Overheard Pilot Discussion with Cabin Crew

[Bolthead]

I have been meaning to post this discussion I overheard between the Captain of my most recent flight and one of the members of the cabin crew. I was flying on VA from OOL-SYD on the last flight flying on an E90. We arrived into SYD about 10 minutes earlier than planned and arriving at the gate the aerobridge was malfunctioning. (Prior to arriving everybody was advised that all disembarking was through the forward door only). Consequently once they had it fixed we were now 5 minutes late getting off the plane. No biggy, however I heard the most strangest conversation prior to leaving the aircraft. (I was first off being in 2A) The captain warned the cabin crew that the pax on the flight may have to disembark from the rear door.

This is what I remember the pilot saying:

Pilot: We may have to disembark everyone from the rear door. We will have to have everyone sitting back down and then ask for each row to disembark, 1 row at a time. We don't want everybody rushing to the back as I have heard that the plane might tip backwards with the shift in weight and I don't want to be the first VA captain to have this happen too. He didn't appear to be joking...

Thought I would share this with you all.

 

[andmiz]

What's your point? That the pilot wanted it conducted safely?

 

[Aussie_flyer]

What's your point? That the pilot wanted it conducted safely?

Indeed i wondered the same thing. Why is this a post
?

 

[andmiz]

I presume it's the OP's presumption that it's not possible perhaps? I'm not sure, as it is presented as a statement.
Depending on the loading of cargo in the lower forward cargo hold, it could be possible. In 747 freighters, the nose is regularly tied/slinged down, and sometimes the tail supported with a tail stand.

Without [the Captain] being sure, you'd have to do some number crunching, and it's quicker to mitigate the risk than to prove its not possible in the first place.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I presume it's the OP's presumption that it's not possible perhaps? I'm not sure, as it is presented as a statement.
Depending on the loading of cargo in the lower forward cargo hold, it could be possible. In 747 freighters, the nose is regularly tied/slinged down, and sometimes the tail supported with a tail stand.

Without [the Captain] being sure, you'd have to do some number crunching, and it's quicker to mitigate the risk than to prove its not possible in the first place.

Indeed - and it was a particular problem with DC-10 and MD-11 freighters!

This thread on airliners.net has lots of pics of 'tail-tipping' and a 747 tail stand: Ethiopian Airlines Tips MD-11F (w/pics) — Civil Aviation Forum | Airliners.net

 

[Bolthead]

What's your point? That the pilot wanted it conducted safely?

Indeed i wondered the same thing. Why is this a post
?

I presume it's the OP's presumption that it's not possible perhaps? I'm not sure, as it is presented as a statement.
Depending on the loading of cargo in the lower forward cargo hold, it could be possible. In 747 freighters, the nose is regularly tied/slinged down, and sometimes the tail supported with a tail stand.

Without [the Captain] being sure, you'd have to do some number crunching, and it's quicker to mitigate the risk than to prove its not possible in the first place.

I was merely relating to a travel experience I had. This is what this forum is about. I didn't know that I had to ask a provocative question to entertain clowns like you. I don't care if people respond to my posts or not. If they respond politely I will respond politely. If they respond to me like a child I will respond to them like a child.

I didn't presume anything... my basic education taught me that if you apply enough mass to the end of a lever, gravity will intervene...

 

[N860CR]

I would perhaps have assumed that, as a captain of an E190, he would have a good idea as to the risk of having a very tail heavy aircraft on the stand.

Certain aeroplanes don't balance well on the ground when unevenly loaded and it can cause problems. A certain type that I flew would often fully extend the nose strut with no passengers onboard and a full aft cargo bay (caused problems as the plane "thought" it was airborne and would present a Xmas tree of error messages)

 

[debgow]

I worked with Virgin for 5 years and we were told that the 737's have that problem of maybe tipping. If aircraft was on a standoff bay, 10 pax had to disembark from rear stairs before giving the OK thumbs up to cabin crew at front stairs to let the rest of passengers off. (although you would't think that 10 people could make such a difference) Never heard of the same procedure with the Embraers.

 

[bryanjones]

For what its worth, I thought this was interesting. Thanks for raising

 

[stoneman]

+1, interesting and I learnt something, thanks op

 

[Buzzard]

Me too for interesting, it is a flying forum afterall.
We should encourage people to post and be active here and socially and not put them down so that they leave AFF.

FWIW I never even considered an aircraft tipping under such circumstances.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

I wasn't putting down, I just wasn't sure what the point of the post was. I thought it was common knowledge that an aircraft could potentially tip over if out of balance. In MY VIEW it didn't seem like anything worth mentioning, that was all.

The ATR i believe is prone to the same thing.

 

[docjames]

Might be a good one to put in the "ask the pilot" thread.....

 

[Bolthead]

To add insult to injury...

Firstly, I hope my rebuttal was not too harsh. This morning I was talking to my wife who is in Adelaide at the moment and she said the same thing happened to her however on a 737. The pilot did make an announcement and row by row everyone got off through the back door. At the end of the day I just found it an interesting comment for the pilot to make exspecially in earshot of me. I am pleased a few people learnt something because of my post.

 

[Bolthead]

Might be a good one to put in the "ask the pilot" thread.....

To be honest I didn't know where to put it originally. I only put it in the 'discussion' section as I didn't think it fitted anywhere else.

 

[samh004]

Some cool photos in the thread linked earlier!

 

[TeeCee33]

I'm a newbie on this site. It's a bit off putting when you get comments like you did. I had no idea that the commercial carriers could tip!

 

[williamsf1]

Embraer do not recommend unloading from the rear on the E90 due to the weight balance issues mentioned. This is why VA only ever unload from front in normal conditions

 

[opusman]

Has the pilot ever been in the main cabin of a narrow-bodied plane? "Everyone rushing to the back" would be an impressive feat.

 

[serfty]

Might be a good one to put in the "ask the pilot" thread.....

ISTR there is already reference to this in that thread.