From a retired USAF Col now flying 777s: Just a quick update with
what I know about the Malaysia 777 disappearance. The Boeing 777 is
the airplane that I fly. It is a great, safe airplane to fly. It
has, for the most part, triple redundancy in most of its systems, so
if one complete system breaks (not just parts of a system), there
are usually 2 more to carry the load. It’s also designed to be easy
to employ so 3rd world pilots can successfully fly it. Sometimes,
even that doesn’t work…as the Asiana guys in San Fran showed us. A
perfectly good airplane on a beautiful, sunny day…and they were able
to crash it. It took some doing, but they were able to defeat a
bunch of safety systems and get it to where the airplane would not
help them and the pilots were too stupid/scared/unskilled/tired to
save themselves
There’s many ways to fly the 777 and there are safety layers and
redundancies built into the airplane. It is tough to screw up and
the airplane will alert you in many ways (noises, alarms, bells and
whistles, plus feed back thru the control yoke and rudder pedals and
throttles. In some cases the airplane’s throttles ‘come alive’ if
you are going to slow for a sustained period of time) All designed
to help. But, it’s also non-intrusive. If you fly the airplane in
the parameters it was designed for, you will never know these other
things exist. The computers actually ‘help’ you and the designers
made it for the way pilots think and react. Very Nice.
Now to Malaysia . There are so many communication systems on the
airplane. 3 VHF radios. 2 SatCom systems. 2 HF radio systems. Plus
Transpoders and active, ‘real time’ monitoring through CPDLC
(Controller to Pilot Data Link Clearance) and ADS B(Air Data
Service) through the SatCom systems and ACARS (Aircraft
Communications Addressing and Reporting System) thru the VHF, HF and
SatCom systems. The air traffic controllers can tell where we are,
speed, altitude, etc as well as what our computers and flight
guidance system has set into our control panels. Big Brother for
sure! However, most of these things can be turned off.
But, there are a few systems that can’t be turned off and one, as
reported by the WSJ, is the engine monitoring systems (not sure what
the acronym for that is, but I’m sure there is one….it’s
aviation…there has to be an acronym!). The Malaysia airplane, like
our 777-200s, use Rolls Royce Trent Engines (as a piece of
trivia….Rolls Royce names their motors after rivers….because they
always keep on running!) Rolls Royce leases these motors to us and
they monitor them all the time they are running. In fact, a few
years back, one of our 777s developed a slow oil leak due to partial
equipment failure. It wasn’t bad enough to set off the airplane’s
alerting system, but RR was looking at it on their computers. They
are in England, they contact our dispatch in Texas. Dispatch sends
a message to the crew via SatCom in the North Pacific, telling them
that RR wants them to closely monitor oil pressure and temp on the
left engine. Also, during the descent, don’t retard the throttle to
idle…keep it at or above a certain rpm. Additionally, they wanted
the crew to turn on the engine ‘anti ice’ system as that heats some
of the engine components.
The crew did all of that and landed uneventfully, but after landing
and during the taxi in, the left engine shut itself down using it’s
redundant, computerized operating system that has a logic tree that
will not allow it to be shut down if the airplane is in the air…only
on the ground. Pretty good tech.Anyway, the point was, that RR
monitors those engines 100% of the time they are operating. The WSJ
reported that RR indicated the engines on the Malaysia 777 were
running normally for 4 to 5 hours after the reported disappearance.
Malaysia denies this. We shall see.
Parting shot. If you travel by air, avoid the 3rd world airlines.
Their operators and maintenance are substandard. Substandard when
traveling by Bus or Boat isn’t so bad when the engines quit. You
just stop on the water or by the side of the road. Not so in
airplanes. My piece of advice….if traveling by air use 1st world
airlines. So, that leaves USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, most
of Europe, Japan and just a few others. Avoid the rest….just my
opinion. If you get a real deal on air fare from ‘Air Jabooti’…skip
it. Oh, there are a lot of the ‘developing’ countries that use
expatriate pilots from the 1st world. Emirates and Air Jordan come
to mind and are very safe. As is Cathay Pacific. Air Pakistan and
Egypt Air…not so much. Do the research or just drop me a note. I’ll
give you my opinion.
And don't EVER get in an Airbus!!
That is all!
[ signed ]
A retired Boeing 767 captain friend agrees with him regarding
Airbuses - DWM.
Thanks for the very interesting info. As living in an EU country,
and many governments here invested in Airbus, I can't be free of
bias, but: May I ask you about the reasons for your dislike or
negative feedback about Airbus?
Besides two relatives working in Airbus related companies, another
one working as an Aeronautical Engineer for Iberia, another relative
that was formerly the president of SEPLA, the airline pilot's union,
and a not much close relative working as airline pilot, and myself
having done my mandatory army service in the Spanish Air Force as
Physician, I have no direct connection to the aviation industry.
Thanks for your kind attention, have a nice weekend, best regards.
Salut † Jose Gros-Aymerich Madrid, Spain
By the way: does anybody have an explanation or info about the
reasons why the German Air Force didn't get rid of the F-104 fighters
bought with the help of a bribery, until more than 250 pilots were
killed flying it?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The government "investment" is probably the problem. It is not the
business of government to "invest" in anything. They can't govern or
operate a medical service efficiently let alone run a manufacturing
business. The exorbitant tax rate in Europe proves this.
Private companies invest to make money. If they make a bad product
they go out of business. With all due respect for a doctor you sure
don't know much about economics. I recommend reading this book.
"Economics in One Lesson"
The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics. by Henry
Hazlitt
<
http://www.amazon.com/Henry-Hazlitt/e/B000AP5TAQ/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
Over a million copies have been sold.
Maybe the German pilots were incompetent or poorly trained. The F104
did not kill 250 American pilots.
Who had super sonic fighter planes other than America at the time?
Nobody but the Russians.
Germany needed to defend themselves from the communist Russians.
BTW Vladimir Putin is a communist. The communist realistically
believe that communism won't work as long as people have an
alternative so therefor they must control the world with guns. If you
let the government take your guns you deserve what you are going to
get.
The Ukraine is learning that lesson now. Those that fail to learn
from history are doomed to repeat it.
Our current stupid president understands none of this.
Paul Lamar
I remember the delamination of flying surfaces discussion in this forum,
years ago, related to American Airlines Flight 587
<
http://www.airfleets.net/crash/crash_report_American%20Airlines_N14053.htm.
Numbers can be confusing but important to know that B-737's (which had
their share of accidents) have been flying since 1970, when NO AirBus
was on the air until 1982 (use it for a longer time, more mishaps
accrue). OTOH next gen. 737's seem to have had a brilliant record since
2005.
Can anybody give some info about hours of flight vs. # of mishaps? I
couldn't find that.
In the mean time, I fly Boeing, period (and NOT the O'Bozo's periods).
Alfonso Lebron
"Maybe the German pilots were incompetent or poorly trained."
The predominant part of the German air force training takes place
together with the American pilot training in the USA, Sheppard AFB.
So if they were incompetent, maybe they learned a lot of it from
American pilots :)
There were 116 pilots killed by crashes of German air force F-104. 106
of them were German, 8 were Americans.
A Number of the deaths happened because of the insufficient American
catapult seat, which caused in low speed ejections to a fatal
pilot-seat-detachment, so the pilots were slain by the seats.
After switching to the British martin-baker seats, there were
significant less deadly crashes of the 104.
Not sure why there were so many crashes at all. There are some opinions,
the reason why were the modification done to make the German F-104
version a all-weather fighter bomber. A job the F 104 was not designed
for. The F 104 was primary designed as a interceptor.
For sure a weak point was the single engine system of the 104, which
leads in case of an engine failure to a total loss of the jet. As far as
i can remember, since the F-104 there are no more single engine jets in
the air force.
Don't know nothing about the difference between Airbus and Boeing. But
according to your economic understanding the airbus can't be
soooooooooooooooooo bad, otherwise it wouldn't be successful.
Best regards
Thomas Rebhan
Is it really? The European airlines are naturally obligated to buy
airliners made in Europe.
United bought some airbuses but they are not well liked by the mechanics
or the passengers. I get the impression they have 7/8th scale interiors :)
Airbus was/may still be subsidized by the tax payer in Europe. What do
you suppose they spend the
5 dollars a gallon car fuel taxes and 50% income tax on? As far as I can
tell the A380 has not made money as too few have been sold.
"EADS confirmed it faced the possibility of cutting production of the
double-decker A380 unless it could find buyers for a "handful" of unsold
production slots in 2015 -- raising the possibility that a target for
reaching break-even on the plane might also slip."
Paul Lamar
Lockheed F104 first flight 4th of march 1954, introduced in 1958 ;
Dassault Mirage 3 (France) first flight 12th of june 1956, introduced in
1961; English Electric Lightning (UK) first flight 4th of april 1957
introduced in 1960.
You are right, American and Russian supersonic fighters were first, but
the Europeans were not introduced so long after...
Philippe DEJEAN
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