Ask The Pilot

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JohnM said:
Just posted. Some memorabilia for @jb747:
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A few familiar faces in there. Some of the aircraft are still flying, for Draken in the USA. They live on.

There were only ever about 60 Australian A-4 pilots, and another 15 or so from various exchanges. I tracked down almost everyone about 7 years ago, and made up a contact list. 15 ended up flying for airlines (QF, Cathay, Emirates, Alaskan), 4 flew Sea Harriers (and 3 became RN squadron COs), 5 flew Mirage, and 3 subsequently the F18. 2 flew the F-111 (and one who shall remain nameless, knocked that back). Two became COs of RAAF squadrons, and one became the Chief of the Defence Force. Oh, and 3 became (or already were) doctors.
 
747sp said:
I was looking at an article on the 777x and the photos to me show the engine as very close to the ground.
I hope I am using the right terms but will the roll of the plane and/or the compression of the landing gear be an issue when landing with striking the runway or how is that risk mitigated?
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Whilst the engines are very low, I think you'll find he most likely point of contact would be the wingtip (on the 777). I can't find the roll angle required for an engine strike on this aircraft, but I expect that it would be about 12º or so. It's a small angle, but, actually a huge one with regard to landing a big aircraft. Pilots get twitchy with more than about 3º in the flare. The most likely aircraft to strike engines on the ground is the 747. I've never heard of a 380 doing it.

Mitigation...it's largely a pilot technique issue. It's not a small aircraft, so don't fly it like one.
 
Screenshot 2024-10-02 100839.png

I'm guessing that a 48 year / 8000+ hr career in the RAAF as a fast jet pilot and instructor would be hard to match. Congratulations SQLDR Stephen Bihary and all the best on continuing your career as a sim instructor with 79 SQN...
 
ChrisGibbs said:
I'm guessing that a 48 year / 8000+ hr career in the RAAF as a fast jet pilot and instructor would be hard to match. Congratulations SQLDR Stephen Bihary and all the best on continuing your career as a sim instructor with 79 SQN...
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Quickstatus said:
Ive always wondered why some stay in one place their whole career while others move on...
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He didn't. He actually joined QF. He lived in Perth, and delayed all of his promotions, so that he'd be senior enough to make flying out of Pearce as a reservist viable.
 
Quickstatus said:
military promotions?
Can you elaborate on the "promotions" and the "senior enough"...
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This system didn't exist in my time, but apparently it's possible to change to a stream within the military in which you won't be promoted beyond Squadron Leader, but will be able to stay flying in the longer term. I don't think they generally mean this long though.

But, the promotions I was referring to were within QF. You bid for promotion slots (and aircraft types). By delaying promotion, you're relatively more senior in whatever rank you're in. Until about 2015, that meant you had a lot of control over your roster. After that time, things were shared somewhat more equitably, but around that time various bases opened in Perth that he could take and still keep himself on the RAAF's flying list.

Actually I'd call an average of almost 170 hours per year, on top of QF flying, to be an amazing effort. Even though those hours were in the RAAF, they would still count against the CASA allowed hours, so it would be quite a juggling exercise to ensure you remained below the limits
ChrisGibbs said:
That would explain the 8,000+ "military" hrs across 48 years.....
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jb747 said:
they would still count against the CASA allowed hours, so it would be quite a juggling exercise to ensure you remained below the limits
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Meaning he was somewhat part time at QF or his QF "branch seniority" enabled him to juggle a full time at the airli e?

BTW were pilots at the airlines required to work a minimum number of hours/sectors per prescribed period?
 
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Full time for the airline, part time RAAF. There was some sort of military reserve leave, but I don’t know how much that would have helped. You could also bid for a minimum flying line, but that was only about 10% less than usual. Basically he was being a fighter pilot on his days off. Quite relaxing really.
 
AV, have you had any pax (or heard of) wanting to be removed from the flight because it’s a MAX?

Some TikTok video popped up today on my feed with a pax wanting to be offloaded because it was a MAX, Southwest Airlines. Interested to hear if that behaviour is somewhat more widespread?
 
Saab34 said:
AV, have you had any pax (or heard of) wanting to be removed from the flight because it’s a MAX?

Some TikTok video popped up today on my feed with a pax wanting to be offloaded because it was a MAX, Southwest Airlines. Interested to hear if that behaviour is somewhat more widespread?
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I haven’t encountered it no, and neither has anyone else that I’ve spoken to. I wouldn’t think many people would even realise they’re on it. VA make no reference to the word MAX in any of the comms as far as I’m aware.
 
Major said:
AV, how was your HND trip ?
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It was actually really good. Day one was a killer to get to CNS though (SYD BNE PPP BNE CNS). The trip to HND itself was really good. Really took me back to my long haul days and using CPDLC (datalink - a text messaging service with ATC) again.

The way up was quite uneventful and at 7hrs 35mins block it actually went quite fast being a day trip and we arrived early to gate 140 at terminal 3. The arrival is very busy and they actually descended us quite early (about 10mins early). As we got closer to intercepting the ILS speed control was the name of the game. ATC were absolutely on to anyone not doing the speed they needed and we were back at minimum approach speed at about 3000ft. Almost reminded me of the movie Pushing Tin.

I made the most of my 24hrs off here and took in the sights of downtown Tokyo. I was there in May for a holiday and loved being back. Japan is one of my favourite countries.

Arriving back at the airport the following night and back to gate 140, we pushed back and clogged the alleyway thanks to the LEAP-1B engines taking almost 2mins to start each engine. The taxi out to runway 05 took about 25mins and after briefing the convoluted departure it got cancelled as we approached the runway and just got a heading to maintain after we got airborne.

About an hour into the flight we passed a few storms thanks to the tail end of Hurricane JEBI, who we managed to stay clear of on the way up. The route then took us straight over GUM (we were crossing with QF60 up until that point) and were actually on VHF with the Americans for another hour keeping me awake.

It wasn’t until we hit the PNG coastline where we encountered a wall of thunderstorms almost the entire length of the country and spotted a comet when we turned to take 300nm off course to avoid! Luckily we took full tanks back to CNS.

To be honest, I actually really love flying the MAX it is much more stable, quieter, and rides turbulence better than the NG. The software comes with a few extra bells and whistles which I’m getting used to and it lands so much easier as well.

I’ve only had 2 days off and now heading up to BNE tomorrow for some upper air recovery procedures in the MAX sim. The focus on this one is having the airspeed unreliable at different phases of flight. This comes around every 2-3years and is in addition to our cyclic. It just helps with upset recoveries (stalls and unusual attitudes) and we do it in the MAX sim because it is capable of doing the manoeuvres with the motion still on (unlike the NG sim).
 

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