Oh Alaska/Boeing

[DE727UPS]

The door is found in a high school physics teachers backyard. You can't make this stuff up. I can see physics problems for the kids to figure out what the terminal velocity of a cabin door is. Portland teacher ‘Bob’ recounts finding Alaska Airlines door in yard

 

[trafficinsight]

Bob comin in clutch... everybody's like "where's the door where's the door?" And Bob just over here Rollin up his sleeves and firing up the ol' chevy.

 

[Boris Badenov]

That guy is like the Eidos of physics teachers, beard and all.

 

[Cherokee_Cruiser]

I would care less about the door in this situation, however that is different than not knowing it would happen. Would be pretty scary to have the cockpit door blow open out of nowhere and have no idea why. To me, it would be nice to know that it’s designed to do that in this situation. I guess I’m in the minority on this one.

If your cockpit door has blown out due to explosive decompression, you’re gonna know. Just take the word for it.

 

[inigo88]

if there’s a cheat code to make an EICAS show on one of those big shiny new screens I’d forgive all the rest of the nonsense

Turns out the cheat code went in the wrong direction, and put analog gauges on the PFD and ND.

 

[Minuteman]

Does Boeing still do the thing where the direction of overhead panel switches is a customer-configurable option? E.g., some airlines wanted "down"/"forward" to be the on state for external lights, and others want "up"/"back" to be on, so different aircraft of the same type have different switch throws. Maybe that's just chaffing the nerds, tho.

 

[///AMG]

That guy is like the Eidos of physics teachers, beard and all.

My sister in law has been teaching in the PDX district for a long time. I'll have to see if she knows him. Classic Bob

 

[///AMG]

Turns out the cheat code went in the wrong direction, and put analog gauges on the PFD and ND.

eww

 

[///AMG]

Does Boeing still do the thing where the direction of overhead panel switches is a customer-configurable option? E.g., some airlines wanted "down"/"forward" to be the on state for external lights, and others want "up"/"back" to be on, so different aircraft of the same type have different switch throws. Maybe that's just chaffing the nerds, tho.

also eww

 

[Boris Badenov]

Vis a vis "it's in the manuals"...eh, are you sure?

I could never find anything on just what "flare assist" does on the 747-8. There are five mentions that I can find.

1) The QRH lets you know that with the "FLARE ASSIST" EICAS message, "higher than normal column forces may be required during flare. Use flaps 25 and VREF 25 for landing." and "Select the FLARE ASSIST non-normal when requesting landing performance"...then? CHECKLIST COMPLETE.
2) The AOM gives you performance tables for landing flaps 25 with the "flare assist" EICAS message, presumably in case the ACARS performance isn't working for whatever reason.
3) The FRM gives you a fault code, naturally
4) The Systems Manual....THE SYSTEMS MANUAL just gives you the EICAS message, the alert level, that there is an aural warning, and the "message logic" which is "Landing flare assist is inoperative". That's it. It broke. We no know why broke. Land plane, get banana.
5) The most useful of all? It's in the MEL! Where else would it be??? It helpfully informs you that with the FLARE ASSIST Caution "Flare compensation is inoperative due to failure conditions". It doesn't work because it's broken! Thank you, that's helpful! "Flare compensation is provided by elevator flare pitch augmentation" So it compensates by...compensating? "NOTE: Spoiler direct lift control is no longer used" Spoiler...spoiler DIRECT LIFT CON...WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?

The answer is of course that this seems to be the only mention of "spoiler direct lift control" in anything I have access to. What is it? It controls lift, I guess. How does it work? Shut up and press the buttons.

Anyway, point being, I would not just casually assume that *anything* is "in the manuals if you dig enough". *shrug*

 

[knot4u]

Vis a vis "it's in the manuals"...eh, are you sure?

I could never find anything on just what "flare assist" does on the 747-8. There are five mentions that I can find.

1) The QRH lets you know that with the "FLARE ASSIST" EICAS message, "higher than normal column forces may be required during flare. Use flaps 25 and VREF 25 for landing." and "Select the FLARE ASSIST non-normal when requesting landing performance"...then? CHECKLIST COMPLETE.
2) The AOM gives you performance tables for landing flaps 25 with the "flare assist" EICAS message, presumably in case the ACARS performance isn't working for whatever reason.
3) The FRM gives you a fault code, naturally
4) The Systems Manual....THE SYSTEMS MANUAL just gives you the EICAS message, the alert level, that there is an aural warning, and the "message logic" which is "Landing flare assist is inoperative". That's it. It broke. We no know why broke. Land plane, get banana.
5) The most useful of all? It's in the MEL! Where else would it be??? It helpfully informs you that with the FLARE ASSIST Caution "Flare compensation is inoperative due to failure conditions". It doesn't work because it's broken! Thank you, that's helpful! "Flare compensation is provided by elevator flare pitch augmentation" So it compensates by...compensating? "NOTE: Spoiler direct lift control is no longer used" Spoiler...spoiler DIRECT LIFT CON...WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?

The answer is of course that this seems to be the only mention of "spoiler direct lift control" in anything I have access to. What is it? It controls lift, I guess. How does it work? Shut up and press the buttons.

Anyway, point being, I would not just casually assume that *anything* is "in the manuals if you dig enough". *shrug*

Is there a phone number anywhere in that book that you can call for some clarification? If it's there is probably on the backside of one of the first few pages.

 

[Minuteman]

Idn't that the SPAS(?) where they bias the stabilizer and symmetric spoiler deflection to MD-11-up the landing squirrelly-ness. There ya are.

 

[Boris Badenov]

Is there a phone number anywhere in that book that you can call for some clarification? If it's there is probably on the backside of one of the first few pages.

Ew, gross, talk on the PHONE? Whatever, Boomer!

Idn't that the SPAS(?) where they bias the stabilizer and symmetric spoiler deflection to MD-11-up the landing squirrelly-ness. There ya are.

I mean I'm sure it's...whatever you said. Point was more like "we're on the mushroom plan on lots of stuff, some of which is arguably more important than how the decompression panels work."

 

[NovemberEcho]

I could never find anything on just what "flare assist" does on the 747-8

It helps people with limp noodle spaghetti arms such as yourself pull back on the yoke

 

[scooter2525]

Can I give my answer in unusual units of measure? Newton meters and so on?

I need to see in bananas, for scale.

 

[Boris Badenov]

It helps people with limp noodle spaghetti arms such as yourself pull back on the yoke

Some day maybe you can coach me on getting all swole by doing pencil-reps.

 

[knot4u]

Ew, gross, talk on the PHONE? Whatever, Boomer!



I mean I'm sure it's...whatever you said. Point was more like "we're on the mushroom plan on lots of stuff, some of which is arguably more important than how the decompression panels work."

I know you took my post as the humor it was meant to be. But I do have an honest question, on the MX side when we come up against a question or problem that the books don't explain properly or at all we can always call Tech Ops, every manufacturer (maybe not Lockheed) has people employed waiting to pick up the phone and provide clarification or advice. Do the manufacturers not offer this sort of service to pilots? Maybe they figure once you get through the schoolhouse they're done and you get to go off into the world remembering everything your instructor told you in class. I've been through some MX initial training but I have no idea how type ratings are treated after you go back home.

 

[Boris Badenov]

I know you took my post as the humor it was meant to be. But I do have an honest question, on the MX side when we come up against a question or problem that the books don't explain properly or at all we can always call Tech Ops, every manufacturer (maybe not Lockheed) has people employed waiting to pick up the phone and provide clarification or advice. Do the manufacturers not offer this sort of service to pilots? Maybe they figure once you get through the schoolhouse they're done and you get to go off into the world remembering everything your instructor told you in class. I've been through some MX initial training but I have no idea how type ratings are treated after you go back home.

I did, and fully chuckled, too. We certainly have SMEs who are reachable through the company, and if we have a question which they can't answer, we wind up talking to someone at the manufacturer. The later hasn't happened to me yet, but it is available (I'm told).

 

[BobDDuck]

Does Boeing still do the thing where the direction of overhead panel switches is a customer-configurable option? E.g., some airlines wanted "down"/"forward" to be the on state for external lights, and others want "up"/"back" to be on, so different aircraft of the same type have different switch throws. Maybe that's just chaffing the nerds, tho.

It's more of a European/US convention difference. In the US, towards the windshield/forward is considered on, and back/away from the windshield is considered off. In Europe (and Asia I think) it's the other way around. For reasons I'm not sure of, our primary sim for the 330 has the European switches installed, even though all of the actual aircraft we fly have the US switches installed.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Turns out the cheat code went in the wrong direction, and put analog gauges on the PFD and ND.

That's how SWA wanted them. I believe they finally switched over to a normal PFD ND around 2013 when they started using VNAV. Took several more years to go from the single cue to the dual cue flight director.

Don't know what to tell ya. Takes a lot of ocean to turn the Titanic. Our NGs still don't have the fuel totalizer turned on.