TranStar From United States of America, joined Jul 1999, 524 posts, RR: 0 Posted (10 years 4 months 4 weeks 17 hours ago) and read 1227 times:
Question:
I just yesterday flew College Station Easterwood to Houston Intercontinental on a brand new EMB-145XLR (with winglets!). Continental Express has replaced its normal ATR-42 (and previously EMB-120) equipment with all RJs. I had some questions:
1. I noticed that the EMB-145EXLR has a strange fairing underneath the lower mid fuselage between the wings. The regular RJs have it but it is very subtle. This is a very pronounced fairing. You can see it in this attached picture in between the two main landing gear (you have to look closely it's rather dark) Does anyone know what it is for?
2. I thought it odd that they were using the XLR version on the IAH-CLL-IAH routing as it is about a 15-20 minute flight. I assume it is because of the delivery backup at Embraer that they didn't have a regular variant. But I am not sure.
3. With the turboprop aircraft, CoEX would always, when taking off to the south simply turn to a heading of 31-32 degrees and fly straight on to IAH. With the RJ, however, we made a sharp right turn to the West about 1-3 seconds after lifting off the runway. We then headed about 5 minutes directly west towards Austin. Upon reaching 8,000-10,000 feet we then slowly turned east, arched around College Station and only then turned south towards IAH. This seemed to add about 5 minutes to the journey. I have three theories on why, but I'm not sure:
a. Noise abatement. The turboprops used to fly over the southern part of the town. I figure they have to avoid this with the jet. However, then why didn't we just turn south after we had avoided the residential areas.
b. Something to do with gaining sufficient altitute to make the jets more efficient.
Anyone know why?
I have to add that the Embraer wing looks great with the winglets. They are quite tall and add a lot to the character of the aircraft. It is also important to note that Embaer added large strakes on the direct rear of the aircraft as well.
I heard they are going to operate these to the west coast from Houston and to Central/South America locations. Is that right?
Erj-145mech From United States of America, joined Oct 2001, 306 posts, RR: 1 Reply 1, posted (10 years 4 months 4 weeks 14 hours ago) and read 1196 times:
That fairing on the bottom houses a skid plate to keep the ventral fuel tank, mounted behind the wing, below the fuselage, from getting scraped and compromised during a potential gear up landing. That tank holds 1800 lbs of fuel, and if punctured/leaking, could complicate possible cabin evacuation after an incident.
Right now, ExpressJet has 18 XR's in the fleet, more than the need for the longer range flights, as of right now. They make a respectable substitute.
There are no plans to go further than southern Mexico on the routes. Villahermesa (on the Yucatan peninsula) is the furthest south that ExpressJet will likely travel. There are presently flights to PSP(Palm Springs, CA) from IAH and in the near future, to Burbank and Fresno, CA (BUR and FAT).
I would assume that the vectoring that you experienced is to sequence your flight with other arrivals, since the jet traditionally travels at a higher altitude the turboprops. Noise abatement shouldn't be a problem since the Embraer is quieter than an ATR on the takeoff run and climb profile.
Erj-145mech From United States of America, joined Oct 2001, 306 posts, RR: 1 Reply 3, posted (10 years 4 months 4 weeks 14 hours ago) and read 1187 times:
There are no plans to retrofit the winglets on the ER and LR variants. Very high cost with no benefits.
TranStar From United States of America, joined Jul 1999, 524 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (10 years 4 months 4 weeks 12 hours ago) and read 1155 times:
Dave,
Is ExpressJet regularly going to operate the 145 into College Station or was that simply because of the holiday period? I flew in on a 135.
It seems to me that y'all must lose money on the CLL routing because of the extremely short flight. Has IAH-CLL seen traffic pick up since the RJs went online?
Erj-145mech From United States of America, joined Oct 2001, 306 posts, RR: 1 Reply 5, posted (10 years 4 months 3 weeks 6 days 22 hours ago) and read 1097 times:
ExpressJet is now all jet, as of Dec 12th, and committed to staying all jet. I think that College Station and Victoria will be predominatly 135, a 145 may be substituted for several reasons. Killeen will have to use a 135 due to runway length untill Robt Gray is opened to civillian use. ExpressJet operates 30 135's in the IAH and CLE markets.
The break even load factor is fairly low on the jets, due to the low operating expenses. On flights as short as CLL- IAH, there isn't even enough time for the flight attendant to ask you if you want pretzels or peanuts, much less hand them out and retreive the empties.
A little thread drift here, I wonder how long before Eagle starts jet service to Killeen, and replace the Saabs? As a whole, passengers prefer to ride on jets instead of props, wouldn't you?
Favre From United States of America, joined Apr 2000, 595 posts, RR: 10 Reply 6, posted (10 years 4 months 3 weeks 6 days 18 hours ago) and read 1076 times:
CALPilot From United States of America, joined Oct 1999, 995 posts, RR: 15 Reply 7, posted (10 years 4 months 3 weeks 6 days 18 hours ago) and read 1070 times:
All COEx Rjs are getting ACARS. Dave, may know how many already have it.
TranStar From United States of America, joined Jul 1999, 524 posts, RR: 0 Reply 8, posted (10 years 4 months 3 weeks 6 days 17 hours ago) and read 1063 times:
Dave,
I read in the College Station press that American Eagle is planning on operating RJ-135s to CLL and other Texas cities but faces delivery delays from Embraer.
I also read that College Station has offered a exemption of landing fees for regional jet flights as a means to encourage American Eagle to convert to RJs.
Sinlock From United States of America, joined Dec 2000, 1532 posts, RR: 3 Reply 9, posted (10 years 4 months 3 weeks 6 days 17 hours ago) and read 1056 times:
Sorry about going off topic, But I thought it better to post it here then start a new thread.
Is there any plan for Continental Connection "Gulfstream Intl" to add 135/45s to it's fleet?
I would think not being that their longest routes are FLL-North Eleuthera "190nm" and MCO-Key West "233nm". All of their other routes avarage out to be about 100nm.
Erj-145mech From United States of America, joined Oct 2001, 306 posts, RR: 1 Reply 10, posted (10 years 4 months 3 weeks 6 days 12 hours ago) and read 1021 times:
All of the jets have ACARS, but the airplanes don't have the printers. The pilots have to read the information from the FMU's (Flight Management Unit)screen.
There are no plans for Gulfstream to get jets. Gulfstream is only a vendor to Continental, that is, they supply passengers to the main line in one particular market, Florida. Express supplies passengers to mainline at mainlines hubs. For instance, a person in CLL wants to go to Hawaii, he jumps on a Continental Express RJ in College Station, he changes planes in Houston, and presto, he's laying on the beach in Waikiki. He called Continental Airlines reservations, or used www.continental.com. He doesn't have to worry about his baggage, its transferred, he only has one transaction on his credit card, he doesn't know that he's travelled on more than one carrier.
Gulfstream doesn't have the financial resources to purchase or lease a $20M aircraft, much less fill them with passengers.
Drerx7 From United States of America, joined Jun 2000, 4906 posts, RR: 9 Reply 11, posted (10 years 4 months 3 weeks 6 days 7 hours ago) and read 998 times:
I'll be flying an ERJ145 from Ellington(EFD) over to IAH on Thurs. 1/2/03 enroute to Vegas. Just thought I'd interject that.
AKelley728 From United States of America, joined Dec 1999, 2101 posts, RR: 6 Reply 12, posted (10 years 4 months 3 weeks 5 days 14 hours ago) and read 952 times:
I do believe that CO's and Gulfstream's realtionship goes a little deeper than just a vendor relationship. For instance, I believe that a bunch of ex CoEx late model B1900Ds went to Gulfstream to replace older C models, and some ATR-42s are going there also to replace the Dash-7s.
As a result of some of these aircraft deals CO has a stake in Gulfstream, correct?
United_Fan From United States of America, joined Nov 2000, 7160 posts, RR: 8 Reply 14, posted (10 years 4 months 3 weeks 5 days 6 hours ago) and read 913 times:
Is Ellington Field to IAH still a free flight as long as you transfer to another CO flight ? Is it also true that CO's ATR's lacked air conditiong ? That must have sucked on the ground during a Texas summer. EFD-IAH must be the shortest jet flight in the world - what 8 minutes?
'Empathy was yesterday...Today, you're wasting my Mother-F'ing time' - Heat.
Sponsor Message: 
From United States of America, joined Jul 1999, 524 posts, 
From , joined Dec 1969, posts, 
Printer friendly format 
