The great big "ask an airline pilot" thread!

smurfjed

Get some ear-plugs and eyeshades, they really improve the quality of rest

Locker10a

homerjay2005 wrote: »

dont see anybody saying they based peoples nationality due to their looks, but ill let you have your moment!

however, you can tell pretty quickly where a person is from, due to their accent and quite often their name. for example, is somebody is called Oisin, Sinead or Aine, theres a good chance they are Irish before they open their mouth. likewise a Pawel, Agnieska or Marta is likely to be Polish, with a Raluca, Alexandra or Silva being from Eastern Europe, specifically Romania area. its not generalisation or racially based as you appear to be hinting, but simple conclusions based on tradition, history and experience. in fact, many people can tell where others are from based on their dresscode, their complexion and how they act - youd pick out Irish or Polish people out of a crowd no problem for example.

personally, ive noticed an increase in the number of Irish air hostesses lately on Ryanair and its safe to say that about 90% of Aer Lingus cabin crew are Irish.

Yeah there is definitely truth in what you say ! People constantly think I'm English! Untill they hear me speak or find out my name!!
There were always Irish hostesses in ryanair but just scattered all over Europe !!

FuzzyDunlop100

Question, I was listening to Dublin ATC today when a Delta 767 was lined up on runway 10. ATC gave clearance for takeoff and then said something along the lines of,

"...Continue on centerline up to flight level 90 and contact....."

What does "continue on centerline" mean?

Thanks in advance

ProfessorPlum

FuzzyDunlop100 wrote: »

Question, I was listening to Dublin ATC today when a Delta 767 was lined up on runway 10. ATC gave clearance for takeoff and then said something along the lines of,

"...Continue on centerline up to flight level 90 and contact....."

What does "continue on centerline" mean?

Thanks in advance

Was probably something like 'continue on extended centreline to FL90' which basically means fly straight ahead to FL90, which is different to the standard instrument departure that they were probably given in their domestic departure clearance. You'll often hear 'fly runway heading' or 'fly runway track' which is essentially the same thing, plus or minus the correction for wind.

KoolKid

When an aircraft is on approach you often hear ATC say information is .... Alpha ,Bravo,Charlie etc. It always seems to progress alphabetically . What does it mean?

smurfjed

Not sure if you can hear it on LIVE ATC, but the ATIS information for the airport is expressed in terms of time and a letter, so they are basically checking that they crew have the latest information

flazio

What do the letters "Q.N.H." stand for in an Air Traffic control conversation. I know it's to do with the air pressure on the barometer but I don't know what the letters mean.

eatmyshorts

flazio wrote: »

What do the letters "Q.N.H." stand for in an Air Traffic control conversation. I know it's to do with the air pressure on the barometer but I don't know what the letters mean.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_code#Aviation

Good explanation there.

smurfjed

My understanding is that Q codes were from the morse code era, the Q stood for Question so that the recipient knew that what to expect.

Not sure if they still do it, but we had to do an actual morse code sending / receiving test for our commercial licences.

Growler!!!

smurfjed wrote: »

My understanding is that Q codes were from the morse code era, the Q stood for Question so that the recipient knew that what to expect.

Not sure if they still do it, but we had to do an actual morse code sending / receiving test for our commercial licences.

You are correct. Q codes were used initially in Wireless Telephony (morse code) for ship to shore communications. Each 3 letter Q code would signify a question or reply which had substantially more words/letters in it than the code itself. The reason for this was that messages sent were charged per word/letter at the time. Morse code was eventually phased out in the maritime role in 2000.

I never had to send morse "live" as in '97 our fleet was fitted with the more modern radio equipment (GMDSS) but I used to be able to Tx/Rx at 16 words a minute for exam purposes.

There is no longer a requirement to learn morse for ATPL or CPL issue, also the code is printed on our charts. But knowledge of it always helps:D

islanderre

Morning all,

Just after watching the Autoland BA video posted on the video thread.
Quick question for ye; at approx 150 AGL; the comment was made that the decision height was 50 AGL....... so What I'm wondering is if the pilot was flying it manually; he / she would of gone around at the 50 AGL level if the runway was not in sight.... is this right????
Another question is; as the aircraft was on autopilot / autoland; is the decision height of 50 AGL is null and void????

Last but not least; would major carriers like Ryanair & Aer Lingus maintain a % of the fleet as Autoland capable or would all the fleet be capable???

Thanks all...

bkehoe

A Cat3 approach (which this would have been if the DH is 50ft) must be seen through to an autoland. Any failure of systems would result in a go around, which depending on the failure could end up being manually flown. If one had a failure at the last second with the runway in sight it wouldn't be illegal to complete the landing manually but a go around is preferred as the visual cues to properly judge the flare wouldnt exist in poor visibility.

Cat2 (100ft DH, 300m RVR minimum) approaches may result in a manual landing, but many airlines will mandate that they are treated the same as a Cat3 approach and must be flown as an auto land (a case where company SOPs are more restrictive than the law).

bkehoe

Oh and at the approach minimums (A MDA, DA, or DH!), irrespective of auto or manual flight, one must go around if the required visual references are not in sight.

I imagine most airlines would try to keep all their fleet CAT3 enabled...mine does anyway. Sometimes various systems defects may lead to aircraft being dispatched as CAT1 only, but we would know beforehand and could request a different aircraft it it looked like we needed CAT3 capabilities. Often after some kind of maintenance a practice autoland is required in the interests of ensuring safety and this must be done in good weather conditions before the aircraft is certified for autolands again as well.

ProfessorPlum

bkehoe wrote: »

A Cat3 approach (which this would have been if the DH is 50ft) must be seen through to an autoland. Any failure of systems would result in a go around, which depending on the failure could end up being manually flown. If one had a failure at the last second with the runway in sight it wouldn't be illegal to complete the landing manually but a go around is preferred as the visual cues to properly judge the flare wouldnt exist in poor visibility.

Just a slight correction... A CAT 3 approach must be planned to an autoland, but in the case of any failures resulting in a loss of CAT 3 capability, it can result in either a go around or a manual landing providing the required visual references are available (or of course down grade to a CAT 2 landing if that is still available)

Poulgorm

Why are so many military transport planes propeller driven? I see that the new Airbus military transport plane has propellers - photo of it recently in the papers, in RAF colours. It's to replace the Hercules aircraft that they have (also propeller driven).

Tenger

Poulgorm wrote: »

Why are so many military transport planes propeller driven? I see that the new Airbus military transport plane has propellers - photo of it recently in the papers, in RAF colours. It's to replace the Hercules aircraft that they have (also propeller driven).

It based on required capability. Transports do not require the high speed of combat aircraft. In addition props are a little lighter on cost and maintenance so are more suited to logistical aircraft. Transport aircraft may often operate from improvised and/or rough air strips, this is something that jets cannot do (due to debris ingestion issues)

Poulgorm

Thank you for the concise reply

adlima

Hi guys. I have often wondered about the process that the big airlines use when assigning aircraft to routes. Is it mostly automated or is it more of a manual job? I'm guessing that aircraft are not assigned too far in advance taking into consideration unexpected maintenance issues, etc? It seems like a massive headache for the people responsible. Thanks in advance.

smurfjed

Until relatively recently we had people in a department called "Operations Control Centre" who would assign aircraft by hand, they had this massive continuous roll of paper that showed a 24 hour timeline. It certainly wasn't the most efficient method but it worked. This was replaced by software produced by a company called Sabre Aviation Solutions, the automated system allows interaction with crewing, maintenance, marketing and dispatch software, so a change made by one department is immediately reflected on the other systems. Our aircraft utilisation increased dramatically.

Tenger

smurfjed wrote: »

Until relatively recently we had people in a department called "Operations Control Centre" who would assign aircraft by hand, they had this massive continuous roll of paper that showed a 24 hour timeline. It certainly wasn't the most efficient method but it worked. This was replaced by software produced by a company called Sabre Aviation Solutions.......

I did this myself for short time. Was very interesting but assignments where influenced mostly by maintenance requirements ("needs to finish early to go to hanger and/or needs to start late after hanger visit", "A check due get it home tonight", "A/C pack U/S, don't put on route with mountains")

owenc

How many different variations of the Ryanair livery's are there? Just keep seeing winglets with different themes.

smurfjed

On the way home so the year is done.... grand total this year of 166 hours flying, thats low even by my standards. So how much did you guys fly in 2014?

Tenger

A little over 800 since Jan 1st.....got approx another 25 block hours planned before Dec 31st

braddun

do you know how to glide your plane if you run out of petrol

I read they are going to teach it to commercial pilots

Growler!!!

740 hrs, low by comparison to other years but moved seats, base twice and a new variant.

Growler!!!

braddun wrote: »

do you know how to glide your plane if you run out of petrol

I read they are going to teach it to commercial pilots

Ha ha, the writer of the article you read was talking out their arse. Perhaps a link to the said article would enlighten us all:D

martinsvi

smurfjed wrote: »

So how much did you guys fly in 2014?

*looks into logbook* whooping 8 hours and 39 minutes... I did lot's more as a passenger thou

MoeJay

Just shy of 555hrs with one trip left...of course there was a conversion course in there!

bkehoe

smurfjed wrote: »

So how much did you guys fly in 2014?

840 so far, and 25 more scheduled before the end of the year.

OzCam

smurfjed wrote: »

On the way home so the year is done.... grand total this year of 166 hours flying, thats low even by my standards. So how much did you guys fly in 2014?

Is that hours on duty, in the cockpit or actually Pilot Flying? Does it include simulator time or all the time you guys have to spend being tested? How is it defined?