Originally Posted by
GeorgeJ
Gate agent comes onboard and says we need to get off - take any carryons you have under the seat, leave the rest. After another half hour or so, he told us we were all going to go back on and get our carryons off the aircraft (which is usually code for "cancelled"....) Halfway through that, the system was back up and we reboarded. Still took at least an additional 45 minutes before we were in the air so almost 2 hours late leaving.
No, it USED to b code for cncl, not it means code for "maybe cncl, maybe catering to passenger's right's lobby so we don't get fined for keeping you on an aircraft."
Any delay of unknown duration at the gate over 30 min usualy now means to deboard as the risk of fines increases as time goes on. This usually only adds an extra 30 min to te departue time, reboarding, but with all actions (legislation to fine airlines) comes reactions and unintended consequences.
Originally Posted by
fivevsone
It's fascinating to learn something new about flying. That computers in Chicago (?) define the speed and trim (is that the correct term?) needed to take off, based on the weight of the plane?
Is that correct? and with the computer down, all the planes had to sit tight and wait for the computer to come back up before they could figure out the parameters to allow them take off?
I just assumed it was like driving. Just point down the runway, and 'go' until you became airborne, then turn and head towards your destination.
Interesting stuff.
Dispatchers (at computers in Chicago)do most of the pre-flight for th plane (rough fuel loads, wx, aircraft issues...) They make it available to the flightdeck crew to adjust in conjunction with te dispatcher. Dispatcher gives load planning th plane number for load planning to use for baseline data, the fuel load, etc, the airport (cs/ramp) gives the load planner more data. They crunch it all together and transmit it back to th flight deck to adjust.
Did you think a pilot who just got off 1 plane and is running to catch a 2nd plane does all this? Only on express do they do their own load planning (although they have dispatchers as well.)