Ask The Pilot

[Quickstatus]

Yes I realise that.
Should rephrase that
What are you going to do with all that data?

 

[flyer89]

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

What’s your grand total out of interest?

 

[jb747]

Including the rostered trips that take me to the end....21731. Of that 16697 is in command, and 15736 is heavy jet command.

There is another 1080 hours of Observer time....from my life before pilots' course.

At the end, it will be about...
380 Captain, 5800
747 Captain, 3300
767 Captain, 7550
747/744 FO, 2300
747 SO, 1850

 

[flyer89]

I’d invite you to come up with me for a fly but considering you have to move the comma several places to the left to get my total time in comparison to yours I don’t want to give you premature heart failure!

 

[AviatorInsight]

I’d invite you to come up with me for a fly but considering you have to move the comma several places to the left to get my total time in comparison to yours I don’t want to give you premature heart failure!

I wouldn’t worry too much about that, with that amount of experience there’s not much JB wouldn’t have seen. I’m not even half of that yet (close) and there’s been a lot of situations where students have tried to give me heart failure!

 

[WheelieBagWanderer]

Interesting reading your flight log, JB.

Based on the cities you mentioned that you've operated to, does this mean that you never flew a delivery flight of a 767/747 from Boeing in Seattle or an A380 from Airbus in France back to Oz with a new aircraft?

Also, I was doing some reading on the "QF30 incident" and a caption on one photo read,

"Captain John Bartels, centre, and and Captain Werninghaus Bernd, right, brought the aircraft down safely..."

Was that a check flight for one of you that day? I found it interesting that there were two captains on your QF30 and also 2 Captains on the QF32 A380 flight with the emergency landing in SIN, so was wondering whether it occurs more often than I thought, or just pure coincidence that these two flights that had major incidents occur had two Captains on board at the time?

 

[jb747]

I doubt that there’s much that I didn’t see from the students at Pt Cook.

Everybody has low hours at some (rather long) stage of their careers. It’s not the number of hours, but the attitude that goes with it, that will get people into trouble.

When I first got my command at QF, I was told by the training manager that my friends would be the ones to watch out for, because I’d be more inclined towards relaxing with them, rather than a random FO that I don’t know.

 

[jb747]

Interesting reading your flight log, JB.

Based on the cities you mentioned that you've operated to, does this mean that you never flew a delivery flight of a 767/747 from Boeing in Seattle or an A380 from Airbus in France back to Oz with a new aircraft?

Delivery flights are done by a small group of people, which generally includes the technical manager for the type, and a senior check or two. It never devolves to the line pilots. Closest I ever got was the maintenance ferries to Frankfurt and Manila on the 380...but I think that was just the fleet manager having a bit of a dig.

Also, I was doing some reading on the "QF30 incident" and a caption on one photo read,

"Captain John Bartels, centre, and and Captain Werninghaus Bernd, right, brought the aircraft down safely..."

Was that a check flight for one of you that day? I found it interesting that there were two captains on your QF30 and also 2 Captains on the QF32 A380 flight with the emergency landing in SIN, so was wondering whether it occurs more often than I thought, or just pure coincidence that these two flights that had major incidents occur had two Captains on board at the time?

The caption was wrong. Bernie was an FO. It also got his name the wrong way around.

The media made a lot of the fact that there were extra Captains on QF32, but that should not have mattered. There was a particularly good/strong FO in the seat, and he made a lot of difference to the outcome.

 

[Major]

You mentioned Hong Kong flying the 767. I assume those flights were to/from Kai Tak.

My first flight into Kai Tak was an interesting approach between buildings on a QF 707 . Did you have any memorable moments using this approach ?

 

[flyer89]

Is Bernie still on the 747 or has he moved on?

 

[jb747]

You mentioned Hong Kong flying the 767. I assume those flights were to/from Kai Tak.

My first flight into Kai Tak was an interesting approach between buildings on a QF 707 . Did you have any memorable moments using this approach ?

Captains rarely gave away an IGS approach when I was flying the 747. The 767, on the other hand, did so many that we just flew them one for one with the FOs. It was never a problem, as long as you'd had a think about it first. Where is the wind from? When am I going to start the turn, and how much bank will I use? When will I stop the turn? Very basic flying, but you didn't have enough space to fix a poor approach...you really needed the basics to be correct.

Whilst Kai Tak was especially interesting, the new airport is not without its challenges. The easternmost runway in particular can have very nasty wind shear.

Sitting on the apron, on a transit, you'd often see some interesting sights. On one occasion, there was 30 knots of downwind down the IGS, which was shifting to 15-20 knots of crosswind on the runway. So, turn very slightly early, use the full 30º angle of bank, a little less power than usual (or leave the auto throttle engaged). Continue the turn through the runway track, until your heading is about 10º beyond it. FO and I had a talk about it, as it was his turn. He did a lovely job. So, now we get to watch. Most were fine, but there were a few saves, with the most common error being rolling out too soon. But three approaches were especially memorable.
1. British Asia (BA's offshoot for Taiwan flights) in a 747-400....went through the centreline, and rolled out quite a bit downwind of the extended centreline. Tries to correct that, and arrives over the runway with the track still not parallel. Drops the left wing in the flare, and whacks #1 on the ground.
2. Thai in an Airbus 310, came in very fast. This aircraft, when on speed had quite a pronounced nose high attitude, but this was nose low. Landed on the nose gear first. Aircraft taxied out about an hour later, so obviously they didn't even look at it.
3. A VC10ski (Ilyushin Il-62). Don't recall the operator. He turned a bit late. Rolled to about 45-50º. Huge engine spool up (you could see the smoke). Rolled out in the correct spot and landed.

 

[jb747]

Is Bernie still on the 747 or has he moved on?

Bernie is on the 380. He came over about 6 years ago. We've never flown together since going up to Manila to pick up OJK. Had the occasional beer though.

Paul, our SO, is now a 737 FO.

 

[serfty]

On Thursday evening, I came in on Cathay to land at JFK ... the approach was interesting being almost a continuous right hand curve until the very last. There was a nose camera on the 777 and I could see the curved approach reflected on the running rabbit.

We came right around to land on 13L, which meant a lengthy taxi back around to T8.

Researching this it appears to be the previously mentioned "Carnarsie" approach. Here's a video I found which is similar to what I saw:

I don't think flying too low over Brooklyn and so annoying the natives would be the reason for having such a relatively unusual approach.

So, without that what would be the main reason?

 

[jb747]

I expect that it’s a combination of a lot of things. Noise would be part of it. The fact that about 6 miles on the extended centreline puts you over extremely tall buildings means that you can’t have a normal straight in approach. There’s probably some interaction with LaGuardia too, that has to be accounted for. It’s also probably a very old approach, and not updated for modern navigation systems.

It’s not a particularly difficult sort of approach to fly, and it’s not the only place that has similar. The main issue arises when you get airlines deciding that they don’t want their pilots to actually fly the aircraft, and create non approved autopilot tracks to fly the approach.

 

[serfty]

LGA?

Postulating when wind dictates the use of 13R/L at JFK, then the same conditions would mean LGA 13 being used as well - Historically, "Carnarsie" could somewhat alleviate possible ATC issues with LGA departures off 13.

 

[jb747]

Assuming this is correct...history.

Visual or instrument approach? This one is both | Air Facts Journal

 

[ChrisGibbs]

Whilst Kai Tak was especially interesting, the new airport is not without its challenges. The easternmost runway in particular can have very nasty wind shear.

From memory a China Airlines MD-11 came unstuck doing an approach onto 25L at Chek Lap Kok during a tropical storm. The reason this stuck in my memory was that a day or so earlier I was on the QF127 SYD-HKG 744 service. At the top of descent the Captain briefed passengers that with the current weather conditions and the approach we were making onto RWY25L there was a high potential of a go-around which we did. Taipei was also mentioned as an alternate if we needed. After doing the go-around we sat in a holding pattern just off the coast for about 30 minutes and then landed on the 2nd approach.

It's very sobering sitting in your hotel room in Kowloon a couple of days later (Sunday night from memory) only to see the smouldering wreckage of the China Airlines MD-11 laying besides the runway at Chek Lap Kok. It gives you a lot of comfort to know the QF tech crews will do a go-around rather than push on at all costs approach.

 

[jb747]

From memory a China Airlines MD-11 came unstuck ...

Over the years I've seen the remains of a few major accidents. We departed from LA the day the 737 landed on top of another aircraft. The wreckage was very close to Tom Bradley. In HKG, I landed the day after the 747 ended up in the water. Departed London only a few hours after the BA 777. And most recently, landed at Dubai after the 777 crashed.

All very sobering.....

 

[jb747]

And on a better note...the view from the best seat in the house.

 

[AviatorInsight]

While we're on the subject of photos and seats...



Happy New Year!