Full throttle retracts the spoilers on the Bus. Also, tailstrikes on landing are fairly common. Also, London!
Had an interesting event a couple of days ago. We were coming in on the STOCR RNAV arrival (a descend via procedure…which basically automates the whole descent profile) and as we descended into the Charlotte terminal area an American Airlines Airbus blew through his assigned altitude and gave us a TCAS RA. We get “TRAFFIC TRAFFIC” advisories every so often…but it is pretty rare to get a Resolution Advisory. Basically you just click the autopilot off and fly the flight path marker into the suggested vertical guidance pitch box (on the Honeywell system). The two planes talk to each other and presumably the Airbus got either a level off our descend RA. We stopped our descent at 10,400 or so…he was supposed to stop at 8,000’ but went all the way up to 9,900. I told ATC were were complying with an RA and they gave us a turn to 270…I saw the Airbus go down our right side a bit below us and maybe 1/4 mile away.
I searched for the ATC tapes online and though we can’t hear our transmissions, I can hear the CLT controller admonishing the AA crew for not leveling off at 8,000. They later give them a phone number to call for a “possible pilot deviation”. Sucks for them. We’ve all been in similar situations…or at least…close to it.
I have a theory on what may have happened. This was not a normal flight for the AA crew…they were doing a repositioning flight for maintenance up to Winston Salem, NC…which is a very short 70 mile flight or something. As such, they were issued a departure they have probably rarely ever received…the CLT2.GANTS transition…which is a low altitude, turbojet SID that allows for us to make some local area flights at low altitude. If you look at the plate, the GANTS transition has a 10,000’ along it…but that is not the climb to altitude…it is just a MOCA or minimum reception altitude or something (I honestly can’t remember). Anyway, it is possible the FO put that 10,000’ in the altitude preselect instead of the 8,000’ that is on the plate. 10,000’ also appears on the NOTES section…again…possibly setting up someone to fail. I don’t know. Anyway…I think that was only my third RA in all my years of flying…so they are pretty rare for us anyway…
Here is what it looks like in the PC-24…although this guy actually over pitches and exceeds the guidance bar…which can exacerbate the situation in some cases.
After reading Beach’s post, which was interesting, I’m convinced folks have to go to school to learn their trade only to figure out what the acronyms mean.
Southern California is where I have had most of my RA’s, almost always with light GA aircraft tooling around VFR not talking to anyone (perfectly legal, not necessarily smart).
Glad to hear the equipment worked as advertised Chris!
Does suck for them indeed. So here’s what I heard 25 years ago when TCAS was still kinda new. I have verified none of it because knowledge of the truth would then prevent me from telling this amusing history: TCAS was invented in Italy. Thus the icon colors which match those of the Italian flag. TCAS units in close proximity do indeed talk to each other. Usually the logic that determines who climbs and who descends is obvious. But in the cases where all else is equal, the boxes still must quickly decide which plane stays put and which must maneuver. So the boxes enjoy seniority, much like pilots! The unit with the older serial number stays put while the “junior” unit maneuvers.
Ok this was not as funny as it sounds like on first glance.
The headlines about the incident are a lot funnier than the actual content.
In my head it was an a-hole passenger behaving badly and rightfully getting hit over the head with a coffee mug by a stewardess.
THAT is one precise governor!
But “Science” (?!?!?) is NOT calling a rotor a “propeller”.
One of ours had it on take-off and said they didn’t feel a thing… That tail does not look happy…
Sounds like the passenger has some mental issues.
Wheels
As perhaps many of you are doing in these recent days I’ve been keeping a closer eye on Flightradar and ADS-B Exchange. While most things seem routine I have been curious as to this specific flight. Seems to happen every evening. Whats a Italian boarder patrol plane doing search patterns for in France every night?
Actually its up right now if you wanna see for your self, the screen shot is from a day or two ago.
Border patrol doing search patterns around Calais. I have 2 hypotheses
Either (due to the location) looking for immigrants trying to cross to the UK, or general search and rescue. Perhaps a ship or swimmer went missing.
I did wonder about immigration since the flight is a daily occurrence, but I still find it odd that its Italian border patrol working the french coast.
My guess: that’s a Frontex plane.
This article describes a similar thing, just with a Danish plane instead of an Italian one.
Good call, sounds like a good possibility.
Dropped in on Mike Patey’s channel to see what he was up to these days. Was NOT disappointed LOL!
He has Scrappy decked out with two electric motorcycles and above wing solar panels to charge them and everything else!!! …
This guy has bush plane building down to an art!
Wild scene at San Jose Costa Rica this morning. A DHL 757 reported hydrualic issues and made an emergency landing at MROC. The entire crew is reportedly in good shape.
Christ they were lucky. Is there an award for groundlooping a 150ton jet?
From what ive read it was hydraulic failure, brakes locked on and turned it around and collapsed the landing gear. Crew did well ![]()



