Author: Jon Ostrower

Travel Day: DCA-IAH- PHX, originally uploaded by flightblogger.

Good morning from seat 21A on Continental Flight 559 to Houston. Taking advantage of Continental’s new membership in Star Alliance. Haven’t flown CO in almost a decade. This 737-800 is my ride this morning on the first leg to MRO Americas. Going to be an extremely
busy week for the US crew from Flightglobal, as we’ll be putting together our second iFDN (interactive Flight Daily News) that we started in Singapore. Stay tuned folks, there is going to be a very special surprise coming later this week. P.s. Any one know what the tail number on this flight is? Door plaque (installed in RNT) said build no 700.

UPDATE: Well, with all your help I figured it out. The plaque on the door read “certificate number”, which now makes a lot more sense and referred to Boeing’s production certificate PC 700. First leg on 559 was flown with N26208 and the second was a wingletted 757-200 (N14118), which I misread as ship 778. That’s what I get for trying to read nose landing gear door markings through the opening on the jetway.

Early next week, Boeing’s 747-8F flight test program will begin to transition to Palmdale, California for the core of the jumbo’s certification campaign. RC521 is expected to fly from Boeing Field to Palmdale as early as Monday, April 19. Meanwhile, RC501 continues flutter testing while it is based at Moses Lake, while RC522 continues ground and flight testing at Boeing Field. The remainder of the 747-8F’s flight test campaign is expected to be based at the company’s Palmdale facility.

Boeing Commercial Airplanes, which just officially joined twitter this week, sent out a link today to a 1999 article in Aero magazine, the company’s technical journal, about encountering volcanic ash clouds. If you should find yourself inside a volcanic ash cloud, Boeing recommends taking nine steps to getting yourself, your crew and your passengers out of harms way. While you can read the complete article here, I’ll went ahead and illustrated the recommendations with photos from a Delta 777-200LR, to give you a sense of the interaction pilots would have in this situation.

Procedures. The following nine procedures are general recommendations. Each operator’s flight operations manuals will include more specific directions.

1. Reduce thrust to idle immediately. By reducing thrust, engines may suffer less buildup of molten debris on turbine blades and hot-section components. Idle thrust allows engines to continue producing electrical power, bleed air for pressurization, and hydraulic power for airplane control.
2. Turn the autothrottles off. This prevents the engines from increasing thrust above idle. Ash debris in the engine can result in reduced surge margins, and limiting the number of thrust adjustments improves the chances of engine recovery.
3. Exit the ash cloud as quickly as possible. A 180-deg turn out of the ash cloud using a descending turn is the quickest exit strategy. Many ash clouds extend for hundreds of miles, so assuming that the encounter will end shortly can be false. Climbing out of the ash could result in increased engine debris buildup as the result of increased temperatures. The increased engine buildup can cause total thrust loss.
4. Turn on engine and wing anti-ice devices and all air-conditioning packs. These actions improve the engine stall margins by increasing the flow of bleed air.
5. If possible, start the auxiliary power unit (APU). The APU can power systems in the event of a multiple-engine power loss. It can also be used to restart engines through the use of APU bleed air.
6. If volcanic dust fills the flight deck, the crew may need to use oxygen. Use flight deck oxygen at the 100 percent setting. Manual deployment of the passenger oxygen system is not required because it will deploy automatically if the cabin altitude exceeds 14,000 ft.
7. Turn on the continuous ignition. Confirm that autostart is on, if available. In the event that the engines flame out or stall, use appropriate procedures to restart the engines. During restart, the engines may take longer than normal to reach idle thrust due to the combined effects of high altitude and volcanic ash ingestion. If an engine fails to start, try restarting it again immediately. Flight crews should remember that the airplane may be out of the airstart envelope if the encounter occurs during cruise.
8. Monitor engine exhaust gas temperature (EGT). Because of potential engine debris buildup, the EGT can climb excessively. The flight crew should prevent EGT exceedances. Shut down the engine and restart it if the EGT is approaching limits similar to a hung start.
9. Fly the airplane by monitoring airspeed and pitch attitude. If necessary, follow the procedure for flight with unreliable airspeed.

I know for a fact a lot of you reading this blog right now are engineering students working on really great projects, and I think you might want to read this. Boeing and Flightglobal want to make sure you’re recognized for your hard work. Boeing is sponsoring the fifth annual Engineering Student of the Year in association with Flightglobal.

While little is known about the Canadian airframer’s secret business jet, codenamed M170, blips of information are beginning to connect the dots to a real name for Bombardier’s new large-cabin long-range business jet to take on the G650. The Global Express II (two) appears to have emerged as the name chosen for the new jet.

Earlier this month, Southwest Airlines initiated RNP operations following a $175 million investment that will eventually see its entire fleet flying with RNP by the end of 2013. For the first part of the transition of its fleet to RNP operations, Southwest is changing the pilot’s view from the flight deck of its 737-700s. RNP or Required Navigation Performance allows aircraft to fly more precise tailored paths between two points, enabling faster routes to cut flight times, noise, fuel consumption and carbon emissions.

Before transitioning to RNP, Southwest’s 737-700s were set up so pilots would see the Electronic Flight Instrument System (EFIS/MAP) format gauges (top) placing the the attitude indicator, HSI, DME, airspeed indicator, altimeter and vertical speed indicator in the same location as the carrier’s older 737-300s. Boeing provided this layout as an option to airlines to duplicate the functionality of the Classic 737 flight deck for the Next Generation variants. Southwest’s EFIS/MAP format is now being replaced through a software change with the large format Primary Flight Display and Navigation Display (PFD/ND) to render the precision RNP approach and departure paths.

The PFD combines the individual features of the EFIS into a single integrated display with a speed tape to the left, altitude and vertical speed indicator to the right, compass at the bottom and brown and blue attitude indicator at the center, similar to the layout on the 777 and 747-400 and -8.

During its transition to the new displays, the airline has opted to keep the side-by-side format for the Common Display System (CDS) Engine Instrumentation and Crew Alerting System (EICAS) (left), displaying all relevant engine data on the same level as the navigation data. Again, this format was created to mirror the same geographical locations as the gauges on the 737-300 to maintain commonality with the Next Generation models. The “over-under” format was designed to mirror the 777’s engine displays, by placing the 737’s secondary engine gauges on the lower EICAS screen.

Additionally, the airline’s 737-300s will be getting an even more extreme makeover for the RNP transition, starting with the installation of 15.4in LCD displays to replace the steam gauges analog dial gauges. The first -300s with the new large-screen displays are expected to enter the fleet in early 2011.

A very special thank you to the Southwest Airlines pilot who supplied these before and after photos from the front office aboard two Boeing 737-700 aircraft.

Airplane 20, the first 787 for JAL, currently sits unpainted inside Building 40-26 on the final assembly line in Everett. The aircraft will eventually become JA851J and wear a special livery to commemorate the Japanese carrier’s first 787. Closeups of the design elements are available here, which appear to have been chosen in a contest from submissions by children. I don’t speak a word of Japanese, so any help with the translation would be greatly appreciated. 

Still unanswered is what will the first ANA 787 wear? Airplane 7, ZA100, has an ANA tail and an all white fuselage. New colors? Special livery?

A huge tip of the hat to Yvan Greenaway on this one.

Graphic Credit JAL