Ask The Pilot

[ChrisGibbs]

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.....

Do you brief the passengers on what they may see prior to pushback / arrival? From your RAN days I would imagine your saw some sobering scenes? Way back in March 1993 I was doing my Aero's endorsement in a Decathlon out at the training area at Bungendore at the time the MIG Errol Kavanagh was flying crashed into the sporting fields at Narrabundah. Errol did his military to commercial licence conversion at the same flying school in Canberra. I'm not sure what the standard procedures are in these instances but Canberra Departures closed the entire airfield for a few hours and gave aircraft in the training areas about 20 minutes to get back to base and also diverted everything else.

 

[jb747]

Do you brief the passengers on what they may see prior to pushback / arrival? From your RAN days I would imagine your saw some sobering scenes? Way back in March 1993 I was doing my Aero's endorsement in a Decathlon out at the training area at Bungendore at the time the MIG Errol Kavanagh was flying crashed into the sporting fields at Narrabundah.

I don't recall what I've told the passengers. Knowing me, I was just as likely to tell them to look out the other window.

Thankfully I didn't see too much go badly wrong in my navy days. A4 accidents mostly ended in an ejection, though I did lose one friend to a mid air. During my career, all of the helicopter accidents resulted in nothing worse than a broken airframe. The worst I saw was an army accident at Pt Cook.

I knew Errol, though not well. I think his accident pointed out the dangers of flying military aircraft with deactivated ejection seats. The military install them for a reason.

 

[Mogul]

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

View attachment 148586

JB will you do a video of your last flight.

 

[mjt57]

JB will you do a video of your last flight.

I hope so, too. A 4K video in both daylight and nightime would look spectactular.

 

[QF WP]

Came across this video about a retiring QF 747 Captain (see the video is dated 2017 but final flight was 2013 ) - l wonder if @jb747 any of the QF pilots know him (given his tenure, quite likely you've crossed paths).

 

[por930]

We need the same for JB.....what a great reminder for him....and us.

 

[ayebee]

No question ...
but just had to say how much I appreciate the Q&A on this thread, especially jb747 taking the time to make such good responses.

 

[Sprucegoose]

I wholeheartedly agree, JB has been selfless in sharing his time and experience. I saw the Beeson video and it rightly and celebrates a 43 year career. We don't see this sort of commitment these days to career or industry.

 

[Melburnian1]

Today (Sunday 6 January) JQ1 (1635 hours MEL - HNL, the usual B788) turned back when out from SYD and returned to MEL. Media reports that it was a problem with anti (de?) icing equipment.

Is there any technical or operational reason why this wouldn't ordinarily detected somewhat earlier in the flight than once a SYD waypoint had been passed?

Or is it very likely that it was detected pretty soon after takeoff, but the crew thought about whether it was problematical? The Captain, not flight ops, always makes the decision to turn back in these 'technical' circumstances doesn't (s)he?

Not a decision to be taken lightly because of expense to the company and in this case a claimed 17 hour delay to JQ1/JQ2 passengers, but safety comes first.

 

[Melburnian1]

An AFF aviator posted in the QF delays/cancellations thread "...There would be much more reason to be shocked if I'd been prepared to use Jetstar, Air Asia, anything Korean, or Indonesian...etc...."

I understand the negativity about Air Asia (alleged poor training/inexperienced air crew), Asiana (the SFO incident) and Lion Air/some other Indonesian carriers (recent tragic incident and a poor safety record) but surely Korean Air (previously bad, but only one serious safety incident that I could find in 15 years) and Garuda (has similarly redeemed itself) deserve a better rap?

The Asiana incident highlighted problems in communication between the flight crew, some of which was apparently ascribed to cultural reasons.

Are Garuda and Korean Air really that bad to be placed on individuals' 'no fly' or 'very reluctant to patronise' lists?

 

[AviatorInsight]

Today (Sunday 6 January) JQ1 (1635 hours MEL - HNL, the usual B788) turned back when out from SYD and returned to MEL. Media reports that it was a problem with anti (de?) icing equipment.

Or is it very likely that it was detected pretty soon after takeoff, but the crew thought about whether it was problematical? The Captain, not flight ops, always makes the decision to turn back in these 'technical' circumstances doesn't (s)he?

Not a decision to be taken lightly because of expense to the company and in this case a claimed 17 hour delay to JQ1/JQ2 passengers, but safety comes first.

If the Captain was uncomfortable continuing with faulty anti ice equipment for the next 9hrs then they would have made the call returning. The thing that would deem it safe to continue would be to guarantee that they wouldn't enter icing conditions. If not (and on a long haul flight it's never guaranteed) then a need to return would be necessary.

My guess for returning to MEL instead of SYD would be:
1. They took off from MEL, so returning to the departure port makes sense from a pax perspective.
2. They would have needed to dump fuel and can take up to 40mins to get to MLW, might as well use that time to fly back rather than hold over SYD.

Is there any technical or operational reason why this wouldn't ordinarily detected somewhat earlier in the flight than once a SYD waypoint had been passed?

In flight the use of anti ice (engines and wings) are only really used when necessary. For the 787 this is automatic. The ice detector will know when a build up of ice over a set parameter has occurred and will then automatically turn on the engine anti ice (EAI). The wings on the 787 are heated mats and don't use bleed air.

I'd only seen it turn on twice in 5 years on the 777.

 

[AviatorInsight]

An AFF aviator posted in the QF delays/canellations thread "...There would be much more reason to be shocked if I'd been prepared to use Jetstar, Air Asia, anything Korean, or Indonesian...etc...."

Are Garuda and Korean Air really that bad to be placed on individuals' 'no fly' or 'very reluctant to patronise' lists?

Let's just say that after sharing the same bit of airspace as some of these carriers, they are also on my 'no fly' or 'very reluctant to patronise' list too.

 

[mjt57]

Let's just say that after sharing the same bit of airspace

As long as it wasn't the exact same bit of airspace at the same time, huh?

 

[AviatorInsight]

As long as it wasn't the exact same bit of airspace at the same time, huh?

Yep, with at least 50nm separation in between.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Just to clarify @AviatorInsight, are you saying that Jetstar is on your no fly list?

 

[AviatorInsight]

Just to clarify @AviatorInsight, are you saying that Jetstar is on your no fly list?

Yes, although not for reasons of its pilots. If I didn't get into Virgin, Jetstar would have been my backup.

 

[jb747]

An AFF aviator posted in the QF delays/cancellations thread "...There would be much more reason to be shocked if I'd been prepared to use Jetstar, Air Asia, anything Korean, or Indonesian...etc...."

I understand the negativity about Air Asia (alleged poor training/inexperienced air crew), Asiana (the SFO incident) and Lion Air/some other Indonesian carriers (recent tragic incident and a poor safety record) but surely Korean Air (previously bad, but only one serious safety incident that I could find in 15 years) and Garuda (has similarly redeemed itself) deserve a better rap?

The Asiana incident highlighted problems in communication between the flight crew, some of which was apparently ascribed to cultural reasons.

Are Garuda and Korean Air really that bad to be placed on individuals' 'no fly' or 'very reluctant to patronise' lists?

What you see of airlines is only what the media reports. Being in the same airspace, you get to see lots of behaviour that doesn't become newsworthy, but which is, at best, bad airmanship. For instance, SFO was just one example of Asiana's appalling flying. They had a go at running into me whilst on the ground in Singapore...they're even dangerous before they take off.

 

[jb747]

Aircraft aren't stable photography platforms for night shots, but sometimes the image works out anyway. Lightning, stars and the Indonesian coastline.

 

[opusman]

Those would look great as large format digital prints (if the resolution is high enough).

 

[mjt57]

JB, what did you use for those shots and settings, if available?

I’m learning about night photography but stuffing it up badly.

Need to join a camera club, I think.