Loving the bad weather in the UK right now!

[Chock 17,769]

17 hours ago, Mace said:

Do you have some sort of stand or jack to place under the tail, to make sure it doesn't tip over?

I would have had some high anxiety about unloading the front.  But I guess you guys know exactly how much weight you can have in the rear.

Some aircraft do have a removable tail prop to prevent the thing going completely onto its tail (notably the ATR-72, and it is part of the pre-start/taxi checklists for tyhe crew to note that it is removed and stowed in the rear cabin area, although the dispatcher normally removes it and hands it to the crew and it is checked on the headset walkaround too, so there isn't much chance of it being forgotten and left on their by mistake although I have heard that apparently this has happened once or twice).

For most aircraft, there is no such tail prop precautionary device, it's just a case of being aware of the risk and working according to that when loading and unloading. So, typically you unload the back first, then unload the front, and when loading it up, you load the front first and then the back. Any time you don't stick rigidly to that rule, you keep an eye on things carefully.

Some of the riskiest aeroplanes for potentially tipping are the B737-800 and 900 variants. Typically what happens with these is that when they are inbound to land, we get a message sent from their origin airport with details of what is on board and where it is placed and the trim/balance there is as a result of this loadout (the tail tip risk is displayed as a percentage) of the weight/balance point. 48 percent is rated as critical for a 737, but we regard figures very much lower than this as something to be wary of.

So, what we do is get some airstairs on the back exit door to allow passengers in the rear to deplane ASAP (if we don't do this, what can happen is people start getting off the front via the jet bridge, but some passenger might be dithering about in the middle seating area, meaning nobody can move forward past them whilst the front is emptying, which then makes the aeroplane really tail-heavy). If that occurs (and it does quite often) it would be on the crew to stop the deboarding process. Meanwhile down on the ramp we do our best to offload the rear cargo hold ASAP to get the weight off the back, but even then the tail can start dropping quite a bit and the nose gear suspension then starts extending quite alarmingly because of that issue with passengers being unable to get off the back. If we see this, we'll let the crew know but what we will also often do, is throw bags up the forward hold to the exit and maybe even get some more people in the front cargo hold doorway to give the thing some weight well forward of the main gear.

So, when we offload a 737, we usually end up stood there making a judgement on when to start getting stuff off the front based on how many passengers are still in the back hald of the aeroplane and how extended the nose gear oleo is; if the anti-torque scissor link joint is at less than 45 degrees, we're usually good to commence unloading.

Back with the ATR-72 and the risk of tail-tipping, we used to wait until at least 12 passengers were on board in the forward cabin before we would start loading the rear hold and we would of course load the forward hold first to further help matters. I also tend to attach the towbar and tug ASAP to help in this regard.

[fluffyflops 1,858]

4 hours ago, jarmstro said:

North of Watford is really scary.

The beer is frothy and the women, hairy.

I asked my HR department the other day if I could send out a comms to all crew (due to shear numbers of commuters up north that are based at LHR, that keep pitching up late)  saying something along the lines of.... 

'If you live north of Watford please consider spending the 60 pounds on the crew hotel the night before your duty, instead of relying on public transport on the day of report and risk being late for your duty' 

Came back "no, that will cause too much distress asking them to be sensible and spend a staggering 60 quid'.  I mean at least I got the pronouns right. 

 

 

Edited December 14, 2022 by fluffyflops

[sonny147 579]

4 hours ago, jarmstro said:

North of Watford is really scary.

The beer is frothy and the women, hairy.

i think you mean proper beer not the witch #### you drink down there ! as for the women eerrrmmm well !!!! lol

[Ray Proudfoot 8,955]

10 minutes ago, fluffyflops said:

It's the same met office drumming up fear again like they did when we had 2 days in the summer (yes a staggering 48 hours) when it was a 'heat wave' 

It fell to -15°C in Scotland yesterday and -7°C here in Cheshire overnight. This is the coldest spell since 2011. I know because I run a weather station. The Met Office don’t drum up fear as you suggest. They report the weather and issue warnings where necessary.

The temperature hit 100°F here last July. Not technically a heatwave (that is minimum 3 days) but it broke records across the UK and Europe.

And don’t venture into strikes which is political.

[Cpt_Piett 4,650]

9 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

It fell to -15°C in Scotland yesterday and -7°C here in Cheshire overnight. This is the coldest spell since 2011. I know because I run a weather station. The Met Office don’t drum up fear as you suggest. They report the weather and issue warnings where necessary.

That's interesting. I live on the Norwegian West coast (around 400nm northeast of Edinburg) where we've had very cold weather for a week now. I was driving in my car yesterday around midday and the outside temp showed -16 °C. Today it's -8. 

[jarmstro 2,402]

59 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

It fell to -15°C in Scotland yesterday and -7°C here in Cheshire overnight. This is the coldest spell since 2011. I know because I run a weather station. The Met Office don’t drum up fear as you suggest. They report the weather and issue warnings where necessary.

The temperature hit 100°F here last July. Not technically a heatwave (that is minimum 3 days) but it broke records across the UK and Europe.

And don’t venture into strikes which is political.

Ray. The reason storms are now named is obvious. And when I looked at the Metar for the record breaking day in the summer at Heathrow the max was 38 degrees. Where the recording station was at Heathrow which recorded the record I know not but it's hardly surprising given all the jet engines, air con etc and I'm guessing it was just one particular station and not an average of all of them.  But it wasn't the hottest day ever here in Torquay sadly. The Met office has a vested interest and an agenda imo. It's funding is wholly dependent on exaggerating climate change.  They were desperate to log a record temperature and they trumpeted it to all and sundry. Given that the climate is warming records will be broken. If they weren't itwould logically mean it is getting colder. I noticed a couple of weeks ago that the Met office had issued a yellow warning, here in the UK, for 'Moderate Rain'. 😂 Fear suits some people and I am guessing they would advise the sounding of air raid sirens in the event of Heavy Rain.

Edited December 14, 2022 by jarmstro

[Ray Proudfoot 8,955]

41 minutes ago, Cpt_Piett said:

That's interesting. I live on the Norwegian West coast (around 400nm northeast of Edinburg) where we've had very cold weather for a week now. I was driving in my car yesterday around midday and the outside temp showed -16 °C. Today it's -8. 

You live in the warmest area in Norway! 😁

[Ray Proudfoot 8,955]

@jarmstro, the highest temperature recorded last July in the U.K. was in Coningsby, Lincolnshire. Nowhere near all that jet blast at Heathrow. I do think more respect is due to professional meteorologists. They do know the rules about station placement and the one at Heathrow is nowhere near taxiways.

With southerly winds off the Channel Torquay was unlikely to have its max temp broken.

I’m not getting into agendas and vested interests. That is likely to get this topic locked so I suggest you don’t raise it again.

The heaviest rainfall my station has recorded was last February when a squall line passed through. It was clearly identifiable on the Met Office rainfall radar. The equivalent of 12” / hr fell for a few minutes. Beat all the summer downpours.

[Cpt_Piett 4,650]

1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

You live in the warmest area in Norway! 😁

Indeed 🙂 Winters are usually mild with lots of precipitation, sometimes in the form of snow. But -16 is unusually cold. 

[jarmstro 2,402]

2 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

@jarmstro, the highest temperature recorded last July in the U.K. was in Coningsby, Lincolnshire. Nowhere near all that jet blast at Heathrow. I do think more respect is due to professional meteorologists. They do know the rules about station placement and the one at Heathrow is nowhere near taxiways.

With southerly winds off the Channel Torquay was unlikely to have its max temp broken.

I’m not getting into agendas and vested interests. That is likely to get this topic locked so I suggest you don’t raise it again.

The heaviest rainfall my station has recorded was last February when a squall line passed through. It was clearly identifiable on the Met Office rainfall radar. The equivalent of 12” / hr fell for a few minutes. Beat all the summer downpours.

Understood. I won't mention it again. Not sure why you mentioned Lincolnshire though? The news said Heathrow. (Both erroneous I suspect.) On the other hand this must be the coldest spell I've witnessed in Torquay! It's bitter!😀

Edited December 14, 2022 by jarmstro

[Ray Proudfoot 8,955]

1 hour ago, Cpt_Piett said:

Indeed 🙂 Winters are usually mild with lots of precipitation, sometimes in the form of snow. But -16 is unusually cold. 

The jet stream has been diverted to the Med, hence this pool of cold air over NW Europe. Due to end Sunday with low pressure bringing southerly winds and rain. Hope it reaches you. 😁💦

14 minutes ago, jarmstro said:

Understood. I won't mention it again. Not sure why you mentioned Lincolnshire though? The news said Heathrow. (Both erroneous I suspect.) On the other hand this must be the coldest spell I've witnessed in Torquay! It's bitter!😀

Thanks. 👍 I mentioned it in case you thought Heathrow was the hottest place in July. It took a few days to be verified as a new record. https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2022/record-high-temperatures-verified

[Bobsk8 12,730]

Snow in much of the North in the US today. Just flew into KBIS with a 150 foot ceiling and blowing snow. , in the Fenix. 

[Amon1973 1,421]

3 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

It fell to -15°C in Scotland yesterday and -7°C here in Cheshire overnight. This is the coldest spell since 2011. I know because I run a weather station. The Met Office don’t drum up fear as you suggest. They report the weather and issue warnings where necessary.

The temperature hit 100°F here last July. Not technically a heatwave (that is minimum 3 days) but it broke records across the UK and Europe.

And don’t venture into strikes which is political.

I've always fancied getting myself a weather station, how expensive is a decent one?

I agree that the Met Office don't sensationalize the weather, if anything they are fairly conservative with their forecasts. Tabloids on the other had like The Mail and The Express always go OTT.

Edited December 14, 2022 by Amon1973

[Ray Proudfoot 8,955]

@Amon1973, a decent one is the Davis VP2 which can be configured in a few different ways especially regarding the anemometer. Here’s the company I bought my VP2 from in 2009.

https://www.weatherstations.co.uk/vp_main.htm
Not cheap but it’s extremely reliable and well made. Earlier anemometers used a reed switch which don’t last long but they’ve now switched to a magnetic one which is far better.

My station (temp, rainfall) is in the back garden whilst the anemometer is on the chimney stack 10 metres up.

Click on my signature link for current and historical data.

[Pathfinder633 223]

Im not impressed with the met office lately, twice in the last month Ive ordered a couple hours clear weather only to get to the airfield and its socked in....I pay my taxes!!!grrr