Goodbye Q-400s, Hello More EMB-175s
Sep 18, 2014, 1:39 am
#46
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All high thin wing Turboprops have special icing issues. The precise role of icing as the trigger of the Cascading problems in buffalo is a matter of some dispute. I do agree that a better pilot response would have improved the probability of safety but I never fly in turboprops in icing conditions.
Sep 18, 2014, 4:11 am
#47
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All high thin wing Turboprops have special icing issues. The precise role of icing as the trigger of the Cascading problems in buffalo is a matter of some dispute. I do agree that a better pilot response would have improved the probability of safety but I never fly in turboprops in icing conditions.
"Better pilot response" like flying above stall speed.
Pilot error.
Sep 18, 2014, 4:54 am
#48
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All high thin wing Turboprops have special icing issues. The precise role of icing as the trigger of the Cascading problems in buffalo is a matter of some dispute. I do agree that a better pilot response would have improved the probability of safety but I never fly in turboprops in icing conditions.
The only role icing played in that tragedy was prompting a discussion unrelated to the operation of the aircraft (violating the sterile cockpit rule) which may have been a contributing factor in distracting the pilots from actually flying the airplane.
Sep 18, 2014, 6:05 am
#49
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We fly economy at my company 100% of the time. Every single person I work with cares about not flying on uncomfortable, small planes. It's why we often book away from United on NYC-ATL. It's why I'd rather connect before flying EWR-OKC direct on UA. The conversion to the E175 will be much appreciated by many IMO, whether they consciously pay attention to aircraft type or not. I often catch people walking on the Q400 and saying "Another one of these crap small planes".
Sep 18, 2014, 6:23 am
#50
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There is no dispute except amongst people with a specific axe to grind.
The only role icing played in that tragedy was prompting a discussion unrelated to the operation of the aircraft (violating the sterile cockpit rule) which may have been a contributing factor in distracting the pilots from actually flying the airplane.
The only role icing played in that tragedy was prompting a discussion unrelated to the operation of the aircraft (violating the sterile cockpit rule) which may have been a contributing factor in distracting the pilots from actually flying the airplane.
Sep 18, 2014, 6:36 am
#51
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All high thin wing Turboprops have special icing issues. The precise role of icing as the trigger of the Cascading problems in buffalo is a matter of some dispute. I do agree that a better pilot response would have improved the probability of safety but I never fly in turboprops in icing conditions.
Icing is dangerous but the aircraft (particularly the Dash 8's ) are designed to handle it just fine.
Sep 18, 2014, 6:56 am
#52
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Not going to re-litigate 3407, but I can assure you that I will never schedule a prop in the Great Lakes region between November and April. There were a number of factors that were brought up in the discussion of the accident as to why a jet is a better choice than a prop in icing conditions, and they all made sense to me.
Sep 18, 2014, 7:09 am
#53
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I already avoid those, believe me. AA gets my monthly DEN--MAF business because the UA nonstop is a hellish ride on a 200. I shoot for the 145s or 700s/170s. There are also mainlines into ROC (I think...haven't checked in the last few months), BUF, and ALB.
Sep 18, 2014, 8:14 am
#54
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Not going to re-litigate 3407, but I can assure you that I will never schedule a prop in the Great Lakes region between November and April. There were a number of factors that were brought up in the discussion of the accident as to why a jet is a better choice than a prop in icing conditions, and they all made sense to me.
If the crew follows procedures and training, I'm happy for them to mitigate my winter travel risk.
Sep 18, 2014, 10:26 am
#56
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There have been airworthiness directives in effect for a good, long while now that address these winter/icing issues. The only problem you're still likely to see is stuck flaps, but even that's a rare event.
Sep 18, 2014, 1:34 pm
#58
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A CommutAir captain told me that when IAD and EWR get jammed up with weather delays, UA tells them which flights to cancel to help relieve congestion. It's very rare when it's due to weather impacting prop aircraft specifically.
Sep 18, 2014, 1:43 pm
#59
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Correct that when flow is reduced, carriers get to choose which flights to cancel. However, Porter also used to specifically advertise that they were able to use a runway that most other aircraft can't at EWR because of the fact they fly Q400s with a capacity less than some others (not sure if that applies to the UAX Q400s, or how many seats they have compared to Porter). The idea being that when there's a backup of flights waiting for takeoff at EWR, their flights could skip a line because of this. Of course, if the congested NYC airspace is still the problem, that probably didn't help much.
Last edited by emcampbe; Sep 18, 2014 at 1:56 pm
Sep 18, 2014, 1:50 pm
#60
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After a lengthy delay due to m/x on a Q400 this year, I say good riddance. Though I hope the Qs on RDU-IAD/EWR are replaced with two class planes instead of E45s.