Jumbo Jets Gliding in to Auckland

I came across a post by MarkJ in the April fool thread in the off topic section.
Mark had come across a story in today’s Sunday times about Jumbos gliding in to Auckland, Thinking this was a spoof story being 1st April. However on further investigation I came across this article in the Sydney Morning Herald dated 28th of March about Qantas and Air New Zealand jumbos trilling fuel saving approaches in to Auckland from next month LINK HERE

So I thought I would move this out in to the general forum area to gather some thought of fellow V Flyers.

I for one would not fancy being a passenger on one of these approaches; the thought of it makes my stomach churn [:$][:$]. I am sure that it must be safe but still don’t fancy the thought.

Is this trial just a step to far in the fight against global warning? Or is it quite a prudent move by the airlines involved in cutting fuel expenditure and reducing carbon emissions?

Cheers
JerseyBoy

[honey lamb]

Actually the story reminded me of the Air Transat flight which glided into the Azores following a fuel leak

There was a similar article in the Sunday Times today. Interestingly it quotes SRB as saying "We're already using gliding approaches into the Caribbean, and occasionally even London at quiet times". I wonder if any v-flyers have experienced this?

Mike

Originally posted by taurus
There was a similar article in the Sunday Times today. Interestingly it quotes SRB as saying "We're already using gliding approaches into the Caribbean, and occasionally even London at quiet times". I wonder if any v-flyers have experienced this?

Mike

I posted this in the April Fools thread!!

Originally posted by MarkJ

Originally posted by taurus
There was a similar article in the Sunday Times today. Interestingly it quotes SRB as saying "We're already using gliding approaches into the Caribbean, and occasionally even London at quiet times". I wonder if any v-flyers have experienced this?

Mike

I posted this in the April Fools thread!!

I aknowledged this in the opening line of the post Mike

[Scrooge]

Yeah Mike he did !

Anyways at sometime or another if you have flown a few times there is a good chance that you have been on a plane gliding in to land.

They are in fact not gliding in the real term, they just have the engines set at idle.

If you have ever flown into LAS on a calm day chances are you will have a glide landing ( the trick is finding a calm day though) there are plenty of other airports where this can be done and is done every day already.

It's a play on something which has been done at Heathrow for ages...

It's called a "Continuous Descent Approach" or CDA for short.

The idea is that it minimises, most of all, the noise pollution for those underneath the approach path, but a nice side effect is that it probably reduces fuel burn as well.

So, when an aircraft coming into Heathrow leaves one of the holding fixes (such as Bovingdon), and starts descending to set up for final approach, the controller will give the crew track miles to touchdown - as in "Virgin 20, 26 miles, Runway 27 Left, descend to altitude 4000ft, QNH 1022 millibars."

The range to touchdown allows the crew to judge the appropriate descent rate so that the aircraft won't level off during the approach, meaning that the engines are either at flight idle or a low (and quieter) thrust setting.

Regards,
Mike

[Bazz]

One assumes this can only be implemented when weather conditions are at or near perfect?

Originally posted by Bazz
One assumes this can only be implemented when weather conditions are at or near perfect?

CDAs are done at Heathrow (and many other airports) every day, with varying levels of success. The idea is minimise the need for the engines to spool up significantly again during the approach.

Obviously, strong winds aloft (especially if in a sufficiently significant enough opposite direction) and traffic levels, can alter how successful this is, and I've noticed that aircraft do spool up during approach.

Major German aiports such as Munich and Frankfurt have an FMS managed approach procedure, where the descent track and profile is managed by the onboard computer, again with the intention of reducing noise and conserving fuel.

While these airports have the regular "holding stacks" like Heathrow, they also have a large, pre-determined zig-zag track feeding into each runway - the idea being that arriving aircraft are funneled into this zig-zag at an appropriate point for the traffic flow, and then gradually descend toward the runway. The zig-zag track, and the descent profile is programmed into the onboard computer, which determines the optimum descent rate and most efficient thrust setting to meet the profile.

Anyone who's flown into Frankfurt will probably be familiar with this - how you aren't flying in circles, but it seems to take ages from starting descent to arriving.

This is difficult at Heathrow because the London airspace is so tightly packed - STN, LTN and LGW all very close by.

Mike

[Bazz]

Thanks Mike, very informative as usual! [y]

Originally posted by mike-smashing

Originally posted by Bazz
One assumes this can only be implemented when weather conditions are at or near perfect?

CDAs are done at Heathrow (and many other airports) every day, with varying levels of success. The idea is minimise the need for the engines to spool up significantly again during the approach.

Mike

Cheers Mike excellent response, Very Very informative.[y]

[Scrooge]

Originally posted by Bazz
Thanks Mike, very informative as usual! [y]

Another thanks Mike, you put into words what I was trying to say [y]