dirtpusher Loc: tulsa oklahoma

From a retired AF colonel, now a pilot for AA here in tulsa, flying the Boeing 777.


All,

Just a quick update with what I know about the Malaysia 777 disappearance. The Boeing 777 is the airplane that I fly. It is a great, safe airplane to fly. It has, for the most part, triple redundancy in most of its systems, so if one complete system breaks (not just parts of a system), there are usually 2 more to carry the load. It’s also designed to be easy to employ so 3rd world pilots can successfully fly it. Sometimes, even that doesn’t work…as the Asiana guys in San Fran showed us. A perfectly good airplane on a beautiful, sunny day…and they were able to crash it. It took some doing, but they were able to defeat a bunch of safety systems and get it to where the airplane would not help them and the pilots were too stupid/scared/unskilled/tired to save themselves

There’s many ways to fly the 777 and there are safety layers and redundancies built into the airplane. It is tough to screw up and the airplane will alert you in many ways (noises, alarms, bells and whistles, plus feed back thru the control yoke and rudder pedals and throttles. In some cases the airplane’s throttles ‘come alive’ if you are going to slow for a sustained period of time) All designed to help. But, it’s also non-intrusive. If you fly the airplane in the parameters it was designed for, you will never know these other things exist. The computers actually ‘help’ you and the designers made it for the way pilots think and react. Very Nice.

Now to Malaysia. There are so many communication systems on the airplane. 3 VHF radios. 2 SatCom systems. 2 HF radio systems. Plus Transpoders and active, ‘real time’ monitoring through CPDLC (Controller to Pilot Data Link Clearance) and ADS B(Air Data Service) through the SatCom systems and ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System) thru the VHF, HF and SatCom systems. The air traffic controllers can tell where we are, speed, altitude, etc as well as what our computers and flight guidance system has set into our control panels. Big Brother for sure! However, most of these things can be turned off.

But, there are a few systems that can’t be turned off and one, as reported by the WSJ, is the engine monitoring systems (not sure what the acronym for that is, but I’m sure there is one….it’s aviation…there has to be an acronym!). The Malaysia airplane, like our 777-200’s, use Rolls Royce Trent Engines (as a piece of trivia….Rolls Royce names their motors after rivers….because they always keep on running!) Rolls Royce leases these motors to us and they monitor them all the time they are running. In fact, a few years back, one of our 777’s developed a slow oil leak due and partial equipment failure. It wasn’t bad enough to set off the airplane’s alerting system, but RR was looking at it on their computers. They are in England, they contact our dispatch in Texas, Dispatch sends a message to the crew via SatCom in the North Pacific, telling them that RR wants them to closely monitor oil pressure and temp on the left engine. Also, during the descent, don’t retard the throttle to idle…keep it at or above a certain rpm. Additionally, they wanted the crew to turn on the engine ‘anti ice’ system as the heats some of the engine components.

The crew did all of that and landed uneventfully, but after landing and during the taxi in, the left engine shut itself down using it’s redundant, computerized operating system that has a logic tree that will not allow it to be shut down if the airplane is in the air…only on the ground. Pretty good tech. Anyway, the point was, that RR monitors those engines 100% of the time they are operating. The WSJ reported that RR indicated the engines on the Malaysia 777 were running normally for 4 to 5 hours after the reported disappearance. Malaysia denies this. We shall see.

Parting shot. If you travel by air, avoid the 3rd world airlines. Their operators and maintenance are substandard. Substandard when traveling by Bus or Boat isn’t so bad when the engines quit. You just stop on the water or by the side of the road. Not so in airplanes. My piece of advice….if traveling by air use 1st world airlines. So, that leaves USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, most of Europe, Japan and just a few others. Avoid the rest….just my opinion. If you get a real deal on air fare from ‘Air Jabooti’…skip it. Oh, there are a lot of the ‘developing’ countries that use expatriate pilots from the 1st world. Emirates and Air Jordan come to mind and are very safe. As is Cathay Pacific. Air Pakistan and Egypt Air…not so much. Do the research or just drop me a note. I’ll give you my opinion.
And don't EVER get in an Airbus!!
That is all!

dragonfist Loc: Stafford, N.Y.

Dirtpusher you really enlightened me. I never knew how complex and Iinterrelated the safety systems on that aircraft were. As fail-safe as it is I'd put my money down on the square that says something happened that wasn't aircraft failure but was human misconduct.

tadpole Loc: Earth

could RR tell where the location of the plane while it was monitoring the engines ?

dirtpusher Loc: tulsa oklahoma

fly by wire now days. :thumbup:

dirtpusher Loc: tulsa oklahoma

tracking is not integrated with RR, i bet it will be.

tadpole Loc: Earth

dirtpusher, where is it ???

dirtpusher Loc: tulsa oklahoma

ask d.b. cooper ;) :lol: :shock:

Dusty

I am sure this plane problem is all Pres. Obama fault. I just cannot see anybody else being at fault.

wireman8 Loc: Toledo, Ohio

What I'd like to know is why in the world aren't the transponders located somewhere on the the plane where they can't be tampered with? Didn't we learn anything from 911?

Dianakkb Loc: Norwalk, Ohio

Boy, I wish I hadn't read this. I have never been on a plane and I'm going to fly next Thursday. It's an airbus and now I'm more nervous than I was before. It was the only direct flight.

chienfou Loc: Valley Stream, NY

Can I get the Link to this? I would like to drop him a note or two.

marine73 Loc: Modesto California

Transponders are communications devices that allow air traffic control to identify each aircraft by assigning them specific four digit codes. There are codes that are not assign by air traffic control (such as 7700=hijack) that is set by the pilot or co-pilot. This alerts air traffic control that there is a problem on board the aircraft. After the hijacking of the 70's the FAA required all commercially built aircraft to have a transponder. All pilots were required to learn how to use it and the code for hijack. There is a specific way of setting the codes so that the hijack alert is not accidently sent.This goes from the Cessna 150 through boeing and airbus commercial aircraft and military aircraft.

Locating the transponder where it could not be tampered with would defeat its purpose.

marine73 Loc: Modesto California

Airbus or Boeing it doesn't matter, flying is one of the safest modes of transportation. As with every mode of transportation there are anomalys which are not the norm.

Dianakkb Loc: Norwalk, Ohio

Thank you. I've always been afraid to fly and finally decided I would do it. I'm also taking two of my granddaughters with me. After reading the airbus comment, I was questioning my decision. Our destination and return flights are both airbus.

dirtpusher Loc: tulsa oklahoma

i'd go. lol he is a little one sided about his airplanes. about like dodge drivers or ford drivers are.