Ask The Pilot

[jb747]

With reference to the discussion in another thread, if they felt like a career change would pilots necessarily make especially good air traffic controllers?

I wouldn't be surprised if the skill sets are quite different, but a pilots understanding and experience would be something you'd expect could help during the course.

On the other hand, we have this....The Airport Control Tower Is No Place for Racial Redress

 

[JessicaTam]

so that they can send a bill for each selection of extra thrust

Does that mean the engines are leased?

 

[JessicaTam]

On the other hand, we have this....The Airport Control Tower Is No Place for Racial Redress

Paywall.
Forget that - I Googled the heading.

 

[Quickstatus]

Does that mean the engines are leased?

"Power by the hour"

 

[mjt57]

JB, I can't find your latest roster on here. No. 1 daughter and the grandkids are on the 93 to LA (then onto NY) on Friday. What are your movements?

 

[straitman]

With reference to the discussion in another thread, if they felt like a career change would pilots necessarily make especially good air traffic controllers?

I answered in the other thread.

 

[Himeno]

JB, I can't find your latest roster on here. No. 1 daughter and the grandkids are on the 93 to LA (then onto NY) on Friday. What are your movements?

Ask The Pilot.

 

[lastrow]

Not all by any means. They do monitor the engines that are operating on 'power by the hour', so that they can send a bill for each selection of extra thrust. We don't have any information on their monitoring, but I do know that it's a one way street. They pass no information back about engines that are in the air...presumably for liability reasons. As we don't have continuous data link comms, I expect that they collect data in bursts, or if the on board monitoring starts to see something happening. No idea what parameters they monitor.

This is most interesting. Can you please explain the term Power by the hour. Are the engines leased from RR and are subject to a rent surcharge when they detect the use of thrust above a certain "base" level? Why?

 

[jb747]

This is most interesting. Can you please explain the term Power by the hour. Are the engines leased from RR and are subject to a rent surcharge when they detect the use of thrust above a certain "base" level? Why?

The details of any lease arrangement would be commercially sensitive...and certainly wouldn't be divulged to the pilots. It's a very common procedure to lease engines, with their maintenance, upgrades, etc becoming a known fixed cost. Details can be found on Wikipedia.

 

[jb747]

JB, I can't find your latest roster on here. No. 1 daughter and the grandkids are on the 93 to LA (then onto NY) on Friday. What are your movements?

I'm a couple of days behind them.

 

[Quickstatus]

Vivid Sydney (annual laser light show) of any significant to aviators?

YSSY ATIS seem to have a reference to this?.

 

[jb747]

Vivid Sydney (annual laser light show) of any significant to aviators?

YSSY ATIS seem to have a reference to this?.

It's a couple of years since I've flown into Sydney, so I can't give you a first hand report on what you can see. But, as long as the lasers aren't pointed at the aircraft, and I'm sure quite a bit of thought goes into it, there shouldn't be any ramifications.

 

[Blackswan]

Is it true that commercial pilots sometimes utilise the oxygen masks to perk themselves up (I heard it somewhere once)? If they do, does the use get monitored, and how do they replenish the supply?

 

[jb747]

Is it true that commercial pilots sometimes utilise the oxygen masks to perk themselves up (I heard it somewhere once)? If they do, does the use get monitored, and how do they replenish the supply?

I expect that it may have happened in the past, but I can't recall anyone pulling the mask out of the container since last time we did a depressurisation (in the sim).

But, it isn't monitored, and nobody would care anyway. The oxygen levels are checked after each flight, and topped up as necessary. During every preflight, the system is tested with an unconstrained flow for 10 seconds...which would be more than you'd breathe in quite a few minutes of 'perking'.

 

[flychrisfly]

The oxygen levels are checked after each flight, and topped up as necessary. During every preflight, the system is tested with an unconstrained flow for 10 seconds...which would be more than you'd breathe in quite a few minutes of 'perking'.

This struck me as excessive and that weekly or less frequent checks would be enough. But then I guess that anything not checked every time has the potential to be checked none of the time. Are there any checks that are not performed with every flight?

 

[jb747]

This struck me as excessive and that weekly or less frequent checks would be enough. But then I guess that anything not checked every time has the potential to be checked none of the time. Are there any checks that are not performed with every flight?

The pressure is checked after every flight. It's just a readout on our screens. The available pressure affects allowed flight times / passenger loads, so it needs to be checked every time. Basically above 1,800 psi has no limits. Use of therapeutic oxygen in flight can bleed the system down over time.

The check that we do is looking for a couple of things. Firstly mask and mask intercom function. And secondly the 10 second check ensures that the oxygen valve (at the tanks) has been turned on, by being long enough to drain any pressure from the lines.

Whilst some checks can be left out where you are doing multiple sectors, with the same crew, it's actually easier to do the same thing every time...and very rare for us to do multiple sectors anyway.

 

[mikenz]

Following the recent Qantas encounter, how common is it to feel the effects of wake turbulence from an aircraft 20nm ahead of you?

 

[jb747]

Following the recent Qantas encounter, how common is it to feel the effects of wake turbulence from an aircraft 20nm ahead of you?

As best I can tell, the media beat up with this is pretty strong. A couple of degrees pitch change, with a maximum deviation of 100 feet, is trivia.

We run into wake pretty regularly. Normally from aircraft a lot closer than 20 nm!

 

[serfty]

I expect that it may have happened in the past ...

Certainly; my father flew 32 Lancaster missions over Europe (Navigator) during WW2 and had many a tale to tell.

Those guys played hard (apparently!) and, by his experience, the post departure respiration of pure O2 did wonders in assisting with post play recovery at the start of a mission (Personally, I reckon being under the age of 25 had a lot to do with it.)

 

[serfty]

From my frequent flyer PAX perspective, that magnitude of wake turbulance is really uncommon. I have had over 1.8K flights and experienced significant wake turbulence only once - at that I deem it unlucky.

Ask The Pilot [2012].