Had to look up "swarf." Thanks for enlarging my vocabulary. (Seriously.)

(Written on 2020/02/21)(Permalink)

Efficiency involves a lot more than fuel burn with hypothetical full loads. Just on fuel: If you've got 448 seats, but only sell half, then your fuel consumption per passenger mile is going to be a lot worse than a fully-loaded 350 passenger version. (And let's not go down the rabbit hole about the weight of a business class seat vs that of an economy one.)

(Written on 2020/01/24)(Permalink)

Off-topic, but I noticed something else in that slide: common type rating for A330, A340 and A350. I hadn't known that. The A330/A340 commonality doesn't surprise me: they launched at the same time and are essentially two- and four-engine variants of the same airframe. But the A350 came much later and was supposedly a clean-sheet design. I ask those of you who know more than I about this - is this a problem waiting to happen, as some claim the "all generations" B737 type rating to be?

(Written on 2019/11/08)(Permalink)

Just enough time to take a 777 out of service for a D check.

(Written on 2019/11/01)(Permalink)

But "November Six Zero Hotel Lima" would be correct.

(Written on 2019/11/01)(Permalink)

Did anybody else catch the "forty years and five months" of flying for Air Canada? So how old is he? Canada used to ape the US and force pilots to retire at 60. An internet search shows that this policy was challenged - successfully - in court about ten years ago. So far as I can tell, there is no longer a mandatory retirement age for pilots there. Apparently, they can limit the responsibilities for someone over 65, though I couldn't find any specifics.

(Written on 2019/09/27)(Permalink)

Shouldn't that be "AAgain"?

(Written on 2019/09/06)(Permalink)

My guess is that this has less to do with the 737 Max's genuine issues, and more about using those as an excuse to void purchase contracts Avia no longer wants. Perhaps the growth forecasts were wildly over optimistic - they certainly wouldn't be the first airline to do that. Or their finances are too shaky to pay for and accept the aircraft. And this won't stay in Cook County Circuit Court very long. Boeing will almost certainly ask that it be moved to federal court, which (to my amateur understanding) is virtually automatic based on the amount of money and/or the plaintiff not having any connections to Cook County.

(Written on 2019/08/30)(Permalink)

Something's off, or perhaps incomplete, in this story. As written, it suggests he had arrived directly from Ireland at K5. That's not an international arrivals gate - indeed, not even in the right building for international arrivals.

(Written on 2019/08/16)(Permalink)

Note the venue carefully: Federal Court for the EASTERN District of Texas - not NORTHERN District, where Southwest's Dallas headquarters are located. The Eastern District used to be notorious for inviting "patent troll" litigation https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2017-05-25/the-texas-town-that-patent-trolls-built-j34rlmjc https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/patently-unfair/ and still has a reputation as a friendly venue for dubious cases https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/24/us/politics/texas-judge-obamacare.html

(Written on 2019/07/19)(Permalink)