Ask The Pilot

[TomVexille]

Re: Hot days and performance

A few 747s (not SPs) have been to Wellington over the years. Whilst it's short, it wouldn't require 'stripping' to get it out. 747s have, on rare occasions, even used 34R/16L in Sydney. It isn't comfortable, but, if you're not going far, these big aircraft have excellent power to weight ratios, and probably outperform the domestic aircraft.

Even the B767?

Or the 757?

Not that we see them that often in Australia.

 

[markis10]

Re: Hot days and performance

Or the 757?

Not that we see them that often in Australia.

We have one on the register that flies daily ??? VH-TCA

 

[TomVexille]

Re: Hot days and performance

We have one on the register that flies daily ??? VH-TCA

Yes. One. As opposed to the hundreds operating in America.

 

[Flashback]

Flying back into LHR on Sunday we were told 25 minutes till landing. An announcement then came over saying ATC gave us a shortcut and we would now be landing in 10 minutes. Is this likely a holding pattern requirement dropped or is there really a shortcut when coming into LHR jb747?

 

[jb747]

Flying back into LHR on Sunday we were told 25 minutes till landing. An announcement then came over saying ATC gave us a shortcut and we would now be landing in 10 minutes. Is this likely a holding pattern requirement dropped or is there really a shortcut when coming into LHR jb747?

On to the 27 runways, the route can be straightened a bit, and you'll save a couple of minutes if the arrival procedure is cancelled, but 15 minutes sounds like the holding was cancelled as well.

 

[Shan Man]

Re: Hot days and performance

UA 747 into WLG a few years ago. I understand it needed to be stripped to get back out!

NZ Flew 777's into WLG from CHC after the earthquakes in 2011. Not sure how full they were but it was for evacuation and relief flights.

 

[por930]

JB,
Do you always operate the A380 on IFR, or use vmc when such conditions allow.
When on approach, do you use the ILS - localiser as a guide to line up with the centre line during the day in vmc, or rely entirely on external visual cues.

 

[harvyk]

Re: Hot days and performance

NZ Flew 777's into WLG from CHC after the earthquakes in 2011. Not sure how full they were but it was for evacuation and relief flights.

This is something which should be moved into another topic, but I thought it was AKL-CHC return, not WLG...
Also my understanding of the UA event was that they needed to offload the pax and cargo, but once empty it was fine to fly out up to AKL... No stripping out of insides required.

 

[jb747]

Re: Hot days and performance

Could a commercial pilot transfer to the military? It seems that a common path is from military to private sector, does it happen the other way around?

As straitman has said, there are plenty of people in the RAAF who started as commercial pilots, but, every pilot in the RAAF has to be a graduate of the Pilots' Course (or an overseas equivalent). And civil training does not count. From what I recall, the pass rate of people with licences wasn't much better than the overall average (i.e. half fail). There is no direct avenue of entry, so if you happen to be a QF A330 pilot, you can't go and fly the RAAF tankers on the weekend....unless you happen to have come from the RAAF originally.

 

[jb747]

Do you always operate the A380 on IFR, or use vmc when such conditions allow.
When on approach, do you use the ILS - localiser as a guide to line up with the centre line during the day in vmc, or rely entirely on external visual cues.

We always file the flight plan IFR. They are the only rules allowed above FL210 anyway. We will do visual approaches, but if there is an approach aid, we always set it up. Basically you use the best that's available to any runway...if that happens to be nothing, then that's what you use.

 

[jb747]

Re: Hot days and performance

Or the 757?

I've got an endorsement for the 757 on my licence, but I think the only time I've ever been on one was as a passenger on the BA shuttle.

Actually the 757 is not included in my comments. Basically it's a short haul aircraft. So, on any run like Melbourne - Sydney, would have a much worse power to weight ratio than would an international 767 (or 747/380) on the same sector.

 

[jb747]

Re: Hot days and performance

JB747, how does the average punter work out if an airline is safe to fly?
take off to landing ratios, previous casualties, age of aircraft, price of ticket, corruption index of government, stability of government and country, ???

That's an interesting question, and one that's not particularly simple to answer. It is clouded by the rubbish printed in the media, and by the marketing used so effectively by some airlines. As a starter, nice champagne, or a pretty girl serving it, is not an indicator of anything.

The media is a terrible (i.e. useless) source of information.

As a starter though, I'm not a fan of airlines that train FOs from scratch, and so have very low hour people in the right hand seat of big airliners (as the operating FO). That's especially an issue in cultures in which speaking up is not the normal thing. Imagine QF32 with a 500 hour FO.

Airlines that are big users of contract pilots also raise a very red flag (the airline has no investment in these pilots). If their entire reason for being is cheap fares...you have to ask what corners are being cut...and there will be many.

One would hope that the take off to landing ratio is 1.

Previous casualties would certainly give you something to think about, but if you look at some incidents, it was purely bad luck that one airline was affected, and not another. In the Malaysian shoot down case, it could just as easily have been any number of others. Singair and Emirates were not far away. Does that make Malaysian any worse than them? Remember that you don't hear about the vast majority of incidents. People have short memories too...just picking on Singapore (for example) they crashed a 747, a Learjet, and a subsidiary crashed a 737. Are they safer than Malaysian?

The public don't normally hear about how an airline responds to an incident, but if part of that response is firing the pilots involved, then I'd tend to avoid them. Almost invariably, there is more to it than a simple pilot error (fatigue, time pressures, etc), and firing the pilots involved is simply scapegoating, and most likely does not address the real cause.

Age of the aircraft has little to do with safety. In fact, new aircraft, especially if new to the operator, can be very dangerous.

Operators that appear from nowhere, and then rapidly expand, are unlikely to have decent management and control systems in place.

Over the years I've watched numerous responses to bad weather. Sometimes you'll see people avoid it and hold, whilst others are known for blundering through. A couple of times I've lined up on the runway, looked at the radar, and decided not to go...and immediately I've vacated someone else has taken off into the same storm I've avoided. Thats the culture of their airline...just go. No matter what.

Actually, I'm pretty much convinced that passengers don't care about safety. They will choose based on price and marketing. Safety only becomes an issue after there is an issue. And I guess even unsafe airlines manage to keep the landing to take off ratio close to 1.

 

[QF029]

Re: Hot days and performance

So presumably you wouldn't list those airlines you wouldn't fly (and the list is no doubt long). Qantas aside, who are you comfortable with? Any LCCs?

 

[Quickstatus]

I think No star trains SO/FO from scratch?

 

[Awesom Andy]

Re: Hot days and performance

People have short memories too...just picking on Singapore (for example) they crashed a 747, a Learjet, and a subsidiary crashed a 737. Are they safer than Malaysian?

If I'm allowed to add to this, there are a lot of incidents with Singapore that are swept under the carpet. In the past few years, they have dropped engine parts in CPH, lost a panel somewhere between SIN and AKL, gave an aerobridge a kiss in SYD, and a few runway excursions to add to the list. None of which were reported in SIN media (or having just a one-liner on page 3254 of the local paper) so nobody here ever knew about them happening.

 

[Flashback]

On to the 27 runways, the route can be straightened a bit, and you'll save a couple of minutes if the arrival procedure is cancelled, but 15 minutes sounds like the holding was cancelled as well.

Thanks. Holding being cancelled was what I thought, however the pilots didn't mention we'd be going into a holding pattern when they said 25 minutes till landing. A few days earlier flying into LHR they did - just difference in pilot I guess

 

[Captain Halliday]

Hi job, what factors do you consider when deciding to offload a PAX bag? How long do you wait after STD? And are offloads less common on International sectors than Dom given passport controls and extra cost of ticket?

I ask because I'm sitting in DRW departures and heard several final calls for QF825. Ground staff then walkes around asking if anyone was travelling to BNE and ~10 mins after scheduled departure ground crew offloaded one bag. 825 eventually pushed back 15min late.

 

[TomVexille]

Re: Hot days and performance

I've got an endorsement for the 757 on my licence, but I think the only time I've ever been on one was as a passenger on the BA shuttle.

Actually the 757 is not included in my comments. Basically it's a short haul aircraft. So, on any run like Melbourne - Sydney, would have a much worse power to weight ratio than would an international 767 (or 747/380) on the same sector.

Is that because for such a short sector the tanks would be empty? I ask because when I calculate power to weight ratios for both the operating empty weight and the MTOW the figures between the 757 and 767 are very similar. In some cases the 757 comes out ahead.

 

[Boris spatsky]

Re: Hot days and performance

As straitman has said, there are plenty of people in the RAAF who started as commercial pilots, but, every pilot in the RAAF has to be a graduate of the Pilots' Course (or an overseas equivalent). And civil training does not count. From what I recall, the pass rate of people with licences wasn't much better than the overall average (i.e. half fail). There is no direct avenue of entry, so if you happen to be a QF A330 pilot, you can't go and fly the RAAF tankers on the weekend....unless you happen to have come from the RAAF originally.

To add to what JB said, we had a guy on our pilots' course who had 2500 hours in the commercial world with multi-engine command instrument rating and was flying IFR every day. He was scrubbed (failed) at basic Instrument Test (which is the first instrument test you do in simulated instrument conditions). The military fly a very specific way, and apparently he could just not get forget the habits he had learnt in the civil world. He then went on to become a Second Officer on B744 of a major overseas airline (and I have not heard of his progress since). Even if you have previous experience, you start on the course at flight 1 and do not get any recognition of previous experience or learning, for very good reason.

I had zero hours flying going onto the course and I actually think it was a blessing in disguise as I didn't know any differently and had no established habits.

 

[Boris spatsky]

We always file the flight plan IFR. They are the only rules allowed above FL210 anyway. We will do visual approaches, but if there is an approach aid, we always set it up. Basically you use the best that's available to any runway...if that happens to be nothing, then that's what you use.

Likewise - our company policy is that even on a visual approach, if there is an ILS, then you are to tune it up and use the lateral and vertical guidance for the approach. Nevertheless, most RPT aircraft can fly to runways without any slope guidance for visual approaches in the short haul world which are not uncommon in remote areas (no ILS, no PAPI/VASIS lighting system) but this requires dispensation from CASA after a risk assessment and assessment of other factors (crew qualifications, recency, aircraft avionics/FMS capability etc).