DreamLiner and Li-ion

[brass monkey]

Good luck with that, Geoff. Fly? YMBFJ.

[geoff]

But BAe themselves didn't actually write any of the s/ware for the computers, it was all contracted out to s/ware houses

[brass monkey]

Your wife has sense.

[Bob Eager]

I think it was a general opinion about the people they seemed to employ...

[brass monkey]

Oh, it gets better :) Fly? YMBFJ.

[brass monkey]

Computers/fly by wire ~ hard drives. We know they're gonna crap out, we just don't know when. I just love the video of the airbus landing in trees. Jeez. I'll betcha none of the "software experts" were on that.

[Nightjar]

What you don't see in the video is that, for the first part of the approach, the pilot is aiming at a chequered board on the side of a mountain.

Colin Bignell

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , geoff escribió:

Now *that* would merit some applause. If you weren't a passenger, that is.

[Bob Martin]

In almost 40 years in IBM I found European programmers to be better than American programmers in general.

[Bob Eager]

May well be true - just not these!

[Huge]

They're called "black star" airports after a rating system by the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations (IFALPA). The only other one I know of off-hand is Boston Logan Intl.

I can't find a list on-line, although there must be one, and the list is not normally released to the general public but I did find this;

You can request a copy of the IFALPA's hazardous airport ratings identifying airports receiving their Black Star listing (which presumably also contains the red star and orange star ratings) from the FAA by sending a letter mentioning the Freedom of Information Act to the following address:

Federal Aviation Administration Attn: Ms. Tracy Paquin Acting FOIA Program Director, ARC-40

800 Independence Avenue, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20591 USA telephone number: [phone] fax number: [phone]

(I used to fly a great deal for work - this kind of stuff is interesting.)

[Huge]

That's where the video is shot from ...

[Huge]

[Huge]

I always thought that was Americans complaining.

[Nightjar]

I have seen a cockpit video of the approach and it looks far more frightening when you can see the mountain.

Colin Bignell

[Tony Bryer]

It happened several times when I flew in Africa. Clapping = expression of relief that one has actually reached one's destination!

In 1997 I was thrilled to finally get my chance to fly on a 707 - I started travelling after most had been withdrawn. I should have asked myself why a transatlantic jet was being used for a 30 minute internal flight from Harare to Bulawayo. Reason - because it had failed its airworthiness and AirZim couldn't take it out the country!

[Jo Stein]

A plane and your home are both safe places to be. I failed to tell that the main reason why more accidents happen at home than in a plane, is because you spend more time at home that in a plane. Thus also more nails are swallowed at home than in a plane.

If you want to compare the risk between the two ways of handling nails you have do do it in a proper way. Risk from swallowing nails is computed for those that do it, and then you get a high LLE for that action.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

You are an idiot.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

I've been stripping lappie batteries for the good cells within and found that in nearly all cases, it's one cell has gone west but the charge controller has binned the entire battery as a precaution. Most of the dates on the cells are late 2010.

Oh, they don't. I found the same, after keeping my laptop on standby for months and losing a good battery to that.

If in good condition, the cells should keep charge for several months, but a top-up every two months is adequate.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Possibly. The only reaction I've seen when a diffcult landing is accomplished is a series of wry comments about the trainee up front doing bump testing.