Its been one long week!

Mood: Listening to “Pink Bullets”.

My first post in December. I had spent a good deal of the week trying hard to find out the way in which 732 pilots couple their GPS to their SP-77 autopilot. The Boeing 732 has so many variations that its very tough to document this bird.

An article on the Polish LOT 767’s gear up incident has been penned. Pretty proud to state that it is a comprehensive, detailed article, based on available information. You may enjoy the read here: https://theflyingengineer.com/out-of-the-blue/lot-767-gear-up-landing/

You may also read an article on the EPR vs N1 that clears some doubt about the two, right here: https://theflyingengineer.com/flightdeck/cockpit-design-epr-vs-n1-indication/

The A320’s flight with its so called “sharklets”  grabbed my attention, as it did others. Whats interesting is that MSN1, the A320 that had the honour of trying out the new winglets, had tried out other types of winglets before. That is for me to document, as is the evaluation of the 3.5% saving against the 737-800 winglet. Friends of mine who fly the winglets -800 will soon be providing me with the relevant data. The aim is to evaluate the fuel burn of the A320 non-winglet against the 738 non-winglet, and then apply a 3.5% fuel saving on the A320 non winglet version over a flight of 3000NM. If this fuel burn is anything better than the 738: well done. The assembly of A320 MSN 1’s winglets may be viewed here: (The YouTube video was deleted by Airbus)

http://videos.airbus.com/video/iLyROoaf2foB.html

The first flight of the A320 with winglets is kind of emotional, and may be enjoyed here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvx73ch3of0

It was interesting to see Flight Com’s offering of a wireless system for wing walkers, the pushback operator and the crew, ensuring clear and quick communications during a push back. It can allow the pushback operator to concentrate on the pushback without watching the wing walkers. while the wing walkers can immediately talk to the operator in case the aircraft is potentially going to clip something. More details may be seen here: http://flightcom.net/solutions/ground-support/marshalling.php

There is someone that all should be inspired by: Peter Collins. He gets invited to flight test aircraft and write articles on them. Read his Antonov 158 experience here: http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/in-focus-a-flight-test-of-antonovs-an-158-regional-jet-364992/

Have a nice Sunday, people! And a great week ahead!