For the life of me I cant remember his callsign at the moment but it will come to me. I do remember his real name was Rich. He was 24 last time we played together lived up in the Northwest at the time. Having heard the audio it is exactly the same guy. Same sound, exact same personality.
Some of rogue pilot Richard Russell’s own statements to air-traffic controllers could provide clues to law-enforcement and aviation officials investigating how he managed to perform aerobatic maneuvers in a sophisticated, twin engine airliner over Puget Sound.
Mr. Russell, a Horizon Air employee who stole a 76-seat turboprop from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Friday night, didn’t have a pilot’s license, according to the airline. But during radio communication with air-traffic controllers who were urging him to land, Mr. Russell, 29 years old, repeatedly referred to his experience with computerized flight-simulator programs.
Mr. Russell called them “videogames.” Government and industry air-safety experts said Saturday that the references suggested he had access to personal desktop simulators—perhaps depicting the same Bombardier Q400 model he stole on Friday—that can realistically replicate the performance of aircraft systems, airborne maneuvers and even instructions from air-traffic controllers.
Such simulator software is widely available for purchase and can be run on normal home computers.
According to an unofficial audio recording of Mr. Russell’s radio communication with controllers on Friday, a controller talking on the open channel said that “he is just flying around” and that Mr. Russell could use some help controlling the aircraft. Mr. Russell quickly responded, “I don’t need that much help. I’ve played some videogames before.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/horizon-employee-conveyed-flying-knowledge-to-air-traffic-controllers-1534049609?mod=hp_lead_pos1
