Unbelievable........

[Air Ace]

Unbelievable…………

I received the following fax “Press Release” today:



1 HOUR JET SERVICE FROM HORN TO CAIRNS
The following article was printed by the Torres News in this weeks paper. All of the below is subject to regulatory authority approvals and acceptance by Queensland Transport and the Premier and Cabinet of our tender.

The Torres Strait will have a Jet service which will cut traveling times between Cairns and Horn Island to 1 hour if a new consortium are granted the tender for the regulated route to come into operation from the beginning of next year, as spokesman for the consortium has told the Torres News.

Operations and Sales Marketing Manager for Aero-Tropics Ross Briton says the new EMB170 Embraer Jet will have a capacity of eight business class seats and sixty four economy class seats, a total of 72 passengers. The key stakeholders are Aero-Tropics, SkyAirWorld, Horn Islands airport Operators, Torres Shire Council and the people of the Torres Strait.

“Our aircraft is available NOW. This is not a pipe dream. It is sitting in Brisbane NOW” he said. QantasLink holds the current license to fly between Horn Island - Cairns which expired on June 30, 2007, but was extended to December 31.

The aircraft will visit Horn Island on Friday for demonstration flights around the Torres Strait to community leaders and the media. It will also visit Weipa later in the day for the same function with the consortium tendering for the lucrative Cairns - Weipa route

Aero-Tropics says it has secured the backing of the major international aircraft leasing company SkyAirWorld for the tender. A local steering committee is being formed in both the Torres Strait and Weipa to assist in the tender process.

On the issue of staffing, Aero-Tropics will employ full-time and casual local staff in the Horn Island airport ground handling.

Regarding the length of the horn Island airport runway, Mr Briton said “The current runway length will not stop us from being able to operate the aircraft out of Horn Island will the full passenger compliment under normal flying conditions.

And so on it goes to two pages…………

In the week their last “joint venture” air service became the subject of a Coroner’s Report, I can only hope this is a joke in extremely poor taste…… :yuk:

[slice]

Hmmm that Aircraft would a tight fit in more ways than one for Horn Island. What is the field performance like ? It have to be quite spectacular to lift a full load of pax off 08!

[aero junkie]

EMB170

Take Off Field Length, ISA, SL, MTOW 5,394ft
Take Off Field Length, ISA, SL, TOW for 500nm 3,763ft
Landing Field Length, SL, MLW 4,177ft

Horn Island runway length 4550ft

[Alice Kiwican]

Standy for the excitement! E170 will be arriving on Horn tomorrow for promotional flights. Sound familiar? Didn't Sunnies do that last Sat with a Q400? Let the wooing commence!

[404 Titan]

aero junkie

And what are the figures for ISA+15 and ISA+20. They would be the more accurate figures for this part of the world. As the state government will be subsidising this route, it will want a bang for its buck. As has been demonstrated in the US by the number of RJ's, particularly in the 45-70 seats that are being parked, a RJ isn’t as efficient as a turbo prop in the same class over a 1-2 hour sector. This is just a media stunt. The reality is this isn’t the right aircraft for this part of the world.

[Spotlight]

I'm surprised SAW can spare an aircraft for the day.

The last time I took notice 12 monthes or so ago their press release's were telling me they had the QLD, fly in, fly out market by the balls and were going to be flat out.

Is this not the case?

[nig&nog]

Look at most of the regional jet aircarft in Australia and most of them have not been ideal for the job they are doing. F100, BAe146, B717, Emb170/190 all made for other countries routes. Such as in Australia tropics(isa+15 to isa+25) we need good hot performance available up to 2000' elev airports as well as then to travel a long distance, (500-700nm) Not many of the above jets have ever been purpose built for the alike so we just make do with what we have, or what the beancounters tell us to work with. Isnt that the job of the professional ATPL pilot.

[RENURPP]

I know nothing of the E170.
The T/O dist should consider it will need minimum fuel, i.e. 1 hr flight time with some holding. I doubt it will be near MTOW

[Capn Bloggs]

E170 vs Q400? What a joke. Props are for boats.

[bizzybody]

So a few days after they take the aircraft off the Solomons they have already given it to somene else....
was this pre planned????

Bizz

[Icarus53]

Hope their E170 has some suped up crappers - they'll be needed on the HID-CS route!!! And overhead bins suitable for durians and unidentified meat products. Noice.

[slice]

RDS lists supp dist 08 HID (2.5%) as being 3304 ft (1007 m)

hmmmmmm not looking good at ISA+10,15,20 etc

A DASH8-300 usually cannot get a load of much more than 40 pax out on an average day

[Section28- BE]

Fast and dirty web trawl re: Pavement vs the E170.

No E170 knowledge at all, so stand to be corrected-

Model ex AOC- CASA Website: ERJ 170-100 LR

Ex Jepps: Pavement for HID- PCN9/F/A/1000[145psi]T

Ex Embraer Website (link below): Basic Operating Weight for a ERJ170LR- 21,040kg

Ex Embraer Website - E170 Airport Planning Manual: link at the bottom of the web page: Section 7- Page 21 [E170LR Flexible Pavement (Tires at 130psi)]-

I recon it cuts the ACN at "9" on the high sub-grade strength line at- 22,500kg -pending how sharp your pencil is.....(reminds me of a story a wise man once told me about ETOPS planning or manual trims- but that’s another issue).

Embraer EJet link: Embraer Commercial Jets (http://www.embraercommercialjets.com/english/content/ejets/emb_170.asp?tela=weights_dimensions)