dont' hold your breath on that either.....
ATR-72 in SBY
- Thread starter FM2436
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dont' hold your breath on that either.....
Doesn't look like they are too excited about ATRs anymore...
From Andrew Nocella:
"We continue to look at the multiple options available to replace or extend the life of Piedmont Dash 8s. Choosing a successor plane for Piedmont is no small task. The new fleet choice will be something we live with for 15 to 20 years.
“The Q400 made by Bombardier is an amazing plane and is being considered but with its high capacity and fast speed relative to a Dash 8 it maybe more suited to replace RJs than Dash 8s.
“The ATR is slower, smaller and cheaper to fly than a Q400 but at its heart a very old design and much less capable plane on longer mission.â€
"As you know, turboprops go places jets can’t bother operationally and economically so we’d like to have an aircraft in the fleet that can still service those types of markets."
It would be great to see some new planes for our great Piedmont employees... the Q300 and Q400 are sexy little birds.â€
From Andrew Nocella:
"We continue to look at the multiple options available to replace or extend the life of Piedmont Dash 8s. Choosing a successor plane for Piedmont is no small task. The new fleet choice will be something we live with for 15 to 20 years.
“The Q400 made by Bombardier is an amazing plane and is being considered but with its high capacity and fast speed relative to a Dash 8 it maybe more suited to replace RJs than Dash 8s.
“The ATR is slower, smaller and cheaper to fly than a Q400 but at its heart a very old design and much less capable plane on longer mission.â€
"As you know, turboprops go places jets can’t bother operationally and economically so we’d like to have an aircraft in the fleet that can still service those types of markets."
It would be great to see some new planes for our great Piedmont employees... the Q300 and Q400 are sexy little birds.â€
ATR's load from the back, dont have an onboard APU. The loading from the rear has alot safety problems where with the Q400 it can pull up to the gate open the door, get the passengers off reboard and pull away, not a problem Even they (ATR) cost less they are not the machine the Q400's are. Piedmont is looking stronger at the Q400. When DAB opened it is staffed by Piedmont, look for Piedmont to open additional cities in 2008.
DAB opening has nothing to do with Q400's and more cities for Piedmont. Piedmont will be running the ground ops, while Republic will do the flying into that city. We can only hope with fuel prices still rising that US Airways will really consider the Q400's versability in terms of range and speed.
USstew23
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I thought some of Eagle's ATR's had APU's. I could be wrong but I used to fly them alot when I was in college into DFW in the summer time and I can always remember there being a really loud noise (like an APU) coming from the back and it was always comfortable in the plane. Also they used to parallel park it and pull the jetway up to the rear door and had an extender (like the MD80 and CRJ) that connected the jetway to the aircraft. The Saab's boarded from the stairs and they had the #2 prop spinning to keep it cooled down.
CynicalResAgent
Veteran
I think the ATR also has a prop brake.... not sure if thats the term they use for it. Basically they can run the turbine on the opposite side of the boarding door and the prop does not spin. The sound of that engine running was probably what you heard.
I hope a decision is made sometime soon because Continental is already booking passengers on their Q400's for February between Newark and Baltimore. Once little tiny Colgan Airways should be flying 15 Q400's by July 2008 with options for many more.
http://www.continental.com/web/en-US/apps/...g=0&class=I
http://www.continental.com/web/en-US/apps/...g=0&class=I
I hope a decision is made sometime soon because Continental is already booking passengers on their Q400's for February between Newark and Baltimore. Once little tiny Colgan Airways should be flying 15 Q400's by July 2008 with options for many more.
http://www.continental.com/web/en-US/apps/...g=0&class=I
http://www.continental.com/web/en-US/apps/...g=0&class=I
USstew23
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Cool. Thanks, I kind of always wondered about that.
Now this one little sentence threw me into a serious funk.
One: It's apparent that this guy doesn't really understand what a common type is. He is comparing a Dash 8 and a Q400 as completely different machines based on performance- not on, say, common type ratings- and he thinks along the lines of replacing equipment wherever it just kinda sorta fits. This is important in number three. For now...
Two: OF COURSE the god danged thing is meant to replace RJs. 50 seat gas guzzling hogs, on which you may find yourself between amazing places such as ABE-PHL, or GSP-CLT.
Three: It strikes me that he thinks putting Q400s at an RJ operator is an option- and quietly comparing the ATR to the -100 Piedmont flies. This is what I alluded to in #1- WTF? We already have a DT course finished, in the can, approved, the instructors are ready, all that jazz... so why in the hell am I worried that this guy will put TWO alien types at TWO airlines, instead of just dropping the Q on PDT?
It just makes sense operationally to do the latter, but my hopes for any kind of common sense here have been... dashed.
400s aren't going to replace every 100 and 300 already on the lot at Piedmont. It's going to take a mix of 100s (or 200s) and more 300s to cover the existing cities and the 400s will be mostly growth into air whiskey/mesa markets. 400s would also likely replace 100s on routes like MDT-CLT as well.
That's exactly the term for it. Technically, you can activate the prop brake with the engine running, bringing the prop to a stop without killing the motor. Eagle had a number of mechanical issues with them and changed the SOP to forbid stopping a running engine although you could start the engine with the prop brake on. It's a complicated but pretty slick system. Also, I don't really see the problem with loading the aft though the right-rear door. It can be done when passengers are boarding through the left-rear door. The front cargo is awesome. You could forklift pallets in there if you needed to.
Mesa has what I understand *(and don't quote me on this) are some of the old Piedmont Dashes in PHX that they fly to GJT and DUR, among other places. They suck because they weight of the APU means it is always weight restricted and the non-revs/jumpseaters get bumped.
Truth be told, I don't think either one of them could be termed "sexy", but they are pretty kick-ass utilitarian.
Bring back the Convair 580! Now that was one "sexy" plane!! Heck, I might even go to Express to work on the Convair 580 again!
CynicalResAgent
Veteran
Sadly, I can think of atleast one occasion in ORD where a worker walked into a spinning prop on the ATR (back in the early 90's). we'll never know what the worker was thinking but somepeople think she thought or assumed the prop brake was on but it wasn't , possibly being used to that sound coming from the engine. Due to the dangerous enviroment it's one of many reasons that I believe ramp agents should earn a decent wage for what they do.
