Why are regional Jets hours and hours late if it even just smells like rain?

Question

Can't they fly in the rain? and why don't pilots turn thier engines off after they pull into the gate, do they like to jet blast everyone on the ramp?

Answer 1

the problem is not just RJs. Everything is cumulative. ATC, needs to allow more separation in adverse weather conditions. As one jet is delayed for X reason, a bunch of others are also delayed. Bad weather is the biggest factor. Other factors are passengers, baggage, maintenance, airport congestion etc.

all airlines do not taxi with only one engine. Most taxi will all available engines.

As for the engines, pilots turn of the engines as soon as possible. Or as soon as the Aux. power unit comes online or as soon as a external power source is plugged in for aircraft without APUs. The engines will not blast everyone on the ramp because of the location of the engines(for rear mounted engines), lines that denote danger zones, and the fact that the engines are idling. (the "blast" will be lots less severe if something does walk behind it)

Answer 2

because the mainline airline tells 'em when to fly when not to fly, and whenever the airline has to choose which flights to cancel (to allocate gate space or runway slots) like for example during bad weather, the big planes often get higher priority in order to inconvenience the least number of people.

Answer 3

It is not just regional jets, but all airlines or aviation for that matter.  Dependeding on how severe the weather is ATC has to allow for more seperation.  This also means re-routing people around the WX.  As far as the engine thing.  All airlines taxi on one engine to save fuel.  Once they reach the gate they have to wait for the ground crew to hook them up to the GPU.    There are few gates at some airport like LAX that are to tight for the aircraft to taxi into so they shut down the engine and have them tug them into the gate.

Answer 4

Regional jets can fly in inclement weather.  They may not have quite the same level of capability as some larger airliners - not many, if any, regional jets are capable of "CATIII" approaches to land in really extreme conditions.  Even if the plane was CATIII, in many cases it would not matter, as the airport has to be certified for those operations as well. Regionals fly out of may smaller airports that would not be CATIII or CATII equipped.

      Having said all of that, it's not that often that conditions fall below normal ILS minimums of a 200ft ceiling and .5 mile visibility that would apply to these approaches. If you break out of clouds at 200ft, you are only seconds from touchdown.

      As far as their on time record, a lot of the time delays have more to do with ATC delays in having to deal with the weather.

Answer 5

A jet engine loves rain. Turning off some engines can take a long time and it isn't worth the bother if you will only restart it and leave. Once all power and fuel is eliminated a turbine on a commercial engine can take over an hour to slow to stop. i seriously doubt anyone let you experience a real jet blast. It would blow with more force than a hurricane and the heat would leave you without any hair and possibly skin.

Answer 6

I'm not sure I understand where your questions are coming from.  I think you just had a couple of bad, abnormal experiences.  

Regional jets are certainly capable of flying in the same weather that any other commercial airliner is capable of.

If the big boys are flying, then the regional guys are as well.  The only reason a captain won't fly in certain weather would be because it is unsafe (and you should trust his judgment).

There are lots of things that can cause a plane to be late.  Crew shortages, maintenance and yes weather.

Regional jets DO shut off their engines as soon as they pull into the gate or ramp spot.  Sometime they will need to keep one engine running if their Auxiliary Power Unit (small jet engine that generates power while on the ground) is not working, until the ground crew gets a chance to plug in a Ground Power Unit.  Perhaps you think that they keep an engine running, at the gate, while what you are actually hearing is the APU.  It's not blasting anyone, but yes, it is quite loud.  Many airports don't have GPUs available for every plane, thus the reason why they always use APUs.

Answer 7

This is what you deal with as a regional pilot, the perception that because your aircraft has fewer seats, you are incompetent, or not as qualified as a crew on a larger plane.

It doesn't matter, that they are on a 15-20 year old piece of junk with MEL stickers all over the panel, and the reliability of an `89 Hyundai....and you are sitting in a brand new state of the art RJ with full EFIS/FMS... you are still in the minor leagues.

Answer 8

Regional jets, like all aircraft responsibly operated, are delayed by bad weather because waiting for better weather allows them to land softly on a runway, instead of roughly into the side of a mountain.