Great story - The Gimli Glider

[ApexJimi]

http://www.damninteresting.com/the-gimli-glider#mo...

Just discovered this - superb bit of flying indeed

[JW911]

Quite a famous incident. It was caused by a problem with the fuel indicating system which meant a manual calculation of fuel quantity had to be carried out. Unfortunately, the wrong specific gravity conversion figure was used (lbs instead of kgs) which resulted in them getting airborne with insufficient fuel for their trip. This became apparent near Gimli when it went a bit quiet...

As you say, good recovery.

[RDMcG]

I had three of my staff on the plane..they took it well. A number of beers were purchased for that occasion

[RizzoTheRat]

Nice flying.

Only one similar to that I've heard is the 747 that lost all 4 engines after ingesting ash from a volcano erruption. They managed to restart the engines though. My propulsion lecturer at uni said he saw the engines shortly afterwards and there was no damage to them.
Also memorable for a couple of great quotes by the captain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Fligh...

[Eric Mc]

RizzoTheRat said:

Nice flying.

Only one similar to that I've heard is the 747 that lost all 4 engines after ingesting ash from a volcano erruption. They managed to restart the engines though. My propulsion lecturer at uni said he saw the engines shortly afterwards and there was no damage to them.
Also memorable for a couple of great quotes by the captain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Fligh...

The Canadians make a habit of running out of fuel in twin engined airliners. They had a fuel starvation incident with an Airbus A330 as well. The airline involved on this occasion was Air Transat.

[dcw@pr]

story said:

A crew of engineers from Winnipeg airport clambered into a van and headed for Gimli to assess the damage. During transit, however, their vehicle unexpectedly ran out of fuel, nearly ripping a hole in the delicate space-irony continuum.

[ApexJimi]

dcw@pr said:

story said:

A crew of engineers from Winnipeg airport clambered into a van and headed for Gimli to assess the damage. During transit, however, their vehicle unexpectedly ran out of fuel, nearly ripping a hole in the delicate space-irony continuum.

Brilliant isn't it? I wanted to mention that quote in my original post but decided to let folk discover it for themselves.

[B Oeuf]

another account here

http://www.wadenelson.com/gimli.html

[dcw@pr]

ApexJimi said:

dcw@pr said:

story said:

A crew of engineers from Winnipeg airport clambered into a van and headed for Gimli to assess the damage. During transit, however, their vehicle unexpectedly ran out of fuel, nearly ripping a hole in the delicate space-irony continuum.

Brilliant isn't it? I wanted to mention that quote in my original post but decided to let folk discover it for themselves.

oops, sorry

[Chris71]

That is beautifully written.

On a completely unrelated note (well, aviation writing still, I guess) I was reading Jack Parham's book Flying For Fun on the way back from the States. It almost made flying over 21st century Hampshire in a 747 feel like Parham's Aeronca in the '30s.

[PAUL. S]

RizzoTheRat said:

Nice flying.

Only one similar to that I've heard is the 747 that lost all 4 engines after ingesting ash from a volcano erruption. They managed to restart the engines though. My propulsion lecturer at uni said he saw the engines shortly afterwards and there was no damage to them.
Also memorable for a couple of great quotes by the captain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Fligh...

thats the same jumbo that you now see in the background on the Top Gear test track

[edfrp]

PAUL. S said:

RizzoTheRat said:

Nice flying.

Only one similar to that I've heard is the 747 that lost all 4 engines after ingesting ash from a volcano erruption. They managed to restart the engines though. My propulsion lecturer at uni said he saw the engines shortly afterwards and there was no damage to them.
Also memorable for a couple of great quotes by the captain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Fligh...

thats the same jumbo that you now see in the background on the Top Gear test track

Nope, that Volcanic-ash incident 747 is at Bournemouth airport wearing European Aviation colours and is now minus most of it's wings.

Edited by edfrp on Monday 14th December 22:06

[ndtman]

Eric Mc said:

RizzoTheRat said:

Nice flying.

Only one similar to that I've heard is the 747 that lost all 4 engines after ingesting ash from a volcano erruption. They managed to restart the engines though. My propulsion lecturer at uni said he saw the engines shortly afterwards and there was no damage to them.
Also memorable for a couple of great quotes by the captain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Fligh...

The Canadians make a habit of running out of fuel in twin engined airliners. They had a fuel starvation incident with an Airbus A330 as well. The airline involved on this occasion was Air Transat.

Saw a documentary about this one. Most of the criticism was directed at the pilot who was thought to have a deep distrust of the flight computer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Transat_Flight_23...

Edited by ndtman on Tuesday 15th December 08:27

[PAUL. S]

my mistake, I had been told it was the top gear one, but should have googled to check first, the top gear one is apparently Snowbird 1.

edfrp said:

PAUL. S said:

RizzoTheRat said:

Nice flying.

Only one similar to that I've heard is the 747 that lost all 4 engines after ingesting ash from a volcano erruption. They managed to restart the engines though. My propulsion lecturer at uni said he saw the engines shortly afterwards and there was no damage to them.
Also memorable for a couple of great quotes by the captain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Fligh...

thats the same jumbo that you now see in the background on the Top Gear test track

Nope, that Volcanic-ash incident 747 is at Bournemouth airport wearing European Aviation colours and is now minus most of it's wings.

Edited by edfrp on Monday 14th December 22:06

[Eric Mc]

PAUL. S said:

my mistake, I had been told it was the top gear one, but should have googled to check first, the top gear one is apparently Snowbird 1.

edfrp said:

PAUL. S said:

RizzoTheRat said:

Nice flying.

Only one similar to that I've heard is the 747 that lost all 4 engines after ingesting ash from a volcano erruption. They managed to restart the engines though. My propulsion lecturer at uni said he saw the engines shortly afterwards and there was no damage to them.
Also memorable for a couple of great quotes by the captain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Fligh...

thats the same jumbo that you now see in the background on the Top Gear test track

Nope, that Volcanic-ash incident 747 is at Bournemouth airport wearing European Aviation colours and is now minus most of it's wings.

Edited by edfrp on Monday 14th December 22:06

What is Snowbird 1?

[PAUL. S]

Eric -the jumbo at the top gear track that was also used in the James Bond film is listed as snowbird 1 on this site

http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?regse...

[rednotdead]

RizzoTheRat said:

Nice flying.

Only one similar to that I've heard is the 747 that lost all 4 engines after ingesting ash from a volcano erruption. They managed to restart the engines though. My propulsion lecturer at uni said he saw the engines shortly afterwards and there was no damage to them.
Also memorable for a couple of great quotes by the captain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Fligh...

Or from the man himself who just happens to be an acquaintance of mine: The Incident over Java

[ariel]

We're going to a RAeS lecture by Eric Moody at Cosford tomorrow. "All Four Engines Have Failed", should be interesting.

[rednotdead]

You'll enjoy that - he's a good speaker.

[schuey]

Eric Mc said:

RizzoTheRat said:

Nice flying.

Only one similar to that I've heard is the 747 that lost all 4 engines after ingesting ash from a volcano erruption. They managed to restart the engines though. My propulsion lecturer at uni said he saw the engines shortly afterwards and there was no damage to them.
Also memorable for a couple of great quotes by the captain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Fligh...

The Canadians make a habit of running out of fuel in twin engined airliners. They had a fuel starvation incident with an Airbus A330 as well. The airline involved on this occasion was Air Transat.

The Air Transat flight,operational problems aside was a great bit of flying,the longest glide of its type iirc.