For the aviation fans

[Walt Jabsco]

Interesting read about an airline I had never heard of - Afro-Continental Airways in Rhodesia.

 

https://www.alanbrough.com/history/afro-continental-airways-and-their-old-gunrunner/?fbclid=IwAR3H5BKnTuujZRDC3LXHRltTKTgO4tzoyXN-8JJwhGQbI1b6P31ddRReafc

 

 

[Ed-Zulu]

Chaps, have any of you picked up on the story about the SAA flight to Brussels which recorded an "alpha floor".

 

Plane to Brussels which picked up the vaccines was overloaded by 90t etc and CAA trying to hide the facts?

 

I don't like whatsapp stories, so if any of you could confirm please?

[SwissVan]

Chaps, have any of you picked up on the story about the SAA flight to Brussels which recorded an "alpha floor".

 

Plane to Brussels which picked up the vaccines was overloaded by 90t etc and CAA trying to hide the facts?

 

I don't like whatsapp stories, so if any of you could confirm please?

 

Eh....Whats a "alpha floor" 

[kosmonooit]

Eh....Whats a "alpha floor" 

Asked google ..

 

https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/24160/what-does-alpha-floor-mean

 

"Alpha floor is a thrust function which provides TOGA thrust regardless of thrust lever position in Airbus."

 

"Alpha Floor is a low speed protection (in normal law) which is purely an autothrust mode. When activated, it provides TOGA thrust. As the aircraft decelerates into the alpha protection range, the Alpha Floor is activated, even if the autothrust is disengaged. Activation is roughly proportional to the rate of deceleration."

[kosmonooit]

"Alpha floor is a thrust function which provides TOGA thrust regardless of thrust lever position in Airbus. From Airbus Technical Digest FAST 20: Alpha Floor is a low speed protection (in normal law) which is purely an autothrust mode. ... The aircraft will pitch up to max Alpha, engage TOGA thrust and climb away."

[Ed-Zulu]

Thanks Kosmo, from the thread I received it purports that SAA pilots made a calculation error with the load.

 

This then led to them under powering on take off causing the alpha floor which was sent to Rolls Royce and AB who enquired about it.

 

Story now goes SAA and CAA tried to hide it but someone leaked the attempt to hide it. 

[kosmonooit]

Eish just been reading the relevant thread on Avcom adn all the manne having their say .. eish who knows what went down, and who will ever know given all the 'dynamics' at play

 

https://avcom.co.za/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=239077

[Ed-Zulu]

Eish just been reading the relevant thread on Avcom adn all the manne having their say .. eish who knows what went down, and who will ever know given all the 'dynamics' at play

 

https://avcom.co.za/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=239077

Good to know my source was solid on this.

[DJR]

So, SAA had no pilots qualified and certified for that flight and that plane because they got a court order locking all their senior pilots out and not allowing them to fly, in an attempt to force them to renegotiate their contracts and take a pay cut. The pilots are ticked off because SAA have not paid them since March last year and want to fire 80% of them. That meant that the only pilots who were certified to do the training, were not allowed at work to do the training of the few pilots who were willing and allowed to fly. So, to get around that little hiccup they got CAA to make an exception an allow them to fly anyway. Then they got it a bit wrong, with a load of vaccines in the hold, but were lucky that it did not lead to a disaster, thanks to the plane activating its automated " quickly save our asses" mode. Then they tried to hide it. 

 

Do I understand it right? 

 

Just so I'll know who to book with when they start flying again, with or without qualified pilots.

[Kranswurm]

So, SAA had no pilots qualified and certified for that flight and that plane because they got a court order locking all their senior pilots out and not allowing them to fly, in an attempt to force them to renegotiate their contracts and take a pay cut. The pilots are ticked off because SAA have not paid them since March last year and want to fire 80% of them. That meant that the only pilots who were certified to do the training, were not allowed at work to do the training of the few pilots who were willing and allowed to fly. So, to get around that little hiccup they got CAA to make an exception an allow them to fly anyway. Then they got it a bit wrong, with a load of vaccines in the hold, but were lucky that it did not lead to a disaster, thanks to the plane activating its automated " quickly save our asses" mode. Then they tried to hide it. 

 

Do I understand it right? 

 

Just so I'll know who to book with when they start flying again, with or without qualified pilots.

I have not flown with SAA since our flight broke down 3 times on the runway attempting to take off from Bangkok in 2001.And I have flown many flights since then including the Quantas flight out of Bankok that rescued us following the passenger revolt on the 3rd attempt even though we had to fly backwards to Hong Kong to hook up with another flight back to Joberg.

Edited March 23, 2021 by Kranswurm

[Thug]

Apart from the issue that occurred out of ORT, there was also the issue of the noise levels either leaving or flying into Belgium. It appears the the pilots exceeded the noise levels and that the Belgium authorities have now banned the crew and requested all their training records.

[Bateleur1]

Apart from the issue that occurred out of ORT, there was also the issue of the noise levels either leaving or flying into Belgium. It appears the the pilots exceeded the noise levels and that the Belgium authorities have now banned the crew and requested all their training records.

 

That could be interresting.  There was already this other guy that was flying for SAA as a first officer for many years and was not actually even a qualified pilot

[Alouette3]

That could be interresting.  There was already this other guy that was flying for SAA as a first officer for many years and was not actually even a qualified pilot

He was a qualified pilot, but had never got is higher rating ATPL license. He did have his commercial though.

[Alouette3]

https://mentourpilot.com/the-aircraft-lied-saa-airbus-a340-90-ton-miscalculation/?fbclid=IwAR1OULGKRVfsP0X2aOhCvrMbsBXXl_9uMSJnE-E8gQt5jmM5TEQJ1-cCvv4

[Lotus]

https://mentourpilot.com/the-aircraft-lied-saa-airbus-a340-90-ton-miscalculation/?fbclid=IwAR1OULGKRVfsP0X2aOhCvrMbsBXXl_9uMSJnE-E8gQt5jmM5TEQJ1-cCvv4

The Aviation Herald also reports information that Airbus A340-600, like SAA’s, have a known software bug in their FMS. This bug can reduce the apparent take-off mass of the aircraft by about 90 tons, if the crew enters the take-off mass before engine start. 

 

So much that is strange about this story.

[JJDT]

If it is a software bug but there is a workaround procedure it seems that the crew did not follow the workaround procedure which should've eliminated the issue.

It is easy to blame the system rather to admit that we did not follow the new procedure.