Pilots

[molemot 521]

I've just watched the 787 video again. Wow. You couldn't design THAT with a pencil, a piece of paper and a slide rule, could you? That design has to owe a heck of a lot to the microelectronics I spoke about. Boy, don't those composite mainspars flex??!

The wing shape is so slender and delicate, you wonder where it gets all its lift from....and the control surfaces seem to be moving counter intuitively, too, bits of wing moving in all directions. A very spritely performance....as John said, not likely to cheer up the passengers.....

 

Thinking about airliners, we seem to have arrived - by an evolutionary process - at something that suits our planet. You can get anywhere on Earth inside a day, pretty much...if the schedules let you....so there's no real need to go any faster. Two reliable engines are all you need, these days.... technologically speaking, supersonic is fascinating and euphoric, but it isn't necessary.  Efficiency and range and enough speed is what is required...and beasts like this 787 provide it. The days of the 50s and 60s with loads of different airliner designs are gone; we've found the best sort of platform and have nearly refined it to perfection. We should end up with a Standard Airliner Design.....in various sizes for long and short distances, large and small passenger complements. The skies have got boring....but these aeroplanes provide efficient comfortable transport.

 

I doubt we shall see a supersonic Concorde style transport again; if we do make something really fast, I think it will be a sub-orbital craft.....London to Sydney in an hour or so....

[auRouge 438]

I still think it sad that 45 years on we still cannot approach the speed of Concorde.

Approaching the speed isn't the problem, fuel and sonic boom noise across the ground is now the problem in our Health & Safety conscious and sign for common sense world!! :-(

[USAndretti42 308]

Mind you, the sonic boom was always used as an argument to slow it down over American airspace. I've heard the sonic boom from the space shuttle although I had to have my car windows open to hear it. I don't think it would have been a problem if Boeing had got their SST in production.

[auRouge 438]

Agreed. The boom I remember as a child was pretty intense but in a good way :-)

Everyone would look up and smile..

[Iconic Ride 267]

Ditto. 

 

That said, the training routes we used for supersonic flights during Air Force flight school (limited to only a couple of events, primarily to "fill the square") were on narrowly designated corridors, as the Arizona mink farmers claimed that the boom inhibited the mating habits of their breeding stock.  

[molemot 521]

The RAF went out to sea for supersonics.....a bit less easy from Arizona where you'd have about 400 miles to feet wet...! Used to get sonic bangs at air shows in the 50s...Hunter and Swift at Farnborough...they would go supersonic in a dive and "aim" the bang at the venue. Last time I experienced that was in the 1980s at Hawker's private airshow at Dunsfold, when they launched the single seat Hawk 200.....it took off and disappeared, and a while later we had a nice double BANG!....nobody said anything on the public address system, but it was obvious what had happened!

 

There was a plan to use Concorde on the Australia run....supersonic down the Altantic and air-to-air refuelling off South Africa, before cracking on across the southern ocean......the mind boggles.

[auRouge 438]

The fastest I've ever been :-D

605 kts = 696.221566 miles per hour GS (Ground Speed)

Shame the plane wasn't going through the air that fast otherwise I'd have screaming "Jesters Dead" booming my way back from Malaga :-D

[Bibs 11,167]

Were you a quarter of the way through a barrel roll?

[auRouge 438]

Ha ha!

I'm not Denzel Washington :-D

[Iconic Ride 267]

Looks like you were able to milk a 157 knot component out of a 165k tailwind from the north. Where the heck did you find a jetstream core that strong from that direction? Awesome!

[auRouge 438]

10 years of airline flying and can confirm v rare in Western Europe.. No idea where or when! Southbound to Canaries from the UK probably...

We normally only see a max of about 110kts - 130kts Jet-streams ... Occasionally three black diamonds on the SigMet but 160Kts... Never!

I do remember it was smooth as a whistle and the Captain refusing my request to go 0.80 Mach to get over 700mph!! Boooooo :-D

Next time I won't miss the opportunity, I'll even get them to turn exactly the reciprocal :-D

[auRouge 438]

Best I could do today... Only 600mph :-(

Pathetic... Relic of a B737 in my way... Must try harder! :-D

[Bibs 11,167]

Couldn't you have indicated and overtaken?

[Iconic Ride 267]

My guess is that things could get a bit "frisky" flying the ILS to 25R at 600mph. Was that a tower assigned speed?   

[redshift 32]

 Was that a tower assigned speed?   

 

I'm sure if you got anywhere near Heathrow tower at 448 KTAS the response would be "negative Ghostrider, the pattern is full".....

[Bibs 11,167]

 

[Iconic Ride 267]

"Talk to me, Goose. Was that a mocha frappe or straight black?"  

[auRouge 438]

Couldn't you have indicated and overtaken?

I'm sure if you got anywhere near Heathrow tower at 448 KTAS the response would be "negative Ghostrider, the pattern is full".....

"Talk to me, Goose. Was that a mocha frappe or straight black?"  

Ha ha ha!! :-D

[Bibs 11,167]

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2708365/BA-pilot-killed-toxic-fumes-flightdeck-constantly-exposed-fuel-leaks-board-passenger-jets.html

 

Any truth to that? Are all planes leaking fuel all the time?

[Iconic Ride 267]

Other than the SR71 Blackbird, which leaked like a sieve on the ramp (due to tank expansion/contraction caused by extreme temperature changes resulting from speed and altitude cycles not normally encountered by commericial aircraft), nope. If this issue had any true merit it would have surfaced long ago. 

 

There will always be people who have increased sensitivity to anything remotely noxious, even in dilute quantities. For the average passenger (or crewmember) cabin atmospherics are not a problem, barring any actual malfunction of one of the aircraft systems. Fumes can and do happen, but such events are fairly rare...and certainly not a "long term" health issue associated with the piloting profession.

 

Piloting jets for over three decades hasn't bothered me a bit...a bit...a bit...a bit..........

[molemot 521]

They used to put buckets underneath the wings of Lightnings to catch the fuel leaking out.....(!)

[auRouge 438]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2708365/BA-pilot-killed-toxic-fumes-flightdeck-constantly-exposed-fuel-leaks-board-passenger-jets.html

Any truth to that? Are all planes leaking fuel all the time?

Not to the best of my knowledge. I sign a technical log every flight... We check and sign for the oil and fuel quantities against the previous flight and uplift to the nearest Kg or Litre to specifically look for leaks or excessive burn. They should tally up or you raise a defect and research it further before going flying.

Here's a view from 36,000ft today of Nice flying back to the UK from Rome ;-)

[Iconic Ride 267]

Nice (literally). My Chuck Yeager eagle eyes detect (with the aid of a bit of ground glass) the Cap d Antibes jutting out into the Mediterranean in the center of the shot, with the Nice airpatch just below it (where the M6202 t-bones into it from the north), followed by Nice proper and the Promenade des Anglais (who says the Empire is dead?) running along its shoreline. Can just make out Cap-Ferrat in the lower left corner. Many fond memories, from a time when the corrective lenses were but a destiny yet to come.

 

You're a lucky man, auRouge. May your fuel figures always remain nominal.  

[Sparky 2,834]

Concorde was the same, but to a lesser degree.  G-BOAE was nicknamed The Serial Leaker due to frequent incontinence.

 

There are lots of frequent flyers and cabin crew who spend more time in the air than airline pilots, and I can't think of any other claim like this.

 

I think you'll find John's symptoms can be put down to years of cheeseboard abuse.

[auRouge 438]

Iconic,

I never forget it.. love everyday :-)

Your obviously a fan of the Côte d’Azur. Relatively straight forward as long as you keep east of the Cap for 04L! When the weather turns it can be tricky! Also a huge fine (think it's about €5000!) if you clip the Cap (fly over it)! Must set up a GoPro next time I fly it..

It's my favorite summer approach :-)

Recognise this a bit further East :-D