Ask The Pilot

[Flashback]

Is it common for pilots to get sun burnt ?

I'm not sure about the pilots, but I know if I sit in a window seat I often get a little sunburnt unless I put sunscreen on before getting on the plane.

 

[straitman]

How much must it take a bit to "indoctrinate" such a culture or attitude into younger pilots who come from the military, particularly those who flew fast jets?

The military are much more heavily supervised than you seem to realise. Operations that may seem hazardous to you, are generally very tightly planned. Risky behaviour is much more likely to develop in an unsupervised GA pilot.

When asking this it is probably wise to remember that jb747 has had several very different aviation lives prior to his commercial aviation life.

One as a Navy helicopter observer and one as an A4 pilot.

 

[jb747]

Is it common for pilots to get sun burnt ?

Not that I know of, but most of my flying seems to be at night. The glass on the coughpit windows is dramatically different to the cabin. The coughpit is multiple layers, basically armoured, and a couple of centimetres thick.

On the call sign topic, I really don't recall where the Trashcan call sign came from...perhaps it was a suggestion as to what I should do with my bombing results. I remember the bloke who suggested it, a USN exchange pilot, but not the why.

 

[jb747]

Would you like to expand on your flavor of command?

Command. To many people it's a simplistic idea. Just take a first officer, teach him to fly with his left hand, put him in the left and seat, and pay him more. Instant captain. Or perhaps not…maybe that just gives you a coughpit with two first officers. And, sadly perhaps, that's what the industry seems to be falling towards, as people who have never come closer to a coughpit than their office, get to make more and more of the decisions that define an airline.

Command training, when I did it on the 767, took roughly five months. The failure rate was very nearly 50%. It was a pretty unpleasant five months, though most of the pressure was self applied.

Part of it is obvious. You spend a lot of time actually flying the sim/aircraft; especially if you are concurrently doing a conversion onto a new type. At the end of that, you should be able to fly it reasonably well, and to higher limits than you've previously operated. You'll also have learnt things like automatic landings, which are only flown by the captain.

The less obvious part is the bit that actually trips most people up. Management. That's the real bread and butter of being a captain. On most days, the best way to handle problems is actually to push your seat back as far as you can get from the controls, and to try to take in the overall picture. It's quite amazing how proximity to the controls reduces your ability to see the bigger picture.

As the captain, you have a couple of luxuries that you never had as a first officer. Possibly the best one is the fact that the company gives you a fully qualified crew to help you do your job. And the second, is that you get to choose the music.

All trainee/new captains have to learn to let their crew get on with their job. It's very rare that micro management is needed, but sadly some people fall into the habit. Heck, if you do it right, you can sit back and watch the crew do all the work of taking you around the world, and all you have to do is say 'make it so' every now and then.

One man bands are not welcome. The captain does not need to do all of the flying, nor should he keep all of the decision making to himself. Sometimes the situation demands instant action, but that's rare, and even then there is often room shortly thereafter to include the crew. Being inclusive does not mean abrogating your decision making to a committee, but it does mean ensuring that you include the knowledge, experience and thoughts of the crew, as you move towards any decision.

Unlike an office though, an aircraft is moving at about a thousand feet per second. Decisions have to be made, and often quickly. In general it's much better to make a decision, and be wrong, than to not make one at all. You cannot dilly dally. Sometimes the decision process starts long before you get to the aircraft (I've just been doing some work on some contingencies for a flight that will leave in about 12 hours). At other times something unexpected may require an instant response. In the case of the US Air Hudson river ditching, the most important item was not the ditching itself. Contrary to what the media would have you believe, that was reasonably straight forward. The important bit was the fact that the Captain very quickly made a decision that actually involved throwing away the aircraft. Having made that decision, what followed, whilst it included some luck, was close to given. The alternative was to try for Teterborough airport, which may have seemed very tempting, but if the aircraft did not make it there (and it wouldn't have) then it would have ended up in suburbia.

Of course doing this is much easier if the crew are on the same wavelength as you. In part that's accomplished by a training system that produces a very standardised produce. To my way of thinking, as you've got a qualified crew, talking to them about sucking eggs only reduces their cooperation. And 99% of the time, nothing needs to be said.

I'll probably add more to this as I think of it…..

A little addition. The flight that I mentioned I was preparing for, ultimately did not depart. This didn’t inconvenience any passengers, as it was a ferry flight. It was delayed because the forecast weather at the destination was horrendous, with everything up to microbursts being likely.

 

[Major]

Military officer training plays a very important role in decision making. As well as tactics, weapon traing etc. equal emphasis is placed on leadership and management.

Personally I still like the 6 P's

Prior preparation & planning prevents poor performance

 

[ChrisGibbs]

A little addition. The flight that I mentioned I was preparing for, ultimately did not depart. This didn’t inconvenience any passengers, as it was a ferry flight. It was delayed because the forecast weather at the destination was horrendous, with everything up to microbursts being likely.

JB747 I'm not sure where your ferry flight was heading to however the weather here in the Shenzhen area is turning for the worse with Typhoon Kai-Tak due to cross the coast around lunch time today. The Hong Kong Observatory has issued a Standby Signal 1 warning for Hong Kong and surrounding areas with schools being closed and trains services being cancelled.

When planning a SYD-HKG flight how bad would the forecast have to get before the flight would be cancelled? Under what circumstances would you elect to use an alternate for a SYD-HKG flight. When selecting an alternate for HKG would you need to take into account operational requirements like using a Chinese airport as an alternate may be a challenge for those without a Chinese Visa or APEC Card?

Also for long oceanic flights like SYD-JNB or SYD-EZE do you use an alternate or a point of no return for planning purposes.

Thanks in advance.

 

[mjt57]

Command.

Thanks for that, JB.

A lot of that tends to gel a bit with what I do, but we have the luxury of not dying (well, for the most part), if we make mistakes.

As for that ferry flight, are you allowed to take friends or family as passengers (either paying or non paying), or is it purely necessary crew only.

 

[jb747]

JB747 I'm not sure where your ferry flight was heading to however the weather here in the Shenzhen area is turning for the worse with Typhoon Kai-Tak due to cross the coast around lunch time today. The Hong Kong Observatory has issued a Standby Signal 1 warning for Hong Kong and surrounding areas with schools being closed and trains services being cancelled.

When planning a SYD-HKG flight how bad would the forecast have to get before the flight would be cancelled? Under what circumstances would you elect to use an alternate for a SYD-HKG flight. When selecting an alternate for HKG would you need to take into account operational requirements like using a Chinese airport as an alternate may be a challenge for those without a Chinese Visa or APEC Card?

Also for long oceanic flights like SYD-JNB or SYD-EZE do you use an alternate or a point of no return for planning purposes.

You got the destination right, but it's only a short flight from Manila.

The need for an alternate is quite well defined for each destination, with definite numbers for cloudbase and visibility requirements (and crosswind). If the weather is worse, then you legally need fuel to hold or to divert, depending upon the forecast duration on the weather. HK has extra issues in that wind, which in itself isn't too bad, can funnel through the valleys of Lantau Island, and give local windshear, and even microbursts. The forecast for our original arrival time was such that you'd be very unlikely to land off an approach, and most likely I wouldn't even have attempted it. The microburst word generally translates as 'go away'.

The company itself keeps a very good eye on this sort of thing. In flight, it's pretty much up to the captain, but prior to that management from about Deputy Chief Pilot down is keeping up to date on anything interesting happening on the network. I think last night's decision was made by the 380 Fleet Manager (who is a 380 pilot). It becomes very complex, because, obviously, they wanted the aircraft that I'm picking up to be back into the system. I haven't checked, but presumably a jumbo substituted somewhere along the way.

Diversion choices are complicated. The 380 itself is very limiting, and quite simply cannot go to many places that we'd otherwise consider good alternates. That huge wingspan gets very close to many obstacles. Politics comes into it in HK, with the result that some otherwise good choices can only be used in an emergency.

This particular operation is also constrained by the fact that Manila is very tight for the aircraft, and so movements have to be prearranged with the local authorities. The upshot is that it has to go late at night, when no others are operating. With limited departure time options, that in turn limits your choices at the other end. Consideration was even given to departing here, and going to some third point (without a time constraint), and waiting out the HK weather. That didn't work, but it was looked at. Most likely plan tonight will have us carrying both holding at HK, as well as a full diversion (and some holding there too). Places we might consider..Angeles City (Clark), or perhaps even Bangkok. The combination of an empty aircraft, and a typhoon, gives us additional options and constraints, as we don't have to consider passenger handling, and we have much more weight available for the carriage of extra fuel.

Legally, an aircraft always has to have fuel to go 'somewhere'. In flight you have to cover both the engine out, and the depressurised cases. So, we're constantly creating 'equal time points' between our various options. A four engined aircraft is much less constrained than a twin (which has some level of EROPs to obey).

 

[jb747]

As for that ferry flight, are you allowed to take friends or family as passengers (either paying or non paying), or is it purely necessary crew only.

Necessary people only. No passengers. It's not operated under the same rules as an RPT or charter flight.

 

[simongr]

You referred to the A380 fleet manager as an A380 pilot - does that mean he actually flies pax or that he is an ex-Pilot? Do any of the pilots of the day to day flights have jobs other than just flying? On that vein do pilots like yourself have other responsibilities than prepare to fly, fly, train, prepare to fly?

I am thinking about comparisons to my role - I run my team and do our work but I also sit on a bunch of business committees and get involved in projects outside of my role.

 

[harvyk]

There was an AF aircraft recently which landed in Damascus, of which AF has no agreements in place and they considered passing the hat around the pax asking for cash to buy more fuel. (I don't know how much journalistic license was used in the news article).

That's got me thinking, if in the case of a diversion where you had no choice but to land at an airport where QF did not have a presence or any agreements with (and in a country which may or may not be overly friendly towards us), does QF have a team you can call to sort problems out, or is as part of the job of cap't do you need to step in and become negotiator / diplomat as well?

 

[dodgeyhack]

HK has extra issues in that wind, which in itself isn't too bad, can funnel through the valleys of Lantau Island, and give local windshear, and even microbursts.

Am I correct in thinking that microburts cause windshear, but they're not the only cause?

Windshear is something you hear a lot about and it also seems like it would be quite a big risk. -30 kts airpspeed in an instant seems like it'd be a big issue to untrained me.
So, I'm curious:

How often do you get hit with windshear and how often is it mild or severe.
What planning do you do to avoid it. I imagine you could increase airspeed to some degree, but this wouldn't be enough to cope with really serious changes in airspeed would it?
And what do you do when you get a windshear warning, and is the continued action dependent on the severity? i.e. if you get a warning, take action and then find the windshear is fairly mild, would you act differently than if it caused a big difference in airspeed?

 

[jb747]

You referred to the A380 fleet manager as an A380 pilot - does that mean he actually flies pax or that he is an ex-Pilot? Do any of the pilots of the day to day flights have jobs other than just flying? On that vein do pilots like yourself have other responsibilities than prepare to fly, fly, train, prepare to fly?

In general, the line pilots only fly (or do duties associated with flying). There are many office jobs that require pilots, and normally they will also fly between a third and half as much as the line guys. In the case of the fleet managers, they are all current captains on whatever fleet they manage (rather a thankless job from my perspective).

The very last thing that I would be interested in is any form of office work.

About the only management pilot who doesn't fly regularly is our current Chief Pilot. He's the first I've seen who doesn't escape from the office into an aircraft. I probably feel sorry for him....

 

[jb747]

There was an AF aircraft recently which landed in Damascus, of which AF has no agreements in place and they considered passing the hat around the pax asking for cash to buy more fuel. (I don't know how much journalistic license was used in the news article).

That's got me thinking, if in the case of a diversion where you had no choice but to land at an airport where QF did not have a presence or any agreements with (and in a country which may or may not be overly friendly towards us), does QF have a team you can call to sort problems out, or is as part of the job of cap't do you need to step in and become negotiator / diplomat as well?

We have a pretty extensive list of diversion airports. The company has made arrangements with somebody at all of these places to give a level of support. In most cases, that will be either another airline, or a support company. The only reason that you should end up in another place is for an emergency that required an immediate landing, and in that case you're expected to be proactive, and sort out whatever you can. The advent of both satellite comms on the aircraft, and mobile phones has changed the support picture quite a lot too. Nothing quite like dragging your boss out of bed at 2am.

Many years ago, a captain chartered a 747 to carry his passengers on to their destination.

 

[simongr]

In general, the line pilots only fly (or do duties associated with flying). There are many office jobs that require pilots, and normally they will also fly between a third and half as much as the line guys. In the case of the fleet managers, they are all current captains on whatever fleet they manage (rather a thankless job from my perspective).

The very last thing that I would be interested in is any form of office work.

About the only management pilot who doesn't fly regularly is our current Chief Pilot. He's the first I've seen who doesn't escape from the office into an aircraft. I probably feel sorry for him....

Interesting - thanks. I can certainly see how you would feel bad for a pilot that doesn't fly.

On a sort of related topic - do you feel that you need to fly as much as a line pilot does to maintain skills/knowledge/experience?

 

[jb747]

Am I correct in thinking that microburts cause windshear, but they're not the only cause?

Microbursts are a phenomena that was only recently understood. Good description here: Microburst - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

They are very seriously dangerous, and are not to be trifled with.

Windshear is something you hear a lot about and it also seems like it would be quite a big risk. -30 kts airpspeed in an instant seems like it'd be a big issue to untrained me.

It's an extremely big issue. Windshear, in simple terms though, is only a sudden change in the wind. They can lead to speed loss or gain. Mostly they are relatively mild, in the order of 10 to 15 knots. Once they get into the 20s though, they start to become much harder to handle.

How often do you get hit with windshear and how often is it mild or severe.

Operating through mild reported shear is common. If anything, it tends to be over-reported. If it's a gusty day, with the wind around 30 knots, then there's most likely reported shear.

What planning do you do to avoid it. I imagine you could increase airspeed to some degree, but this wouldn't be enough to cope with really serious changes in airspeed would it?

Severe shear, you might consider holding for a while, or even going somewhere else. Not all runways at an airport are necessarily experiencing the same level of shear, so sometimes a different runway might be advantageous. For instance, in the case of Hong Kong, 07R is worse than 07L.

We may elect to use a lower flap setting (3 instead of 4 in the Airbus, and 25 instead of 30 in the 767/747). Remember that the extreme flaps setting is mostly about drag, not extra lift.

We have the option to increase the target IAS by up to 15 knots. The aircraft will itself give an additional dynamic increment over that, as it compares the current winds with the reported (entered by us) landing wind.

And what do you do when you get a windshear warning, and is the continued action dependent on the severity? i.e. if you get a warning, take action and then find the windshear is fairly mild, would you act differently than if it caused a big difference in airspeed?

We can get a couple of different warnings. One, predictive windshear, is telling us that it thinks there is shear ahead, but we aren't actually in it yet. The response to that is to go around. It's based upon radar returns/doppler. The other warning is generated by the Prims (the primary flight control computers). They're actually looking at the conditions and accelerations of the aircraft. Both of these systems are only active at low levels, so if either go off, getting full power on, and away from the ground is important.

You won't get an aircraft warning from a mild shear. If the warning system goes off, it's almost certainly dangerous.

Whilst I've operated in reported shear many times, I've only ever seen the warnings twice. In both cases, it was NOT associated with reported shear, so it came as a nice surprise. In these cases the warnings came very, very late, as the aircraft arrived at the flare. The first case was the worst (in Sydney rwy 25), with the aircraft established in the flare, and the power at idle. We lost 37 knots in 1.5 seconds. Touch down occurred with the thrust levers firewalled, and power passing through 72%. The landing was solid, but that's 767s anyway. The second even happened onto Melbourne 34. Even though the aircraft was in the flare, the power hadn't been reduced, and a large power input caught the deceleration. Options are very limited at that point, as you really can't rotate to a steeper attitude without running an extreme risk of a heavy tail strike.

 

[jb747]

On a sort of related topic - do you feel that you need to fly as much as a line pilot does to maintain skills/knowledge/experience?

More. It's a real struggle to keep on top of things. The more you do it, the better you remain/get.

 

[dodgeyhack]

Thanks for the detailed reply!
Very interesting, especially your experiences. Can't get that anywhere else.

 

[harvyk]

We may elect to use a lower flap setting (3 instead of 4 in the Airbus, and 25 instead of 30 in the 767/747). Remember that the extreme flaps setting is mostly about drag, not extra lift.

I was under the impression that flap 25 was the standard for landing and 30 was only used if conditions required? Or is 30 used by default and 25 when conditions require it? Or is it like what seems to be most things aviation where by what is used when is actually an impressively complex calculation, and there is no "by default"?

 

[jb747]

I was under the impression that flap 25 was the standard for landing and 30 was only used if conditions required? Or is 30 used by default and 25 when conditions require it? Or is it like what seems to be most things aviation where by what is used when is actually an impressively complex calculation, and there is no "by default"?

30 is standard. 25 is used rarely. 20 can be used in unusual circumstances.

380, take off could be with 1, 2, or 3. Landing with 3 or full. (Usually 2 and full)