Aviation – Page 52 – Take off with Natarajan

What Causes Turbulance ?….Is It Dangerous ?

August 30, 2013Natarajan2 Comments

Turbulence is what nervous fliers fear the most when they board an aircraft. It is also the most common cause of injury to air passengers – pilots will always keep their seatbelts fastened while seated on an aircraft and will usually advise you to do the same. But is it really something to be afraid of? British Airways pilot Steve Allright explains.

What causes turbulence, and is it dangerous?
What causes turbulence?
Many different things may cause turbulence, but each and every one of them is known and understood by pilots. Every day I fly, I expect a small amount of turbulence, just as I’d expect the odd bump in the road on the drive to work. Turbulence is uncomfortable but not dangerous. It is part of flying, and is not to be feared.
Different aspects of the weather cause different types of turbulence. CAT is an abbreviation for Clear Air Turbulence – the most common form of turbulence you are likely to experience.

Air tends to flow as a horizontal snaking river called a jet stream. A jet stream can sometimes be thousands of miles long but is usually only a few miles wide and deep. Depending on the direction of travel, our flight planners either avoid (into a headwind) or use (into a tailwind) these jet streams to cut fuel costs, as they can flow up to 250 mph. Just like a fast-flowing river swirling against the riverbank, where the edge of the jet stream interacts with slower moving air, there may be some mixing of the air which causes turbulence.

Can it be avoided?

You cannot see CAT, you cannot detect it on radar and you cannot accurately forecast it, but there are other ways of avoiding it. In the main we rely reports from other aircraft, which we hear either directly or which are passed on by air traffic control. We then consider the options available to us. Our endeavours to fly at an altitude that has been reported as smooth may be prevented by several constraints such another aircraft occupying that level, or the weight of the aircraft at that time.

Whatever the circumstances, your pilot will find the most comfortable path to your destination without compromising your safety. Just like you, we experience the movement and would prefer a smoother ride.

Is turbulence more likely on certain routes?

Any airport is at the mercy of strong winds on any given day. The same applies to jet streams on any given route, although there is generally more chance of turbulence crossing the ITCZ (Intertropical Convergence Zone) when flying south across Africa, for example.

How bad can turbulence get?

Flight crews around the world share a common classification of turbulence: light, moderate and severe. The definitions are laid down in our manuals and help us to make an assessment as to what our course of action should be. For the fearful flyer, even light turbulence can be upsetting. For pilots, light turbulence is no different to a bumpy road for a taxi driver or a slightly uneven section of track for a train driver – a small, but totally safe, inconvenience and very much part of our daily lives. In light turbulence, the aircraft may be deviating by just a few feet in altitude.

Moderate turbulence strikes no fear into pilots, as they will experience this level of turbulence for a few hours in every thousand hours they fly. It usually lasts for no more than 10 or 15 minutes, but occasionally may last for several hours, on and off. This sort of turbulence will unsettle even some regular travellers and will cause drinks to spill. The aircraft may be deviating in altitude by 10 or 20 feet. No action is required by the pilot to control the aircraft, but the flight crew may decide to try a different altitude if the turbulence persists.

Severe turbulence is extremely rare. In a flying career of over 10,000 hours, I have experienced severe turbulence for about five minutes in total. It is extremely uncomfortable but not dangerous. The aircraft may be deviating in altitude by up to 100 feet (30 metres) or so, up as well as down, but nothing like the thousands of feet you hear some people talking about when it comes to turbulence.

I should stress that this level of turbulence is so rare that leisure travellers will almost certainly never experience it and nor will most business people.

Steve Allright is a British Airways training captain and co-author of the new book Flying with Confidence. British Airways regularly runs “Flying with Confidence” courses at airport around the UK. Seewww.flyingwithconfidence.com

source:::::The Telegraph UK

natarajan

Golden Age Of AirTravel…. Thro ” The Lense of a Flight Attendant !!!

August 24, 2013Natarajan1 Comment

A Lebanese photographer who worked as a flight attendant for nearly ten years has documented the behind-the-scenes life of air crew.
Lucien Samaha’s love affair with aircraft started when he was a young boy. His father and uncles worked for an airline and he spent the first ten years of his life flying first class to spend time with his family.
Samaha, who always carried a camera with him, has recently exhibited a selection of the 600 plus images he took during his time flying with TWA.

Team work: Crew members enjoy a mid-flight shoulder rub in 1982

Boarding pass: Pilots and flight attendants sit on the steps of the plane in Frankfurt in 1983

Light hearted: A stewardess jokes around on board a flight in 1985

‘Flight Attendants epitomized international glamor and adventure to me. Growing up, I often dreamed of becoming one,’ he said.

High life: Samaha with his father in 1958, who also worked on airlines

As his 18th birthday approached Samaha, who had studied photography in high school, realized the life of luxury he had experienced for free on board planes would end.

‘I wouldn’t be able to jaunt around the world at will, for free – something I had been used to all my life,’ he said.

‘My only solution was to follow my childhood dream and become a flight attendant.’

On his 20th birthday Samaha was hired by TWA and began studying at the Breech Training Academy. He took photographs nearly the entire time, according to Slate.

‘I was shooting everything during that time, from fashion photography in Milan to photographing on layovers … street photography around the world,’ he said.

It was a glamorous period for flying. Samaha learned how to carve chateaubriand and how to serve caviar in first class as he worked on flights from Chicago, Tel Aviv, Rome and Paris.

Samaha, a documentary photographer who was part of the launch team for Kodak’s first digital camera and explained that he often used small cameras to help his subjects feel more relaxed.

Sky’s the limit: The moon shines over this passenger jet as it waits at JFK in New York in 1982

Driving seat: A first officer sits in the cockpit of a TWA aircraft in 1978

Ground crew: Drivers in Cairo wait to meet the plane in 1982

round crew: Drivers in Cairo wait to meet the plane in 1982

‘People become relaxed with a small point-and-shoot camera, and that’s my aesthetic. I like intimacy … the smaller and quirkier the camera, the better—and I feel l can take great pictures with it,’ he said.

A collection of photos from that time, entitled The Flight Attendant Years: 1978-1986, is being shown at the Lombard Freid Gallery in New York. Many of Samaha’s former colleagues on the airlines have been invited to the gallery to view the images.

His work can also be viewed at Luciensamaha.net.

Turbo: Crew pose in one of the engines in 1978

Training camp: New recruits at the Breech Academy in 1978

Training camp: New recruits at the Breech Academy in 1978.

High jinx: Air crew celebrate Easter in Las Vegas in 1982

Arrivals: An attendant rides the shuttle bus at Cairo airport in 1983

An attendant rides the shuttle bus at Cairo airport in 1983

Going places: Samaha combined his love of air travel and photography for eight years

source::::mailonline .com uk

natarajan

“World”s Best Airport” to Double Its Capacity with New Terminal !!!

August 19, 2013August 19, 2013NatarajanLeave a comment

Airs and graces: Singapore's Changi Airport.

Singapore will build a new terminal that will double the capacity of Changi Airport in a bid to retain its edge as a regional aviation hub, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Sunday.

Construction work will begin soon and will be completed in 12 to 15 years, Lee announced in his annual policy speech.

“T5 (Terminal 5) sounds like a terminal, but it is actually a whole airport by itself, as big as today’s Changi Airport,” said Lee.
Singapore's Changi Airport: you could spend a few weeks here and not realise you missed your flight.

SINGAPORE’S CHANGI AIRPORT

Singapore’s Changi Airport: you could spend a few weeks here and not realise you missed your flight!!!

He did not reveal the cost of the new facility, but said it would include a third runway that would double the capacity of Changi, which handled 51.2 million passengers last year.

Changi Airport, named the world’s best by Britain-based consultancy Skytrax this year, currently has three terminals with a total capacity of 66 million passengers a year.

In February it started to demolish its terminal for budget airlines to replace it with a larger facility.

The new facility, Terminal 4, will have the capacity to handle 16 million passengers a year when it opens in 2017.

In his speech late Sunday, Lee said there was growing competition from other major international airports in Southeast Asia.

He noted that Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi Airport are planning to expand.

“The question is do we want to stay this vibrant hub of Southeast Asia, or do we want to let somebody take over our position, our business and our jobs?” Lee said.

Passenger traffic at Changi totalled 51.2 million last year, the first time in the airport’s 31-year history that the number of people passing through crossed 50 million.

As of January 1, 2013, Changi handled more than 6500 weekly scheduled flights with 110 airlines connecting Singapore to 240 cities in 60 countries.

source::::Sydney Morning Herald

natarajan

An Airline Turns Around to Pickup A Child Left Behind @Terminal !!!

August 17, 2013August 17, 2013NatarajanLeave a comment

An Israeli airline – with the support of everyone on-board – turned around a plane to pick up an 11-year-old cancer patient.

All set to fly to New York August 7 to attend a camp for paediatric cancer patients, Inbar Chomsky, was taken off an El-Al Airlines flight after her passport went missing. Despite a frantic search by airline staff, passengers and the group Chomsky was travelling with, her passport was gone, flight attendants had no choice but to remove the sick girl.

Tears in their eyes, everyone said good bye to the devastated young girl after a half hour search aided by airline staff and passengers failed to turn up the girl’s passport, according to Haaretz.

She made it: A very happy Inbar Chomsky with her found passport at Camp Simcha

‘El Al sadly called her mother to tell her that Inbar’s passport was lost and that the girl, who had been fighting illness so valiantly, would not be able to fly to Camp Simcha’ Rabbi Yaakov Pinsky, director of of the Israeli branch of Chai Lifeline wrote in Yeshiva World News. ‘What a horrible experience for an 11 year old girl.’

Minutes after the doors closed and the plane taxied away from the gate, a fellow camper looking through another girl’s backpack found Chomsky’s passport and told flight attendants, according to Haaretz.

What happened next is virtually unheard of, especially post-9/11.

The plane’s pilots immediately stopped the plane, according to Haaretz, and after about 45 minutes were able to convince air traffic control to let them return to the gate to pick Chomsky up, Pinsky wrote.

Planes almost never turn around: No one could believe the plane returned to pick up Chomsky

Still overcoming her disappointment while at the gate with Elad Maimon, program director of the Israeli branch of Chai Lifeline, Chomsky and others watched in disbelief as the plane turned around, said Haaretz. ‘The flight attendants could not believe their eyes,’ Maimon told the paper. ‘They told me they had never seen such a thing.’

‘Planes rarely return to the gate after departing, read an El Al statement, continuing that ‘after consulting with El Al crew on the plane and El Al staff at the airport the decision was made and the plane returned to pick up Inbar.’

Passengers cheered and cried, wrote Pinsky, saying they shared ‘Inbar’s happiness and excitement,’ and calling it ‘one of the greatest moments’ he has ever witnessed.

source:::::mailonline.comUK

NATARAJAN

Check out What Economy Class Flying Looked Like In 1970s !!!

August 17, 2013August 17, 2013Natarajan1 Comment

1960s 1747

Everyone’s always whining about how flying sucks now compared to the way it used to be.

Judging from the photo above,, they might have a point.

This photo was tweeted this morning by Soren Dragsbaek Holm. It’s reportedly a shot of an economy-class cabin on a 747 from the 1960s. (The first 747 flew in January, 1970. It’s possible this photo was taken earlier).

UPDATE: Folks on Reddit think the photo is actually a “staged” version of a 747 cabin, which is certainly possible. The cabin has one fewer seat across than today’s cabins, though, and the luggage compartments are smaller, both of which make the cabin look bigger than today’s. So even if it’s a mock-up, it’s likely close to reality. A saved version of the photo here refers to it as a “mock-up,” so perhaps it was used to educate folks as to what flying on a 747 would be like.

UPDATE 2: And hold everything! The photo actually came from a feature that we did a few days ago. It’s from the Pan-Am archives. Check it and others out here.

Of course, when folks pine for the old days of flying, they ignore how relatively cheap and safe this mode of travel has become. Flying cost an arm and a leg in the 1960s. And there were lots more plane crashes.

If people really wanted comfort and service above price today, they’d pony up for First Class or Business Class. And there would be airlines that sold seats on the basis of comfort and service instead of price. But the truth is that the most important factor for most flyers is price. So we get what we pay for.
source:::::businessinsider.com

natarajan

Was Airtravel More Fun In 1930s !!!!!

August 10, 2013August 10, 2013NatarajanLeave a comment

Picture: Qantas

SEVENTY five years ago, there was great excitement when Qantas launched its first Short Empire Flying Boat service between Rose Bay and Singapore.

In what’s a bizarre sight to today’s flyers, passengers climbed the wings of the plane and stood on top, as the aircraft sat in the water.

How things have changed …

The fascinating image is part of a collection of historic photographs Qantas has shared on social media sites to celebrate the 75th anniversary of its original Short Empire Flying Boat service.

They provide an insight into what flying was like in the early days of commercial air travel and leave us wondering, was flying more fun – and glamorous – back then?

Sure, it took three days to fly between Sydney’s first international airport at Rose Bay, to Singapore’s Kallang Airport. But what an adventure.

There were overnight stops in Townsville, Darwin and Surabaya, Indonesia.

The planes sat on the water. Picture: Qantas Source: Supplied

The flight would have been made more bearable by the fact there were just 15 passengers on each flight, so there was plenty of room. Plus there were large windows and huge seats.

Inside the flying boat. Picture: QANTAS

The Short Empire flying boat service was replaced in 1943 by the long-range Catalina flying boat. The airline began with joy flights in 1920.

What a difference … Picture: Qantas Source: Supplied

Waiting for takeoff. Picture: Qantas What the flight attendants used to wear. Picture: Qantas

source:::::news.com.au

natarajan

Fighting Fire With an Aircraft !!!! …Amazing Photograph !!!!

August 10, 2013NatarajanLeave a comment

The Corona Fire Department is working hard to battle a wildfire that started Thursday about 90 miles away from Los Angeles.

The department has posted some photos of its efforts to its Facebook page, including this incredible shot of a DC-10 air tanker flying over a residential area.

The plane is commonly used to fight wildfires.

source:::::businessinsider.com

natarajan

Miraculous!!!….Pilot Walks Away From The Crashed Plane with a Thumb Injury !!!

August 7, 2013NatarajanLeave a comment

A pilot has had a narrow escape after walking away from a crashed plane with nothing more than a grazed thumb.

Alan Bray, 59, was left trapped and hanging by his harness in the cockpit for 40 minutes in the small two-seater plane, which plummeted into hedgerows after what is believed to be an engine failure.

The experienced pilot was forced to attempt a crash landing in a field at Pastures Farm, near the village of Loxley after he realised he had encountered problems.

Alan Bray had a miraculous escape from a plane crash in Warwickshire, emerging from the aircraft embedded upside down in a hedgerow with only a graze on his thumb

The pilot was left trapped in the small two-seater plane, hanging by his harness in the cockpit for forty minutes while shocked residents called the emergency services

After briefly touching down, the blue and white plane smashed through a fence and on to a private road, before flipping over on its nose and into the hedgerow – held into position only by an electric line.

Apart from a ‘bloody thumb’, Mr Bray, who has been flying for ten years, suffered no serious injuries in the crash, and even came back later that day to wrestle his aircraft out of the hedge.

Speaking at the scene, he said: ‘I’m a bit sore. The pain is simply from the straps and hanging upside down for forty minutes. Apart from that I escaped with a bloody thumb.’

He added: ‘You don’t get scared at the time, you just do what you trained to do,’ he said. ‘You spend all that time doing practice forced landings, it is just instinctive.’

He said what was more worrying was being stuck in the plane: ‘I didn’t want to let go,’ he said. ‘If I moved I didn’t know what would happen to the thing.’

He was forced to attempt a crash landing in a field at Pastures Farm, near the village of Loxley, after what is believed to be an engine failure

Apart from a ‘bloody thumb’, Mr Bray, who has been flying for ten years, suffered no serious injuries in the crash, and even came back later that day to wrestle his aircraft out of the hedge

Mr Bray even returned to the scene later the same day to help wrestle the aircraft from the hedge

Mr Bray, from Rugby, Warwickshire, part-owns the single engine piston plane, which has a propeller on its nose, with five other friends.

The group have been flying the light aircraft – which weighs only 1,050lbs – for eight years.

After flying out of Wellesbourne Airfield Mr Bray tried to glide the plane into a field when the engine cut out, but unfortunately ran out of space.

Nearby resident Paul Van Der Heyden said he initially thought the noise of the engine was from a tractor. When he heard a loud crash after the engine cut out, he though it had fallen into a ditch and went to investigate. He was amazed to find a plane embedded upside down in the hedgerow.

The only thing that saved him from flipping over entirely was an electric line that the plane’s tail got caught on

‘You could smell the kerosene or petrol or whatever it was, so I didn’t go too close in case it went up,’ he said.

‘I phoned the emergency services, and then had to go to the end of the lane to wave them down after one drove straight past.’

Another resident, Tori Danle, stayed with Mr Bray while they waited for firefighters to help him out of the cockpit. Crews were on the scene for around an hour and the Midlands Air Ambulance from Strensham also came, touching down in the same field that Alan himself tried to land in.

After he was freed, paramedics made sure he wasn’t injured and gave him the all-clear. The Air Ambulance was on the scene for 30 minutes.

source:::::mailonline.comUK

natarajan

Pet Turtle Under The Cover of KFC Burger !!!

August 1, 2013Natarajan1 Comment

Turtle burger

This image from Flickr user “flaunted” shows a different take on trying to disguise a turtle as a burger.

A MAN has attempted to smuggle his “beloved” pet turtle through airport security by hiding it in a KFC burger.

On Monday, a man known only as Mr Li was flying from China’s Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport to the capital Beijing, the South China Morning Post reported citing the Guangzhou Daily.

As Mr Li’s bag was passed through an X-ray machine, airport security officers noticed what were described as “odd protrusions” coming out of the burger which Li had packed in his bag.

“There’s no turtle in there, just a hamburger,” Mr Li said, according to the report. “There’s nothing special to see inside.”

The turtle was discovered in a subsequent inspection and Mr Li said he had only hatched the odd plan as he wanted to travel with his “beloved” turtle.

Despite his affection for the animal, Mr Li agreed to leave his pet with a friend while he was away in Beijing.
source:::::news.com.au

natarajan

What Your Flight Number Really Means !!!

July 28, 2013NatarajanLeave a comment

Travellers look at the departures and arrivals board. Picture: AP

HAVE you ever glanced at your airline ticket on the way to your boarding gate, or searched for it on the departure board, only to wonder just how your flight number was decided?

It turns out that you can learn a lot about a flight from its number.

We asked airline pilot, and author of the book Cockpit Confidential and the website askthepilot.com Patrick Smith just what those numbers really mean.

Technically, a flight number is a combination of numbers and letters, usually prefaced with the carrier’s two-letter International Air Transport Association (IATA) code – the international industry trade group of airlines.

Airlines can organise them according to the importance of the routes.

“Airlines often give lower numbers to their more prestigious, long-distance routes,” Mr Smith said. “If there’s a flight 001 in an airline’s timetables, it’s the stuff of London-Sydney or Paris-New York.”

For example, Qantas is flying QF1 from Sydney-Dubai-London today.

Flight numbers also have a key planning function and are usually grouped geographically.

Mr Smith said most airlines give eastbound flights even numbers, while westbound flights get odd numbers.

Qantas told news.com.au that they give odd numbers to outbound international flights, and even numbers for inbound flights to Australia.

Qantas flight numbers between 1-399 are international flights, including codeshare. Flight numbers higher than 400 are Qantas domestic service.

Meanwhile, all trans-Pacific flights operated by airlines such as United Airlines use three-digit numbers beginning with 8, which is considered lucky in many Asian cultures. Qantas says they also try to include an 8 in its Hong Kong route flight numbers.

Airlines also avoid some unlucky numbers such as 13. For example, there is no QF13 or QF666.

As a general rule, any four-digit flight number beginning with a 3 or higher – i.e. 3493 – is usually an indication of a codeshare flight operated by a partner.

Flight numbers can survive a lot of change within the airline.

“Numbers can stay in use for many years, even as departure times and aircraft types may change,” Mr Smith said.

“In some cases they outlast airlines themselves: To this day, some of the flight numbers used by Delta on its European routes trace their origins back to Pan Am, whose European network was sold to Delta more than 20 years ago.”

But other times, they just have to be scrapped.

“After an accident, one of the first things an airline does is retire the number, out of respect.

“For example, there’s no longer a flight 11 operated by American Airlines on its Boston-Los Angeles route. Flight 11 went all the way back to the days of the Boeing 707, but its final departure was on September 11th, 2001, when it was hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center.”

source::::news.com.au

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