Ask The Pilot

[jb747]

Are pilots trained to taxi and park in the sims? Is it possible to not gain/lose a license if a pilot fails a parking sim?

Whilst we do taxi the sim, it's not particularly realistic, especially as we don't have the side views that you have in the real aircraft. Mostly we just land and abandon it on the runway.....

Everybody has some idea of how to taxi...they've all got pilot's licences after all. On all of our types, except the 737, both the Captain and FO taxi the aircraft. Only Captains do the parking though, as the guidance is only set up to be used from the left hand seat. For pilots transitioning onto a new type, taxiing is just one more thing that they'll be shown during their line training. The vast majority of the FOs that I fly with all came from another large aircraft, and are pretty much immediately in their element. The only people who need a little guidance are the blokes who came from the 737, as they don't taxi the aircraft at all (no tiller on the right hand side ... don't know why), and even then you really only need to ensure that they keep the turns wide enough that the wing gear on the inside of the turn remains on the black bit. They get the picture pretty quickly.

I guess you could fail it, but I can't imagine how. It's not rocket science.

 

[anat0l]

Coming onto the bay is better as the speed is slower but it is similar. Squeeze too hard as you come to the line and you will jar to a halt. Hence why we leave the belts on until stationary!

I wish the pilots did a few hard brakes at the bay once in a while. Would teach the idiots who stand up way too early to keep buckled in. If it takes a few cracked skulls to be serious about safety, so be it.

Of course, wishing it so and doing it are two different things. Not only is it not in the best interests of the aircraft, but I imagine no one wants to put up with a lawsuit (even frivolous) of some idiot with a cracked skull complaining that the pilot was negligent.

 

[Flyboy78]

Braking smoothly is a challenge, especially during landing. The brakes on narrow bodies that i have flown tend to bite - so you squeeze the pedals, and keep gently squeezing until they start to take. Squeeze too fast and they suddenly take too much (very uncomfortable) and squeeze too slow and you will miss the rapid exit that you are meant to take off the runway (if no autobrake fitted). Car brakes tend to have good feel; airliner brakes don't!

Coming onto the bay is better as the speed is slower but it is similar. Squeeze too hard as you come to the line and you will jar to a halt. Hence why we leave the belts on until stationary!

The compounding factor with brakes is that they all have different amounts of pad left. We can tell from inspecting the brakes. We find that the newer brakes take earlier, so you can get one side taking before the other side during landing which causes asymmetric braking.

Thanks Boris. Interesting that one side may bite harder than than either if different stages of wear. Does the autobrake system even this out if it's used?

 

[Boris spatsky]

Thanks Boris. Interesting that one side may bite harder than than either if different stages of wear. Does the autobrake system even this out if it's used?

Yes it does a pretty good job, although we then manually override the autobrake after it has done it's job. That is another minefield if you get it wrong...

 

[harvyk]

A question about the BA LAS incident, in the guardian it was reported that one of the pilots said to ATC "Speedbird Mayday Mayday. Speedbird 2276 request fire services". I was under the impression that in the USA the wording is supposed to be "declaring an emergency" rather than "Mayday".

Would it be a case of pilots defaulting to what they have been normally trained to say, or is "Mayday" and / or "declaring an emergency" able to be used interchangeably, or does it not matter as both phrases are understood?

 

[jb747]

A question about the BA LAS incident, in the guardian it was reported that one of the pilots said to ATC "Speedbird Mayday Mayday. Speedbird 2276 request fire services". I was under the impression that in the USA the wording is supposed to be "declaring an emergency" rather than "Mayday".

Would it be a case of pilots defaulting to what they have been normally trained to say, or is "Mayday" and / or "declaring an emergency" able to be used interchangeably, or does it not matter as both phrases are understood?

If you have a look on the dedicated thread, I loaded a reference to the sound clip. Anyway, he did say Mayday...which certainly seems like the right call. The Americans understand that perfectly. The one they don't get is PAN.

 

[harvyk]

If you have a look on the dedicated thread, I loaded a reference to the sound clip. Anyway, he did say Mayday...which certainly seems like the right call. The Americans understand that perfectly. The one they don't get is PAN.

Ah, just heard it, yes he certainly did sound pretty calm and collected.

 

[jb747]

Here's a funny coincidence.

I was just talking to a neighbour about this Las Vegas event. In the discussion it came up that he was a passenger on United 811...the 747 that had the cargo door come open out of Honolulu. As far as I know, there have only been two similar hull breach incidents on the 747. What are the odds of one person from each ending up next door to each other? Still can't win Lotto though.

 

[docjames]

Here's a funny coincidence.

I was just talking to a neighbour about this Las Vegas event. In the discussion it came up that he was a passenger on United 811...the 747 that had the cargo door come open out of Honolulu. As far as I know, there have only been two similar hull breach incidents on the 747. What are the odds of one person from each ending up next door to each other? Still can't win Lotto though.

Interesting.

My father was booked on UA811 and changed flights after he arrived into LAX from JFK and got onto the direct service to SYD as he had made into LAX (just) in time for the earlier flight. His seat selection on 811 was right hand side business class main deck.......

He didn't change flights off QF30 (!) but he did fly out of NYC on Sept 10 2001 (changing from scheduled flight Sept 11.......)

 

[Captain Halliday]

What is the definition of a hard landing? Or more specifically, what factors/parameters determine that it needs to be reported, either to the company, or to a boffin at ATSB etc?

The landing on my flight today went thud like nothing I've ever felt and I wasn't even sitting over the main gear. As a humble pax I have no idea the cause. We seemed to have a light cross breeze - so that's my best uneducated guess. Could the pilots suggest the most common causes on heavy or hard landings please?

 

[jb747]

What is the definition of a hard landing? Or more specifically, what factors/parameters determine that it needs to be reported, either to the company, or to a boffin at ATSB etc?

The landing on my flight today went thud like nothing I've ever felt and I wasn't even sitting over the main gear. As a humble pax I have no idea the cause. We seemed to have a light cross breeze - so that's my best uneducated guess. Could the pilots suggest the most common causes on heavy or hard landings please?

The actual definition will vary across aircraft types. Most landings, even 767 ones, were about 1.1g. The recorders did not 'report' anything less than 1.4g, and even then it was only for information. An actual heavy landing had to exceed 1.8g. That's extremely solid. If it felt unusually solid (and if you were an ex A4, 767 pilot, then that had to be really bad), you'd write it up in the tech log, making the aircraft u/s. The engineers would then access the g recorders, and as long as they were below the nominated number, nothing else was required. If it exceeded it, then there were mandated checks, depending upon the severity of the load.

A passengers version of heavy, and a pilot's, are generally very different.

Historically, most reported 'heavy landings' turn out not to be.

Reasons? Lots. Wind conditions. Misjudgement. Having a sleep in the flare. Windshear (which gave me my heaviest). Poor visual segment. Unstable approach.

 

[straitman]

What is the definition of a hard landing? Or more specifically, what factors/parameters determine that it needs to be reported, either to the company, or to a boffin at ATSB etc?

The landing on my flight today went thud like nothing I've ever felt and I wasn't even sitting over the main gear. As a humble pax I have no idea the cause. We seemed to have a light cross breeze - so that's my best uneducated guess. Could the pilots suggest the most common causes on heavy or hard landings please?

jb747 will probably remember from his military instruction days that the definition of a heavy landing in a CT-4 was when there was a rubber mark from the main wheels on the underside of the wing.

It was literally impossible to break the main undercarriage of a CT-4 though many students tried.

 

[jb747]

jb747 will probably remember from his military instruction days that the definition of a heavy landing in a CT-4 was when there was a rubber mark from the main wheels on the underside of the wing.

It was literally impossible to break the main undercarriage of a CT-4 though many students tried.

Some landings felt harder than the A4, and we didn't flare at all in that aircraft.

 

[Boris spatsky]

It was literally impossible to break the main undercarriage of a CT-4 though many students tried.

I gave it a good shot in the final CT-4 test during a glide approach

 

[jb747]

I had one student who had cottoned on to me moving my hand from the coaming to nearer the stick at flare height, and he was unconsciously using that as a flare cue. Gave me a beauty when I realised, and just left my hand up there.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Not specifically related to the LAS incident but my curiosity was triggered by it:
What happens after a critical incident like this in terms of the flight crew ?
I presume that they pax home when able to.
Do the airlines run a formal de-brief with them and is there a tailored return to work schedule or is it business as usual on the next rostered shift ?

 

[defurax]

Hi JB,
I'm at LHR watching planes takeoff from runway 09R and every plane began their takeoff roll at the start of the runway including a Qatar Airways 380, but the only aircraft entering the runway from another entry point was a Etihad 380. Is it common for 380s not to start takeoff roll with maximum runway length available?

According to Google map I guess it's about 200m shorter.

 

[jb747]

Not specifically related to the LAS incident but my curiosity was triggered by it:
What happens after a critical incident like this in terms of the flight crew ?
I presume that they pax home when able to.
Do the airlines run a formal de-brief with them and is there a tailored return to work schedule or is it business as usual on the next rostered shift ?

The last time BA had this sort of event (777 double engine failure at Heathrow), they apparently handled it very badly. Stupid things like having a press conference the next day, with visibly shaken pilots standing in the back ground, as their CEO waffled on. Much more, especially with regard to the Captain. So, one can only hope that they have learnt.

Looking at my incident....we were all (pilots and cabin crew) passengered home, within 24 hours (and most were on the way with the passengers inside 12 hours). The company refused any requests from the media for direct access to us. Everyone was told to go on leave (which wasn't counted) until they felt like coming back. Debriefs were needed, but they were scheduled to minimise the disruptions, with any needed transport provided. There were debriefs (on various levels of formality) with the ATSB, safety department, emergency procedures trainers, flight management...all needed to be done as soon as possible, but it was handled very well.

Before coming back to work the pilots all did a sim, but it was very low key, and really just to ensure you head wasn't still spinning. An even like this can be quite distressing, but it really doesn't hit you until a few days later. There was lots of support offered, covering pretty much everything you might imagine. Overall, they did an excellent job, and when I stuck my nose into the fringes of QF32, I found that they'd taken on board the few lessons, and had it even more refined.

 

[jb747]

I'm at LHR watching planes takeoff from runway 09R and every plane began their takeoff roll at the start of the runway including a Qatar Airways 380, but the only aircraft entering the runway from another entry point was a Etihad 380. Is it common for 380s not to start takeoff roll with maximum runway length available?

According to Google map I guess it's about 200m shorter.

He's not going very far (for a 380), so his weight would be relatively low. There are a number of taxiways that are allowed for takeoff from London, and they are used by ATC to help the flow.

 

[eric2011]

If you have a look on the dedicated thread, I loaded a reference to the sound clip. Anyway, he did say Mayday...which certainly seems like the right call. The Americans understand that perfectly. The one they don't get is PAN.

Is Pan or PanPan used in aviation often. I always thought it was an nautical call sign which we used at sea