Ask The Pilot

[WheelieBagWanderer]

In a total coincidence, this was in the SMH, (and I guess The Age as well), in the last day.
Captain Bones has recently passed on. May he rest in peace.
Alan Bones: A lifelong passion for flying

 

[Skyhigh777]

Speaking of 747's, did you ever fly the planes with the dreaming livery? Those where some of the coolest looking planes IMO.

 

[Must...Fly!]

In a total coincidence, this was in the SMH, (and I guess The Age as well), in the last day.
Captain Bones has recently passed on. May he rest in peace.
Alan Bones: A lifelong passion for flying

I don't want to clog the thread, but that was a lovely obituary. One never wishes to see or read them, but it seems as though Captain Bones fulfilled his passion for aviation and had a rewarding career flying for the Red Roo. Condolences to his family & may he rest in peace.

 

[mjt57]

JB, if another incident occurs such as QF32/30 where instrumentation is lost or impaired, do you have any backup instruments which don't rely on networking or digital control systems. ie. critical instruments which would allow you to fly the aircraft to an appropriate airport safely?

 

[jb747]

JB, if another incident occurs such as QF32/30 where instrumentation is lost or impaired, do you have any backup instruments which don't rely on networking or digital control systems. ie. critical instruments which would allow you to fly the aircraft to an appropriate airport safely?

I don't think QF32 lost any instrumentation. It didn't go below Alternate law 1 either, so the autopilot was still available.

QF30 had failures on the Captain's side, all of which were recovered via 'alternate source' selections.

There are two standby attitude and nav displays in the A380. It would actually take a lot of failures before you'd end up back on them, as primary data comes from multiple sources, and can be displayed on any of the screens.

 

[knasty]

JB747,

I recently had my annual performance appraisal. Even after many years of experience I'm most interested in hearing about 'development points' rather than 'strengths'. It got me thinking about your line of work - apart from periodic simulators, check flights etc is there any formal/informal feedback you give to the FO/SO during or after a flight? I have a relative who is a QF captain and he says the training is so good he knows what the guy in the right hand chair is thinking even if they haven't met before, but it got me thinking what happens if this is not the case?

 

[jb747]

Speaking of 747's, did you ever fly the planes with the dreaming livery? Those where some of the coolest looking planes IMO.

I flew the red 747ER a couple of times. Can't see the paint scheme from the coughpit....

 

[jb747]

I recently had my annual performance appraisal. Even after many years of experience I'm most interested in hearing about 'development points' rather than 'strengths'. It got me thinking about your line of work - apart from periodic simulators, check flights etc is there any formal/informal feedback you give to the FO/SO during or after a flight? I have a relative who is a QF captain and he says the training is so good he knows what the guy in the right hand chair is thinking even if they haven't met before, but it got me thinking what happens if this is not the case?

We normally get some sort of feedback after checks and sims, though it isn't extensive if things went reasonably well.

Many Captains give feedback to FOs, though not all. An interesting way to get everyone involved is to ask the SOs to debrief the Captains' flying.

The training system does work well. Jumping into an aircraft with a crew you've never worked with at all, never throws up any issues. In fact, if you hit somebody who is 'different' then it's a very rare aberration indeed.

 

[wafliron]

Many Captains give feedback to FOs, though not all. An interesting way to get everyone involved is to ask the SOs to debrief the Captains' flying.

Does the latter (SO debriefing the captain's flying) ever lead to issues related to someone junior potentially criticising a superior? Or is the "in coughpit" culture well enough sorted that it's not a problem?

 

[jb747]

Does the latter (SO debriefing the captain's flying) ever lead to issues related to someone junior potentially criticising a superior? Or is the "in coughpit" culture well enough sorted that it's not a problem?

SOs are very well placed to see some of the errors that may slip past the guys in the front seats. Taking some criticism in front of the crew is a well established standard. Everyone tries to learn, no matter who made the 'mistake'.

The reason I like having the SOs debrief is that it really forces them to think about what they saw. I'm not interested in being told what went wrong, I can almost certainly see that. I want the 'why'.

Plus of course, if you've invited them to be critical, you'd better be prepared to accept their commentary.....

 

[Sprucegoose]

Does the latter (SO debriefing the captain's flying) ever lead to issues related to someone junior potentially criticising a superior? Or is the "in coughpit" culture well enough sorted that it's not a problem?

This is a good question, and I believe the answer seperates the airlines you want to fly on and those you should avoid.

Is that cultural as well? Most certainly.

 

[petercr]

Agree.. you can analyse 'what' went wrong with a scenario 'til you're blue in the face but without the 'why' it's hard to fix or stop from re-occuring in the future...

 

[el_rooto]

Does the latter (SO debriefing the captain's flying) ever lead to issues related to someone junior potentially criticising a superior? Or is the "in coughpit" culture well enough sorted that it's not a problem?

This is what the concept of "coughpit Resource Management" is for. Some, uhh, asian airlines have been noted for having a bad culture on the flight deck. (Due to most of the crew being ex military and following command from rank). However, from what I have seen, QF is fantastic in this regard (and most other airlines too, the koreans have moved leaps and bounds (to quote paul kelly) to help fix this cultural issue.)

 

[jb747]

This is what the concept of "coughpit Resource Management" is for. Some, uhh, asian airlines have been noted for having a bad culture on the flight deck. (Due to most of the crew being ex military and following command from rank).

That's one of the myths that is perpetually spread...probably from the people who couldn't get into the military. Same with the 'fighter pilots don't work in crews'.

In military aviation, it is very common for the actual Captain of the aircraft to be outranked by others in the crew, but whomever was nominated (as Captain) by the person who assigned the flight is the boss. In the fighter world, yep the guys are often in single seat aircraft, but they actually fly and fight the entire airborne group as one...so they're in a crew alright, but just not in the same aircraft.

 

[vitagen]

Have your flight schedules for November out yet??

 

[jb747]

Have your flight schedules for November out yet??

Rosters will appear over the next couple of days.

I've been off on sick leave for the past few weeks, but all is now good, and I'm just waiting for the paperwork to let me go flying again.

 

[Alanslegal]

jb747, do you know any of the JQ 787 pilots? and if you do, what are their flying backgrounds? Maybe they are QF pilots given that JQ's fleet is A320, A330's, it doesn't seem like a natural progression directly to a 787 type.

 

[vitagen]

Rosters will appear over the next couple of days.

I've been off on sick leave for the past few weeks, but all is now good, and I'm just waiting for the paperwork to let me go flying again.

Awesome, fingers crossed you are on qf10 on the 8/11

 

[jb747]

jb747, do you know any of the JQ 787 pilots? and if you do, what are their flying backgrounds? Maybe they are QF pilots given that JQ's fleet is A320, A330's, it doesn't seem like a natural progression directly to a 787 type.

There are no Qantas pilots flying the Jetstar 787s, and I expect there never will be.

 

[moa999]

Do you think there will ever be Qantas 787-9s?... Understand if you feel you can't comment on this...

Or indeed A350s or 777-X's as more longer term 747 replacements