Author: Gareth

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Icing

Here’s the text to the listening from yesterday.

Enjoy!!

A Saab 340 was climbing through FL130 over the sea on one of its routine flights. Everything was normal as the plane was climbing. 5 minutes after the plane levelled off at FL180 the crew noticed that ice started to accumulate on the leading edges and other parts of the wings. They were able to remove the ice from the leading edges with the deicing boots, but the ice continued to accumulate on the other parts of the wing. As a precaution, the plane descended to FL100 and diverted to the nearest suitable airport.

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Icing

Listen to this recording and try to write what your understand. You don’t need to understand every word, just the most important ideas. Use your own words to write what happened.

You can listen as many times as you like.

Check below the recording for some of the difficult words and come back and check the full text from this recording tomorrow.

Suggested ICAO level: 3+

Have a great day!

Difficult words: levelled off, leading edges, deicing boots,

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Commercial aviation in 21st century answers

Here are the answers to last Friday’s video, enjoy!

Suggested ICAO level for video: 5+

1) Efficient, greener performance (reduced fuel burn, a switch to electric drive).
2) Bionic seethrough skins, panoramic views, materials which don’t corrode (speedier boarding)
3) In this situation, passengers could be placed in pods in the city centre. These pods would then travel along rails and slide directly into the plane without the need to move from the pod, making the boarding process very quick.
4) The Airlines could take money from you, not directly, but the fare could be paid by someone who has in interest in you flying to that destination, or the money could come from extra services provided on board that passengers might want to pay for, medical services for example.
5) 132
6) Plane parts built with 3D printers that can’t be produced by traditional manufacturing methods in a cost effective way.

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Commercial aviation in 21st century

Here’s an interesting video about the technological developments that may occur in commercial aviation in the near future.

Try to answer the following questions about the video and come back on Monday for the answers.

1) What performance characteristics do airlines want to see in future (and current) aircraft?
2) What radical design ideas are described in the concept plane?
3) Describe the alternative way of boarding passengers on the plane as described in the video?
4) How could free flights become a reality?
5) How many A380s have been delivered so far, according to the video?
6) What’s going to be the big revolution in aviation manufacturing?

Suggested ICAO level: 5+

Have a great weekend!!

http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/business/2014/06/04/spc-pkg-soares-21st-century-commercial-aviation.cnn.html

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Fall from passenger door

Here’s the text to the listening from yesterday.

Enjoy!!

An Airbus A320-200, was preparing for departure from Warsaw (Poland) to Rome (Italy). The flight had boarded all of the passengers and was preparing to close the doors. The jetway was moving away from the plane when a flight attendant stepped out to close the door of the plane. He lost his footing and fell onto the tarmac, a few metres below. Medical services arrived almost immediately and the crew member was taken to hospital where he was treated for cuts, bruises and a broken leg. He will be unable to work for three or four months. The flight continued to its destination and wasn’t delayed.

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Fall from passenger door

Listen to this recording and try to write what your understand. You don’t need to understand every word, just the most important ideas. Use your own words to write what happened.

You can listen as many times as you like.

Check below the recording for some of the difficult words and come back and check the full text from this recording tomorrow.

Suggested ICAO level: 4+

Have a great day!

Difficult words: stepped out (v. past), lost his footing, tarmac (n.), bruises (n.), broken leg.