This is a shame for one of Africa's Top 25 busiest airports. It's an eye sore when compared to airports with similar passenger numbers e.g. Dakar or Accra's Kotoka. Let's not even talk of the North African Airports
No jet bridges is this day and age?
The airport doesn't have a website
Duty free Nko?
Of course, no "transformation" on the airside
For the amount of money spent, this is far from a transformation. I've seen better bus terminals. This is the same design being used on all the airports.

22 airports is an overkill. There are only 4 commercially viable airports in Nigeria. Airport construction has always been one of the easiest ways for government officials to embezzle funds.
Construction of multiple airports only reduces the viability of the existing ones. A good example is Calabar airport. The CBX route was profitable and responsible for the success of airlines such as ADC Airlines. Gov Akpabio then decided to build AKIA only about 20km away. This has now reduced the load factors on the CBX as well as not having sufficient passenger loads in Uyo. The passenger numbers for Uyo are artificial because the route is heavily subsidised by the state government, so please don't bother looking for googled or wikied figures to show us how much economic growth the airport has brought in. The only way local airlines can operate profitably into Calabar or Uyo is to swap their typical 130-150 seater aircraft for 70 seater turboprops, and no airline is in a financial state to do many fleet swap. The success of an airport is measured by a combination of increased passenger numbers and aircraft movements and operation of larger aircraft. The increase passenger and aircraft numbers in Uyo is due to mismanagement of CBX by the aviation administration. Failure to maintain the runways lighting system as well as the navigational aids has restricted Calabar airport to daylight and good weather conditions thereby reducing the number of flights airlines can operate. Also the runway was allowed to deteriorate to such a dangerous state that the airport has to be closed for renovation. It's only Nigeria that closes entire airports for months for renovation. I know of a German airport that completely resurfaces it's 3km long runway over 30 days by doing 100 metres a day between 12 midnight and 6am, with minimal effect to commercial operation. PHC, Calabar, Maiduguri, Kaduna and Enugu were closed for months causing serious distress to passengers and airlines.
The excused commonly peddled (and has already been used by the paid goons on this thread) is that airports are a sign of and contribute to economic growth. The problem is that the dividends of economic growth is being shared by a minority, that explains the explosion in the number of private jets under the GEJ administration while all the airlines are in fink axial ruin. An exact replica of what happened when the oligarchs were empowered in Russia.

ROSSIKE:

A lot of these things you've mentioned have seen significant progress in recent years, especially under the Jonathan administration. As we speak, investors are QUEUEING UP AND FALLING OVER EACH OTHER to invest in the Nigerian economy. Reasons? Better governance and financial management. (The likes of Okonjo-Iweala, Sanusi, and Aganga are world class economists and technocrats who could run any economy in the world), improving infrastructure, govt support for the diversified, non-oil sector like construction, retail, banking, agriculture, telecoms and manufacturing, and finally, due to a rapidly expanding middle class (Africa's largest).

See the famous thread: Foreign Investors Pour Into Nigeria As Economy Accelerates:

https://www.nairaland.com/1249139/foreign-investors-pour-into-nigeria

Utter Bullshit! No foreign investor wants to invest in Nigeria due to the high risk. Nigeria is the biggest market for business aviation in Africa but all the business aviation manufacturers have refused to invest due to risk as a result of erratic policies (no aviation minister has had more erratic policies than the current one, FFK comes in as a close second). The $3000/4000 charge for private aircraft is proof of lunatic policy making. Bombardier Aerospace who supply the highest number of business jets to Nigeria is opening a spare parts depot in SA instead of Nigeria due to this risk despite Nigeria being their biggest market.

Mr LRNZH,

Please don't waste your time arguing with these clowns who get paid to sit in front of computers defending PDP/GEJ/Stella #team40laptops. They are just proof of our poor economy, young people willing to sell their souls and that of their generations unborn for food. I wonder how much laptop dogs get paid.
As an aviation professional I can tell you that the situation is worse than what passengers get to see. Failed air conditioning is a standard feature of Nigerian airports. The "remodelling" or "transformation" cannot be used as an excuse because MMIA does not use a centralised AC system. Individual halls are cooled using standing AC systems. Lack of maintenance due to corruption and incompetence is the reason for this story.
I was initially sceptical about the initial story blaming the "unclothedness" on Delta Airlines because I cannot technically reconcile the fact that passengers will be sweating while seated in an aeroplane that has flown through -56 degree Celsius air for 11 hours.

VistaJet is not a scheduled airline, they offer charter and aircraft management services. I would doubt if their potential clientèle in Nigeria exceeds 100 people or organisations. The aircraft they operated are at the upper range of business jets namely Global express ($45-50m), Challenger 605s and Challenger 850s (Approx $25-30m) all manufactured by Bombardier aerospace.
At the moment they have about 3 aircraft based in Nigeria. One aircraft is attached to a very beautiful minister of a very very influential ministry in Nigeria, while the others may be attached to certain individuals who have strong links to the previously mentioned individual. In fact vistajet has been having some difficulty in operations due to the rivalry between their client and another equally famous pretty bulletproof-protected minister who has a lot of say on the industry
I'm struggling to see the relevance of this news because I actually don't see the investment. Most likely they are just referring to the value of the aircraft that will be based in Nigeria, which can be flown out in the blink of an eye. Vistajet doesnt own any property or have any facilities in Nigeria. a good example of this kind of investment is Virgin Atlantic's investment in Virgin Nigeria which was $25 million worth of "aircraft and intellectual knowledge". Basically VS sent a few managers and support personnel to assist with running the airline, leased thier aircraft at exhorbitant rates to Virgin Nigeria, as well as, charging thousands of $ for the use of the Virgin brand. yet all these were termed "Investments".
The bottomline is there is too much risk involved in foreigners investing in Nigerian aviation due to lack of any clear policy.

We Nigerian men are some of the laziest men on the planet. We never use our hands except when eating and touching women . There are a lot of men that haven't even changed a light build in decades. I pay someone to wash my car but once in a while I like to wash the car so I can take a general look at the condition of the car. And when I do most of the neighbours look at me like something is wrong I.e. "Why is someone of ur calibre washing his own car?"
The reality is that most car owners will do a better job maintaining their cars than most of these roadside mechanics.
I bought my car new and have had it maintained by professional mechanics. So there isn't much work to do but I will soon attempt to tune up the car.
My car DIY history is limited but my home DIY list is much more extensive

Freeglobe,

Please stop trying to peddle your tribal politics here. Capt Fola Akinkuotu is a distinguished aviation professional and administrator. It was J. D. Nkemakolam (doctor Joyce) that signed this whole deal in his capacity as acting DG prior to Akinkuotu's confirmation. The sad thing is that Capt Fola is being made the scapegoat and if he falls Dr Joyce will take over.
Right now, the aviation industry is going through a serious crisis. The general consensus from about a year ago is that nothing can get done under the current minister. She is hell bent on making money for herself at the expense of the industry that everybody has gone into Sidon-look mode. Hopefully there will be a change of guards at the top.

CFCfan: Good job, ujoinme.
However, I haven't seen construction pics of the international terminal.

As for those who are blaming the Aviation minister for the recent aircrashes; remember that the NCAA is solely responsible for certifying the air-worthiness of planes in the Nigerian airspace. Therefore, all complaints on that should go to the NCAA.

Sir,
The reality is that the NCAA has zero autonomy from the minister of Aviation. The NCAA like most government parastatals has is funding controlled at a ministerial level. I know a lot of people who jump hierarchy and go straight to the minister when they have issues with the NCAA. All the inspectors that have stood their ground in this GEJ administration have lost their jobs.

ujoinme:

Safety is a process and like all processes it is dynamic! FACTS the nigerian Airspace under the current minister has experienced the most advances in upgrade of its airspace safety equipment:
1)For the first time the nigerian airspace has total radar coverage thats working TRACON.
2)We now have a functional weather reporting/monitoring station in nigeria which gives real time weather information to transport industry thereby ensuring safety.
3) For the first time in recent times all airports now have state of the arts communication systems that enable pilots to communicate with towers/control base, before the present minister GSM phones were used for this communications.
4) For the first time in the history of Nigeria we Have an aviation lab that is capable to decoding the Blackbox recording after crashes and exercise that before now was usually taken abroad and it will take months to have the recording decoded. This saves us valuable time such that when the cause of the crash is discovered it will help to improve standards to prevent future crash.
Besides the upgrades of the airport facilitates/remodelling which also on its own adds to safety as we now have efficient screening devises at the airport to ensure deterrent to nefarious characters, this present aviation minister has done more to secure/ ensure safety of the nigerian airspace than any other minister of aviation in recent times.

unfortunately, there has been two fatal plane crashes under her watch, which means that a lot still needs to be done to secure our airspace and hence the safety process must continue.

we as nigerians should seperate political witch hunting that the present minister is currently undergoing from the facts on grounds about her performance as an aviation minister which has been unequivocally stellar. and stop trivializing her performance as mere beautification of airports when in fact she has done far more!

However, I do agree that the process of air safety in Nigeria needs more oomph.

Sorry Bruv, but this is my industry so let me pour some sand-sand in your garri.

1. TRACON is a big joke. How can u have radar coverage when the radios don't work? This project has been commissioned no less than 3 times (check the press archives). How can you have functional radar if the radios don't work, see point 3
2. Functional weather what? When pilots cross the Nigerian border outbound they get real FrESh AIR. Pilots in Nigeria get a weather forecast once a day as opposed or the ICAO recommended four times a day. Weather reporting is way below international standard, even the African standard.
3. State of the art communication what?! Nigeria has one of the top 5 worst Radio communications in Africa, yes AFRICA! British Airways sends new captains to Nigeria as part of their training to see if the can deal with difficult radio communications. If you can handle Lagos, you can survive in the rest of the world.
4. As for the accident lab, I'm not too optimistic. Government agencies are readily used as tools in the hands of the ruling govt e.g. NCAA's handling of the Rivers State jet clearly violates ICAO's principles on enforcement. Reports coming out of the AIB will politically influenced as opposed to the unbiased analysis coming from foreign sources. Only this week we had the ex-boss of the AIB complaining about how the then minister FFK pressured him into realising a distorted report.
5. The remodelling exercise has two big commas. Firstly it did not follow due process as there was no tenure/bidding process and secondly, how much did the damn project cost? And please do not use world class to describe anything in Nigerian aviation. We are not even average by African standards. And remodelling of terminal buildings has no effect on aviation safety.
6. The only thing stellar about the aviation minister is her first name.

Lastly, it's obvious a lot of you guys are paid to come on the internet to defend your paymasters. Let me warn you, this is my industry and I have lost friends in almost every crash. I guarantee that all efforts to use the aviation industry to score cheap political points will be dealt with mercilessly. try Me!

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) seems to have taken the top spot in popularity over other contact sports such as boxing. It's very big in North America, Europe and even Africa. As the name suggests its a combination of various disciplines; boxi, wrestling, Muay Thai, judo, karate, jujitsu, etc.
I have seen 100,000 seater stadiums sold out for fights. Pay per view matches on American cable tv can go for as much as $80 per fight if not more.

Is anybody else a fan of this sport?

Y2kplus,

The age 22 restriction applies to the importation of aircraft and not to the operation of aircraft. So you could import an aircraft that is 21 years and 364 days old and operate it for as long as you want.

Older aircraft are more expensive to maintain and operate and that's is the main reason airlines buy new aircraft. Newer aircraft are not necessarily safer. The 22 year old rule came about because in Nigeria we have laymen and incompetent professionals ,making aviation policies.

There are no statistics to show that aircraft age has anything to do with safety.

On the jobs front, it isn't going to change anything. The biggest airline in Nigeria, Arik, is racist, the owner doesn't want Nigerian pilots or engineers working on his aeroplanes. They have 2 foreign registered Airbus aircraft with 99% foreign pilots and engineers, while on the one Nigerian registered Airbus there are ZERO Nigerian pilots and engineers. Even though there are a couple of sets that are being trained for political reasons.
Most of the private jets in Nigeria are crewed by foreigners at the request of the owners. This is for a variety of reasons
1. The average Nigerian aircraft owner has a bushman mentality (money-miss-road), they automatically equate white skin to competence. Unknown to them majority of the expatriates in Nigeria are not more competent than their Nigerian contemporaries. Others employ expatriates just to show off (oyinbo dey fly)
2. A large proportion of The Nigerian professionals are very complacent, which is unacceptable in such an industry. Some aircraft owners therefore have a genuine concern about employing Nigerians. But if they follow proper recruitment and selection processes they will attract the best Nigerian professionals.
The issue of Nigerians not getting jobs is more of an immigration issue than an NCAA issue. The issuance of STR visas is not being regulated properly. A lot of Nigerians have foreign aviation qualifications but can't work abroad because of visa restrictions. The country of registry shouldn't really affect the employment of Nigerians because there are significant number of foreign licensed Nigerians and those with Nigerian licenses can have their licenses validated to work on foreign aircraft.

Aviation in Nigeria is a big joke. There is no clear policy and those in charge have no clue on how to move the industry forward.

The Cost of doing business in Nigeria is prohibitive. That is why Nigerians pay some of the highest fares in the world. The ignorant are quick to blame the foreign airlines of racism and exploitation , but the blame lies with ridiculous policies like these. I am amazed by most of the daft comments made on this thread; guess who is going to pay for these fees? The passengers/ public, you dullards!
Nigeria has an aviation industry that is still in the infant stage, what is needed are policies that will boost the industry. How is this policy going to help our struggling airlines?

The "private jets" as the laymen call them are a source of income to the federal government. Majority of these jet are "business jets" owned by corporations and operated under strict budgets. It is not easy to own and operate these jets. Nigeria has the second fastest growing business aviation sector in the world. Instead of the government to encourage development, they consistently introduce new policies that make it harder and more expensive to operate. There has been a remarkable slow down in development in the business jet sector under the current minister. I score her 1/10 with regards to the business aviation sector. She was the laughing stock of the gallery at a recent interaction business aviation event. Majority of her policies are targeted at her political enemies.

This is a regular occurrence with this airline. They have abysmal customer service. Nigerians also don't help matters with their Sidon-look mentality. I have been on numerous flights with this airline and am always amazed by the amount of abuse the Nigerian flying public will take without complaining.
I will bet my lunch money that this was caused by the flight being delayed until the airport was closed. Some airports like Enugu, Benin and Owerri do not have runway lights and therefore have to close by 6:30pm. So it is a common for passengers to these destinations to frequently get stranded at the airport due to sheer incompetence and negligence of officials of this company. The few passengers who refuse to take it sitting down quite often have to resort to "hijacks", and I have personally witnessed quite a few.
I'm surprised this airline hasn't had a major accident considering their attitude towards operations.

Horus: www.nairaland.com/attachments/449183_425265_BISHOP_DOING_GODS_WORK_JPG7c28f2dc77cb46308999c3b400db134a_jpg91bc239f13eb57ca48783e1fe42e024d

Bishop David Oyedepo own four private jets

Erm I think the Bishop owns only one aircraft, maximum 2

The Nigerian aircraft registry is not attractive. It is the duty of the Nigerian government to make the registry competitive. It's a global economy, you can't force anyone to operate under any registry. There are numerous benefits to registering aircraft in Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Isle of Man etc. The authorities in these countries have gone out of their way to make aircraft ownership and operation stress free. The aviation ministry and the NCAA have no clear policies. The system is too bureaucratic for the highly dynamic world of business aviation.
Bottom line : the problem lies more with the government and it's policies than with the aircraft owners and operators

fesfen28: I will say this again and again, no white man can claim to be a saint in Nigeria, because they do worst things, if they are saying ibori is a thief, which role did their country pay in making the robbery successful? How much is the budget of Delta state for the 8 years he ruled? Does that mean the man did not pay salary or construct any road or building in the state for this period? Did the UK court jailed him for money laundry or money he stole from Delta? Most of the white business men in Nigeria are all thieves causing religious and ethnic crises everywhere. It is because we are not serious with the fight against corruption that's why British citizen are going free, most of them are very very corrupt. The Lebanese who owns wonderland in abuja will tell the whole world they are helping Nigeria until they were caught with ammunitions. UK should come and tell us who buys these stolen crude oil, who sells these property to Nigerians there? We help to develop their economy. Yet they treat us as dirts. My submission, UK is corrupt. It takes two to tangle

There may be corrupt people in the UK but the Uk is not corrupt. Most white men in Nigeria have a skeleton in their cupboard but majority of white people are decent when compared to our people. I'm saying this based on years living in different countries.

BTW its "Tango" not "tangle". anyway not your fault, some black man embezzled the funds that were meant for giving you a good education.

As an aviation professional I can tell you that Nigerian airports are death traps even compared to other African airports. Cotonou, Accra, Dakar, etc are way ahead of any of our airports.
The problem with Benin airport is porous or lack of perimeter fencing. THERE IS A FOOTPATH ACROSS THE RUNWAY 05/23!!! YES, YOU HEARD ME RIGHT!!! Right in the middle between the terminal building and the OKADA hangar. There is a school on one side of the airport and most of the city is on the other side, the footpath gives them a short cut to town. There have been numerous near misses, the flight crew have had to pull up (go-around) at short notice due to people on the runway. So I am not surprised by this news.
Another issue is the welfare of the airline security staff. How mush are they paid? Are they paid their salaries on time? What working conditions do they have to endure? add all that together an what do you expect? Nigerians are very bad employers of labour.
And its not only Benin, there is a similar footpath across runway 03/21 in calabar. there is an okada route/foothpath within 1 meter of Runway 05/23 in Kaduna. Even Abuja airport (the nations capital) grass is a delicay for the local fulani cows.
The bottom line is aviation is a joke in Nigeria, Princess or no princess. There are very few competent hands, and regardless of how much money you pump into the system you can expect much.

Nigeria has labour laws. When there is no local manpower, expatriates can be brought in to supplement. The condition is that two Nigerians must be employed to understudy the expatriate and after two years take over.
No Nigerian aviation companies comply with these labour laws. A lot of the expatriates in Nigeria do not have experience.
Government's fault : because work permits are issued jeopardising Nigerian jobs.
Employer's fault : most entrepreneurs in Nigeria are "money miss road". They believe white skin = competence. Most expatriates in Nigeria are the bottom of the barrel (either inexperienced or incompetent) in their countries but our ogas are happy to pay top dollar for them. There's a big problem at the moment in the private jet sector: dem no go enter plane if dem see Naija. Even the cabin crew (tea and coffee) are oyinbo collecting dollars and staying in top hotels.

The bottom line is that there are enough jobs available for the 170 if labour laws are enforced

Dear Nairalanders,

Most of the times when an aircraft develops a fault and returns to land, the passengers are in NO DANGER. Aviation regulations require that the flight be discontinued when certain conditions exist, whether or not they are considered to dangerous or not. If the destination is their maintenance base, most of the time the flight will continue to its destination. If the departure airport is the maintenance base the flight will return to its departure point, which in Nigeria we call an air return. That is why you will notice that most air returns in Nigeria happen in Lagos since it is the maintenance base of most airlines.
Single Engine failures in transport airliners are not a matter of life and death, provided the pilots are well trained and aircraft performance calculations are done as required. Most airlines do not even declare "MAYDAY" when they have engine failures anymore. Engine failures caused by bird strikes can be more serious since they can cause physical damage to not just the engine but surrounding parts including fuel tanks, hydraulic lines and flight controls.
On the issue of bird strikes, the highest occurrence of a bird strike was an Air Afrique Boeing 727 hitting a vulture at 37,000 feet (Manny check your facts). I hit a bird at 14000 feet a few years ago somewhere in Nigerian airspace.

Have a nice day

Nigerian Army Special Ops, Courtesy beegeagle's blog

We already have Nigerian Army, Navy and maybe Air force special operations. Where do these guys fall? Why don't we just concentarte on improving the current units. Kuds to the military for the impressive strides made in developing special operations capabilies.

The Nigerian Navy Special Boat Service (SBS) courtesy Beegeagle's Blog.

How much for the Lynx helicopter in the background? Sexy machine

Nigerians (most Nairalanders) are very very ignorant people. Barbarism is a phenomenum that affects at an societal level and not an individual level. Every human being has barbaric tendencies if placed in the right conditions. While not all may execute barbaric action, most will think about executing it (According to my bible "if you thinked then u done it" excuse my ebonics). When the Aluu incident occurred, only any ignorant and ill-informed Nigerian will express surprise at the events. Like it has been said many times on Nairaland, for over 40 years in Nigeria it has been a normal for thieves to be lynched when caught by members of the public.
Nigerian culture frowns against diverse thinking and unconventionality. So when an event occurs most people seem to have 2 or 3 popular opinions and anyone who think out of the box is vilified. The popular opinion about aluu was that the boys were innocent at all costs and every citizen of Aluu was a barbarian. the second line of thought was that the act of lynching the boys was barbaric and uncalled for, yet the people of Aluu regardless of culpability should be punished with the same jungle justice.
Almost everyone on Nairaland pays their monthly security dues to vigilantes. What do you think they do with thieves they catch? Most of them are very subtle about their action, they will kill and dispose of robbers without your knowledge.
The underlying fact is the lack of security caused by an ineffective justice system. Even the police commit extra-judiciary killings because they know that the justice system is too slow and effective.
The bottom line is that justice will prevail: either legal justice or jungle justice. What type of justice is available to the average Nigerian on the street? I'm talking about those that survive on less than a dollar a day, those that cannot afford internet or cars or fancy clothes, those that cannot afford the commercialized legal system in Nigeria.
The black man likes vanity and deceiving himself about his true identity. The fact is that we are all part of a barbaric society. Accept it and let work forward and push for change. Jungle justice is a sign of a collapse of the moral fabric of our society. It will only continue because the average Nigerian is a "hustler" and trying to "hammer", and instead of taking the fight to those in power we will roll on the floor and prostrate before them cos we want contract and handouts.

My fellow Barbarians, I hail

War is not only about bombs and bravery. You have to win the hearts and mind, as well as have local knowledge. Nigeria is very unstable and as a people we are very unserious. based on any kind of military analysis, Nigeria is one of the most war prone countries in the world. If Nigeria is going to break up, it most likely going to be by Ibo cessation with strong resistance from the Hausa. The Americans will definitely have to get involved as they have a lot at stake. many years of intelligence gathering and reconnaissance are required prior to executing a war. A lot of the failures the US military experienced in Iraq and Afghanistan were due to lack of local knowledge. So if their predictions are right about the 2015 Armageddon then now is the right time to start gathering local knowledge of the two tribes that will mos likely get involved in the conflict. makes a whole lot of sense.

Nigerians do not know have to have fun. As typical black people we bask in vanity. Fun for a typical Nigerian male is popping expensive bottles of champagne among people who don't even care about you. Fun in Nigeria is limited to sex, drugs and rock n roll.
Where do you take kids to have fun? On the mainland, funplace opebi is not bad and then the usual 3 cinemas and 2 malls, then what else? I took some kids to the Apapa amusement part and the place looked like a crime scene.
Where do you take someone who doesn't drink or smoke to?
Nigerians do not like diversity, when they travel out they are very skeptical about anything foreign especially food.
Most Nigerians who are adventurous cannot wait for their next foreign trip.

For me as an adult male, i would be interested in the following activities in Nigeria:

Camping
Hiking
Rock climbing e.g. climbing famous rocks
Water-sports (jet skiing, speedboats, wouldnt it be nice to have boat trips up and down the Niger or Benue?)
Motorsports (go karting, race track events,
Safaris
Roller-coaster rides
the list is endless

I'm tired of the usual siddon-and-chop activities in nigeria.

This is an example if an instrument approach procedure. This one is into JFK in New York, you can see the Carnarsie and Kennedy navigation aids with the frequencies the pilots will tune their onboard equipment to.
[img][/img]

@Rustic

Question 1-Pilots rely on 2 things to avoid collision with other planes 1) there is a device (forgotten its name exactly) that senses any object whatsoever at a distance and it also indicates the direction where the object is during flight 2) Pilots rely on instructions from air traffic controller at the control tower who clears them to proceed to fly and the altitude they must maintain as they depart the runway. the same principle is applied to inbound flights. The air traffic controller ensures all inbound and outbound flights, none of them should fly at the same altitude and none should take off or land at the same time. That is the reason why sometimes ur flight is kept in the air for extra minutes before it is cleared to land. Pilots rely on their gadgets and the traffic controller to basically fly their planes.


The primary method of preventing air collisions is the air traffic control (ATC) system. The air traffic controllers have numerous procedures to maintain what they call "separation" between aircraft.
Pilot also follow what they call "rules of the air" which create some kind of sanity and order especially in places where there is no air traffic control. For example, if i am navigating visually along a river i will stay to the right hand side of it that way i would be immune from colliding with opposite direction traffic, similar to driving on a road. Our marine brothers also have similar rules. As mentioned in previous posts, Traffic Collision avoidance system (TCAS) is an electronic method of preventing collisions. The limitation is that Both aircraft have to have certain equipment on. If a pilot forgets to switch on his TCAS equipment or if it fails in flight, TCAS protection is lost. TCAS provides voice and visual warnings to the pilots in the flight deck. If both aircraft have TCAS the system talk to each other and "resolve" the conflict; One aircraft will command its pilot to climb and the other will command its pilot to descend to avoid collision. The limitation of the system is that its can only provide vertical commands to avoid conflict (up or down) and also it requires the pilots to obey the commands promptly. Google the "DHL midair collison over Germany"to find out what happens when pilots don t follow the command.

Question 2-They know exactly the km distance between point A and B so they know they are close if they are 100km,50km... to point b. at the same time, the plane picks the radar from the control tower of the airport they are approaching. At this point they communicate with the traffic controller and he instructs them on the altitude to maintain until he clears them for landing. meanwhile at this point, the pilot would have descended to lower altitude where he can see the landings strip. A pilot would not attempt to land if the landing strip is not visible.

There are two types of flying: Visual flying and instrument flying. Visual flying is like driving your car. You navigate by looking through the window and confirming your position in relation to external references such as towns, roads, rivers, etc. Visual flying will be done by reference to a map. The pilot will also use speed-distance-time formulas to confirm distances. If i fly at 200kph after 30 minutes i should have covered 100 KM, or if i cover 75km in 30 minutes then i should be traveling at 150 kph.
Instrument flying is done by reference to data presented on the cockpit instruments. This is how most commercial flights are carried out. Numerous radio navigation stations (normally called radio navigation aids) scattered all over the world, each with its frequency and identifier. So a pilot will tune his radio just as you will tune Cool FM and identify that he has the correct station (The major aid in Lagos (LAG VOR aid) has a frequency of 113.70 MHz). The cockpit instrument can then be manipulated to all precise tracks to be followed based on radio signals from the aid. In the sky we have "airways" which are highways in the sky defined by definite tracks from airways. An aeroplane flying from Lagos to PH will fly on air UR984 which is a direct track from the Lagos navigational aid to the Port harcourt navigational aid. Some navigational aids have DME (distance measuring equipment) facilities, so when a pilot tune the frequency he get an distance diplay.

Modern day flying has been made easy by GPS and other similar equipment. Most aircraft in Nigeria now have moving map displays similar to SATNAV diplays in modern vehicles. it makes navigation many time easier. GPS also gives more distance to destination information.

The most complicated part of instrument flying are Instrument Approach Procedures (IAPs). These allow pilots to make an approach to landing using radio navigation aids without actually seeing the ground. usually they come down to a minimum altitude at which if they do not see the runway a go-around maneuver has to executed and a published missed approach procedure will be flown to a safe height. How low the pilots can go depends on the type of radio navigational aid been used. The most accurate is the Category 3 ILS approaches which in some airports (e.g. London Heathrow) can be conducted in zero visibility conditions.
An observant passenger may have noticed that sometime the pilots will fly over the airport and then do some turning procedures for about 5 minutes before coming in to land: that is an instrument approach procedure.


I hope I am making sense here

Overland aircraft Old? They just took delivery of the newest aeroplane in Nigerian airspace
http://www.overland.aero/news/overland-airways-takes-delivery-of-atr-72-aircraft.aspx

I agree that their current fleet isnt necessarily young, but then from a professional point of view they are not aged either.

Mr Man, this is a lot of questions but i have decided to answer all of them because for a layman you have asked a very high quality set of questions.

1.What causes turbulence and do some routes suffer more than others? It seems to me that the Abuja-London route suffers more turbulence than the London-Lagos route.

Turbulence is caused by convection (air moving up and down due to heating) weather Phenomena ( thunderstorms, winds, jetstreams, etc) and topography (hills, buildings). I believe Abuja-LHR and Lagos-LHR should have the same weather as the routing is basically the same except for the first hour of flight. It may be a factor of the time of the day.

2.Do some airlines absorb the turbulence better? From my experience Virgin doesn’t seem to be as bumpy as ARIK and BA

It’s a factor of aircraft type. Aspect Ratio (ratio of how thin the wings are when viewed from above) determines how well aircraft ride turbulence. Virgin and arik fly the same type of aircraft so the ride should be the same. When you sit in the aircraft is also a factor, turbulence is felt the most at the rear of the aircraft.

3.Why do your ears pop on some flights and not on others?

Personal health could be a factor. If you have a cold your ears are more likely to pop.The pressurisation systems of some aircraft control the rate of change of pressure more smoothly than others.

4.Why does the plane dramatically slow down when the Wheels come out for landing

Air resistance: if you stick your hand out of the window of a moving car at 50 KPH you feel the air resistance. So you can imagine dropping three or more massive landing gear assemblies at 300 kph.
Also the pilots usually are trying to slow from approach speed (180 knots=330KPH) to landing speed (140 knots=260kph) when they drop the landing gear so it helps.

5.And why does it make such a loud thud/slam when the wheels come out. I thought it was to do with hydraulics so why is it so noisy?

The landing gear are heavy, the force of gravity help them to be lowered. In case of a loss of hydraulics, most landing gear are designed to drop with gravity, so you will even hear a louder thud. Its actually a reassuring sound to pilots. Also there is a roaring sound which is the sound of the airflow.

6.What maintenance do the ground engineers do when the plane comes in and before take off again

From the basic to the most elaborate.
a. Walk around: done before and after every flight by the pilots and or the engineers. Takes a few minutes.
b. Daily maintenance signout: before the 1st flight of the day an engineer “releases the aircraft to service”
c. Scheduled maintenance check: sometime refered to as A,B,C, and D checks. Different levels of complexity with D being the most complex. Most C and D check are usually not done in Nigeria due to lack of facilities, but Aerocontarctors can now do C checks.
d. Non-scheduled maintenance: if a component fails in flight, maintenance personnel may have to fix it prior to the next flight. There are also procedures that allow aircraft to fly with certain defects (acceptable deffered defects ADD).

7.How many trips does a plane make say for example London to Lagos before it is taken out of service?

Don’t listen to most Nigerian aviation personnel, age has got nothing to do with it. Aircraft life is based on cycles (one flight from takeoff to landing) or flying hours (from takeoff to landing). Long haul aircraft may not be designed for the same number of cycles as a short haul aircraft. So the Boeing 737 may be designed for 50000 hours and 50000 cycles while the 747 will be designed for 50000 hours and 15000 cycles.
Its aeroplane type specific. Typically most airliners should be able to fly for 30 years plus with no problems. I have flown 60 year old commercial aircraft in pristine condition. I have flown an 80 year old world war 1/2 era aircraft in pristine condition.
Aircraft will normally be checked at least once a day as specified in 6 above.

8.What is the average pay for a pilot and crew?

In Nigeria, salaries may come with or without other benefits and allowances.
Captain: N750k to N3m or more
Copilot: N250k to 1.5M or more
Cabin crew: N50k to N1m. the top end of the scale is experienced crew on private jets.

9.Do pilots sleep when the plane is on autopilot? And do the number of pilots increase with the lenght of the flight so eg are there more pilots on the UK-Australia route than there would be on the london-lagos route?

Pilots are usually limited to 8hrs of flying a day. So on flights greater than 8 hours extra pilots are usually carried. On a 2 man aircraft it’s a 2 pilots for flight up to 8 hrs, 3 pilots for flights up to 12 hours, and 4 pilots for flights up to 16 hours. Some countries allow pilots to fly higher hours. Long range aircraft have dedicated crew rest areas with beds.
On short flights power napping (maximum 45 minutes) is becoming accepted across the industry to reduce fatigue.

10.Do mobile phones really affect electronics on the flight?

The switching off of phones is more of a precaution. There is a remote possibility of phones interfering with certain systems. The aviation industry always errs on the side of caution. I think very soon you will be able to use your mobile phone on every airline as onboard communication facilities get introduced. In the cockpit, sometime we hear beeps in our communication equipment when phones are left on.

11.When the plane comes to land how do the back wheels drop down so gently without slamming into the runway considering the weight of the plane?

Most airplanes (in the “tricycle” configuration) are designed to land on the rear landing gear assemblies. The pilots will close the thrust levers and raise the nose of the aircraft to allow the aircraft to touchdown at an acceptable rate of descent. How smoothly the aircraft touches down is a function of pilot technique and sometime luck. There are some conditions where the pilot may have to thump the aircraft down for safety reasons such as wet or “contaminated” runway conditions or challenging wind conditions.
A smooth landing is not always a safe landing and a hard landing is not necessarily dangerous. Most aircraft manufacturers recommend firm landings to reduce the risk of overshooting the end of the runway on landing.

12.When a flight departs late, most times the pilots try and make up time. If the plane therefore can safely travel that fast, then why not just use that speed anyway and reduce the flight times of all flights?

Same thing with your car, just cos it says 280KPH on the dash doesn’t mean you drive around at 280KPH. Aviation fuel is very expensive so aircraft are flown at a particular economy or long range speed that gives and economical fuel burn.

13.Why do the crew insist on switching the cabin lights off when departing or landing at night/its dark?

If the lights are on you can’t see what’s happening outside. In an emergency you have to see what’s outside before you evacuate. Evacuations are most likely to occur during takeoff and landing.

14.Why are suitcases sometimes damp when they come out of the hold?

It can be cold in the cargo hold. When the bags are removed from the cargo hold the warmer air condenses hence the moisture.

15.Is it me or does anyone else suddenly notice the increase in heat in the cabin during day flights over the desert?

Cabin temperature is set by the crew. In flight with the air conditioning sytem fully functional, external conditions should have no effect. The air conditioning system maintain a certain cabin temperature.

16.I know that the engines “drive” the planes, but how does the plane go up in the air and not down at ground level like a car or boat will?

The aircraft engines generate thrust by pushing the air rearwards; they are not connected to the tires. If you have spend a bit of time on the ramp (or tarmac as a lot of people call it) you will experience "jet blast" at least once. I have seen it knock over vehicle. A Boeing 777-300ER generates 115,000 LBS of force per engine at take off thrust.

. . . . . . . And last of all why is airline food sooooooo crap?
Bwaaahahahhahahhhhahahhahhahha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you need any further elaboration, please ask. In flying we have a saying "There's no such thing as stupid questions, but there are stupid answers"

The Hawker 800XP ZS-PCY you posted above is owned by OANDO but operated by NAC South Africa. OANDO also has ZS-BOT.
There are dozen of South African (ZS- or Zulu Sierra) registered business jests operated in Nigeria, mostly Hawker 800 series.
The reason for registering them in South Africa, firstly, is because Nigeria's NCAA makes it the registration process unnecessarily difficult. Secondly, most of the jet were not acquired with totally clean money, so registering them outside reduces suspicion.