Ask The Pilot

[JohnM]

That last post (which I did not understand a word of - but it sounded good) was AvI's 737th post. There must be a message there.

 

[Saab34]

Absolutely! There’s a lot of pilots that hate it, but I love it! It definitely takes me back. It definitely is a numbers game and there’s no nice landings on 30m strips, you’ve gotta put it down by the first 1/3 or you go around.

Are there any major CRM differences in operating in CTAF? I assume the general coughpit environment is one more on alert? -ie trying to navigate around potential training aircraft/low hour pilots/pilots not giving radio updates

I’ve heard Jetstar having a multitude of incidents in places like Ballina, and Tiger in some other places also (I’m not sure if they actually banned operating into Class G I heard they were looking at it).

I was going past Avalon late the other night after the Tower shut at 11pm and there were 4 Oxford Seminole’s training and 2 Singapore Ballarat guys. Jetstar came in amongst this also at about 1130pm which would probably make me a tad nervous trying to squeeze in let alone the foreign language differences.

 

[jb747]

Are there any major CRM differences in operating in CTAF? I assume the general coughpit environment is one more on alert? -ie trying to navigate around potential training aircraft/low hour pilots/pilots not giving radio updates.

Thankfully the only times I had to operate to a CTAF were when moving aircraft to or from Avalon for maintenance. We’d normally get a good idea of what was happening there from Melbourne ATC, before we dropped out of their airspace.

On one occasion there were a number of aircraft in the area, and one, who must have been a regular, decided that he should play ringmaster, and organise everyone. He started by asking what type all of the aircraft were. When we replied with 747-400, his little spacing plan fell apart. We just suggested that they all hop over to the Geelong side of the circuit, and we’d be out of their way quickly.

 

[AviatorInsight]

That last post (which I did not understand a word of - but it sounded good) was AvI's 737th post. There must be a message there.

Thanks John! The question is about a Common Traffic Advisory Frequency Aerodome (CTAF for short), in other words a non towered aerodrome. These are places like Ayers Rock, Ballina, Mildura etc in which there's a mix of 60kt Jabiru aircraft all the way up to B737/A320 aircraft without an air traffic controller. It's definitely challenging in a jet as your closure rate to the field is about 4nm/min.

What I meant by a 30m strip is noting the width of the runway. Most strips at larger airports are 45m or 60m wide. So this is pretty thin for a jet. The turning radius of a 737 is 23m so you can quickly see it's very challenging. Hence why I love flying into these places.

For 30m runways there's a 10kt crosswind limit for all FOs, if it's greater than that then the Capt will perform the take off and landing.

 

[AviatorInsight]

Are there any major CRM differences in operating in CTAF? I assume the general coughpit environment is one more on alert? -ie trying to navigate around potential training aircraft/low hour pilots/pilots not giving radio updates

I’ve heard Jetstar having a multitude of incidents in places like Ballina, and Tiger in some other places also (I’m not sure if they actually banned operating into Class G I heard they were looking at it).

I was going past Avalon late the other night after the Tower shut at 11pm and there were 4 Oxford Seminole’s training and 2 Singapore Ballarat guys. Jetstar came in amongst this also at about 1130pm which would probably make me a tad nervous trying to squeeze in let alone the foreign language differences.

Not so much CRM differences but communication is definitely key here. You need to have a good idea of what's going on between crew and then with other traffic and get a good picture in your mind off where everyone is. Trying to play ATC just because you're in a jet is rude and not sharing the airspace. Whether you're sharing it with a weekend warrior or another jet aircraft you need to have good situational awareness.

Ballina is a classic example, usually most lighter aircraft will be courteous towards you and just give way, but then there's some that genuinely don't know what to do and have never left their training area so you can't always rely on TCAS either for separation.

The likes of Ballina has the CA/GRS (certified air ground radio service), this guy is in his car on site and provides traffic information only and local QNH. He does NOT provide traffic separation, that's not to say that there's other traffic in the area either.

A big problem I find with jet and IFR aircraft in general is that even on a CAVOK day, they're still talking in IFR speak. "xyzzy is 30nm to OPAMI inbound for the RNAV X RNP 06", now old mate in his Jabiru is going to have no idea WTF you're on about, so I make it clear in plain english that we're actually "30nm to the south of Ballina inbound for 5nm final straight in on runway 06 and our estimate for that point is time xx". Sure if the weather is down to 500ft AGL and IMC conditions exist with other IFR aircraft only then sure talk the talk but you need to be able to adapt the lingo depending on the day.

 

[flyer89]

A big problem I find with jet and IFR aircraft in general is that even on a CAVOK day, they're still talking in IFR speak. "xyzzy is 30nm to OPAMI inbound for the RNAV X RNP 06", now old mate in his Jabiru is going to have no idea WTF you're on about, so I make it clear in plain english that we're actually "30nm to the south of Ballina inbound for 5nm final straight in on runway 06 and our estimate for that point is time xx". Sure if the weather is down to 500ft AGL and IMC conditions exist with other IFR aircraft only then sure talk the talk but you need to be able to adapt the lingo depending on the day.

I generally find the jet and turboprop guys know the score and are very good. Old mate in his glider that sounds like Darth Vader on the radio near Bathurst worries me much more.

 

[I love to travel]

@AviatorInsight and any other commercial pilots out there are the airlines proactively discussing the Coronavirus with staff, making contingency plans etc?

 

[Franky]

On one occasion there were a number of aircraft in the area, and one, who must have been a regular, decided that he should play ringmaster, and organise everyone. He started by asking what type all of the aircraft were. When we replied with 747-400, his little spacing plan fell apart. We just suggested that they all hop over to the Geelong side of the circuit, and we’d be out of their way quickly.

At least he showed some initiative I guess, but then obviously realised that size does count...

 

[kookaburra75]

I generally find the jet and turboprop guys know the score and are very good. Old mate in his glider that sounds like Darth Vader on the radio near Bathurst worries me much more.

And then there are places like Oshkosh to fly into. It gave me a great appreciation there are bigger places than.Australia, and a lot more aircraft

 

[AviatorInsight]

@AviatorInsight and any other commercial pilots out there are the airlines proactively discussing the Coronavirus with staff, making contingency plans etc?

VA is definitely proactive in discussing it via email to everyone. They’re constantly updating on the HKG services and at this stage they still deem it safe to do so.

 

[flychrisfly]

6: limited panel, this is a CASA requirement and all screens had to be failed where even me in the right seat had to fly on the standby instruments in front of the Captain.

How do you do this? Is it just a matter of leaning over to get a look? Any issues with parallax errors?

 

[AviatorInsight]

How do you do this? Is it just a matter of leaning over to get a look? Any issues with parallax errors?

I can actually see it from my side without leaning over but my eyes start to hurt after a while looking at such a small square. There is a little bit of parallax in there for sure (this had the artificial horizon, the altimeter and airspeed indicators underneath each other and not all on the one display like some newer 737s).

It really is just a box ticking exercise. Thankfully the checkies know this and don’t spend too much time on it from my side at least.

I also had plenty of practice as an instructor looking at the instruments from the right seat, so it just stays with you I guess? I didn’t have any issues with it.

 

[jb747]

How do you do this? Is it just a matter of leaning over to get a look? Any issues with parallax errors?

There are very few instruments these days that aren't some form of LED/LCD, so there's no parallax. There was in the old days, but nobody flies the standby accurately enough to get too worried about it.

The main attitude indicator display can actually be moved all over the place on most aircraft. Whilst it's normally on the outboard of the two displays in front of you, at the touch of a button, you can swap it with the nav display. Strangely, if you're doing a pre-flight, and it's in the wrong position, it doesn't jump out at you. In the 380, it can also move down on to the console, using one of the displays there, but you need failures to have happened to enable that change.

 

[Quickstatus]

LCD screens
Do pilots have special polaroid sunnies that work with their LDC screens?


QF 747 evac flight:
Do the flight can cabin crew have to don these suits or will the P2 masks be sufficient?

 

[jb747]

LCD screens
Do pilots have special polaroid sunnies that work with their LDC screens?

Polarised glasses make the screens invisible, and also interfere badly with the view through the coughpit windows. I generally didn’t wear sunglasses, but when I did, the only ones that worked well were from a mob called Serengeti. They seemed to block the glare outside, without affecting vision within the coughpit.

QF 747 evac flight:
Do the flight can cabin crew have to don these suits or will the P2 masks be sufficient?

If the issue is so bad that bio suits have to be worn, then I‘d have to wonder why you’re running any sort of flight.

I expect the crew will be from management, so they’re expendable by defintion.

 

[Flashback]

@jb747 did you fly in the golden age of travel when smoking was allowed on board and if so, did it ever give any (mild) visibility issues in the coughpit?

 

[jb747]

@jb747 did you fly in the golden age of travel when smoking was allowed on board and if so, did it ever give any (mild) visibility issues in the coughpit?

I don't know about visibility issues, but it certainly caused some CRM problems.

Thankfully, by the time I started with the airlines (1985) smoking was already on the wane. I'm not sure when it was banned within the coughpit, but there were a number of captains who felt that that rule did not apply to them. One bloke went so far as to light up his pipe...and complained when I reached up and fitted my oxygen mask. The engineer simpy got up and walked out of the coughpit.

 

[flyer89]

I think some may assume that smoking has been outlawed on all aircraft however, this isn’t the case. It’s the operator who determines that. If a brave (yet stupid) airline were to allow smoking they would be able to do so as long as they conformed to the regulations (takeoff, landing, not smoking in toilets etc).

A number of years ago a bizjet friend of mine was flying around the CEO of a rather well known Japanese tech company. Said CEO liked to smoke onboard and also liked to smoke in bed. My friend as PIC politely explained to him the likely outcome of the aircraft caught fire in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean. He never lit up again.

 

[serfty]

I think some may assume that smoking has been outlawed on all aircraft however, this isn’t the case. It’s the operator who determines that. If a brave (yet stupid) airline were to allow smoking they would be able to do so as long as they conformed to the regulations (takeoff, landing, not smoking in toilets etc).

I believe commercial airlines operating in/from/to Oz do not have a choice due to Federal regulation banning smoking in all Australian airports, and international and domestic flights.

Smoking was banned on all domestic flights in late 1987, on any flight within Australian airspace in 1990, and on all international flights to / from Australia in 1996.

 

[flyer89]

Federal law bans smoking in all Australian Commonwealth government buildings, public transport, airports, and international and domestic flights. Australia banned smoking on domestic flights in December 1987, on international flights within Australian airspace in 1990, and in 1996 banned smoking on all Australian international flights.

I stand corrected. The regulations would apply to all non airline (RPT) operations.