Teal,
Originally Posted by Teal
Why would Qantas change the recommended Boeing configuration of 30° flap and full reverse to 25°/idle reverse? Supposed cost savings?
No, it doesn't appear to have been that at all. It appears to have been that the info on operations into wet and contaminated runways were filed off under "Cold Weather Operations" in the Supplementary Procedures section of the Ops Manual, so people didn't think they applied in the tropics (see the quote below). The procedures do include an instruction to use max reverse. They were issued by Boeing in 1975, but then limited the amount of info provided for two-crew aircraft and they were never in the B744 Ops Manual. However, Qantas included them in the "Cold Weather Ops" section when the introduced the B744 in 1989. All this in Section 1.6.1, p31 of the Report. Further,
Originally Posted by VH-OJH Report, 1.6.1, p31
It became evident during the investigation that many Qantas pilots (including the crew of Qantas One) viewed this section of the ... Operations Manual as relevant only to cold weather operations, such as those encountered in winter in Europe or Japan, or when strong crosswind conditions existed. They did not associate the information with water-affected runways in warmer climatic areas.
There were no definitions of the meanings of the relevant terms "wet", "icy", "slippery", "water patches", "flooded" or "contaminated" referring to runway condition in either the Qantas B744 Performance Limitations Manual or any other publication which formed part of the company ops manual. So apparently people didn't realise that wet was what "wet" meant. They thought "wet" meant "cold and wet" (if they had been Brits, I could understand it
)
PBL