Doh!
 

BBC reporter at Pearce "And some of the planes even come back after dark"

Assume they leave the search area at last light which may be about 2 hrs later than at Pearce then they will get home about 6 hours after dark.

The following day, to get there at first light they will need to take off about 2 hours before dawn.

Don't they think? If they can't think why don't they ask why the planes land so late? :uhoh:

Quote:

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CVR questions

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(a) Yes - it records continuously. The aircraft sounds are just as important as voice input. Typically there are 4 tracks - cockpit area mic, Capt mic, FO mic and I think 3rd Crew mic?

(b) Yes, but disabling it is only possible by pulling the CB, which in the T7 is in the E/E compartment. It is possible to erase the data, but that is only possible when on ground (WOW) and the engines are both shutdown.

It appears the reaction answered your question.

PN

That BBC reporter obviously hasn't though through why the planes are sent when they are and the first one before dawn as it would answer her own question.

And it's not like the RAAF at Pearce are not available to ask.

Batteries in cargo hold.. interesting, were they in forward or rear hold?

FDR - Old type
 

A while ago someone was asking about the "old style" FDR and someone mentioned that they used a "Stainless steel" tape.

Others then asked how long the data would survive on a stainless steel "tape".

Just to clarify, the stainless steel tape is actually a really long roll of stainless steel foil, not unlike your aluminium cooking foil, but slightly thicker, and of course, much stronger and about six inches wide.

There are several "styluses" (stylii ??) in the FDR and each one physically "scratches" a mark on the foil corresponding to the parameters it is recording.

The "tape" was replaced on a regular basis.

So, assuming the box basically survived the crash, that is it didn't physically melt in an extreme fire, the tape and the data recorded on it would last until the end of time, if not longer.

Suffice to say, any number of orders of magnitude longer than any other available technology!

Quick question: Are the Aussie P3s equipped for AAR?

The US P-8 is, but uses the flying boom type per US standard practice. If the answer is affirmative for the P-3s I assume they are drogue/hose, and therefore incompatible with US tankers?

AAR would obviously allow a lot long time on station....

You would need a massive quantity of portable O2. Consider a scuba cylinder will not last that long. Certainly it will last longer at height than at depth but not that long.

Our portable bottles, a lot lighter than a scuba cylinder, would last for perhaps 20 minutes at 20k.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 Would Have Been Found If Communications Box Had $10 Upgrade


This I consider to be the first "official" statement, that
- distance data for all pings is available
- the penultimate ping came from a smaller distance than the last.

What I'm still wondering: Malaysians 772 business class is equipped with satphone. If this service was switched of deliberately, would there be anything in inmarsats logs indicating the point in time when this happened ?

Edit: --------------------
And here some more info on reconstructing the flight path (and the last ACARS burst):
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-0...estimates.html

I very much doubt that they can derive altitude, for two reasons.

The aircraft is a minimum of 36,000km from the satellite. So the difference between, say, FL280 and FL410 represents around 0.01% of the satellite-to-aircraft distance, which is very unlikely to be discernible given the tolerance on the ping-derived range.

But even if it was, how do you tell the difference between an aircraft on the X° curve and one slightly farther from the origin but at a higher altitude i.e. exactly the same slant height from the satellite?

"AAR would obviously allow a lot long time on station...."

What about the crew ?

Others have already stated it is a tiring job, the 8 hours there and back can't be decreased, how long do you want them to be on continuous duty for when another aircraft can be on station to take over on a continuous basis during daylight hours ?

The difference between the 121.5 and 406.25 MHz is
1. when the search satellite passes over the ELT the 121.5 info couldn't be saved and would be transmitted down immediately, in case no LUT(local user terminal) was within the footprint of the satellite the information would be lost. 406.25 can be saved till a LUT comes within the satellite footprint.
2. The position is judged by the doppler shift generated by the satellite moving over the ELT. Accuracy of 121.5 is lower (said to be about 20 Sq miles) than 406.25 which has a higher frequency so the accuracy is higher ( said to be about 5 Sq miles)
3. the transmission contains a unique code which is part of an international database. the Tx contains this code and enables the identification of this tx source.
4. transmission time for all frequency is same, ie there is no delay in any frequency.

no one is saying anything either way!!

for future flight safety some questions are NOT legitimate.

quote -That MAS chief answer didn't sound like a confirmation of batteries on board to me. GobonaStick

a few pages ago, did post that CEO answered a specific Q from SKY news - cargo list? - CEO said some LI batteries NOT big ones.

List with investigators - true.

apparently dropped mention of mangosteens now.:)

Sysconx
 

Quote from sysconx....
'I believe this to be a tragic event with all on board incapacitated. The Aircraft flew
on autopilot and landed on the surface of water with controlled descent and a flare without falling apart sinking to the bottom whole. The crew possibly tried to come to senses and mistakenly switched off the transponder, changed the digit from N to S on the Nav. With hypoxia setting in they though they were going to sleep and responded to the controller with "good night" sign off. All the passengers never once tried anything during the whole flight. Unaware or unconscious they never put up a fight to defend themselves. '

Once again it's amateur hour and all the FS types emerge.

Do you have the slightest notion of what you are talking about?

Are you saying that a B 777 reduced to emergency/RAT/ battery power took it upon itself to do a flapless, gear up autoland ditching in the Southern Ocean?

Do you think pilots in the middle of an emergency start user defining waypoints by latitude and longitude?

The amount of known facts in the public domain on this issue is tiny. The media has misreported the facts and added huge amounts of unfounded speculation. As for the Malayasian authorities, they appear to be the modern day aviation equivalents of the Keystone Cops. Please do not make it worse by putting up more stupid ideas entirely founded on stupidity. It is perfectly clear who knows what they are talking about (there have been some excellent contributions from some) and equally clear when someone knows absolutely nothing.

Rant almost over but one more thing, if that 'Razor...' character (the name should be a chilling warning on these matters) asks one more question about cockpit door procedures I'll be asking the mods to bar him from the site. This is NOT the place to discuss these matters for very obvious reasons.:ugh:

No, the P3 is not set up for AAR. It takes considerable crewing just to get to its endurance with on board fuel (~15hrs.).

A few points on Search and Multinational Cooperation
 

From a few pages back:
Not necessarily tagged as "friendly" ... but most likely not tagged as "hostile." (Ref: old NTDS symbology, if you get my drift.) Yes, I am nitpicking :p ... but if the Malaysian Air Force was using a similar methodology, a tagged COMMAIR contact (on its original flight planned course) would not necessarily become "of interest" if it changed course(no major status change as seen by the guy on the scope late one Friday night). Mil Radar Operators would not necessarily have all of ATC's info in front of them. This is an issue for the Malaysian Air Force to address regarding cooperation with their ATC. FWIW: 9-11 seems to have increased the cooperation and communication in the US between ATC and the USAF. Sometimes, it takes a novel event to open some previously closed doors. Coordination among the various nations in SEA between MIL/ATC .. there are politics involved.

surely not I think you refer to the March 18 interview of retired Lieutenant General Tom McInerney(USAF) by Sean Hannity on Fox News. He's free to act as an "expert" for the media without sanction, regardless of how credible his hypothesis is, or isn't. :p

wewereborndrunk
Not bloody likely. If they knew exactly, they'd not be wasting time looking for it. They are still in SEARCH mode.
It's not the South Atlantic. It's the Indian Ocean (certainly the southern part of the Indian Ocean). Your disrespect of our friends in Australia is IMO out of line. :mad: The Aussies ought to be applauded for their efforts.

@Garage Years: A few pages back, AP-3C AAR was a confirmed as not a capability.

Thought: Lithium ion batteries and mangosteens: a deadly combination in a cargo hold? :eek: (Sorry, thought I'd toss in a little humor).

@ RazorRay: respectfully request that you learn how to take a hint. ;)

Appeal: Please Do Not Reveal Critical Security Info
 

Some one raised a very pertinent question about discussing cockpit door security procedures on an open forum. I believe that information that can reveal crucial security procedures related to aircraft operations such as access to vital areas, disabling any aircraft equipment by any manner, interfering with flight/cabin crew, ability to tamper with any equipment, etc. whether related to MH370 incident or not, must not be allowed on this forum. Posters and moderators please use caution, as innocent questions could be masking less than friendly intentions.

Planes and ships converging
 

Agree ..though sat spotted debris would have moved on or sunk by the time a/c arrived.

Ships not far behind...now if a Leeuwin class arrived and did some tricks...:hmm:

Any info on how search efforts are progressing in the northern arc?