Ask The Pilot

[QF WP]

The weather doesn’t generally just become ‘bad’. You should see it happening for quite a while, starting with the forecasts, and then later the actuals.

Talking about bad weather, I was just watching this YouTube video of landing as Bristol a couple of days ago. Gusts from 22 kts up to 46 kts (obviously nobody could land at that speed) with some windshear - so a number of go arounds. What are the maxima (limits) for each of the different types of aircraft - is it published anywhere?

The EI flight at 10:08 to 11:35 made me very nervous...particularly at 11:06. It eventually diverted.

ATC were calm and collected the whole time.

 

[jb747]

JB,

Has the “positive takeoff/landing clearing clearance confirmed” call been a mainstay for some years at QF or is it a more recent addition to the SOP’s?.

I can’t recall them not being there, so I’d say a very long time.

 

[jb747]

In reference to this incident: Accident: India Express B738 at Tiruchirappalli on Oct 12th 2018, impacted localizer antenna and wall on departure Given the aircraft was 305 meters from the end of the runway, what altitude should it have been at versus what altitude was it at when it struck the wall? It would seem, from my completely uneducated guess, that it was well below a safe altitude?

That’s a long way past the end of the runway to have hit something. I can’t specify a height that they should have been at....but engine out it should have been at least 35 feet. It would probably be in hundreds.

I wonder where they started the takeoff roll from, and where they rotated.

 

[jb747]

Hi - my apologies if this has been asked and answered in previous posts - what are the best noise cancelling in ear headphones that pilots use. I have seen a number of pilots recently heading back as passengers on flights with in ear headphones but didn’t want to interrupt their downtime to ask. Thank you in advance

I use a set of Bose 35 when I’m paxing. The company provides headsets for the coughpit. Sennheiser, I think. But they aren’t noise cancelling.

 

[jb747]

Talking about bad weather, I was just watching this YouTube video of landing as Bristol a couple of days ago. Gusts from 22 kts up to 46 kts (obviously nobody could land at that speed) with some windshear - so a number of go arounds. What are the maxima (limits) for each of the different types of aircraft - is it published anywhere?

The EI flight at 10:08 to 11:35 made me very nervous...particularly at 11:06. It eventually diverted.

I can’t watch all of the video, as I’m on 4G in the middle of NSW at the moment.

Crosswind limits vary for lots of reasons. Dry. Wet. Low vis. In the video the runway is wet, so the limits for everything would have been about 25 knots. Dry the A380 is 40, 767 was 38 and 747 35. I think the Boeings handle crosswind better, and the limit is only higher on the AB as a measure of personal parts.

ATC were calm and collected the whole time.

Yeh, well they didn’t have to land the tower...

 

[BABENS]

I use a set of Bose 35 when I’m paxing. The company provides headsets for the coughpit. Sennheiser, I think. But they aren’t noise cancelling.

Hi thank you. I will look into the Bose.

 

[AviatorInsight]

Hi - my apologies if this has been asked and answered in previous posts - what are the best noise cancelling in ear headphones that pilots use. I have seen a number of pilots recently heading back as passengers on flights with in ear headphones but didn’t want to interrupt their downtime to ask. Thank you in advance

A lot of pilots like the Bose, I use a set of noise attenuating Clarity Aloft headsets for the flight deck but just in ear Sony noise cancelling whilst I'm paxing.

 

[AviatorInsight]

In reference to this incident: Accident: India Express B738 at Tiruchirappalli on Oct 12th 2018, impacted localizer antenna and wall on departure Given the aircraft was 305 meters from the end of the runway, what altitude should it have been at versus what altitude was it at when it struck the wall? It would seem, from my completely uneducated guess, that it was well below a safe altitude?

Unfortunately not a straight answer of what height he should have been at as there's a lot of variables at play. But at absolute worst even with one engine out at the end of the runway he should have been at 35ft. To actually hit the wall tells me two things:
1. He was well below altitude and
2. That the 737 is built like a Tonka Truck.

 

[AviatorInsight]

Talking about bad weather, I was just watching this YouTube video of landing as Bristol a couple of days ago. Gusts from 22 kts up to 46 kts (obviously nobody could land at that speed) with some windshear - so a number of go arounds. What are the maxima (limits) for each of the different types of aircraft - is it published anywhere?

The EI flight at 10:08 to 11:35 made me very nervous...particularly at 11:06. It eventually diverted.

ATC were calm and collected the whole time.

737 is 40kts dry or wet on runways 45m wide or greater.
777 is 38kts dry or wet.

Both found in the limitations section of the FCOM.

 

[jb747]

737 is 40kts dry or wet on runways 45m wide or greater.
777 is 38kts dry or wet.

Both found in the limitations section of the FCOM.

Rather depends upon how you define wet.....

 

[AviatorInsight]

Rather depends upon how you define wet.....

On the 30m runways where the crosswind limit drops to 25kts, we definitely have a chat about what we determine the runway to be wet, especially at CTAFs with no CAGRS.

 

[tgh]

ot ...but I thought the vid showed some tidy driving

 

[ChrisGibbs]

Rather depends upon how you define wet.....

I seem to recall this was one of the issues that resulted in myself and a few hundred QF passengers to overnight in DFW a few years ago now when our QF8 DFW-BNE (744) flight was delayed by 24hrs.

 

[jb747]

Dry, wet, damp, contaminated. Cross wind limits versus demonstrated crosswind. The entire subject is confused, and complicated by poorly written rules, and airlines which try as hard as they can to circumvent them.....but to do so in such a way as to ensure their policy makers cannot be blamed.

There’s an article here (Dangerous landing at Christchurch Airport caused by Virgin Australia's landing policy, investigation finds), which though it’s about a particular airline, could be applied to all of them. I recall talking to a pilot from an airline to the north of us about this subject, and his company was quite happy to use the demonstrated figures, because “their pilots were at least as good as the Boeing test pilots”. I won’t claim anything like that, and will stay as far from those limits, in particular the wet ones, as possible. Seeing dry and wet limits the same, is a big red flag as far as I’m concerned.

I seem to recall this was one of the issues that resulted in myself and a few hundred QF passengers to overnight in DFW a few years ago now when our QF8 DFW-BNE (744) flight was delayed by 24hrs.

A wet runway that affects take off has progressed to the ‘contaminated’ stage...so basically a runway that isn’t draining, either because of design or the rate of rainfall. There was a flight in which a disagreement about the subject meant that crew issues stopped the flight. The rules should never be written so that such issues can arise, but they all are, from the regulatory authorities, through the airlines, and manufacturers. They are all masters at writing rules that can be interpreted to make you wrong, not matter what you decide, and which will always exonerate them.

 

[Major]

Does anyone know where Boris spatsky is ?

 

[AviatorInsight]

Dry, wet, damp, contaminated. Cross wind limits versus demonstrated crosswind. The entire subject is confused, and complicated by poorly written rules, and airlines which try as hard as they can to circumvent them.....but to do so in such a way as to ensure their policy makers cannot be blamed.

There’s an article here (Dangerous landing at Christchurch Airport caused by Virgin Australia's landing policy, investigation finds), which though it’s about a particular airline, could be applied to all of them. I recall talking to a pilot from an airline to the north of us about this subject, and his company was quite happy to use the demonstrated figures, because “their pilots were at least as good as the Boeing test pilots”. I won’t claim anything like that, and will stay as far from those limits, in particular the wet ones, as possible. Seeing dry and wet limits the same, is a big red flag as far as I’m concerned.

Totally agree JB. I never considered a damp runway to be dry even with the old policy. A recent change in the policy says that take off on a damp runway can be considered dry but damp runway for landing must be considered wet...may to make things more confusing.

 

[Quickstatus]

Most crosswinds resolve into a crosswind (perpendicular to runway) and either an headwind or tailwind vector.

Do wind limits have to be more conservative when 2 vectors are present which degrade performance

 

[straitman]

When thinking about wet runways I suggest that people look at this F-111 accident at Ohakea NZ. They thought everything was OK until they lost power and needed to eject.

Accident General Dynamics F-111C A8-137, 25 Aug 1978

 

[flyer89]

There was a flight in which a disagreement about the subject meant that crew issues stopped the flight.

Without getting into it was this the same incident where the personality of an individual was a contributing factor?

 

[QF WP]

Does anyone know where Boris spatsky is ?

MIA - from his profile, it's been 40 week since he last logged on.