Ask The Pilot

[AviatorInsight]

How much discretion does a pilot have to offer a jump seat? Assuming the person is permitted to travel in the coughpit of course.

Absolute discretion. The PIC is the only one that allows who sits there. Emails were flying left right and centre yesterday from guys commuting asking for the jump seat. Some guys offer it to anyone commuting, others down right say no every time. Most are generally pretty good and give it on a first come first serve basis.

The weather was interesting in both Sydney and Melbourne. Totally screwed my day up, but I was only one of very many...As luck would have it, I’d been chatting to one of the 737 pilots in the crew room, and he’d offered a jump seat if needed..and in the end that got me to Sydney.

Shame we can't offer interline jump travel, I was on this morning ex MEL.

 

[jb747]

Just had a look at the take off data. The aircraft actually weighed a little less than 550 tonnes. Using 20 knots of headwind, it could go at 555 tonnes. I expect the wind was quite a bit stronger, as the take off crosswind limit is 35 knots, and I’d generally take more crosswind in exchange for the longer runway.

 

[jb747]

How much discretion does a pilot have to offer a jump seat? Assuming the person is permitted to travel in the coughpit of course.

Total.

Oh, follow up question - what was it like watching the 737 being piloted cf the A380? Or were you in pax mode and reading a book?

Quite interesting. In some ways like the 767, but a strange mixture of more advanced, and well behind. Mind you, I didn’t want to remind myself too much about Boeing, as I have to play Airbus pilot tomorrow.

The Captain suggested that I should shut my eyes as they were landing, as the very low eye height was likely to be scary for someone used to sitting a couple of stories up in the air. And it was....

 

[JessicaTam]

Thank you both.

 

[Himeno]

How much say do the crews get in the crew hotels?

While checking in at my quickly booked hotel in SIN yesterday, someone came up to the next desk and asked if FO x had checked in yet. The desk agent they were talking to grabbed a bundle of paperwork and started reading off the flight numbers, 3K, JQ and QF35. (seems there was a Jetstar training flight here yesterday)

 

[AviatorInsight]

How much say do the crews get in the crew hotels?

While checking in at my quickly booked hotel in SIN yesterday, someone came up to the next desk and asked if FO x had checked in yet. The desk agent they were talking to grabbed a bundle of paperwork and started reading off the flight numbers, 3K, JQ and QF35. (seems there was a Jetstar training flight here yesterday)

Next to none. We have a committee that will go out and do the research for us based on the standards in the EBA. The hard part is finding a hotel that will give up a certain amount of rooms per night at a reduced rate. We had a lot of problems in LA for a while trying to find a hotel that would accept airline crew.

 

[flychrisfly]

The image is of the flight path out of Sydney for the flight I was on yesterday - a Qantas Pathfinders Charity flight to Adelaide. They often manage to score a track up or down the harbour - this flight had both. Just before departure the captain announced that they had just received ATC clearance for the special route. How far in advance would this clearance come through? How soon before a flight are flight plans normally accepted/approved?
Thanks

 

[RooFlyer]

How much discretion does a pilot have to offer a jump seat? Assuming the person is permitted to travel in the coughpit of course.

Absolute discretion. The PIC is the only one that allows who sits there. Emails were flying left right and centre yesterday from guys commuting asking for the jump seat..

Total....

Say an airline was scrambling to get pilots positioned for duty. Can the airline Operations/ whoever ask or direct that the jumpseat be given over to such a bod? And if the seat was already promised to another, would the Captain be obliged to hand it over?

 

[jb747]

Say an airline was scrambling to get pilots positioned for duty. Can the airline Operations/ whoever ask or direct that the jumpseat be given over to such a bod? And if the seat was already promised to another, would the Captain be obliged to hand it over?

As I said. Total. They can ask, and you can refuse. They could remove you, and replace you with someone else, but that's not likely to have the desired outcome, and would take hours. Nobody rides a coughpit without the Captain's approval.

 

[jb747]

View attachment 144977
The image is of the flight path out of Sydney for the flight I was on yesterday - a Qantas Pathfinders Charity flight to Adelaide. They often manage to score a track up or down the harbour - this flight had both. Just before departure the captain announced that they had just received ATC clearance for the special route. How far in advance would this clearance come through? How soon before a flight are flight plans normally accepted/approved?

I expect that it's all planned out well ahead, and ATC simply adjust as required to make it fit. Nothing about these flights is ad hoc.

 

[Altair]

I take it was gusty not a constant wind.
It is days like that I appreciate flying with WLG Jetconnect crew who are well experienced with landing in strong gusty winds and make it stick to the black stuff.

 

[blu]

We landed at LHR last month (QF1) during Storm Callum. Must have come in about 20 degrees angle to the runway (well that's what it seemed like). Sort of flicked back straight just before touch down.

 

[jb747]

I take it was gusty not a constant wind.
It is days like that I appreciate flying with WLG Jetconnect crew who are well experienced with landing in strong gusty winds and make it stick to the black stuff.

Gusty isn't all that much of an issue, unless it gets to 'windshear' levels, at which point it's simply dangerous, no matter who you are.

The issue is that it was gusty crosswinds, which means that ATC use only the one runway, so flow rates go from about 80 an hour to about 30. No schedule will survive that.

 

[jb747]

We landed at LHR last month (QF1) during Storm Callum. Must have come in about 20 degrees angle to the runway (well that's what it seemed like). Sort of flicked back straight just before touch down.

Hopefully not 'flicked', though it will be a solid yawing input. Assuming it was at maximum crosswind (which it probably wasn't), then it would have been about 16º...so you aren't far out.

 

[flyer89]

Not Callum but a video of QF Landing during Doris.

Might have even been you JB. The videographer was rather excited with what he captured.

 

[jb747]

Not Callum but a video of QF Landing during Doris.

Might have even been you JB. The videographer was rather excited with what he captured.

Not me, I only fly in good weather.

 

[mjt57]

That was an amazing bit of footage. Kudos to the guys up the front.

 

[D747]

At what speed(s) do the stick / yoke and rudder become / lose their effectiveness? Looking at that QF landing at LHR it appears that the PF keeps the inputs coming for sometime after touchdown. Is that what the call "80 knots" is for?

 

[jb747]

At what speed(s) do the stick / yoke and rudder become / lose their effectiveness? Looking at that QF landing at LHR it appears that the PF keeps the inputs coming for sometime after touchdown. Is that what the call "80 knots" is for?

It's 70 knots. It's to remind you to start coming out of reverse.

The controls have an effect (as opposed to being effective) down to quite low IAS. In this case with a lot of wind, that might not be much groundspeed at all. With a crosswind, you need to keep flying the aircraft in roll, as it the upwind wing will tend to rise, and those engines aren't all that far off the ground. The rudder overpowers the nose gear steering at about 60 knots, but as the two are linked, rudder motion never stops.

The FBW is active too, doing whatever it does....

 

[AviatorInsight]

At what speed(s) do the stick / yoke and rudder become / lose their effectiveness? Looking at that QF landing at LHR it appears that the PF keeps the inputs coming for sometime after touchdown. Is that what the call "80 knots" is for?

Because I don’t have a tiller on my side to keep the weight on the nose wheel during the initial sequence of the take off roll, I’ll push the control column full forward. As the airspeed increases to about 60kts I’ll start to relax the back pressure so it’s practically neutral by 80kts.

On landing, I can take the rapid by using the rudder down to about 30kts before the captain will need to take over, and we’ll make a 60kt call to remind the PF to come out of reverse.