Everytime I’m stuck in an airplane which has pushed away from the gate, but is waiting in a long line of planes to takeoff, I wonder if the pilot has any kind of a horn or siren up there in the cockpit. Could he, violating FAA rules and pilot etiquette, start blasting his horn?
Or, more usefully, what if he noticed some truck, tanker, or other airport vehicle zooming too close. Is flashing the landing lights and getting on the radio the best he could do to alert the negligent party?
It would have to be one big-ass horn to sound louder than four jet engines warming up. And would you, driving in a cargo lorry, overlook a 747?
All ground vehicles, I believe, are required to have radios. This how the pilots know when refueling and baggage loading are finished and how they let the ground crew know they are ready for a push back. The pilots could let a truck that got too close with the radio fairly easily. Although, it is mostly the responsiblity of the drivers on the ground to avoid the jetliners. A 747 has some mighty big blind spots and it can’t exactly stop or turn on a dime.
No.
Commercial airport environments are very tightly controlled. Even at a small airport, if there is a control tower in operation a vehicle (airplane, helicopter, truck, car…) may not operate in the controlled part of the airport environment unless they have clearance from the tower. An aircraft cannot even taxi to the fuel pits without clearance from Ground Control.
A horn is not necessary because Ground Control is keeping an eye on things and the vehicles and aircraft are equipped with radios.
There are no horns on planes. We have anti-collision lights (rotating beacons) and position lights. Landing lights are just that–for landing. On the ground, you turn them off so as not to blind other pilots.
If there’s a problem, the pilot will do the best he can to maneuver the plane to avoid it, while getting on the radio to talk to ground control. These guys control almost everything that moves on the tarmac, and it’s their responsibility to deconflict traffic on the tarmac, be it a plane or a maintenance vehicle.
Your perception of a long line of planes waiting for takeoff is interesting. I really don’t think, if planes did have horns, that you’d hear any being used. The heavy jets usually have gates, or windows of time, in which they must take off. They cannot be too early or too late. It’s a very structured environment, not like the traffic you see on the highway. Pilots may get impatient on the ground, but they know their timeline; they know how much slop is built in (i.e., how much time they can afford to lose without making them late on the other end); and they know they can’t just take off whenever they want.
Do planes need to be loaded and push away before they can get their slot? Does that explain why passengers get loaded and forced to wait in the plane vs at the gate terminal. Seems like airlines sometimes know there will be a significant delay but load the planes anyway, and my guess has been that they don’t want to fall even further back.
jdc: The slot is assigned when the flight plan is filed. There’s a lot that goes on before the plane even gets to the airport, before it can leave again. Airlines have dispatchers to handle a lot of it.
The reason there is a delay after the passengers are loaded is that there’s a lot that needs to be done before push-away. It’s not like a car. Even in a General Aviation aircraft (like a Cessna, for example) the pilot needs to set the instruments (alitmeter, gyros, radios, etc.) and do other preflight checks. Even starting the engine isn’t simple. In a car you turn the key and the engine starts. In a small airplane you set the mixture (rich), prime (if necessary), set the throttle, turn on the master switch, make sure the area is clear, turn the ignition past the magneto positions (two) to the starter, set the idle, yadda, yadda, yadda. This is for a simple airplane. In a jet the checklist is pages long and everything must be accurately checked. And as for starting the engines, you can’t even think about that until everyone is in the plane and seated and the ground support crew are well away (a person being sucked into an engine can cause lots and lots of damage). Of course you need to contact Ground before you move, and you need to get your departure clearance… And so on…
So while you’re sitting in back fidgeting, the cockpit crew are very busy.
What JohnnyLA said. Also, in the face of a delay of some sort, they may load up and request a new slot with hopes of getting off earlier (this would really depend on what kind of delay you’re talking about), or they may push back with the hope that whatever’s causing the delay will resolve itself. These time slots really come into play if you’re taking off from a real busy airport and/or going to a real busy airport, during a real busy part of the day. If ATC knows traffic is light or not a factor, I’m pretty sure they’ll accommodate the airline by letting the plane take off when it’s able.
Just recently my flight got delayed because there was a leak in the lavatory that needed a quick fix by a mech, but, for whatever reason, their mech (Delta) was not there and they had to request one from a different airline. They did not load the passengers, and immediately started making efforts to re-book people on different flights, fearing that it’d take forever for the American Airlines mech to get there. But before we knew it, the problem was fixed (by this time we were about a half hour late). Then we wasted time with the whole boarding process. They could have saved a good 15-20 minutes had they just boarded everyone in the beginning and hoped for the best.
IMO, the airlines do a pretty good job doing what they do. It’s a tricky business, with lots of tough decisions every day… decisions which directly affect the passengers. If they had elected to board everyone right away on my flight, what would the passengers have remembered… the fact that they had to sit there for 30 minutes in the plane, or the fact that Delta had been proactive and optimistic and hoped to get the plane fixed asap, and saved time by boarding everyone right away instead of waiting until after the problem had been fixed? People are always quick to bitch and moan about the bad stuff without even recognizing the good.
A pilot can’t see the wing tips on those big ass planes so honking won’t do a whole lot for them if they don’t know exactly where all their plane is. They do have Air Traffic Controllers who can see everything.
Which leads to the question do they have rear view mirrors on the sides?
A “lorry.” You’re so cute.
Next time, I’ll make it "big-arse horn too, OK?
Aww!!
Zombie resurrection warning! I’m off work sick, that’s my excuse.
We do actually have a horn on the BAe146 and Avro RJ. It is designed for attracting the attention of ground handlers, engineers, etc, during ground operations. I doubt it would be heard over the sound of running engines though I did used to fly with someone who liked to toot it a couple of times when flying over the plane spotters area on short final to our home airport, “just incase they can hear it”.
It is said to be the same as fitted to a Morris Minor because that’s what they had available at the time.
Next thing we know, you’ll be telling us that those big ass planes have curb scrapers.
And a spinner knob on the yoke.
Gold plated spinners on the wheels?
Rex Kramer: Striker, listen, and you listen close: flying a plane is no different than riding a bicycle, just a lot harder to put baseball cards in the spokes.
Not least, to the person.
[QUOTE=bob++]
Not least, to the person.
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At least with the new ICD-10 medical billing codes, the doctor can classify the accident properly. V97.33 if sucked into a jet engine, and V97.32 if injured by a rotating propeller. It’s unclear if V97.32 applies if the poor schlub is hit by a spinning helicopter rotor (cf. Dr. Romano losing his arm on ER in Season 9.)