Borderline miserly rail firm
This is not too miserly I suppose, caring for the environment as well blah, blah, but the moment some bright spark at an airline wonders if they can try the same thing, is the moment I never fly again.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1052067/Rail-firm-orders-drivers-turn-engines-downhill-runs-bid-slash-fuel-costs.html
(turtles head is touching cloth poked a dwarf on the forehead at, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 13:43, 10 replies)

this has been
happening for years, they tend to get to full power and then coast for a bit, who's the resident b3tan train driver?

he will know
(Halfy By light alone, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 13:48, closed)

Coopsweb
is the driver. I have no idea why I can remember that.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 14:07, closed)

good man
nice to know im not the only person with a brain full of pointless information!
(Halfy By light alone, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 20:05, closed)

Uhm....
... you know that's what aircraft do anyway, right?

Consider a flight from Glasgow to London. Just about half-way you'll be at 33,000 feet above Manchester, and ready to start coming back down. So, the engines are throttled back to idle and the auxiliary power unit (basically a tiny little jet engine mounted near the tail) takes over running the electrics and air conditioning.

If you didn't shut the engines off going downhill you'd end up smashing into the ground at about 700mph, having broken the wings off somewhere around 15000 feet.
(gordonjcp, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 14:07, closed)

I can understand throttling back
that makes perfect sense, but i always thought that if engines were actually to be turned off (fail) that was the time when the cockpit lit up like a nightclub, and people experienced an involuntary movement of poo from their bodies to their pants.
I live and learn thanks to the power of b3ta.
(turtles head is touching cloth poked a dwarf on the forehead at, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 14:53, closed)

Depends
If you actually shut them down you may have problems restarting (although that's also part of the APU's job - it provides compressed air to spin up the turbine to get it started). At idle they're turned down to just the tiniest drip of fuel - for an Airbus A320 the engines use about as much fuel at idle as a car does at motorway speeds. Compare this with takeoff power where the engine will consume several *tonnes* of fuel just to get you up to takeoff speed...
(gordonjcp, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 15:57, closed)

Well-placed comma
"They discovered that reducing the number of engines, and even turning them off dramatically, reduced fuel consumption without affecting the timetable schedule."

I like to imagine the train driver in a top hat and black cape, accompanied by a "dun-dun-daaaaaaah" sound...
( admiral crunch holds the newsreader's nose squarely, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 14:15, closed)

^this
Oh, if it was worth something to click replies - the other people in my office now think I'm weird because I'm laughing at that image.
(LongJohnBaldry, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 14:36, closed)

Great spot!!!
I never noticed this, and you have just made me spit coffee all over the desk with that mental image.
(turtles head is touching cloth poked a dwarf on the forehead at, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 14:56, closed)

not fare
they do this to save money, yet the fare will go up!
(suboftheday, Sun 26 Oct 2008, 17:27, closed)