Ask The Pilot

[petercr]

A landing in Manila.

Maintenance ferry flight?

 

[bryanjones]

How can you see the front wheels? They're under the aircraft, and the camera that is fed to the cabin is only looking top down. There is a second camera, under the fuselage, which specifically looks at the front gear, but that is only fed to the coughpit.

You certainly aim for the centre of the aircraft to be right on the centreline, but not necessarily the front gear. You offset it upwind in any crosswind. Most touchdowns, in calm conditions, would be within about a metre of the centreline. It's not an aircraft to go chasing the c/l in though, too big, and any bank near the ground isn't desirable.

Autoland isn't necessarily all that accurate tracking-wise. I'd give it the same metre or so on most landings, but sometimes it does rather worse (as do we).

sorry i should have stated that it was a cx 777, so assume that they have different camera system.

 

[mrdctau]

It seems like quite a waste of fuel and resources to position an A380 to Manila without any passengers and/or freight. I would assume the maintenance work in Manila is scheduled well in advance and with Hong Kong just up the road I would've thought QF could move the equipment around with actual fare-paying passengers or freight in many circumstances.

 

[jb747]

JB: How many tech crew will be required for a SYD-DFW-SYD A380 service ?

It will be a 4 pilot crew...Captain, FO, 2 SOs.

Also interested to know on say a transpacific flight when half the fuel is consumed?

Looking at a QF2 plan, and half of the planned burn happens by 43% distance. Transpacific would be pretty similar.

 

[jb747]

It seems like quite a waste of fuel and resources to position an A380 to Manila without any passengers and/or freight. I would assume the maintenance work in Manila is scheduled well in advance and with Hong Kong just up the road I would've thought QF could move the equipment around with actual fare-paying passengers or freight in many circumstances.

That's exactly what they'll try to do. I've done a number of these deliveries, in which the empty part is only between Manila and HK. But, other factors often come into play. We can't carry passengers or freight on the aircraft to Manila...the airport is not suitable for 380 ops except in very limited circumstances. Timing often precludes delivery via HK. Allowed arrival and departure times from Manila are very restricted; basically you have to be the last aircraft movement of the day (either in or out).

 

[Quickstatus]

JB did the 747 classics have water cooling of engines. If so how much boost to thrust did it provide? Do you remember how much water it used?

 

[jb747]

JB did the 747 classics have water cooling of engines. If so how much boost to thrust did it provide? Do you remember how much water it used?

The P&W 747-200s had water injection, although it was ultimately removed. If I recall correctly there was 5 tonnes of water, which would be used by about 3,000 feet.

It wasn't really for engine cooling. It was used to increase the mass flow of the engine. More mass through the front end, more fuel, and actually a lot more temperature. As force=mass x acceleration, if we increase the mass, and give it the same (or more) acceleration, the result is more thrust.

The system was complex to plan for too. Loss of one or two water injection systems had to be considered in the take off calculations (which were being done well before the days of laptops or iPads).

Again this is a long time in the past, but I think it was worth about 5,000 lbs of thrust per engine.

 

[markis10]

That's exactly what they'll try to do. I've done a number of these deliveries, in which the empty part is only between Manila and HK. But, other factors often come into play. We can't carry passengers or freight on the aircraft to Manila...the airport is not suitable for 380 ops except in very limited circumstances. Timing often precludes delivery via HK. Allowed arrival and departure times from Manila are very restricted; basically you have to be the last aircraft movement of the day (either in or out).

Makes you wonder why Manila was chosen, I suspect labor has something to do with it.

 

[jb747]

Makes you wonder why Manila was chosen, I suspect labor has something to do with it.

That's where Lufthansa have their facility. It is perfectly acceptable for the 380 for limited use.....it just isn't an airfield to take passengers to in one.

 

[Himeno]

That's where Lufthansa have their facility. It is perfectly acceptable for the 380 for limited use.....it just isn't an airfield to take passengers to in one.

The first few A380 checks were done by Lufthansa at FRA. Any reason they moved to MNL?

Are there any airports where you used to fly to, but now don't, either due to changing aircraft or because QF pulled out, that you'd like to fly back to?

 

[Quickstatus]

JB thx for answering all our questions...

When in the US I noticed some aircraft with two engines mounted to the rear fuselage ( might be CRJ or similar ?MD)
Anyway the engines are mounted so the direction of thrust is slight up by a few degrees but noticeable. As it is mounted on the rear does this have the tendency to push the nose of the aircraft down?

 

[jb747]

The first few A380 checks were done by Lufthansa at FRA. Any reason they moved to MNL?

I don't think the facility was ready.

Are there any airports where you used to fly to, but now don't, either due to changing aircraft or because QF pulled out, that you'd like to fly back to?

I always enjoyed Vancouver. Canada is a lovely place. But the reality is that I'm not in it for the slips. They're just waits between flights. I don't really care all that much where I go to...the flights I look forward to are the interesting ones...but not necessarily interesting destinations. The old HK (Kai Tak) made HK worth going to...I rarely go there now. London is great in it's own right, and the flight was generally interesting too. NYC is great. Auckland and Christchurch were always enjoyable. The 767 flying around the mid '90s was very interesting. Varied.

 

[petercr]

On that subject, are you looking into the SYD-DFW flights at all?

 

[Skyhigh777]

JB, do you think you'll ever be taking an A380 to JFK or Toronto one day?

Hopefully that's not too much of a company question.

 

[Welsh-Kiwi]

JB - on the DFW-SYD flight, which is approx 16hrs, how much rest time during the flight can you expect to have if you fly this route?

 

[Boris spatsky]

JB thx for answering all our questions...

When in the US I noticed some aircraft with two engines mounted to the rear fuselage ( might be CRJ or similar ?MD)
Anyway the engines are mounted so the direction of thrust is slight up by a few degrees but noticeable. As it is mounted on the rear does this have the tendency to push the nose of the aircraft down?

The MD-80 family aircraft engine intakes are tilted up to align with the local airflow to maximise efficiency. This was negated on later models with higher bypass ratio engines and larger nacelles.

The specific behaviour of those aircraft with power changes depends on a number of variables. On some, there is no noticeable pitch change, whilst on others, there is. The thrust line is fairly central anyway so the effect is not as noticeable as thrust increase vs pitching tendency on an underslung model such as the 737.

 

[jb747]

JB, do you think you'll ever be taking an A380 to JFK or Toronto one day?

Hopefully that's not too much of a company question.

Quite honestly I think that JFK is a stupid place to take the A380. It's extremely tight, even in a 747.

And to answer your question...no.

 

[jb747]

On that subject, are you looking into the SYD-DFW flights at all?

If one appears on my roster, I'll read the briefing sheet. I expect that it will appear as a sim at some point. A quick look at the charts doesn't show it to be anything out of the ordinary.

 

[jb747]

The MD-80 family aircraft engine intakes are tilted up to align with the local airflow to maximise efficiency. This was negated on later models with higher bypass ratio engines and larger nacelles.

The specific behaviour of those aircraft with power changes depends on a number of variables. On some, there is no noticeable pitch change, whilst on others, there is. The thrust line is fairly central anyway so the effect is not as noticeable as thrust increase vs pitching tendency on an underslung model such as the 737.

On that subject, the pitch couple on a 767 is something to behold. Any slight power adjustment requires a solid pitch change...so those arrivals in gusty conditions have both the thrust levers and the yoke being pushed and pulled continuously...in opposite directions.

All aircraft have some pitch response to power changes, but some are much more pronounced than others.

 

[jb747]

JB - on the DFW-SYD flight, which is approx 16hrs, how much rest time during the flight can you expect to have if you fly this route?

The actual duty time will be 17:30 with a 16 hour flight. So, remove that 1:30 of pre and post flight, take 2 hours off the flight time and that will leave about 14 hours of cruise. Four man crew, so split that in half....so 7 hours off out of the 17:30.