Ask The Pilot

[LCC]

Qantas have been giving one of their A380s a workout out of sydney today. Currently on its third takeoff of the afternoon and about to come into land again. I would be interested to know the likely reason for the multiple takeoff and departures over the past 3 hours, is it likely to be training? just putting the aircraft through it's paces?
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[ChrisGibbs]

Nope. My progression was A-4G, CT4 QFI, 747 SO. The very first time I ever flew a light twin was an assessment ride as part of QF recruitment.

No Macchi time? Was the A-4G a trainer? Regardless would have been an exciting ride....

 

[straitman]

No Macchi time? Was the A-4G a trainer? Regardless would have been an exciting ride....

I'd believe the lack of Macchi time is an oversight.

 

[jb747]

I guess it’s more economical to do the checks on shorter sectors within Australia than on overseas sectors. Would that be the reason?

The positioning flights were used because there were a lot of them. The check requirement was two sectors or two hours, so many of the checks were actually the sectors there and back. Using longer sectors also happens, but it has implications with paxing people around, and potentially having to move people off their planned flights. It was common to be bumped off sectors like Sydney-Melbourne if they were at the start or end of longer trips.

Do all positioning flights have cabin crew?

Not all.

At what point during the assessment did the checkie realise you had never flown a light twin before?

Taxiing in. There were two of us from the military, and the other bloke was a RAAF Caribou person. Can't have been too bad.

Qantas have been giving one of their A380s a workout out of sydney today. Currently on its third takeoff of the afternoon and about to come into land again. I would be interested to know the likely reason for the multiple takeoff and departures over the past 3 hours, is it likely to be training? just putting the aircraft through it's paces?

Pilot refamils. Each Captain and FO (already qualified on the aircraft prior to covid) gets two of these short flights before returning to line ops.

No Macchi time? Was the A-4G a trainer? Regardless would have been an exciting ride....

Ha ha. I was only talking about the progression from the navy to QF (which was the question). The A-4G was the last navy aircraft that I flew.

The full career progression runs Piper Cherokee, CT4, Macchi, TA-4G and A-4G, CT4 QFI, 747 SO, 747 FO, 744 FO, 767 Captain, 744 Captain, 380 Captain.

 

[Quickstatus]

Looking for NOTAM for DPS 28Dec22
Especially re closure of runways between midnight and 6am

Please thanks

 

[exLXCXFF]

Looking for NOTAM for DPS 28Dec22
Especially re closure of runways between midnight and 6am

Please thanks

Couple of VA aircrafts currently diverting to Darwin, JQ and QF still on the way up there. Strangely, F24 shows last departure out of DPS at 1815 local time today and then nothing until 10am tomorrow morning. Heaps of longhaul carriers on the way to DPS (EK, KE, SQ).

 

[jb747]

Looking for NOTAM for DPS 28Dec22
Especially re closure of runways between midnight and 6am

There's a bunch of cranes operating at night reasonably close to the airport, but I can't see anything about the runway being closed.

 

[Quickstatus]

can't see anything about the runway being closed.

There was a reader comment in The Australian about the 27/12/22 JQ35 turnaround that the flight did not have permission to land because on Wednesdays the runways in DPS are closed in the wee hrs

Thx

 

[AviatorInsight]

There was a reader comment in The Australian about the 27/12/22 JQ35 turnaround that the flight did not have permission to land because on Wednesdays the runways in DPS are closed in the wee hrs

Thx

That return was caused because of the aircraft type swap earlier from an A320 to 787. The paperwork didn’t reflect this change and so the Indonesians revoked their entry forcing them back to Melbourne.

 

[Saab34]

Gents,
Have you had any vaping issues onboard recently? I had a group of teens in Woolworths yesterday with not a care in the world vaping in the aisles. Seems to be a new trend at the moment, I’d imagine some would test their luck onboard no doubt.

 

[Quickstatus]

UA839 about 2.5hrs on one engine.
Was one engine on reduced thrust or idle?

Does extended twin engine ops require a minimum speed on one engine?

 

[jb747]

UA839 about 2.5hrs on one engine.

Which is well within the ETOPs (or whatever it’s called now) limit, which is roughly 5 hours.

Was one engine on reduced thrust or idle?

I’d expect that it was shut down. The APU was probably started.

Does extended twin engine ops require a minimum speed on one engine?

Interestingly, whilst you have to achieve various items in planning, you do not have to fly the aircraft to those numbers should you have an engine failure. So, if the failure occurred at a distance that would have put you right on the timing limit at the planned ETOPs speed, you may well choose a slower speed, which puts you over the time limit.

Looking at this case, they chose FL200, which I’d expect to be at least a few thousand feet below the maximum and the optimum single engine altitudes. Down lower, their TAS would be lower, so slower ground speed. Fuel flow would be higher, but the engine would be a reduced setting compared to operating higher. When you’ve only got one left, it’s probably not a bad idea to be nice to it.

 

[Warragul]

This video from a AA pilot gives a good rundown (for a non pilot person) on this. Although he seems to have a bee in his bonnet about Christmas Island - in Kiribati not the Indian Ocean.

 

[Quickstatus]

Christmas Island - in Kiribati

Not much there i suspect. Refuelling, 300 plus pax accom, how to get off the aircraft etc etc.
Runway length? Precision landing aids?

ETOP

Now the the 787 twins are operating to JNB and SCL, how do the routes compare to the quads?

 

[Sprucegoose]

This video from a AA pilot gives a good rundown (for a non pilot person) on this. Although he seems to have a bee in his bonnet about Christmas Island - in Kiribati not the Indian Ocean.

Thanks for that; risk management well laid out

 

[jb747]

Not much there i suspect. Refuelling, 300 plus pax accom, how to get off the aircraft etc etc.
Runway length? Precision landing aids?

Some information here. The runway is more than sufficient. ILS, and two RNAV approaches. It was considered acceptable for an A380 emergency diversion.

NSTU : Pago Pago International Airport | OpenNav

Maps and information about NSTU : Pago Pago International Airport. ✈ Lat: 14° 19' 51.60" S Lon: 170° 42' 36.02" W » Click here to find more.

opennav.com

Now the the 787 twins are operating to JNB and SCL, how do the routes compare to the quads?

ETOPs is a game of odds. Aircraft are reliable. Engine failures from a steady state cruise are quite rare. Runways are a long way away. Play the odds. My biggest fear would be fire, in either the cabin or the hold...that's the one that will have you swimming, and it makes no difference how many engines you have.

 

[Quickstatus]

Some information here.

Pango Pango yes but possibly not the other option: Christmas Island (in the pacific) - @Warragul ‘s comment above

 

[justinbrett]

Not much there i suspect. Refuelling, 300 plus pax accom, how to get off the aircraft etc etc.

A bit of misinformation in the Australian media about this story, they were making it out to be a deserted island.

Yes the population is only 50K but this is an American territory, so it's a strategic location and they've invested in infrastructure. It's one of the best equipped island airports in the Pacific - and was the main airport for the neighbouring country of Samoa until Apia (Faleolo) was built in the 80s.

As for hotels, it's a tourist spot so plenty of them. I don't think the island would have broken a sweat handling this divert- probably welcomed the $s after being closed so long for covid.

Edit - oh you were referring to Christmas Island (points above remain valid regarding the media coverage)

No precision approaches (only NDB and GPS), runway is only 6900FT, no taxiway (must backtrack). I doubt they'd hold enough fuel to load a 787.

 

[Quickstatus]

misinformation

Again my comment there was not referring to PPG, but @Warragul’s comment re Christmas Island in the pacific (I didn’t even know there was one in the Pacific)

If one wanted to be stranded in the South Pacific, Pango Pango would be ideal

 

[Quickstatus]

biggest fear would be fire

How would Baku have played out in these jNB/SCL routes in a twin