Back in February 2011 I reported in this Blog on a particularly silly state of affairs. Pilots and controllers had got used to a simple rule where ‘each clearance replaces the old’. This means that in a clearance, such as ‘cleared FL 150, 200 or below 20 miles before X’, the constraint ‘below 20 miles… Continue reading The Great SID/STAR Phraseology Fiasco (part 2)
Category: View from the left seat
News from the pilot world
The Great SID/STAR Phraseology Fiasco
Most of us find the workings of ICAO pretty strange. The constant repetition of States’ sovereignty, with its assumption that they actually know what they are talking about, is quaint, rather than obviously dangerous. The glacial speed of progress, with timescales measured in years for quite minor textual changes, can be exasperating, but nothing is… Continue reading The Great SID/STAR Phraseology Fiasco
The Responsibility of Command
The recently published report on the crash of the Polish Presidential flight to Smolensk in April last year makes very sorry reading. Not just because of the loss of life but also because of the many systemic failures it exposes. The English language version can be found here. In this short article I don’t want… Continue reading The Responsibility of Command
KLM and Aeroflot take-off from taxi-ways
Strange as it may seem one of the more difficult things that pilots have to deal with is finding their way around airports. Despite ICAO standardisation many obvious things like airport signage are not always the same at every airport, and even if they were, airport layouts will always differ. Surprisingly, navigating the aircraft down… Continue reading KLM and Aeroflot take-off from taxi-ways
Flying the Boeing 747
I came relatively late to the Boeing 747, first flying it in 1981 long after all the early teething problems with the PW JT9D-3 engines had been solved. We had two versions of the aircraft in British Airways, the 747-100 series with the more powerful PW JT9D-7 engines and the 747-200 with RR RB211-524 engines.… Continue reading Flying the Boeing 747
British Airways Boeing 777 Heathrow accident final report issued
G-YMMM was executing British Airways Flight 38 Beijing-London Heathrow on 17 January 2008 when it crash landed just short of the runway at its destination airport. Several people were injured but there were no fatalities. The UK Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) has now released its final report on the accident. The 777 was 720… Continue reading British Airways Boeing 777 Heathrow accident final report issued
So you think you understand… Descent.
Continuing my theme that all is rarely as it seems with how aircraft work, particularly when pilots are equipped only with half truths peddled in early training. And pity the controllers who are typically left even more in the dark about such things. Let’s think about how fast aircraft descend. The ab initio trainers pilots… Continue reading So you think you understand… Descent.
Pilot fatigue – The views of the Flight Safety Foundation
The issue of fatigue in the cockpit, and outside it among maintenance personnel for example, has been on the agenda for some time now and things were brought to a head by the Colgan Air crash in Buffalo on Feb. 12, 2009. Predictably, the reactions are varied and range from the studied to the opportunistic.… Continue reading Pilot fatigue – The views of the Flight Safety Foundation
Aircraft Operational Fuel Savings & Noise Reduction – Past and Future
The way pilots fly their aircraft can have a significant effect on the economics, fuel consumption and environmental performance of their airline. Many airlines and Air Navigation Service Providers are working on Constant Descent Approaches (CDAs) but to do these it is necessary to have well motivated pilots, good operating procedures and efficient ATM procedures.… Continue reading Aircraft Operational Fuel Savings & Noise Reduction – Past and Future
Are you sure it is better to fly high?
Continuing the theme of the difference between what is commonly assumed in Aviation and the facts, let’s just think about cruise altitude. Everyone knows that aircraft fly high for reasons of efficiency, not to mention community noise. But is this always right? For years I cringed as colleagues harangued controllers, insisting that they simply had… Continue reading Are you sure it is better to fly high?