Ask The Pilot

[jb747]

'Sounds like' what we pax can hear of coughpit announcements. I've just returned from a 7 sector domestic trip on QF and every time, in business or forward economy I really struggled to make out the coughpit greeting after take-off.

Which is what happens when people use the headset mic to make a PA instead of picking up the handset.

 

[jb747]

JB and AV I have noticed pretty much the large majority of pilots I have seen across my travels in recent weeks now wear the Apple Watch. Is this common amongst the troops? And what’s wrong with the old school watch!

I guess you don’t have one, otherwise you could answer your own question. If all you want to do is see the time, then the old school watch is probably fine. It’s just the other 99% of jobs that it can’t do that make the Apple device my preference.

 

[Saab34]

I guess you don’t have one, otherwise you could answer your own question. If all you want to do is see the time, then the old school watch is probably fine. It’s just the other 99% of jobs that it can’t do that make the Apple device my preference.

Sounds like I need to give it a shot.

 

[mjt57]

Sounds like I need to give it a shot.

Go all out and get the Apple Watch Ultra.

Oh, unless you also have an iPhone then it becomes a largely useless smart watch.

 

[jb747]

@jb747 I'm not sure if you've already answered this elsewhere on AFF, but why did you originally decide to start learning to fly?

As a child, I lived in the middle of the triangle formed by Pt Cook, Avalon, and Laverton. Pt Cook had 1FTS, ARDU was a Laverton, and the Mirages were being built and tested out of Avalon. So, I saw aircraft all of the time, and became one of those child fanatics.

When I was old enough, I applied to the RAAF (probably for the academy) and they knocked me back. Didn't really work hard enough at HSC, I guess. In retrospect, it was probably a good thing, but if I had applied for direct entry, and not the academy, I may have been successful. Then I realised that they weren't the only avenue to pilots' course in Oz, so I applied to the navy.

The navy also didn't offer me the pilots' course, but came up with an offer of the Observer course. At the time, it was more or less the RAAF navigator course, with a different name. So, I accepted that. I did pretty well on that course, and eventually got to Nowra. My desire to be a pilot hadn't really gone away, but for a while it was on the back burner. I eventually discovered that the RAAF had a constant trickle of navigators doing the pilot course, and that the navy had also sent some observers to do it, though none had gone in the last decade. So, I started asking COs and writing letters, and anything else I could think of. During that time, someone suggested that any selection board would be bound to ask just what I'd been doing to further the goal, which I why I fast tracked a restricted licence whilst I was doing a short term job in Canberra.

In '78 the RAN broke the decade long drought by sending an S2 Observer to do the course. From that point they sent off one O every 18 months or so. I was number two. It eventually stopped again, but about half a dozen of us managed to slip through. They had zero failures from the group. I was the only one of the group who got to fly the A-4, though one other was posted there, but the government took the aircraft away before he got his chance. Their decision to scrap the fixed wing component of the Fleet Air Arm, meant that all of us had to reassess our future, and that meant a move to the RAAF or airlines (or both). The RAAF offered me an F-111 slot, but QF said I could be a 747 SO...and that seemed to have more of a future.

A little addendum. I had a look back at the courses, and there were only six of us, but it wasn't an even spread. The last time the RAN put Observers on to the pilots' course was a double header. Of the six, the first four all ended up in QF ('cos we were fixed wing, I guess), and three ultimately gained A380 commands. The other two remained in the RAN, one achieved quite high rank, and the other was decorated for action in Iraq. A reasonably successful group, even if I do say so.

 

[AviatorInsight]

JB and AV I have noticed pretty much the large majority of pilots I have seen across my travels in recent weeks now wear the Apple Watch. Is this common amongst the troops? And what’s wrong with the old school watch!

Yep definitely my go to as well. It’s great for flying around all the different time zones. Plus the Windy app is one of my favourites.

 

[jb747]

Yep definitely my go to as well. It’s great for flying around all the different time zones. Plus the Windy app is one of my favourites.

I love Windy, but mostly run it on the iPad or Mac. It’s great for working out when I can do my star trail pictures.

 

[tgh]

I love Windy

Not sure I am that emtionally attached.. but it's a great program..
Do you (or anyone) subscribe..and is it worth the cost ?

 

[AviatorInsight]

I love Windy, but mostly run it on the iPad or Mac. It’s great for working out when I can do my star trail pictures.

Same here, the iPad is great to have the radar up and on the watch I can set alerts for any METAR changes.

 

[tgh]

Just saw a vid of a fast very low pass by an American f14.. so it rocks past the camera, rolls 90 degrees and continues.
The longitudinal angle of the aircraft centreline becomes slightly elevated after the roll ….to compensate for the loss of wing lift, I assume.
What puzzles me is how the pilot manages to continue on a more or less straight trajectory ( and very close to the deck) …black magic? training ? _____ ?

 

[ChrisGibbs]

Thursday 6/10 around 3:00pm saw some rubbish weather coming through Sydney. I was on QF537 BNE - SYD. In front of us was a bunch of arrivals from the north. One of them was QF579 HTI-SYD (VH-VZZ). By the looks if things it made a couple of missed approaches onto 34L and eventually diverted to CBR. It then ferried back to Sydney from CBR the day after 7/10 as QF6115.

Besides weather would you typically have two go-arounds and would there be a reasonable expectation you would get in on the second attempt - no other variables had changed.

With the aircraft overnighting in CBR would that imply some tech issue or simply no crew to get it back to Sydney until the next day (assuming the operating crew had only done the SYD-HTI flight earlier in the day).

 

[jb747]

Thursday 6/10 around 3:00pm saw some rubbish weather coming through Sydney. I was on QF537 BNE - SYD. In front of us was a bunch of arrivals from the north. One of them was QF579 HTI-SYD (VH-VZZ). By the looks if things it made a couple of missed approaches onto 34L and eventually diverted to CBR. It then ferried back to Sydney from CBR the day after 7/10 as QF6115.

Besides weather would you typically have two go-arounds and would there be a reasonable expectation you would get in on the second attempt - no other variables had changed.

There's normally a reasonable expectation of getting in off the first approach. You shouldn't even try a second unless you have that expectation.

With the aircraft overnighting in CBR would that imply some tech issue or simply no crew to get it back to Sydney until the next day (assuming the operating crew had only done the SYD-HTI flight earlier in the day).

Where crewing issues are concerned, you simply cannot make any assumptions. I've never had cause to look closely at the domestic award, but it basically carries over from the '89 dispute, and there are some ludicrous two man crew limitations. So, in theory at least, the crew could even have started back in DPS the previous day. I doubt that they did, but you get my drift. Beyond that though, there are limits that are weekly and monthly, so it's not impossible that a couple of go arounds and a diversion could have pushed someone on to one of those limits. It's not necessarily anything that happened on the day.

Any crew in Canberra would be there for their own slips, so basically it would be unlikely that there would be anyone there that could be used. So, you'd need to find someone from one of the other capital city bases and get them there. The domestic operation doesn't have standby pilots available. Normally they can 'sell' anything like this, but if they are overall short of crew that may have become difficult to impossible.

There's nothing on FR24 that indicates a problem with the aircraft. Looks to me like they just had a bit of bad luck with the timing of their approaches, and had to divert as soon as they hit their divert fuel figure.

 

[flydoc]

Intermittent works are planned on runway 11/29 in DRW over the next 12-18 months, with the first runway closure scheduled for 0230-1030 local time on Tues 25/10/22.

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Obviously timed to minimise impact on RPT schedules, with closure intended to follow the last of the red eye departures, but as the cross runway 18/36 (5000 feet) is less than half the length of the main runway, do you think it likely that some early morning departures will at the least get re-timed? Ie QF1958, the 0600 QQ/QF E190 to ASP (for which seats are still being sold) and the first TL E120 flights of the day.

And while the likes of QF43/45 should still get in and out well before the closure for fuel if required, where would you expect aircraft to divert to later in the night if DRW is unavailable?

 

[jb747]

Intermittent works are planned on runway 11/29 in DRW over the next 12-18 months, with the first runway closure scheduled for 0230-1030 local time on Tues 25/10/22.

Obviously timed to minimise impact on RPT schedules, with closure intended to follow the last of the red eye departures, but as the cross runway 18/36 (5000 feet) is less than half the length of the main runway, do you think it likely that some early morning departures will at the least get re-timed? Ie QF1958, the 0600 QQ/QF E190 to ASP (for which seats are still being sold) and the first TL E120 flights of the day.

It all depends upon how much notice the airlines are getting of the ‘intermittent’ closures. If it’s a day here and there, and without long notice, I expect that they’ll simply have to deal with it on the day, by sliding affected flights.

I don’t know anything about the E190, but I’d expect that it could use the other runway, conditions permitting.

And while the likes of QF43/45 should still get in and out well before the closure for fuel if required, where would you expect aircraft to divert to later in the night if DRW is unavailable?

If those flights needed fuel, they’d need to sort it out elsewhere. Either buy expensive fuel at the departure point, or go somewhere on the east coast, or Alice Springs. In an emergency, closed runways can normally be activated in 30 minutes or so. Diversions…well as you know the timings of the runway closure, you really shouldn’t be going there, should you? I guess for smaller aircraft Kununurra or Katherine might be an option. The bigger stuff shouldn’t be affected, as they’ll have plenty of possible airfields in either Indonesia or further south.

 

[oz_mark]

If those flights needed fuel, they’d need to sort it out elsewhere. Either buy expensive fuel at the departure point, or go somewhere on the east coast, or Alice Springs. In an emergency, closed runways can normally be activated in 30 minutes or so. Diversions…well as you know the timings of the runway closure, you really shouldn’t be going there, should you? I guess for smaller aircraft Kununurra or Katherine might be an option. The bigger stuff shouldn’t be affected, as they’ll have plenty of possible airfields in either Indonesia or further south.

FWIW, QF43 dropped into RAAF Tindal on the way to Bali last Saturday (I think the weather in Darwin was a bit rubbish)

 

[jb747]

Just saw a vid of a fast very low pass by an American f14.. so it rocks past the camera, rolls 90 degrees and continues.
The longitudinal angle of the aircraft centreline becomes slightly elevated after the roll ….to compensate for the loss of wing lift, I assume.
What puzzles me is how the pilot manages to continue on a more or less straight trajectory ( and very close to the deck) …black magic? training ? _____ ?

I'm sorry, I noticed this couple of days ago, but forgot to reply.

I presume you mean this video:

If you watch it carefully, he actually sets up a very slight nose up trajectory just before he rolls to about 90º. So whilst he's not producing any lift, at least in the vertical, for about a second, there literally isn't enough time for the effect of gravity to do much to the trajectory.

The pilot involved was quite famous within the F-14 world, but sadly was killed in an aircraft accident a couple years ago.

 

[eric2011]

We all hear about bird strikes on take off and how you deal with that given that you are still flying and most probably heading back to the runway and have a little bit of time to think and act, but is the ingestion of birds on the landing a problem, say 100 - 200 feet and committed to the landing in about 10 seconds. (not much time to think). What are your procedures to deal with this

 

[jb747]

We all hear about bird strikes on take off and how you deal with that given that you are still flying and most probably heading back to the runway and have a little bit of time to think and act, but is the ingestion of birds on the landing a problem, say 100 - 200 feet and committed to the landing in about 10 seconds. (not much time to think). What are your procedures to deal with this

You aren't necessarily going to return after a bird strike. Mostly they just leave a splatter mark on the aircraft wings or fuselage (or in one case I saw, the FO's window). You'd actually see birds go past, in close, quite regularly, but unless there was some sort of secondary indication that the strike had caused some harm, you would continue the flight and have it looked at on arrival.

What sort of indication are you looking for? Well, a change in the engine note, or any change to the engine parameters. And of course the extreme case of the engine compressor stalling (in which case you'll hear it, feel it, and see it on the displays).

For a strike during the approach, there will most likely be no action required. You aren't using much power, and the engines are quite stable, and less likely to react badly. Even if damaged, you probably won't notice anything unless you decide to go around, and demand lots of power. And for an engine failure on finals...as long as your line up is still good will probably just need a little rudder and about 10% more power on the good engine(s).

 

[RailFlyer]

Did you ever (or would you ever) move the controls to try and avoid birds ahead or is there no warning due to your speed/their size and/or it would be more dangerous to try and "steer" around them?

 

[jb747]

Did you ever (or would you ever) move the controls to try and avoid birds ahead or is there no warning due to your speed/their size and/or it would be more dangerous to try and "steer" around them?

You'd be more in danger of doing harm via any sudden control movements. By the time you see a bird, the outcome has already been decided.