The great big "ask an airline pilot" thread!

basill

Generally it's a speed bird public schoolboy accented pilot who within micro seconds of an incorrect transmission on 121.50 will transmit "on guard". The speed that they do this is something to behold.

Shamrock231

basill wrote: »

Generally it's a speed bird public schoolboy accented pilot who within micro seconds of an incorrect transmission on 121.50 will transmit "on guard". The speed that they do this is something to behold.

I see, but what purpose does it serve exactly? Are they trying to deter people from transmitting on the emergency freq or something?

Growler!!!

Normal SOP would be to tune the second radio onto the emergency channel 121.5 MHz.

At times there can be an inadvertent transmission on this channel. A helpful voice will usually come on the channel informing you you are "ON GUARD".

It's always a condensing posh Nigel.

Growler!!!

Shamrock231 wrote: »

I see, but what purpose does it serve exactly? Are they trying to deter people from transmitting on the emergency freq or something?

The emergency channel is not supposed to be used for anything other than an emergency or lost comms.
I presume the nigels have nothing better to do. ...

Shamrock231

Leading on from that then, exactly how do pilot configure their radios, I know there's 3 VHF radios, with #1 usually used for the tower/approach/enroute contolling frequency, and VHF #3 used for ACARS, so is VHF #2 just switched back and forth between emergency, chat, ATIS, Ops etc?

Growler!!!

Depends on your aircraft type. We only have 2 vhfs. Com1 is used for ATC and Com2 is used for contacting Company, Ground Handling and receipt of ATIS. Any other time is tuned to 121.5

Shamrock231

Thanks.

amen

What kind of issue would have stopped a plane taking off, yet less than an hour later we are good to go, i presume it was safe for us to fly etc but i thought it was very strange

I'm not a pilot but could be loads of things. I believe they have a minimum equipment list (mel) and if anything on this breaks/doesn't work you cannot go.

I think the toilet smoke detector is on the list so it is broken you can't fly.

smurfjed

I believe they have a minimum equipment list (mel) and if anything on this breaks/doesn't work you cannot go.

Its actually the other way around, the MEL gives us relief, so it will say something like number of gauges installed 2, number required for dispatch 1, xx amount of time to fix it, then it will give procedures for the crew and for maintenance.

It gets fun when the item isn't in the MEL, this means that there is no relief, and you completely stranded, locked up in a hotel room listening to noises of the city, waiting for a manufacturers team to come rescue you.... :)

smurfjed

We have 3 VHF and 2 HF, so usually they are used as follows:

VHF #1: ATC, TIBA or UNICOM. Over the atlantic 123.45
VHF #2: 121.5 or ATIS
VHF #3: Ops, maintenance, handling agents or transportation

HF #1: Company frequencies for SELCAL
HF #2: Weather or phone calls.

Cessna_Pilot

Heard a great one a few weeks ago on 121.5... for a period of about ten minutes all we could hear was "where is he, where is he?" repeated at intervals for the duration. After about ten minutes Nigel finally responded "you're on gaurd" to which the reply was "ah there he is".

Epic

Secondly, there was chatter between two voices on 121.5 over the Paris area during the summer. All in french, one sounded quite panicked and stressed. Nigel kept interupting in his usual condescending arsehole way "you're on gaurd" to which one of the voice came on in English and said "to the aircraft constantly interupting this emergency call please stop". Old Nige clearly didn't believe this was real and said "you're still on gaurd if this is genuine please speak english". To which he got a proper verbal slap from the controller who told him it was easier to handle the emergency situation in french than in english. Stupid ignorant Nigel didn't reply again.

Serious lack of professionalism and airmanship on Nigel's behalf.

TheBoss11

I'm 18 in school doing my leaving cert, I plan to study business and then get a job, save up and train to become an airline pilot. I don't care if I get a million s year in business and get minimum wage as a pilot, I want to be one!! My question is, would you advise someone to get into this field of work in the current economy with airlines being hit badly and little pilot jobs? Iv been reading some horror story's with people being unemployed for years, I wouldn't mind living abroad to work as a pilot. Also. . . And this might be a really silly question. But I'm from
North Dublin and have a common Dubliner accent. Would this down my chances of getting a pilot job? Iv never actually heard a common pilot? I know the question is stupid but it's something that's on my mind and I obviously can't change my accent

faceman

This might have been asked before and hopefully it's not a stupid question! Is there any relevance to runway numbering?(E.G, runway 28) I understand the L & R significance but why aren't airport runways numbered in sequence?

lemansky

faceman wrote: »

This might have been asked before and hopefully it's not a stupid question! Is there any relevance to runway numbering?(E.G, runway 28) I understand the L & R significance but why aren't airport runways numbered in sequence?

Take the runway's magnetic heading, round it off to the nearest ten and knock off the zero For example if a runway had a magnetic heading of 113 deg: Round it to 110, and then that becomes runway 11.


EDIT: If you were using the opposite direction in the example above then it would be runway 29, as you have changed direction by 180 degrees so you add or subtract 18 from the runway number, bearing in mind that you never make it to runway 37

Tenger

faceman wrote: »

This might have been asked before and hopefully it's not a stupid question! Is there any relevance to runway numbering?(E.G, runway 28) I understand the L & R significance but why aren't airport runways numbered in sequence?

As above. Not stupid at all. And it does explain why they aren't called "runway eleven".....as "runway one one" actually means something rather than just a number in a sequence.

smurfjed

What's happened to LEFTBASE? Haven't seen him posting in a while?

fat-tony

Why are the departure controllers in Dublin being very specific recently in asking flights for the first waypoint in their flight management systems when departing on runway 28? They prompt the flight deck into ensuring the OE marker is in the plan. It doesn't seem to matter much as most flights turn before OE on a LIFFY departure as far as I can see.

Growler!!!

smurfjed wrote: »

What's happened to LEFTBASE? Haven't seen him posting in a while?

There was a poster called "Suits" who disappeared.
Then "Leftbase" appeared posting in the same style.
Now he has gone offline.
My troll radar's gain is turned up to max:D

basill

fat-tony wrote: »

Why are the departure controllers in Dublin being very specific recently in asking flights for the first waypoint in their flight management systems when departing on runway 28? They prompt the flight deck into ensuring the OE marker is in the plan. It doesn't seem to matter much as most flights turn before OE on a LIFFY departure as far as I can see.

It's been like that for a few years. Story goes that a heavy freighter - possibly AF747 departed off R28 but had loaded in the SID for a category A aircraft. Therefore they turned early and low and set off all the noise abatement bells and whistles. Only airport that I have come across that does this. Seems overkill when a letter to the operator would have sufficed but it seems to be how they deal with issues in Dublin - wield a big stick and make everyone else suffer. I suspect also that it won't deal with the issue as many will just read back without actually checking it to the fmc. A better fix would be to rename the departures so that cat a/b aircraft SIDs are called something different to a c/d. But that would no doubt cost money. Cynical - moi?

islanderre

The quote below is from a reply basill made in the thread about runway 34 ops in dublin as 28 is undergoing maintenance.

''Take for example our early morning arrivals off the atlantic. They will generally come off the ocean and cross the west coast anywhere from say Kerry up to Belfast depending on the daily track system.''

Anyway; could someone explain the atlantic TRACKS system??? My limited understanding is that it is mainly down to weather (head / tail winds) that decide the optimum route across the atlantic hence on flight radar it may be seen that a DUB-JFK route may route more northerly some days and then southerly others.

So is my understanding somewhat correct and on a side note; does crossing pacific work the same way say from LAX to SIN??

Thanks all.

basill

This is a nice general bit of info on the tracks. The links at the bottom of the wiki will take you to the Jeppesen daily pictorial of the tracks for that day - heading either east or west depending on what you choose.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Atlantic_Tracks

Its worth noting that airlines/operators are not compelled to fly on the organised track system (OTS) although they are encouraged to. There are also random routes which by definition are outside of the OTS. I would guess that maybe 5-10% of our flights are random routes. Main reasons being that the distance is longer than our planners would like eg:more fuel/cost. Ideally we would like to fly a great circle which is the shortest distance between two points but this is not always possible due to winds and/or weather. But we try to approximate that wherever possible. Hence you will find that the tracks and therefore your flight to JFK could travel across any manner of ways over the course of a year.

To see what a great circle is between two airports the following website is useful. You can compare that to the various tracks on a given day and no doubt will see quite a difference.

http://www.gcmap.com/

If you are really bored then the following document is the "bible" so to speak for the Atlantic. It contains all the rules and procedures.

http://www.paris.icao.int/documents_open/files.php?subcategory_id=108

islanderre

basill,
Many thanks for the reply...... will look over the links over the weekend.
Islanderre

TheBoss11

Why do pilots and ATCs say "niner" instead of nine

pclancy

Because Nine and Five can sound very similar over the radio!

smurfjed

and on a side note; does crossing pacific work the same way say from LAX to SIN??

No, they have fixed airways.

We flew this last week, its a random track as we were later than they normal west-east flow, and we were also above the tracks. We use Jeppesen flight planning services, so it would calculate a route based on the shortest time which really means the best winds. We would take this route and plot it on a chart, we would the plot the applicable tracks so that we know how to avoid them in the event that we descend. I love flying the atlantic as there is such an awesome thrill associated with it

bigblackmug

Is Kaunas in Lithuania a sh!thole?

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/sacked-ryanair-pilot-claims-oleary-became-aggressive-29641627.html

tricky D

On a heavy, if none of the passenger luggage was loaded, would the pilots be aware of this due to weight info?

smurfjed

Considering 450 pax with 20 kgs each, the expected load would be 9,000 kgs, so if the load sheet showed Zero, then the answer would most likely be yes. However, if the airline gave a 30 kg allowance and only 9,000 kgs was loaded, then the crew most likely wouldn't know.

Curly Judge

smurfjed wrote: »

Considering 450 pax with 20 kgs each, the expected load would be 9,000 kgs, so if the load sheet showed Zero, then the answer would most likely be yes. However, if the airline gave a 30 kg allowance and only 9,000 kgs was loaded, then the crew most likely wouldn't know.

I thought that modern aircraft had load cells on their undercarriage to detect all up weight and take care of the weight and balance calculations.
I know for sure that the C5A Galaxy [admittedly a military transport] had them and it seemed such a good idea that I thought it would be adopted by civilian aircraft.
When they were first introduced they were regarded as a Loadmasters dream because they did away with the need for complicated "trim sheets" which could become quite complex given the variety of load weights at various distances fore and aft of a datum point.

smurfjed

Very few aircraft have weight monitors, and given the tolerances required due to lift created by wind etc, they aren't very accurate.
I would have thought that loadmasters would see them as a nightmare, as it would automate their role and remove the requirement to have them onboard.