Strong Winds Captured on Navigational Display on A330

Check this out  !!!!


Wind speed at 182 kts captured on Navigational display on A330

GLOBAL ACCIDENT RATE REACHES NEW LOW IN 2011 says IATA

Montreal - The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that the 2011 accident rate for Western-built jets was the lowest in aviation history, surpassing the previous mark set in 2010.

The 2011 global accident rate (measured in hull losses per million flights of Western-built jets) was 0.37, the equivalent of one accident every 2.7 million flights. This represented a 39% improvement compared to 2010, when the accident rate was 0.61, or one accident for every 1.6 million flights. A hull loss is an accident in which the aircraft is destroyed or substantially damaged and not subsequently repaired for whatever reason including a financial decision by the owner. 


 "Safety is the air transport industry’s number one priority. It is also a team effort. The entire stakeholder community—airlines, airports, air navigation service providers and safety regulators--works together every day to make the skies safer based on global standards. As a result, flying is one of the safest things that a person could do. But, every accident is one too many, and each fatality is a human tragedy. The ultimate goal of zero accidents keeps everyone involved in aviation focused on building an ever safer industry,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO. 


Safety by the numbers:

·     2.8 billion people flew safely on 38 million flights (30 million by jet, 8 million by turboprop)

·     11 hull loss accidents involving Western-built jets compared to 17 in 2010

·     92 total accidents (all aircraft types, Eastern and Western built) down from 94 in 2010

·     5 fatal hull loss accidents involving Western-built jets down from 8 in 2010

·     22 fatal accidents (all aircraft types) versus 23 in 2010

·     486 fatalities compared to 786 in 2010

·     Fatality rate dropped to 0.07 per million passengers from 0.21 in 2010 based on Western-built jet operations

Runway Excursions

Runway excursions, in which an aircraft departs a runway during a landing or takeoff, were the most common type of accident in 2011 (18% of total accidents). This is slightly reduced from 2010 when runway excursions accounted for 21% of total accidents reflecting industry efforts to reduce their frequency. Despite industry growth, the absolute number of runway excursions decreased from 23 in 2009 to 20 in 2010 and 17 in 2011. Eighty eight percent of runway excursions occurred during landing. Unstable approaches--situations where the aircraft is too fast, above the glide slope, or touches down beyond the desired touchdown point--and contaminated runways are among the most common contributing factors to runway excursions on landing.

More from IATA at :

http://www.iata.org/pressroom/pr/Pages/2012-03-06-01.aspx

A330 FUEL LEAK PROCEDURE

A330 Fuel Leak Procedure is best dealt by crew with a background 

understanding of the checklist logic and the system understanding.
Fuel leak on A330 reminds one of Air Transat 236 emergency landing at 
Azores in 2001.

In order to simplify the understanding of this checklist procedure, the same has 
been indicated in flow pattern below in the slides. 
Hope the same is of use to all crew in better understanding of the checklist 
and feel free to write to me with comments and suggestions. 

BUFFET BOUNDARIES- COFFIN'S CORNER

Stall speed is defined as the minimum airspeed required to maintain 1g level flight. Any further reduction in speed will result in the lift produced by the wings to be less than the weight of the aircraft and leads to a loss of altitude. The increase in angle of attack will in turn cause flow separation from the upper surface of the wing . In a swept back high speed aerofoil, this flow separation and associated pitch down will not be a marked phenomenon. Instead the aircraft enters into a descent. The descent rate further tilts the relative airflow downwards and leads to an increase in angle of attack further driving the aircraft into the stall regime. Any attempt by the pilot to raise the attitude by aft pressure on the elevator will cause a further increase in angle of attack and further loss of altitude.

The lift, however, depends on both air density (kg/m³) and on the plane’s velocity, and air density decreases with altitude. So, the higher you go, the faster you have to fly to stay above the stall speed. As you go higher, temperature also decreases, at least in the troposphere were commercial planes are flying. As the temperature decreases, so does the speed of sound.

Similarly, the critical Mach number is the maximum speed at which the airflow can sustain over the wings without losing lift due to flow separation and shock waves,. Any increase in speed in will cause the airplane to encounter stall effects. When the critical Mach number is exceeded, there is an abrupt rise in drag rise as well as a pitch down due Mach tuck. This can result in aircraft upset, altitude loss and loss of control. As the aircraft descends, the airspeed increases. Excessive pull forces during recovery may lead to further loss of control or structural damage to the airplane.

Modern commercial jet aircraft may suffer both high and low speed stall buffet. The associated boundaries are depicted in the FCOM of the aircraft.  The high speed buffet is caused by flow separation from the wings as occurs behind a shockwave at high altitudes and/or Mach numbers. The low speed buffet is caused by the same airflow separation as the aircraft approaches the stall angle of attack. With stall speed increasing with altitude and sound speed decreasing, the velocity window in which an aircraft can operate becomes narrower and narrower.

Turning manoeuvres at these altitudes increase the angle of attack and results in stability deterioration with  a decrease in control effectiveness. The relationship of stall speeds to critical     Mach number (Mcrit) narrows to a point where sudden increase in angle of attack , roll rates and disturbances cause the limits of the airspeed to be exceeded.

The Coffin corner or the Q corner is the altitude at or near which a high speed fixed wing aircraft’s stall speed is equal to the critical Mach number.  Coffin corner exists in the upper portion of the manoeuvring envelope of an aircraft, for a given gross weight and G – Force.

VMO is an aircraft’s indicated airspeed limit. Exceeding the Vmo may cause aerodynamic flutter and G load limitations to become critical during recovery. Structural design  integrity is also not predictable at airspeeds greater than Vmo.

A deeper understanding of the stall characteristics and recovery procedures are important proficiency issues.  When flying at high altitudes, the crew needs to be aware of the margins of safety available, especially when manoeuvring and while riding out turbulence.

To recover from a stall, the attitude needs to be decreased to reduce the angle of attack. The old maxim of Power for ROD or altitude control and Attitude for airspeed control holds good. A burst of power is not the solution for a stall recovery. In all cases, remember  “attitude before power” when you are in a stall.

WING LOADS

In the aftermath of wing root cracks appearing on A380, lets refresh ourselves on how the wing loading and wing root cracks surface.


Lift produced by a wing is not linear across the wing surface.As a matter of fact,lift is produced by the wing as a result of pressure differential between the top and bottom side of the wing.The pressure differential gives birth to wing shear force and a bending moment, which is the highest where the wing meets the fuselage.

However, aircraft like A330,whose engines are wing mounted, their weight is near the area where maximum lift is being produced.This reduces the total weight, thereby reducing the shear force and the bending moment at the wing root.

Wing loads are also subject to the fuel distribution in the wing.Aiming to achieve lesser moment at the wing root is the objective in effectively managing the wing loading.