“Ask The Pilot” is one of the most popular threads on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum. In fact, since it was started in 2011, there have been well over 15,000 posts!
The Ask The Pilot thread is a place where AFF members can ask questions to real-life pilots. We have several regular pilot contributors including jb747 and AviatorInsight who tirelessly answer questions relating to how aircraft work and the life of a pilot. Our pilot contributors have been very generous with their time and knowledge, and we’re very grateful for that!
AviatorInsight is a current Virgin Australia Boeing 737 pilot and jb747 retired in 2019 after a distinguished career with Qantas, where he was an Airbus A380 captain. He was also the captain of QF30, a Boeing 747-400 flight that made a successful emergency landing in Manila in 2008 after an oxygen tank exploded in the cargo hold causing significant structural damage to the plane. You can read more about his career here: jb747 Reflects on a Stellar Career with Qantas
If there is a question you’ve always wanted to ask a pilot, this is your chance! You can ask your question and check out the previous discussion here:
There’s also a new AFF thread started by jb747 called “Tales from the Air”, where you can read lots of aviation stories from him and other pilots: Tales from the Air | Australian Frequent Flyer
As a quick reminder, we ask non-pilot members to refrain from answering any questions on the “Ask the Pilot” thread. The special rules of this thread are outlined in Post #1.
Index of common topics
With 15,000+ posts in the “Ask The Pilot” thread, there’s a good chance that a topic you’ve been wondering about has already been asked! To help you navigate this thread and point you towards some of the previous discussions on a range of topics, we’ve created an index of popular Ask The Pilot topics.
Some of the links are directly to posts that answer a question on that topic, while other links will take you to the first in a series of posts discussing that topic. Note that some discussions continue over several pages.
Simply click on any of the links below to go directly to the discussion relating to that topic on the “Ask The Pilot” thread!
Contents
Airports
- Landing at Kai Tak Airport (old Hong Kong airport)
- Sydney Airport (SYD) curfew
- Managing operations between airports with curfews
- Airbus A380 operations at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MNL)
Air Traffic Control (ATC) & navigation
- Communicating with ATC
- Radio communications between aircraft
- Flight plans
- Overflight fees
- Airways & route planning
- Waypoints
- Runway changes
- Aircraft ignoring ATC instructions
- Operating to Common Traffic Advisory Frequency (CTAF) airports without ATC
- Wake turbulence
- Landing & navigation systems (ILS, VOR, etc.)
Emergencies & irregular operations
- QF30 (jb747’s emergency landing in Manila)
- Issues that can arise during a flight
- Tail strikes
- Bird strikes
- Laser pointer attacks
- NOTAMs (NOTice to AirMen)
- Mid-air medical emergencies
- Dealing with unruly passengers
Diversions
Flight controls & aircraft systems
- Aircraft doors & pressurisation
- Flaps
- Rudder
- Trim
- Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS)
- Aircraft docking guidance system
- Buttons in the cockpit
- Aircraft “laws”
Flying the plane
- What pilots do during a long-haul flight
- Centre of gravity (and why passengers need to take their assigned seats)
- Seat belt sign usage
- Optical illusions from the flight deck
- Do cockpit seats recline?
- Photos from the cockpit (also see here)
- Crew rest areas
- Descent and approach
- Extending the flaps for landing
- Landing the plane
- Flaring
Fuel
- Deciding how much fuel to carry
- Fuel consumption at different altitudes
- Refuelling the aircraft
- A380 fuel tanks
- Fuel dumping
Life of a pilot
- Pros & cons of being a pilot
- Short-haul vs long-haul flying
- Working over Christmas
- Standby & what happens if a pilot gets sick
Fatigue
Retirement
- Pilot retirement age
- jb747’s final landing into Melbourne
- jb747’s retirement gift
- jb747 reflects on life after retirement
Maintenance
Pilot roles
- The captain’s role
- The Second Officer’s role
- Augmented crews
- “Captain-only” landings
- Crew Resource Management (CRM)
Pilot training
- Cadet programs
- Advice for aspiring pilots (also see here)
- Annual “route check”
- Instrument rating test
- Airline qualification course
Flight simulator sessions
- jb747’s A380 simulator session #1 (Singapore/Denpasar)
- jb747’s A380 simulator session #2 (Melbourne)
- jb747’s A380 simulator session #3 (Amsterdam/London)
- jb747’s A380 simulator session #4 (Kuala Lumpur/Singapore)
- jb747’s A380 simulator session #5 (Melbourne, Honolulu & Stansted)
- jb747’s A380 simulator session #6 (Hong Kong)
- jb747’s A380 simulator session #7 (Dallas/San Francisco)
- jb747’s A380 simulator session #8 (Los Angeles, Hawaii, Dubai, Muscat)
- jb747’s A380 simulator session #9 (Nadi/Amsterdam)
- jb747’s A380 simulator session #10 (Singapore/Kuala Lumpur)
- jb747’s A380 simulator session #11 (Melbourne)
- jb747’s A380 simulator session #12 (Houston)
- jb747’s A380 simulator session #13 (Sydney, Frankfurt & Paris)
- jb747’s last A380 simulator session – #14 (Sydney)
- AviatorInsight Boeing 737 simulator session #1 (Port Vila, Gold Cost & Brisbane)
- AviatorInsight Boeing 737 simulator session #2 (Sydney, Canberra & Melbourne with volcanic ash cloud & runaway stabiliser)
- AviatorInsight Boeing 737 simulator session #3 (Melbourne, Maroochydore, Perth)
- Boris spatsky simulator session (cabin depressurisation)
Air Force/military training
- Military flight training
- Navigation test on RAAF pilots’ course
- More jb747 tales from the RAAF pilots’ course
Weather
- De-icing (also see here & here)
- Fog
- Turbulence (also see here)
- Wind
- Windshear
- Weather radar & avoiding poor weather during cruise
