SkiAdcock
Jun 5, 07, 4:32 pm
Was there today to attend a presentation by Captain Suzanna Darcy-Hennemann, Boeing's chief pilot for its 777 program, who spotlighted development of the aircraft & its future derivatives, as part of the Flight Path Museum Speaker Series. I happened to catch an article in the Beach Reporter regarding it. Prior to that I didn't even realize the FPM was there!
The Flight Path Museum is interesting, especially for folk who fly a lot. It's in the Imperial Terminal building on Imperial Highway just west of Sepulveda Blvd, which used to be the terminal for charter airlines and the now defunct MGM Grand airline. It's got all kinds of memorabilia, is literally on the flight path (I watched a lot of planes take off while the captain was presenting), and when there isn't a presentation they have a scanner turned on that gives you ATC. They also have a DC3 there that you can 'tour'. There is public parking (free), although limited spaces.
Flight Path is situated in the LAX Imperial Terminal, 6661 W. Imperial Highway, Los Angeles, on the south side of the airport. Public hours are 10am-3pm, Tues-Sat. Admission & parking are free. The museum is operated by the non-profit Flight Path Learning Center of Southern California in cooperation with Los Angeles World Airports. For more information, call +1.310.215.5291 or visit www.flightpath.us.
Re: the presentation/speaker:
Darcy-Hennemann is responsible for engineering flight test activities related to all Boeing 777 aircraft models. This includes working with Boeing engineers on design of upcoming 777 derivatives.
"Our speaker will provide us with a first-hand account of how a commercial aircraft is developed and tested."
Darcy-Henneman was named chief pilot for the 777 program in Jan '07, having served previously as the program's senior engineering pilot. She first joined Boeing in 1974 & has been a member of the 777 team since its inception.
Sharon's notes re: the presentation...
Captain Suzanna Darcy-Hennemann is a good presenter, and had some great stories to tell. She talked about the flight testing, and showed some videos of stall testing and vmcg testing - yikes!
Also talked about a flight test out of LAX a couple of years ago which was headed internationally, where the radio went out, so the plane went into a holding pattern, & all ATC knew is they had a plane that wasn't responding, & of course the pilots couldn't tell them what was going on, and Washington was on the line screaming bloody murder, and Boeing's guy said hey, they're trying to sort out what to do, but the pilot had to choose on whether he wanted planes scrambling in the US or in another country, so he chose the US. ;) :D
She went through the process of the World Record Flight in 2005, where they beat substantially the previous record, and all the details and planning down to the nitty-gritty, including people on diets to keep the weight as light as they could, trying to get dense fuel, hoping to get out on time, and Richard Quest from CNN coming into the cockpit hourly for updates & some of the goofy answers, and how cool it was for them to be on the World Record flight. They're hoping no one beats it (they beat the previous record by 22%), but they've got ideas for another record & that might happen in 2010.
Also talked about the new 787 & 747-800 in the Q&A afterwards. Also, a gentleman was there that didn't work for Boeing but knew more about all the stuff in terms of planes, layout, engines, who's ordered what, etc. Very knowledgable, and we enjoyed talking w/ him.
Here are pics from the presentation & also the LAX Flight Path Museum.
http://public.fotki.com/SkiAdcock/flyertalk_do/boeing-lax-do---fli/
BTW - touring the museum, even if you read everything, probably wouldn't take more than an hour.
Cheers.
The Flight Path Museum is interesting, especially for folk who fly a lot. It's in the Imperial Terminal building on Imperial Highway just west of Sepulveda Blvd, which used to be the terminal for charter airlines and the now defunct MGM Grand airline. It's got all kinds of memorabilia, is literally on the flight path (I watched a lot of planes take off while the captain was presenting), and when there isn't a presentation they have a scanner turned on that gives you ATC. They also have a DC3 there that you can 'tour'. There is public parking (free), although limited spaces.
Flight Path is situated in the LAX Imperial Terminal, 6661 W. Imperial Highway, Los Angeles, on the south side of the airport. Public hours are 10am-3pm, Tues-Sat. Admission & parking are free. The museum is operated by the non-profit Flight Path Learning Center of Southern California in cooperation with Los Angeles World Airports. For more information, call +1.310.215.5291 or visit www.flightpath.us.
Re: the presentation/speaker:
Darcy-Hennemann is responsible for engineering flight test activities related to all Boeing 777 aircraft models. This includes working with Boeing engineers on design of upcoming 777 derivatives.
"Our speaker will provide us with a first-hand account of how a commercial aircraft is developed and tested."
Darcy-Henneman was named chief pilot for the 777 program in Jan '07, having served previously as the program's senior engineering pilot. She first joined Boeing in 1974 & has been a member of the 777 team since its inception.
Sharon's notes re: the presentation...
Captain Suzanna Darcy-Hennemann is a good presenter, and had some great stories to tell. She talked about the flight testing, and showed some videos of stall testing and vmcg testing - yikes!
Also talked about a flight test out of LAX a couple of years ago which was headed internationally, where the radio went out, so the plane went into a holding pattern, & all ATC knew is they had a plane that wasn't responding, & of course the pilots couldn't tell them what was going on, and Washington was on the line screaming bloody murder, and Boeing's guy said hey, they're trying to sort out what to do, but the pilot had to choose on whether he wanted planes scrambling in the US or in another country, so he chose the US. ;) :D
She went through the process of the World Record Flight in 2005, where they beat substantially the previous record, and all the details and planning down to the nitty-gritty, including people on diets to keep the weight as light as they could, trying to get dense fuel, hoping to get out on time, and Richard Quest from CNN coming into the cockpit hourly for updates & some of the goofy answers, and how cool it was for them to be on the World Record flight. They're hoping no one beats it (they beat the previous record by 22%), but they've got ideas for another record & that might happen in 2010.
Also talked about the new 787 & 747-800 in the Q&A afterwards. Also, a gentleman was there that didn't work for Boeing but knew more about all the stuff in terms of planes, layout, engines, who's ordered what, etc. Very knowledgable, and we enjoyed talking w/ him.
Here are pics from the presentation & also the LAX Flight Path Museum.
http://public.fotki.com/SkiAdcock/flyertalk_do/boeing-lax-do---fli/
BTW - touring the museum, even if you read everything, probably wouldn't take more than an hour.
Cheers.