Flying The Backside

The backside of the clock refers to the part of the day when most people in the time zone where you live are asleep. The mission of the 777/787 allows pilots to experience many hours of darkness. The “long haul” routine provides plenty of opportunity to contemplate the “what if ?”. The modern airliner needs the pilots’ brain more than it needs their hands. So that’s what we’re going to look at here, the pilot’s magnificent, yet fallible brain. Thanks for visiting and your comments.

Friday, November 26, 2010

The Fire Didn't Last That Long

Boeing’s 787 certification program was dealt a setback Wednesday November 9, 2010 when the test airplane ZA002 was forced to make an emergency landing at Laredo, TX after an electrical panel and the surrounding insulation caught fire. It’s never a good day when the debrief includes terms like RAT, fire truck and emergency evacuation. This comes three months after a RR Trent 1000 engine experienced an uncontained failure on the test stand. These unexpected non-normals are not limited to test aircraft. A Quantas A380 recently experienced substantial damage when it also experienced an uncontained engine failure. The point here is ...... whether we’re test pilots or “line pukes” called out on reserve, we all have to be mentally prepared for the worst.