Lot's of iron in the sky

[beepbeep]

A380 MSN 001, MSN 002, MSN 004 & MSN 009 just flew over Toulouse airport in formation. No it's not Photoshop.

You could pack 3000 people in there.

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1101677/L/

[widebody911]

I'll bet that was loud...

And there probably wasn't much iron, but a lot of Al and Mg

[Seahawk]

Originally posted by widebody911
I'll bet that was loud...

Saw one fly a demo at Farnborough a month or so ago...eerily quiet for such a huge aircraft, at least flying solo.

[M.D. Holloway]

How many airports in the US are capable to take that craft? I gotta believe it requires one heck of a long runway.

[singpilot]

Actually Mike, it uses the usual jumbo runways now in service. What it does need is room to taxi and manuever, including runways with less than standard separation. LAX is presently moving the southernmost runway farther south to increase the distance from the parallel runway. Has been needed for years, but this latest jumbo mandated the long put off change.

[M.D. Holloway]

Do pilots like flying those beasts? Does it require special training or is it one of just learning the panel?

If I was a pilot I think I would like to fly it just to see what it was like but maybe for bragging rights as well. The guys that fly the commutor jets most be envious?

[KNS]

I wouldn't mind flying it - once. I don't envy todays airline pilots, "systems managers". Modern airliners can really fly themselves, the pilot is just there to make the passengers feel okay about the flying experience in case something goes wrong (I know I wouldn't get into a pilot-less airliner).

[singpilot]

A good friend is just starting a class in France for the type rating. He flies the A300/A310 now. Is an 8 week class.

Another friend who flies for Cathay is in line for it. Says (jokingly) that a number of suggestions have come up.

- Says he could do the takeoff, turn the plane over to a cruise crew, change clothes in the crew rest area, go to the bar, drink for 3 hours, go back to the crew rest area, sleep for 10 hours, and report back to duty as Captain for the landing.

- Says all crews assigned to the plane will need to do double duty on the long flights as either a masseur or a bartender in the bowling alley.

- the HongKong-New York nonstop will need 4 cockpit crews to complete.

[304065]

Yep, the plane flies itself. It's the manuevering for traffic and thunderstorms and fault diagnosis that require that highly evolved breed of human being known as a Pilot.

Next time you pass by the cockpit door, do as I do and say "thanks."

[singpilot]

An interesting thread came up on one of the airline sites the other day.

When the 747 frst came out, the specifications for the technical standards for an instrument approach on the ILS (precision) landing system had to be rewritten. Seems the glidepath clearance zone (both vertical and lateral) needed to be 'adjusted'.

The glidepath was flown assuming maximum observable deviation, and a fudge factor thrown in. All the physical obstructions were charted and/or cleared so that a slightly below course aircraft would still not hit anything reasonably under the electronic glidepath. In landing attitude, the largest then aircraft had a pilot's eye to landing gear height of 25 feet, give or take. Sitting on the ramp, the 747 was 55 feet to the pilots' eye. In landing attitude, that grew to almost 70 feet in height for the -400.

Along comes the (long) A340 and now (long and big) A380. It was time for another 'adjustment'.

Airports all over the world are 'adjusting' their procedures and minimums to be ready.

Yes, some adjustment is cranked in electronically to the displayed glidepath in the jumbos in accordance to some spec somewhere.

[M.D. Holloway]

so the chances of a Hoot Gibson stunt is pretty much not gonna happen?

[304065]

Hmm. . . I suppose if you didn't move the ILS you would end up doing a "freight pilot's CAT III. . . " localizer into the pavement.