Do modern aircraft have indvidual 'character'?

[Ayahuasca]

Or are the modern Airbus / Boeing airliners soulless and anonymous?

Do fleet pilots go "Ah, good old G-ALYP, nice to see you again, old girl."

Or is one exactly the same as any other?

[anonymous-user]

It probably depends who you work for.

Some operators have most or all of a fleet in a standard fit whilst others have all kinds of aircraft from all over the place. Two aircraft of the same type can easily end up being quite a bit different to operate.

[Eric Mc]

Ayahuasca said:

Or are the modern Airbus / Boeing airliners soulless and anonymous?

Do fleet pilots go "Ah, good old G-ALYP, nice to see you again, old girl."

Or is one exactly the same as any other?

G-ALYP was one of the Comet 1s that crashed into the Med in the 1950s. Not likely to be seen again by anyone.

[baptistsan]

Now that is some impressive geek skills

[eharding]

baptistsan said:

Now that is some impressive geek skills

I suspect Eric knew that one from memory, but you can look up any current or historic registration at:

http://www.caa.co.uk/application.aspx?catid=60&amp...

Some of them have scans of the original registration records - often quite poignant:

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/HistoricalMaterial/G-ALY...

[dr_gn]

Ayahuasca said:

Or are the modern Airbus / Boeing airliners soulless and anonymous?

Do fleet pilots go "Ah, good old G-ALYP, nice to see you again, old girl."

Or is one exactly the same as any other?

Might be a slightly different thing from what you were asking, but the chief test & dislay pilot from Boeing (on the Super Hornet programme) told us that whenever he flies an F/A-18E/F, every one feels *exactly* the same. There are no 'good' or 'bad' ones. Irrespective of whether he's flying a brand new aircraft out of St Louis, or flying an in-service aircraft (from a carrier group) for a display at Farnborough, he said that they all 'feel' the same.

I suppose that's the result of a modern production process, and fly-by-wire.

[dome]

So that's what he flys;)

http://www.caa.co.uk/application.aspx?catid=60&amp...

[Magog]

dome said:

So that's what he flys;)

http://www.caa.co.uk/application.aspx?catid=60&amp...

G - oh cock... like it.

[Ayahuasca]

Eric Mc said:

Ayahuasca said:

Or are the modern Airbus / Boeing airliners soulless and anonymous?

Do fleet pilots go "Ah, good old G-ALYP, nice to see you again, old girl."

Or is one exactly the same as any other?

G-ALYP was one of the Comet 1s that crashed into the Med in the 1950s. Not likely to be seen again by anyone.

I was looking for a registration to use as an example and stumbled across the Comet one and I did think 'I wonder if Eric spots it'. Well done!

[Shar2]

On a maintenance front some of the older types certainly seemed to have "character". The Sea Harriers certainly did and the old Learjet 25 I currently look after still has one, and the poor girl hasn't flown in five years.

[Papoo]

dr_gn said:

Ayahuasca said:

Or are the modern Airbus / Boeing airliners soulless and anonymous?

Do fleet pilots go "Ah, good old G-ALYP, nice to see you again, old girl."

Or is one exactly the same as any other?

Might be a slightly different thing from what you were asking, but the chief test & dislay pilot from Boeing (on the Super Hornet programme) told us that whenever he flies an F/A-18E/F, every one feels *exactly* the same. There are no 'good' or 'bad' ones. Irrespective of whether he's flying a brand new aircraft out of St Louis, or flying an in-service aircraft (from a carrier group) for a display at Farnborough, he said that they all 'feel' the same.

I suppose that's the result of a modern production process, and fly-by-wire.

I'd wager the opinion that such standardization is a very good thing in high-performance fighters. 20 seconds from catching the arrestor wire at night in your F-18 would probably prove to be a poor time to discover a particular airframe 'quirk'!

[Eric Mc]

Ayahuasca said:

Eric Mc said:

Ayahuasca said:

Or are the modern Airbus / Boeing airliners soulless and anonymous?

Do fleet pilots go "Ah, good old G-ALYP, nice to see you again, old girl."

Or is one exactly the same as any other?

G-ALYP was one of the Comet 1s that crashed into the Med in the 1950s. Not likely to be seen again by anyone.

I was looking for a registration to use as an example and stumbled across the Comet one and I did think 'I wonder if Eric spots it'. Well done!

G-ALYP is pretty famous (or infamous more likely). BOAC's Comet 1s were in the G-ALY- block of registrations. The old phonetic alphabet reffered to the this aircraft as George Able Lima Yoke Peter or the shortened version "Yoke Peter". You will often see articles in air crash investigation books on the investigation into the loss of Yoke Peter (and her sister ship, Yoke Yoke), Yoke Uncle was pressure tested to destruction in a water tank at Farnborough.

[IforB]

All aircraft have different "personalities" these do get more obvious as they get older, but even brand new machines from the same production line feel a bit different to eachother.

Airbii are a bit different in that thanks to their autoflight control system they are more similar to eachother than something that has cable and string connecting the controls, but they do still have their own moods. After all, they are French, so they'll often have a strop for no particular reason.

When I flew manky old turboprops that were the same age as me, you learnt very quickly which aircraft would act in a certain way and what happened when they got a bit cranky.

When you saw certain aircraft on your schedule you'd groan and know that you'd have a stinking duty and others where you went "phew" and knew that you'd have a good day.

When I got a last minute aircraft changes and ended up with one of the sh*tters, I often got very grumpy indeed!

[eccles]

I'd say that aircraft have a personality. Some aircraft you can rig without too much trouble, others you can only just rig within the limits, even with a lot of new components.

Working some aircraft years apart one is like an old friend and everything seems to go well, another aircraft, doing exactly the same work with similar airframe hours and every little thing puts up a fight.
It's quite satisfying when a pilot says the aircraft feels 'tight, like a new one' after you've done a depth servicing on it. Some aircraft, no matter how long you take and how careful you are, never feel tight!

[R1_NUR]

In my experience more often than not it is the fit that makes the biggest difference. ;-)

Does it have ACARS or do I have to listen to VolMets?
Is there a headrest fitted?
How many toilets up front?
Is there a curtain in the forward galley or do I have to put my tie on if I go for a pee?
Which waste tanks are fitted - are we going to fill the waste tanks 6 hours in to a 12 hour flight?

Not character but the kind of issues that crop up where I work.

:lol:

Edited by R1_NUR on Saturday 6th February 17:39

[Papoo]

R1_NUR said:

In my experience more often than not it is the fit that makes the biggest difference. ;-)

Does it have ACARS or do I have to listen to VolMets?
Is there a headrest fitted?
How many toilets up front?
Is there a curtain in the forward galley or do I have to put my tie on if I go for a pee?
Which waste tanks are fitted - are we going to fill the waste tanks 6 hours in to a 12 hour flight?

Not character but the kind of issues that crop up where I work.

:lol:



Isn't that the truth?!

I do some Citation contract work, and one client has a fleet of the buggers, and steadfastly refuses to fix the U/S autothrottles on two aircraft. You can imagine the joy when that call comes in..

Edited by R1_NUR on Saturday 6th February 17:39

[IforB]

No autothrottles...Aww diddums!

With one company I worked for we pushed to be known as test pilots as you always felt like you were rewriting the manuals everytime we got in the things. When you were bouncing through the weather with no autopilot, no RNAV of any kind and were having to make the choice between icing kit or heating you dreamed about flying something with U/S autothrottles.

On my first flight after finishing my line training. I got into the cockpit and powered up the electrical system. I was a bit surprised when only the Captains side came to life. Thinking that this would be a show stopper, I hung out of the window and yelled to the engineers about it. Imagine my surprise when I was simply told to locate a fist shaped dent on one of the panels and give it a whack. I complied and immediately the problem was resolved.

I thought this was a bit off and so mentioned it to the Captain when he arrived. He simply laughed and said "Welcome to the company Buddy...."

[Lost soul]

eharding said:

baptistsan said:

Now that is some impressive geek skills

I suspect Eric knew that one from memory,