Where your stuff goes in an ATR 72

[Chock 17,769]

Since none of this stuff is modeled on the Carenado ATR-72 in any detail, I figured I'd take a couple of pics for anyone who was curious about it and explain what goes on...

One of the smaller aeroplane types we service are the ATR-72's of Aer Lingus which come into Manchester. These are actually operated by Stobart Air Services on behalf of Aer Lingus. The ATR-72 is pretty small and narrow and it only has two cargo holds; one at the front just behind the cockpit which has an alcove on the starboard which is closed off with a cargo net, and one on the left side also closed off by a net. There is a passageway (the main aisle) between the two where you access the cockpit. This means if you are in the forward cargo area, you sometimes have to move out of the way for anyone going to the cockpit whilst you are loading it and not only this, you also have to board via the rear airstairs and walk through the cabin to get to it. Theoretically you could climb in to it through the cargo door, but thanks to the joys of Health and Safety regulations we are not allowed to do that although if there are only a few bags going in the front, you can load it through the cargo door on the port side without being on board. You can get about fifty or so big cases in there at a push if you stack them carefully.

Then there is another hold at the rear of the aircraft. It is loaded via a door on the starboard side, but again you are not supposed to climb in through that, instead getting in there by going up the rear airstairs and across the fuselage where you turn right to get into the hold which is sealed off with two net curtains. At a push I'd say you could probably get about 40 suitcases in there but it'd be a tight fit.

Here's a couple of pics of that rear hold. The first pic is taken from the rear hold looking at the opened cargo access door, the second is a 'selfie' I took whilst in the hold. You can see there is not a lot of room. You can see the catering cans near the doorway.

So. Here's the fun procedure for spinning (doing a fast turnaround) on an ATR-72. About ten minutes before it is on stand, we get a tug and towbar on stand, plus six chocks and some cones, plus a truck with a trailer for the offloaded bags. The onload bags are also brought there in another trailer with a truck. When the ATR arrives, I scan the FEP (a fixed power generator cart on the stand) access panel with my ID card to enable it. We wait until it's anti collision beacons go off and then chock the nose wheels and the port main wheel. At this point the starboard engine will still be running, but the prop will be braked (aka 'hotel mode'). This is because the ATR has no APU. We open the little panel on the starboard side and plug in the FEP which provides 28 volts of power, and signal the crew when it is turned on. They can then shut down the engine and if we can be bothered, we might then chock the other mainwheel after we are sure the engine is stopped (there is a light on the forward fuselage which illuminates when the engine is running). We then cone off the various bits so people don't go near them and we put a 'pig' (tape barrier) out from the rear airstairs to wingtip and then to the nose so passengers do not go under the wing since fuel or de-icing fluid might drip on them and we don't want them near the propellers.

With all this done, the rear airstairs are opened and a tailsop which is stowed in the rear cargo area is placed on the tail as a precaution against tail tipping. Then someone hurries up the steps to the rear hold before the passengers begin disembarking (since space is tight). We drive an empty baggage cart to the rear starboard door, open that and offload the bags through the door you can see on my pic. Then the truck is driven around to the port forward cargo door, we open that, and by this time hopefully the passengers are off, which allows the person who was in the rear hold to walk up the aisle to the forward hold so they can unload those bags through the doorway. Then we load outbound bags on the front and then to the rear in a reversal of the procedure, using the load plan as a guide for weight and balance. At this point the outbound passengers will be ready to board, so we quickly connect the towbar to the nose gear and the tug to the towbar. Then if there is any fuel going on, one of us connects a headset to the aircraft and watches the fueler since this is a requirement if passengers are boarding whilst fueling is going on. This is because the doors are small and if there is a fire from the fueler, we would need to let the crew know immediately and then get all of the emergency doors open. The fueler and the dispatcher then hand the crew load sheets to confirm the load has been done to the correct procedure. There is a little doorway hatch on the cockpit port side which you can hand these through.

When it is fueled up and the doors and access panels are all closed, we do a walkaround check of the aeroplane. When this is done, we tell the crew we've completed it and that the towbar is connected and we are ready to push when they have clearance to do so. When they are ready for that, they will want to use the FEP to enable a start up of the number 2 engine, so they will ask the person on the headset if they can start 2 in hotel mode. We approve the start and get a person on the roadway behind them to stop the traffic from passing behind the plane because of the exhaust blast. When number 2 is running, the crew tell us we can disconnect the FEP, so we shut it off and do that and push the FEP cart off to the side out of the way. We will then call for brake release and signal the tug driver that brakes are off and that the push can commence, giving a quick visual check behind to make sure it is clear. Most ATR pushes are not fancy, being straight back off the stand because the ATR has a good turning circle. As the plane pushes out, the crew ask if they can engage the prop on two and if clear, we approve that and signal it visually. Then they will ask to crank number one and we approve that too and signal that visually as well. When the push is complete, we call for brakes on, put a chock on the nose as a precaution and then disconnect the tug and bar and close the hatch where the headset was plugged in. When we've diconnected everything and removed the chock, we get clear and signal the crew all is good with a wave off. On most aircraft you hold up the stearing bypass pin with its remove before flight tag as a visual indication that steering is available and everything has been removed and buttoned up, but the ATR does not use a nose gear bypass pin, so I usually hold up the headset wire since it is dayglow green and highly visible and then give a salute or a cheery wave and a thumbs up.

That all takes about 25 minutes.

[RamonB 449]

Thank You Chock
This info is a treasure trove.

[charliearon 3,024]

Ah, a ramp-rat in action!  Don't take offense, Alan...That's what baggage handlers are called in the U.S.  My brother-in-law did it for several years at KSFO for Western Airlines.

[Major_Bloodnok 21]

Alan,

Ah that takes me back to a previous life! Thank you for the memories!

Concerning the tail pin - I can say that I know of an occasion when this was forgotten and left flapping until the aircraft was called back.....as well as a ramp agent almost being crushed under the tail during boarding as he decided that it was a good idea to remove the pin as he didnt want to forget to take it out.........

[Chock 17,769]

Apparently one of those ATR's took off from Manchester a while ago and had some issue where the crew suspected the tail stop had been left in and so they returned to the airport. Not quite sure why they didn't just ask the cabin crew to check if it was stowed (which apparently it was since that was not the issue), but either way some noise was causing them to think that was the case so I guess it was prudent to come back in for a landing. Frankly, I'm surprised they could hear something like that at all over the racket from those engines, the ATR is not exactly a quiet aeroplane, it is in fact the only aeroplane where I always make a point of putting my ear defenders on when doing the road for a pushback, and we do 747s and 777s etc lol.