Just Weird: I told you to go before we left

One flush uses 2/10ths of a gallon of fuel?

That seems disproportionate...
 
China Southern. I hate that airline!! Only time I have ever been afraid was on a China Southern flight from Hainan to Beijing. Hit turbulence and people went flying, mostly because the Chinese don't wear their seatbelts, stand in the aisles, etc. Hitting turbulence happens but what did not happen next surprised me. We did not change altitude or course to minimize the turbulence. We stayed in it, no cockpit announcement and no seat belt sign. I actually had to hold on to the seat in front of me so that I would not be whipped into it. This went on for almost 15 minutes. Stuff was falling out of the overheads and people were screaming. There never was an explanation or evasive action. We landed 45 minutes later in Beijing and I was so happy to get off of the plane!!

Another China Southern story which predates this one by several years. it was the early 1990's and air travel in China was even more interesting than it is now. First class was for foreigners and coach was for the locals. First had assigned seating but coach was first come first serve. There was a fist fight on the concourse while we were loading and even after every seat was filled about ten people would not get off of the plane. So, standing in the aisles we took off and headed up to Shenyang, SRO.
 
Transient relief. The visiting Her Majesty and I took the Maine Eastern Railroad(newly-established after a 45 year discontinuance of passenger service) from Brunswick to Rockland, on November 25. It's about a 2.5 hour trip, averaging about 25mph with stops only in Bath and Wiscasset prior to reaching Rockland(end-of-line).

During the return trip the train, two diesel locomotives and four coaches, slowed to a stop. We natives aboard who knew that the stop was too soon to be at Wiscasset were puzzled. After a few minutes the conductor came into our coach and made an announcement. "We have a bit of bad news and some good news. A short delay has been caused because we blew an air hose. The hose is being reconnected; we'll only be slightly delayed in arriving at Brunswick. Now for the good news. I'm happy to report that no one was using the lavatories when the air hose blew. Therefore,no one was sucked down the hole." There was laughter. "At this time we respectfully request that if anyone has the need, please hold it until the train is in motion."
http://www.maineeasternrailroad.com/

HR
 
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They oughta just take out the lavs and put in seats....oink oink.
 
smigaldi said:
Another China Southern story which predates this one by several years. it was the early 1990's and air travel in China was even more interesting than it is now. First class was for foreigners and coach was for the locals. First had assigned seating but coach was first come first serve. There was a fist fight on the concourse while we were loading and even after every seat was filled about ten people would not get off of the plane. So, standing in the aisles we took off and headed up to Shenyang, SRO.
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I can believe that story. It may have been China Southern, or it may have been another SE Asian airline in the 1980's that had (according to the flight attendant) a weight and balance problem. 10 passengers from the front of the plane were told to stand in the aisle at the rear of the plane for takeoff. Once the plane took off, they were allowed to return to their seats.
 
How much does a coat of paint weigh on a 737? I don't know, but it is surprisingly heavy.

Flying a polished aluminum airliner (no paint) would save a bunch in fuel (or increase your u$eful load) over the life of the airliner. Polishing costs would more or less be offset by no painting costs.

-Skip
 
Skip Miller said:
How much does a coat of paint weigh on a 737? I don't know, but it is surprisingly heavy.

Flying a polished aluminum airliner (no paint) would save a bunch in fuel (or increase your u$eful load) over the life of the airliner. Polishing costs would more or less be offset by no painting costs.

-Skip
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That is one of the reason why AA does not paint their planes. And it is also the reason that the space shuttle external fuel tank is orange. Orange was the undercoat, they saved a bunch of weight by not painting it white.
 
Skip Miller said:
How much does a coat of paint weigh on a 737? I don't know, but it is surprisingly heavy.

Flying a polished aluminum airliner (no paint) would save a bunch in fuel (or increase your u$eful load) over the life of the airliner. Polishing costs would more or less be offset by no painting costs.

-Skip
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It varies, which is why you don't see more airliners with AA-style livery. The prevailing wisdom is that it's slightly cheaper to operate a painted airplane than a polished one. And some operators turn the airplanes into billboards to generate additional revenue.
 
smigaldi said:
That is one of the reason why AA does not paint their planes. And it is also the reason that the space shuttle external fuel tank is orange. Orange was the undercoat, they saved a bunch of weight by not painting it white.
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600 pounds by not painting it white. The first few were painted, none since. That's 600 pounds that you can put in orbit instead.
 
Ghery said:
600 pounds by not painting it white. The first few were painted, none since. That's 600 pounds that you can put in orbit instead.
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STS-3 was the first unpainted one. Just the first two were white. I remember thinking how ugly the orange tank was. After seeing those two glistening white orbiters all assembled it just looked half done. But we got used to it.
 
I don't get it. How does flushing take fuel? Due to pumps etc. using electricity which comes from the generator on the engines?
 
smigaldi said:
STS-3 was the first unpainted one. Just the first two were white. I remember thinking how ugly the orange tank was. After seeing those two glistening white orbiters all assembled it just looked half done. But we got used to it.
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I remember watching the first launch on TV (worked for Martin Marietta at the time, we built the external tank). Was amazed at how that thing leaped off the pad when the SRBs were lit. Nothing like a Saturn V.

Asked some of the old hands what a drag race between the shuttle and a Saturn V might look like. The consensus was that the shuttle would take an early lead, then the Saturn V would catch it, pass it and never look back. It sustained a higher acceleration rate once it got going. Fun image.
 
ive heard from people living on the space coast that the shuttle compared to the saturn V is like an estes rocket compared to the shuttle.

wish i coulda seen that behemoth launch.
 
cwyckham said:
I don't get it. How does flushing take fuel? Due to pumps etc. using electricity which comes from the generator on the engines?
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The simple act doesn't use much energy. However the aircraft has to carry around the blue fluid to make the flush happen. Some weenie has figured out that each flush takes X pounds of fluid and it costs Y yen to carry a pound. So, if you don't have to carry as much blue fluid around... Isn't it simply amazing what they teach in Business School these days?

Of course *my* airliner saves a ton on blue fluid costs <g>.

Regards,
Joe
 
Ghery said:
I remember watching the first launch on TV (worked for Martin Marietta at the time, we built the external tank). Was amazed at how that thing leaped off the pad when the SRBs were lit. Nothing like a Saturn V.

Asked some of the old hands what a drag race between the shuttle and a Saturn V might look like. The consensus was that the shuttle would take an early lead, then the Saturn V would catch it, pass it and never look back. It sustained a higher acceleration rate once it got going. Fun image.
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Heard the same thing from the old timers. I was on that program for the first seven launches and the old timers told me that when it came to a Saturn V launch the shuttle was like a bottle rocket. But I remember feeling that thing more than hearing it. The only other launch vehicle that came close was the Titan 34D's
 
Joe B said:
The simple act doesn't use much energy. However the aircraft has to carry around the blue fluid to make the flush happen. Some weenie has figured out that each flush takes X pounds of fluid and it costs Y yen to carry a pound. So, if you don't have to carry as much blue fluid around... Isn't it simply amazing what they teach in Business School these days?

Of course *my* airliner saves a ton on blue fluid costs <g>.

Regards,
Joe
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Ahhh... Thanks. It's not the flush that's a problem, it's having the fluid around to flush with. I wasn't thinking far enough outside the box to think that they'd reduce the amount of fluid they carry based on asking passengers to hold it.
 
smigaldi said:
Titan 34D's
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Another fine product from Martin Marietta's plant south of Denver. I visited that assembly line on my interview trip. Never had a reason to go there the 4 years I worked there. Too busy on other things.
 
Ghery said:
Another fine product from Martin Marietta's plant south of Denver. I visited that assembly line on my interview trip. Never had a reason to go there the 4 years I worked there. Too busy on other things.
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In later years I was working on large space based laser optics and we put a facility at that plant called the 'Rapid Retargetting, Precision Pointing' test bed or as me and another guy named it in the contracts, R2P2, much to the chagrin of Lt. Gern Abramson, head of SDI. If you watcth an old episode of Nova I am in the audience as Gen. Abramson says "Here were are at our new facilility name just a little too close to that movie we are trying to not be associated with" :D:D

Did you ever get in to see that? It was a seismically isolated building with a 20'x20'x30' chuck of concrete glued to a very large piece of bedrock
 
cwyckham said:
I wasn't thinking far enough outside the box to think that they'd reduce the amount of fluid they carry based on asking passengers to hold it.
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Frankly, I am pleased when they keep the blue fluid IN the box.... :yes:

-Skip
 
smigaldi said:
In later years I was working on large space based laser optics and we put a facility at that plant called the 'Rapid Retargetting, Precision Pointing' test bed or as me and another guy named it in the contracts, R2P2, much to the chagrin of Lt. Gern Abramson, head of SDI. If you watcth an old episode of Nova I am in the audience as Gen. Abramson says "Here were are at our new facilility name just a little too close to that movie we are trying to not be associated with" :D:D

Did you ever get in to see that? It was a seismically isolated building with a 20'x20'x30' chuck of concrete glued to a very large piece of bedrock
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Long after my time there, I'm sure. Oct 79 to Oct 83. I like the facility name. :D I hung out in SSB North when they opened it.
 
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