Holiday flights.......your nightmares and (maybe) positives.

[DaveReading]

I was on a plane that took off from Fort Lauderdale, hit a flock of turkey buzzards on the way up. Both engines were on fire, had to make an immediate emergency landing. The pilot couldn't use air braking when we landed so had to rely on the landing gear brakes to stop us, had a fleet of fire engines waiting to hose down the wheels due to the heat generated. Quite a few people were in tears!!

Happily, the regulations that govern the design of aircraft specify that brakes alone should be capable of stopping a landing aircraft in the distance available. The other stuff (thrust reverse, air brakes, etc) is just a bonus.

 

[swee'pea99]

crisps that were so stale I could actually bend them

That's funnier than almost anything on the jokes thread.

 

[mustang1]

London to Antalya: 13 hours.

Everything ran on schedule but the holiday organizer didn't want to pay a few £s extra otherwise we would have been there in half the time. El cheapo economics.

 

[DaveReading]

[QUOTE 4858704, member: 45"]How does that fit in with the need to dump fuel when a plane is "too heavy to land"?

I'm not being argumentative, I'm genuinely interested.[/QUOTE]

I don't mind you being argumentative.

Dumping (or burning off) fuel gets the aircraft down a low enough weight such that it could land safely on the chosen runway, if necessary using only brakes.

Of course in practice the pilot would also use reverse thrust (on the belt and braces principle, and to reduce brake wear), but the aircraft must still be capable of stopping with brakes alone.

 

[MontyVeda]

I've only ever done one long-haul trip... it was OK but after 8 hours in the cabin, i had to endure incredibly chapped lips for the rest of the week. Apart from smearing them with Vaseline every half hour, I'm not sure how i can avoid that the next time. (suggestions welcome)

 

[mjr]

I've only ever done one long-haul trip... it was OK but after 8 hours in the cabin, i had to endure incredibly chapped lips for the rest of the week. Apart from smearing them with Vaseline every half hour, I'm not sure how i can avoid that the next time. (suggestions welcome)

Lip salve, same as many people use on the bike. Protects longer than regular Vaseline. Vaseline even make a lip salve but AFAIK it only comes in a gooey tin whereas I prefer the stick sorts like Dr Organic or Neutral genas.

 

[Beebo]

[QUOTE 4858704, member: 45"]How does that fit in with the need to dump fuel when a plane is "too heavy to land"?

I'm not being argumentative, I'm genuinely interested.[/QUOTE]
I always thought the dumping of fuel was also to reduce fire risk if the plane does run off the runway.