stuarty Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 Going on holiday to Turkey today. 45 mins into flight pilot said there was a technical problem with the plane and we would have to return to Manchester. Got within 15 min of Manchester and pilot said we would have to fly around coast of England to burn up 1500kg of fuel as we were to heavy to land. Anyway after flying around with our landing gear down to increase drag and use more fuel we landed in Manchester only to find fire engines etc waiting for us to land. Still sitting on the plane after 2 hours none the wiser! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sasha@lazytrips Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 Going on holiday to Turkey today. 45 mins into flight pilot said there was a technical problem with the plane and we would have to return to Manchester. Got within 15 min of Manchester and pilot said we would have to fly around coast of England to burn up 1500kg of fuel as we were to heavy to land. Anyway after flying around with our landing gear down to increase drag and use more fuel we landed in Manchester only to find fire engines etc waiting for us to land.Still sitting on the plane after 2 hours none the wiser! Sux. Hope they sort you out pronto. The beer is waiting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tprice Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 damn planes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricey Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 Breaking news! Apparently some knob is using a mobile phone the plane and its screwed up the computers! Hope you get it sorted mate - I had a similar forum whinge when stuck on the runway for hours when we went to Cuba. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldel Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 ..too heavy to land Not heard that one before. I would be straight off that plane and wait for the next one...there will be beer in the airport! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evilscorp Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 Try get zmanalex on the job, it will be fixed in no time with brand new parts, probably go faster too! Best of luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK350Z Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 ..too heavy to land Not heard that one before. A heavy landing with the wings full of fuel could over stress them, it's not just a weird excuse! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris`I Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 ..too heavy to land Not heard that one before. A heavy landing with the wings full of fuel could over stress them, it's not just a weird excuse! Pffff next you'll be telling me they have to shut down wind turbines in high wind as they cant spin that quick ..... no wait Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldel Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 ..too heavy to land Not heard that one before. A heavy landing with the wings full of fuel could over stress them, it's not just a weird excuse! Pffff next you'll be telling me they have to shut down wind turbines in high wind as they cant spin that quick ..... no wait I just always heard these quotes that the wings are so strong you could put twenty elephnats on each wing or something and they wouldnt break. I wonder what the greens think of that fuel 'usage' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DannyBoy Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 ..too heavy to land Not heard that one before. A heavy landing with the wings full of fuel could over stress them, it's not just a weird excuse! Pffff next you'll be telling me they have to shut down wind turbines in high wind as they cant spin that quick ..... no wait I just always heard these quotes that the wings are so strong you could put twenty elephnats on each wing or something and they wouldnt break. I wonder what the greens think of that fuel 'usage' That's pretty much true about the wings, you're not going to overstress an airliner's structure (landing gear aside) by landing a bit heavy. I've only ever flown much smaller stuff, but i'd think it's because the aircraft would have to generate more lift to counteract the weight, and as they already go in at maximum flap and angle of attack etc. the only thing left to do to get more lift would be increase speed, and coming in faster than you should isn't fun whatever you're in. DB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docwra Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 ..too heavy to land Not heard that one before. A heavy landing with the wings full of fuel could over stress them, it's not just a weird excuse! Pffff next you'll be telling me they have to shut down wind turbines in high wind as they cant spin that quick ..... no wait I just always heard these quotes that the wings are so strong you could put twenty elephnats on each wing or something and they wouldnt break. I wonder what the greens think of that fuel 'usage' They bend upwards, not downwards usually TBH its pretty unsuual to fly round to lose fuel, there was obviously something a bit worrying going on Who you flying with, I might be supplying guys to them and can give them a ring and Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris`I Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 Saw a prog on the building of the Airbus A380, and they flexed the wings in a test harness 4m vertically On their test bench they flexed it that much non-stop for some insane amount of time to prove it wont break in service. They far exceeded that and were trying to decide whether to now stop testing or keep going and see how long it took to fail! But yes, stresses on one direction cant always be taken in the other and it does depend a lot in this case on what the issue was as to why they had to turn back and land. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ebized Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 But yes, stresses on one direction cant always be taken in the other and it does depend a lot in this case on what the issue was as to why they had to turn back and land. They found out they had a dodgy geezer on board who won't turn his phone off Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rtbiscuit Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 the loosing weight was not a flying issue its a crashing issue, they were burning off fuel to reduce the amount the plane was carrying, basically if it was to crash on landing, it would mean less of a fire ball. i'd rather crash in a plane with an empty fuel tank, than one with a full tank of fuel, that stuff burns extremly hot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbitstew Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 You would have thought if the plane was safe enough to spend ages flying about burning fuel up, they could have just carried on to turkey. Still, better safe than sorry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK350Z Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 the loosing weight was not a flying issue its a crashing issue, they were burning off fuel to reduce the amount the plane was carrying, basically if it was to crash on landing, it would mean less of a fire ball. i'd rather crash in a plane with an empty fuel tank, than one with a full tank of fuel, that stuff burns extremly hot. Not true. Nothing to do with crashing. It's purely an excess weight problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronzee Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 It's better to be kept waiting and to be safe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beavis Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 What was the actual plane? Most can dump the fuel at approx 2 tons per minute, some cant. Just wondering why they decided to burn instead of dumping it. I am guessing you were on a Boeing 757? in that case they have no fuel dump facility but they are certified to land at near MTOW as are one or two Airbus aircraft, so weight is not an issue with certain aircraft. Video shows a bird strike at Manchester on a 757 with a heavy fuel load but plane landed soon after with one engine that could burn any fuel and no fuel dump facility. Also note he was given notice that all runways were open for landing as soon as the mayday message was sent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuarty Posted December 21, 2011 Author Share Posted December 21, 2011 Well thats me home safe and sound! I think there was a problem with a valve that pumped clean air into the cabin, think the pilot said there was an air lock in it? Thanks for all the comments! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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