Well done guys, I stand corrected, about the 767 anyway. I remember reading somewhere about doing away with the rule for certain aircraft such as the 767, back in 2004 but the beaurecrats bungled the disscussions and a great opportunity was lost for god knows how long- 10 years maybe untill someone can get it back on the agenda.
This rule is incredibly wasteful of resources, particularly fuel and time. This is why planes fly in a 'track made good' instead of directly from A to B. This is not too much of an issue for the northern hemisphere travellers but us southern folks have these things to consider when going from NZ to South Africa and it's also why there is no service from NZ to South America direct, except for cargo. These cargo flights should have proved to the powers that be that engine fialures on these trips are extremely rare.
The jet engine is a wonderfully simple design compared to other engines and once they're going they don't stop easily, cutting the fuel is pretty much the only way.
Bird strikes are rare and usually not a big deal these days, birds just get minced and the engine keeps going.
I would say the biggest danger lies with the airline maintenance policies and operations where parts are not replaced when they should be, small cracks on compressor blades grow and the engine flies to bits because the paper work was fiddled with. Remember a few years back when that Auckland helicopter maintenance place was selling time expired rotor blades to unsuspecting customers and people lost their lives, and those responsable kept on doing it, they finally get brought to justice and the main guy gets 8 years in prison! Incredible as it is, and this is godzone- NZ. 8 measly years,if I had lost a loved one as a result of this piece of f&*%^$ing S&*(^ I would want to see a youtube vid of them getting the same as Saddam! Only the principle went down I think, someone may know more, If so please enlighten, anyway these people knew they were killing people but the money was too great for them to care. I do recall how a pair of Huey blades were literally fished out of the scrap bin, bogged up,repainted and sold for $50,000 to a guy in Nelson.
I worked at a place that does maintenance for light aircraft and helo's, all piston powered stuff, and I made my own share of mistakes being a 16 year old idiot.
I used to be amazed at the level of trust I was given, after all I was a recent school leaver,green as hell but keen to learn and 3 hours logged at the Aeroclub 3 doors down. The chief engineer would ask me what I had done and I would tell him and he hardly ever checked my work! Such things as 'did you torque the spark plugs in and what setting?' How much oil did you put in that one and other important stuff like that!
I make sure the local boys at the petrol station down the road do what they're supposed to, how many times I've checked the petrol cap and been glad I did! as it was about to fall off! OK enough rambling, and back to what this post is about!
I personally am not a fan of 4 engines. Maybe my thinking is flawed,see what you think, 4 engines=4 things to go wrong. If one does it is dead weight. Back when you needed 4 engines for the required power this is understandable, but now with the B777 which is as long and looks pretty much the same size as a B747 has only 2 massive engines. It must be easier and cheaper to maintain 2 engines than 4, and lessen the chance of an operator wanting to cook the books in a very competitive industry where margins are very tight.
When I get a warrant for my car I can say to my mechanic,'can you let me do that ball joint next time?' and he'll say 'well is it just you driving this car?' and if it's not too bad he'll say alright then. And I did get the ball joint some weeks later and did both sides even though only one was bad and it was $55 per side! Economics plain and simple was why I asked my mechanic for a favour. Exactly the same thing goes on in the aircraft industry, I have seen it myself.
So with good old AirNZ having the Chinese do their maintenance on their 'Heavies' to cut costs does not make me want to fly with them! Life is cheap over there and the language barrier and corruption and such seems like a recipe for disaster.
Is there a 748 on the horizon? As far as I know they have no orders for the 747 only the freighter, maybe this has changed, it would have been 6 mths ago I read that by now.
Thanks for getting me up to speed on ETOPS you guys, it makes me glad I raised the matter, I nearly wasn't going to, in case it was thought I was being too PC.
Regards Stephen
