Ask The Pilot

[jb747]

JB can you tell us more about the 767 rocking caused by the toy? Sounds intriguing. Thanks so much.

There's not a great deal to the story. The aircraft was in the cruise with all normal, when it started the gentle rocking. I'm not sure now, how it was noticed that the toy was involved. But the child was seated near the front, and the rocking would stop if the toy were turned off, and start immediately when it was turned back on. It was also position sensitive. Didn't affect the other autopilots, just the one initially engaged. It was in the early days of mobile phones.

 

[oz_mark]

I was on a flight into London Stansted last night and about 8 minutes before landing the captain came on the PA and said something along the lines of "This is your captain, please leave your phones on flight mode, it is interfering with our radios". Then again once we had arrived at the gate he came on again with a longer message about leaving your phones on flight mode as it becomes dangerous to have interference when in busy airspace.

I've never heard a pilot request this in the middle of the flight, just at the start. What systems on the plane would be interfered with, and how serious does it get?

I was on a flight once where the pilot said it was causing interference in his headset, and he didn't want to miss anything that was being said.

 

[Quickstatus]

We had a neighbour’s baby monitor interfere with our wifi. Tanked the speed.
Took a while to work out but it happened only at certain times of week.

There used to be a sign in hospitals to turn off mobile phones. But there was never a recommendation to Pacemaker (PPM) wearers to not use mobile phones.

However some of the latest mobile phones with magnets may interfere with PPM -magnets are used to flip a magnetic switch inside the PPM to temporarily cause the PPM to enter a special operating mode during certain surgeries.

 

[NM]

Could the "interference" be audio noise in the radio used to communicate with ATC? Similar to what used to be common when a mobile phone was close to a regular AM/FM radio and the polling/synchonisation with the cellular tower would create a series of blasts through the radio speaker. I expect that type of noise in the radio communications with ATC might make communicating challenging especially in busy air space where requesting a "say again" might not be timely.

 

[jb747]

Could the "interference" be audio noise in the radio used to communicate with ATC? Similar to what used to be common when a mobile phone was close to a regular AM/FM radio and the polling/synchonisation with the cellular tower would create a series of blasts through the radio speaker. I expect that type of noise in the radio communications with ATC might make communicating challenging especially in busy air space where requesting a "say again" might not be timely.

Generally, the VHF (and UHF in the military) radios are interference free. Most noise is caused by overtransmission (two at once), but the environment is reasonably quiet. It depends upon the aircraft though. For whatever reason, the Airbus had more background noise when in cloud (from the static buildup) than did the Boeings that I’ve flown.

 

[ChrisGibbs]

I do recall being a regular on many early morning QF1/9 744 arrivals into LHR between the December - February months of 1995-1997 the weather was less than average. On one particular arrival we held for sometime before making the approach to RWY27L The Captains PA before joining finals telling passengers to turn their phones off was an absolute classic. The culprit was sitting in Row 11 upstairs. From memory the Captain was Audie L…

 

[jb747]

From memory the Captain was Audie L…

Everything about Audie was classic. One of the great characters to fly with.

 

[torks]

What aircraft type, @torks ?

This was a 737-800

 

[ChrisGibbs]

Everything about Audie was classic. One of the great characters to fly with.

Many years back I heard he was down on the South Coast with what was the Royal Volunteer Coastal patrol now Marine Rescue NSW...

 

[Saab34]

With the recent events in China, one morning breakfast show was having a discussion around Cameras in the coughpit that record and send back to base. Is this something that would resonate well with the Pilot bodies? Having actions basically monitored at all times? I disagree with the approach but interested to hear your opinions.

 

[AviatorInsight]

With the recent events in China, one morning breakfast show was having a discussion around Cameras in the coughpit that record and send back to base. Is this something that would resonate well with the Pilot bodies? Having actions basically monitored at all times? I disagree with the approach but interested to hear your opinions.

They’ve tried having discussions about this in the past and the response was hell no! (To put it politely)

 

[jb747]

With the recent events in China, one morning breakfast show was having a discussion around Cameras in the coughpit that record and send back to base. Is this something that would resonate well with the Pilot bodies? Having actions basically monitored at all times? I disagree with the approach but interested to hear your opinions.

Realistically, it would provide nothing that the flight recorders don't already grab. And I'd expect that if they were installed, they'd mostly film the inside of our caps.

 

[Saab34]

AV are you back working 100% again. I hope so. Any sort of indication when they expect Domestic travel to be all guns firing again? I assume later this year?

 

[Quickstatus]

Talking about QF pilots of olde

What happened to the Qantas pilots who flew the vintage aeroplane in South Africa.
Can’t remember their names but they were seriously injured. I believe one was a retired pilot…..

 

[AviatorInsight]

AV are you back working 100% again. I hope so. Any sort of indication when they expect Domestic travel to be all guns firing again? I assume later this year?

I’m on full time rosters but not flying full time hours. So far a lot has been spent on reserve. This is a personnel issue with many ports still struggling to attain people after the lockdowns including ground crew/pit crew/cabin crew, etc. A lot have found other jobs during that time that most likely have paid more so they’ve left.

I’m told the company want to fly around 19,000 block hours next month (similar to pre Covid levels) but I just don’t see them hitting it. We still don’t have enough planes or crew for those kinds of hours.

 

[jb747]

Talking about QF pilots of olde

What happened to the Qantas pilots who flew the vintage aeroplane in South Africa.
Can’t remember their names but they were seriously injured. I believe one was a retired pilot…..

Ross was in a coma for about a year and died. Doug recovered, but lost his medical because of his injuries.

 

[ChrisGibbs]

Was in BNE this week and saw a QF A330 doing its best impersonation of a bus. Would this indicate one of the ground crew in BNE has a good sense of humour and entered IMABUS in the MCDU?

 

[jb747]

I've never had cause to look at a 330's CDU, but you could enter silly flight numbers/names in the -400 in the early days, pre uploading of the flight plans. I expect it's the same. It suddenly stopped, when people realised that whatever was displayed on the CDU also appeared on a number of ground installations...

 

[747sp]

I think read that when Qantas takes an a380 out of desert storage they have flown the plane back to LAX with the wheels down the whole way. I assume that they can't test the undercarriage so they don't take the risk of putting it up and down. Is that correct and what other parts or systems would not be used in such a flight ?

 

[jb747]

I think read that when Qantas takes an a380 out of desert storage they have flown the plane back to LAX with the wheels down the whole way. I assume that they can't test the undercarriage so they don't take the risk of putting it up and down. Is that correct and what other parts or systems would not be used in such a flight ?

I think the issue is that they need to do an emergency gear extension test, and it has to be on the jacks for that to happen. Nothing else comes to mind for the flight though. The flight controls/flaps/slats would all be tested before the flight, though if the gear is down, it probably won't get over 200 knots, so the flaps may be left at 1 or 2. The gear speed limit is 250 knots, but it's too noisy if you go faster than about 180 knots.