[AT] Check your grounds, OT news, and Portland

[Dean VP]

Dudley:

According to what I have read these fuel lever sensors are not just for
Astronaut/control room observation but part of the closed loop control
system and are integral to the timing of certain events. The redundancy is
designed to prevent a misreading of fuel levels in the event multiple
sensors fail, which could cause the spacecraft's engines to overheat and
explode or leave it short of its necessary orbit. 

Many years ago I was on a non-stop Boeing 727 flight from Tampa, FL to Los
Angeles, CA and somewhere over New Mexico/Arizona the pilot came on the
intercom and announced we were making an unplanned stop in Phoenix to take
on more fuel. Apparently the flight had run into more headwind than normal
and they didn't have enough fuel to make it to LA safely.

Had the same thing occur on an international non-stop flight from Seattle to
Hong Kong not too many years ago. We had to stop in Taipei to pick up some
more fuel so we could make it to Hong Kong.

It doesn't give the passengers a nice warm and fuzzy feeling. 

Running out of fuel in a road vehicle is a bit different than in a plane. 

  
Dean A. Van Peursem
Snohomish, WA 98290

I'm a walking storeroom of facts..... I've just lost the key to the
storeroom door 


www.deerelegacy.com

http://members.cox.net/classicweb/email.htm



-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Dudley Rupert
Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2005 12:30 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: RE: [AT] Check your grounds, OT news, and Portland

Dean,

Interesting about the redundancy ... I understand the underlying philosophy
for why commercial jetliners have redundant fuel quantity sensors to give
the flight crew and flight management system a very high integrity real time
indication of the amount of fuel onboard.  If a fuel leak develops, for
example, the flight management system will alert the flight crew when/if it
determines that there is insufficient fuel to reach the target destination
and, in most cases, the crew can then elect to abort the flight and return
to the departure airport or divert to an alternate landing site.

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