Ask The Pilot

[jb747]

For the people who go from long haul to short, those that complete the course do about 3 years on line. I don't know about the people who've always been short haul...don't know any of them.

 

[Hvr]

For the people who go from long haul to short, those that complete the course do about 3 years on line.

And how long does it take until the training pays off for the company?

 

[jb747]

And how long does it take until the training pays off for the company?

It could probably be argued that it never pays off....so I expect that they'd really like to avoid type changes. There's normally a 3 year requirement (which was only 18 months at one time) before you can bid to another type, but I doubt that that would cover retirement. At times when it has been convenient, the company has reduced this figure to zero. They were actually training on the 747 very recently, but now they're forcing people off it.

The lifestyle and finances of the different types differ immensely. New joiners are sent to aircraft that the company chooses with no choice...and that has always been known as the day one lottery.

 

[AviatorInsight]

How old do people go on that you know of? Domestic Pilots in their 70s? I recall Ken Broomhead who was the CP at Tiger was into his 70's, now retired.

Our most senior pilot would be approaching 70. We’ve had a few from Intl come over to domestic, see how hard we actually work and then give it up shortly thereafter. There’s also a very long line of Captains bidding for part time rosters because they can’t keep going with the domestic lifestyle.

 

[AviatorInsight]

And how long does it take until the training pays off for the company?

If we change type it’s a 3 year bond on type. We can get upgraded or change base in that time but must be on type. When Virgin first started, you had to pay for your own endorsement ($30k with no bond), I believe it has now jumped to $45k (bonded on all types).

 

[Saab34]

Multi Day Trips, 4 Sector Days, the body would be struggling into the 70s! Part Time sounds like a good option.

 

[por930]

JB, have you seen these videos.

A380 landing at SFO....

A380 taking off from SFO ...

This is a flight by a senior Lufthansa Captain who is on his retirement flight choice. You will hear the cabin steward on the take off from SFO giving his flight experience.

I thought of you straight away. Did you get to ride your Harley about LHR like the captain in video did at SFO as a goodbye pressie????

Are the procedures by the Lufthansa crew similar to Qantas for the take off and landing? The videos seemed excellent.

I liked his landing into SFO and how he went all manual flight. It looked like he also went manual throttle control..

On the take off from SFO, the captain seemed to be really enjoying his last take off over San Francisco.

 

[mjt57]

You can bid to do so. Most of us consider that to be a way of aging really fast. it’s mostly the preserve of people who have had multiple wives.

Our boss is 73 and yes, on Wife Number 2 with kids still at school...
Another was asked to retire after he hit 73 as well.
It would be a bit embarrassing, I'd say, if one were to go longer than one should have.

What did you say recently, something about being the captain that the FOs talk about?

 

[mjt57]

If we change type it’s a 3 year bond on type. We can get upgraded or change base in that time but must be on type. When Virgin first started,

It's time for you to take the mantle. When will you be posting your roster? We're flying to New York in July....

We would go Qantas but we'd need to earn as much as a 380 captain in order to afford it (economy premium)… Or Alan Joyce to get one of those lie flat bed recliner couches...

 

[ChrisGibbs]

As for the sports car...what I recall was the exact opposite. Whilst it weighed a lot less than the -200s, it's engines were greatly derated from them, so it had proportionally less power. Amongst the 747s, the 400ERs are the sports cars.

QF also had a few 747-238 Combi's (3 from memory). The Combi's could be converted to carry variations of Freight and Passengers. One was powered by P&W and two by RR. I do remember a SYD-PPT-LAX run from back in 1986 on one of the Combi's and managed to get a visit to the flight deck on the SYD-PPT sector. These aircraft had a non-smoking Economy section on the upper deck. The Flight Engineer said there was a noticeable difference between the reduced P&W powered aircraft and the two R&R powered aircraft. On the way back from the US on the same trip we flew SFO-HNL-SYD on one of the newer 747-3xx EUD version.

Up until early 2002 QF would have had multiple versions of the 747's (238, 338, 438) with the 2xx having multiple configurations. I'm assuming all Tech Crew would have been rated to fly the 747-238 and 747-338 with a separate rating for the 747-438. Even with the 400's they were powered either by GE or RR. The 3 * GE powered aircraft (VH-OEx) came from Asiana and Malaysian. One of these VH-OEB is still in service today.

 

[AviatorInsight]

It's time for you to take the mantle. When will you be posting your roster? We're flying to New York in July....

We would go Qantas but we'd need to earn as much as a 380 captain in order to afford it (economy premium)… Or Alan Joyce to get one of those lie flat bed recliner couches...

Well, considering I'm at domestic and at VA, it'll be a loooooong time before I'll get to fly to JFK.

As for my roster, well it changes a lot and too many sectors to list in a month. However I will be keeping one tradition going...stay tuned.

 

[jb747]

JB, have you seen these videos.

This is a flight by a senior Lufthansa Captain who is on his retirement flight choice. You will hear the cabin steward on the take off from SFO giving his flight experience.

The SFO arrival video has been around for quite a long time, and was, I think, LH’s first 380 arrival in SFO.

I was surprised when I saw him pull the thrust levers back to idle. That will disengage the autothrust (that’s one of three ways, and the least used method). The A380 autothrust does an extremely good job, unlike what I’ve been told about the 320/330. In almost 6,000 hours, I only landed it once without the autothrust, and that was after a system failure took it away. In any event, he subsequently plants the aircraft, so maybe he should have left it in!

 

[flyer89]

I was surprised when I saw him pull the thrust levers back to idle. That will disengage the autothrust (that’s one of three ways, and the least used method).

I didn’t know that. So there is another gate above that that is more commonly used?

 

[por930]

The SFO arrival video has been around for quite a long time, and was, I think, LH’s first 380 arrival in SFO.

.... I only landed it once without the autothrust, and that was after a system failure took it away. In any event, he subsequently plants the aircraft, so maybe he should have left it in!

I always thought it was pretty standard practice to keep the buses and I thought also for the 777, autothrust engaged and the throttles in the CL detent and the smarts keep working. And yes, the landing was less than smooth considering the conditions.

 

[ChrisGibbs]

For the people who go from long haul to short, those that complete the course do about 3 years on line. I don't know about the people who've always been short haul...don't know any of them.

An old school mate of mine was a BNE based FO (in his mid 50's) on the 744's. About 18 months back he did his command and type conversion onto domestic 737's. Since his conversion I've run into him once on a BNE-MEL sector and he said the diversity of flying on the 737's to places like POM, AKL, CHC as well as the various domestic sectors beats the monotony of the BNE-LAX-JFK-LAX-BNE sector/s.

 

[jb747]

I didn’t know that. So there is another gate above that that is more commonly used?

The 'gates' are:
TO/GA - As you'd expect, full charge.
MCT/FLEX - Flex is a takeoff mode, and will give the FMC loaded power level. MCT is max continuous power. Autothrust is not engaged, and these are fixed power settings. If you have an engine failure, MCT can be selected, and will behave as an auto thrust mode, but with a max power of MCT instead of CLB.
CLB - This is the normal setting. Selected at about 1,000' on departure, and it remains there until landing or go around (or engine failure).
IDLE - Ground or flight idle as appropriate.

Between CLB and IDLE, the lever works as in any non Airbus aircraft.

 

[jb747]

An old school mate of mine was a BNE based FO (in his mid 50's) on the 744's. About 18 months back he did his command and type conversion onto domestic 737's. Since his conversion I've run into once on a BNE-MEL sector and he said the diversity of flying on the 737's to places like POM, AKL, CHC as well as the various domestic sectors beats the monotony of the BNE-LAX-JFK-LAX-BNE sector/s.

Some people enjoy it, whilst other hate it. All of the types had much better route structures before the company started sticking bases all over the place. After the Melbourne base lost London, I think it brought my retirement date forward....

 

[por930]

Do you select CLB when advised to or simply engage CLB at or about 1,000 on departure.
You hear the term, 'in the blue' What do the colours signify?

 

[jb747]

QF also had a few 747-238 Combi's (3 from memory). The Combi's could be converted to carry variations of Freight and Passengers. One was powered by P&W and two by RR. I do remember a SYD-PPT-LAX run from back in 1986 on one of the Combi's and managed to get a visit to the flight deck on the SYD-PPT sector. These aircraft had a non-smoking Economy section on the upper deck. The Flight Engineer said there was a noticeable difference between the reduced P&W powered aircraft and the two R&R powered aircraft. On the way back from the US on the same trip we flew SFO-HNL-SYD on one of the newer 747-3xx EUD version.

There was a huge difference between the PW engined 200s and the RR ones. PW were quite gutless, and very thirsty, in comparison. Of the Classics, the RR 200s were probably the nicest to fly. The -300s were, for some reason, quite forgettable.

Up until early 2002 QF would have had multiple versions of the 747's (238, 338, 438) with the 2xx having multiple configurations. I'm assuming all Tech Crew would have been rated to fly the 747-238 and 747-338 with a separate rating for the 747-438. Even with the 400's they were powered either by GE or RR. The 3 * GE powered aircraft (VH-OEx) came from Asiana and Malaysian. One of these VH-OEB is still in service today.

People flew either the Classic (SP, 200 or 300), or the 400. You never flew both, even though most of our licences included endorsements across all of them. The 400 was dramatically different, not just in having a fully glass coughpit, but in flying procedures. And without an engineer, systems management too. There were a number of perfectly fine Classic pilots who were unable to make the jump to the 400.

By the time the GE powered 'ugly sisters' arrived, there was quite a core of 400 pilots who'd flown the 767...and as it had all three types of engine, we were quite happy to see the GE engine appearing. By far the best of the bunch. Don't forget that the ERs are also GE powered.

 

[jb747]

Do you select CLB when advised to or simply engage CLB at or about 1,000 on departure.

During the setup of the FMC, you load heights for the power change, acceleration, and engine out clean up. When the aircraft gets to the height for the power change, lever climb, starts flashing on the PFD.

You hear the term, 'in the blue' What do the colours signify?

Not quite the right term. Normally it will be something like "nav blue". It's the annunciation on top of the PFD. Blue means armed, but not engaged yet.