Non-Military Aviation

[NTP66]

CLT is a beautiful airport, IMO.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Winter weather must be better for CLT too. Although the summer thunderstorms (and hurricanes) might nullify that.

[dodint]

Yeah. I have been stuck going either way from EWN-CLT more than once because of routine summer t-storms.

[NTP66]

Airline mechanics feel pressured to overlook potential safety problems: "Accident waiting to happen"

Airline mechanics say they feel pressured by management to look the other way when they see potential safety problems on airplanes, an eight-month-long CBS News investigation reveals. In some of the cases, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) agreed with those mechanics.

Just caught this on CBS Evening News. This is an area that scares me.

[tifosi77]

Air travel is an almost absurdly safe mode of mass transportation. And that breeds very bad habits.

[NTP66]

It could have a 100% safety record. I want any issue addressed at any cost, no exceptions.

[RonnieFranchise]

PIT-CLT-ALB today. Same amount of time and gets there an hour earlier than connecting theu PHL.

31 min layover, going from B1 to C17. Could be worse.

[Dickie Dunn]

No flight leaves CLT on time anymore so 31 minutes should be more than enough time.

[RonnieFranchise]

Made it

On the Piedmont Retro jet!

[Shyster]

Airline mechanics feel pressured to overlook potential safety problems: "Accident waiting to happen"

Improper or incomplete maintenance is certainly a significant issue, but I'm going to take this with a slight grain of salt. The linked article includes a statement from the aircraft mechanic's union that mentions that they're fighting with Southwest over Southwest having some maintenance checks done overseas. That immediately makes me suspicious as to whether this is coming out now (and perhaps being overblown) as a way to attack Southwest during hardball union negotiations.

Also, aircraft are checked on a regular schedule of successively more detailed checks depending upon the number of cycles or flight time. For example, an A check takes place about every six weeks to couple of months (depending upon usage) and involves stuff like filter changes, lubrication, and inspection of emergency equipment. It's usually done overnight. B checks are more detailed and include operational and functional checkouts, but nowadays the items included in those checks are usually incorporated into successive A checks. So at one A check they check the landing gear, the next the flaps, etc. rather than all at one. The "C" check is done every 2–3 years and includes everything in the A and B checks plus in-depth systems checks and inspections for corrosion other structural problems. Pretty much very door and panel is opened up and inspected. That takes a couple of weeks. Finally, the "D" check is basically the equivalent of a frame-off restoration for a car. The aircraft is pretty much taken apart, inspected, tested, and put back together. That's done around every 7–9 years or so, takes many weeks to months to do, and is very expensive. All of these checks are legally required in order to maintain the airworthiness certificate for an aircraft, so no checks = no flying.

If any one is interested, here's a BBC documentary covering a D check for a British Airways 747-400.

[NTP66]

The CBS news piece (video) focuses mostly on the American claims, and had nothing to do with where maintenance was being performed.

[Shyster]

The CBS news piece (video) focuses mostly on the American claims, and had nothing to do with where maintenance was being performed.

The news piece also says around the 5:40 mark that "Both Southwest and American and locked in tense union negotiations with mechanics over pay and benefits." I'm not saying that the points being raised by mechanics are without merit. But I don't think it's coincidental that the two airlines in the story just happen to be two airlines currently involved in union negotiations.

[Shyster]

Airbus will be releasing a financial and earnings report tomorrow, and a lot of rumors from major news sources are swirling that Airbus will use the release as an opportunity to announce the phase-out of the A380 program. There have been no new orders for A380s since 2015, and Emirates (which holds the vast majority of open orders) is supposedly pulling back and might halve (or more) its order backlog of 53 aircraft. In addition, last week Qantas formally terminated its options for eight additional A380s, and this week Qatar Airways announced that it would phase out its A380 fleet starting in 2024 and replace those aircraft with the 777X. Since Qatar first took delivery of A380s in 2014, that would mean only a 10-year (or less) tenure for those aircraft in the Qatar fleet.

And it's unlikely that anyone else would take them. Singapore Airlines leased some of its A380s through a 10-year lease instead of buying them outright. It returned two of those aircraft to the lessor last year, and after finding no buyers or lessees, the leasing company will be stripping them for parts and then scrapping the remainder. Considering there are still open orders for the cargo version of the 747, and cargo aircraft last a fairly long time, it very well might be the case that the 747 is still flying long after the A380 is gone.

[NTP66]

I swear I read the other week that Qatar was opting to go with the A350, so that’s big news if they’re truly going the 777 route.

[Shyster]

I swear I read the other week that Qatar was opting to go with the A350, so that’s big news if they’re truly going the 777 route.

I think you might be thinking of Etihad, which along with Qatar and Emirares is part of the "Middle East 3" of aviation. Etihad has been having some financial problems, and it has always the smallest/weakest of the ME3. Etihad has both the 777X and the A350 on order, and there are talks that it might be deferring or canceling the 777X order and just go with the A350s. I doubt the airline would ever go out of business, though, because just like Emirates it's basically owned by the Emirati government,

[NTP66]

This was definitely an article on Qatar, not Etihad. That said, it very well could have been a speculation article. I could try and dig it up, but at this point, I'm not sure it's worth it.

[NTP66]

I was wrong, I was thinking of Emirates, which did just that - cancelled their A380 orders and opted for A330s and A350s instead: https://www.airbus.com/newsroom/press-r ... rders.html

Airbus will cease deliveries of the A380 in 2021

I still hope to fly in one someday.

[Shyster]

Emirates has an outstanding Memorandum of Understanding for the purchase of 40 787-10s, but given the rejiggering of their A380 backlog into A330s and A350s, I doubt those 787s will be forthcoming. Still, considering Emirates has ordered 150 777X aircraft, and might order even more now that the A380 is going away, Boeing will still be doing plenty of business with that airline.

[tifosi77]

Welp, it's official. Airbus ending production of the A380. The final delivery will be in 2021.

[NTP66]

Two posts up, tiffy...

[tifosi77]

Derp, as you were.

[Willie Kool]

Jet stream pushes Dreamliner to over 800 mph over Pa last night.

A Virgin Atlantic flight from Los Angeles to London peaked at a whopping 801 mph Monday evening 35,000 feet over Pennsylvania. “[N]ever ever seen this kind of tailwind in my life as a commercial pilot,” tweeted Peter James, a jet captain.

It appears that’s a record for the Boeing 787-9 twin jet, which in the past has flown at speeds up to 776 mph. The ordinary cruising speed of a Dreamliner is 561 mph, with a maximum propulsion of 587 mph. Any speed gained on top of that is thanks to Mother Nature’s helpful boost.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/ ... ng-speeds/

[NTP66]

Read that earlier. It’s a bit misleading because that’s not the ground speed. That would have broken the sound barrier if so.

[willeyeam]

are there any safety issues with going that fast or is it just a sweet bonus to get there quicker?

[NTP66]

Safety issues at 800mph ground speed? Oh yeah. Planes aren’t meant to handle the stresses related to going that fast. They’d ease up on the throttle in that scenario, though, so it’s not something I’d be at all worried about.