Mike
:

On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 04:08:51 GMT, "Colin W Kingsbury"
wrote:


"No Spam" wrote in message newsgsZd.4290

All pilots train to make such "dead stick" landings as
a routine part of training, in any type of airplane.


Perhaps now they do. If you read the detailed accounts of the "Gimli
Glider" episode when an Air Canada 767 lost both engines to fuel
starvation, the pilot clearly states that their training did *not*
account for the possibility. Understandably so- MTBF on those engines
is in the 100s of thousands of hours and airline procedures make fuel
exhaustion unimaginable. And unsinkable ships can't hit icebergs
either.

I'm beginning to wonder a little about Air Transat. I just read about
one of their A310 rudders snapping off. The plane landed back in
Varadero ok. So it seems their pilots are trained OK but perhaps their
maintenance & ops departments need some work.

-cwk.

Isn't it the A310 that also lost a tail and crashed in New York City a
month or 2 after 9/11. IIRC, there is a particular airplane that the
manufacturer says "don't use the rudder too hard" because if you do,
the tail could break off.

Actually, that's all of them. They didn't "use the rudder too hard" they
banged it back and forth fairly violently. There's no jet transport flying
designed to take that. It's outside certification requirements and until
materials with a considerably higher strength-weight ratio can be developed
it will remain that way.



Bertie

Posted Via Usenet.com Premium Usenet Newsgroup Services
----------------------------------------------------------
** SPEED ** RETENTION ** COMPLETION ** ANONYMITY **
----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.usenet.com