Recent content by day-heg

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    What's it like for Industry staff to travel on standby on airlines

    We have heavily discounted fares that are confirmed at time of booking (£5 plus taxes per sector); great value if you can get them but availability is limited, especially around Christmas and over the summer. Or take your chances on standby...
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    Ask The Pilot

    From a cadet point of view, in the early days it's about managing workload. Early on I doubt you'll find many hand flying much beyond 1000ft on the way up or before that on the way down. Moving on however, with initial line training completed, 100-odd sectors (and thus 35-50ish landings) under...
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    Business Class to London from Sydney using points

    This is the beauty of AFF... we've all learned from here and we can pass on our learnings! Have just booked flights for me & Mrs for LHR-MEL rtn. Can confirm the 125k minimum per pax SYD-LHR, so for a couple you'll need 500,000 return. You have the option to pay the taxes with points, but its...
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    Ask The Pilot

    Just to back up a few pages... there aren't many women on the flight deck, and it isn't changing quickly. A quick look at the course I was on and those immediately preceding and following it show a total of 48 trainees - 3 of whom are female. Of those 48, six (all male) are on the BA scheme, and...
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    Ask The Pilot

    JB, Boris et al, I (and I'm sure others) would be interested in your thoughts on this one. Crash: Indonesia Asia A320 over Java Sea on Dec 28th 2014, aircraft lost height and impacted waters, loss of rudder travel limiter due to maintenance Maintenance issues aside (deeply troubling as they...
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    Ask The Pilot

    For my up-coming sim course, we're required to report 90 mins before the sim start time, in the box for 4 hrs, plus likely at least a 30 min debrief. I've heard of a few instructors doing a sim, having a break and doing another, but I reckon by the end of the second they wouldn't be particularly...
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    Ask The Pilot

    The last sim was indeed a 737-300... quite a different beast from the 320. First impressions are that whilst 'ops normal', managing the 320 will be much easier, it looks like it will leave the crew with more capacity. When non-normal though... well, let's see when I get in the sim. You...
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    Ask The Pilot

    Back in September, I passed an airline assessment and I started an A320 type rating last week. Come January I’ll be flying for a big European carrier whose aircraft are painted orange & white… The TR is split into 2 parts; first up is 13 days of ground school covering technical aspects of the...
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    Ask The Pilot

    Worth noting that there is lots of different terminology on the radio all designed to keep aircraft apart, but also to expedite the flow of traffic... for example "behind the landing 737, line up runway 33 and wait behind" which needs to be read back in full, including both "behinds"! You need...
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    Ask The Pilot

    Another update from me after these previous posts… last week I finished a multi-crew cooperation course and an airline qualification course (aka jet orientation course). It was one week in the classroom, followed by nine 4 hour details in a fixed base 737-300 sim. These were split with a...
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    Ask The Pilot

    In straight & level flight, lift and weight are equal and opposite vertical forces. In a turn, the weight continues to act vertically towards the earth, but with the aircraft banking the lift is split into vertical and horizontal components. To maintain a given altitude in a turn, the overall...
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    Select seat on Etihad flying as VA Platinum on VA ticket

    It's earlier than that in my experience. Suggest getting there 3hrs prior and then enjoy the lounge...
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    Select seat on Etihad flying as VA Platinum on VA ticket

    IME as a VA platinum flying whY with EY, I've never failed to get an exit/bulkhead seat, and never had to pay for it. I think I've taken 8 flights. Helpful of course having status and checking in at the Business counter, but the seats don't seem to be pre-allocated prior to check in opening...
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    Ask The Pilot

    Last year, I wrote a bit about my training as a low-hour pilot and what it involved. I passed the CPL test a couple of months ago, came back to the UK, and had an instrument rating test last weekend… Obviously, I'm at the other end of the experience scale from JB & Boris, but I thought a quick...
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    Ask The Pilot

    The "least wobble position" is at the centre of gravity position, about which all the forces on the aircraft act. The further away from this point you are, the more pronounced the movement - think about an arbitrary 5 degree movement about a given point, and how much displacement from the...
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