So we headed off to Adelaide and landed. As it happens, a medical emergency occurred on board that had to be attended to while on descent into Adelaide. Once that had run its course, the Captain advised us that although he had hoped we could do a "splash and dash" (my words, not his), this was not possible in Adelaide because of the curfew. He also noted that even if we could do the splash and dash, crew would exceed their hours.
The hours limitations are CASA rules, and cannot be ‘fiddled’. Once they came into play, you weren’t going anywhere. The mix of weather, curfews, and hours limitations makes for some interesting calculations at times, especially on long haul operations.
Interestingly, instead of flying in a new crew to carry on QF583, they ended up flying in a new A330-200 which ended up leaving Adelaide at about 9.45am I think. I managed to score a seat on the regular 6.10am flight (thanks P1) so got home a few hours earlier.
It’s pretty much impossible to work out what is going on, just by looking at one crew and aircraft in isolation. The new crew may have been at the end of a stint, or the start. Paxing them there may not have been possible, and it could well be quicker and cheaper to use another aircraft. The duties that they did the next day will come into it too.
1. I thought Perth was Cat III certified for autoland- can the A330-200 use this or even with Cat III do you still need to carry more fuel for holding/alternate?
If an airport has fog on the forecast, it makes no difference what category the ILS is....you will still need fuel to hold until the fog clears, or fuel to divert. If the fog appears on the met data after your decision point, then you can declare an emergency and still continue (as long as you don’t have any alternative airports that you could go to), and the existence of the Cat II/III ILS means that you’re unlikely to have any problem landing.
2. While flying back to Adelaide, and while at Adelaide, I logged onto FR24 and there were plenty of planes able to land at Perth of all different sizes and varieties. Why not us? Was it the fuel thing again?
Some of those flights may have come from closer to Perth, and so might have had later forecasts, that happened to include the fog. Most likely though, is that your captain went with the company flight plan, and didn’t add any extra fuel...and got bitten. I expect that most of the other aircraft were flown by pilots/companies that don’t trust Perth’s weather. I never did.
3. If the fuel thing, why did our crew have a different set of weather predictions than the other crews that managed to land (and had left their points of departures both before and after us)?
The weather forecast did not include fog until quite some time after your aircraft’s flight plan would have been run. Aircraft from Adelaide, for instance, would have had fog on their forecasts though, as they would have been issued later. Mostly though, I expect that the aircraft did not have fog on their weather, but were simply flown by people who don’t trust Perth forecasts, and so put on the fuel over and above the plan.
4. I would have thought it would have been better for us to land at Melbourne because it doesn't have a curfew - we could have done the splash and dash and set off again. I assume that the fuel reserves would not have got us that far otherwise they would have used it?
You mention crew hours originally. Going back to Melbourne would probably have run you into them immediately, with no chance of returning. As it was very late at night, I doubt that there would have been a standby crew, though you may have been able to grab a crew at the end of another flight....if their hours allowed (which isnt’ all that likely).
So, as I see this:
1. The crew had already done a number of sectors that day, so by the end of the planned flight to Perth, they wouldn’t have had a vast number of hours remaining on allowed duty/flight times.
2. The weather forecasts, and TTFs did not require any allowance for fog. It appeared on the TTFs well into the flight.
3. The company plan would not have had any allowance for fog, as the forecasts did not require it.
4. The alternate choices for a large aircraft in WA are extremely limited. Kalgoorlie, can be used but only has parking for a couple of aircraft. It’s not really a safe choice. Learmonth is a long way off, and you’ll be stuck there. So, realistically, you need to carry Adelaide, or Melbourne. That’s a lot of fuel.
5. Most likely the captain carried the flight planned fuel, or perhaps a little more. But, east coast is unlikely.
6. The splash and dash idea might have worked, but any medical involvement will blow the timing out.
7. The inflexibility of Australian curfews is .....
Many, many, moons ago....I was sitting in a favourite hotel bar in Perth, with about 5 other 767 crews. In wandered yet another crew, this time a little more harried looking than usual. Turned out that it was the captain’s first trip in command. Being a good company lad, he’d left Sydney with ‘flight planned fuel’. Somewhere around Adelaide, he’d gotten a new weather, and now Perth had requirements that he couldn’t meet. So, divert into Adelaide, which was actually open. Gets fuel, this time taking what the company offered plus lots more..... Flies to Perth. Goes around off the first approach, holds for an hour, and then gets in on the second attempt. Before having a well deserved beer, he then quizzed all of the captains in the bar on their arrival fuel. The lowest had arrived with fuel to hold for two hours, whilst a couple had the entire east coast. Nobody had anywhere near the company plan.