There was an ek 380 in the betty hold the other day
But as others have alluded to it doesn't need to be a super, sometimes you just get nailed. If that's even what happened |
From QF Pravda:
The passengers on board experienced what felt like severe turbulence |
not quite right
Originally Posted by AerialPerspective
(Post 9738428)
"Say nothing lessons" What???
So, Alan Joyce fronting media and being broadcast all over the world within an hour of the QF32 incident (once the aircraft had landed safety) and grounding the entire A380 fleet was 'saying nothing'. Further, after the whole thing had been dealt with Qantas allowed crew to speak openly about the incident to Four Corners, as did Joyce and senior engineering people. Again, how is that 'say nothing'. I believe the Qantas reaction to QF32 was lauded as an excellent example of how a company should respond and the Rolls-Royce reaction was used as an example of the complete opposite. On top of that, the media glossed over the fact that another prominent and supposedly 'untouchable' carrier based in Asia had their A380s back in the air within days in circumstances that couldn't possibly have provided enough time for the proper inspections to be done but as they are a media darling and don't have a kangaroo on the tail, this was completely ignored by the media at the time. Joyce was MIA for a considerable period (it was more than hour BTW) with the exec focus being one eye on the IOC the other on the ASX - I can tell you authoritatively that the initial media requests were met with an absolute fob off. (that's one of the reasons why so many journos write crap because airlines don't get proactive) As for your reference to the open access given to 4 corners etc... two well connected experienced journos had the RR link and evidence absolutely nailed on the day as they were already working on the RR story with a lot of evidence from local and OS insiders. Prior to Joyce appearing they were asked (begged) to 'hold it' on the promise of an absolute exclusive and that no one else would get given this 'access' - they honoured the request in good faith and didn't slam Joyce with it at the presser; but they were later ripped off when they objected to the Q requested, highly massaged production approach that 4 corners and 9 eventually agreed to. (In fact one of them was lied to about crew not being avail for a pre-arranged interview....said journo then saw a camo from another network at Syd Dom on his way to shoot them beside the 380 parked in the hanger) Regarding last Friday's incident - it was denied with the standard "we are not aware of any incident" last weekend. The CC debrief and follow up in HKG was (I'm told) far from best practice - the CC were not even told the truth and I hear that their union was kept in the dark and had to extract info. The current anecdotal reporting, pax quotes coupled with the brush off 'it was just unexpected severe turbulence line' only has escalated the scare factor in this story eroding public faith. Baseline: in a crisis an organisation has 3 minutes at best to set the agenda present the facts or if the facts are unknown, take control. Like with 32, it didn't happen. Had QF acted last Friday with a proactive factual statement immediately after receiving the info in the IOC, they could have opened up the issue and closed it back down - the net outcome would have been appropriate recognition of the operating crew rather than the mish mash of out of context tech facts. Such prompt action also eliminates the speculation and (less than responsible often uninformed) 'suspicions' that are now being circulated in some areas. I do however agree with you 100% that RR in the 32 incident acted arrogantly and was wilfully misleading and deceptive. I'll will wait for the investigation report - as we all should! AT :E |
Originally Posted by airtags
(Post 9739627)
Just to clarify QF32 was far an ideal example of proactive crisis communications - it is used by several comms professionals to demonstrate what not to do. As a reminder: QF initially denied the event - in fact there's a grab from Sky where Olivia is denying outright saying words similar to: "there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest the aircraft is a Qantas plane" vision cuts to twitter pic of villager holding up panel with logo - then to grab of ATC comms recorded by planespotter and posted to soc media.
Joyce was MIA for a considerable period (it was more than hour BTW) with the exec focus being one eye on the IOC the other on the ASX - I can tell you authoritatively that the initial media requests were met with an absolute fob off. (that's one of the reasons why so many journos write crap because airlines don't get proactive) As for your reference to the open access given to 4 corners etc... two well connected experienced journos had the RR link and evidence absolutely nailed on the day as they were already working on the RR story with a lot of evidence from local and OS insiders. Prior to Joyce appearing they were asked (begged) to 'hold it' on the promise of an absolute exclusive and that no one else would get given this 'access' - they honoured the request in good faith and didn't slam Joyce with it at the presser; but they were later ripped off when they objected to the Q requested, highly massaged production approach that 4 corners and 9 eventually agreed to. (In fact one of them was lied to about crew not being avail for a pre-arranged interview....said journo then saw a camo from another network at Syd Dom on his way to shoot them beside the 380 parked in the hanger) Regarding last Friday's incident - it was denied with the standard "we are not aware of any incident" last weekend. The CC debrief and follow up in HKG was (I'm told) far from best practice - the CC were not even told the truth and I hear that their union was kept in the dark and had to extract info. The current anecdotal reporting, pax quotes coupled with the brush off 'it was just unexpected severe turbulence line' only has escalated the scare factor in this story eroding public faith. Baseline: in a crisis an organisation has 3 minutes at best to set the agenda present the facts or if the facts are unknown, take control. Like with 32, it didn't happen. Had QF acted last Friday with a proactive factual statement immediately after receiving the info in the IOC, they could have opened up the issue and closed it back down - the net outcome would have been appropriate recognition of the operating crew rather than the mish mash of out of context tech facts. Such prompt action also eliminates the speculation and (less than responsible often uninformed) 'suspicions' that are now being circulated in some areas. I do however agree with you 100% that RR in the 32 incident acted arrogantly and was wilfully misleading and deceptive. I'll will wait for the investigation report - as we all should! AT :E I can't comment on the 4 corners info you've provided because I am not privy to that information. I have heard numerous corporate image consultants however, report that in their view the final analysis was that Qantas came out of this looking fairly professional whereas RR had a lot of work to do to restore their credibility. All companies will attempt at times to ensure a message is crafted in a way that is perceived in the right light and is not misconstrued and this can sometimes appear as evasive. I don't see here the type of action carried out by other operators in the past such as raiding a Pilot's house (allegedly) and seizing documents material to an investigation or practically perverting the course of justice to protect an image ("an orchestrated litany of lies..."). Finally, absolutely... we should always wait for the final report and last word would be there were probably several ways it could have been handled better but certainly the actions of the crew played very positively for Qantas. |
To get back to QF 29 for a minute...Holding at FL220 seems a bit high only 60 miles out, unless there is a circuit somewhere over Macau?!
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Not uncommon during busy times.
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Originally Posted by andyprune
(Post 9740729)
To get back to QF 29 for a minute...Holding at FL220 seems a bit high only 60 miles out, unless there is a circuit somewhere over Macau?!
|
they told me they were on their way back from the loo and the aircraft seemed to pitch nose up but not so that they lost their footing and flew off the floor but when it came down it was quite severe and this person said their legs felt like they were crumpling under them If you pitch up, you crumple to the floor as a walking pax. When you pitch down, you float off the floor. Has your friend got it right - did you read your own post? |
Originally Posted by andyprune
(Post 9740729)
To get back to QF 29 for a minute...Holding at FL220 seems a bit high only 60 miles out, unless there is a circuit somewhere over Macau?!
|
Originally Posted by josephfeatherweight
(Post 9741106)
That's completely the wrong way around.
If you pitch up, you crumple to the floor as a walking pax. When you pitch down, you float off the floor. Has your friend got it right - did you read your own post? |
This seems to be what we know:
1. The aircraft encountered severe turbulence approaching the hold at a low speed, and a low speed is normal approaching a hold. 2. A stick shaker activated. 3. Autoflight was disconnected. 4. Some passengers were injured. What we don't know is what caused the severe turbulence - was it wake turbulence or was it pilot induced due to the stick shaker, in which case what caused the stick shaker? Now, all professional jet pilots will know: 1. Intermittent stick shaker is not unusual when encountering severe turbulence (particularly when back at holding speed), whether it be caused by wake or other. As has been mentioned above, stick shaker is largely controlled by AoA vanes, which could easily be disrupted in a wake turbulence encounter. It doesn't mean the aircraft is about to stall out of the sky. On the other hand, a stick shaker caused by high level windshear which could also be accompanied by turbulence, may mean the aircraft is about to stall out of the sky. 2. The normal response to severe turbulence in a Boeing is to disconnect autoflight and maintain appropriate attitude and thrust (which would include increasing to turbulence penetration speed). 3. The normal response to a stick shaker in a Boeing is to disconnect autoflight and apply forward elevator. Of course, 2 and 3 are mutually exclusive, so a pilot chooses to either employ 2 or 3. Or, in the event of both, they would employ 3 and then 2, once 3 is complete. My money is on severe turbulence caused by wake, which also gave them a stick shaker, and they applied 3 then 2. Which would be completely approriate. Passengers may have been injured prior to, or during that process. Either is possible. I've encountered high level wake turbulence before, it's not fun and it's hard to predict (short of grossly increasing separation minimums). |
Derfred, can you confirm the Boeing procedure for encountering "severe turbulence" is to disconnect?????
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Originally Posted by RubberDogPoop
(Post 9741794)
Derfred, can you confirm the Boeing procedure for encountering "severe turbulence" is to disconnect?????
In reality, a severe turbulence encounter may result in an inappropriate attitude which would validate disengaging the autopilot. You then set an attitude as per Derfred's explanation. (Which is also what the book says... right?... or is it just the first sentence in the manuals which is important?) |
Maybe a very simple"Cancel hold continue right turn heading 240".....grabbed the speed knob instead of heading..Wouldn't be the first airline that had done that.
We will just have to wait and see. |
This is what was actually stated:
While holding at flight level 220, the flight crew received a stick shaker activation and detected airframe buffeting. 1. The stick shaker activated and theaircraft encountered airframe buffeting while in the hold at FL220. 2. A . 3. Autoflight was disconnected. 4. Some passengers were injured. |
This is what was actually stated:
While holding at flight level 220, the flight crew received a stick shaker activation and detected airframe buffeting. 1. The stick shaker activated and the aircraft encountered airframe buffeting while in the hold at FL220. 2. The autopilott was disconnected and the flight crew maneuvered the aircraft in response. 3. Passengers were injured. Now for the conjecture. The hold speed for a 747 is approx. 230-240kts at a rough guess. That's not slow! If you were coming into land at that speed it would be frighteningly fast. The stick shaker activates approx.10kts before the stall which would be possibly around the 120-130kt range. What was the A/T doing during this time? I would hazard a guess that it was not armed but the crew thought it was, not unusual in a Boeing if recent history is anything to go by. It would not take long for a 747 in level flight to have its speed decrease to the point of stick shaker activation. Something was distracting the crew so the speed was not being monitored. Why the speed wasn't being monitored and why the A/T didn't maintain the holding speed will come out in due course. |
120 to 130 kt range?
It's been a while since I flew the Queen but I can easily tell you that clean at FL220 at their weight the Vs would have been a lot higher than that, up around 180 to 190 KIAS. And that's wings level......in a 25 deg AOB a fair bit higher. |
I don't know Crosscutter, what does the book say?
Is hand flying in "severe" turbulence a recommended practice? Would V/S mode 0fpm work? |
Look left, you may be surprised to hear that holding at fl220 is not in the approach config.
It is close to min drag speed clean( holding at min fuel flow is prudent) At this speed a/c is vulnerable to stickshaker through turb from whatever source. Crew response will be dictated by their perception of the reason for this. For that information ask the crew. |
Originally Posted by RubberDogPoop
(Post 9742089)
I don't know Crosscutter, what does the book say?
Is hand flying in "severe" turbulence a recommended practice? Would V/S mode 0fpm work? VS mode would make no difference. In level flight thrust controls speed in both VS and other level flight autopilot modes. |
So if Vs at FL220 is around is 180-190 what would the holding speed be, 240? In this incident turbulence has nothing to do with it. The stick shaker and the airframe buffeting seemed to occur at the same time. Possibly the A/T has not maintained the hold speed and the crew had taken their eyes off the ball.
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For the Vref, ask the crew, for the MCP selected holding speed, ask the crew, for A/T engagement/serviceability, ask the crew,for weather, other aircraft in the hold, ask the crew.
An enquiry perhaps and wait for the results. |
Most of you are as bad as Today Tonight / A Current Affair / Geoffrey Thomas.
Show a little professionalism and STFU until the final report is released. Until then, all this conjecture makes you sound like a pack of idiots. |
Agree totally BSS. You have got to love these Monday morning quarterbacks who come out with some outrageous suggestions. I'd suggest the closest most have come to the flight deck of a Boeing (anything) is an after landing visit. Google is their friend, they hide behind a Pprune handle and pretend to be airline pilots.
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Originally Posted by crosscutter
(Post 9742127)
Book says to leave autopilot in...unless speed, altitude or attitude deviations dictate otherwise.
VS mode would make no difference. In level flight thrust controls speed in both VS and other level flight autopilot modes. Isn't that what I want? THR commanding 280kts or M.82 (SPD INT, of course), or whatever that second line says (I never read it anyway), and the auto flight system commanding a pitch, rather than an altitude. |
Are you boys new to pprune then? If you want to wait for the final report then see you in 2020 when it is released. Even then a lot of people won't agree with its findings. Until then a discussion about the facts that have been released is what this particular bulletin board is for. Do you have any ideas about how to avoid airframe buffeting and a stick shaker activating when in a holding pattern? What do you think the A/T was doing and why did it not prevent the speed decaying to the stall speed? Or do you just occupy a control seat with your mind in neutral?
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You can bet they were descending at near minimum clean speed the significance being they were above FL200 where minimum clean speed is not displayed on the PFD.
Entered the hold, thrust at idle (speed on elevator) autopilot possibly reduced the bank angle to protect itself from the slow speed thus didn't follow hold, crew disconnected rolled pulled G and bingo stick shaker. Thrust takes time to advance from idle to something decent at high altitude. Crew does stall recovery maneuver. |
Lookleft, imagine what PPNe would look like....
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Originally Posted by Avinthenews
(Post 9742787)
...autopilot possibly reduced the bank angle to protect itself from the slow speed thus didn't follow hold, crew disconnected rolled pulled G and bingo stick shaker.
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Look Left - there are many here who have been around longer than you, actually fly the aircraft in the scenario involved - don't think any of them have been rushing to conclusions.
After 50 years, 20 years Cat B on 767/747, I'm not. Pprune is a rumour network - however it is not an alternative truth network. The danger is that rubbish written here may be taken as fact by some of the armchair aviators -( nothing wrong with armchair aviating -interesting subject to take an interest in) but "facts" peddled often enough are mistaken for the truth. |
The scenario involved is that the aircraft experienced buffeting and a stick shaker activation whilst in the hold at FL220. They are the facts as stated by the ATSB. The alternative truth as peddled by QF media and others here is that the aircraft encountered severe turbulence which the caused the stick shaker to activate Feel free to correct me where I am wrong in the statement of the facts. So how often have you found yourself in the scenario as described, regularly get the aircraft to the stick shaker do you?
I made it quite clear that my discussion about the autothrust was entirely my conjecture.Given all your experience maybe you could provide some insight as to what may have occurred whereby a 747 enters a holding pattern and then nearly stalls? I have a feeling that had this occurred to an Asian carrier then the calls for "wait for the report" would not be so prevalent and that plenty of experienced pilots would be posting about where the crew went wrong. |
There is lots of talk about the stick shaker activation and the crew taking over------ but no mention of the -- last resort , [ bugger the crew ] the stick pusher activating to save the aircraft , that will stick heads in the ceiling panels-------did it activate --
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Originally Posted by bigal cessna
(Post 9743372)
---- but no mention of the -- last resort , [ bugger the crew ] the stick pusher activating to save the aircraft , that will stick heads in the ceiling panels-------did it activate --
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Haven't the time to sift through the submissions but has anyone mentioned FLCH?
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Lookleft, relax.
I take your point about "facts", but I never said they were facts, I said: This seems to be what we know: I was on this flight, severe vibration and a loud vibrating whooshing sound and then plummeting turbulence came out of no where, many passengers and crew hit their heads on the roof, overhead compartments opened and our bags from under the seat in front of us ended up behind us. There were also smoke alarms going off at the rear of the plane.Crew were initially running down the isles to see if there was any fire but said it was a false alarm due to turbulence, it would turn off and then start again the whole way into landing. It was very scary to say the least. Crew said we hit the wake of another plane, I don't know but I'm thankful we landed safely. … CC & pax were told it was turbulence. The passengers on board experienced what felt like severe turbulence. (from QF PR) So how often have you found yourself in the scenario as described, regularly get the aircraft to the stick shaker do you? I just find it hard to imagine that an approach to stall recovery manoeuvre would cause anything like the mayhem in the cabin as described. Would applying forward elevator really set off smoke alarms and open overhead compartments? Sounds more like turbulence to me. Hence my conjecture that it may have been turbulence which caused the stick shaker rather than the other way around. As for the "conjecture police" - thinking about real aircraft incidents and discussing all the possible reasons it may have happened, and how it may be avoided in future makes us all better aviators. If you don't like it, don't read it. |
Derfred point taken regarding the origin of the reported turbulence. Passenger reports of turbulence are not inconsistent with the ATSB statement of airframe buffeting but the two are very different in origin. I could imagine that a distracted crew would experience a fair bit of a WTF moment if their first indications of a problem was buffeting and the stick shaker. They would have realised that the aircraft was about to do something nasty and reacted accordingly.
A significant application of forward elevator would have resulted in the chaos down the back of the aircraft as reported. Not dissimilar to the A330 incident off WA where a sudden nose down pitching manoeuvre led to injuries in the rear of the cabin. Completely agree with your last statement. |
Having heard the FACTS now, as related by the CAPTAIN of the aircraft, I can confirm that 95% of what gets written on PPrune is complete tripe! 5% excellent, but I'm sorry, the other 95% need a reality check.
Stick pusher on a B747..... for heaven's sake.... |
Originally Posted by Ushuaia
(Post 9743871)
Having heard the FACTS now, as related by the CAPTAIN of the aircraft, I can confirm that 95% of what gets written on PPrune is complete tripe! 5% excellent, but I'm sorry, the other 95% need a reality check.
Stick pusher on a B747..... for heaven's sake.... Rumours and BS only really develop well in lieu of facts. So out with it Please |
Originally Posted by Lookleft
(Post 9742155)
So if Vs at FL220 is around is 180-190 what would the holding speed be, 240? In this incident turbulence has nothing to do with it. The stick shaker and the airframe buffeting seemed to occur at the same time. Possibly the A/T has not maintained the hold speed and the crew had taken their eyes off the ball.
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To make a ststement like that, in public, when you are assuming, is not cricket. In case anyone is in any doubt this aircraft was about to stall. The crew responded in an appropriate way but how did it get to that point in the first place? In TEM terms, this aircraft was in an UAS after an undetected threat and/or error occurred. I have now idea of the sequence of events that allowed it to get to an UAS but I do know that if the attitude was appropriate then the only thing not providing the required performance was the thrust. it applies to any aircraft. If you actually know something about the incident then more than happy to be set straight. |
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