Unusual Attitude

Elegant ditching of a Cessna 310 (although possibly in embarrassing circumstances)

2011-10-13T13:58:50Z

Courtesy of the fabulously efficient US Coast Guard comes this video of a Cessna 310 being ditched with great panache in the Pacific last week. I suppose everybody's been watching Sully videos these days, just in case. (Sully, however, had a robust excuse ready for the aircraft owner, whereas we are yet to hear the full story of this one.)

Here's the coastguard version of events.

If you like Tupolev Tu-134s and folk dancing you'll love this

2011-10-03T20:20:33Z

There can be few among us who, during the Cold War, did not dream of dancing with our friends in front of a Tupolev Tu-134. You had to be crusty not to. Fortunately, in Andrew Rogers we have a connoisseur of such things (and other more mainstream things) who carefully curates them for the rest of us.

I suppose the British equivalent would be Morris dancing in front of a Trident accompanied by the London Philharmonic.

Memorial flypast for First Air Boeing 737 at Yellowknife

2011-08-30T08:38:54Z

A remarkable memorial flypast was organised four days after the loss of the First Air Boeing 737-200 at Resolute Bay. Not wholly surprising in a part of the world that is truly aviation country, but a terrific job all the same. Best seen in full-screen HD with audio.

Pogosyan gets world's worst aerospace exec job

2011-02-03T09:38:07Z

No doubt somebody will point out a worse one, but it will have to be pretty grim to challenge the new role that it seems long-standing Sukhoi chief Mikhail Pogosyan has finally got - head of Russia's United Aircraft Corporation (UAC).
]]>
I interviewed Fedorov in Moscow soon after UAC had been put together from most of the other household names of Russian aerospace. He was very likeable but faced a ghastly prospect. On the one hand he had Putin breathing down his neck demanding that Russia start building large civil platforms again, and on the other he was forced to go ahead with a bunch of programmes that were basically the favoured projects of the assorted players who'd been pushed into UAC - most notably Demchenko's MS-21. Whether these were the right programmes, and more importantly whether UAC's most promising future lay in building complete aircraft at all, was never properly examined.

Meanwhile Pogosyan's Superjet was at least delivered as an actual aircraft, which got some attention in the West, and seemed to have prospects of selling. Now of course its future does not look very promising at all. But Pogosyan's fighter empire is unquestionably successful, by Russian historical standards anyway. So he's got the job, whether he likes it or not.

I guess he's stuck with MS-21 now. Good luck with that - a largely undifferentiated medium-sized airliner competing with Boeing, Airbus and China. Imagine if instead Russia decided to focus on becoming a world-class tier-one supplier to the rest of the world - roughly on the Japanese model.

But it's not too late to stop, and if Demchenko does go then that just might happen (though probably not.) Demchenko - a real bruiser, who I also interviewed - always favoured close links with EADS/Airbus. And EADS/Airbus has become a serious and sophisticated player in Russia. I wouldn't be surprised to see Pogosyan revisit that relationship, and/or to talk to Boeing a bit more. (I don't think China sees much point in collaborating with Russia these days.)

Embraer EMB-145 versus pelican photos

2010-08-25T08:29:03Z

The heroic, but ultimately futile, attempts by the avian community to fight back against powered intruders continue. In this terrible scene a single white bird, cautiously identified by somebody-or-other as a pelican, loses (just) a bill-to-radome skirmish with an Embraer EMB-145 of Expressjet / Continental Express at Salt Lake City.

More seriously, birdstrikes remain firmly in the "accident waiting to happen" category. We have been very lucky so far but all the evidence is that the threat is increasing.
]]> Or as the NTSB puts it:

On August 10, 2010, about 1340 mountain daylight time, an Embraer EMB-145XR, N14105, collided with a large bird while on a downwind for a visual approach to Salt Lake City International Airport, Salt Lake City, Utah. The two flight crew members, the two cabin crew members, and the 46 passengers were not injured, but the airplane, which was owned and operated by Express Jet, sustained substantial damage. The 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 121 scheduled passenger flight, which departed Houston-Bush Airport at 1154 central daylight time, was being operated in visual meteorological conditions. The airplane was on an Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) flight plan.

According to the operator, while the airplane was on a downwind for a visual approach, it flew through a flock of large birds. One of the birds impacted the airplane near its nose, resulting in a section of skin about three feet long being folded back. The airplane was then landed successfully at Salt Lake International Airport. An individual who made an initial examination of the bird remains stated that he believed that the bird was a White Pelican.

High definition movie of Citation landing looks terrific

2010-07-15T07:40:00Z

Courtesy of the always entertaining "Sully" Sulako comes this cockpit video of his colleague flying their Citation into New York Newark through lots of clag and rain. The neat thing about it is that it is in the high-definition format now supported on Youtube. Lots of flightsim stuff around, but this is the real thing. So, as he suggests, blow it up to full screen and select 720p and enjoy. It's a nice example of challenging but routine line flying in the corporate world.

Easyjet Airbus A319 loses windscreen to lightning strike

2010-07-08T21:45:29Z

It's been quite an evening - in a good way and a not so good way. The good stuff first: so I'm on my regular biweekly commute home from a storm-threatened Madrid to London Gatwick. We are actually lined up on the runway, and I notice that the windsock is lined up in exactly the opposite direction, which is nice, but looking as if it may be uprooted any moment which is not so nice. We sit for a good while and the captain announces that the wind is out of limit for take-off - which is pretty blowy.

]]>
Something obviously wrong, and sure enough the captain duly announces, in his finest soothing tones, that due to a technical problem we will be returning to Madrid - when we can, which is not so soon as the regular inbounds are stacking up due to the storm. He has my complete attention while I wonder what exactly Mother Nature has done to my aeroplane.

Anyway an hour after take-off we are back on the ground, the usual Spanish round of applause well-deserved on this occasion, and the captain announces that the problem was no less than a lightning strike on the windshield and he's happy enough for us to take a look as we file off. You can see the result here. Thought-provoking right?

So bravo to the crew, and indeed my fellow passengers who were admirably phlegmatic about it all.

Sadly then the bad stuff kicked in - which is the Easyjet operation at Madrid of which I am a long-standing victim. It really is difficult to convey the full awfulness of the Easyjet Madrid-Gatwick service. I have been delayed hour upon hour, and cancelled over and again. And every time I and my fellow pax have been treated insultingly dreadfully.

On this occasion there is as usual no information. However, as the gate is now physically surrounded by the entire paxload who have just left the aircraft, with their bags on it, Swissport can't just disappear as usual because then the airport management will get cross.

Time slips by and eventually they announce it's been cancelled and we will be leaving at 06:00 tomorrow. Could be worse I suppose, and so we all set off to collect our bags. That's the last we see of Swissport/Easyjet and all 130 or so of us then sit watching a moving, empty luggage belt for two and a half hours. Two and a half hours. Mums, babies, the lot, abandoned.

Two weeks ago the same thing happened. On that occasion people got very cross indeed so Easyjet just shut their office. And people got even crosser and so the police were called. In the end I gave up and flew on a rather nice Air Europa Embraer 170 the next day instead. I plan to do that in future if I can.

Because Easyjet has treated me so badly for so long I'm exercising my consumer right to fly Ryanair - who do the same route much better - or Air Europa. Now unfortunately Easyjet have the best slots, and also the company makes a lot of my bookings, so I can't quite so easily drop them - but I'll do my best.

I don't really approve of using these blogs to sound off about lousy personal experiences, after all everyone has them and they generally look less important the next day, but I've been building up to this for months. Easyjet just can't deliver - I'm sure they don't care about me, but now the feeling is mutual.

That BA Boeing 747 at Jo'burg - the report's out

2010-06-29T09:03:18Z

Some of you may remember an incident in May last year in which a British Airways Boeing 747-400 suffered an uncommanded slat-retraction on rotation at Johannesburg. I suggested that the aviating skills displayed by the crew were worthy of note.

Well, now the detailed South African CAA incident report is available and it confirms that it was every bit as hairy as it sounds and just how well the crew performed. A slightly complicated read, but worth the effort.

The earlier posts (which tell the tale rather more simply) are here and here.

Bits falling off Boeing 787, could happen to anybody

2010-05-17T21:09:03Z

Everyday tale of life in flight-test. I wonder who was first to notice?

IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: UNK        Make/Model: B-78      Description: B 787 DREAMLINER
  Date: 05/07/2010     Time: 2245

  Event Type: Incident   Highest Injury: None     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Minor

LOCATION
  City: SEATTLE   State: WA   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
  AIRCRAFT LOST TAIL SENSOR CONE UPON LANDING, BOEING FIELD, SEATTLE, WA

INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   0
                 # Crew:   2     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:    
                 # Pass:   0     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:    
                 # Grnd:         Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:    

WEATHER: UNKNOWN

OTHER DATA
  Activity: Other      Phase: Landing      Operation: OTHER


  FAA FSDO: SEATTLE, WA  (NM01)                   Entry date: 05/10/2010

And here´s a trailing cone that hasn´t fallen off. The idea of this work

was to work out what length of line would be stable. The pressure sensor

is the rigid bar highlighted towards the end of the movie - the cone

is just to keep the whole thing stable.

Trailing-Cone-Stability.wmv

And finally, since the whole fascinating question of trailing cones has

probably never been so thoroughly explored on a blog before, here´s a picture

by Matt Cawby of Seattle of a 787 trailing cone before flight.

View image

No, nothing wrong, but I'm declaring an emergency, everyone outtamyway...

2010-05-06T14:00:41Z

Opinions in the pilot community will doubtless be divided over the conduct of this American Airlines Boeing 767 captain who doesn't like the runway he's been given and doesn't care who knows it. To the point of unilaterally switching runways at JFK, declaring an emergency, and carrying on his own sweet way. Opinions in the ATC community may be less divided.

KJFK_EMERG.mp3

I'm assuming this was a nice clear day and he could see where he was going.

Recording courtesy of LiveATC.net

What do you call a rehearsal for an airshow?

2010-05-05T13:08:04Z

How about "an airshow"? Which makes you wonder how many people will turn up for the actual Victory Day parade in Moscow in four days time after getting rather more than a sneak preview of the aerial component yesterday. All the tank freaks I suppose.

Any male formation aerobatic team leaders out there anymore?

2010-05-05T11:45:32Z

Having set off down the road of chronicling the recent achievements of female pilots in the world's military aerobatic teams, I guess I'm now stuck with it. You'll recall how the Red Arrows and Patrouille de France both announced their first female pilots last year, and then the Patrouille confirmed the appointment of a female leader this year.

Well, now it turns out that Canada's Snowbirds have gone the same route. So congratulations to Lt Col Maryse Carmichael who is their new commander. (Just need some new aircraft now and all will be well.)

Canadian readers may point out that this was announced in January. OK, sort of. In a highly successful attempt to bury the good news, Canada's Department of National Defence announced the news thus: Canadian Forces Snowbirds to gain leadership depth. I guess it meant something to somebody.

Sank 'eaven fur leetle gurlz...

2010-04-22T14:09:56Z

...zey grurr urp in zee murst deelartful way...and once in a while they become leader of one of the world's premier jet aerobatic teams.

So chapeaux off to Commandant Virginie Guyot, first featured in this blog just about a year ago, and who is this year leading the Patrouille de France.
]]> Intriguing explanation from illustrious airshow commentator Sean Maffett here.

Anyway, she's now well and truly the boss...

...and gets to meet the President's wife, giving me the opportunity to run this picture...

...because after all I'm just a bloke, and you know what we're like.

When the volcano strikes low-cost fliers may be the winners

2010-04-18T20:21:20Z

My story of the volcano is just one of a gzillion of course - but educational for travellers. You can follow the saga of what happened to my wife and I on Facebook. In brief, we just failed to get out of Madrid on Thursday night as our flights (him on business on Easyjet, her on holiday on Ryanair - long story) were in the first wave of cancellations. What happened next was interesting.
]]>
Now, I had a rental car to return and ended up talking to a variety of leisure and business travellers. Educational. Those of us who'd been dumped by Ryanair and Easyjet could see our immediate futures passing before our eyes, with no support from corporate travel departments, and no big expense accounts to wave at other airlines. So pretty rapidly we were on the phone booking coaches, cars and trains.

The folks in suits were behaving very differently. Cheerfully boasting about their new tickets on Iberia and British Airways etc, booking posh hotels for the night, hassling company travel agents. Disaster - the worst thing that could happen to you on Thursday night was to get a ticket for Friday or Saturday. Within hours your situation was that a) your ticket was useless since nobody was flying anywhere and b) all the sharp Easy/Ryan crowd had booked everything else.

My 33 hour trip home, (57 hours if you include the enforced 24 hours in Madrid before even starting off) was not great fun. But I rather suspect that as I write this on Sunday night, some of the suits are still somewhere in Europe.

This is not just a theory, here's some evidence in The Observer today.

Update: and someone who was in the same position as me and has just got home.

TAM 3054 at Congonhas - literally an accident waiting to happen

2010-04-08T08:41:22Z

Naturally enough the report on the Airbus A320 fatal loss at Sao Paulo Congonhas in 2007 has sparked all kinds of debate about the design and human factor issues regarding thrust-reversers, spoilers, and warning systems. Natural - but overlooking the devastating critique of the Brazilian regulatory system and of TAM's operational management that the report contains.

I spend quite a bit of time trying to explain to the general media why the global safety record exhibits the well-documented two-speed phenomenon, with the developed world reaching previously unimaginable levels of safety and the rest still plagued by numerous ~~unavoidable~~ avoidable disasters.

For anyone who wants to understand the difference between the two environments, the TAM 3054 report is perfect reading material. Not the technical discussion - important though it undoubtedly is - but pages 47-55, summed up on p72, and then 87-90. It's a horrible chronicle of safety being at first slowly, and then rapidly crushed under the twin burdens of commercial pressure and indolent regulation. Finally the accident that has been waiting to happen in those circumstances does happen.

The point is that the situation described there in shocking detail (by Brazilian investigators) could more or less be summarised as an absence of all the safety-management techniques that together have made the developed world record the extraordinary achievement that it is.