Timeline for Why are 'ghost flights' necessary?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
13 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 2, 2020 at 10:33 | vote | accept | Cloud | ||
| Apr 1, 2020 at 19:45 | comment | added | Vikki | @Mark: You can exercise the landing-gear actuators just fine on the ground, as long as you put the aircraft up on jacks first. (For that matter, with some aircraft, you can do that even without the jacks, but that tends not to be good for the aircraft.) | |
| Apr 1, 2020 at 7:27 | comment | added | vsz | @PeterDuniho : yeah, modern planes are more finicky than the good old An-2, which you could just leave out in the mud and rain and snow for half a year, and then start it up again with minimal fuss. | |
| Mar 31, 2020 at 21:11 | comment | added | Harper - Reinstate Monica | You can do that on the ground, but your neighbors will hate your guts. | |
| Mar 31, 2020 at 20:09 | comment | added | Chronocidal | @DarrelHoffman Once you get a Turbofan engine (like a commercial airliner) up to temperatures to properly warm up the oil, burn off moisture, et cetera, it will want air going through it at at least 300mph, for at least half an hour - good luck managing that on the ground! This is similar to how a diesel car requires a fairly long journey (30 mins at 50mph) for the DPF to be able to get hot enough to "regenerate" successfully. (Making them bad for "city drivers" doing lots of short or slow trips instead) | |
| Mar 31, 2020 at 20:07 | comment | added | Mark | @DarrelHoffman, large airliners also have parts you can't meaningfully exercise while on the ground -- the landing gear retraction mechanism, for example. | |
| Mar 31, 2020 at 19:38 | comment | added | Darrel Hoffman | @PeterDuniho Yeah, but we're not talking about small planes, are we? These are commercial airliners. Note: I am not a pilot or mechanic, my knowledge only comes from developing maintenance simulators for a while. | |
| Mar 31, 2020 at 19:24 | comment | added | Peter Duniho | @Darrel: "you can start the engines up and run them for a while without actually taking off to keep them in decent condition" -- not really. Most small airplanes use air-cooled engines. To operate them long enough to warm up the oil, evaporating accumulated moisture, keeping the engine warm for long enough to really do it properly, it's safest and easiest to just fly the plane, which keeps adequate cooling air moving over the engine. And while simulators light plane pilots have access to are great for procedures, they aren't all that good for basic operational skills. | |
| Mar 31, 2020 at 19:07 | comment | added | Darrel Hoffman | Some of this could theoretically be mitigated without actually flying though. Tires can be saved from damage just by taxiing a few feet every now and then. And you can start the engines up and run them for a while without actually taking off to keep them in decent condition (circulating oil, burning off collected dust, etc.) Obviously the pilots need to practice to keep their skills from going rusty, but this could be done in a simulator. It's certainly not ideal, but a heck of a lot cheaper, especially since nobody's travelling right now... | |
| Mar 31, 2020 at 18:40 | comment | added | svoop | @PeterDuniho You're right and to illustrate: In France, all non-essential VFR are currently forbidden for the duration of COVID-19 related restrictions. However, the DGAC (civil aviation directorate) allow flights on small airplanes if the maintenance manual demands them. (Further restrictions such as a mandatory flight plan apply.) | |
| Mar 31, 2020 at 18:34 | comment | added | Peter Duniho | ... Same thing applies to wheeled vehicles and boats, for that matter. Sitting idle is very bad, and if one is going to leave them idle for extended periods of time, it's cheaper in the long run to put them into storage properly. Conversely, if you want to make sure you're ready to resume operations immediately, it's better to just keep operating them. | |
| Mar 31, 2020 at 18:34 | comment | added | Peter Duniho | "Airliners are both larger and more complex than the small aircraft you're familiar with" -- that's true but, frankly, all of the same things still apply to the smaller airplanes. There is a noticeable increase in net maintenance costs even for small planes flown monthly vs. those flown at least once a week. I don't know where the OP is flying or what "they get a service" entails, but I wouldn't trust an airplane that's been sitting on the ground "for months" to be ready for me to just hop in and go. ... | |
| Mar 31, 2020 at 14:48 | history | answered | fooot | CC BY-SA 4.0 |