Hello,Images over 200K file size limit deletedRegards.Gus.

Someone did the right thing flying ten minutes behind AF-447.http://www.france24.com/en/20090605-air-fr...t-brazil-iberiaI read in another news, the Iberia captain ordered extra fuel that night since the forecast look grim and he wanted to have a choice up there just in case. The decision proved to be correct and he flew ~60 Km east out of the original path (same one as AF-447) to avoid the storm. Lauda might not be so far off on this one.Cheers,MAB :(

Hi,Another interesting article from Popular Mechanics web site concerning the recovery of the AF447's FDR and CVR from the bottom of the Atlantic;http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/ro...cs/4320244.htmlTime is becoming short now for listening to the devices with only 11 days left.Let's hope that things have a positive development on these coming daysRegardsALG

The active ping on the FDR could last more than 30 days, that is only the minimum it has to manage in terms of battery life for legal certification, many units can keep going for a while longer. Most of them are certified to a crush depth of 20,000 feet on modern aircraft and all of them are capable of withstanding massive G forces in an impact.There is already one French Navy nuclear sub down there that we know about, and some US ones for sure. There are probably a few others from South American Navies too. Most nations don't announce where their subs are for obvious reasons, but to be frank, a lot of Navies would regard the search as a useful opportunity to perform a search pattern exercise with international co-operation, so there'll be no shortage of nuke and diesel subs wanting to assist I would have thought.I think the chances are reasonably good that the FDRs will be located.Al

Hello,

There is already one French Navy nuclear sub down there that we know about, and some US ones for sure. There are probably a few others from South American Navies too. Most nations don't announce where their subs are for obvious reasons

Hmmm .. so much subs in a same aera .....Are they going to take the risk to add to this tragedy a other one a la "Koursk" ? :) I'm doubtful.Regards.Gus.

That French Sub better find those two boxes now cause the rest of their potential enemies are watching at their underwater technology and capabilities as a respectable NAVY. C'est ainsi la vie. C'est ainsi la guerre.

Hello,It's not NAVY ... c'est "La Royale" Regards.

Hello,It's not NAVY ... c'est "La Royale" Regards.

Whatever they want to call themselves, let's hope La Royale does not screw up this one nevertheless.Note: Definition of Navy = A navy is the branch of a nation's military forces principally designated for naval warfare and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It includes anything conducted by surface ships, amphibious ships, submarines, and seaborne aviation, as well as ancillary support, communications, training, and other fields :( MAB

Officially, the French Navy's name is the Marine Nationale, although it is indeed often colloquially referred to as La Royale (i.e. the Royal Navy), despite the fact that the French offed their royal family in the French Revolution. In case anyone is curious about the sub they've sent down to the South Atlantic to search for AF447's FDRs, officially it is the Emeraude that is on the search, which is a Rubis Class nuclear attack submarine (SSN), although it is likely that there is more than one of the French subs down there looking for stuff and there will certainly be surface support vessels on the way since the Rubis Class is of fairly limited endurance, because of how much food it can carry. The Rubis Class of sub is in fact the smallest nuclear attack submarine in the world (note that the term nuclear attack submarine does not mean it is carrying nuclear weapons, but that it is powered by a nuclear reactor, SSNs are primarily intended to attack other submarines rather than cities).More info about the Rubis here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubis_class_submarineAs far as how deep it can go and more importantly, how deep it can search, most navies are extremely cagey about revealing how deep their subs can go. Officially at least, the Rubis Class can go to a depth of at least 300 metres (roughly 1,000 feet), although it is likely that it can go much deeper than that, probably to at least 1,500 feet and possibly deeper given that it is small, but more modern submarines with electronic as opposed to optical periscopes can usually go deeper (the Rubis Class dates back to the late seventies), since the hole where the periscope penetrates the hull is one of the things that limits the ability to seal off the water pressure, thus limiting depth certification. This means that more modern types from other navies (the French have a new modern sub type coming, but not due in service until next year) are possibly going to be more capable of hearing the FDR's ping, since they will be able to go closer to the sea bed and use their hull sensors. But, maximum depth capability is not always a massive problem when searching with a sub, since most military subs use remote probes and sensor arrays, which they tow behind them on very long (several miles) cables, and when towing such sensor arrays at slow speeds, it allows a lot of slack in the towing line, so these arrays can go right down to the sea bed even when the sub is near the surface. Such arrays usually have to be towed slowly since the noise of the water friction as they pass through it 'blinds' them to sound; traveling at anything over about ten knots makes them largely useless because of the clutter on the submarine's displays from all that water friction.This means that the major problem as far as finding the FDRs signal, is not the submarine's ability to go deep, but the fact that the water temperature drops off considerably with increased depth, and the salinity alters too. Both of these phenomena can create 'thermal layers' at various depths, which can bend sound waves and sometimes completely bounce them, and that means a boat or sub could theoretically be right over the FDR and not hear its ping. Therefore, the subs on the search will probably have to move slowly because they will have to drop their towed arrays right down near the sea floor in order to be sure that they are listening for the FDR's ping below any possible thermal layers in the water, and since they have a large area to search, going slow is going to take time, although subs can also drop disposable probes which can remotely report pings and thermal layers (as can many anti-submarine surface vessels and aircraft), so it is not as tedious as it might at first appear, as some of these probes can travel to their assigned locations at very high speeds indeed (50 knots in most cases and well over 200 knots in the case of the Russian SKVAL torpedo if configured as a probe).The plus side of thermal layers as far as searching for a ping goes, is that a thermal layer could possible bounce the signal a long way and give clues as to its general direction, as thermal layers can often 'funnel' sound for very long distances indeed (hundreds, and occasionally, thousands of miles). So thermal layers are not all bad news where the search for the FDRs from AF447 is concerned, as they make male triangulating the general position of the FDRs a much simpler task.What would normally be difficult, would be maintaining a coordinated search between subs of differing nations, because of the language barriers and the fact that submerged boats can only be in radio contact if they float an antenna wire to the surface, so I would imagine that numerous subs on the search will have been assigned sectors prior to beginning their search via an overall plan (possibly through NATO), thus avoiding the possibility of underwater collisions and speeding up coverage of the search area.Al

As a side note to a much earlier post I made talking about the differences between stormscope, radar, and xm-take a look at this severe weather that is going thru my area now-on base and composite. Which one gives more valuable info to the pilot? It would be ideal to have all three.Base:Composite (what you get with xm weather)

The flight 447 is being linked to the problem with airbus pitot tube icing, previous incidents like of qantas have also been attributed to the same problem.I was wondering what actually is the problem with those pitots? Is there a design flaw?

Hello,Maybe a hope for the investigators...Google translation:http://translate.google.be/translate?u=htt...fr&ie=UTF-8Original link:http://fr.news.yahoo.com/4/20090623/tts-fr...nt-ca02f96.htmlNot confirmed officially.Hope the transmitter still attached to boxes..Note:

previous incidents like of qantas have also been attributed to the same problem.

The Qantas incident had not his source from a "Pitot tubes" malfunction .. but instead from a malfunction of a flight computer element.And it's not yet confirmed the AF447 incident is a result of Pitot tubes malfunction (icing) ... it's just one of the possible causes studied so far ...Maybe black boxes will confirm or infirm this .Regards.Gus.

Sorry guys,but I've been a bit cut off from details emerging from the Airbus crash. I rather came upon a couple of pictures a friend sent to my email in-box purporting to have been taken by one of the passengers on board showing distressed passengers - some with face-masks donned and a gaping hole on the aircraft fuselage with a passenger in the process of being sucked out. Pls, was this a put on or was it real? Secondly, what has finally emerged as cause of the crash? Thanks.Pirabee. :(

Hello,Yes indeed you are very out the loop :)The pics you received by a "friend" are a old hoax ..; return to your TV for seen the soap opera "lost" :)This hoax was already running when it was a collision between a TAM airliner and a corporate jet over Amazonia months ago .......BTW nothing (no clues so far) about what are the causes.PS:BEA denie any signals from black boxes ....Regards.Gus.

I am starting to wonder how much are they (France, Air France and Airbus) interested in knowing the truth. Too much money at risk. I guess we will find out if they keep on looking after the Ping dies out.Cheers,MAB