Ask The Pilot

[jb747]

The other QF30 incident in ?2011?, involved a pilot who was supposed to operate QF30 HKG-MEL but who was offloaded with his son in HKG and had to make his own way home because of some industrial matter. Do you know what happened to him?

I heard a vague story, but never any details. As far as I know, he’s still flying for them. He continued until 65 then moved to the 737.

 

[jb747]

With the new Brisbane Chicago flight how are the pilots trained on the layout of chicago airport. I assume everyone will have a map but is there anymore support beyond that ?

Most likely there will be a briefing guide of some sort, but it will only be a couple of pages. It will tell us about the handling company, bays we might use, and how to get in and out of the terminal if they happen to have any special aircrew procedures.

The airports themselves rarely need anything beyond what’s contained in the Jeppesen charts.

 

[RSD]

Most likely there will be a briefing guide of some sort, but it will only be a couple of pages. It will tell us about the handling company, bays we might use, and how to get in and out of the terminal if they happen to have any special aircrew procedures.

The airports themselves rarely need anything beyond what’s contained in the Jeppesen charts.

Will be very interesting to see how these Chicago trips play out given the notorious weather there - I can see QF Dreamliners being scattered at various diversion airports and crews out of hours to get them to O'Hare when the weather clears

 

[jb747]

Will be very interesting to see how these Chicago trips play out given the notorious weather there - I can see QF Dreamliners being scattered at various diversion airports and crews out of hours to get them to O'Hare when the weather clears

If you don't plan ahead, that's certainly a risk. I suspect that the bigger issue might turn out to be medical. Obviously there's no planning ahead for that one.

When the weather is suspect, they may be able to position extra people from LA or SFO to one of the likely diversion spots. Kansas City for example. They occasionally position people to Brisbane in case of diversions.

 

[Quickstatus]

If you don't plan ahead, that's certainly a risk. I suspect that the bigger issue might turn out to be medical. Obviously there's no planning ahead for that one.

When the weather is suspect, they may be able to position extra people from LA or SFO to one of the likely diversion spots. Kansas City for example. They occasionally position people to Brisbane in case of diversions.

Or maybe just drop into LAX/SFO so no one needs to position?

 

[RSD]

If you don't plan ahead, that's certainly a risk. I suspect that the bigger issue might turn out to be medical. Obviously there's no planning ahead for that one.

I spent five years commuting almost weekly in and out of O'Hare and would certainly think that there would be some advantage to QF developing a list of preferred options for weather diversions - the weather is so changeable (and often ugly) there that diversions are a very regular occurence.

When the weather is suspect, they may be able to position extra people from LA or SFO to one of the likely diversion spots. Kansas City for example. They occasionally position people to Brisbane in case of diversions.

From what I saw when I was living there when the weather shuts O'Hare suddenly it quickly becomes "any (air)port in a storm" for hundreds of planes, and the weather turns bad there so quickly that prepositioning would be well behind the curve.

 

[ozfflyer]

There used to be an aerobridge in Melbourne, which would attach to right 1 on the 747s. I have no idea how it ended up that way. The convention exists because the cargo doors are on the right, but nothing inherently stops you from using the right hand side for passengers.

thanks noticed Nauru using right doors on a 737-300

 

[Melburnian1]

On Saturday 2 November, QF771 (0800 hours morning MEL to PER with A332 VH-EBF) was airborne at 0821. There was quite a lot of rain around. It then did a right turn and a loop above Broadford, Wandong and Kilmore before tracking north above Heathcote (Vic) and then westwards.

Was this so the aircraft could gain altitude to avoid storm cells?

 

[jb747]

On Saturday 2 November, QF771 (0800 hours morning MEL to PER with A332 VH-EBF) was airborne at 0821. There was quite a lot of rain around. It then did a right turn and a loop above Broadford, Wandong and Kilmore before tracking north above Heathcote (Vic) and then westwards.

Was this so the aircraft could gain altitude to avoid storm cells?

That is a somewhat curious track. Normally you manoeuvre around cells, and it's only rarely that you'd attempt to out climb them. I don't have a radar paint for the time, so I can't really say exactly what they were doing.

 

[jb747]

There’s been a bit of discussion in another thread about the 787 oxygen system, and oxygen systems in general. And I noticed on another forum, that another of my QF friends has recently retired. And the two together reminded me of something.

Back in ‘92 I was nearing the end of my command training on the 767. I had done all of the flights and sims, with the exception of the final check. Scheduling were having trouble fitting a check in for me, with the result that instead of a short break after the final training flight, I was going to have to wait for a couple of weeks for the check. At that point you didn’t need more time to study; if you didn’t know it, you weren’t going to, but too much time can let the flying go cool. The training manager saw this, and although he couldn’t schedule the final any earlier, he was able to offer a flight to keep my hand in.

He was doing base training with two SOs who were just about to start their line flying for their FO training. You’d take an aircraft to quiet airport (Avalon, Amberley), and spend hours doing circuits. In this case, each SO was to get an hour in the circuit. The aircraft was in Sydney, and the training was going to happen in Amberley, with it being returned to Sydney when we finished. My job was to fly it from Sydney to Amberley and back, and to watch over the shoulders whilst the training was happening.

We picked up the aircraft from maintenance, so it wasn’t at one of the terminal aerobridges. The first SO and I set up the coughpit for the flight, whilst the training Captain had a look at the cabin and the outside. Number two SO sat in the coughpit and watched the goings on. At this point, neither of these guys have done anything in the actual aircraft, so it was just as likely the first time they’d set foot on one. I then flew up to Amberley (with the TC in the right hand seat). On arrival, I landed just behind a pair of F-111s, taxied off the runway, and came to a halt on the taxiway. TC gets out of the left seat, SO #1 hops in the right, and then TC took my seat. Taxi back to the start of the runway, and off we go. The 767 was not the easiest of aircraft to land, and had a well deserved reputation for solid arrivals. SO1 was ex RAAF C-130, and was doing a pretty good job. After his time was up, SO #2 hops in for his turn. This bloke is ex GA, and the biggest thing he’s ever flown was pretty small. So, for the next hour or so, he attempts to pound the runway back to sea level. It was actually a pretty good first go, but he’s not to know that.

Time to fly back to Sydney. So, we come off the runway again, and I get back into the left seat. Blast off back to the south. Now, SO #2 has time to go for a walk around the cabin, and he’s horrified to see that there are oxygen masks dropped throughout the cabin. Not all of them, but about 20%. So, he spends the hour of our journey putting them back into their stowage. Later, he confides to me and SO#1. We manage to keep straight faces...because he never saw the tech log, or went to the cabin before departure. The masks had been dropped by engineering, who were half way through a job, and just left them down to be stowed on return.

We never did tell him, but now that he’s retired (as a 330 Captain), I wonder if I should.

 

[Melburnian1]

There’s been a bit of discussion in another thread about the 787 oxygen system, and oxygen systems in general. And I noticed on another forum, that another of my QF friends has recently retired. And the two together reminded me of something....We never did tell him, but now that he’s retired (as a 330 Captain), I wonder if I should.

If he reads this, you already have.

 

[Nank]

Ahhh gold mate. I really think you should. Perhaps over a beer or two at the local pub but definitely tell him

There’s been a bit of discussion in another thread about the 787 oxygen system, and oxygen systems in general. And I noticed on another forum, that another of my QF friends has recently retired. And the two together reminded me of something.

Back in ‘92 I was nearing the end of my command training on the 767. I had done all of the flights and sims, with the exception of the final check. Scheduling were having trouble fitting a check in for me, with the result that instead of a short break after the final training flight, I was going to have to wait for a couple of weeks for the check. At that point you didn’t need more time to study; if you didn’t know it, you weren’t going to, but too much time can let the flying go cool. The training manager saw this, and although he couldn’t schedule the final any earlier, he was able to offer a flight to keep my hand in.

He was doing base training with two SOs who were just about to start their line flying for their FO training. You’d take an aircraft to quiet airport (Avalon, Amberley), and spend hours doing circuits. In this case, each SO was to get an hour in the circuit. The aircraft was in Sydney, and the training was going to happen in Amberley, with it being returned to Sydney when we finished. My job was to fly it from Sydney to Amberley and back, and to watch over the shoulders whilst the training was happening.

We picked up the aircraft from maintenance, so it wasn’t at one of the terminal aerobridges. The first SO and I set up the coughpit for the flight, whilst the training Captain had a look at the cabin and the outside. Number two SO sat in the coughpit and watched the goings on. At this point, neither of these guys have done anything in the actual aircraft, so it was just as likely the first time they’d set foot on one. I then flew up to Amberley (with the TC in the right hand seat). On arrival, I landed just behind a pair of F-111s, taxied off the runway, and came to a halt on the taxiway. TC gets out of the left seat, SO #1 hops in the right, and then TC took my seat. Taxi back to the start of the runway, and off we go. The 767 was not the easiest of aircraft to land, and had a well deserved reputation for solid arrivals. SO1 was ex RAAF C-130, and was doing a pretty good job. After his time was up, SO #2 hops in for his turn. This bloke is ex GA, and the biggest thing he’s ever flown was pretty small. So, for the next hour or so, he attempts to pound the runway back to sea level. It was actually a pretty good first go, but he’s not to know that.

Time to fly back to Sydney. So, we come off the runway again, and I get back into the left seat. Blast off back to the south. Now, SO #2 has time to go for a walk around the cabin, and he’s horrified to see that there are oxygen masks dropped throughout the cabin. Not all of them, but about 20%. So, he spends the hour of our journey putting them back into their stowage. Later, he confides to me and SO#1. We manage to keep straight faces...because he never saw the tech log, or went to the cabin before departure. The masks had been dropped by engineering, who were half way through a job, and just left them down to be stowed on return.

We never did tell him, but now that he’s retired (as a 330 Captain), I wonder if I should.

Ahh gold mate. I reckon you should.
Might as well throw a quick question up here too while I can.
As I'm a student pilot at MBW at the moment about to go for my RPL, I'm pretty well used to our callsigns just being our rego etc., but I'm wondering why some airlines (QF doesn't seem to do it) put in letters with their callsign and leave others as just the flight number, for example Etihad 460 AUH-MEL has the callsign ETD460, but the return trip Etihad 461 MEL-AUH uses ETD10K. Similarly, Emirates' redeye EK408 DXB-MEL uses UAE58E and the return EK407 MEL-DXB uses UAE7DK. Is there some scheduling reason behind this that they use various different callsigns because I'm pretty confused by it.
Also not sure if your allowed to name names but have you ever flown with Craig Bowman? He is on the A380 at QF. I go to school with his son

Cheers

 

[AviatorInsight]

Ahhh gold mate. I really think you should. Perhaps over a beer or two at the local pub but definitely tell him


Ahh gold mate. I reckon you should.
Might as well throw a quick question up here too while I can.
As I'm a student pilot at MBW at the moment about to go for my RPL, I'm pretty well used to our callsigns just being our rego etc., but I'm wondering why some airlines (QF doesn't seem to do it) put in letters with their callsign and leave others as just the flight number, for example Etihad 460 AUH-MEL has the callsign ETD460, but the return trip Etihad 461 MEL-AUH uses ETD10K. Similarly, Emirates' redeye EK408 DXB-MEL uses UAE58E and the return EK407 MEL-DXB uses UAE7DK. Is there some scheduling reason behind this that they use various different callsigns because I'm pretty confused by it.
Also not sure if your allowed to name names but have you ever flown with Craig Bowman? He is on the A380 at QF. I go to school with his son

Cheers

When I first heard it I thought maybe it was the freighter flight. After asking a few colleagues in the UAE, the airspace is quite congested over there and this was the result to avoid call sign confusion on the radio.

Most of the time airlines will append the letter D on the end of the call sign to denote that it’s the delayed service. This is handy when it’s flying close to the scheduled service.

Good Luck on the RPL.

 

[jb747]

Also not sure if your allowed to name names but have you ever flown with Craig Bowman? He is on the A380 at QF. I go to school with his son

Yes, I know Craig. We only ever flew together on one trip, way back in 1993. We flew Sydney - Taipei and back. He was my FO.

 

[Townsend]

Hi jb747, I may be showing my ignorance but I have just been reading that qf7879 did not fly the great circle but went a more southerly but longer route. As I would have thought that trying to save fuel would have been important when determining whether Project Sunrise would be viable,I was wondering if you could tell me why the plane would have flown the longer router?

Many thanks

 

[jb747]

Hi jb747, I may be showing my ignorance but I have just been reading that qf7879 did not fly the great circle but went a more southerly but longer route. As I would have thought that trying to save fuel would have been important when determining whether Project Sunrise would be viable,I was wondering if you could tell me why the plane would have flown the longer router?

I’m not sure where you’re getting the great circle that you’re comparing its track to, but as I see it the route on flight radar and greatcirclemap.com are very close. You can’t just go anywhere you want...all of that airspace is very tightly controlled.

But, it’s important to remember that this flight, is, in no way at all, a proving flight. Feedback has it that the fuel required in the later third of the flight has a cost of carriage in the order of 700 kgs/1,000 kgs. So, to have 300 kgs near the end, you’ll have had to load 1,000 kg. Viability will have much more to do with cost of fuel, as these flights are extremely fuel inefficient, and perhaps green issues. QF have been operating the 787 for long enough to know its exact burn at every weight, so there should have been zero surprises.

 

[Townsend]

Thank you. That was very informative.

 

[Himeno]

A reposition flight from JFK to LGA. Flight plan filed, but ATC couldn't find it. Pilots then asked to go VFR instead of waiting for everything to get refiled and new plan located.
The VFR request, which they ended up flying, confused everyone.

Would this be more common outside the US?

 

[jb747]

Would this be more common outside the US?

VFR or IFR, he should really have had the same need for a flight plan. The controllers basically seem to have taken pity on him.

 

[Fergo747]

Pilots, as I was flying back from CNS yesterday I started to wonder what your ideal flight length / timing is? Is it the 1-2 hour triangle route, 3-5 transcon / trans Tasman, 6-9 SE Asia / Hawaii or the >10 hours long haul? I can imagine that each of these length flights has positives and negatives.

I realise that this is a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string' question and somewhat down to personal preference but curious as to what each of our resident aviators prefer - particularly given it sounds as if over your careers you've done a mixture of all.