The great big "ask an airline pilot" thread!

I've decided to go with the NFC,but could someone please tell me if I buy the voucher thing,Do I choose what day I can just show up and fly? or is a date organised and how?

Thanks

Tenger wrote: »

Would it not be better to ring NFC and ask them directly? Unless a poster here works for them you cannot guarantee getting the correct info.

Do I pre-book my slot?
Do I pay in advance?
What is the cost?
Do I need to prep anything?
Is there anything I need to bring with me?
What are your opening hours?
How long does the voucher last?
Can I buy a voucher now and book a lesson in a couple of weeks/months?

Yes it would which I have tried,I also e-mailed them last week and they haven't got back to me.This is why I am asking all these questions on the forum

tipperaryboy wrote: »

Hi all, I'm heading to LCY with Cityjet next week wondering what would be the possibility of visiting the avro cockpit taking photo etc and would two people allowed in at once? Of course on the ground in either DUB or LCY. Would be great to compare to A320.
Appreciate any advice thanks.

These requests are best put forward to the capt before flight to arrange for viewing after the flight.

Hi Lads,
Just curious about the best route to take to becoming a pilot? It's something I've always wanted to do but was advised against it years ago, due to expensive training and a lack of jobs. I've a bit of savings now,but I'm in a bit of a rut career wise and trying to feel out some other career paths. Perhaps at 30 I would be considered too old for training?

Talk to these guys:
http://www.afta.ie/

Nice friendly bunch, went to an open night they had about 6 months ago very informatitive.

Lots and lots of info in the links contained here:

http://www.pprune.org/professional-pilot-training-includes-ground-studies/131649-archive-reference-threads-posting-guidelines-read-before-you-post-question.html

Should pretty much cover every question you could think of...

hidinginthebush wrote: »

Hey lads, this was probably answered already, but how much say does the pilot have regarding takeoff and landing angles and speed etc. It seems that on Ryanair, for example, the takeoff climb is steeper (presumable to get to a more efficient cruse altitude quicker?), or is it ATC who say get to this altitude at this time, at this rate etc? Same for landing and approach?

Each aircraft has a best climb speed. There are actually 2 termed Vx(best angle or most height in least distance over the ground) and Vy(best rate or height in shortest time).
SIDs(Standard Instrument Departures) may stipulate that an aircraft must reach a certain height by a certain point to clear terrain or for airspace reasons etc. The same with STARs(Standard Instrument Arrivals) and Instrument Approaches. Generally speaking you will fly Vy or Vx up to FL100 and then fly a best climb speed that the FMC(Flight Management Computer) gives you depending on the weight or aircraft/temperature etc to cruise altitude.

Generally speaking you will fly Vy or Vx up to FL100 and then fly a best climb speed that the FMC(Flight Management Computer) gives you depending on the weight or aircraft/temperature etc to cruise altitude.

What input are you entering into the FMS to give you Vy or Vx up to 10,000 feet?

We use canned speeds, 250/300/M.75, we have no options for Vx or Vy, unless you set a manual speed.

smurfjed

probably the best they can achieve with the temperature, pressure and ATC/traffic/SID requirements of the day.

actually it isn't the best, as in most aircraft they use ECON and/or Derates.

Smurfjed

I'm not an aviation expert, but on the subject of hard landings...my understanding is a landing where the aircraft is put down quickly is desirable in windy conditions or when the runway is contaminated (wet). Also I believe the 737-800 has a firm undercarriage and is difficult to land "softly" and where you are sitting on the plane may also affect your perception of soft/hard landing. No idea who kind of force the landing gear can take. I'll leave a better explanation to those who work in aviation

keith16 wrote: »

Don't be silly! I work for the Indo :P

Seriously tho, I do wonder do pilots come under pressure for how much fuel they use. Or are the flight planning systems ultimately responsible for calculating optimum fuel level?

Ever heard of the Ryanair Fuel League?

fly at higher altitudes = fuel saving, but perhaps more maintenance, and less cycles?

Would you expand on this?

It is a fine art, but garbage in = garbage out, so unless you have relatively accurate fixed cost figures, the calculation is meaningless. We had some interesting parameters to add into the thought process, such as de-icing costs in the middle of summer due to wing icing, the lack of de-icing equipment in certain countries, and the costs of internal fuel tank damage due to heavy fuel loads on landing.

Do most civil aircraft carry commercial freight?

Oh yep, very lucrative business.

smurfjed

Flying higher does use less fuel, but this only useful to a point, there is an altitude called OPTIMUM altitude, this is where you get the maximum "Nautical Air Miles" for a given amount of fuel. So in an old fashioned aircraft, one would basically aim for this altitude, as you get lighter this altitude gets higher, so you climb with it, it might also help to slow down, but if you slow down it will take longer to cover the distance, so you have to assess your total fuel to cover that distance at the slower speed.

To take this a step further you get whats called ECON cruise, this is based on a value called "Cost Index" that is entered in the FMS. Some airlines will have a specific CI value for each route, or they may assess the need for an on time arrival to be more important than fuel costs, this is due to missed connections etc.

With Cost Index you ignore the costs that are not controlled by the hour, like paying for the aircraft lease/loan, insurance, airline operations administration costs, these have to be paid at the end of the month regardless of how much you fly.

So you compare the hourly costs of the aircraft versus fuel, lets say its $100 = $100. But on a certain route fuel is expensive so it becomes $100 = $200, ouch i want to cut down that fuel cost so i fly slower, this will increase my hourly costs but reduce my fuel cost, so we end up with $140 = $150, in doing this we have saved $10 for that hour. It doesn't sound like a lot but our A320 fleet flies something like 10,000 hours a month, so over a year thats over $1,000,000 saving in fuel costs. Now considering that the costs involved are a lot higher than my little formula, you can see how these savings are worthwhile.

As for Garbage IN/OUT, well ECON has to use WINDS to make an accurate calculation of time, if you dont enter real winds for the whole route, its not going to make a total accurate calculation, OK it will reassess each time it gets a wind, but from your planning stage it was wrong.

Then the fixed costs, lets say an airline decides to include the cost of its operational staff in the formula, it would increase the fixed costs so it wouldn't push you to save as much fuel. This is why i find it funny when people ask on forums, "hey we are new to CI, what do you guys use"? It doesn't work that way, if one is unaware of how the formula works, then the easiest thing to do is ask Boeing/Airbus for a standard CI value that equates to your desired Cruise Speed, ie constant mach or LRC.

Most airlines have an operational engineering department, who would calculate these values and submit them to the flight planning system as well as giving them to the crew.

As to additional maintenance for flying high, we dont record the altitude that we fly at, so maintenance have no way of assessing if we flew high or low. Plus with the logic of the pressurisation system, the cabin is pressurised to a pressure regardless of the altitude, for example today we will fly at FL210 with the cabin altitude at Sea Level and the pressurisation setting will be at about 7.5, on the way back it will most likely remain at 7.5, but if we climb to FL320, the cabin altitude will increase to 3000 feet. Maybe some of the technicians on here might correct me on this, but AFAIK we dont have additional maintenance checks due to higher cruising levels.

And now i have to go do an annual line check :(

smurfjed

Cheers for that comprehensive post above smurfjed....... as posted by another poster; I too will have to read it a few times to comprehend it but thanks for taking the time to post.

Hope the annual line check went well...... I'm sure you flew it (Pun intended!!!!!!!!)