Ask The Pilot

[jase05]

Any reason why one flight only would take off from CBR against the flow of all other traffic?
QF1550 sat at the northern end for about 10 minutes waiting for 3 flights to land and then went against the flow.

 

[jb747]

Who is responsible for deciding whether to de-ice - the pilots, ATC, somebody else?

Should be just the pilots and engineers.

 

[jb747]

Any reason why one flight only would take off from CBR against the flow of all other traffic?
QF1550 sat at the northern end for about 10 minutes waiting for 3 flights to land and then went against the flow.

Normally when you see something like that, it's a fair guess that it's performance related. ATC might not be using the runway into wind for flow reasons, but your aircraft can't handle the wind/temperature/weigh combination. I can't see anything specific that would have caused this.

Only a couple of weeks ago, I saw an Air India 787 do the same thing in Melbourne. In that case though, the wind he was taking was much worse than the alternative....we figured that he'd simple messed it up.

 

[D747]

Normally when you see something like that, it's a fair guess that it's performance related. ATC might not be using the runway into wind for flow reasons, but your aircraft can't handle the wind/temperature/weigh combination. I can't see anything specific that would have caused this.

Only a couple of weeks ago, I saw an Air India 787 do the same thing in Melbourne. In that case though, the wind he was taking was much worse than the alternative....we figured that he'd simple messed it up.

When you say messed it up, do you mean that the Air India flight was compromised in some way? Would a other pilot ever say anything over the radio if you believed another crew were making a mistake?

 

[jb747]

When you say messed it up, do you mean that the Air India flight was compromised in some way?

You'd expect him to take off into wind. The wind was a light northerly, but he took off to the south.

The only reason we could think off was that 16 is slightly downwind, versus the uphill slope on 34. That would have pretty much balanced out the wind difference, but as he wouldn't have been operating near limits, it was a strange choice.

Would another pilot ever say anything over the radio if you believed another crew were making a mistake?

They sure will....but it isn't always obvious until after the event.

 

[jase05]

Normally when you see something like that, it's a fair guess that it's performance related. ATC might not be using the runway into wind for flow reasons, but your aircraft can't handle the wind/temperature/weigh combination. I can't see anything specific that would have caused this.

Only a couple of weeks ago, I saw an Air India 787 do the same thing in Melbourne. In that case though, the wind he was taking was much worse than the alternative....we figured that he'd simple messed it up.

Thanks for that. It was just bizarre as several of us were in the VA lounge and watched it taxi out to what appeared to be the wrong end. It waited for 3-4 flights and then took off against the flow. A few of us commented on how strange it was as only about a minute or so later another QF flight landed from the “normal” direction.

 

[AviatorInsight]

There was definitely ice on the upper surface of the wing when we took off! Given this, is there any reason you can think of that they wouldn't have de-iced?

I can't imagine it was safe to depart like that... perhaps they were trying to save time/money. But maybe I'm missing something as nobody else seemed worried.

Who is responsible for deciding whether to de-ice - the pilots, ATC, somebody else?

I certainly wouldn’t want to depart with a visible layer of ice on the critical surfaces. Ice is detrimental to an aircraft’s performance as we have seen from accidents in previous years. At the very least I hope they departed with wing and engine anti ice on!

The CASA regulations say that a take-off shall not be attempted when ice, snow, slush or frost is present or adhering to the wings, control surfaces, engine inlets or other critical surfaces. This is known as the clean aircraft concept.

There is an exception to cold soaked fuel frost on the lower and upper surface of the wing (there’s a thick black line on the 737 visible from the window to show it) but there’s a lot of restrictions on this, one of them being the ambient air temp must be greater than or equal to +4°c which in this case it clearly wasn’t!

These are our company’s SOPs in regards to ice, so I can’t say much for this airline...

It is the responsibility of the PIC to decide whether to de-ice.

 

[AviatorInsight]

Any reason why one flight only would take off from CBR against the flow of all other traffic?
QF1550 sat at the northern end for about 10 minutes waiting for 3 flights to land and then went against the flow.

Yes I'd say it’d most likely be performance related. An interesting point to note is that the SID climb gradient on 17 is 4.9% to 4800’ vs 6.6% to 3400’ on 35.

 

[mjt57]

The kids got me another sim gift certificate, this time in an A320 with Flight Experience.

I get an hour this time. (must have cost them a fortune). What would be an interesting exercise for me to do? Thinking of MEL to Avalon and back or somewhere else, perhaps.

 

[mannej]

The kids got me another sim gift certificate, this time in an A320 with Flight Experience.

I get an hour this time. (must have cost them a fortune). What would be an interesting exercise for me to do? Thinking of MEL to Avalon and back or somewhere else, perhaps.

When I did mine a while back, I didn’t fly point to point but did circuits. Kai Tak was one involved.

 

[Hvr]

Thinking of MEL to Avalon and back or somewhere else, perhaps.

YMES to YMPC, (or vice versa) I'm sure there is at least one member here who has done that journey.

 

[jb747]

YMES to YMPC, (or vice versa) I'm sure there is at least one member here who has done that journey.

More than one...

Heathrow, Stansted, Gatwick, Manchester (or Amsterdam).

 

[D747]

More than one...

Heathrow, Stansted, Gatwick, Manchester (or Amsterdam).

Speaking of Gatwick, have any of the pilots done any drone proximity or strike simulations?

 

[jb747]

Speaking of Gatwick, have any of the pilots done any drone proximity or strike simulations?

As we don't get too worried about the millions of birds that exist, I'm not inclined towards adding drones to the list of things to worry about.

 

[jb747]

As it's a bit too hot to be doing things outside today, I'm doing some tidying up of my log book.

The most common sector is pretty predictable, for someone who spent a long time on the 767. Sydney - Melbourne, 289 times. The reverse was slightly less, at 269 times.

Looking at departures only....I've flown out of Sydney 712 times, and Melbourne 649. In third place is Singapore, at 516 times. London 167, and LAX 138.

Some places I'd been to less often than I thought...Frankfurt only 20, and JFK only 6.

Belgrade, Fukuoka, Harare, Jo'burg, Shanghai and Toronto only got a single visit.

 

[FuzzyAUS]

As it's a bit too hot to be doing things outside today, I'm doing some tidying up of my log book.

The most common sector is pretty predictable, for someone who spent a long time on the 767. Sydney - Melbourne, 289 times. The reverse was slightly less, at 269 times.

Looking at departures only....I've flown out of Sydney 712 times, and Melbourne 649. In third place is Singapore, at 516 times. London 167, and LAX 138.

Some places I'd been to less often than I thought...Frankfurt only 20, and JFK only 6.

Belgrade, Fukuoka, Harare, Jo'burg, Shanghai and Toronto only got a single visit.

So Singapore was your 2nd home

Where did the sand pit end up for the few years flying through there?

 

[jase05]

As it's a bit too hot to be doing things outside today, I'm doing some tidying up of my log book.

The most common sector is pretty predictable, for someone who spent a long time on the 767. Sydney - Melbourne, 289 times. The reverse was slightly less, at 269 times.

Looking at departures only....I've flown out of Sydney 712 times, and Melbourne 649. In third place is Singapore, at 516 times. London 167, and LAX 138.

Some places I'd been to less often than I thought...Frankfurt only 20, and JFK only 6.

Belgrade, Fukuoka, Harare, Jo'burg, Shanghai and Toronto only got a single visit.

Did you have a favourite or maybe one you didn’t like being assigned to?

 

[jb747]

So Singapore was your 2nd home

Very much so. It was nice to go back, and to find that not everything had changed.

Where did the sand pit end up for the few years flying through there?

Higher than I expected. 85 visits. After the first six months, I came to hate the place, but it was worth it to get to London.

Did you have a favourite or maybe one you didn’t like being assigned to?

Places that only had one visit...they were either very popular and I couldn't get one, or the opposite.

On the 767, I liked what we called the 'rice bowl'. Generally a bit of a loop through Singapore, Hong Kong, and Bangkok. Canada was popular, but hard to get.

On the 747 my favourite routes were either London, up via Singapore and back via HKG, or JFK, when the pattern was built via Auckland from Melbourne.

380...London via Singapore.

There were a few places I was never able to get a pattern to. Paris, Amsterdam (diverting doesn't count), and a couple of spots in Japan.

Perth on Xmas day was pretty soul destroying.

 

[Quickstatus]

What will you do with your logbook?

 

[jb747]

What will you do with your logbook?

It's an Excel spreadsheet. I haven't filled in a paper one since the navy days.