Inconvenient Annoyances

In theory, there should be no situation where a crew commits an aircraft to turbulence which is outside of the approved flight envelope for a particular aircraft operating in particular conditions. The envelope itself will have a considerable safety margin attributed to it. Flying "out of limits" is rare but this is a procedural control requiring the crew to correctly perform a well trained and rehearsed procedure.

The likelihood of structural failure when flying within limits, fatigue life accounted, must be "extremely improbable" by FAR 25; anecdotally less than 1 accident in a billion flight hours per airframe.

In simple terms, turbulence is no different than encountering waves, undercurrents, wake and temperature differences in the ocean when going for a swim. In fact, the prevalence of storm systems and turbulence in general has a lot to do with the temperature of the earth's oceans and therefore affects conditions within the atmosphere. The reaction of an aircraft to it will depend on many things but not least the natural stability of that aircraft, ie the force at which it will attempt to restore itself naturally to the un-disturbed state. It's a bit like tuning a musical instrument but there's very little danger from technical failure alone. Pilot error; they're humans, all bets are off!

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Short reply now as I'm in Italy at the moment, but turbulence is the major hazard we forecast for and consult on when we detach to the Falklands. It's the main reason for the flight delays because the east-west runway is unfortunately built just to the south of a ridge of hills/mountains and when we get a northerly wind along with a low-level temperature inversion, it causes severe turbulence to develop over the airfield (i.e. the wind can drop from 50 KT to 5 KT in a few hundred feet near the ground). Due to the remote location of the islands and the fact that the nearest useable diversion is in Uruguay, if severe turbulence is forecast, a NOTAM is issued and the airfield officially closes to aircraft from one hour before it is forecast to start to 1 hour after it is due to end. Severe turbulence on the airfield is the reason my flight was delayed a couple of weeks ago (the aircraft used is an A330).

And speaking of flights being delayed, my easyJet flight back to the UK tomorrow has been cancelled due to Italian airport strikes and now I won't be home until Wednesday night instead  . On the plus side though, they have rebooked my flight for free and are putting me up in the Hilton for free tomorrow night as well... plus I get an extra day in Rome .

And speaking of flights being delayed, my easyJet flight back to the UK tomorrow has been cancelled due to Italian airport strikes and now I won't be home until Wednesday night instead  . On the plus side though, they have rebooked my flight for free and are putting me up in the Hilton for free tomorrow night as well... plus I get an extra day in Rome .

Every cloud.. 

Very good of easyJet to use the Hilton!

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Dave, thanks for the detailed answer!   What happened to the helicopter that went down at the stadium with the football guy?  We talked a bit about it in person but I can't remember hearing the results of the investigation on the news.

Ksand, thanks also for the detailed answer.  I'm gobsmacked that any airline is rebooking flights for free and paying for hotels because of a strike.  I thought those days were over.

Dave, thanks for the detailed answer!   What happened to the helicopter that went down at the stadium with the football guy?  We talked a bit about it in person but I can't remember hearing the results of the investigation on the news.

Ksand, thanks also for the detailed answer.  I'm gobsmacked that any airline is rebooking flights for free and paying for hotels because of a strike.  I thought those days were over.

IRC the shaft connected to the tail rotor actuator had a nut that became friction welded to the spider assembly (allows tail rotor flapping and augments collective pitch changes). The actuator control shaft then began to rotate (it should not rotate) causing structural failure and leading to full scale deflection of the assembly and an unrecoverable pitch runaway.

Because the aircraft had insufficient height, and the local obstacles from the stands meant a standard rejected takeoff and run on landing were unavailable, there was no way to recover the loss of control.

I don't think we know yet whether this was a design issue or a maintenance error. We have treated it as a design vulnerability so far because the aircraft was too young and below hours for a major service of the tail rotor and drive assembly.

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Ksand, thanks also for the detailed answer.  I'm gobsmacked that any airline is rebooking flights for free and paying for hotels because of a strike.  I thought those days were over.

It’s a CAA and EU regulation, which came into force in 2005 (EU261) - if a flight is cancelled due to certain circumstances (such as strikes), the airline has to offer you either a refund or a free re-booking, and provide you with accommodation.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_Compensation_Regulation_261/2004


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Last time I got cancelled with EasyJet, they made us book our own hotel room and 'would pay us back'. Was a bit of a fight actually, but we got it and the meal expenses. However, we tried to get the 250 euro compensation and they weren't having it.  Blah blah circumstances beyond their control. 

I did manage to get my 250 euro off Logan Air last time my flight was cancelled.  It was a work trip ,work paid for it. But I got to keep the money.  So that was fun!

Seems to be hit and miss - I found out about the cancellation Sunday morning so it was really quick to rebook the flight and sort out a hotel - I did it in about 5 min on the EasyJet website.

However, my friends found out last night that their BA flights today were cancelled and they had trouble rebooking (had to call customer services this morning) plus they’ve had to pay for a B&B themselves and try to claim it back later (as the Hilton is now fully booked for tonight).


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The other day I was in Marks and Sparks buying some avocado. There was a pack of two that was made of thick plastic and it was impossible to tell if they were ripe. When I got to the register, I asked the clerk if I could open the avocado package before she rang it up and check they were ripe before she rang it up.  After all, the customer is always right and I should get excellent service in that overpriced store.

She gets a face like she just swallowed a wasp and Huffily tells me no, because if I open it, they can't sell it again.  Along with a bunch of waffle about how it is my problem.  I'm thinking that I should have just opened it right there next to the shelf. If you are going to cover avocados with plastic, I don't owe you anything and I'll rip it all open with no f**cks given.

I told her that it's fine, she can ring it up and I'll just return it.  She starts telling me that they won't take it back, because they can't sell it again.  Like I care what their retail problems are! I explained to her that the package says "perfectly ripe" and if it's not perfectly ripe I am getting my money back. And if they've got a problem selling it again, they should have considered that before wrapping all the avocados in thick plastic.

As soon as she rang them up, I ripped open the package and squeezed them right in front of her.  She was lucky they were ripe so no more combat was necessary.

Kiss my butt miss annoying counter-Pope.

The other day I was in Marks and Sparks buying some avocado. There was a pack of two that was made of thick plastic and it was impossible to tell if they were ripe. When I got to the register, I asked the clerk if I could open the avocado package before she rang it up and check they were ripe before she rang it up.  After all, the customer is always right and I should get excellent service in that overpriced store.

She gets a face like she just swallowed a wasp and Huffily tells me no, because if I open it, they can't sell it again.  Along with a bunch of waffle about how it is my problem.  I'm thinking that I should have just opened it right there next to the shelf. If you are going to cover avocados with plastic, I don't owe you anything and I'll rip it all open with no f**cks given.

I told her that it's fine, she can ring it up and I'll just return it.  She starts telling me that they won't take it back, because they can't sell it again.  Like I care what their retail problems are! I explained to her that the package says "perfectly ripe" and if it's not perfectly ripe I am getting my money back. And if they've got a problem selling it again, they should have considered that before wrapping all the avocados in thick plastic.

As soon as she rang them up, I ripped open the package and squeezed them right in front of her.  She was lucky they were ripe so no more combat was necessary.

Kiss my butt miss annoying counter-Pope.

What horrible customer service.... could be one of the reasons profits are down 10%.  Not to mention... plastic! 

squeezed them

 I read that as sneezed on them... 

The other day I was in Marks and Sparks buying some avocado. There was a pack of two that was made of thick plastic and it was impossible to tell if they were ripe. When I got to the register, I asked the clerk if I could open the avocado package before she rang it up and check they were ripe before she rang it up.  After all, the customer is always right and I should get excellent service in that overpriced store.

She gets a face like she just swallowed a wasp and Huffily tells me no, because if I open it, they can't sell it again.  Along with a bunch of waffle about how it is my problem.  I'm thinking that I should have just opened it right there next to the shelf. If you are going to cover avocados with plastic, I don't owe you anything and I'll rip it all open with no f**cks given.

I told her that it's fine, she can ring it up and I'll just return it.  She starts telling me that they won't take it back, because they can't sell it again.  Like I care what their retail problems are! I explained to her that the package says "perfectly ripe" and if it's not perfectly ripe I am getting my money back. And if they've got a problem selling it again, they should have considered that before wrapping all the avocados in thick plastic.

As soon as she rang them up, I ripped open the package and squeezed them right in front of her.  She was lucky they were ripe so no more combat was necessary.

Kiss my butt miss annoying counter-Pope.

This.  I hate this so much.  I don't often buy avocados here but usually I find they make better weapons than guacamole because they are so. hard.

Not to mention the terrible customer service.  Ugh.

I once asked a Waitrose employee (partner?) where I could find lime juice in a bottle.  He had this look on his face like I'd just asked him to scale Mount Everest in his underpants and then said, "Can't you just get limes?"  No.  Because that's not what I asked you for, you jerk.

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Yeah, the Daughter has to deal with that from the other side. They can't take food back unless it's something unopened and that is unexpired or that would not spoil if left out (say, someone bought a chicken and left it in the car over night and brought it back for a refund, unopened. No go.) And they can't sell opened food items. The solution, I would think, would be to not plastic-wrap anything that requires a poke or a sniff to decide if someone wants to buy it.

On the good side, stuff that people open in the store (which happens to an amazing degree) to check and then put back on the shelves goes to the back room, where the employees can buy it at ridiculous discounts. The D brought home two big things of olive oil last week because the labels were ripped on them - paid less than 10% of the market price. This week it was limes - someone had ripped open a bag of limes. So she got us a dozen limes for like 50 pence. She got six dozen extra large eggs the other week for less than 3 quid. (They were delicious.)

The Waitrose partner should have been able to look it up on their handset (the lime juice). That's just lazy, asking if you could just use limes. I'd have been annoyed as well!

I have a cousin who stopped working in retail because he didn't like "the customer is always right" so he got a job as a prison guard. He was delighted that in his new job the customer was always wrong.

So, we are now having to deal with the collosal f up of the analysis and reports presented by the older, about to retire chap who obviously knew so much more than me about my own job (because I am younger) despite needing my approval for his work to be signed off. Chief Engineer completely agreed with me...

Now one of my best chaps has to take it on when I'd rather he was able to do his own work and I have to fess up to the customer that there will be a delay whilst trying to keep their confidence in our ability to deliver accurately and on time. Amazing...

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Some dude from Boston is trying to make a "straight pride parade" happen. I'm fuming. Also, I'm just incredibly embarrassed every time they reference this is all going down in Boston. This is not my Boston. UGH.