Ask The Pilot

[HighAltitude05]

Hi everyone!

I am new to this forum and was wondering if I am able to become a commercial pilot in Australia given my height. I am a 152cm male and I would love to be able to fly aircraft such as the 737, 787, A330 and A350.

Your help would be much appreciated. Thank you!

 

[AviatorInsight]

Hi everyone!

I am new to this forum and was wondering if I am able to become a commercial pilot in Australia given my height. I am a 152cm male and I would love to be able to fly aircraft such as the 737, 787, A330 and A350.

Your help would be much appreciated. Thank you!

There are no height restrictions for commercial pilots in Australia. You may need a cushion for flight training in some of the single engine propeller aircraft but the modern jet aircraft all have adjustable seats and rudder pedals so you can reach the controls.

Some of our smaller pilots still elected to bring a seat cushion with them in the 777 and 737.

 

[HighAltitude05]

There are no height restrictions for commercial pilots in Australia. You may need a cushion for flight training in some of the single engine propeller aircraft but the modern jet aircraft all have adjustable seats and rudder pedals so you can reach the controls.

Some of our smaller pilots still elected to bring a seat cushion with them in the 777 and 737.

Thank you so much for getting back to me so quickly.

I am also curious if it's possible to potentially become a pilot in my 30s. I was thinking about saving the $100,000 for the CPL after graduating as my family can't afford to spend that much. Also, is job stability a concern in this career? I know that COVID-19 made airlines lay off a lot of staff. Is this sort of thing common?

Again, thanks so much for asking my questions.

 

[jb747]

I am also curious if it's possible to potentially become a pilot in my 30s. I was thinking about saving the $100,000 for the CPL after graduating as my family can't afford to spend that much. Also, is job stability a concern in this career? I know that COVID-19 made airlines lay off a lot of staff. Is this sort of thing common?

How old are you now?

Airlines generally want experience commensurate with age. So young pilots with very low hours, but progressively more experience as they get older. At 30 you’d probably need a couple of thousand hours, or be from the air force to have any chance.

Progression within the airlines can be extremely slow. Right now, it takes about 20 years in the company before QF will look at you for a 737 command.

At this instant in time there is a shortage of pilots, caused by a combination of demographics, and the choices airlines made during covid. The upshot is that there are some interesting jobs on offer, but not at the entry level. Emirates, for instance, is looking for direct entry A380 Captains, but you need lots of Airbus heavy command hours as a basic requirement. This shortage will get worse over the next few years, but once the slots are filled, they’ll be occupied by younger people, without the age gradient that is normally there. This will probably result in another long period of stagnation as soon as the shortage ends. In other words, get in right now, or there’s a fair chance the slots won’t exist.

Spending the $100k and getting a CPL is simply a step. There is no guarantee of a job at the other end. Also keep in mind that pilots vary in skill. Airlines test for this. Something else to consider….the air force is very selective about who they take for pilot training, rejecting well over 90% of applicants. Of the ones who are successful, they then fail about 50%. The ones who get past this will be the 30 year olds you’ll be competing with.

The career itself can be very cyclic, going from boom to bust overnight. Think Ansett mark 1 & 2, Virgin, Compass (mark ?), and so on. I was lucky and spent over 30 years with one company, but there’s no guarantee. World events have overly large effects on airlines.

Is the aim of this to put you off? Well, yes, in many ways. My advice to any who ask is always to get a qualification that will put food on the table, when the dream career fails to take off. Fly privately for fun. If you must follow through with the pilot route, the sooner you are in the system the better.

 

[Flyfrequently]

How old are you now?

Airlines generally want experience commensurate with age. So young pilots with very low hours, but progressively more experience as they get older. At 30 you’d probably need a couple of thousand hours, or be from the air force to have any chance.

Progression within the airlines can be extremely slow. Right now, it takes about 20 years in the company before QF will look at you for a 737 command.

At this instant in time there is a shortage of pilots, caused by a combination of demographics, and the choices airlines made during covid. The upshot is that there are some interesting jobs on offer, but not at the entry level. Emirates, for instance, is looking for direct entry A380 Captains, but you need lots of Airbus heavy command hours as a basic requirement. This shortage will get worse over the next few years, but once the slots are filled, they’ll be occupied by younger people, without the age gradient that is normally there. This will probably result in another long period of stagnation as soon as the shortage ends. In other words, get in right now, or there’s a fair chance the slots won’t exist.

Spending the $100k and getting a CPL is simply a step. There is no guarantee of a job at the other end. Also keep in mind that pilots vary in skill. Airlines test for this. Something else to consider….the air force is very selective about who they take for pilot training, rejecting well over 90% of applicants. Of the ones who are successful, they then fail about 50%. The ones who get past this will be the 30 year olds you’ll be competing with.

The career itself can be very cyclic, going from boom to bust overnight. Think Ansett mark 1 & 2, Virgin, Compass (mark ?), and so on. I was lucky and spent over 30 years with one company, but there’s no guarantee. World events have overly large effects on airlines.

Is the aim of this to put you off? Well, yes, in many ways. My advice to any who ask is always to get a qualification that will put food on the table, when the dream career fails to take off. Fly privately for fun. If you must follow through with the pilot route, the sooner you are in the system the better.

Thank you for this honest perspective, I find it very interesting and informative @jb747
My grandson at 16 wants to be a pilot.
He has been inspired by my nephew who started at 12 and flew at every available opportunity ( thanks to my generous brother/his dad).
Nephew now 29, this year was accepted as FO with Jetstar after doing 12 solid years of rural and remote FNQ & NT flying, and when laid off during Covid, got his engineering qualifications, which has held him in good stead.
But he has also lived away from family most of this time to pursue his dream.
I guess what I am trying to relay to my grandson and perhaps OP is that it is a long journey and wish them well.

 

[RooFlyer]

I'm on a B737 MEL-DPS. Immediately ahead of us on the taxiway was a JQ A321 also bound for DPS.

On reaching the runway, JQ turned left and taxiied to the far end of the runway, on the runway. We turned right and took off immediately. Sorry I don't know the runway terminology but here is a FR24 screenshot.

We both entered the runway from the taxiway to the right of the blue dot, marking our position, just commencing our roll. JQ by this time had taxied to the far end of the runway by taxiing down the runway.



suggestions as to why this might have happened? Maybe JQ needed more time to prepare, so they diverted him to the end of the runway?

It’s nice, as hopefully we will arrive in DPS ahead of that lot.

JQ took off immediately after us.

 

[Jacques Vert]

I'm on a B737 MEL-DPS. Immediately ahead of us on the taxiway was a JQ A321 also bound for DPS.

On reaching the runway, JQ turned left and taxiied to the far end of the runway, on the runway. We turned right and took off immediately. Sorry I don't know the runway terminology but here is a FR24 screenshot.

We both entered the runway from the taxiway to the right of the blue dot, marking our position, just commencing our roll. JQ by this time had taxied to the far end of the runway by taxiing down the runway.

View attachment 351020

suggestions as to why this might have happened? Maybe JQ needed more time to prepare, so they diverted him to the end of the runway?

It’s nice, as hopefully we will arrive in DPS ahead of that lot.

JQ took off immediately after us.

View attachment 351021

TKWYA

 

[AviatorInsight]

suggestions as to why this might have happened? Maybe JQ needed more time to prepare, so they diverted him to the end of the runway?

A few different scenarios come to mind.

1. They went to the wrong holding point.
2. They were ready but something in the cabin meant they were no longer ready so moved them out of the way.
3. Conditions changed so they needed to rerun the figures and then required the full length.

 

[Quickstatus]

JQ turned left and taxiied to the far end of the runway, on the runway

They were ready but something in the cabin meant they were no longer ready so moved them out of the way.

A NoStar passenger?

 

[jb747]

Presumably something has come up which meant that they weren’t ”ready”. Could be cabin, or any number of technical items, and ATC, have sensibly gotten them out of the way.

Alternatively, now that Alan has gone, they were sent to their correct place in the queue.

 

[ksksks]

3. Conditions changed so they needed to rerun the figures and then required the full length.

There was a shift in winds just prior to them reaching the J holding point. Went from a 11kt headwind to 5-7kt tailwind. They required full length as a result of the revised performance calculations, it looks like backtrack was the easiest way to achieve this.

 

[ChrisGibbs]

How old are you now?

Airlines generally want experience commensurate with age. So young pilots with very low hours, but progressively more experience as they get older. At 30 you’d probably need a couple of thousand hours, or be from the air force to have any chance.

Off the back of a successful ASP and RAAF OSB my 22 year old son recently received a January RAAF OTS start date. Its been lot of work, including many knock backs, to get to this point over the last 5+ years. Even more hard work in front of him to successfully get through OTS, 1FTS and 2FTS and then may not get his wish to fly fighters. It's been a 'village' of people that helped to get his this far. RAAF are ensuring the candidates they are accepting are RAAF Officer first - RAAF pilot second. ROSO is 9 years... Not for everyone but for a kid who from the age of 3 would spend hours walking around the Museum at NAS Nowra he thinks it pretty cool.

It will be interesting to see what the demand for ex military pilots moving across to commercial aviation looks like 9+ years out....

 

[RooFlyer]

There was a shift in winds just prior to them reaching the J holding point. Went from a 11kt headwind to 5-7kt tailwind. They required full length as a result of the revised performance calculations, it looks like backtrack was the easiest way to achieve this.

They were a A321, heading for Bali, and we were a B737 also heading to Bali, immediately behind them. We had a full aircraft as far as I could see.

With those two types of aircraft, if they had similar pax loads, would they have differing performance requirements given we were only minutes apart?

 

[AviatorInsight]

They were a A321, heading for Bali, and we were a B737 also heading to Bali, immediately behind them. We had a full aircraft as far as I could see.

With those two types of aircraft, if they had similar pax loads, would they have differing performance requirements given we were only minutes apart?

I’ll always be conservative in the take off figures. So even if there’s a 30kt headwind I’ll account for nil wind. Any kind of cross wind and I’ll account for 5kts tailwind. And if there already is a tailwind component I’ll go to the full 10kts.

Especially with a place like Melbourne when they change the ATIS so frequently, I’ll usually account for the worst case scenario.

This saves me from doing the card a number of times and also minimises any mistakes that could be made while we redo the figures on the go and make inputs into the FMC.

 

[jb747]

They were a A321, heading for Bali, and we were a B737 also heading to Bali, immediately behind them. We had a full aircraft as far as I could see.

With those two types of aircraft, if they had similar pax loads, would they have differing performance requirements given we were only minutes apart?

I would have expected the 321 to have better take off performance than the 737. I guess we need someone with access to both sets of performance data.

Aircraft performance can differ pretty dramatically. I recall going out of LAX in the 380, we were at max weight, but able to accept a tailwind off 25, whilst the VA 777 had to go to the other end to get a headwind.

 

[Mozza]

Listening in to OOL yesterday afternoon and heard JQ443 advise tower prior to take off that they'd be leaving the gear down for about a minute after take off.
Just curious - what would be the reason for this ?

 

[jb747]

Listening in to OOL yesterday afternoon and heard JQ443 advise tower prior to take off that they'd be leaving the gear down for about a minute after take off.
Just curious - what would be the reason for this ?

Most likely something to do with braking. On aircraft with many sets of wheels, you can actually have a brake or two locked out, in which case there is no braking at all to that wheel. The gear has to be left down for a couple of minutes after take off to allow the wheel to run down before being retracted.

Normally though, some braking is applied automatically during the retraction sequence to stop the wheel spinning. The nose gear may retract against a snubber to stop it rotating. Any MEL that affects any of this may result in needing to leave the gear hanging in the breeze for a while.

 

[SYD]

Most likely something to do with braking. On aircraft with many sets of wheels, you can actually have a brake or two locked out, in which case there is no braking at all to that wheel. The gear has to be left down for a couple of minutes after take off to allow the wheel to run down before being retracted.

Normally though, some braking is applied automatically during the retraction sequence to stop the wheel spinning. The nose gear may retract against a snubber stop it rotating. Any MEL that affects any of this may result in needing to leave the gear hanging in the breeze for a while.

Ah, you just answered a question I was going ask a few days ago. Flying AA B737 ORD-BOS during climb there was a distinct hydraulic sound, vibration and noticeable drop in airspeed. As we started to look around the Captain made a quick announcement about the break temperature and the need to cool off (or something along those lines). Apparently they’d lowered the nose gear but didn’t sound the same as coming into land. A good few minutes before it was retracted and throttle up.

 

[Major]

What speed would they have to throttle back to with the wheels down ?

 

[AviatorInsight]

What speed would they have to throttle back to with the wheels down ?

Landing gear on the 737 can be extended at any speed but can only be retracted once below 230kts.

Just to add a bit more context. The after take off scan requires the pilot monitoring to move the gear lever from the UP position to the OFF position. It has happened that it has been inadvertently moved from UP and moved past the OFF detent to DOWN.