Ask The Pilot

[jb747]

Hi JB - as always loving this thread and awed by your time commitment to keep it going (and not lose patience with all our questions!)

Your questions are interesting. And, as you've seen, I often don't know the answer....

Are you now a "Manila expert"

I'm not sure that it wasn't originally a joke on the part of my boss.

you seem (given the number of aircraft in the fleet to be refitted vs number of captains) to have had a few trips to MNL transferring the 380 for refitting.

Trips that are out of the ordinary are allocated by the fleet manager as he sees fit. I think he has a couple of 'victims' in each half of the 'rotation' (the bottom 30% seniority-wise of the captains) that he uses.

Do you transit home on a commercial flight or is there an a/c waiting for you to bring back (that's been done already)?

Could be anything. Last time we picked one up and took it to HK, and then flew another back to Manila. Transit out/to Oz was by paxing on normal services.

Did you bid for these or was it allocated on reserve days or the like?

They're offered.

Do you enjoy it being a bit "unusual" in the current rotas? Or is it "just another flight"?

Whilst, in many ways, they're just another flight, it's always good to do something different, or go somewhere out of the ordinary.

Does someone in flight ops have a sense of humour to keep allocating you to MNL flights? ;-)

I haven't screwed one up yet I guess....

 

[Simo]

India I think, though I haven't actually taken much notice of the registration. The actual aircraft makes no difference to us when looking at a flight. I was much more interested in the routing, and the various overflight clearances that are necessary, and which I could conceivably be asked about during the flight. This sort of stuff is handled very capably by our navigation section, but I still need my head around anything that's out of the ordinary. The sector is Frankfurt-Manila.



No idea. I wasn't aware that was the case.

Is it a strange feeling with just a coughpit crew on the flight or do you also have additional staff due to the fact the flight is being taken to maintenance facility.

 

[Simo]

I haven't screwed one up yet I guess....

You would be known in MNL ATC circles

 

[jb747]

Is it a strange feeling with just a coughpit crew on the flight or do you also have additional staff due to the fact the flight is being taken to maintenance facility.

Ferries are a little odd. You have this nagging feeling that you've forgotten something.

Should be just the pilots. There may be one cabin attendant...not just to make the coffee, but to keep an eye on the cabin. Not sure about that yet. Won't be any non essential staff.

 

[jb747]

You would be known in MNL ATC circles

I wouldn't be surprised if even they have not forgotten by now. That particular 15 minutes expired quite a while ago....

 

[chrisb]

Should be just the pilots. There may be one cabin attendant...not just to make the coffee, but to keep an eye on the cabin.

What do they need to keep an eye on in an empty cabin?

 

[Must...Fly!]

My guess would be in case of something like fire or odour sparking up...bit hard to investigate when it's just the flight crew I guess.

Have fun PAXing to Frankfurt jb (or will you just pax LHR-FRA?) - I guess you will get to stay at least a night in Frankfurt?

 

[jb747]

My guess would be in case of something like fire or odour sparking up...bit hard to investigate when it's just the flight crew I guess.

Have fun PAXing to Frankfurt jb (or will you just pax LHR-FRA?) - I guess you will get to stay at least a night in Frankfurt?

Whilst the cabin is empty, a pair of eyes and a nose, are often way better at detecting things going awry than any electronic warning system.

Sadly the fun of paxing expired a very long time ago. I would always prefer to operate the sector....as would most of the guys.

 

[Flying Fox]

Hi JB

Do you watch shows like Air Crash Investigators and do you enjoy them or take any professional interest in them?

Do you think that the show is fairly accurate in what they show or is it 80% Hollywood BS?

Thanks

 

[jb747]

Hi JB

Do you watch shows like Air Crash Investigators and do you enjoy them or take any professional interest in them?

Do you think that the show is fairly accurate in what they show or is it 80% Hollywood BS?

There have been some excellent documentaries about various accidents, but sadly ACI and it's ilk are mostly fluff.

A bar in Narita that has about 100% airline pilot customers runs constant loops of aircraft accidents (mostly military) on its TV system...occasionally relieved by images from Italian TV.

 

[knasty]

I noticed runway 25 at Sydney had a fair bit of use this afternoon, including a 747-400 landing. How comfortable is it to get a -400 down on a 2.5k runway?

 

[jb747]

I noticed runway 25 at Sydney had a fair bit of use this afternoon, including a 747-400 landing. How comfortable is it to get a -400 down on a 2.5k runway?

Depends upon weight and wind. I've landed on 07/25 many times, so it isn't really an issue when dry. Less than about 265-270 tonnes will be fine, but beyond that you'd be better off with the crosswind on the longer runway. Of course, the crosswind limit on a wet runway is only 25 knots, so that option might not be available.

 

[Flying Fox]

After watching Air Crash Investigators I have noticed that there have been problems with aircraft being de-iced and then re-icing again and hence an accident.

So why after aircraft de-iced near the end of the runway just before they take off instead of at the gate?

I'm thinking that there could be a couple of vehicles positioned near the front of the queue for aircraft waiting to take-off, these could de-ice aircraft a few minutes before take-off and hence removed a potential problem.

Thanks

 

[jb747]

After watching Air Crash Investigators I have noticed that there have been problems with aircraft being de-iced and then re-icing again and hence an accident.

So why after aircraft de-iced near the end of the runway just before they take off instead of at the gate?

I'm thinking that there could be a couple of vehicles positioned near the front of the queue for aircraft waiting to take-off, these could de-ice aircraft a few minutes before take-off and hence removed a potential problem.

Your basic idea is quite sound, and is in use in some places, most notably Toronto. There's a bit of discussion here De-Icing. | LiveATC.net

It's basically very time consuming, and can require more than 'a couple of trucks'. Last time I used it, it took 3 vehicles about 45 minutes to clear the 747, and even then we just made the 'hold over' time, using a very close runway. I have my doubts that you'd even be able to finish a 380 within the hold over period (in any reasonable snow fall)...which would mean the job could never be finished.

Just playing with some numbers, but if you had six bays, two doing a moderate sized (330/767) aircraft every 30 minutes, and 4 doing small aircraft (737) every 15, you'd be looking at a throughput of 20 aircraft per hour. That's not bad, but it represents a tiny fraction of the number you'd need to process to keep an airfield working near capacity, and I'm making no allowance for large aircraft. It could take you hours to even get to this sort of facility.

I'm sure it could be done in such a way to take less time, but I doubt that any airport is ever likely to spend that sort of money.

I suspect the accident you're thinking of was the 737 crash in Washington, and sadly that was just wrong on many levels.

 

[dfcatch]

JB - I found in Toronto that even a 737 seemed to take min. 15-20 mins to de-ice and I also noticed that from the de-icing bay it was still a decent timeframe to Rwy. (I didn't note which Rwy), but 3 or 4 occasions I've had this and noticed that it was a much longer trek to the Rwy than at JFK or LGA where they just de-ice on pushback.

 

[jb747]

JB - I found in Toronto that even a 737 seemed to take min. 15-20 mins to de-ice and I also noticed that from the de-icing bay it was still a decent timeframe to Rwy. (I didn't note which Rwy), but 3 or 4 occasions I've had this and noticed that it was a much longer trek to the Rwy than at JFK or LGA where they just de-ice on pushback.

JFK can be a disaster no matter what the weather. I've had a number of days in which it has taken 4 or so hours just to get to the runway...and it wasn't snowing. The heaviest snow that I've ever dealt with was in Frankfurt, and we had the luxury of being just about the only aircraft moving, so from push to take off was about as quick as it could possibly have been.

 

[smeacs]

What makes ice on the ground a diffrent problem to ice in the air, which I thought most aircraft could de ice themselves?

 

[jb747]

What makes ice on the ground a diffrent problem to ice in the air, which I thought most aircraft could de ice themselves?

There is a difference between 'anti ice', and 'de ice'. Most aircraft have anti icing associated with engine intakes and pitot/static probes. There may be a limited amount of deicing capability, normally on the leading edges of wings and tail planes (those black leading edges on the Dash 8 for instance).

Ice removal on the ground is the removal of deposits that can be six or so inches thick across the upper surfaces. NO amount of icing is actually allowed. If present it can have a number of effects, but the most dangerous is that it affects the airflow over the wing surface, and so changes the amount of lift produced at any given speed. Stall speed can be increased.

 

[mjt57]

Sadly the fun of paxing expired a very long time ago. I would always prefer to operate the sector....as would most of the guys.

I can imagine. I am not a particularly good passenger, in cars and particularly on a motorcycle. But at least you can see what's going on.

Seated somewhere behind the wing in the centre row, you can see bugger all of what's happening outside. But at least the 380 has the external cams to give us plebs an idea of what's happening.

But, the prime seating would be the front seat on the left...

 

[oz74]

Hi JB, Myself and SWMBO are traveling on QF 107/108 next year and I was wondering is this flight run by a US crew solely?

I know that an A380 crew can't do a 747 service so got me thinking is this a US based crew?