The great big "ask an airline pilot" thread!

cyrusdvirus

Priority Right wrote: »

Apparently Mr Sikorsky preferred it that way and everyone copied him. But again I'm sure there are a few different reasons. Maybe his wife preferred the left hand seat

The author of Chickenhawk, Robert Mason, preferred sitting on the left hand side when he was aircraft commander, as he had better visibility through the chin bubble.

xflyer

Tenger wrote: »

What were you doing in my sisters house? Same happens in her place in Emyvale, a valley leading to Aughnacloy blocks 'Southern' networks.

So are we related then? Actually my sis in law lives in 'Blayney. When I buzz her house I have to talk to 'Scottish' first, very annoying!

As for the reason helicopter Captains sit on the right. There is a good reason but I can't for the life of me remember what it is! Something to do with visibility in the event of an emergency or when the heli is hoisting something. But I suspect there is no definitive answer. It probably just happened.

Cessna_Pilot

Is the helicopter thing not something to with the rotation of the rotor blades creating more lift on one side of the aircraft and the pilot being on the right to create a balancing effect or something along those lines.

xflyer

CP, that's as good a reason as any of the others.

pclancy

Do you practice gear up landings in the sim?

Priority Right

pclancy wrote: »

Do you practice gear up landings in the sim?

My girlfriend just asked me the exact same thing. I've never seen one being done in the sim. I think the software in some sims would just register that you have crashed.

boeingboy

When I flew the Boeing 727 we did a Left or Right Main Gear up Landing in the Sim. Did it only once TFk in the 5 years I flew that thing.
Having never done one I dont know how realistic it was but the scraping sound was there!!!
Not seen it on 757 or 767 sim. And not going to ask either, the less I do in the sweatbox the better for me.

bladeruner

Done a main gear failure on touchdown scenario but never an "all up" scenario, at least nothing that a gravity gear drop didn't sort out.
Fair play to the polish pilots - good job

hawkelady

hi all, great thread btw... question 1, is there anything different in a pilots set-up between flying over land or if you fly over water? is there more precautions if you fly say from LA to NZ than if you flew paris to moscow.. Im thinking it wouldnt be a biggie if you encountered a problem over land as you can divert to the nearest airport, different story if your in the middle of the pacific. question 2, would you say you suffer from headaches/migraines more due to your working in a pressurised place, or is there no proof of this.. I know during long haul flights my head sometimes feels like an egg in a mircowave,, maybe its just me though!!
Finally, whats your average working week/month in hrs worked.. Is it the same for a guy/girl who flies dub-london or the guy/girl who flies longhaul .
oh,oh,oh.. one more, if you fly to australia/NZ, why is it cheaper to travel via asia rather than the US ,because its more or less the same distance,isnt it.

thanks...

Priority Right

hawkelady wrote: »

1, is there anything different in a pilots set-up between flying over land or if you fly over water?
2, would you say you suffer from headaches/migraines more due to your working in a pressurised place, or is there no proof of this.
Finally, whats your average working week/month in hrs worked.

Over land you have to think about what is the lowest altitude you can descend to in an emergency. E.g Over central France you can descend to 3,000ft but over the alps 18,000. Like you said over land you have an airport near you. I've never flown trans-atlantic but going down to Tenerife there's still few airports you can divert to.

I don't suffer from headaches but pilots and cabin crew do tend to have a slightly higher sick rate because of close contact with people.

I fly roughly 60-80hours per month. But duty hours are around 140hrs. That's short haul. Long haul fly more but their duty hours are lower because they're not on the ground as much.

pclancy

Naughty Paddy. Leave the thread alone if you don't like it.

Weissbier

Madpaddy79 wrote: »

I don't suffer from headaches but pilots and cabin crew do tend to have a slightly higher sick rate because of close contact with people.

Wow. Omg. I have never heard such a load of crap in all my life. 2 of the easiest jobs there is out there with the highest sick rate known to man!!!! Shows how much the job is enjoyed.

Mods, seriously, CLOSE this bulls**t and self trumpet blowing thread. ZZZzzz

Madpaddy79 wrote: »

I don't suffer from headaches but pilots and cabin crew do tend to have a slightly higher sick rate because of close contact with people.




Just to clarify a few things for the ill-informed. Pilots and cabin crew work in low pressure environments with potentially contaminated air of differing concentrations (varying from pathogens and fuel gases from the engine). There also have even been studies done to examine long term effects on crews who work at such altitudes while being exposed to the greater effects of solar radiation.

The cabin air is recycled upto 6 times (if memory serves me right) and this air comes through the engine. An example of the possible risks was a few years ago when Aer Lingus had to contact the full passenger list when a case of TB was later discovered from a passenger, so I imagine the common cold which can take us all out so easily down here on the ground and when it is possibly being recycled upto 6 times in a tin can will make your chances of catching it much easier.

Also on the matter of headaches, this lower cabin pressure (ie. less oxygen) and dry environment is known to cause a higher rate of headache and jet lag. This is the one of the main selling points of the new Boeing 787 which can operate at lower cabin pressure with a slightly 'wetter' environment due to the plane being mainly made from composite and not metal (less corrosion). Boeing claim this lower rate of headache on the 787 is upto 40%, not that I fully believe that number (possible propaganda), but I do believe the science behind improving the conditions to reduce this headache rate!

This information comes only from common sence and knowledge but I'm sure if you googled this matter you could get some more information to further educate yourself on this matter.

Priority Right

Weissbier wrote: »

Sensible stuff

Thanks, you put it better than I could.

Lustrum

Best and worst ATC?

Or any funny stories heard over the radios?


The best I can give is an eastern european student here in Ireland making a request to ATC, the controller couldn't understand him and exasperated said "echo india...that was complete garble!"

To which the student replied (in finest eastern european accent, "complete garble, echo india..."

Tightwad

While doing RT training we met a fellow who caused quite a giggle!

This chap was taxiing to the runway and was told to "give way" (to another training air craft taxiing from the runway). He then proceeded to ingnore that instruction and vigorously wave at the other taxiing aircraft who happened to be the CFI returning from a PPL test!

Not a good image as he was soon to be tested with the same examiner for his PPL.

lord lucan

Another question prompted from watching comings and goings on the ramp this morning. Do you actually watch the guys marshalling you on stand with their orange wands or do you just follow the line and park her where you do normally(or where the aircraft type is painted).

I imagine EI pilots for example would practically be able to park their A320's in their sleep at DUB due to familiarity with Pier E. I'd imagine though that there are times that call for a slight change of parking position,gusty conditions for example.

Chuck Stone

Why are jet engines mounted to the fore of the wing?

I'm guessing it's a safety feature in case the engine disintegrates?

cyrusdvirus

Chuck Stone wrote: »

Why are jet engines mounted to the fore of the wing?

I'm guessing it's a safety feature in case the engine disintegrates?

i'd guess to take advantage of the 'cleaner' air. less wake turbulence at the front of the wing.

wittymoniker

Chuck Stone wrote: »

Why are jet engines mounted to the fore of the wing?

I'm guessing it's a safety feature in case the engine disintegrates?

If they were under the wing the landing gear would be too long to put away.

Priority Right

lord lucan wrote: »

Another question prompted from watching comings and goings on the ramp this morning. Do you actually watch the guys marshalling you on stand with their orange wands or do you just follow the line and park her where you do normally(or where the aircraft type is painted).

Mostly people use them. It's safer and we can't see the line as we get near the end so why not use them.

I say mostly because we were taxing into a stand the other day (for steps not airbridge) and the plane ran out of energy before we had reached the stop line. Knowing that there was a slope we just set the parking brake and shut down the engine instead of adding loads of power. The marshaller was waving the wands like mad. But the funny thing was even when the engines had stopped rotating he was still waving them. We looked later and were less than a foot from the stop line.

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lord lucan
Another question prompted from watching comings and goings on the ramp this morning. Do you actually watch the guys marshalling you on stand with their orange wands or do you just follow the line and park her where you do normally(or where the aircraft type is painted).

A lot of airports we fly in to have "self manoeuvring" stands where we have to taxi straight-in on to stand then turn about 45° and stop. This is under marshaller guidance.
The 45° turn is usually very close to other aircraft, stairs, vehicles and lampposts so you want to make sure the marshaller is keeping an eye out.

Their professionalism however differs greatly from country to country.
Only last night when carrying out such a manoeuver the marshaller decides to turn away from us to chat to his friend behind him. If we followed his directions we would have hit our wing off the blast fence.
Be vigilant! :eek:

Bigtalker

Hi All!

I think this is a great thread!! I fly every week with work and find I go through phases of being petrified and not caring at all. This coincides with Winter and Summer months!! and weather etc. I reacently flew into Nairobi on honeymoon and was in horrific turbulence. I also flew on a smaller plane to go safari(10 seater) and it was not pleasant. I am trying to understand:

1) Can turbulence be fatal? Assuming a pilot can see that its up ahead and has previous reports from other planes why would a pilot ever fly into it? What is the treshold? I am stupid and watch air crahs investigation and cant understand why a pilot would fly into these conditions.

2) Air Pockets - I dont really understand why these happen and get an awful fright when they do(as does everyone) are the pilots in control during these? Do they have sight of these? Again what are the limits? how long can you free fall??

nabanoba

Hello all,

I am an aspiring pilot and would like to thank everyone on this thread for their contributions, it has been a very interesting read.

I have a couple of questions regarding flying schools. I have heard that NFC is the best in Ireland, but their term starts in March which is a month too early for me as I'm currently under contract out in Korea. I was wondering could anyone point me in the direction of other good flight schools both in Ireland and abroad?

Also I was wondering what would be the main characteristics that the schools will be looking for when interviewing wannabe pilots?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

xflyer

Nabanoba, wrong thread for questions like that. There are other learning to fly threads here. Check them out. But there is not 'term' as you put it. You can start learning to fly anytime at your own pace. I presume you're referring to their integrated course. Which does have a start date. But there's always another starting later in the year. As for the best school, well talk to NFC and they'll tell you they're the best, PTC think they are and Atlantic well obviously they believe they're the best. But in truth the best schools are overseas. Famous schools are Cabair, OAA and FTE. All expensive btw.

Bigtalker, yes turbulence can be fatal. That's why when the seatbelt sign comes on, you pay attention to it. It's rare for anyone to be injured though or for aircraft to be damaged. You can't see turbulence but there are places you can expect it such as in or near cumulus clouds, the fluffy harmless looking ones and cumulonimbus, the not so harmless looking fluffy clouds. Larger aircraft have weather radar and will divert around areas of weather. But turbulence can happen even in clear air. You can't avoid that.

On the other hand with smaller aircraft flying at low level, warm air rising on hot days such as you find in Africa will cause a lot of bumps even on clear days. You don't have to go the Africa though, even here you'll get turbulence from rising warm air. It's mostly harmless if unpleasant.

There's no such thing as 'air pockets', it's just turbulence most likely caused by flying into a column of rising air. Yes the pilot is in control.

nabanoba

Ok, thanks xflyer. I'll move my question elsewhere.

Edit; Sorry to bother you again, but would anyone have a link to one of these learning to fly threads? i can't find any with more than 9 posts.

amen

I'm not a pilot but

If they were under the wing the landing gear would be too long to put away.

thats a bad answer. Numerous planes with long landing gear.

Engines are normally mounted out front in order to have an unrestricted air supply into the engine. This also makes them easier to maintain.

You can of course mount in the wing such as Concorde, Comet or in the Tail such as TriJets.

david4791

How long would it take from complete rookie to commercial airline pilot?, is there demand at present? what type of salary could I expect?

David
Civil Engineer looking at a career change

xflyer

Engines in fact can be mounted anywhere within reason. Sometimes in the wing, on top of the wing, VFW 614, under the wing, on the rear fuselage inside the tail. Probably underwing mounting represents the best combination of efficiency and accessibility.

The middle engine of the 727 could suffer problems with surging, caused by it's position with it's intake over the fuselage. I remember an old Club Air 727 taxying shooting flames out the back and banging like a cannon.


David4791, well on a full time course, eighteen months could find you in a position to apply to the airlines. Not become an airline pilot, merely to be qualified to apply.

As for time taken to actually become an airline pilot. That is a 'How long is a piece of string' question. It could be straight away or ten years after finishing training. Getting the first job is the tricky bit.

As for demand, well the job is well oversubscribed which means the likes of Ryanair and Aer Arann can ask eager young newly qualified pilots to hand over about thirty grand to get trained on their aircraft. Even if the airline doesn't expect you to pay upfront. They will either tie you to the airline with a bond or take it from your pay. Not only that Ryanair pilots mostly don't even work for Ryanair. They are self employed contractors. Not only that, you are charged €50 simply to apply to Ryanair.

As for salaries this website is useful:

http://www.pilotjobsnetwork.com/operatorlist.php?reg=Europe&type=Major/National/Low%20Cost

Click on the relevant airline. It's not alway accurate and up to date but on the other hand it often is.

Dissappointing reading I would wager.

david4791

Thanks for advice xflyer, I might stick with the engineering then

ronan45

Allways wondered why they dont put cctv on passenger planes. I am an avid watcher of Aircrash Investigation. They seem to do a lot of guess work as to what the pilots was up to etc before the crash and moments up to it. Surely the cctv recorder disk could easily slot in the Flight Data Recorder?
Nothing fancy,just one in the cockpit
Is it a money issue/ privacy issue? They have them on buses.

roundymac

ronan45 wrote: »

Allways wondered why they dont put cctv on passenger planes. I am an avid watcher of Aircrash Investigation. They seem to do a lot of guess work as to what the pilots was up to etc before the crash and moments up to it. Surely the cctv recorder disk could easily slot in the Flight Data Recorder?
Nothing fancy,just one in the cockpit
Is it a money issue/ privacy issue? They have them on buses.

I suupose you could say it's a privacy issue. It would not be very pleasent for the famillies of the deceased crew to watch their final moments. You can be sure some tv station would air these videos if they got their hands on them, using the age old excuse's, "the public have a right to know/ freedom of expression/press censorship and all the usual crap that they come up with".

amen

Problem with CCTV is the video is expensive in terms of storage. A lot of the current flight data that is store is just simple numbers or the state of a switch/control which are easily stored and (compressed?). Video though requires a lot of storage. A cctv from behind may not of use if the pilot obscures the view so you may need multiple cctvs so more storage etc

RangeR

amen wrote: »

Problem with CCTV is the video is expensive in terms of storage. A lot of the current flight data that is store is just simple numbers or the state of a switch/control which are easily stored and (compressed?). Video though requires a lot of storage. A cctv from behind may not of use if the pilot obscures the view so you may need multiple cctvs so more storage etc

True but tech gets so much smaller these days. You can record over 2 hours of HD video onto a 2GB Micro SD Card. These things are tiny. Just cycle the video every hour or two. You would really only be interested in the last 30 minutes of a flight, anyway.

bladeruner

It's intrusive enough that all our conversations are recorded.
Pilots recognised the need to get an insight into what was happening before a crash or serious incident and despite misgivings by many voice recordings began.
I don't think you'll ever see cameras in the flight deck in mainstream commercial aviation.

Wouldn't it be better if all surgery was recorded ? How many surgeons would agree to that?
Norra lot , I would warrant ....

xflyer

Actually I think quite a lot of surgery is recorded. It's a useful training aid.

View Profile

I dont think there are many accidents/incidents where having video would aid the crash investigators any more than with the voice and flight data recorders.

All the pilots control inputs are recorded anyway so video wont add much extra information.

If anything, video of the exterior aircraft control surfaces/engines would be more useful.

shaneoreillyo

is it better to have a degree before starting off or would ye recommend going straight to training colleges. in leaving cert now by the way so just weighing it up

eatmyshorts

shaneoreillyo wrote: »

is it better to have a degree before starting off or would ye recommend going straight to training colleges. in leaving cert now by the way so just weighing it up

Just go straight into flight training. You can always do a degree part time at a later date.

Ald

ronan45 wrote: »

Allways wondered why they dont put cctv on passenger planes. I am an avid watcher of Aircrash Investigation. They seem to do a lot of guess work as to what the pilots was up to etc before the crash and moments up to it. Surely the cctv recorder disk could easily slot in the Flight Data Recorder?
Nothing fancy,just one in the cockpit
Is it a money issue/ privacy issue? They have them on buses.

If anything it would be more useful to have CCTV outside at airports. For instance, tire bursts. I remember last year an Aer Lingus jet coming back from Amsterdam was warned on the frequency that it had possibly had a tire burst on take off but they couldn't be sure. All the emergency services were deployed and it emerged, while on approach, it was another aircraft that had taken off around the same time. Could also help in determining why aircraft go off runways etc. etc.

Tenger

Ald wrote: »

If anything it would be more useful to have CCTV outside at airports. ..........

Indeed, many years ago at Dublin in very blustery conditions we spotted a private jet wingstrike on landing. Our captain radioed it in, the pilot/tower had been unaware of it.
The tower was able to halt inbounds to do a runway inspection.

shaneoreillyo

eatmyshorts wrote: »

Just go straight into flight training. You can always do a degree part time at a later date.

thanks for the advise. is there no real adv. to a degree?

bladeruner

shaneoreillyo wrote: »

eatmyshorts wrote: »

Just go straight into flight training. You can always do a degree part time at a later date.

thanks for the advise. is there no real adv. to a degree?

I would advise you to do the degree first, if you lose your medical at some point in the future or get made redundant or even just get sick of giving up your soul to this industry, you'll have something to fall back on.
It's going to be hard to convince a bank to give you cash for the ATPL course at the moment anyway.
Just my thrupence worth.

TECH WORLD

Hi of course airplanes should have cctv on board ,would save millions on investigations and deter suicide bombers because pilots could view them from cockpit

bladeruner

TECH WORLD wrote: »

Hi of course airplanes should have cctv on board ,would save millions on investigations and deter suicide bombers because pilots could view them from cockpit

There is CCTV of the forward galley area on many aircraft ( not on Ryanair aircraft yet cos it's not mandatory according to the IAA)


That's different to CCTV in the cockpit.

TECH WORLD

Guys all they need is a weeks footage or a day really when You think about it. 6 months storage from 16 cameras can be stored on a sata 3.5" hard drive 1tb. So its not rocket science. There is some other reason they dont want video on planes

Tenger

TECH WORLD wrote: »

Hi of course airplanes should have cctv on board ,would save millions on investigations and deter suicide bombers because pilots could view them from cockpit

Am not sure how knowing they were on camera would deter suicide bombers!!

Not letting anyone into the cockpit is a better solution to that possibility.

TECH WORLD wrote: »

Guys all they need is a weeks footage or a day really when You think about it. 6 months storage from 16 cameras can be stored on a sata 3.5" hard drive 1tb. So its not rocket science. There is some other reason they dont want video on planes

The storage capacity isnt the issue. I would hazard a guess that no more than 12 hours storage would be needed. It is the certification for additional electronic devices on the aircraft as well as redesigning the CVR and FDR for video storage and any subsequent change to survivability that would pose problems.

In addition a video of the cockpit may not show the actual inputs of each person as clearly as the FDR log of the inputs does. Investigators do not care which hand the crew use, only that they hit that switch at that time.
"oh look his hand hit that switch.."
"...actually the input log shows nothing.......
"oh"

eatmyshorts

TECH WORLD wrote: »

Hi of course airplanes should have cctv on board ,would save millions on investigations and deter suicide bombers because pilots could view them from cockpit

TECH WORLD wrote: »

Guys all they need is a weeks footage or a day really when You think about it. 6 months storage from 16 cameras can be stored on a sata 3.5" hard drive 1tb. So its not rocket science. There is some other reason they dont want video on planes

I see you are advertising yourself as a CCTV sales and expert in your only other post on boards.ie. Kind of makes me think you've got a vested interest there!
What's your conspiracy theory about why "they" don't want CCTV on board?

Jimlad

Hello Pilots,

I am just wondering what is the best step forward to getting in the left seat.
Would I get my Licence or go to college and get some aviation backround behind me? Im not really sure what to do??

xflyer

It depend on your circumstances. Generally I would advise aiming to go to college to study something that interests you and one that will be sufficently well paid so you can save up to pay for your flight training unless of course you or your family have enough money or the means to obtain that money upfront to pay for flight training. That includes cadetships like Aer Lingus which of course require money.

Everyone has their own track to being a pilot. Without money behind them most people go to work via college and either save or borrow the money for flight training. Sometime in their mid twenties they are in a position to train as a pilot.

With money behind you there's the shortcut and the training can be done straightaway. The risk here is that the job doesn't come immediately and people find themselves in debt with no job and no qualifications other than as a pilot.

It depends on your circumstances which route you take. In a time when even an Aer Lingus cadetships requires a lot of money upfront there's no easy way into the left or right seat. But mind you there never was.

Lustrum

Have any of you ever experienced St Elmo's Fire? Is it only in thunderstorms that it happens? What was you reaction the first time you saw it (did you cack yourself or were you expecting it?)