Did you read the post I referenced and the others in that area of the thread? You should
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Originally Posted by SFO 1K
Yes, I did. Did I miss something that explicitly addressed the sounds I heard on the flight? And, I'd like one of our resident A320 captains to chime in if possible?
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Originally Posted by Ripper3785
I read those and didn't see anything about noise from the wings during mountain wave, but I could've missed it.
I thought there was one, but don't see it now .... sorry about that.
Not being there, what you describe might be a pretty good wave action. Remember, you are traveling hundreds of miles per hour through the air, so if you get a disruption in airflow over the wing, whether that be a wave action, wake turbulence, microburst, etc... you can get some feedback in sound and movement. It wasn't a stall, since that would have been a much bigger issue, and the aircraft would have lost altitude (a lot) to recover at that altitude. It was a pretty turbulent day of flying yesterday, so my bet is wave action. Cheers.
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Of note, on Channel 9 I heard an aircraft report some "wave activity" and a loss of 600 feet of altitute to the controller. Seems to me that's a significant amount of altitude when we're dealing with 1000' of horizontal separation these days.
What does ATC do in that event when an aircraft operating in RVSM airspace reports unable to maintain flight level and is experiencing altitude deviations of 600 feet?
Flying back from Paris to IAD a couple days ago, those listening in on Channel 9 were surprised to hear 3 or 4 aircraft calling in to ATC to report having heard a mayday, each plane giving their position and the apparent position of the aircraft. One of them reported that the plane was going to ditch.
This was about 90 minutes out of IAD, probably 30 minutes over water remaining. I haven't seen anything in the news about it. Obviously not a commercial plane.
Is there an always-on radio that monitors a special channel just for distress calls?
What does ATC do in that event when an aircraft operating in RVSM airspace reports unable to maintain flight level and is experiencing altitude deviations of 600 feet?
If an aircraft cannot remain within 200' of their altitude, they alert ATC to the reason. ATC then will consider them non-RVSM for the time being and essentially build a bubble around them with standard non-RVSM IFR separation. If there is a conflict between that aircraft and someone else a 1000' away, they will vector the two aircraft away from each other, or the TCAS system will alert the two aircraft to avoid each other.
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These views are my own and do not represent the views of United Airlines or the ALPA.
If an aircraft cannot remain within 200' of their altitude, they alert ATC to the reason. ATC then will consider them non-RVSM for the time being and essentially build a bubble around them with standard non-RVSM IFR separation. If there is a conflict between that aircraft and someone else a 1000' away, they will vector the two aircraft away from each other, or the TCAS system will alert the two aircraft to avoid each other.
Will ATC ever proactively suspend RVSM and revert to non-RVSM separation just because of the probability of problems maintaining FL? Say in areas of known moderate+ turbulence or mountain wave action?
Will ATC ever proactively suspend RVSM and revert to non-RVSM separation just because of the probability of problems maintaining FL? Say in areas of known moderate+ turbulence or mountain wave action?
Well never say never, anything's possible, but I have never seen this happen before. Turbulence is not usually widespread, but local in its intensity and moves around. It would have to be in the severe turbulence mode to really impact RVSM, but just because one jet is getting severe turbulence for example, doesn't mean one 20 miles away will. Since we attempt to avoid flying in severe turbulence, most planes wouldn't be flying around in that area to begin with.
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These views are my own and do not represent the views of United Airlines or the ALPA.
Hi pilots, I noted that a structure near the runway played a part in the unfortunate accident in Koh Samui this week, and I recall accidents in the past where structures have also been involved. For example, an SK flight that ploughed into a baggage handling area springs to mind. Within this context, my question is do you as pilots have concerns about the safety implications of having structures near runways and do you thinks that there should be regulatory controls on such? At a number of airports I have been the airfields were huge and the runways seemed very far from much of the other infrastructure. This seemed, to me at least, a much more sensible way to lay-out an airport but I guess money, space and historical factors dictate the shape and form airports take. I'm just curious what you pilots think should be the prime considerations in airport design from the perspective of ease and safety of flying?
Thanks, SF.
Hi pilots, I noted that a structure near the runway played a part in the unfortunate accident in Koh Samui this week, and I recall accidents in the past where structures have also been involved. For example, an SK flight that ploughed into a baggage handling area springs to mind. Within this context, my question is do you as pilots have concerns about the safety implications of having structures near runways and do you thinks that there should be regulatory controls on such? At a number of airports I have been the airfields were huge and the runways seemed very far from much of the other infrastructure. This seemed, to me at least, a much more sensible way to lay-out an airport but I guess money, space and historical factors dictate the shape and form airports take. I'm just curious what you pilots think should be the prime considerations in airport design from the perspective of ease and safety of flying?
Thanks, SF.
I'm not really familiar with the incident you are referring to. I've not seen too many structures near runways that have caused me concerns throughout my career, so I don't find it a big problem personally. I would think that it probably impacts widebody planes more, like a 747 if there is a structure nearby that their wings could impact. I'm more concerned when they build parking garages right off the end of the runway that could impact safety if we lost an engine on takeoff, like SAN has. Other than those situations, I really never think about airport layouts or structures since they very rarely ever affect me.
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These views are my own and do not represent the views of United Airlines or the ALPA.
