Airliners Live Newsletter | Released 1st May 2024
Welcome!
Mrs Airliners Live
Hello all! How are we all doing?
So grab a brew, enjoy some light reading, and see you in the next stream!
Take care for now,
Mrs Airliners Live x
Summer Schedule Takes Place!
Martin
So, it's that time of year again where we look at our winter coats in the hope of leaving them at home some point soon.
As of yet, they are still with us every show but you never know! Maybe this year we will see the sun. But as with every summer, we look forward to making full use of the Runway Visitor Park late opening hours. This is great for spotters and photographers as in the early evening the sun moves round to be on our backs to give some incredible lighting. So we make full use of this by moving our midweek shows, from the morning to the evening.
This also allows us to welcome our American friends into the streams, as this fits their time zone much better. We usually see some new faces and welcome back some old ones too!
The later shows will be starting from the 1st of May. So don't forget, Wednesday live shows will now start at approx 4PM UK Time.
See you all there!
This is an incredible time of year for photographers too and we plan to make full use of that by inviting community members down to the RVP in the hopes of starting a little photography club on the Wednesdays. We will do our best to make a member of the team available to be on the main mound with you to help with camera settings and to answer any questions. Not only will this support the RVP but it should be a great community event, where people can learn new skills or share their knowledge with the community.
Please wear your best merch, so people can spot you and we look forward to seeing all of your pictures.
The RVP also has plenty of events in the books for the summer so keep an eye on their socials for the ones you would like to attend. No doubt we will feature some on our upcoming shows!
For those weekend visitors, some of you may have come across Tom & Anne in the RVP cafe over the winter! We want to give a massive thanks to those two as not only have they kept us fed and watered but they have made arrangements to meet up with other community members and really made the Sunday mornings into a mini get together. During the summer they have said they would like to start a picnic style get together, where they will set up in front of the commentary tower and welcome you guys down. It will be great to see you all enjoying some sun and aviation whilst we host behind you and don't forget to save a pork pie for us!!
So if you would like to come along, please look out for their friendly faces when the weather gets a bit warmer on Sunday mornings, bring some picnic food with you and a chair, and really make it into an awesome weekly get together. This again is a great community event where you can make new friends and it also supports the RVP!
Tom & Anne
Runway Visitor Park opening hours are as follows:
All info can be found on the Runway Visitor Park's website
New Holographic Displays - ON SALE NOW
Andy
After a lot of demand, we now have NEW holographic designs on sale on our web store. Take a look at the Boeing 747, Concorde, and the Eurofighter Typhoon. All Airliners Live original designs, each comes with 11 unique colour settings, and the ability to power them with USB or AA batteries.
Support the channel with your purchase too!
Concorde display (Most Popular)
Or, save some cash, by getting all three as a set!
New Office, A new chapter.
Andy
Back in July 2022, Martin and I moved into our first ever office space, which was a very small editing room in the Manchester Flight Sim Centre at Barton Aerodrome. Despite the size of the room, the step was huge in moving what was a back bedroom ran channel to an actual physical place in the world, where we could commute to work, and in theory not have to drag all of our equipment, merch, and office mentality back into our own homes (which was mostly resolved, but not entirely).
Our first day at the editing room, we had to fit a lot in here!
Once we got settled, it was cozy, but perfectly fine for what we needed.
Around this time, we had viewed a room at the Manchester Heliport, just on the other side of the Aerodrome, and although the room seemed massive, we were so gutted to not be able to stretch our budget anywhere near the asking price for that. Anyway, more on that later.
The room was cozy, and let us crack on with long days editing videos, working on live stream improvements, and even posting merch, which we had stashed on a combination of in the small room, and some items in a spare bit of space the Sim Centre had in another room while they worked on their 737 Simulator.
One thing lead to another, and just a year in, we had expanded to the absolute largest we could with what the Flight Sim Centre could offer, as we took over one much bigger room, and an extra room specifically for merchandise storing and shipping. This expansion was needed as the channel was fast growing, as we opened up the Airliners Lounge, which originally needed a studio space, experimented with Podcasts, which again, needed it's own space, brought Matt Cam Smith in part time to help with posting merch, and the merch store itself was always expanding, and needing more storage.
"The Aviation Podcast" studio setup
Earlier this year, we were presented with the opportunity to view another office space at the Manchester Heliport, which did perk up our interest a lot, as now the channel had grown enough to justify the move into the more "official" office space.
It felt like we had gone full circle, because the space was the same size as the original we had viewed, but this time, it was realistic to be able to shake hands on it. So we did just that.
So, on the 8th of April, we hired a van, and made the big move to, well, just down the road.
At first we were slightly apprehensive about the new office, mainly down to one question, will we fit in?
The first day in the new office, with Matt Smith helping set up the new merch area
Being lads who often work in fairly "rugged" conditions at Manchester Airport, it became common practice to show up to work in your best joggers, thermals, boots, the full scruff-look! But the Manchester Heliport was corporate, we'd have to suit and boot up, surely? And no more having a laugh, playing music, and playing around!
Most of the new office in shot here, it's actually got a fair bit behind the camera too
But contrary to our hesitations, the new office has been sublime, the atmosphere is incredibly chilled, the space is a lovely upgrade, and we've for sure not been an inconvenience for the folks here at the Heliport.
We're super happy with the new office, and very excited to see what new stories, projects, and good memories come from it!
AL ATC Explained
The Flying Architect
Hi everyone, AL-ATC here. I have been asked to write a piece for the newsletter this month to do a bit of an introduction and how AL-ATC came about.
A bit about me, I am a private pilot with just over 250 hours up in the air in my PA28. I am working towards getting my commercial pilots license and also just about to start my flight instructor training, so I can teach and earn a living from flying. As part of my drive to be a better pilot, I know my radio communications needs to be sharp. I genuinely get a better service from the big airport radar services when I speak to them in a professional manner. In order to improve my own RT skills, I always listen into the local ATC on my home radio system. Hearing and following both the ATC station and the pilots through the different stages of their flight is really enjoyable. I understand the different frequencies, what they are there for, what is being said and importantly for me, how it is said. There is an expectation that a qualified pilot speaks professionally to ATC, so as I move towards being a professional pilot, listening in helps know the level I need to be at as I progress.
That's a bit about me, so where does Airliners Live come into all this? I am a mod on the channel, have been for 4ish years now. One re-occurring message we see pretty much every day is it would be great to hear live ATC during the shows, why don’t we do it. The simple answer is we cannot re-transmit the live ATC radio, it’s the law. While we know some others do, we are not going there.
We are always looking at ways to improve the shows and ATC has always been a sticking point. One random show last year I was listening to ATC and modding as usual when the A380 did a go-around. Queue the its wind shear, separation, visibility comments in the chat. While the experts were giving opinion, I heard directly why the pilot went round so put it into the chat (It was an unstable approach). I then listened to the pilots being re-vectored out and back in for a second approach, all the time relaying what I was hearing into chat. It was brilliant because we as a channel knew exactly what was going on and why. It added something that was unique, factual and by total chance, a way to put some ATC information into the show without breaking the law. Bonus!!!
The day after this I spoke to Andy and Martin about whether they would be happy for me to create an AL-ATC account to provide this information into the shows. It was a short chat and AL-ATC was created and continues to be there. From that point forwards, while the shows are on, I tune into the different Manchester radio frequencies and just listen out for interesting messages and put them into chat. Anything urgent I will send the information straight through to the boys in the tower. It is a lot of fun and while it is helping me with my RC, it also brings live updates into the show which enhance certain situations. Its mostly reason for a go around, reason why something is returning to gate, dispatch/departure updates etc. but sometimes its hearing about a dire medical situation onboard, at which point I do not relay the detail just the fact its medical. We’re not into blue light chasing type content here.
The highlight for AL-ATC so far was when the RAF RC-135 made its missed approach into Manchester. We saw it was holding north of Manchester at FL100, so I jumped onto the local frequency and just listened in and passed the info onto Andy and Martin. The second I heard “request ILS missed approach” I passed this onto Martin and he could not believe it. About a minute later I heard ATC give the approval and again with a simple “it’s coming in” message, sent the boys and the community mental. This is what I want AL-ATC to be for Airliners Live, to know what is going on, remove speculation and guess work. So, next time you’re in a show or chatting and I drop some information as AL-ATC, know it is from a pilot stating fact based on live RC.
Thanks for reading and please let me know in Discord Chat if there is anything you want to know more about.
Ta
AL-ATC
Flightlines
Captain Mark Langston
Ice, ice baby?
So this month we’re going to talk about ice.
We’re not talking about deicing procedures that you see on the stream in the
winter, that’s a really massive subject and one I will possibly cover nearer the winter.
So what is the problem with ice? Why are we so concerned about it?
Ice, on the wings, disrupt the airflow and raises the stall speed significantly, it also adds weight to the aircraft, which again will increase the stall speed. It can add tons of weight in only a few minutes!!
Ice on propeller blades and in the engines is a big problem too, it may damage the blades or be thrown off by the propeller and damage the fuselage, and on light aircraft, ice forming in the carburettor, will cause the engine to shut down.
So in light aircraft, we have a thing called carburettor heat, you pull a knob and it opens a flap that takes hot air from around the exhaust and puts it into the carburettor to melt any ice that would form around the Venturi. You have to do this regularly in the UK as the UK is in conditions that are primed for carburettor icing.
Carb ice diagram.
On large aircraft. We have different systems to help get rid of the ice.
Obviously on the ground you’ve seen the deicing on the streams where deicing liquid is sprayed onto the wings tail of Large, we have a clean aircraft concept that means that the aircraft must be completely free of ice and snow before departure.
For some light aircraft and some turbo props, the wing leading edges, and the base of the propeller will have inflatable rubber boots that are inflated when ice is detected.
This makes the area larger and cracks the ice and it will then fall off.
Deice boots diagram.
Jet aircraft will have the Anti icing on the engine cowl, this is called engine anti-ice, and is selected on when we are in known icing conditions. Known icing conditions are when you are in visible moisture, a temperature of below 10° And above -40.
You will have engine anti ice on the ground if the temperature is below 10 and the runway is wet or contaminated. We use engine anti ice a lot!!
The wings will have an icing on them as well. Hot air is pumped into the inboard sections of the wing. It’s normally the first three stages of the Slats at the front of the wing, this will melt the ice, sometimes there are speed corrections to be added if you’re in icing conditions and coming into land because the rest of the airframe is not deiced, and you may have ice accretion on the tail and the horizontal stabiliser.
737 ice protection panel:
So this is all well and good, but where do we get this hot air from?
Well we get it from the jet engines, there are things in the engines called bleed valves, and when you select the engine or wing anti ice on, valves in the engines open, on the CFM engine they are on the fifth and nine stages of the compressor section. As the air goes through the engine, it is compressed. When you compress air, the temperature increases, we bleed this air off and pump it into the engine and the wings as required. There is a fuel penalty for this, it works out about 2 kg a minute for engine anti ice and 3 kg a minute for wing and engine anti-ice being on.
A300 Bleed and anti ice schematic.
So how can you tell if you’re picking up icing? Well on the 737 and A320 you can see the wings from out of your window, but on the 757, the wings are quite a long way back and very difficult to see/ So what you have in the centre of your windscreen is at an ice probe, this is a small piece of metal that sticks out and you will see ice form on this. You will also see ice form on the windscreen wipers.
The probe that you look at is designed to be of a shape that picks up ice before the wings, skinny, sharp, thin objects will pick up ice quicker than large, rounded objects, so a good way of thinking about it is Fezza will pick up a lot of ice before I will!!
Ice on the airbus probe.
We also have heated windscreens, sometimes you will pick up some ice on the windscreen if it’s particularly bad, but the heated windscreen also serves as another purpose, the windscreens are normally around nine layers thick with heating elements in those layers when the windscreen is heated it makes it slightly flexible so if you hit a bird, the windscreen will not shatter like it would if
it was rigid, also you can have some panes crack and the windscreen will maintain his structural integrity.
You also have pitot heat, this heats up the pitot, TAT and static probes and angle of attack vanes that your instruments rely on to give you airspeed, temperature, altitiude and angle of attack data. On the Airbus, the pitot heads, static ports, AOA probes and TAT probes are elecrically heated. The Captain's probes, F/O's probes and standby probes each have an independent Probe Heat Computer (PHC). These provide automatic regulation, overheat protection and fault detection.
The probes are heated whenever at least one engine is running. On the ground, the pitot heating operates at low level and the TAT probes are not heated. Changeover to normal heating is automatic once airborne. If probe heat is required before engine start it can be switched on manually with the PROBE/WINDOW HEAT button on the anti-ice panel.
Each front windshield has a two-speed electric wiper controlled by a rotary selector. The maximum speed for wiper use is 230kt. In moderate to heavy rain only, rain repellent can be applied to the windshield. On the Airbus, each windshield has an independent RAIN RPLNT button that applies a measured
quantity when pressed. The rain repellent is stored in a nitrogen pressurised bottle in the rear cockpit. If the pressure gauge is in the yellow or the REFILL float is visible, the bottle needs replacing. A smell of orange peels in the cockpit may indicate a toxic leak of rain repellent fluid. A smell of pine needles may indicate a non-toxic leak.
Sometimes you’ll get fan blade icing on the ground, you’ll have to get rid of it otherwise you’ll get vibrations that could damage the engine and it could damage the engine case if its really bad and comes off at high power.
Engine fan and spinner ice.
You can get rid of it by getting an engineer out with a big hairdryer and a hose to melt it.
Melting fan blade ice.
Once you’re on your way you’ll need to do an engine run up to shift the ice..
The fan blades are not anti-iced. If icing conditions last longer than 30 minutes or significant icing induced engine vibrations occur, the fan ice can be shed by running the engines up to 70% N1 for 30 seconds for the CFM56 (n.b. parking brake limitation of 75% N1)
This run up should also be carried out just prior to takeoff if conditions require it. In freezing rain, freezing fog or heavy snow, ice shedding can be enhanced by momentary run ups to 70% at intervals of less than 10 minutes.
The LEAP 1B on the NEOs run up is 50% for 5 seconds. If you are in extensive ice conditions for a long time on the ground then an engineering inspection is required.
So that’s it, a basic rundown of ice in aviation, hope you’re all enjoying my ramblings and feel free to message with any subjects you’d like me to cover.
I hope you all have a great month and i’ll see you on the next one.
A new team member
SusieB
Hi everyone! I am sure the majority of you may know me already from being an active participant in live stream chat and supporter of Airliners Live for over 2 years now but for those of you who don’t, I’m Susie (or Soooooz) and Airliners Live newest moderator.
In 2022, I had been on a family trip to Prague and returned to Manchester Airport during Storm Eunice. The landing was incredibly bumpy and we were the last plane to touch the ground before the TOGA’s started - huge props to the pilot skill. I was a very nervous flyer at the time and once we touched the ground I cried, followed by a thought … Wow I really hope someone caught that on camera!
When I returned home that evening, I searched for Manchester Airport based aviation streamers in the hope of finding someone who had caught such an incredible landing in adverse conditions. Airliners Live! I subscribed straight away, became a VIP and immersed myself in all their content from YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (now X). I had never quite seen anything like it before and I felt excited and inspired to see such uniquely captured and created content. I was very nervous participating in my first live stream chat but the nerves were almost instantly squashed as I had received such a positive and warm welcome from everyone in the chat and is something that has never changed over two years later.
I am so pleased to say that my flying anxiety is now almost non-existent through the development of my understanding of aircraft and the building of my confidence in discussing aviation & capturing photos. I have loved speaking to so many people from all over the world, of all ages & backgrounds and how they’ve overcome and shared their own experiences of flying and of course Captain Mark’s debunking flying fears. My love for aviation has flourished through the involvement in such an amazing, supportive and positive community and I feel incredibly lucky to have been selected by the Airliners Live team to become a moderator. I’m sure this won’t be the last you’ll hear from me, but for now, take care and I’ll see you in chat!
Outro
Thanks for reading, all!
If you've enjoyed reading this, please feel free to let us know, and don't forget to get involved with our Discord community.
Discord is a platform where we can hang out off stream, you can make posts there, talk in the chat rooms, share your photos, and even hang out in some of the voice rooms.
Take care for now, and we'll see you on the next one!
Yaboosh!