Ask The Pilot

[jb747]

How well does a pilot have to be to operate a flight? Does some measure of coughing/a headache begin to rule you out? I'd imagine consciously or otherwise, there are considerations of being out of position and knock-on effects particularly if you're at a distant port, company measures notwithstanding?

Nobody will thank you for bringing a cold to work, as you've probably then condemned the rest of the people stuck in the coughpit with you.

You have to be on top of your game, as you never know what cards you may be dealt on any flight. I'm certainly nowhere near that with any level of cold. Beyond that, nasal and respiratory issues are always best left on the ground, and not a pressurised environment.

The problem is that many airlines around the world use pay systems that penalise people for going sick at all, much less with a cold. QF is pretty good, but I'll still lose some dollars, and probably a level of planning certainty, once I come back.

 

[Quickstatus]

Nobody will thank you for bringing a cold to work, as you've probably then condemned the rest of the people stuck in the coughpit with you.

You have to be on top of your game, as you never know what cards you may be dealt on any flight. I'm certainly nowhere near that with any level of cold. Beyond that, nasal and respiratory issues are always best left on the ground, and not a pressurised environment.

The problem is that many airlines around the world use pay systems that penalise people for going sick at all, much less with a cold. QF is pretty good, but I'll still lose some dollars, and probably a level of planning certainty, once I come back.

Generally do plots defer flying when they are on medications that have an advisory sticker "Do not drive or operate machinery" or "be careful when driving or operating machinery".
Does the airline have a policy regarding reporting requirements (pilots to airline) when it comes to medications other than at mandatory medical checkups?

or partially pressurised environment?

Base pay + mission pay?

 

[jb747]

Generally do plots defer flying when they are on medications that have an advisory sticker "Do not drive or operate machinery" or "be careful when driving or operating machinery".
Does the airline have a policy regarding reporting requirements (pilots to airline) when it comes to medications other than at mandatory medical checkups?

CASA has a huge list of stuff that you can't fly with. Basically, if your DAME (CASA doctor) doesn't give it to you, then don't take it. Most cold day and night pills for starters.

Base pay + mission pay?

No such thing....at least on my contract.

 

[moa999]

QF is pretty good, but I'll still lose some dollars, and probably a level of planning certainty, once I come back.

By that do you mean you may end up with slightly less than max hours this year as a result?

And lose a ranking point or something on requests/ preferences for timing/routes? Routes are presumably less of an issue on an A380 where there aren't that many.

How you're feeling better btw

 

[jb747]

By that do you mean you may end up with slightly less than max hours this year as a result?

You never hit max hours in a year. It's the last thing you want to have happen, as there are no protections. You drop any trip affected...unpaid. Bad from your point of view, and almost as bad from the airline's.

And lose a ranking point or something on requests/ preferences for timing/routes? Routes are presumably less of an issue on an A380 where there aren't that many.

Sickness affecting your bidding rights. That would be a very nasty award. Poorly managed sick leave, or not giving it, is a great way of having people come to work that should not be anywhere near an aircraft. Sadly it's not unknown.

When on sick leave you accrue credits at a fixed daily rate. So, in this instance I've lost a trip that was worth 49 hours, and I'm picking up credits from sick leave at 5:30 per day. If I come back to work after 7 days, the sick leave will have accrued 38.5 hours, leaving me owing the company 10 or so. As there are no short trips, the only way they can get that back is to assign standby duties against them....and they have the potential to ruin the entire pattern of flying because their outcome is always an unknown.

 

[Quickstatus]

When on sick leave you accrue credits at a fixed daily rate. So, in this instance I've lost a trip that was worth 49 hours, and I'm picking up credits from sick leave at 5:30 per day. If I come back to work after 7 days, the sick leave will have accrued 38.5 hours, leaving me owing the company 10 or so. As there are no short trips, the only way they can get that back is to assign standby duties against them....and they have the potential to ruin the entire pattern of flying because their outcome is always an unknown.

So the clock starts ticking during the standby even if not called in?

Is the assumption correct that there are no standby pilots in foreign ports?

 

[jb747]

So the clock starts ticking during the standby even if not called in?

There are many clocks.....

Standby is a duty like all others (sim, classroom, and even flights). They are all worth a defined number of hours. A roster is built to somewhere around 160-170 credited hours. That could actually consist of 30 or so standby duties, 3.5 London trips, or (eek) 30 simulator sessions. We aren't actually talking about hours in this case, but simply a pay level. Any duty is paid for.

The duty clock ticks in some ways during a standby. The standby period can only be 12 hours long. It must be preceded by time free of duty as if it were a flight (because it could turn into one). There is a maximum period for standby plus any duty that comes off it. If a duty is assigned that is outside of the standby period, then the duty time is recorded as if it started at the end of the standby. These are CASA limits.

Is the assumption correct that there are no standby pilots in foreign ports?

Generally there aren't. The only way you could build them in would be to make all slips longer to accommodate them. Remember that the slips are required to be free of all duty associated with the company. On the other hand, there's a captive audience, and a few phone calls will generally put together a crew at short notice. In fact, there are cases where an official standby actually provides less coverage that you could get from ringing around.

 

[Quickstatus]

JB747, Nice way to finish off by returning to your old slip towns HKG and SIN with the A380 from MEL once the B787 takes over QF9 from the A380 from March next year?.

 

[jb747]

JB747, Nice way to finish off by returning to your old slip towns HKG and SIN with the A380 from MEL once the B787 takes over QF9 from the A380 from March next year?.

It would seem that you know much more about it than me. I have heard nothing, and have no idea what is, or isn't, planned.

 

[moa999]

Just a comment in the press release that the shift of the A380s away from QF9 will see them seasonally redeployed on Asian routes.

Query whether MEL based pilots will see many additional flights though.

 

[Ansett]

As per the email received from QF today

[FONT=ciutadella, arial]Victoria - a new hub for the 787[/FONT][FONT=ciutadella, arial]By swapping our daily A380 Melbourne-Dubai-London service for a daily 787-9 Melbourne-Perth-London service, we've made Victoria the hub for our first four Dreamliners. The first two 787s will be dedicated to the Melbourne-Los Angeles route from December 2017.[/FONT][FONT=ciutadella, arial]More options will be also be available for Melbourne customers travelling to Asia, with our A380 that currently operates Melbourne-London to be redeployed to meet periods of high demand, including from Melbourne and Sydney to Hong Kong and Singapore.[/FONT]​

 

[mjt57]

How will the B787 meet pax capacity MEL-LHR (and vice versa) compared to the A380's capacity (almost double)? More flights or are the 380s not being filled?

I'm dreading the idea of being stuck on a Dreamliner for one of those trips. Emirates' B777s were bad enough, MEL-KUL-DXB.

 

[Quickstatus]

Was watching YouTube - A380 door closing demo. The door opens to the outside and closes from the outside. Surely these are not "plug" doors. Seems that when the door is closed it is then latched onto place.

I read there are plug doors, non plug doors and semi plug doors.

What are on the A380? Are there differences between upperdeck and main deck doors?
compared with the B747?

 

[Batesy]

It would seem that you know much more about it than me. I have heard nothing, and have no idea what is, or isn't, planned.

JB, have you done any of the seasonal flights SYD to HKG, mainly around Chinese New Year and Christmas? Even in the last week there has been plenty of these A388 between SYD & HKG. Or are you purely on USA/UK routes still?

 

[JessicaTam]

How will the B787 meet pax capacity MEL-LHR (and vice versa) compared to the A380's capacity (almost double)? More flights or are the 380s not being filled?

I'm dreading the idea of being stuck on a Dreamliner for one of those trips. Emirates' B777s were bad enough, MEL-KUL-DXB.

Please limit questions in this thread to those that are pilot-centric.

Discussion on the 787 is here: QF announce non-stop Perth-London B787 Services

 

[jb747]

JB, have you done any of the seasonal flights SYD to HKG, mainly around Chinese New Year and Christmas? Even in the last week there has been plenty of these A388 between SYD & HKG. Or are you purely on USA/UK routes still?

I did plenty of HK, and even one of the early Dallas flights before they started the pilot basing in Melbourne. As an aside, the majority of those pilots actually commute from Sydney, so they'd fall over themselves in the rush if the company were to move some or all of the basing back there. If they did offer a return to Sydney I'd certainly consider it, as there is little difference for me in going south or north to work.

The Melbourne based pilots only fly the trips that go from there. The Sydney people do both.

 

[jb747]

Was watching YouTube - A380 door closing demo. The door opens to the outside and closes from the outside. Surely these are not "plug" doors. Seems that when the door is closed it is then latched onto place.

I read there are plug doors, non plug doors and semi plug doors.

What are on the A380? Are there differences between upperdeck and main deck doors?
compared with the B747?

Not sure what you mean by a semi plug, though it describes many that exist in hotel bathrooms quite well.

A plug door is bigger than the opening, and will either open totally internally (like the lift up ones on the 767), or pull inwards to allow part of it to fold/reposition, before moving out through the opening. Short of a structural failure, nothing will open them in flight. Most Boeings doors are plugs, but not all...upper deck on the -400.

Airbus are not. The use very heavy locking bars, rather like a bank vault, which engage the structure and holds them closed. Their risk is that at very low residual pressures, it might be possible for the door to open. Even .1 psi across the area of a door is a lot of force. An FA in the USA was killed at the end of the flight when he unlocked the door in such a situation. There is a residual pressure warning light, but, really, that's just there to be eventually missed.

 

[Melburnian1]

I hope this is a 'pilot-centric' question about the new March 2018 introduction of PER - LHR - PER QF9/QF10.

QF7/QF8 (SYD - DFW and return) seems to normally have good punctuality. Sunday morning's planned diversion into BNE (westbound) for QF8 is unusual, probably due to QF7 being affected by a lightning strike in SYD yesterday and hence the QF7/QF8 on Thursday 27 April were cancelled. There seems to be hardly any instances of QF7 diverting and hence being marooned because the flight (and cabin) crew(s) would run out of hours. There are also not a huge number of options across the Pacific if I recall one of our aviators remarking.

With the 'new' QF9/QF10 B789 rotation, is there any climate-related or other reason why the chances of a flight having to be diverted will be higher than with QF7 and QF8?

One other AFF member is implying that this may occur somewhat more with these new longer duration PER - LHR and v.v. sectors and hence see the aircraft (and passengers) spending time on the ground at an unplanned intermediate stop with QF having to then somehow find a flight (and cabin) crew, but lacking the relative flexibility of today's QF1/2/9/10 arrangement where these flight (and cabin) crews can sometimes take command of on which they were not originally rostered, and do this without a great deal of notice from the company.

Is it correct to assume that no QF flight crew will be concurrently 'rated' on both the A388s and the B789s, as it would be a mix of two distinctly different aircraft types (and operating philosophies?)

 

[Quickstatus]

Quote brought over from Qantas delays and cancellation thread......

In reality you don't normally do a 'splash and dash' in the middle of a flight. Dubai, for many reasons, is a place which is singularly lacking in the 'dash' part of the equation. I'm told thad both Muscat and Kuwait are much faster.

But Even a quick splash and dash at these ports would render the crew out of hours (assuming the 20 hr max is still in place)??

Would a >4 FCM increase the maximum allowed FDP further in an augmented crew op?
FCM = flight crew member
FDP = flight duty period

 

[jb747]

I hope this is a 'pilot-centric' question about the new March 2018 introduction of PER - LHR - PER QF9/QF10.

QF7/QF8 (SYD - DFW and return) seems to normally have good punctuality. Sunday morning's planned diversion into BNE (westbound) for QF8 is unusual, probably due to QF7 being affected by a lightning strike in SYD yesterday and hence the QF7/QF8 on Thursday 27 April were cancelled. There seems to be hardly any instances of QF7 diverting and hence being marooned because the flight (and cabin) crew(s) would run out of hours. There are also not a huge number of options across the Pacific if I recall one of our aviators remarking.

With the 'new' QF9/QF10 B789 rotation, is there any climate-related or other reason why the chances of a flight having to be diverted will be higher than with QF7 and QF8?

I don't think it will be as much of an issue as some expect. Whilst Perth is fog prone, and a very isolated airport, the routing towards Perth is actually the easier part of the flight. It wouldn't surprise me if Adelaide were actually possible in some circumstances. QF7/8 can be tight, but it isn't always. When I flew it I had weight to spare (and a full load).

One other AFF member is implying that this may occur somewhat more with these new longer duration PER - LHR and v.v. sectors and hence see the aircraft (and passengers) spending time on the ground at an unplanned intermediate stop with QF having to then somehow find a flight (and cabin) crew, but lacking the relative flexibility of today's QF1/2/9/10 arrangement where these flight (and cabin) crews can sometimes take command of on which they were not originally rostered, and do this without a great deal of notice from the company.

Making far too much of it. Same applies in many cases in the Pacific. It will happen, but I expect very rarely.

Is it correct to assume that no QF flight crew will be concurrently 'rated' on both the A388s and the B789s, as it would be a mix of two distinctly different aircraft types (and operating philosophies?)

I'm sure I could fly the Boeing, 'cos I've been there before. I doesn't work the other way very well. But, no, there will be no dual rated crews. It would have been a zillion times easier to have them on the 747/767 than that proposal...and that was way too hard.