Ask The Pilot

[Saab34]

One last one from me AV, the winds around Melbourne and Sydney have been pretty wild in the last few days/week. Have you operated in the last few days in this weather and what’s it been like operating in such conditions?

 

[Hvr]

The inaugural will be flown by a management pilot.

So, what do management pilots actually do? Obviously they do the glory flights but what else?
And since they fly, how are their flights determined? Just part of the roster or do they pick up a flight when they want/need to?

And are there management pilots for each type of plane?

Thanks.

 

[jb747]

So, what do management pilots actually do?

A question that has long been pondered.

 

[AviatorInsight]

One last one from me AV, the winds around Melbourne and Sydney have been pretty wild in the last few days/week. Have you operated in the last few days in this weather and what’s it been like operating in such conditions?

Honestly, I enjoy the challenge. The hardest part has been my continuous roster changes, aircraft and crew changes, and long delays. This morning’s SYD-MEL took almost 2 hours due to the wind (165kts at FL380).

 

[AviatorInsight]

So, what do management pilots actually do? Obviously they do the glory flights but what else?
And since they fly, how are their flights determined? Just part of the roster or do they pick up a flight when they want/need to?

And are there management pilots for each type of plane?

Thanks.

That’s what I don’t get either. Have no idea what they do. Most of them have been given the nickname “seagull“ because you’d have to throw rocks at them to fly a typical line day.

If they do go flying, their rosters can be manually built because they still need to stay current, but yes they also take all the good flights.

There are managers specifically for each fleet type.

 

[Saab34]

I know a Tiger pilot from the early days, I remember he was always whinging that Management took the same flights every week, the nice shifts, which was the morning shift Melbourne to Gold Coast return, and only Monday to Friday’s!

 

[jb747]

Honestly, I enjoy the challenge. The hardest part has been my continuous roster changes, aircraft and crew changes, and long delays. This morning’s SYD-MEL took almost 2 hours due to the wind (165kts at FL380).

Why go so high? In 767 days the northbound stuff was very high, whilst we were often in the mid twenties heading to Melbourne.

 

[AviatorInsight]

Why go so high? In 767 days the northbound stuff was very high, whilst we were often in the mid twenties heading to Melbourne.

That was the smoothest of all the levels from 240-400. We looked at 200 for a bit where the wind was around 120kts but still light to moderate turbulence. In typical MEL fashion we got slowed. So rather than getting bumped around and flying slow, we elected to climb where the ride was better and let the wind do its thing.

 

[Saab34]

Why go so high? In 767 days the northbound stuff was very high, whilst we were often in the mid twenties heading to Melbourne.

Does the flight planning departments give you advice or guidance on what flight levels to initially go with?

 

[jb747]

The route between Sydney and Melbourne is quite short, and would just be a leg of an international trip. The flight plans often provided information for a couple of lower levels, but only for one leg. Whilst you could choose to go low on a short flight, it would be dangerous on a longer flight, where you’re too likely to be stuck down there by traffic grabbing the higher levels on top of you. Strategically, it was almost always better to be the one grabbing the higher level, even though that would put you higher than optimum for a while. The planning departments do not have the ability or route knowledge (and it's dynamic anyway) to do anything like that. They generate a straight min fuel flight plan, which assumes you can get everything you want, when you ask for it.

 

[xt_20]

I was just looking at FR24 on SYD departures today. Almost every flight was using the cross runway (07/25?), however MAS122 used 34L. Question is does the airport authority suggest, but the pilot decides? Therefore the MH pilot was the only one who doesn't mind the high winds? Or possibly the winds weren't as high during that short period in time?

 

[jb747]

I was just looking at FR24 on SYD departures today. Almost every flight was using the cross runway (07/25?), however MAS122 used 34L.

Well, most of the flights you were looking at would have been domestic of some sort, and they generally don't need anywhere near as much runway as the longer/heavier flights. QF1 and QF11 both used either 34 or 16.

Question is does the airport authority suggest, but the pilot decides?

ATC can make any runway they like the 'duty' runway. But as a pilot, you do not have to accept it. Anyway, they'd expect most of the heavies to be wanting the long runway, so it wouldn't be a surprise.

Therefore the MH pilot was the only one who doesn't mind the high winds? Or possibly the winds weren't as high during that short period in time?

The recorded values are mostly around the 20 knot mark, with one period having gusts to 30. That's well within most heavy crosswind limits. Plus, it's much easier to handle a crosswind on takeoff compared to landing.

To use the shorter runway, you'd use the lowest value of the wind (and probably subtract about 5 knots from that). So, the performance calculation would be for a short runway with about a 15 knot headwind. For many heavy flights leaving Sydney, that would be severely performance limiting. On the other hand, the long runways, with that crosswind, would be unlimited.

 

[jase05]

Interesting incident from 2017 involving a EK A380 DXB-SYD

https://reports.aviation-safety.net/2017/20170107-0_CL60_D-AMSC_PRELIM.pdf

 

[JohnM]

Interesting incident from 2017 involving a EK A380 DXB-SYD
View attachment 335121

https://reports.aviation-safety.net/2017/20170107-0_CL60_D-AMSC_PRELIM.pdf

Covered by Mentour Pilot a while back:

 

[jase05]

Covered by Mentour Pilot a while back:

Cheers, I’ll go and have a look. I must admit I haven’t really checked out that site before

 

[jb747]

Interesting incident from 2017 involving a EK A380 DXB-SYD

Mentour’s video on this is very good.

 

[Quickstatus]

Mentour’s video on this is very good.

Except the bit about Bernoulli...

 

[jb747]

Except the bit about Bernoulli...

It provides a workable explanation, without having to be a scientist.

 

[Quickstatus]

It provides a workable explanation

It did allude to angle of attack in the graphics without mentioning it so I'll give him that.
When I was a kid, I could not work out why the aircraft wings were cambered while my Kite was not and yet it flew.

 

[jb747]

It did allude to angle of attack in the graphics without mentioning it so I'll give him that.
When I was a kid, I could not work out why the aircraft wings were cambered while my Kite was not and yet it flew.

You can get into all sorts of things when you start looking. AoA. Rigging angle/incidence. Washout. Sweep.

I'll have to have another look at this incident, but I seem to recall being critical of their recovery. -3.2g doesn't really make much sense. When you run into wake, from an aircraft in front, it's like gentle, but very strong, hand gripping the aircraft and rolling/moving it. Of course, that's from one big aircraft to another.

Anyway, this simply shows why small aircraft should be making use of upwind offsets.