JC1120

Interesting site to track the 787.

http://flighttracker.newairplane.com/

pdxlight

Today's summary, I believe...

UA32 LAX-NRT ship 907 was changed to 906 with a ~1hr delay
UA198 LAX-PVG ship 907 ended up departing ~1hr late as well
UA95 DEN-IAH ship 902 was cancelled after ~3 hours servicing / airport conditions
UA139 DEN-NRT ship 905 was cancelled after a ~7 hour servicing delay

LASUA1K

Looks like a normal day of the 787. I'm grateful they haven't invaded ORD.

ajhun9

The den situation was strange today. 95 got delayed about one hour to 330. Then bumped back 2 hours because they "needed a part from the aircraft to enable the NRT flight to go out". Said a flight from iah was shuttling a spare part in so 95 could go out at 5pm. At that point I called GS and gladly sat middle seat on the next flight to iah. Was surprised to see both those ended up cxld.

mckerrow

I was on 8/12 UA138 NRT-DEN ship 3905. We were watching safety video, and system froze when the video was almost over. In the meantime, cockpit told FA to be seated for takeoff. The purser PAed the rest of safety demo, and shut the system down, including the power of seat control.

The purser rebooted the system at least twice after takeoff. In order to make sure system functioning right, we watch the safety demo AGAIN. The purser told me this has happened many times on 787 already.

pdxlight

I recall they had 'skipped' playing their 787 intro a few months ago due to the grounding or what not... I take it they're playing the intro again under normal circumstances?

Thanks, always interesting to hear a first-hand account and I was surprised to see it had cancelled as well. It's currently being positioned back to IAH as UA6853, departed DEN around 10pm.

At some point during the delays they swapped 902 and 905 (both at DEN scheduled to do IAH and NRT respectively). Then they swapped them back again. On days like this I'd like to be a fly on the wall at dispatch.

Anyway, Saturday's NRT-DEN is obviously cancelled and subsequent DEN-IAH (UA95) hasn't been assigned an aircraft yet.

dchen2

Shoot... it might have been a mistake to route SMF-DEN-NRT in 2 weeks instead of the more straight forward SMF-SFO-NRT. Fingers crossed these MX issues get straightened.

Firewind

The 787 engine fire extinguisher issue ...fixed.

http://seattletimes.com/html/busines...uisherxml.html

Whenever I see "teething", I wonder if it's really the suppliers teething on Boeing.

mckerrow

Nope, the intro before safety demo on my flight was not about 787. IIRC, it was about star alliance. We watched intro and safety demo again in the air because the purser wanted to make sure the system work after rebooting (system froze while we were watching the safety demo on the ground).

On a side note, I was at 2D on my 787 flight. As a short person (5'4"), I felt okay about the foot space. Still, I agree that if you're tall, you might feel cramp at that area. Also 1D & 1E do not have overhead bins (I think that is the crew bunk area above).

NRT-DEN is staffed by sCO Houston Based crew. They told me it is a five-day trip (IAH-DEN-NRT-DEN-IAH). One FA told me she prefers this one rather than IAH-NRT-LAX-NRT-IAH pattern.

This also makes me wonder what's the flying pattern for crew on LAX-PVG?

nerdbirdsjc

Same the trips start and end in IAH. But it is more like IAH-NRT-DEN-NRT-IAH. That's to keep crews from timing out on the short segments. I think PVG is the same, but I am not sure.

ualisthebst

NRT-DEN delayed almost 6 hours today. 905 is being used which arrived yesterday from IAH. Tomorrow's NRT-LAX is going to have a hefty delay if 905 ever actually leaves DEN.

Firewind

Interestingly, the current teething issue with the engine fire extinguisher hasn't seen the light of day until the article in the Seattle Times.

Is United backed into a corner, in a sense, having to keep flying the planes as the 787 teethes or is teethed on - not wanting to stop flying it until the problems are solved - so as not to draw attention? When dealt with piecemeal, the problems causing the many delays - the ones personally experienced here can't be all - better fit into the "teething" category.

Moreover, think of the Ethiopian 787's fire around the ELT, which really did some damage (vs. the lithium ion battery fizzles). But it wasn't a lithium ion battery, it was a manganese ion battery. And the wave had already passed over battery issues. Nothing to see here, move along. But then, it trickled out in the following weeks that other airlines, especially United, did find the same problem that was the only one possible in the Ethiopian 787 fire.

Boeing and United must see it as an improvement when a problem such as the engine fire extinguisher system's doesn't see the light of day until after it's fixed.

FlyinHawaiian

Recent posts about seating on the 787 have been moved to the following thread : http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ted-787-a.html

Thank you.

FlyinHawaiian, Co-Moderator
United Mileage Plus Forum

DaviddesJ

Well, it's because of that revolutionary carbon fiber airframe.

edcho

Hopefully there won't be as many issues when UA launches the 787-10s... they are the NA launch customer for that plane too right?