Aircraft pushback, why is it necessary?
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 8. 09. 2024
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You have probably all seen the different kind of pushback trucks that runs around on the airport-apron but have you ever thought about how it works and why they are there?
In todays episode I will cover all I can come up with regarding pushback and towing vehicles, I will even cover if a person can pull an aircraft and how that works.
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A huge thank you to the channels who was featured in todays episode. Check out the full videos below!
JSpringg
âą World's Strongest Man ...
Fifth gear
âą VW Touareg Towing a 74...
Kasavubu
âą How to lift up the wor...
LGrima
âą Ramp Life: Norwegian B...
Benjamin Beytekin
âą Schopf Aircaft Tow Tra...
Kersten Eckert
âą Airbus 320 with Mototo...
Awesome videos
âą Pushback accidents and...
As a pushback operator, everything that is said here is true!
There is something really special about getting to move a multi million-dollar piece of equipment with an entire airport yielding you the right of way. It gets intense sometimes! Thereâs always that one catering truck that gives you a heart attack for getting a little too close for comfort.
My favorite thing to do is start engines, mostly because Iâm a dork and say âCool 2 Spool engine number __â.
Thanks for the nice video! Looking forward to more!
My favorite thing to to say during push back is to say "negative for engine start, flight" (when warranted). Get a little power trip out of telling the pilot no.
Whatâs the pay for that kind of job?
@Mentour Pilot I subscribed to Captain Joe as well. You and Joe posted a video on same topic on the same day and you came back and apologized even without any kind of mistake from your side. I like this attitude very much and you are really a very good man. I really appreciate this. You are a very honest man.
Thank you. He was first, so I backed down.
Mentour Pilot make it your own not the first good job on the video! This sheet isn't a race it's information!
I love this - Thank you both for making this knowledge easily available to everyone! Love the professional respect.
@@MentourPilot i never heard of Cpt Joe until now. So if you didn't post it, I would never have seen it. But I I still love how you present and explain every subject in a way that a layman such as myself can understand. This is why I'm hooked on your channel. I really don't have an interest in flying (acrophobia). Am a truck driver and my truck is high enough for me, lol. (Even tho most high bridges don't bother me anymore, mountainside roads still freak me out). But I digress, I may not interested in flying, but learning all the ins and outs of aviation is fascinating to me. I find how different operations are performed and the mechanics going into the aircraft and how you explain everything is interesting. I'm totally hooked.
Dear Captain: I am retired Mechanical Engineer and the Mathematics and Physics are the essential tools to nake almost everything happen, from airports to huge planes, from shoes to hats and it is only vital to get a good grasp of both and thank the ones who made it possible for us to migrate from the caves to our new standard of living. Brilliant!
At KIAH, we've been using a newer kind of towbarless pushback tractor called a Lektro. It's electrically powered, and uses a winch to pull the nose wheel up onto a hydraulically lifted scoop. It looks kind of like the head of a snow shovel.
Our newest ones are capable of handling any narrow bodied aircraft up to a B757-300, and seat the entire push crew for the return trip to the gate.
Aircraft pushback is necessary because itâs cheaper than moving the terminal out of the way!
Thatâs true! đđđ
You sir, just made my day xD
I can go one better, make the passengers push! :D
You are a genius
They should build elevated terminals so aircrafts could get through and you could board in a dry area during bad weather.
I flew with Eastern Airlines in the 80's and did powerback operations with 727s. The procedure was forward thrust to get the wheels off the flat spot so the plane would start moving TOWARD the terminal then reverse thrust to back out. Refrain from using brakes while backing up because with three aft mounted engines it would be possible to tip the aircraft on its tail with a light fuel load in the wings.
I'm impressed by that little robot. It's really compact for what it does.
I donât like that little robot. Yet again, technology is taking away jobs incrementally. I want to become an Aircraft Tow Operator.
@@RajPatel-rj2ff It's also creating some more jobs - those things are still serviced and monitored by humans. But really, unless you want to work in one of those giant international airports, I think you'll still be able to find a job as a tow operator for decades to come. Those things are not suitable for every situation.
Jet exhaust can( and does damage other aircarts). Very reason for those weird angled walls is jet wash - to dissipate pressure. There are known cases of damage and aircraft accident due to jet wash(cant recall name of flight. Bottom line is that smaller planes were parked at the end of taxi way, next to entrance to the main airstrip. Jets would park, back up to align and wait for clearance. Problem was that part of that weird wall has been removed. Jetwash would hit parked planes, with attitude locked in max descent position. This damaged ties/cables and led to crash due to cable snapping due to turbulance/wake vortex ). Same thing with separation, jet vortex takes time to dissipate.
I was almost stuck in KTM once when the pushback truck broke down. They ended up pushing the Thai 777 back using a regular Toyota 4x4.
Pyroman / You need to learn how to write....
@Pyroman / Good one ! You mean SUV by Truck?
Jonathan Stewart I think we were in the same flight broooo!
The actual moving of the aircraft is pretty easy. The hard part is stopping them, if the aircraft brakes fail.
Nascimento And you need to learn correct terminology, and grammatical precision. Felt like I should point this out like you did with pyroman.
I remember when I was a child I was visiting family in Montana and we flew into KBZN. At that airport at that time I remember the pilot of the 727 backing us out of the parking apron with the reverse thrusters. I thought that was neat. Since then they switched over to using push back tractors now. Another airport that I flew into quite a bit is KGCC. Even today this airport does not have any push back tractors. So they park the plane a little distance from the terminal and we go down the stairs that are attached to the airplane to go inside the terminal. Then when the airplane is ready to go it will turn its engines on and go forward making a U-turn on the apron to leave.
The main thing to overcome when moving big and heavy objects on tires, is not the friction, its "inertia". Its hard to move an aircraft on space too despite no friction there.
Good old Isaac and his laws
@@MsJubjubbird And his cookies.
pretty sure you could move it pushing it with one hand in space
@@Jaburu F=ma.. Nope.
I flew from Calgary to Vancouver on a DC 9 about 25 years ago. The flight started in Regina, and I think the plane was running a bit late. Instead of waiting for the pushback, the pilot started the engines when still parked at the terminal, and backed out with the reversers. That was the only flight where I experienced that.
Yeah I donât think thatâs a good idea.. lots of people on the ground who can be blown away and seriously injured or even die!
I remember being on a few flights in the 80's where they used the reversers to push back from the gate.
I remember seeing it done from the terminal back in the 80's, and was a passenger for a power-back once. I believe it was on a DC-9 or MD-80.
I worked for a large cargo airline in the past. They had a lot of planes that depart about five minutes apart from each other. The solution, arriving flights would transit to the end of the flight line, do a U turn and taxi into their spot. After the cargo was processed and doors closed. The crew would move forward onto the taxiway. No need for a pushback tug unless they needed to put it elsewhere on the ramp.
I was on a flight from Minneapolis in a NWA DC9 that did a engine reverse pushback. I thought that was pretty cool!
I never knew they could do that until I watched this video and I was a ramp rat.
I did this for years at JFK for AA, and let me tell you.... their huffs (push-out tractors) were old as hell at the time and simply could not handle very heavy aircrafts with engine starts throughout the push. Specifically the 2nd party 747âs of other airlines we provided services for. Tow bars would commonly end up destroyed on the count of that as well. Then add the pilots eagerly harassing you for clearance to start their engine sequence early with the very tight gates at the old terminal and forget about it. Much better experience with the tow bar less machines, but we were useless on out MD80âs. Great video
Northwest used to power back from the gate on their DC-9's out of Detroit back in the 90's and 00's (likely before that too, but I wasn't traveling then) as a matter of SOP. I once read about the costs of labor vs. how cheap fuel was back then that it was a financial decision...
Ah, the joy of pushing back a Regional Jet with my own bare hands when the tractor got stuck in the snow. Given how light those jets are, it wasn't that hard, although the crew was impressed that a gate agent was willing to push it back when ramp crew gave up.
Also, the Electric Green Taxiing System (EGTS) eliminates the need for pushback by another vehicle, using an electric motor on either the main or nose gear which is powered by the APU, to bring the aircraft all the way from parked at the gate, over to the runway before the main engines are started (saving fuel).
Ok, you may have answered a big v question Ive had since watching aircraft videos on CZcams, that beimg, I see aircraft that seem to be towed all over certain airports, from gates, R.O.N . pads and hangers on main taxiways at really good speed. I work at DAL, and befire that DFW. 5 years ago DFW didn't have them, I don't know about now, but definily not DAL since its much smaller airport, and the largest scheduled aircraft are Southwest 737-800,d.
So my question is, do they tug them all the way to runaway hold area, abd do tug drivers get cheetah's and taxi assignment from ground control, or is that relayed to pilot to tug?
Thanks in advance.
When I took my first flight we was on an old prop-jet engined plane going to Jersey. Until this day whenever I fly I still get that excited feeling from my stomach when taking off and landing. Today is fifty years since the Apollo 11 took off for the moon, I am not saying I was over excited but I did forget it was my birthday.
Everything I know about pushback tractors I learned from this video. But, according to my general knowledge of that kind of equipment, I would like to add some technical sidenote: some pushback tractors, especially TBLs, don't even have gearbox. If you need high torque, low speed, and also need hydraulics for other stuff (like lifting in TBL), using hydro motor for moving truck (and aircraft) around is usually better solution. That eliminates gearbox because engine drives hydraulic pump directly and torque and speed are regulated via pressure and flow.
I was in a U.S. Navy air squadron from 1971-75. I was enlisted and even though I was sent to Aviation electrician's school ; after I got to my squadron I enjoyed being out on the 'line', where our jets were parked and launched & recovered & refueled & all that, that I decided to stay out there and become what is called a 'plane captain'...like a crew chief in the U.S. Air force. I was responsible for getting the jet ready for flight...being sure all the fluid levels were correct, pre-flight walk around inspection before the pilot(s) did their own walk around, fueling, assisting the various shops when they needed to work on a plane, etc.., and towing the planes around & in and out of the hangars. Let me tell you, backing an airplane with a tow bar and 2 pivot places, one on the tow truck and the other being the nose wheel, makes some interesting thinking. If I wanted the rear of the plane to go to my right, for example, I needed to turn the front of the tow truck to the left...the opposite of what you would think. It was funny watching the new guys trying to steer a plane for the first few times; some never did get the hang of it. Our tow trucks had a big engine but had been governed down to keep the speed low, but occasionally we would get a tow truck where the governor had been messed with and boy could those things haul butt...!! I got to where I could maneuver 2 planes so close that their wingtips were only a few inches apart, a must when you had to get all the planes inside the hangar for various reasons. Yes, we always had to have wing walkers and always someone in the cockpit ready to mash on the brakes if something went wrong.
marbleman52 a
Are You retired now? Good comment insights !
Buddhist...Yes, I retired about 8 years ago, but my 3 years in VAQ-33 have always been the most rewarding and challenging...and fun...years of my working career. It seems like I packed about 10 years of living into those 3 short years..!!
Nyc to meet u sir
24 year retired AF crew chief. It takes a good operator to back a large aircraft without damage. Visibility sucks.
I remember flying out of Chicago O'Hare many years ago and all of the aircraft pushed back using reverse thrust.
Perhaps there was a strike or some other problem, I don't know. But all of the aircraft around us and the one I was sitting in did it.
Also "tractor" just means "puller", which is why 18-wheelers aka big rigs are called "tractor-trailers".
I remember an incident a few years back, a ground engineer was sucked inside an engine. The flight was delayed, the pilots were operating a flight that had not yet landed so the crew change was the reason for it. Stress was building up. When they arrived another company pilot had already initialized the FMS. When the pushback ended the Captain suddenly added taxi thrust, but the tow was still connected and one of the ground engineer wasn't so lucky to escape from that chaos. The First Officer didn't check for the green signal from the ground crew and promptly told the Captain it was safe to taxi.
Like I said before I've always been fascinated by how airports in the airliners work. And you do a great job of explaining how everything works. And so far you've been a big filler in my free time
Hey Captain Petter, I went on a Caribbean Cruise late November 1988. The originating port was San Juan Puerto Rico. I flew Eastern Airlines. When the cruise was over, the departing gate was the second to last one. At the last gate there was a 757. It departed before my flight and there wasn't a push back tug. The aircraft started both engines and then used reverse thrust to back away from the gate. A note the terminal at SJA is a straight line not bowl shaped like most airports in the USA. As it was the last gate, I guess it was OK to do that. There was nothing around to be blown away. Guy Franks
Aircraft Pushback is necessary because Aircrafts have no Rear View Mirror. đ
That and quite a few other things. đ
The plural of aircraft is aircraft.. just saying!
Well...commercial aircraft anyway. Ye olde F-15C has 'em, though not for ground operations. :D
All jet aircraft need backup cameras.
The system, imho, wouldn't be that practical. You'd need one on the rear then one on each wing tip as well which would mean a pilot would need to view and asses three different FOV's at once which would be difficult for the brain to process. Fine for spaced out airports but in most of the major ones / hubs where space is at a premium you're screwed.
Here in the Canaries ATR's powerback from the gate, their turboprops make an awesome noise when doing so.
Great video Mentour!
Finnairs ATRs do the same. But ive seen memos where other companies dont allow reverse for ATRs because it can damage gears or something.
hi Mentour, is there any chance you could do a video on taxi way markings, as always absolutely love your videos, from a keen aviation enthusiast
Tractors got their name from Traction Engines, which were steam powered vehicles that didn't need rails to operate. Those vehicles were used for pulling farm devices (hence the farm vehicle being named tractor) and also moving freight from place to place (hence how semi trucks are also called Tractor Trailers). So having a small powerful vehicle for a moving large things from place to place sometimes earns the name Tractor. These tow vehicles earned the name for the job and yes because farm tractors were (and sometimes still are) used for moving aircraft around the field.
Pilot: "I installed rearview mirrors on this plane. Now I can just reverse out of here."
Tower: "Blue-sky 737, cleared for takeoff."
[2 minutes later]
Pilot: "Where did my mirrors go?"
Tower: "Blue-sky 737, the FAA would like to talk to you when you land."
Pilot: "Uh oh!"
Lol...
Road vehicles have backup cameras. I'm sure planes will have the same if they're needed.
WW2 Bombers & B-52: Hold my beer, I have a tail gunner
Looooooool you killed me
"Blue-Sky 737, I got a number for you to call."
Tractor is a general term for any machine primarily used for its ability to apply tractive force. For example highway tractors that pull large semi-trailers.
The term tug, like so many terms in aviation, is derived from the maritime industry, a small vessel with no significant payload capacity of its own but with sufficient power to move large external payloads (other vessels, barges, rafted logs etc) primarily by either tugging on a line or slightly less common with pushing.
KennedySteve would say way different things about tugs, especially Delta Tug2....
Thus Spoke Zarathustra he was not very nice to tug drivers.
Some people who follow this channel may not know about Kennedy Steve. He was a legendary ground (and also tower) controller at JFK airport in New York, whose wit and good humor won him many friends in the aviation community and many fans on CZcams. He regularly teased the tug drivers, who had to get permission to haul airplanes on taxiways when repositioning them to other gates or to maintenance hangers -- because they were ferrying empty airplanes, they had lower priority than planes loaded with people. This gave rise to a popular belief that Steve "hated the tugs," but it was actually more of a kidding relationship, no real rancor involved. His real name is Stephen Abraham, and he retired in September 2017. Search "Kennedy Steve" on YT to find some very amusing exchanges between him and pilots (and tug drivers!)
I know I am a bit late, but when I was in tech school, there was a company at our job fair that was working on installing an electric drive motor on aircraft directly for pushback and taxi.
There are also situations where a tow tractor is required to get the plane to the gate. I've landed in LAX on a 777 and because of the tight spaces between terminals at LAX, we had to wait on the taxiway for a tow tractor to pull us into the gate.
mirevolver I agree about LAX... such small areas around the âUâ shape between terminals. Even just one plane push back can block 3 to 6 others! Waited many times for equipment or other plans to be clear after landing there, can take a long time.
We were tight at ILN and just used a marshaller to park the aircraft.
Great Videos, Just a thought, if reversing with low engines could suck in unwanted material why isn't this a problem as you taxi to the runway?
Because the reversers throw up debris in front of the engine.
Mentour Pilot thanks, Keep the videos coming!
I think Mentour hasnt really answered the question.
Taxiways are relatively easy to keep clean as the only thing that moves there are airplanes by themselfs. Yes, sometimes a plane looses something, but then he calls the tower to tell them and they will send a car to look for it (same goes with the runway). So in a nutshell it is sufficient to just check the taxiways and runways in regular intervalls to be sure, that there is no major debris.
But the same is not true for the parking spots. There are cars, catering trucks, the trucks bringing the luggage, on some stands even the passengers have to board the plane from a bus, etc. It would be impractical to check the area each and every time for something not belonging there.
Alan Guile I was thinking the same thing!
and also FOD is more like to be on stand, because this is the place where plane is being despatched. A lot of debris comes from broken bags and mess from cargo holds etc. Also because there is often road infront of stands where cars and people are moving. Pushback cars are way too more effective and it also saves fuel. But as we know, sometime waiting for pushback are when TSAT is right on time is real pain in the ass :D..
flew with ryanair a few days ago, they did a self position thing. asked the first officer about it and he said they have to do that about 10% of the time.
Great and detailed. Please give us a Long ATC Tour. Keep it up Mentour.
Please can you do videos on these topics: (1) Maximum banking angle and what happens if pilots do a roll (what happens to lift character of foil shaped wings when a plane flies upside down); (2) What is maintaining a certain pressure in the cabin, what happens if the pressure is lost; (3) Safeguards against stall when a pilot pitches the aircraft too much (usually seen in test flights where pilots go very steep up after take off).
One more: (4) How does an Aircraft Control Tower work? Why arriving planes are so perfectly spaced (Heathrow for example)? How mid air collisions are avoided by ATC?
What an excellent explanation. I appreciate your effort and time. Thank you đđŒ.
Getting tugged out to the runway sounds like a nice calm taxi with little atc instruction. Especially if its robotic, then ATC physically has control of all the planes (maybe a pilot shutdown switch can be implemented for any possible software bugs)
Hi Mentour! I stumbled across your channel and I love it. I've always been curious and I enjoy listening to your voice and your attitude :)
Great! Welcome to the channel! I have a lot of material for you to watch.
Enjoy!
The year was 1998 around March, I was visiting the US at the time from the Philippines and flying to LA, then on to New York via MSP and Det Lansing. I was flying exclusively Northwest Airlines at that time and noticed that while I was in MSP and DET that, MD-80s were pushing back without trucks. Most amazing thing I ever saw back then. :)
At my airport they also have people called "Wingwalkers" who walk along right at the wingtips and signal to the pushback truck driver that the wingtips are clear.
Yes, those are used where the wingtips are close to obstacles.
On my we just block a service road behind an stand. Mostly because there aren't really any obstacles on those stands where we push aircrafts out.
I work at one of the airports in Belfast, our pushback team is the driver, the headset lad, one guy doing wingtip and the dispatcher comes out and stands on the 'rear of stand road'. Just another safety level as in bright sunlight it can be difficult or near impossible for any of us driving in the road to see the flashing beacon to alert us that the aircraft is live and about to push.
+Peely baii Which one City or International?
they use them at my airport too because parking is a bit tight
The towbar less is a common item for larger heavier aircraft. They are also called supetrugs and are often used when bringing the aircraft from the hangar to the gate or other way around. Saves engine wear and also reduces the chances of getting a foreign object into the engine (s). The only item that should go into jet engine intakes is air.
All this stuff is so freaking interesting I watch all these videos and thumbs up
I actually have seen reverse thrust used to push back from a gate before.
Not by a pilot though. Taxi-rated technicians have no chill when it comes to dealing with ramp operations. Especially late at night when no one is actually on shift to drive the tug.
He taxis into the wrong gate, immediately hits the reverse and parks it at the right one.
You'd never see them do it in the daytime though.
Around 2002 Delta airlines banned all their mechanics from taxing aircraft into the ramp areas under power after two techs damaged a plane, a push back tug, and a jet bridge. They taxied in too fast, slammed the brakes which cause the nose gear to buckle and dropped the front of the aircraft onto the push back tug. The aircraft and tug then slid into the jet bridge. Delta sent out an internal company wide email about it, which included pictures.
@@TgrHwke I remember that incident. I work with United, so I don't know much about Delta's way of doing things. United Express' regional partners are a bit detached from mainline when it comes to policy. But changes to that are in the works. Our maintenance run/taxi training is already very lengthy, and United wants to make it even longer.
When two pushback tractors love each other very very much...
@mentor pilot, i would like to clarify what you said at 6:30 about torque and add the concept of reduction. With the engines in the tugs producing 300 to 400 hp they would probably produce somewhere in the ball park of 200 to 350 if gass (unlikely) or 300 to 500 or 600 ft-lb (-really torquey diesel) at the fly wheel. The gear box that you talked about increases the amount of rotational force on the wheels at the price of rpm (reduction). If the gear box had a reduction ratio of 2:1 then you would double your horse power at the wheels (not taking into account the energy lost from friction in the gearbox and other things) but you would produce that force at half the speed. (please correct me in a reply if someone finds a discrepancy in my guesstimate on values or has questions)
The guy pulling the Globemaster is like a tug: a lot of power but no speed at all hahahahaha
I flew ValuJet (Critter) a few times out of KMDW and they would often use the aircraft power to back out of the stall. They were flying DC-9's. I was always amazed when they would do this because the windows in the terminal would rattle something awful!
Hey, would you consider making a video about procedures in case a passenger plane gets intercepted by military aircraft, if there are even special procedures for that?
berkkp You got your wish
Good explanation Iâm a ground crew member Itâs done exactly like explained
The Boeing 737, features everything...except a back up camera.
Yes, it is, to prevent that reverse thrust sucks in stuff that isn't stick to the ground.
But if necessary, aircraft also can reverse by themselves, but very not recommanded.
Trivia. The APC in Aliens was basically an adapted pusher truck.
thegeneral123 That was a nice bit of sci-fi design... very believable vehicle.
It's not always necessary (depending on location) but is ALWAYS more economical....
commercial jets have thrust reversers, and some can literally go from parked to reverse by extending the "clamshells" or "cascading" thrust reversers and applying copious amounts of engine thrust to get the A/C rolling backwards......
I said "some", not "all".....
I've been on an MD-80 once on AA when we did this from a gate at DFW. I thought it was odd albeit effective though very noisy.... and i'm sure it kicked up a lot of dust/debris as well...
guess they ran out of equipment that day or the capn said **** this **** and decided to depart asap.... who knows......???
You have answered a question I've always wondered about. Great video!
I have to chuckle. My first self pushback aircraft was a DeHavilland Twin Otter out of Chicago Ohare in the 70's. It was shocking to me at the time. Then there was a airline called New York Air which flew out of Dulles in the 90's where they had a jetway at the main terminal. I recollect the aircraft were old non non bypass DC-9's. What was scary was the initial pushback the aircraft would lurch forward about 6-12 inches before the aircraft started backing up. I guess the practice stopped after insurance companies nixed the practice.
Landed in Nice in a 767 and they got lost on the taxiways at night. Attached a tow-bar to push the plane back onto the main taxiway and they had a problem and gave the plane a "shove". Cabin announcement for any airline engineers that could talk to the ground staff to see if the gear was damaged - and like a twat I volunteered on the basis that I'm an (electrical) engineer and speak French. Cabin crew made me stand in a corner for 20 minutes in front of the entire cabin before thanking me for my help :) Like you say, there's always some idiot who will have a go. Lesson learned - stupid thing to for me to do but cabin crew total professionals.
Hahaha! Well good of you to volunteer. We always need people like that.
Flying into Nice: a lot of steep banking followed by breaking out into a gorgeous scene and landing at an airport that would fit nicely in a Third World nation. It's still nice.
I saw jets reversing away from the gate during a strike in Cincinnati in the late 90âs.
Exellent video! Thank you mentour for creating these great videos!
nice sir....last scene was great one....remote control push back by British airways....thank you..
l love this guy's videos. Great job. Escpecially for aviation lovers like me.
Agree, he's the best I've found so far!
We use a Lektro for our 737-800 and MAX8 fleet which we started using this year. We put a strap on the aircraft and pull it on to the platform. Then we lift the aircraft and push it out. I wish I can send you a picture of it.
Fascinating - I never knew about the tow bar-less tugs! When they lift the nose wheel, is the movement perceptible inside the plane?
Yes.
Interesting, I've heard that a contributing factor to the Air Florida flight 90 crash in 1982 was the attempt to use reverse thrust to back away from gate when the tug was unable to move the aircraft. The plane was a 737, engines low.
Do all Landing Gears have Brakes?? And When Parking Brake is applied then It only Brake Nose gear or all Landing Gear?
Hoshang Govil All the main gear tires have brakes. The parking brakes, activate the aircraft main brakes. The only so called brake for the nose tires, it a friction pad to stop the tires during retraction. Otherwise they would act like big gyroscopes and affect handling. Brakes are applied during retraction to stop tire rotation, to prevent the gyroscopic action.
Saves the engines and reduces engine wear. Pushing back with thrust reversers is not only stupid but normally against company policies. Tractors are easy to use, easy to understand and saves engine wear.
Thank you - informative and comprehensive, as always. I guess turboprops don't require this.
Yes, in most cases they do but some countries allow them to power back
I was on a turboprop at Glasgow Central and it had a pushback.
It didn't when it reached Islay, it just stopped somewhere it wouldn't have to reverse.
Turboprops have the same FOD ingestion problems as jets do.
Mark Jackson A320 is taller, but they're about the same lengthwise.
A Super Cub has a reciprocating piston engine. Are you a pilot?
Here in the US we also call semi trucks without the trailer a tractor. That's why a lot of times you hear people say tractor trailer. But I don't know why they call trucks Tractors, but it might be for same reason, because long time ago before trucks were built a lot of trailers were towed by a tractor. Also here in the US if you say truck a lot of people wouldn't know what type of truck your talking about, because there is also pickup trucks and some people even call large SUV's a truck. It's actually weird because there is 4 different names for large trucks here in the US.
1) Semi truck
2)18 wheeler
3)Tractor Trailer
4)Big Rig
5) Semi
Semi truck, tractor trailer and semi are misnomers that probably became common because we are all lazy speakers of English and got tired of saying Tractor-Semi-trailer-Rig. A semi-trailer is called that because the trailer's wheels only carry half the load. The other half is carried by the tractor. On a regular trailer (like you would see carrying a boat behind a car) nearly the entire load is carried on the trailer's wheels, with only a small fraction (tongue weight) carried by the towing vehicle.
"Truck" is word with and equally interesting, and much longer, history.
Fun Fact: "18 wheeler" is what 747 pilots sometimes call their planes. Go ahead and count the wheels on a 747.
The B-36 has six "pusher" piston engines. By contrast, similar recip engines on the B-17 are tractors.
Not powerful? That first one you showed, pushing AirBerlin 737, has a freaking Leopard engine. Yes Leopard as that Main Battle Tank half of Europe is using. If that's not powerful then I don't know what is. Other than that - great video.
True true, my point is that they NORMALLY donât need that much horsepower. đ
You know, most agricultural tractors range from 100hp to 300hp. And even 140hp John Deere 7810 my family used to own could pull really heavy things. or some relativly lite things but pull them through rough soil.
I believe ASP / YBAS has airlines being able to taking off without a tug. They also taxi down the runway, and turn at the end for the take-off roll.
0:20 Got a tear in my eye đą
EveryTypeOfVideo why??đ€„đ€đ€
adib mouhanna airberlin
Dan Rambaldi why did u cry over airbierlin??
adib mouhanna they went bankrupt last October, Airberlin was well loved airline.
adib mouhanna Such a great Airline that went bankrupt
Inverness Airport (EGPE) doesn't have pushback tractors so aircraft have to do a self-positioning turn. I've been in aircraft there that have done it, it's quite fun because it's different.
Have only seen 4 minutes yet, but great work as always đđ»
Thank you!
Stupid if You have not seen entire video only 4 minutes to post comment?
If I understand it right, the engines are usually started during pushback. So pushback tractors usually have to be strong enough to perform the pushback while the last turbofan engine of the plane is starting up and the rest of the turbofan engines is running at idle power (the "rest" may be 1, 2 or 3 depending on the aircraft type). A person would not be strong enough of course. I think a pushback tractor would probably be unable to withhold a B747 or A380 at takeoff power setting from going forward.
Great educaÈional video ! I have a question though , why do we sometimes smell jet fuel in the cabin during the pushback operation ? Thanks !
you are probably smelling the exhaust of the pushback tug/tractor which runs on diesel fuel, which is very similar to jet fuel. The tug exhaust is sucked into the engines and some of it makes it through the air conditioning packs/pressurization into the cabin.
That, and jet fuel smell permeates everywhere. Especially if there's been a spill recently (it happens more than you think. We get at least one spill a week).
What do you know about electric taxi systems? That's where the landing gear has built-in electric motors, which allow the plane to push itself back and taxi without the engines running. What planes have them? Do you think they'll catch on, or will there be too much weight penalty?
Why would the engine ingress more dust and debris when reversing than going forward like in normal taxiing ?
Because the reversers will throw debris from the ground forward, that will then be ingested by the engine.
his better than the other pilot on CZcams. Metour Pilot is good, relax and super professional.
DELTA TUG 2 !
-Kennedy Steeve
World's slowest tug. Delta tug 2
When we flew through Dusseldorf they bused people out to the tarmac loaded via steps to the front and rear doors and were away in short order. Yes both doors! Amazing. I would gladly walk up 15 steps every time to: A) have a cheaper ticket and B) get going faster. Never happen in the states as stairs are way to dangerous.
I always find it kind of cool to be out on the tarmac. I'm guessing they kind of keep an eye on people so they don't go running off or something totally dumb.
This eliminated the need for a push back tug and a multimillion dollar jetway.
Can u talk about âsink rateâ I keep hearing it but never understand what it means
"sink rate" can refer to rate of descent while flying. Also, the aircraft Ground Proximity Warning System GPWS can announce "sink rate" in the cockpit if the aircraft's rate of descent is so high that the GPWS projects the aircraft could soon strike the ground.
Jaden Corner
It means that the aircraft is descending to fast.
Aviation Nut yeah I looked it up just after posting the comment
Its part of the GPWS system.
That system monitors all parameters related to aircraft position an movement.
If you decent to fast, it will call "sink rate".
If you get to close to terrain, i will warn you with several terrain call outs.
In case of diviation from the ILS path, you will hear "glide slope" warnings.
If you below 2500 feet, it calls radar height like 2500, 1000,500 and so on.
I think it the most important protection system in an aircraft.
GPWS means Ground Proximity Warnung System
I retired form one of the big 3 airlines in the USA. For a number of years we did power back the MD-80 and the 727. We called the tug that lifts the nose tire "the lobster".
How do pilots calculate aircraft weight in accuracy..?
I would guess that there is a scale in each part of the landing gear, that provides the load supported by each wheel. Sure you could weigh each bag the passengers check, but you are still stuck estimating for each passenger and their carry-on bags.
@@carultch not really, but good guess! the reason that airlines stop check in 30 minutes before the flight is for weight and balance reasons. the weight and calculations are not done by the pilots but by the ground crew. airlines use a combination of bag counts and the number of passengers to give the weights for the aircraft. these are printed in 2 areas, first is in the flight plan for the pilots, and secondly is for the ground crew; the latter not only tells the weight, but also the number of bags, and which part of the cargo bins to put the bags in to ensure the weight stays balanced. It takes a village to run a single airplane.
@@carultch just to clarify on what i mentioned, the second guess you made was actually correct, the airlines use an average weight for passengers and carry ons, while weights need to be accurate it's ok to round up a couple pounds without affecting the weight calculations to a degree that would matter.
The pilots dont calculate any baggage. This is done by the dispatch agency and the position of the bags on the aircraft will give generally give the pilots a stable aircraft requiring little trim (and so cost saving). Back in the early 2000's the dispatchers would work on an average of each bag weighing 25kg and an average of 40 bags on an AKE can. And so each can weighs on average 1 metric ton. These of course can be easily weighed once filled anyway. The baggage handlers for loose baggage would be asked to 'fill from the front/Back' etc
@@lukegriffiths6569 yep. Fun fact is with most planes we have to unload the back first and load the front first cause they tend to tail tip if the back gets loaded first (looking at you Delta)
Another great video!!!đđđ I'm not a ramp lead, I have pushed out an Airbus A330-200 and a Boeing 777-300er with a tbl push back tractor and it was an experience having multimillion dollar aircrafts under your control but I always operate the headset, everything you explained was completely true.
Whatâs the pay for a job like that?
I did push back for American for 4 yrs pay sucked had to move on â
SPYDER MIKE I would have thought American used mechanics to do their pushups. I did ground services many years ago for People Express which included pushbacks. I loved it. The pay was low but not a big deal at the time since I was a kid still living at home rent free .
@@billjoang it was definitely a cool job I was living home as well the girls watching us upstairs was a bonus but I couldn't afford to take them on a date...lol
the human puller will also have to overcome bearing frictions as well as brake pad friction to move an aircraft.
Is it not rolling resistance rather than friction that the strong men have to overcome? Great video, very informative :) love the channel
You might be right, I looked that up fairly quickly.
Well rolling resistance boils down to regular friction between the axle and whatever is holding it in place + the deformation of the tyre. It acts the same as normal kinetic friction.
The most difficult part of getting the aircraft to move is actually static friction, which can be significantly higher. Getting the plane to move in the first place is the most difficult part. Once it is moving it is relatively simple to keep it going.
Niosus thanks for your comment. I thought of inertia as well as the toughest part to move it. It's just a scaled up version of moving a wheel barrel full of sand. Once you get it going, it's not that hard.
Maybe we should call it static rolling resistance. Without having Googled, I think you have a point.
You explain thing's really well, and it's explained in an easy to digest sort of way. You would be a very good teacher.
DELTA TUG 2!
I thought it was Delta SUPER tug 2!
"Life will never be the same without Delta Tug 4" - me, after Steve retired.
Taaaam Supertug!(God, I miss Kennedy Steve!)
Re Hi Mentour:
1) Re torque. what you are explaining made sense so much that I would take it for granted even before you mentioned it. But than,. ,many years ago I had a student job on a large golf course where I was using a Massey Ferguson 35 Farm tractor.I could run this up a hill of almost 456 degrees in idle, but at well under 1 mph. That's torque, first hand.
On another occasion following a thunderstrom I had the job of towing a sizreable felled tree trunk out of the woods where the ground was not noly wet but very irregular. there was not enough traction with the mogiled wet ground to do it directly, but by7u a combination of critical positioning and "Yank tugging" using a large hawser, I was able to get this big tree trunk out of the woods and out of the way of the passage it was blocking.
2) A but of the ancient Romans: "Traho" was the roman verb to drag, physically. So "tractor,. Traction etc are obvious etymological descendants, even "abstract came fro "ab traho" or "dragged out of the empirical view".
All to show the value of associative thinking, but with caution when the complexity of something shows signs of hiding danger! (which is remoindful of many of your warnings and comments about what pilots should not touch, and also related to the need for fast rote procedures when things happen too fast to think everything out safely.
Hi! Great to see you back on the channel and thank you for your input.
July 28, 2018:
ReHi once more, Mentour:
Before the LONG message (AKA "A GALLON of tea")...
The whoole story is far too long for a simple comment, even one that is composed offline and later "paste-posted" to one or more "e-venues."
And while I know very well independently what this holds for posterity, far more than myself at age 73, I prefix with this shorter note.
The longer story can then be delegated to a site where it will not seek to overly distract from your main objective, yet sill not go unheard for those to whom it has the greater circumstantial import.
As I am living laone, I have to be the "chief cook and botttle washer". Hence I can only devote very linited time to any one thing, and the list xcrying for attention is VERY long.
Nonetheless it is still safer for all in this environment of all too much sociological demise than taking other risks that would be foolhardy.
North American English speakers have been far too pragmatically balanced, and Like all too many others I was brought up in this. However, as no adult when I was very young know what this kid was really about, I had no choice but to fight all the battles myself.
That "bombshell" duly dropped, I think the cup is full and the rest of the "gallon" can be delegated to other e-venues, would you agree?
I will end this paster-post here hopefully to facilitate any desire you may have to not leave the longer paste-post up yet leave this sort of personal introduction there for the benefit of the familiarity of all.
In the next paste-post, I will addresds my thoughts about Instagram, as I have noticed a bit about its market position.
The "GALLON" of tea!...
About Instagram, some personal thoughts:
Many years ago having taken the F.B.D.B. course on marketing, I learned about the concept of market positions. (with due tribute to Jay Rubenstein, our teacher at the time.)
But then, adding 2 and 2 and TWO, I was able to correlate the concept with how it sits in a diversity of life environments - some analogy!
Likewise this applies to social media, as in reality they are all co-cpmpetitors (along with the rest of the motley e-crew out there, all vying for our time and attention)
So having gotten into gmail some time after the initial struggles of the internet to get settled in Canada and the U.S. I got into gmail, and Google.
What i liked about Google was that it is one account globally, unlike
Yahoo who has sepasrate servers and separate service offerings in each Counrtry/Language etc. environment which it operates.
The latter, I found unnecessarily confusing when I had many other fish to fry.
As this is all develloping "tan yendo ", or "in dynamic and ongoing proportion" the market positions become much more distinct.
As such each will have their strong and weak points as to what formats they are "upload-amenible" to. And not being in a position suitable to making money out iof it and not wanting to be beholding to monetisation out of my own independent personal code of ethics,
I know well enough that it behooves me to make the best of them all as time permits.
With this all in mind, I will likely need to start an Instagram account of my initially, own just to see what Instagram's relative techinical strengths and limitations actually are.
I have also started creeating a video of my own, using Pitivi and various underlying open source apploications ona Fedora set of operating systems. However I am currently rekluctant to go further with the final compilation until I have soleved the problem with my voice which has becmoe much more raspy and rough than I would be comfoirtable with puttin out there. I have several ideas as a raw set of work-arounds, but integrating them with acceptable flair is not a short term task!
the rest...
Youâre looking for the word inertia :)
Nice video Captain! I am a pushback operator here in Dubai International Airport.
Wouldn't pilot controlled, robotic tugs suffer from the same lack of aft visibility as using thrust reversers?
You could put a backup camera in the robotic tug, and display the output on a screen for the pilot.
One advantage is you have a lot more control over the wheel propulsion that the tug machines use, than you have over the jet engine propulsion. It is a lot easier to start and stop a regular internal combustion engine or electric motor, than it is to do the same with a jet engine at low power.
In KrakĂłw airport in early 2000's they have had a Mercedes Unimog for pushback. Of course they also have had a much younger vehicle to, but Unimog was for special usage. For eg. for old soviet made cargo planes. But once in the winter 2001/2002 there were days and night with temp droping below -30'C and the only push back that started wes this old-old Mercedes (2.2 diesel), and they had to find an old rod to connect it to Boeings or Airbuses. It is quite possible, that they still have thah Unimog, but I don't work there anymore.
Lol I remember reversing a plane on gta San andreas and always wondered why planes never did so in reality
As always - appreciate fantastic job that You do with Your movies. :-) Just one correrction. The force required to start rolling the aircraft DOES NOT come from friction. Except for the fact, that proper friction must be there for the tow trucks tire or a man feet :) The force required to roll the aircraft comes from ROLLING RESISTANCE (rolling resistance coefficient), which is something completly different and has a little to do with friction. Basicly - every wheel gets a little flattened in the point of contact with surface and this creates a mommentum that must be overcome by the towing force. This plus some (or a lot) other small factors that come together. If it wasn't for that little piece of flatten wheel, a train with perfectly hard wheel on a perfectly hard and perfectly flat track, with perfectly hard bearings in its wheels would never stop once pushed (if not considering the air resistance) :)
Why dint you hire these strong men instead of the trucks to do the push backs? ; )
They are to rare and to expensive. And it takes to much time đ
Also the pilots would lose the arm wrestling after-hours
The pushback vheicles nerver get tired.
We need more H1B visas to bring in strong men from Hungary to pull jets with their teeth .
Watch world's strongest man to see - they usually only last a few events before they tear a muscle!
In addition to BA's robotic tug, read up on WheelTug, which is currently in development.