BAE146 - MET1

[Scabutz]

Anyone know much about the operation of this plane out of Cranfield? Its the meteorological monitoring plane.

I'm an aviation enthusiast and not an expert, or even a pilot, but it seems to me that this plane has some unusual approaches into Cranfield at times. Two examples. One a few months back I was in my office which faces West with Cranfield roughly off to the North. This plane came from the West at what looked like a fair steep rate of descent and a sharp bank towards Cranfield. It must have been about 2000ft based on my observations of other aircraft. I was on a call at the time and people asked me what was happening as I looked shocked. I actually thought it was going to crash it looked so unusual. Didn't have time to confirm anything of FR. Clearly it landed fine but in 3 years of watching planes while pretending to WFH I've not seen anything like that.

The other was yesterday. I was walking, heading roughly NE, this plane came in from right fairly low, gear down, by my reckoning it was on a straight in final approach to runway 03. According to Cranfield Airports website they "very rarely" approve straight in approaches.

Maybe it was just the conditions on the day or something. It doesn't fly regularly and so probably quite often I miss it. But it stands out against a lot of the other planes from there.

I'm just really interested in it, it's an unusual looking and sounding plane.

[tonyvid]

I don't know much about this particular aircraft but was involved in recording the trial approaches at Hatfield to simulate landing at London City airport before they were approved to operate out of there - compared to a classical approach they do look like they about to bin it!

I did a lot of air-air filming with 146s for each new customer livery, great fun peering out of the hole where the door should be in a flat-out Beech Baron with a passenger jet just off the wing

[heisthegaffer]

tonyvid said:

I don't know much about this particular aircraft but was involved in recording the trial approaches at Hatfield to simulate landing at London City airport before they were approved to operate out of there - compared to a classical approach they do look like they about to bin it!

I did a lot of air-air filming with 146s for each new customer livery, great fun peering out of the hole where the door should be in a flat-out Beech Baron with a passenger jet just off the wing

Used to love these wonderful planes whizzing around Hatfield.

[MarkwG]

I imagine it was more the unusual route straight in to 03, than anything untoward: it looks like a normal approach to me. https://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/MET1/histor...

[ecsrobin]

Whenever the aircraft flies for operational work they NOTAM the route as they fly non standard profiles. Here’s an example of a route and it’s height https://www.faam.ac.uk/gluxe_media/notams/MET1_Rou...

[Kuroblack350]

For a few years the BAe 146 was our company jet, I spent quite a bit of time travelling to Farnborough and Munich and loved every minute, a great experience and aircraft. It was designed in a sense for some unusual approaches, and occasionally our pilots would practice what we all came to love as the ‘Kandahar approach’ - which basically consisted of coming down at an unreal rate of descent over Preston and into Warton. Doesn’t sound all that big a deal but just felt all kinds of wrong, essentially pointing it at the ground…

[magpie215]

That aircraft is the prototype 146.

I did work for the company that operated it.

Pilots can carry out a non standard approach with approval from ATC.

[rallye101]

You can get some seriously steep glideslopes in a 146, that's why city likes them

[andy97]

rallye101 said:

You can get some seriously steep glideslopes in a 146, that's why city likes them

When London City opened istr that the 146 was the only jet that was authorised in and out of here for a fair while.

[CraigyMc]

rallye101 said:

You can get some seriously steep glideslopes in a 146, that's why city likes them

They don't fly out of city any more.

There's a refurb company on Cranfield that preps them for operations in Canada.

[andyA700]

CraigyMc said:

rallye101 said:

You can get some seriously steep glideslopes in a 146, that's why city likes them

They don't fly out of city any more.

There's a refurb company on Cranfield that preps them for operations in Canada.

Mostly E190's out from City now, from what I have seen. We were thinking of a few city breaks from City, but the prices are very steep.

[CraigyMc]

andyA700 said:

CraigyMc said:

rallye101 said:

You can get some seriously steep glideslopes in a 146, that's why city likes them

They don't fly out of city any more.

There's a refurb company on Cranfield that preps them for operations in Canada.

Mostly E190's out from City now, from what I have seen. We were thinking of a few city breaks from City, but the prices are very steep.

I suppose it depends on whether you need to factor in driving to Heathrow or Gatwick plus parking versus tube and DLR to city.
They don't have limits on fluids any more since they got the new scanners, so nobody paying their own ticket will ever check a bag in.

[nebpor]

IIRC the 146 was designed for rugged, hot and high airstrips including Africa, hence can do quite steep approaches and departures - the perfect city jet. Pilots always made fun of the low power rating of each engine as well

I utterly hate them as a passenger - they are very cramped on three across, the 190 feels like a biz jet in comparison!

Plus that strange aerodynamic noise the 146 makes as the flaps operate always terrified me

[CraigyMc]

nebpor said:

IIRC the 146 was designed for rugged, hot and high airstrips including Africa, hence can do quite steep approaches and departures - the perfect city jet. Pilots always made fun of the low power rating of each engine as well

I utterly hate them as a passenger - they are very cramped on three across, the 190 feels like a biz jet in comparison!

Plus that strange aerodynamic noise the 146 makes as the flaps operate always terrified me

I liked the kerosene smell on engine startup (bleed air straight from them to the cabin). There are better jets these days, but why they are from Brazil rather than blighty is annoying to me.

[nebpor]

Yes - I remember a big thread on pprune about pilot health and the 146 came up quite a lot

I also remember my BA Cityjet pilot told me they were great fun to fly!

[Scabutz]

ecsrobin said:

Whenever the aircraft flies for operational work they NOTAM the route as they fly non standard profiles. Here’s an example of a route and it’s height https://www.faam.ac.uk/gluxe_media/notams/MET1_Rou...

Thanks. Hadnt seen that website before. They have a calendar of flights also so I know when to keep an eye out

[couzens]

Kuroblack350 said:

For a few years the BAe 146 was our company jet, I spent quite a bit of time travelling to Farnborough and Munich and loved every minute, a great experience and aircraft. It was designed in a sense for some unusual approaches, and occasionally our pilots would practice what we all came to love as the ‘Kandahar approach’ - which basically consisted of coming down at an unreal rate of descent over Preston and into Warton. Doesn’t sound all that big a deal but just felt all kinds of wrong, essentially pointing it at the ground…

Ahh the scud. Miss this, much better then the 145.

[BertieWooster]

Kuroblack350 said:

For a few years the BAe 146 was our company jet, I spent quite a bit of time travelling to Farnborough and Munich and loved every minute, a great experience and aircraft. It was designed in a sense for some unusual approaches, and occasionally our pilots would practice what we all came to love as the ‘Kandahar approach’ - which basically consisted of coming down at an unreal rate of descent over Preston and into Warton. Doesn’t sound all that big a deal but just felt all kinds of wrong, essentially pointing it at the ground…

I'm guessing you were involved with Panavia or Eurofighter then if you went to Munich?

[andyA700]

The 146 is a lovely little aircraft, seems that they are appreciated in far flung places.

https://simpleflying.com/yazd-air-iran-airbus-a310...

[GiantCardboardPlato]

u-boat said:

That smell was often linked to toxic air events in the cabin from the engines. I know some ex 146 pilots and crew with some nasty illnesses from operating those.

This is quite a controversial topic isn’t it? I thought there was no evidence og ‘toxic air syndrome’ or whatever it’s been called, despite lots and lots of anecdotally unwell aircrew.