Recently a commercial large jet was cleared for an ILS approach to Runway 28 at Chicago O’Hare airport. While inbound to intercept the Glide slope, the cockpit indications were initially full up. Abruptly the display changed from full up to full down position and the aircraft pitched down and descended to stay on the glide slope. The pilot reacted to disconnect the autopilot, but not before the aircraft had descended a 100 ft. The display restored to full up deflection soon thereafter. This anomaly was ...
Aircraft overruns during landing and take-off are a frequent occurrence and statistically are the fourth largest cause of airline fatalities. . An overrun occurs when an aircraft passes beyond the end of a runway during an aborted take-off or while landing. To minimize the hazards of overruns, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) incorporated the concept of a safety area beyond the runway end into airport design standards. However, there are many runways, where natural obstacles, local development a...
Airbus has always been at the forefront of pushing technical boundaries in aviation and excelling in aircraft design and technology. Airbus says efforts to lower the weight of the world's largest airliner lay behind recentA380wing cracks and pledged to learn from mistakes that lay dormant for a decade, as repair costs looked set to climb towards 500 million euros ($A642 million). Airbus reported the cracks in January, leading to checks on the worldwide fleet of A380s, which authorities say are safe to f...
In life, one makes decisions of various kinds, some routinely, and some after deliberate considerations. In aviation too, decision making is an essential pilot skill. While pre-flight situations are static in nature and under time pressure, inflight scenarios are constantly evolving and are dynamic in nature that needs immediate decisions and constant review. The basic skill sets that a pilot need to fly the airplane safely can be categorised as : · The psychomotor skill or the stick and rudder skill to...
Anew flight data delivery solution for airlines developed jointly by teams at Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen and Boeing Information Services slashes the time required to deliver and load vital flight data to an airplane. Application Data Enhanced Loading (ADEL) is a solution that reduces overall workload, network bandwidth requirements and costs associated with airline data operations. ADEL supports Boeing and Jeppesen Electronic Flight Bags. "In a challenging business environment where airlines are lookin...
Wikipedia Agrowing sense of alarm over the rising incidents of mid-air collisions and near misses, brought about the introduction of TCAS and today the sky is far safer to fly in. However, this also brought about an unwelcome and recurrent side effect that of nuisance or operationally undesired RA commands. An operationally undesired RA is one that is triggered during 1000 ft level off manoeuvres, while the crew is operating within clearances granted. This normally occurs when the vertical closure rat...
Virgin group has always been at the forefront when it comes to emissions and pushing the boundaries to find solutions to contain emissions and be environment friendly.In a first for an Australian airline, Virgin Australia has launched a trial of environmentally-friendly biodiesel in its ground service equipment, according to press release by the airline. The initial trial involves using a biodiesel blend derived from locally sourced tallow and used cooking oil (split 20:80 conventional petrodiesel) in ...
According to Airbus press release today,Airbus, ST Aerospace and EADS EFW have finalised the agreement to establish the collaboration for the launch of the A330 Passenger-to-Freighter (P2F) conversion programme. This follows the MoU announced at the Singapore Airshow in February this year setting out the project’s foundation and granting ‘Authorisation To Offer’ for the A330P2F. ST Aerospace lead the A330P2F engineering development work in collaboration with Airbus and EADS EFW, while EADS EFW will lead...
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has directed its investigators and staff to pursue stiffer penalties for individuals who purposefully point laser devices at aircraft.This comes against the backdrop of increased laser pointing incidents. “Shining a laser at an airplane is not a laughing matter. It’s dangerous for both pilots and passengers, and we will not tolerate it,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “We will pursue the toughest penalties against anyone caught putting the safety of ...
On the backdrop of few posts here on winglets and shark lets and effect on fuel saving and performance optimization,interesting bit of information from Seattle times article by Dominic Gates onBoeing considering to tweak the design of its coming 737 MAX, the update to its workhorse single-aisle jet due in 2017, and has decided to increase the crucial engine-fan diameter from 68 to 69 inches. Boeing spokeswoman Lauren Penning said the change stemmed from wind-tunnel testing that was completed last week ...
