Ask me about being an airline pilot or flying in general - Page 263 - Other Topics Forum - Discuss Pop Culture, Arts and Entertainment

Business is only abut half of all passengers. The rest of the seats need to be filled by people that are price sensitive. An unsold seat is gone forever.

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03-28-2015 , 10:22 PM

#6552

Achas

enthusiast

Join Date: Jun 2014 Posts: 67

Quote:

Originally Posted by W0X0F

You can't.

Surprised a reporter got it wrong?

No I'm not. It's just weird that this is being reported like EVERYWHERE. It's even on Wikipedia's description of the accident. You'd think someone who knows something would correct them by now...

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03-28-2015 , 10:41 PM

#6553

W0X0F

sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight

Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 5,829

Quote:

Originally Posted by Achas

It's being reported that "Transponder data showed the autopilot was reprogrammed by someone in the cockpit to change the plane's altitude from 38,000 feet to 100 feet, according to Flightradar24, a website that tracks aviation data."

How can you tell from the transponder what final altitude the autopilot is set to?

Quote:

Originally Posted by W0X0F

You can't.

Surprised a reporter got it wrong?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Achas

No I'm not. It's just weird that this is being reported like EVERYWHERE. It's even on Wikipedia's description of the accident. You'd think someone who knows something would correct them by now...

Well, I may have to eat a little crow here. A friend who reads this thread sent me a link which seems to confirm that a Mode S transponder can send the altitude selected on the MCP (Mode Control Panel). I had never heard of this, nor had any pilot I've talked to about it. This may be unique to the latest generation aircraft. I'm pretty sure the MD-88 doesn't have this feature.

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03-29-2015 , 07:40 PM

#6554

Yakmelk

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 14,109

Anything you can add to this clip ? I thought it was pretty incredible and had no idea this was controlled at first. Seems pretty risky.

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03-29-2015 , 10:20 PM

#6555

W0X0F

sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight

Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 5,829

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yakmelk

Anything you can add to this clip ? I thought it was pretty incredible and had no idea this was controlled at first. Seems pretty risky.

This looks crazy. The guy doing this maneuver so low to the ground is a bit of a cowboy. I Googled "cargolux crazy takeoff" and found a site with this description:

Quote:

On September 30th, 2014, the latest brand new Boeing 747-8 Cargolux Airlines' freighter (call sign# CLX789; Regn No# LX-VCJ) performed a crazy wings swing-bye during take-off on its delivery flight from Paine field airport. Mostly all big heavies that get delivered from PAE do the 'wing wave' as a thankful gesture during delivery flight to their destination airbase but, they do so only when they have climbed to almost 2500 ft or higher and attained a sufficient speed. The 'wing wave' is mostly done to say goodbye as the airplane will never see the home airport again (where it was made). But in this case, surprisingly, the Cargolux 747-8F performed it immediately after leaving the ground when it was too low and at slower speed which appeared to be quite dangerous and something very crazy/ unusual. This also shows the extreme maneuver capabilities of the newest version of the 'Queen of the skies'.

The big thing this guy had going for him is a huge power to weight ratio. Since this is a new plane delivery, it's going to be very light. With all that excess power, he can afford to get a little daring. Still, not recommended.

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03-29-2015 , 11:10 PM

#6556

WindigoBob

journeyman

Join Date: Nov 2011 Posts: 391

It occurs to me that if the copilot did, indeed punch in "100" it was more likely FL100, not 100ft.

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03-29-2015 , 11:19 PM

#6557

FeralCreature

veteran

Join Date: Jul 2012 Posts: 3,148

Quote:

Originally Posted by W0X0F

Who typically does these deliveries? Could it be a Boeing test pilot who is used to pushing planes to their limits or beyond?

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03-30-2015 , 04:31 AM

#6558

scroosko

adept

Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 1,176

Quote:

Originally Posted by W0X0F

This looks crazy. The guy doing this maneuver so low to the ground is a bit of a cowboy. I Googled "cargolux crazy takeoff" and found a site with this description:

The big thing this guy had going for him is a huge power to weight ratio. Since this is a new plane delivery, it's going to be very light. With all that excess power, he can afford to get a little daring. Still, not recommended.

why is it so light? there is no passengers/cargo, the interior has not fitted yet or are new planes are a lot lighter due to improved materials/more efficient construction?

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03-30-2015 , 07:17 PM

#6559

W0X0F

sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight

Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 5,829

Quote:

Originally Posted by WindigoBob

It occurs to me that if the copilot did, indeed punch in "100" it was more likely FL100, not 100ft.

I doubt it. You don't "punch in" the altitude; you spin a knob and the selected altitude changes. To get from 38000 to 100, he had to spin the altitude window through all the intervening altitudes. It would be virtually impossible to mistake 100 for 10000.

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03-30-2015 , 07:21 PM

#6560

W0X0F

sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight

Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 5,829

Quote:

Originally Posted by FeralCreature

Who typically does these deliveries? Could it be a Boeing test pilot who is used to pushing planes to their limits or beyond?

It could be a pilot employed by the manufacturer, or a pilot employed by the customer. Most likely the latter, imo. I picked up a couple of new CRJs when I was at ACA.

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03-30-2015 , 07:23 PM

#6561

W0X0F

sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight

Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 5,829

Quote:

Originally Posted by scroosko

why is it so light? there is no passengers/cargo, the interior has not fitted yet or are new planes are a lot lighter due to improved materials/more efficient construction?

You asked the question and then answered it. Without passengers or cargo, the plane will be way below its maximum certificated gross Wright.

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03-30-2015 , 07:57 PM

#6562

jjshabado

Carpal Tunnel

Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 22,732

Quote:

Originally Posted by W0X0F

It could be a pilot employed by the manufacturer, or a pilot employed by the customer. Most likely the latter, imo. I picked up a couple of new CRJs when I was at ACA.

Is that fun, or are planes maintained so well that a new plane flies the same as the rest of the fleet and its just another flight (assuming the flight is relatively modern I guess)?

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03-31-2015 , 12:10 AM

#6563

W0X0F

sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight

Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 5,829

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjshabado

Is that fun, or are planes maintained so well that a new plane flies the same as the rest of the fleet and its just another flight (assuming the flight is relatively modern I guess)?

The delivery flight is just another flight. The fun part is the acceptance flight, flown by a company representative along with one of the manufacturer's test pilots. I never got to do one of these, but had a friend who did several. They would put the plane through its places, doing things you'd never do with passengers on board (e.g., stalls, steep turns, slow flight).

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03-31-2015 , 02:11 AM

#6564

pig4bill

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 33,731

A friend of mine worked at Lear for many years. He wasn't a test pilot, he was the guy running the test instruments on those flights. He said there was very little competition for that job (most of the time he was an assembly foreman). Lears can get pretty sporty.

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03-31-2015 , 07:46 AM

#6565

W0X0F

sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight

Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 5,829

Quote:

Originally Posted by pig4bill

I hope he was paid a premium for that duty.

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03-31-2015 , 08:23 AM

#6566

jjshabado

Carpal Tunnel

Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 22,732

The acceptance tests do sound pretty intense (at least compared to a regular flight).

There's a mayday episode about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XL_Airw...ny_Flight_888T which goes over a bunch of the things they do. I guess it makes sense that you need to test the safety features of the plane but it also seems a little intense to keep bringing the plane to the point of needing those safety features.

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03-31-2015 , 04:56 PM

#6567

Berend

newbie

Join Date: Dec 2012 Posts: 17

Quote:

Originally Posted by W0X0F

Without passengers or cargo, the plane will be way below its maximum certificated gross Wright.

Such an appropriate typo

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03-31-2015 , 06:20 PM

#6568

W0X0F

sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight

Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 5,829

Quote:

Originally Posted by Berend

Such an appropriate typo

That's a funny one, and a result of using the Swype keyboard on my iPad. It does the same frustrating auto-corrections that you get when typing texts on your phone.

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04-01-2015 , 01:07 AM

#6569

pig4bill

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 33,731

Quote:

Originally Posted by W0X0F

I hope he was paid a premium for that duty.

A little bit. He liked it. He was a pretty tough guy and enjoyed the carnival ride and never got sick on a flight.

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04-03-2015 , 03:46 PM

#6570

N121PP

centurion

Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 165

This has to make for an extremely bad day for someone...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/tr...lane-FOAM.html

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04-04-2015 , 07:52 PM

#6571

richartm

stranger

Join Date: Sep 2013 Posts: 14

In case you don't already love Louis CK:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEY58fiSK8E

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04-04-2015 , 08:05 PM

#6572

W0X0F

sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight

Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 5,829

Already a fan.

Quote

04-05-2015 , 05:29 AM

#6573

FeralCreature

veteran

Join Date: Jul 2012 Posts: 3,148

Thought this was interesting, small article about how NASA is working on reducing fuel consumption in airliners by decreasing the size of the tail and a bug repellent coating, since apparently all those dead bugs that accumulate on planes affect the aerodynamics.

W0X0F, are there more unconventional things airlines do to reduce fuel consumption that we may not be aware of?

http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/4/834...-for-airplanes

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04-05-2015 , 10:46 AM

#6574

Coasterbrad

veteran

Join Date: Aug 2010 Posts: 2,712

I was having a conversation with somebody the other day about what a commercial plane would look like at cruising speed lower to the ground. Basically they were asking what we would see if a plane flew by at 500+mph 200 feet above the ground. Is there any good comparison or video that demonstrates this?

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04-05-2015 , 10:46 AM

#6575

Videopro

Making TV

Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 19,236

Quote:

Originally Posted by FeralCreature

Airlines that use minimal paint reduce the weight by several hundred pounds. The winglets added to many planes was to improve fuel efficiency.

http://www.airspacemag.com/flight-to...468375/?no-ist

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