Originally Posted by
CW247
Just some random observations by someone who has flown the 787 as a pax and for a short while as a pilot.
- Toilet seat lids falling down mid-peeing session. This is a consistent problem across airlines and independent of turbulence.
- Humidity improvement? Really? Flown as a pax in equal measure on A330s, A340s, 777s. I didnt notice any difference.
- IFE screens that don't tilt. Virgin and Norwegian have the same problem. Are there any that do tilt? Pax in front tilts seat. Tough luck with the viewing angle
- Noise. They are noisier than a 4 engined 20 year old A340 as a pax (seated right over the wing) which is a shame because on the outside they whisper comparitively speaking. Conclusion therefore is that cabin noise damping is lower standard
- Cup holders on the flight deck. Rediculously short in height, in moderate chops of 5 minutes half the tea/coffee has fallen out.
- Turbulence in general. The flaperons move for sure but whether or not this helps turbulence is a highly suspect claim IMO
- Yoke clip springs. Impossible to put a note of paper using the clips provided. So weak and ineffectual. Who provided such rubbish to them?
- Scratches on the internal and external surfaces of the windshield! When a surface scratches this easily you know it's a pretty cheap material. Unbelievable this. We have 6 month old aircraft with so many scratches caused by the wipers (on the outside) and a combination of things (including the mind boggingly stupid idea of using a hard metal wire frame based sun shade) on the inside. I have flown 25 year old A320 on their original scratch free windshields.
- VNAV mode (especially on descent) The system just doesn't know how slippery the aircraft is and provides some woeful descent profile calculations. To think this got past testing defies belief.
All in all, some wonderful ideas but poorly executed and lots of evidence of cost cutting wherever you look. Boeing have failed on getting the basics right.
Absolutely agree with every point. Especially the VNAV. What an absolute joke. I'm completely certain they slapped the B777 software in and called it done. Very dicey when starting descent from above FL40, will quite happily take you into excessive rates right into Mmo. You can compensate with lower speeds or earlier descent. So why exactly is it even there? Then the speedbrake message comes out, because apparently after multiple years in service it's just too hard to tweak the software to operate correctly to account for the need for drag. It's to the point where I just fly it in manual modes with the calculated path as a rough guide. No problem, but again, how is this proffered by Boeing engineers in 2019 with a straight face? But then when you ask most line engineers what some fault means, they just shrug. They have no idea either. Do a reset, sign the tech log, kick it out the door. "Solved".
I would also add to your list the cursor-driven FMC. Slower and more fiddly than what it replaces yet considered progress. And plasticky, cheap-feeling finish to...everything. Cockpit sunshades same as they give away as promotions at Tesco, says it all.
Incredible really that this is what a couple hundred million buys and is sold as state of the art. Feels more like cheap, gimmicky ****. Complete with water-cooled electronics, like some kid's overclocked gaming computer.
But hey, you can auto-program SLOP in now. So there's that. And the HUD is...cool I guess?
The ultimate example of when a magnificent brand is destroyed by corporatism. Never thought I'd live long enough to see a Boeing product referred to by colleagues as a flying trash can.