Hi, first time poster so go easy on me! I was just wanting to ask your opinion - I'm due to fly out of Auckland on Monday on Royal Brunei (B777). I'm very nervous about flying at the best of times and the ash cloud has made me even more nervous. I don't know much about Royal Brunei and their safty / maintence procedures- is it likely that they will be inspecting their planes for ash damage at Auckland prior to departure? Given that they have just announced they are not going to fly this route from Oct, I'm guessing that they are lossing money - would they be scrimping on maintence costs? Should I be worried or do the have a reasonable reputation in regards to saftey? I assume they are flying under / around the ash cloud as per Air NZ as their flights are still operating?
Also, after doing some research I have also discovered that besides engine damage, the ash can also clog up the pitot tubes resulting in inacurate air data. If this happens, is there a redundancy system on a 777 like a GPS or something that can provide the piliots with flight data (speed, altitude, angle of attack)?
Finally, would the RB Pilots have completed training for this sort of event? Would they be under pressure to fly even if there are saftey concerns?
Thanks in advance for your help
