BA 747 divert to Irkutsk after nav system fails
Join Date: Apr 2013
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Cant help myself.. But when someone calls out the 744 in BAs fleet as old (refering that to the Irkutsk diversion) is just being blatantly ignorant. And then to compare that with Ryanairs fleet? Come on!
If some of you had the slightest clue to how much wear and tear those 738s have to tackle compared to BAs 744, you'd be thinking twice before boarding a Ryanair machine again...
If some of you had the slightest clue to how much wear and tear those 738s have to tackle compared to BAs 744, you'd be thinking twice before boarding a Ryanair machine again...
Join Date: Aug 2013
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When I attended Antwerp maritime academy, we still had to know 60 stars by sight, perform astro nav. ( bloody difficult I tell you) and use and maintain the sextant. One time, during a apprenticeship exercise on a Belgian Navy ship, we had an English Navigational officer onboard via NATO cooperation ...she wasn't taught the use of sextant, never heard of astro nav... So even in shipping, things are quickly changing and the whole art of Navigation is quickly disappearing.
At least we must know in the Northern Hemisphere to identify Polaris, Ursa Major, the Orion belt, Rigel, Betelgeuze and Sirius. Most FO's do not have a clue, I try to enlighten them
We owe it to our profession to keep at least some traditions intact.
At least we must know in the Northern Hemisphere to identify Polaris, Ursa Major, the Orion belt, Rigel, Betelgeuze and Sirius. Most FO's do not have a clue, I try to enlighten them
We owe it to our profession to keep at least some traditions intact.
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If the ones who think age is all would have any notion of the differences between handling characteristics of the supercritical wings of the A330, B777 et al, compared to the "heavy metal" of the 25 year old B747, they would think twice.
On the B747 you seldomly use the "fasten belts" switch. Says it all....
On the B747 you seldomly use the "fasten belts" switch. Says it all....
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fatigue and wear
The issue was reliability and not fatigue bytheway...
And I was pointing out that the older aircraft, with their disadvantages of perhaps lower reliability dispatch rates, still have some huge advantages.
For instance a stable and smooth ride...
When I hear others complaining about the ride I hardly see a ripple in my coffee on my "unreliable" dinosaur.
And while landing in a storm in a B777 or A330 can be a challenge, in the B747 the only challenge is if the windspeed is over the door-limit....
Astro was much easier with HO249 or ANT pre-computed tables. I never tried spheroidal trigonometry in flight.
(WW2 nav, Halifax and later DC3) once told me he took along a few times his log tables and 12" slide rules from school days and on the sector home did the calcs from first principles.
It would be interesting to know if the Equipment Cooling fan was a 'lifed' item and if so when it was last changed, possibly nothing at all to do with the age of the airframe.
In contrast the BA European 767s, even a few years ago, had been allowed to get into a dreadful state internally, and regulars on the Moscow flight on Flyertalk started a list, by aircraft registration, of all the unresolved cabin issues which plagued those flights, including broken, missing or filthy cabin fittings, many of which should have been standard stores items. The worst was G-BZHC, whose cabin lighting had some longstanding intermittent issue that caused all the lights to flash on and off at random - this aircraft gained the long-running soubriquet of "The Disco", and regulars said their hearts would sink when they saw it on the gate. Now at the time ZC was the newest 767 in the fleet, less than 10 years old. There really is no excuse for such maintenance budget cheeseparing, and to be frank, saying that it's only non-vital components that this is done with, having two completely different maintenance regimes for different components, strains credulity.
http://www.pprune.org/passengers-slf...ml#post5777138
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Ded Reckoning
Ded -for Deduced Reckoning. -And to be nit pickitty; looking out of the window with a map is called 'Pilotage'. Ded Reckoning calls for a chart & a stopwatch, and works in IMC (in principal)..
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In contrast the BA European 767s, even a few years ago, had been allowed to get into a dreadful state internally, and regulars on the Moscow flight on Flyertalk started a list, by aircraft registration, of all the unresolved cabin issues which plagued those flights, including broken, missing or filthy cabin fittings, many of which should have been standard stores items. The worst was G-BZHC, whose cabin lighting had some longstanding intermittent issue that caused all the lights to flash on and off at random - this aircraft gained the long-running soubriquet of "The Disco", and regulars said their hearts would sink when they saw it on the gate. Now at the time ZC was the newest 767 in the fleet, less than 10 years old. There really is no excuse for such maintenance budget cheeseparing, and to be frank, saying that it's only non-vital components that this is done with, having two completely different maintenance regimes for different components, strains credulity.
As for the 747s, some of them are falling to pieces and others are still quite nice. I flew on G-BNLR last week from BKK. Dreadful thing. Hopefully the most dilapidated ones will get the boot soon. Some of the older 747s with New First (Prime) are being retired over the next few months. The new-ish cabins from these aircraft will be used to replace some of the middle-aged 747s that still have old First fitted.
Despite moaning about the interiors, I still love the Queen of the Skies!
Champ
Last edited by champair79; 2nd Sep 2013 at 21:58.
