Letters to the Editor
vought
Published Letters: 10 Editor's Choice: 2
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I'm disappointed, but not surprised.
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As someone who loves both airplanes and the outdoors, I'm frustrated by many of the same things as the pilot, but disappointed by the things the pilot writes about in this coumn.
One of my favorite places is Yosemite. Despite the admonishments not to remove cones, artifacts, and other items from the park (in fact, it's illegal to remove anything natural from a National Park), I regularly see tourists take "just one" thing with them as they head back to parking lot.
Since the cones are necessary for the already-stressed trees in the park to reproduce, and even if only a fraction of the four million tourists a year only "take one", the whole park is affected in ways only our children will know. Like the tourist who broke the Jeffrey Pine on Sentinel dome a couple of years ago, when something singular is taken, it can't be put back or substituted.
I admire and respect virtually everything the pilot has written here over the years, but on this, I can't hold my tongue - return these items, if you can. They're not yours.
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Good technical info from Boeing about fuel dumping systems.
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If you read this article from Boeing's Aero magazine, you'll understand a bit more about fuel "dumping" (jettisoning).
http://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/articles/qtr_3_07/article_03_2.html
Most airliners used for domestic travel don't require or don't have fuel dumping equipment installed. That's because jets like the 737 and 757 can land (as Patrick explained) at or near their maximum takeoff weight.
A few years ago here in the Bay Area, a United Airlines 747 leaving SFO experienced an engine failure and narrowly missed hitting Mount San Bruno. The fully-booked and loaded jet, which was en route to Tokyo at the time then had to orbit for some time offshore to dump several thousand pounds of fuel in order to land safely at SFO.
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MythBusters?
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[Read more letters about this article: Here]" Did MythBusters create their own myth while trying to deflate some others?"
I believe so.
While I'm not a professional pilot, I believe that while the Ames Flight Simulator manager helped the MythBusters (MB) crew into a successful landing, it's just not that easy.
1. Passengers wouldn't be able to gain entrance to the cockpit, even if the pilot and co-pilot were incapacitated.
2. While the Ames simulator is accurate, it can be tuned for local conditions. In other words, I don't think they had to deal with downwash from the Rockies, crosswinds, thunderstorms, etc.
3. While modern airliners are 'easy' to fly, any ease is bred from familiarity. I think the MB ignored this truth.
4. They were flying an A320 - not any easier or harder than your garden variety jetliner, but it uses different (sidestick a.k.a. joystick) controls. While this wouldn't affect the talk-down method, it may be easier for the untrained to use. I think this is an intersting question.
5. Controlled situation. No consequences, less stress. If you have 20 people sitting behind you, there may be considerably more pressure, not to mention the fact that the U.S. Air Force might shoot you out of the sky if you managed to make it to the cockpit anyway.
Still, Adam and Jamie's adventure looked like a lot of fun. I'd love to try out the Ames simulator myself - as an avid X-Plane user, the full-motion experience would be great if I could rent it by the hour.
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Bad gas?
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[Read more letters about this article: Here]Given the cold soak that occurs when airliners are aloft for many hours, I speculate that the fuel system could have been contaminated by bad fuel from China - but as one of many theories, I guess I'll have to sit tight and wait until the AAIB is done.
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Merger? Remember American/Reno Air?
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I had the misfortune of trying to get across the country during the pilot's strike during the Reno Air acquisition by American. While we eventually made it to Louisiana from San Jose, it took 24 hours and several plane changes. Of course, that situation pales with some of the indignities experienced by passengers these days.
If there's one thing I can say for sure about possible mergers, it's that the passenger experience won't get better. Because of the proliferation of regional jets at all carriers, the skies will remain just as crowded with high-utilization/low passenger count minijets and scheduling won't get any better in the forseeable future.
The impulse to serve all markets equally with small jets to gain the most passengers on backbone routes will dampen any synergies created by a merger; witness US Airways and America West; USA's jets are just as dirty and shoddily maintained as ever, and now the AW regional jets are just as filthy as USA's ever were.
I fear for Delta if they step into a merger with Northwest. All those DC-9s are on their last legs anyway, and Delta's 737-800s would be underutilized with those passenger loads. It would add a second east coast hub to Delta's network...along with the Northwest hub at Detroit. No good news there.
You know, I'd gladly pay another $200/ticket to have electrical outlets at each seat and a 34-inch seat pitch again. It seems the smaller airlines - JetBlue, Virgin American - have gotten this right. Maybe instead of merging or trying to create expensive offshoot airlines (Ted? Are you kidding?) the majors should look at splitting off independent, segmented businesses; United for transpacific travel, New United for Domestic, Home for hub-to-tertiary market service.
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I would like to understand....
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[Read more letters about this article: Here]...the relative efficiency of a fleet of many smaller planes (regional jets) versus the cost of delays in the ATC system delays and in-air fuel burn costs caused by the larger number of small jets overall.
Efficient? Probably not.