DUB on Saturday
 

Saw an Aer Arann prop taxiing across the ramp at DUB on Saturday morning using only one engine, and subsequentially saw it parked on the apron with a maintenance truck under the wing. Anyone know what happened?

They were also using 16/34 all day for some reason.

If you stop to think - The Arann would have been using single engine taxi (to reduce fuel consumption, etc (the ATR was designed to be operated in this mannor) - given that the adverage taxi time in DUB is between 30-40 mins on an adverage day. And as for the engineer under the wing they could have been carrying out a line check or any mannor of regular or routine checks.

Rumours like this do not really help anyone - although I do see and understand that you were just asking or wondering

As regards 16/34 being in use, that would prob have been down to the wind.

Not too sure how often you are in DUB but the taxi times are not that long, it's busy here today and the average time from push to runway is 10 mins.

I did not know that the ATR was certified for one engine taxi. Learn something new every day I guess.

Regarding 16/34 is that a guess or is that based on any actual information? Not trying to be hostile here, but as a very frequent passenger in DUB I can't think of ANY occasion in the past when I've not taken off or landed on 10/28.

They were using 16/34 for most of the day. It's rare that they do but you will see more of it as the work for T2 goes on. My office window looks right out onto the aprin and I have a good view of what is going on.

Taxi times during the day are not too bad, but at the 'peak' times i.e 0700-0830is m-f they can be bad enough esp when using 10 + 16. On Sat + sun they can be bad too.

Runway 10/28 is the preferential runway in Dublin but when wind conditions so dictate, either 16 (which has an ILS) or 34 (which is a non-precision VOR/DME approach) will be used. The only exceptions tend to be transatlantic departures, most of which would require the longer runway for performance reasons. Runway 16/34 has also been in use at night recently (typically from 2300 to 0500 local) to faciliate maintenance work on 10/28, so despite what you have experienced, it is most definitely used from time to time. See relevant notam here: http://www.iaa.ie/safe_reg/iaip/Publ...2007_39_en.pdf