Ask The Pilot

[747sp]

I was taking off at melbourne and on the cross runway when another plane was landing. The landing plane was a long way away. Would both crews have an awareness of each other only and does atc advise both planes?

 

[Captain Halliday]

Are there particular cities, in Australia or overseas, where contrails are predominant?

DRW gets a few. Usually flights from SYD & BNE to SE Asia, and occasionally some ex. MEL and AKL, weather dependant.*

*not a pilot so apologies for breach of thread rules, but I hope this is at least a mildly valuable contribution.

 

[jb747]

Just to be pedantic it was a 789

Also not being pedantic...but it was a 787-922.

 

[jb747]

I was taking off at melbourne and on the cross runway when another plane was landing. The landing plane was a long way away. Would both crews have an awareness of each other only and does atc advise both planes?

The aircraft taking off wouldn't necessarily have any knowledge of the landing traffic. The landing aircraft may be told, but he's not going to be watching out for that traffic, and may not be able to see it at all. ATC's job....

 

[wingtip626]

The aircraft taking off wouldn't necessarily have any knowledge of the landing traffic. The landing aircraft may be told, but he's not going to be watching out for that traffic, and may not be able to see it at all. ATC's job....

Would the air traffic appear on the plane's radar display? Or is that purely for weather?

 

[Foreigner]

The sky in London is often full of contrails. There are very large numbers of aircraft overflying to and from Europe. In Oz, there are very few overflights, so you don't see that many.

Thanks. I remember Las Vegas had numerous at one time or another.

 

[TomVexille]

Also not being pedantic...but it was a 787-900.

To be really pedantic, there's no such thing. Boeing named the 787s -8/-9/-10. So the aircraft in question is a 787-9. AKA 789

 

[jb747]

Would the air traffic appear on the plane's radar display? Or is that purely for weather?

The radar rarely shows other aircraft. TCAS is overlaid on the radar/nav display.

 

[jb747]

To be really pedantic, there's no such thing. Boeing named the 787s -8/-9/-10. So the aircraft in question is a 787-9. AKA 789

I was just looking at the Boeing and United web pages, and found reference to both naming conventions, but the shorter one seems to be the one everyone is using. 22 is the United customer number, so when added you'd still end up with 922. Unless that wheel has been reinvented too.

Looking around a bit further, and it would seem that the customer numbers aren't being used as they were previously, so -9 would seem to be the final designator. United do refer to them as -800s and -900s on some of their pages. The customer number was previously added to the model, so that at 747-400 built for QF would actually be a 747-438.

 

[serfty]

FWIW, one of our members was on the UA 789-922. UA put them onto QF7 ... as a WP that suited them nicely ...

 

[jb747]

JB, today a UAL flight B777 had to return to SYD. Apparently one of its engines swallowed a bird.

Must've been a flock of pelicans, given how large those engines are.

We're relying on the media and of course, the eye witness reports from the pax themselves, so who knows what really happened?

It could well have been multiple birds.

But let's assume that whatever it ingested that it caused a compressor surge and a resultant flame out. I'm guessing that as it's what you guys might call an ETOPS flight that they played it safe and returned to Sydney to get the engine checked out.

I doubt that the engine flamed out, or for that matter, even compressor stalled. A change in the engine note, or an increase in the vibration level would get your attention. I don't think the 787 uses bleed air, so you'd not be able to rely on that burnt chicken smell.

It's a big ocean...you don't set out over it with any doubt about the machinery.

Which brings me to my question of the day: how many such events, not necessarily involving FOD, have you experienced? How do modern jet engines handle compressor surges or stalls?

Compressor stalls are very rare. I've seen them a couple of times. The engines on the 767-200s would occasionally stall during start. You'd probably hear it, but the temperature running away was the big clue. I recall a couple on the 747 Classics, but only in reverse. And we couldn't even identify which engine had done it, as it recovered as soon as reverse was cancelled. The flash of flame on one night landing in Bahrain was quite spectacular, but only served to tell us it was 3 or 4.

I fed an entire flock of birds through a CF6 out of Perth. The vibration level rose quite a bit, and the engine sounded different. We ran it at idle, did a circuit and landed. Engineers counted 12 strikes. Four fan blades bent, two fan stator blades missing. A hole punched into the casing, and one of the flap fairings was missing entirely. Took them about 4 hours to fix it. Nevertheless, not only did it continue running, but actually would have been capable of almost full power.

I'd imagine that being on a climb out and to hear or feel something like that happen may be a tad unnerving. Which would give rise to the saying, "I'd rather be down here wishing that I was up there, than being up here and wishing that I was down there" feelings from the nervous...

I've never had one stall at high power. The simulator version is very noisy and very rough....I assume it's reasonably accurate.

 

[mjt57]

Sorry, should've realised that the report I read was incorrect - B787-xx_ (i'm not game to apply a suffix here).

 

[jb747]

Sorry, should've realised that the report I read was incorrect - B787-xx_ (i'm not game to apply a suffix here).

Just make one up. We all know what you mean.

 

[eric2011]

DRW gets a few. Usually flights from SYD & BNE to SE Asia, and occasionally some ex. MEL and AKL, weather dependant.*

*not a pilot so apologies for breach of thread rules, but I hope this is at least a mildly valuable contribution.

I live just north of BNE and will often see a TG flight early in the dawn on its way to AKL. The sun just rising and the plane between the sun and me makes a great sight

 

[lastrow]

Can you get a shot of this? I guess you could post it here or on the plane spotting thread

 

[petercr]

Also not being pedantic...but it was a 787-922.

So when there's ones with a Red Roo on the tail, they'll be 787-938's?

Edit: okay, I know it's Wikipedia but the article on Boeing customer codes said they would not be applied on 787's. Flight radar 24 seems to confirm this - all called 787-8 or - 9.

 

[jb747]

So when there's ones with a Red Roo on the tail, they'll be 787-938's?

Edit: okay, I know it's Wikipedia but the article on Boeing customer codes said they would not be applied on 787's. Flight radar 24 seems to confirm this - all called 787-8 or - 9.

That sounds like a pretty definite reference then. Another convention consigned to the scrap books.

I think the roo is actually white.....or would that be getting pedantic again?

 

[Quickstatus]

I think the roo is actually white.....or would that be getting pedantic again?

Finally!, i have always wondered why people refer to the roo as red.....

 

[jb747]

Finally!, i have always wondered why people refer to the roo as red.....

Perhaps it's an age thing....

The roo was red, and very small, on some of the historic paint schemes. But it was a long, long, time ago.

 

[Major]

I think the A380 tyre pressures are about 200psi, but my question is how often are these checked ? I believe there is an onboard pressure indicator, so if there is an indication of a low pressure is it simply a matter of asking ground staff to whack a few more psi in tyre no 18 ?

Boris...do you kick the tyres on a domestic walk around and ask ground staff for more nitrogen if necessary or are they usually on the ball ?