-11 has its third tail engine set at idle to mimic the more common two-engine configuration found on most aircraft.

NASA’s demonstration of PCA

The system works through the autopilot with the pilots setting the heading, altitude and vertical speed that they desire and instead of manipulating the trim and flight controls, it would send the commands to the engines. No new sensors would need to be installed simply relying on the already existing ones.

PCA had an excellent success rate and landings were not only survivable but looked a lot like a normal landing. In fact, with PCA, I believe that none of the above accidents would have ever happened ending up being but a short NTSB report.

FAA Rejection

To me, the system seemed like a really trivial installation and with the software already developed, not very costly. However, the future of the technology was looking bleak. From Bill Burcham’s rough sketch to a prototype fully developed along with engineer Tom Wolf at NASA, lead to a system that seemed integral to future aircraft. However, that did not happen.

The FAA which oversaw the project concluded that it wasn’t financially worthwhile to implement such system. Their reasoning was that complete hydraulic loss was so rare, 1 in 100 million, that it wasn’t worth installing PCA onto the aircraft of the future. Enthusiasts of the technology such as Dave Hayes, from the Airline Pilots Association, and Dennis Fitch, one of the captains who survived the Sioux City crash, were thoroughly disappointed when this technology was thrown out.

Conclusion

No matter how rare that such incident apparently is, it’s happened so many times in aviation history. We can’t say it’s unlikely anymore. The 632 people who died from said failures certainly agree. Aviation is known to be the pinnacle of safety but recent times have shown that manufacturers have chosen a culture of profits and the consequences might cause even more incidents. Isn’t it enough that I mention the MCAS on the Boeing 737 MAX that resulted in the destruction of two aircraft and hundreds of deaths?

The above flights have been dramatized by the excellent Mayday documentary series: