Posted on 12/30/2014 8:29:59 PM PST by barmag25
You can almost always tell the difference from Airbus and Boeing by the winglets. Except now the new a320’s have copied the 737 winglets.
Yes, but I think he was asking ‘how to tell ahead of time.’ Once you get there and look out the window, you can usually tell, or if you can’t you can ask the gate attendant.
UAL 585?
UAL 585? They did eventually figure that one out.
Sorry, that one was intended for another poster.
I have never seen one on a ticket but it is always posted on the reservation.
“Question: When you book a flight, how do you know what aircraft you will be flying?”
Subscribe to the OAG (Official Airline Guide). It lists all flights and the type of equipment being used. Also, you can rule out some airlines who only operate Airbus (like Jet Blue, and conversely rule in Southwest which flies only the Boeing 737). And when you fly internationally, you are better off with an American Flag carrier, since most of the European carriers fly mostly Airbus stuff because their countries subsidize Airbus. Thankfully, the British are out of the commercial aircraft business. They’ve mad a bunch of crap in the past (i.e. Comet, and Trident) both of which had a tendency to crash. Then there’s the stuff that Russia passes off as safe, but their stuff is legacy too.
The gas bottle found is definitely the slide inflator and not an oxygen tank.
Lockerbie was a totally different category. As were MH17 and MH370 (as far as we know). Foul play in all three cases (probably in the second degree, in the case of MH17).
Chances are pretty good it is the AOA sensor failure Airbus pushed an emergency airworthiness directive out about earlier this month - basically, unless you realize something has gone wrong and you not only switch the craft out of autopilot but into full manual control, the aircraft goes nose down and holds it even if you pull the stick all the way back. Read that again - unless you realize what is happening and that the artificial horizon on the panel and the computer are both wrong, and that you not only have to switch out of autopilot but switch into full manual flight (two separate tasks on an Airbus) the plane will cheerfully auger in even if you are telling it nose up, climb.
Eurotwits can be deadly!
“To be fair, Airbus does allow the pilot to kick the computers out of nanny mode and allow it to fly ‘manually’ - but it’s a separate step and the pilot must realize that he needs to take that step apart from switching off the autopilot.”
From what I have read, Airbus clearly thinks that their flight computer should be the primary controller of flight. Boeing, on the other hand still believes that the Pilot in Command is a human being. All Airbus aircraft are fully fly by wire. The video game controller that they use, has no mechanical connection to any of the control surfaces. I believe the Boeing still has that linkage, or it did until recently. The other thing that concerns me is the ability of today’s pilots. I have a friend who trained ( until he was fired) pilots for both Korean Air and Asiana. They are turning out “go to the freezer and get the box” pilots who are almost unable to operate an aircraft utilizing basic instruments and procedures. So when the SHTF, they are lost, which was the case with Asiana at SFO. The ILS was not working and the crew just didn’t have the skills to hand fly the aircraft. If you are interested, go look at the altitude profile of that flight during the approach. There was simply no time in the approach where the plane was on a stable glide path with their airspeed under control.
Air Asia 8501. When will we learn?
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2014/12/air_asia_8501_when_will_we_learn.html
That's only half the equation. You have to look at the cockpit crew for the other half.
Strange thing is they make such bloody good cameras.
Yes. Pete worked at the Olympic Training Center with me.
Yeah, it took them most of a decade but they did eventually figure out what happened. The multiyear investigation was documented/dramatized here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVBjXC65axA
It actually took someone running into the same problem and surviving it to bring the plane back before they could figure it out. Unfortunately, another 737 went down in the interim.
Per Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USAir_Flight_427:
“The exact mechanism of the failure involved the servo valve, which remains dormant and cold for much of the flight at high altitude, seizing after being injected with hot hydraulic fluid that has been in continuous action throughout the plane. This specific condition occurred in fewer than 1% of the lab tests, but perfectly explained all of the successive rudder malfunctions that caused the Flight 427 to crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that similar rudder problems had caused the previously mysterious March 3, 1991 crash of United Airlines Flight 585 and the June 9, 1996 incident involving Eastwind Airlines Flight 517, both Boeing 737s. As a result of the investigation, pilots were warned of and trained how to deal with insufficient aileron authority at an airspeed at or less than 190 knots (352 km/h), formerly the usual approach speed for a Boeing 737. Four additional channels of information — pilot rudder pedal commands — were incorporated into flight data recorders, while Boeing redesigned the rudder system on 737s and retrofitted existing craft until the affected systems could be replaced.”
Same for the DC-9 32, that nosed into three feet of Everglades water. Little was found, so a memorial display was placed at the crater.
http://0.static.wix.com/media/055c72982d866f44eb8df179c3ff8174.wix_mp_512
“24 meters deep...”
For those in Rio Linda that’s about 78 feet.
“I don’t have a lot of confidence in Asian pilots
See: Asian drivers”
See: Kung Fu Driving!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcsZxUDWCXg
“I was always told to use a seat cushion.”
For what application?
How many ways can you use a seat cushion?
In the AF447 accident the pilot in the right seat kept pulling back on the side stick, an action unknown to the other two pilots. Unlike a yoke the side stick allows unseen inputs, a design ‘feature’ Boeing aircraft lack.
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