B 787 flight
 

Just flew the JS 787 from MEL to AUK, my first 787 flight...

interesting thoughts on the ac...

First off, the ac is very, very quiet, even sitting right next to the motor, very quiet.

Takeoff: The wings are made to flex, and untill they get enough air pushing them back, it is like an albatros taking off, flapping its wings. Rotation causes a bounce in the wings, which causes them to flex up and down, which translates thru the fuselage. Several pax noted the 'flapping' to take off.

Cruise: Again, very very quiet. Seats are fantastic, the seat pivots on its axis, so when you put the seat back, the bottom moves forward, very nice fit. (No points for the cheap, entirely plastic (even the arms) tray...these wont last long. Most people appeared confused about the window shading and how to make it work.

Landing: Same issue as dep, the wings start to flap when you get to lower airspeeds. On touchdown, the baggage compartment above in the center wags like a yodelers uvula....very concering for those sitting under it, even though we had a smooth landing.
On full flap extension, there was severe modulation at the end of the center flap, not good long term.

It is a bit concerning that United purchased the 787-9's for the LAX to SYD route, and are going live with them in October....thats just a bit too far for me on this ac...

Jetstar have their -8's jammed with around 330 seats! :ugh: United will have their -9's configured with 250 seats. :ok:

Did a Del to Mel 12 hour flight...loved it. Lower cabin pressure meant more humidity, less swelling of my feet and No embarrassing IBS moments...

No more arguments or fights on window shades

Not 100% but on the 777 the centre (inner) flap acts as the inboard aileron too. Thus you'll see it moving about in concert with the outer ailerons.


Better the wing flaps than the fuselage and you bounce around?

I'm guessing you mean higher cabin pressure, i.e. lower cabin altitude ?

I simply meant that the 787 over water for 12-14 hours is a bit too far (for me) at this point....and the 9 is even newer....

The flap vibration was not just movement, but a very large flutter at the end of the flap...

On the window shades, the crew has control of them, so at least parts of the flight they were all full screen, and for DEP/ARR all no screen.

I was staring at the night sky yesterday and saw a very unusually lit aircraft taking off and climbing into the sky 3000ft or so high. Curious, I checked what it was and the answer was a 787 of one of the Chinese airlines. It seemed to have very bright pulsating white lights (not strobe) that seemed wider than normal. Also the nav lights were both very much more visible than normal. Would this have been due to new bulb/LED technology ?



SHJ

TD
 

Not quite: the centre inner flap is actually the inboard aileron that also droops as a flap when main trailing edge flaps are lowered.
High speed aileron for the rest of the flight and called a flaperon....

TW