Brussels Airlines 737 starts take-off roll with flaps retracted
On 24/04/2010, in Life around runways, by steve
Last Thursday, 22 April was notable for the fact that after the long disruption caused by the volcanic cloud over Europe, traffic was finally getting back to normal.
Brussels Airlines flight SN2901 Brussels-Vienna was still at the gate shortly before 0710a, its schedules departure time, with both the aircraft door and the cockpit door still wide open. Especially this latter is usually bad news and bodes ill for an on time departure. Then a pilot, complete with his flight bag, scrambled up the outside steps of the air bridge and scampered into the cockpit, closing the door behind him. Shortly thereafter we pushed back and taxied toward the runway at a brisk clip.
I have this thing about being an interested passenger… I always check whether I actually have the life preserver “in a pouch under my seat” as promised (was missing only once) and I always listen to the reassuring thump of the wheel coming down on final, mentally ticking off my own checklist as it were.
The 737’s electrically operated flap system produces a peculiar sound when it is operating, the characteristic whine of electric motors moving something via high gearing. This morning, as we taxied nearer and nearer the runway, this sound was completely missing! From the speed at which we turned onto the runway it was clear that the pilots were planning to make a rolling take-off and indeed, once aligned with the runway centerline, power was applied and we started rolling down Brussels’s runway 25L… with the flaps and slats still fully retracted!
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Aircraft based tools in the fight against runway incursions
On 06/04/2010, in Life around runways, by steve
Aircraft-based airport surface traffic indications and alerting systems
This is an edited version of the presentation made at the recent ESAVS 2010 conference by Doug Arbuckle of the FAA. Coauthors of the paper were David E. Gray of FAA, Peter Moertl of Mitre Corporation and Jim Duke of SAIC. You can download the original text of their paper here and the slides here.
Introduction
As discussed before, runway incursions and collisions is a major area of concern world-wide. There are on average more than two runway incursion events per day in Europe alone and the situation in the United States is similarly serious. The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has on its most wanted list a system to “give immediate warnings of probable collisions/incursions directly to cockpit flight crews.”
In our previous two articles we covered the visual tools for preventing runway incursions (RWSL and FAROS) and the communications related causes of runway incursions. In this third article we will look into aircraft based airport surface traffic indications and alerting systems being developed in the US as a further line of defense against runway incursions.
The background
As you may be aware, in the US two different data links have been adopted for ADS-B: 1090 MHz Extended Squitter (1090 ES) and the 978 MHz Universal Access Transceiver (UAT). Given that the international community has agreed to the use of the 1090 ES link, most air transport and international business aircraft are expected to equip with this link; the UAT link is expected to be primarily used by general aviation aircraft whose operations are confined to the US. The US is implementing uplink services on both links. One such uplink broadcast service is Traffic Information Service-Broadcast (TIS-B). TIS-B derives traffic information from one or more ground-based surveillance sources and uplinks this traffic information to ADS-B-equipped aircraft, enabling them to receive position reports about non-ADS-B-equipped aircraft; this service supports the transition period to full ADS-B equipage in the NAS. ADS-R is another uplink broadcast service which rebroadcasts ADS-B messages received from aircraft on one link to nearby aircraft broadcasting on the other link, making it possible for all ADS-B-equipped aircraft to receive the information being transmitted on the other link.
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The communications related aspects of runway incursions
On 31/03/2010, in Life around runways, by steve
More than two incursions a day…
Few other incidents return with the grim and persistent regularity of runway incursions. A lot of effort by all concerned has resulted in a reduction of the total number of incidents but there are still, on average, more than two runway incursions in Europe per day. Clearly, there remains a lot of work to be done.
But what exactly is a runway incursion? According to the definition provided by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) a runway incursion is “Any occurrence at an aerodrome involving the incorrect presence of an aircraft, vehicle or person on the protected area of a surface designated for the landing and take-off of aircraft.”
Of course the words “incorrect presence” cover a wide range of possibilities from part of an aircraft sticking into the protected area to a vehicle or aircraft being entirely in the path of an aircraft landing or taking off. The dangers need no explaining… The reasons why highly trained professionals like pilots and controllers and less well trained but still “aerodrome aware” vehicle drivers make mistakes leading to runway incursions provide a telling story with roots in human psychology, engineering, traffic design, information technology and one may dare to say, on occasion Murphy’s law.
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New tools in the arsenal to prevent runway incursions – RWSL and FAROS
On 16/03/2010, in Life around runways, by steve
Although take-offs and a landing from and on taxiways had filled the news recently, the problem of runway incursions is much more of a problem and in spite of major efforts on the part of all concerned, pilots, air traffic controllers and ground vehicle drivers, it refuses to go away. Not that there are no achievements but in Europe there are more than 2 incidents on average per day and an airport like Charles De Gaulle in Paris has in excess of 30 runway incursions per year! The situation is not much different in the US either.
We all know the traditional warnings that come into view as we approach the runway. Red stop bars across the taxiway, flashing yellow lights on the side, markings and signs… all meant to say: beware, you are approaching a dangerous place, proceed with care. The same message is repeated countless times during basic and recurrent training yet aircraft and ground vehicles regularly blunder onto the runway, flashing lights and stop-bars notwithstanding.
The FAA and Lincoln Labs in the US have developed a new set of tools called the Runway Status Lights (RWSL) System and Final Approach Runway Occupancy Signal (FAROS). Both systems use outside light cues to warn pilots and drivers of unsafe conditions while also providing appropriate warnings in the control tower.
In this day of digital link communications and moving map displays on board many aircraft, why would anyone want to introduce a system that uses light signals as a warning? If pilots and drivers ignored the lit stop bar and the yellow flashing lights, will they heed this new system?
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A taxiway will do, take 2 – Aeroflot Airbus takes off from taxiway in Oslo
On 28/02/2010, in Life around runways, by steve
EUROCONTROL’s Preventing Runway Incursions Portal has a quiz designed to test the knowledge of pilots, air traffic controllers and vehicle drivers about, among others, the runway and taxiway environment. One of the questions shows a concrete surface with white markings in a limited visibility environment, seen from the cockpit window. The question: are we on a taxiway or on a runway? Another question shows a similar picture but with yellow markings on the concrete. Same question: are we on a runway or taxiway. Well, I am sure our readers will not have a problem answering something this simple. The white markings are on the runway, right? Are you sure? A large proportion of those we tried the quiz on did fail this simple test!
I was reminded of this fact when news reached us of yet another scheduled flight taking of from a parallel taxiway. This time it was an Aeroflot Airbus A320-200, VP-BWM performing Flight SU 212 from Oslo to Moscow.
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Wishing them into the air…
On 19/02/2010, in Life around runways, by steve
In one of my favorite books about the US Air Force in the WWII there is a chapter in which the author describes how the crew in the control tower “wished” the heavily loaded bombers into the air as the planes struggled to get airborne and clear a line of trees not far from the end of the runway.
A lot has happened since and it is rare indeed that tower controllers need to land a hand and “wish an aircraft into the air”. It looks though that this DC-10 of Arrow Cargo had needed all the help it could get. That runway is 3700 meters long…
Wishing them into the air...
A taxiway will do… KLM 737 takes-off from Taxiway B in Amsterdam
On 16/02/2010, in Life around runways, by steve
PH-BDP in Warsaw
I do have a trip scheduled to Warsaw… what I pity I was not on KL1369 two days ago! As I said in another article, I am one of the few air travelers who does check the life west (under your seat you know), follows the safety briefing and confirms the nearest exit (may be behind you). I also follow the taxi operation, trying to figure out which runway we would be using…
What a wonderful discovery it would have been to see the 737 line up on a taxiway and take off from there without further ado!
That is exactly what PH-BDP did two days ago around half past eight in the evening in what appears to have been darkness but otherwise good visibility.
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Watch this take off!!
On 04/02/2010, in Life around runways, by royalbird
The Russian IL-76 cargo plane can lift a payload of 1 million pounds. When she is taking off on a warm and calm day in Australia, every inch of the runway will be needed.
Download this great video, shot from the tower, to see just how fine those Russian pilots had cut it. You can hear the Australian controllers talking (what a lovely accent!) as they “wish” the Vodka Burner into the air…. Don’t miss this one!
GNSS Landing System (GLS) to the rescue…
On 25/11/2009, in Life around runways, by steve
Last year in September we were on the last leg of a longish trip that started in Honolulu and after a stop-over in San Francisco we were finally on-board Continental Airlines’ 767- 400 bound for Brussels. We were late pushing back (no fault of the airline) and taxi was more an occasional crawl than continuous movement. In just a few minutes I could understand why the Newark-Brussels flight is so often late getting into BRU.
After about 15 minutes of not going anywhere, the captain apologized for the delay and explained that the airport was very busy and that we would probably not be taking off for another 35 minutes or so. He suggested that we take out our laptops and work, walk around visiting friends if we want to… he would be extra gentle with the occasional spurt forward. In the end, the waiting was more like 45 minutes but at least we made many friends onboard.
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Near-miss on demand
On 20/11/2009, in Life around runways, by steve
In the late 70’s our authority decided to commission a series of training movies for air traffic controllers and engineers. The purpose was to show some of the most commonly occurring errors, give an analysis of the causes and provide some guidance on how to avoid them. I was selected to write the script for the ATC episodes.
By the time the movie was to be made, we were limited to just four events, probably due to cost considerations. Like in any other profession, also in air traffic control, errors, human and otherwise, do occur but most of the time nothing serious happens. The safety system makes sure of that. So there is a wide range from which to select but which four should be included in the movie? I was sure however that one particular incident would get included. Not only would it highlight a real problem, it would also have tremendous visual impact. Something that was begging to be immortalized on film.
I will not go into the details of the error that led to two mid-sized aircraft loaded with passengers finding themselves at a few feet from each other, one just lifting off, the other aborting its landing, desperately climbing to avoid a collision. It did happen… The question was now: how do we recreate this near miss for the camera?
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Wake turbulence gone with the wind – the CREDOS project
On 03/11/2009, in Life around runways, by steve
The problem of vortices
There are two kinds of dangerous phenomena behind large aircraft. Jet wash and wingtip vortices. These are the most important components of what is commonly referred to as “wake turbulence”. The intensity of this turbulence depends on a number of factors, among them the mass of the aircraft concerned. Jet-wash is simply the rapidly moving air expelled from a jet engine. While it is extremely turbulent, it dissipates quickly in both time and space.
Wingtip vortices on the other hand are much more stable and can remain in the air longer after the passage of an aircraft. Wingtip vortices represent the primary and most dangerous component of wake turbulence.
The hazards of wake turbulence are particularly significant during the landing and take-off phases of flight. Aircraft are in a configuration that creates the strongest vortices while they are also flying at a low speed and low altitude. This leaves little margin for recovery in the event of flying into wake turbulence.
In daily operations the risk of encountering wake turbulence on approach or take-off and initial climb out is mitigated by increasing the spacing between lighter aircraft and a preceding heavier one. The time or distance based minima prescribed to ensure this spacing (the so called wake turbulence separation minima) are static and are based on a worst case assumption of the persistence time of the vortices. While this practice ensures safety, it also reduces the actual throughput of runways below what would otherwise be achievable.
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Videos that show the impossible
On 29/10/2009, in Life around runways, by steve
Aircraft on the runway!
The company bringing you Roger-Wilco, BluSky Services is also well known for its multimedia and video products as well as its web design prowess.
Some of our videos were created for clients who wanted to show the impossible. Like runway incursions as they were happening. Using cutting edge technology, we have recreated a number of actual events in minute detail and even created interactive versions where the show stops at the critical moments so that students can discuss what had just gone wrong. We do show them the impossible to help them avoid it ever happening again.
When the engine sound saved the day...
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Show me your tower, I tell you who you are
On 16/10/2009, in Life around runways, by steve
Show a pilot or air traffic controller a photo of a control tower with nothing else visible on the picture and they will say the name of the airport almost without thinking. This happens every time, no matter how little known or exotic the airport may be. This is no accident. The tower is the symbol of the oldest place from which airport traffic was first supervised and controlled, an edifice that stands tall over the rest of the field, commanding attention not unlike the circle and star on a Mercedes automobile.
At first, towers were simple affairs reflecting the relative simplicity of the operation in those days. Over the years they became taller and more imposing, uniting functionality, architectural proves and local pride in about equal measure.
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Runway incursions – a portal full of help
On 17/08/2009, in Life around runways, by steve
Flying is several orders of magnitude safer than road travel, we all know that. Yet there is a curious element of commonality between those two modes of transport, representing a serious danger in both. Drivers who manage to get onto the wrong side of a motorway and aircraft or ground vehicles that blunder onto the runway creating a collision hazard…
Runway incursions make it into the news only if an accident ensues. This does not happen often but a few notable cases, like Tenerife in 1977 and Milan in 2001 will sound familiar to all of us. But the problem is real and much bigger than one would think at first sight.
On average there are two runway incursions of varying severity in Europe every day!
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