A few points and a few of my views-

1) The question of non-operating crews being allowed in the cockpit seems to vary immensely from company to company. Most now seem to be allowing it again (primarily as it may be the only way an airline can position a crew from one place to another without offloading revenue passengers).

2) I am personally in favour of having a weapon on the flightdeck BUT NOT IN THE PERSONAL POSSESSION OF ANY INDIVIDUAL PILOT. I described a perfectly acceptable solution to the gun containment scenario in a thread a few months ago (perhaps someone with more ability than me can find it and post the relevant bit in this thread).

3) In normal circumstances I would be deeply disturbed about a gun being fired in the cabin, however in the event of the much more serious threat of a hostile takeover the subsequent damage from a gunshot or two would be nothing compared to the fact that the whole airframe and the lives it contains has almost certainly been saved.

4) If the gun is already in the locked cockpit it is in the only place where it cannot be used to gain access to the cockpit! The hijacker has already stated his malicious intent by forcing entry to the cockpit so in my book that gives me just cause to shoot to kill. Without having a means of defending ourselves we might just as well voluntarily give up the controls!

5) I don’t want a Sky Marshall as it increases the opportunities for the security process to be breached from within.

6) Mongu correctly said a pilot doesn’t need the gun for him/herself to take control. We are securely locked in with one other person (assuming they are not taking a leak) and have items on the flightdeck that we could use to overcome your colleague if that was your desire (excuse me if I don’t expand too much on that).

7) Security doors are a waste of space as all a hijacker would need to do is to rush the crew while they are going in or out.

8) I’m embarassed to say that I cannot exactly remember the legal position about an overaseas aircraft. If I remember rightly a G registered aircraft is a little piece of Great Britain wherever it is in the world although there is a large grey area which will allow the host nations police department to enter and arrest. Perhaps Monster or SkyCruiser can remind me of the exact details.

9) Pilots go through the exact same poor security that passengers do although I suspect the security people’s guard may not be as raised.

Regards
wys

Must have been a lack of ‘real’ news available so some padding may have been required!

’36 abreast seating’ – sounds great for charter!!! 😉

If tourism was permitted it would be very desirable for those interested in history and/or religion.

Kabir, what you describe is aircraft rotation from the perspective of operations, i.e. coordinating which aircraft in your fleet is going to operate which flight to get the most from your available aircraft. It is a key part of every airlines planning if they want to make a profit!

What we are referring to here as a rotational motion is where flexure of the airframe occurs (usually initiated by a slight instability or similar) which then, due to natural harmonics within the airframe create a motion which fells like going round in a circle in an axis which is perpendicular to the direction of flight. Boeing designs tend to show more rigidity than Airbus but the 747-400 still gets it occasionally. When I was cabin crew we used to take our crew rests in the bunks just under the base of the fin and after a while I would get so used to the swirling it would actually rock me to sleep!

Kev35 – my sincere apologies for not getting back to you sooner but I have finally received an answer to the mystery of the interference on my TV set. LHR tower’s radar screens were also picking up interference and the cause was proven to be an illegal pirate radio station that had recently set up!

regards
wys

Surface winds may have an effect on the take off derate depending on the individual company’s SOP. A headwind component on take off reduces the groundspeed reached at lift off simulating the effect of having a longer runway in still air conditions. My company ignores any headwind component when calculating take off performance for 2 reasons. Firstly the 757 is so powerful that we are rarely struggling for performance and secondly if you have based your departure V speeds and thrust derate on a certain headwind component you will be stuffed if the wind drops or swings to a different direction before departure and have to go through all the calculations again. Obviously if you are flying an aircraft which is relatively low performance you will need to go into the performance tables and use the improvements offered by the headwind component to be able to obtain figures that allow you to depart. So in summary, airlines operating low powered aircraft (eg turboprops and older jets) mostly use headwind component in their performance calculation as SOP while most modern operators don’t unless needed.

Greekdude – It’s been sometime since I was last in LAX but if I remember rightly all the runways are pretty massive. I would have to ask SkyCruiser to find out about 747-400 take off performance at high take off masses but if departing to the west (out to sea with no obstacles to clear) if the runway is long enough there is no reason why a fully laden 747-400 going to Singapore shouldn’t depart with full derate (75% of full take off thrust).

With regard to landing, some while ago I quoted from the 757/767 flight crew training manual about Boeing recommended landing technique. This mentions that the correct technique is for a firm and positive arrival. Soft landing are bad news in big jets as they use up runway while airborne which could be used for braking.
You bring up an interesting point about the 777 landing though which I would love to hear a response from Monster. I wonder if the extra pair of wheels on a 777 6 wheel bogey facilitates better energy absorption on touchdown?

regards
wys

I’ve done quite a lot of glider towing in a 180hp SuperCub and found it even more enjoyable to fly than the 235hp Pawnee. I swear you’ll love it!