Ask The Pilot

[Quickstatus]

So many knobs, buttons, levers how do the flightdeck ever get cleaned?

 

[jb747]

Simulator. I did one in Sydney a couple of weeks ago, but the second had to be cancelled because of some sim issues. Caught up with it yesterday.

Quite a straightforward exercise, with a strong focus on training.

Mostly based on Amsterdam, but with the final part at Sydney.

Starts off with the aircraft at about FL200. Turn off all of the screens one at at time. Watch the system move the important stuff to functioning screens. When back at nothing, have a bit of a fly around using the standby attitude indicator.

Back on to the ground. FO takes off from Amsterdam. Abort at very low speed after a "windshear ahead' warning. Next take off is normal, and he flies a SID, then radar vectors to join the VOR approach for 36C. ATC calls for a go around at about 400 feet. Repositioned back to 1,000 ft or so to fly the landing.

Next I take off and fly the same SID and approach. This time we land off it.

Low vis. Fog with vis at about 125 metres. Take off. Engine failure at just below V1. Abort.

Do it again. Engine fails this time just above V1. Continue. Airborne look at restarting it. Diversion options, etc. Magically fixes itself. Weather, vis reduces to 75 metres. Fly CAT III ILS approach. Localiser issue at about 900', go around. Come back and fly it again, all works nicely with automatic landing.

Another take off. This time FO incapacitated just after the 100 knot call. Airborne he holds side stick in. Use the system to lock him out of the controls. Back to life. Land off visual approach without vertical guidance.

Break.

Jump to Sydney. This time we do a number of take offs at various weights with an engine failure somewhere after V1. We're looking at what happens if you leave the power as it is (which may be a large derate), or apply TO/GA. Depending upon where it's done, it can destabilise the aircraft, or cause vertical mode changes. With maximum derate it climbs away at about 600 fpm, with an engine out.

PRM approach. This is a system used to keep you away from an aircraft who isn't staying on his correct final approach at a place with narrow spaced runways (i.e. Sydney), but which has simultaneous approaches in progress. The FAA mandated a quite poor procedure for this, and it needs to be practiced as it isn't intuitive. Currently banned in Sydney, but still in use in some places overseas.

Almost forgot...my old favourite, a depressurisation in the cruise.

 

[jb747]

So many knobs, buttons, levers how do the flightdeck ever get cleaned?

It's not unheard of for us to get a couple of cloths and clean away. The cleaners keep well away from it all.

 

[Quickstatus]

Another take off. This time FO incapacitated just after the 100 knot call. Airborne he holds side stick in. Use the system to lock him out of the controls. Back to life. Land off visual approach without vertical guidance.


PRM approach. This is a system used to keep you away from an aircraft who isn't staying on his correct final approach at a place with narrow spaced runways (i.e. Sydney), but which has simultaneous approaches in progress. The FAA mandated a quite poor procedure for this, and it needs to be practiced as it isn't intuitive. Currently banned in Sydney, but still in use in some places overseas.

Almost forgot...my old favourite, a depressurisation in the cruise.

Would the lock out have been available to the crew on other Airbuses such as AF477 and QZ8501?

At SYD, How far further apart does 34/16L/R need to be to allow simultaneous approaches as a "normal" operation.

When there is a depressurisation does the air in the cabin /flightdeck get misty?

 

[mjt57]

For anyone travelling over the next week, I'm flying...

MEL-DXB QF9 1/6
DXB-LHR QF1 4/6

Is that a 3 day or 2 day break or slip? If so, is there anything to do, or do you catch up on sleep?

 

[jb747]

Is that a 3 day or 2 day break or slip? If so, is there anything to do, or do you catch up on sleep?

It's about 40 hours. You arrive in the morning, and leave the following night (very early am). Basically sleep. Body clock is totally messed up on these trips.

 

[jb747]

Would the lock out have been available to the crew on other Airbuses such as AF477 and QZ8501?

The way it works is that whoever presses the switch last gets priority. If you hold it down for 30 seconds the other stick is locked out, but only if he doesn't press his own priority button. I don't know what happen in QZ, but apparently the bloke who had no idea was using the priority button on AF. Works for someone who is incapacitated, but not for an idiot.

At SYD, How far further apart does 34/16L/R need to be to allow simultaneous approaches as a "normal" operation.

I think it needs to be over a km...but don't hold me to it.

When there is a depressurisation does the air in the cabin /flightdeck get misty?

In QF30 it didn't mist up in the cabin or coughpit.

 

[Quickstatus]

Re aircraft steering nosewheel steering - at one stage this one had NLG at 90 deg to the direction of travel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIxML27c_q8

You mentioned this aircraft has a nosewheel tiller. The steering of the NLG is not via the sidestick?. Does the steering of the nosewheel also steer the main landing gear in the opposite direction under certain conditions to reduce the turning radius?

 

[jb747]

Re aircraft steering nosewheel steering - at one stage this one had NLG at 90 deg to the direction of travel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIxML27c_q8

That was a bit of an 'own goal'. The engines are quite prone to asymmetric acceleration, and for that reason, you need to push to levers up to about 25-30%, and then hesitate until they are all matched, before pushing the levers to FLEX or TO/GA. But, even at that 30% power level, there is a lot of thrust. So, if you've used the outboard engines to help turn onto the runway, those engines have a habit of accelerating way quicker than the others. In this instance the asymmetric power is trying to turn the aircraft, the NG is trying to stop that.

You mentioned this aircraft has a nosewheel tiller. The steering of the NLG is not via the sidestick?.

No. It has its own control. The NG steering can be turned to 70º with the tiller, and about 7º via the rudder pedals.

Does the steering of the nosewheel also steer the main landing gear in the opposite direction under certain conditions to reduce the turning radius?

Not on the 380. The aft gear on the triple set moves a bit to alleviate the tyre scrubbing, but that's all. The 747 had real body gear steering, that was driven in the opposite direction to the nose gear (only at taxi speeds).

 

[casanovawa]

You said you practiced the other pilot becoming incapacitated, has something like that ever occurred to you in a flight?

I guess it could be pretty rare and flying an A380 I'm guessing because of length of flights that there will usually be at least one other pilot on board that could come up and replace an incapcitated co-pilot, maybe not so much with 767 routes or some short 747 routes of days gone by?

 

[Boris spatsky]

You said you practiced the other pilot becoming incapacitated, has something like that ever occurred to you in a flight?

I guess it could be pretty rare and flying an A380 I'm guessing because of length of flights that there will usually be at least one other pilot on board that could come up and replace an incapcitated co-pilot, maybe not so much with 767 routes or some short 747 routes of days gone by?

We practice it once a year in the sim. I have only ever had it once when the captain had a bout of bad gastro mid flight (he ended up being taken to hospital). I was the third pilot that day in the jumpseat so took over command in flight and continued. Lots of paperwork though...

 

[ferrit]

Hi,

Sorry if this question as been asked before but I could not find an answer. Do Qantas pilots undergo more training than say Jetstar or Tiger pilots ?

Cheers,

 

[jb747]

Sorry if this question as been asked before but I could not find an answer. Do Qantas pilots undergo more training than say Jetstar or Tiger pilots ?

Such a simple sounding question....

As I don't have access to their training syllabus and systems, it's not something that I can really answer. Anecdotally, QF promotional training is longer than most (approx 6 months to go from FO to Captain, with a substantial failure rate). Also QF don't have low hour, or direct entry, FOs, so I'd expect that there's generally a lot more hours in the coughpit.

Recurrent training programs (annual sims, etc) are controlled by CASA, and are probably similar.

 

[RooFlyer]

Regarding pilot incapacitation in-flight. At what stage of a pilot 'feeling unwell' is it required to be reported back to base, for medical assessment? Not only for the welfare of the pilot, but also to assess if it may be a communicable thing (gastro) with the potential to affect the other pilot(s)? Does the affected pilot first self assess when they are too unwell to fly, or is it a more standardised procedure?

Have there been cases, to the pilots knowledge, where a plane has had to be landed early because of multiple pilot illness?

 

[jb747]

Regarding pilot incapacitation in-flight. At what stage of a pilot 'feeling unwell' is it required to be reported back to base, for medical assessment? Not only for the welfare of the pilot, but also to assess if it may be a communicable thing (gastro) with the potential to affect the other pilot(s)? Does the affected pilot first self assess when they are too unwell to fly, or is it a more standardised procedure?

You decide first up. Then they'd get Medlink involved to work out where to go from there. The company will always be involved if it's downline.

What we practice in the sim is the worst case sudden onset. Anything slow, I'll just get him out of any operating seat, and do without (if we don't have a relief pilot).

Have there been cases, to the pilots knowledge, where a plane has had to be landed early because of multiple pilot illness?

Not that I know of. Only one I've been involved with happened back when I was an SO on the Classic. F/E became unwell, and I replaced him on the panel for the rest of the flight.

Much worse than the bloke who just drops dead is the bloke who has a big brain fart and gives the wrong response to a request...for instance 'flaps up' when you ask for 'gear up'. We recently had a look at just that in the sim, and it was quite amazing watching the aircraft try to protect itself.

 

[Milefest]

Freaknomics did an podcast on air travel recently with a commercial pilot answering a variety of questions about flying.

For those who frequent this thread, I think you'd find it interesting: Why Does Everyone Hate Flying? And Other Questions Only a Pilot Can Answer - Freakonomics Freakonomics

 

[jb747]

Patrick is quite well known (in the USA), and talks sense.

 

[anat0l]

QF promotional training is longer than most (approx 6 months to go from FO to Captain, with a substantial failure rate).

Why is there such a high failure rate?

Is it that the demands of the promotional training are onerous enough that it really segments the potential population that much, or is it more an artificially set (moving) high bar in order to regulate the number of pilots who are allowed to progress through promotions?

 

[jb747]

Why is there such a high failure rate?

It's not necessarily high...it's just substantial. To a degree it's been reduced in recent years, simply by not allowing some people to attempt it. So, an early, rather than later, cull. On the other hand, there was a time when two consecutive courses on the 767 had 100% failure rates. With no change other than the students, the next two had 100% passes. The difference most likely came down to the experience and background (and perhaps motivation) of the second group.

Is it that the demands of the promotional training are onerous enough that it really segments the potential population that much, or is it more an artificially set (moving) high bar in order to regulate the number of pilots who are allowed to progress through promotions?

The standard is the standard. I haven't seen it moved in the time I've been in the company. You make the cut, or you don't. The bar is not moved for any artificial reasons. If they want to control numbers, they just don't run the course. If you pass the course, but subsequently let things slip, they have no compunction about demoting people.

I came from the military. Historically the RAAF course has a 50% failure rate. Again, they don't adjust that. If all were to pass, they'd simply recruit fewer the next time around. I'm actually amused when I hear about various training organisations that claim wonderful pass rates (this in particular applies to the cadet training schemes). If you lower the bar enough, or allow sufficient attempts, everyone will get through...but that doesn't really strike me as a desirable outcome.

 

[TomVexille]

If you lower the bar enough, or allow sufficient attempts, everyone will get through...but that doesn't really strike me as a desirable outcome.

Sounds like the course I'm in at the at the moment

(non aviation related)