London City Thread
 

Do my eyes deceieve me, or at about 12.30 today did i see an aircraft resembling the above description (A319/737/Embraer) climbing out of London City R28?

Isn't the new Embraer trying to get approval to make a 5 degree approach for London City?:8


check out:
http://www.aerospace-technology.com/...s/embraer_170/


(Edited to add website)

EMB170 PPXJB has been present at EGLC during the past few days, presumably for type certification at City

Fried Chicken

A319 at LCY?
 

Driving to London City airport this morning I saw what appeared to be an A319 taking off. It was certainly nothing like the usual jet airliners and biz jets that use the airport. The a/c was white, had no obvious company markings but had a dark blue fin. Ryanair up to something secretive perhaps? I have certainly heard rumours that Easyjet might be interested in operating from the East London airport.

Possibly an Embraer 170? I believe they're trying to certify the ERJ170 at City.

Ah. That explains it. I had no idea EMB had produced an a/c with underwing engines. Must pay more attention and keep up with aviation developments.
Perhaps this thread had better be closed down or moved.

The Embraer 170 is down there for LCY certification testing. I was talking to one of the OPS guys at city a couple of weeks ago and he said that Airbus want to certify the A318 into City! Apparently the current limit is ground manouvering room.

Yep - it did 9 ILS full stops yesterday lunchtime.

Not sure if it is still there/staying - I think that they have finished now. (Didn't have any go-arounds which is a good thing I guess!!)

Would it be possible to operate an A 319/320 from LCY?

What are the limitations apart from manouvering space there? Noise? Size of the a/c?


Rgds

Tyne

It's there again this morning (Tuesday 3rd). Looks impressive to see something full-sized in there.

On a related topic I notice this on the LCY website :

"ScotAirways is set to introduce additional flights on its already successful Edinburgh to London City route with the imminent launch [Monday 9 May] of its first jet aircraft.

The introduction of the BAe 146 jet, which has a seating capacity of 80, will bring with it an additional daily return flight at key business travel times.

Departing from Edinburgh at 07.50 the new jet aircraft will return from London City at 17.15."

Seems unusual to do just one round trip a day and stand at LCY all day. Are they using someone else's aircraft - Euromanx maybe ?

If my memory serves me well, Airbus showed the A318 performing steep approaches during the Farnborough show last year. So, I guess the steep approach thing is well underway so landing should be OK; its got the wing and engines of an A320 so it must have great take-off perfomance. All the A320 models are fairly quiet so I suppose that would be alright at lightish weights. Does anyone know if there are any plans to make a bigger apron at LCY?

The only remaining expansion space at LCY is to the east of the terminal. A straightforward pier out of the terminal on that side, set further back from the runway allowing more manoeuvring space than the present stands (which were sized for Dash Sevens and are a squish even for 146s) would be the most effective.

Key problem is it is over the dock and therefore requires an expensive civil engineering job to fill this in, hard up against the terminal, although the bulk fill material could be brought in from the river by barge.

Anyone who has been there recently will know the mess that the DLR extension has created (and for something called "light rail" the viaducts appear to be sized for TGV trains !). Before long they may need to put a multi-storey structure onto the car park as well (which means you need space for a year or so for a temporary car park - the space for the terminal extension could be needed for this first). So potential building works for years to come.

Rather than fill it in, I believe they are looking at building a new apron on Stilts over the dock.

Are Swiss still getting some EMB170s? I know they originally wanted the aircraft to be LCY capable when they ordered it. Also, I believe LCY are talking to Alitalia (who have Emb170s) about launching services to City.

Fried Chicken

A318

I have from the horse's mouth that Airbus strongly wish to get the A318 cleared for LCY operations.

On slightly less good authority I believe Airbus contend that the 318 will offer greater range out of LCY than any other type, and will therefore open up an entirely new range of destinations.

So it would be a major plus for the 318 programme, in view of the difficulties with PW6000 power and the low overall level of airline interest in the type.

This is the plan for the airfield by 2010.

The 28 hold is already complete of course.

http://www.pbase.com/kbmphotography/image/42952456.jpg

And interestingly, the 28 holding area is a steal platform. There are a few operator's who think that sitting on the metal at the hold for elongated periods is bad news for the nav kit on some craft.

A few operator's what?

On a modern aircraft the only thing affected by the metal would be the standby compass. Nobody ever looks at that, so what's the problem?

Reinforced concrete of the strength required for aircraft taxiways and runways is up to about 40% steel, as mesh and bar embedded in the concrete. You can't see it but it is in there. If it wasn't the concrete would be cracked in a day.

It is the reason given for SID deviation when operators were asked for the reason they didn't fly the SID properly.

I didn't say I believed it!

London City Helo
 

Did my eys deceive me or did Mrs Green and I see a helicopter land at LCY last night (Saturday). Ok, I had a few nice drinks at the Yi-Ban Chinese (Recommended for those who are in this area) but I had not drunk that much! LCY is closed at that time of night so I am guessing some kind of emergency for the helicopter or a medical emergency? Anyone know anything about this or did I really just have too many drinks??

A good place for a view of the airport. Make sure you know how to get there. And book one of the tables by the window for the view across the airport.

Mrs WHBM :) likes it too but I'm always disappointed, of course, when it's Saturday night and the airport is closed.