General aviation/airplane news and chat

[T & P]

Largest airplane order in aviation history signed today at the Paris Airshow. Many other significant orders expected at the show. I guess the pandemic pains are over…

Airbus wins record 500-plane order from India's IndiGo

Europe's Airbus secured a historic deal on Monday involving the most jets ever bought by a single airline, with an order for 500 narrowbody jets from Indian budget carrier IndiGo on the opening day of the Paris Airshow.

www.reuters.com

 

[A380]

Inflatable wing microlight…

 

[Thesaint]

At the other end of the scale this counts as a microlight although looks like a full size plane

 

[T & P]

Question for our resident pilots: whereas it goes without saying that both the design of commercial airliners and operational procedure by airlines are heavily regulated about anything to do with safety, from pre-flight safety announcements to emergency floor lighting and the rest), what’s with the identical annoying ping sound being used by every single airline for a multitude of different tasks?

It actually feels not just unnecessary but potentially confusing to use the same alert sound for seatbelt activation/ deactivation as the passenger crew call button, or crew calls. What would prevent an airline from, for instance, pick a completely different alert sounds for the crew assistant buttons, or the emergency exit lights switch off immediately after rotating, or any of the other functions it gets used for?

 

[A380]

 

[A380]

Question for our resident pilots: whereas it goes without saying that both the design of commercial airliners and operational procedure by airlines are heavily regulated about anything to do with safety, from pre-flight safety announcements to emergency floor lighting and the rest), what’s with the identical annoying ping sound being used by every single airline for a multitude of different tasks?

It actually feels not just unnecessary but potentially confusing to use the same alert sound for seatbelt activation/ deactivation as the passenger crew call button, or crew calls. What would prevent an airline from, for instance, pick a completely different alert sounds for the crew assistant buttons, or the emergency exit lights switch off immediately after rotating, or any of the other functions it gets used for?

No idea, but I suspect there is some human factors issue at play about just wanting to call attention to the fact there is an alert rather than provoke a response itself.

In the cockpit of a modern commercial aircraft there is a whole host of different audio warnings and alerts, these are different tones and voice messages.

Mind you on the types I fly the audio cues are a kazoo like stall warner and the person sitting next to you saying ‘fuck’ with different intonations…

 

[spitfire]

View attachment 382079

Took me a minute.

The "Fuck that" manouvre.

 

[Thesaint]

Mind you on the types I fly the audio cues are a kazoo like stall warner and the person sitting next to you saying ‘fuck’ with different intonations…

What are you doing to them with this warning going off?

 

[DownwardDog]

Just flown RTS - JAD in the 172 and that's it, my last flight. I promised my wife I would stop when I was 55 and tomorrow is my 56th birthday.

38 years and the same number of landings as take offs, so I'll settle for that.

172S with STOL kit now for sale!

 

[T & P]

Just flown RTS - JAD in the 172 and that's it, my last flight. I promised my wife I would stop when I was 55 and tomorrow is my 56th birthday.

38 years and the same number of landings as take offs, so I'll settle for that.

172S with STOL kit now for sale!

Will you still do any leisure flying from time to time, or are you stopping altogether?

 

[DownwardDog]

Will you still do any leisure flying from time to time, or are you stopping altogether?

Nope, that's it. I've only really done leisure flying for years with a very small amount of air taxi work to make some aircraft expenses tax deductible. The last time somebody paid me full time to fly something was a 757PF in 2003.

 

[A380]

Just flown RTS - JAD in the 172 and that's it, my last flight. I promised my wife I would stop when I was 55 and tomorrow is my 56th birthday.

38 years and the same number of landings as take offs, so I'll settle for that.

172S with STOL kit now for sale!

Just going to stick to motorcycles then?

I’m not sure I could afford the shipping ( or ferry flight…though that would be an adventure )

 

[DownwardDog]

Just going to stick to motorcycles then?

I only ride off road now. I have had to adjust my risk appetite since becoming a father very late in life.

 

[T & P]

Apologies for the grim background story behind my question, but I am puzzled by something I’ve just read about what might have happened to MH370.

One of the leading lines of thought suggests the pilot did it, which is perfectly likely in itself. But it suggested he ensured control of the aircraft by locking the first officer out of the cockpit, then killing everyone else on board by depressurising the aircraft while he was wearing an oxygen mask.

Is it actually possible to depressurise an airplane by the flight crew? And if so, why would such feature be made available to the pilots to activate while at high altitude?

 

[Lancman]

It used to be made impossible by the presence of a Flight Engineer.

 

[Thesaint]

Is it actually possible to depressurise an airplane by the flight crew? And if so, why would such feature be made available to the pilots to activate while at high altitude?

I believe so - there was a Greek airliner which the crew hadn't noticed the pressurization was switched off in the cockpit and carried on upto cruise altitude before fainting, then running out of fuel.

 

[friedaweed]

The plane boss, the plane...

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

It used to be made impossible by the presence of a Flight Engineer.

Last flight I ever took that had a flight engineer was Concorde

 

[T & P]

Last flight I ever took that had a flight engineer was Concorde

Did Early 747 generations have one?

 

[Lancman]

Did Early 747 generations have one?

Yes.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Did Early 747 generations have one?

I think every 70’s aircraft had one, phased out in the 80’s.

 

[DownwardDog]

I think every 70’s aircraft had one, phased out in the 80’s.

The 737 was the breakthrough aircraft that normalised two person cockpits - after some bitter disputes with the unions. First flight 1967.

 

[DownwardDog]

I wonder how many "Flying Sideways" jobs are left. There must be a few on Tu-154/Tu-134/727.

 

[petee]

there 'tis, the first plane i ever flew in. (i mean, a similar one. or maybe this is the actual one. they had names.)
when we were descending at shannon there were guys baling hay between the runways.

e2a

Aer Lingus Gets Its First Boeing 707

The new Boeing 707 will allow Aer Lingus to carry more passengers on transatlantic routes.

www.rte.ie

 

[Thesaint]

there 'tis, the first plane i ever flew in. (i mean, a similar one. or maybe this is the actual one. they had names.)
when we were descending at shannon there were guys baling hay between the runways.

e2a

Aer Lingus Gets Its First Boeing 707

The new Boeing 707 will allow Aer Lingus to carry more passengers on transatlantic routes.

www.rte.ie

You can really see the B737s heritage almost unchanged. Never flew on a 707 but there one or two maybe, doing internal flights in Iran I think.

 

[T & P]

Did the 727 have a flight engineer? I’ve flown in a few of those as Iberia was still operating them in the 90s…

 

[Thesaint]

Did the 727 have a flight engineer? I’ve flown in a few of those as Iberia was still operating them in the 90s…

According to wikipedia it always did. Continental/united had some still flying mid 90s too.

 

[T & P]

According to wikipedia it always did. Continental/united had some still flying mid 90s too.

Ah, in that case I’ve flown at least once on a plane with a flight engineer

I also remember clearly boarding via its tail staircase, which I reckon is something most people under 40 have never done and never will, at least not on civilian aircraft.

 

[A380]

Not sure if this is pixels or not…

 

[Storm Fox]

Not sure if this is pixels or not…

View attachment 383271

It's real:



And scarier!!!