The great big "ask an airline pilot" thread!

Jack1985 · 19-04-2014 11:24PM

You must plan to land with at least your minimum reserve fuel on board (30 mins).

That's the answer I was looking for thank you,

. So to clarify if I hold for 15 mins then divert to SNN and arrive with an ONBL, FOB of 1.8 tonnes with my 30min reserve endurance being 1.1 tonnes, I'm ok?

ProfessorPlum · 19-04-2014 11:27PM

Jack1985 wrote: »

That's the answer I was looking for thank you, . So to clarify if I hold for 15 mins then divert to SNN and arrive with an ONBL, FOB of 1.8 tonnes with my 30min reserve endurance being 1.1 tonnes, I'm ok?

Absolutely. So long as you land anywhere with your 30mins intact, you're legal.

Jack1985 · 19-04-2014 11:32PM

ProfessorPlum wrote: »

Absolutely. So long as you land anywhere with your 30mins intact, you're legal.

Brilliant cheers for that!

smurfjed · 20-04-2014 05:57AM

Cessna_Pilot, bear in mind that my planned landing distance for Luton is around 5600 feet at maximum landing weight, the demonstrated landing distances are based on maximum braking immediately upon landing which will result in the aircraft being parked and the thermal fuse plugs melting, so needless to say we don't operate like that. So bear in mind that if you are landing behind us in Luton and we are heavy, we most likely will not make the A1 or B1 taxiways, as neither of these are high speed exits.

adam88 · 20-04-2014 08:53AM

smurfjed wrote: »

Cessna_Pilot, bear in mind that my planned landing distance for Luton is around 5600 feet at maximum landing weight, the demonstrated landing distances are based on maximum braking immediately upon landing which will result in the aircraft being parked and the thermal fuse plugs melting, so needless to say we don't operate like that. So bear in mind that if you are landing behind us in Luton and we are heavy, we most likely will not make the A1 or B1 taxiways, as neither of these are high speed exits.

High speed exit?? What does that mean

Thermal fuse plugs?? What are these

dukedalton · 20-04-2014 10:01AM

Not a tech question but you guys might know the answer, and I don't want to open a new thread:

I was recently on an Aer Lingus flight to Amsterdam, which was a code share with KLM. One of the air hostesses was Dutch. I was just wondering, would she be a KLM employee seconded to Aer Lingus on that particular route, or do Aer Lingus actively recruit foreign, native-speaking crew for specific routes they fly?

lord lucan · 20-04-2014 10:05AM

dukedalton wrote: »

Not a tech question but you guys might know the answer, and I don't want to open a new thread:

I was recently on an Aer Lingus flight to Amsterdam, which was a code share with KLM. One of the air hostesses was Dutch. I was just wondering, would she be a KLM employee seconded to Aer Lingus on that particular route, or do Aer Lingus actively recruit foreign, native-speaking crew for specific routes they fly?

All EI crew, most likely being bilingual helped in her application and she's a Dutch lady living in Ireland. I'd imagine it was just a coincidence she was on the AMS run.

smurfjed · 20-04-2014 10:15AM

High Speed Taxiways or Rapid Exit Taxiways are taxiways leading off a runway at an acute angle that allow aircraft to leave the runway at a high speed, unto 60 knots, but in the case of Luton the exits are 90 degrees to the runway so are not classified as high speed.

Every time we brake we convert energy into heat that is absorbed by the brakes, there is only so much of this heat that the brakes and tires can absorb, in order to avoid the tires exploding, the rims are fitted with plugs that are designed to fail at a lower heat than the tires, as they fail, they will release the pressure from the tire and thereby avoid the tires exploding. According to our books, during a high speed rejected takeoff, we can expect the fuse plugs to melt, this can also happen if you apply heavy braking after landing and then have a long taxi to the parking area. This is the primary reason why you will see some aircraft with tail mounted engines taxing with the trust reversers open.

Jack1985 · 20-04-2014 10:29AM

dukedalton wrote: »

Not a tech question but you guys might know the answer, and I don't want to open a new thread:

I was recently on an Aer Lingus flight to Amsterdam, which was a code share with KLM. One of the air hostesses was Dutch. I was just wondering, would she be a KLM employee seconded to Aer Lingus on that particular route, or do Aer Lingus actively recruit foreign, native-speaking crew for specific routes they fly?

Are you sure she was actually Dutch or did you presume that from a flag on her name badge? If the later she was more than likely Dutch speaking.

bkehoe · 20-04-2014 11:54AM

Jack1985 wrote: »

That's the answer I was looking for thank you, . So to clarify if I hold for 15 mins then divert to SNN and arrive with an ONBL, FOB of 1.8 tonnes with my 30min reserve endurance being 1.1 tonnes, I'm ok?

You hold for as little or long as you decide is appropriate given the specific conditions on the day - you can't decide your plan just based on your own expected fuel burns, there's a much bigger picture than just your aircraft to consider. For example if you push the limits you might find that all those other guys who didn't hang around in the hold for 30mins have diverted to the same alternate and now you're No 5 in the approach or the airport closes to further diversions due to a lack of parking, you don't get the optimal flight level for the cruise to the alternate and thus burn more fuel, etc, or the alternate has a reduced arrivals rate due to similarly bad weather, etc, etc, etc.

If there's no short term forecast improvement from the TAF, or tower reported improvement in RVRs over a short period of time, I'd personally be heading straight for the alternate.

Strumms · 20-04-2014 01:11PM

Jack1985 wrote: »

Are you sure she was actually Dutch or did you presume that from a flag on her name badge? If the later she was more than likely Dutch speaking.

Do EI crews have flags on their name badges ? I have to say I never even noticed that. EI have non Irish cabin crew and indeed non Irish pilots. Not unusual in the modern world.

Jack1985 · 20-04-2014 01:39PM

Strumms wrote: »

Do EI crews have flags on their name badges ? I have to say I never even noticed that. EI have non Irish cabin crew and indeed non Irish pilots. Not unusual in the modern world.

Yeah those who speak with multiple languages it's only cabin crew where them.

Jack1985 · 20-04-2014 01:42PM

bkehoe wrote: »

You hold for as little or long as you decide is appropriate given the specific conditions on the day - you can't decide your plan just based on your own expected fuel burns, there's a much bigger picture than just your aircraft to consider. For example if you push the limits you might find that all those other guys who didn't hang around in the hold for 30mins have diverted to the same alternate and now you're No 5 in the approach or the airport closes to further diversions due to a lack of parking, you don't get the optimal flight level for the cruise to the alternate and thus burn more fuel, etc, or the alternate has a reduced arrivals rate due to similarly bad weather, etc, etc, etc.

If there's no short term forecast improvement from the TAF, or tower reported improvement in RVRs over a short period of time, I'd personally be heading straight for the alternate.

To be fair I used ORK primarily because there's not going to be more than 5 a/c in the hold, there's going to be paking in DUB/SNN when I said for example they were CAVOK.

Had I said I was flying to BCN with the same weather than id have been asking a totally different question, as you have eluded to there is a lot more to consider in that specific situation.

Jack1985 · 20-04-2014 01:48PM

Another question from me onto another area, can anyone explain to me how to understand sigmet charts? I'm guessing the more lines on the wind dials (sorry if I'm naming them wrong - only recently started receiving examples of them), the stronger the wind in that particular direction? Also what other data can you take in from sigmets? Cloud formations maybe turbulence?

smurfjed · 20-04-2014 04:13PM

What charts are you talking about in particular, can you link to one? I use an Ipad APP called Wx Charts, from that i can get just about every type of met chart. I usually use them for checking the winds, weather activity and turbulence, we can then decide if we can route around any problem areas, or go higher than them. For example tonight we will have a bumpy time from the bottom of Italy across the med, from FL280 to 410, we will be at the top of that cruising at 410. We have the ability to go to 450, but as we are then required to wear face oxygen masks, its something that we avoid, but if we had passengers onboard we would have to do it in order to give them a smoother ride.

Right now I'm looking out the window of probably the tallest hotel in Paris, the weather is beautiful and i get to fly an empty aircraft out from there in about 3 hours, this is when the job beats every type of office job imaginable...

basill · 20-04-2014 04:27PM

Who is the sigmet provider? If its something like WAFC prepared then the solid black triangles represent 50kts of wind each. The long thin lines are 10kts and half a line is 5kts.

Type "sigmet chart symbol" into google and you will get loads of returns which should help you decode all the other stuff like cb's, forecast turbulence etc.

Jack1985 · 20-04-2014 04:35PM

Thanks for the replies lads, here's the sigmet, not sure who the provider is as it's linked into the OFP.

bkehoe · 20-04-2014 07:26PM

Jack1985 wrote: »

To be fair I used ORK primarily because there's not going to be more than 5 a/c in the hold, there's going to be paking in DUB/SNN when I said for example they were CAVOK.

Had I said I was flying to BCN with the same weather than id have been asking a totally different question, as you have eluded to there is a lot more to consider in that specific situation.

Airports can be CAVOK and still have significant delays or a myriad of reasons as to why they may not be suitable or expeditious. No matter how perfect the weather is, how precise the flight plans, one will not be hanging around in a hold till the fuel in the tanks equals the reserve fuel on your flightplan. This is airmanship.

Suasdaguna1 · 21-04-2014 01:05AM

bkehoe wrote: »

Airports can be CAVOK and still have significant delays or a myriad of reasons as to why they may not be suitable or expeditious. No matter how perfect the weather is, how precise the flight plans, one will not be hanging around in a hold till the fuel in the tanks equals the reserve fuel on your flightplan. This is airmanship.

Airmanship is you dont land with less than final reserve fuel......reserve fuel can be eaten into and land at your destination airport but you'd want to be at the top of your game and know that you'll be landing.

Cessna_Pilot · 21-04-2014 01:06PM

Jack1985 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies lads, here's the sigmet, not sure who the provider is as it's linked into the OFP.

That is not a sigmet. Thats a wind chart.

basill · 21-04-2014 02:34PM

The attached is a sigmet chart. As Cessna stated your link is wind chart.

http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/fax/PGDE14.PNG

Jack1985 · 21-04-2014 05:18PM

Attached are all related weather charts to the OFP I'm currently viewing, it would be great if someone could say its function, how to interpret it etc, thanks.

The attached is a sigmet chart.

Thanks basil

KnotABother · 22-04-2014 01:21PM

How often if ever would you fly an NDB approach in the course of commercial jet flying? And how often if ever again do you fly a full procedure? Are you just vectored to intercept a localiser/radial?

Growler!!! · 22-04-2014 03:06PM

Jack1985 wrote: »

Attached are all related weather charts to the OFP I'm currently viewing, it would be great if someone could say its function, how to interpret it etc, thanks.

Thanks basil

Might explain a few things.
http://weatherfaqs.org.uk/node/186

Growler!!! · 22-04-2014 03:14PM

KnotABother wrote: »

How often if ever would you fly an NDB approach in the course of commercial jet flying? And how often if ever again do you fly a full procedure? Are you just vectored to intercept a localiser/radial?

Quite often. BHX have been doing rwy extension works on rwy 15 for the last while. Because of the works they have been switching off the ILS. An RNAV approach is available too but we are not certified to do it. Radar are quite good at vectoring us onto the inbound course.

Rwy 08 in KER is ndb only also but you have to do the full procedure as they don't have radar.

Like everything else, it's easy when you're used to it.

Jack1985 · 22-04-2014 03:21PM

Growler!!! wrote: »

Might explain a few things.
http://weatherfaqs.org.uk/node/186

Thanks so much for that, finally getting a grasp on it now :P - From the first image in my last post for CAT areas it shows for point 6 a CB area of moderate turbulence with 400/270, would the later be the base and 400 be the top of the weather system as in there's an area of moderate turbulence between FL270 and FL400?

Cheers!

smurfjed · 22-04-2014 07:02PM

This is what we used yesterday, the first thing to do is check the date and time and the appropriate levels. Then have a look at your route and see what lies ahead of you.

You can see a number of ISOL EMBD CB 300/XXX, basically means isolated CBs embedded in other clouds with a max height of FL300 but the XXX isn't actually the lower level, it means that they are lower than the lowest level that the chart was based upon.

Around Italy you can see a Jetstream with black triangles and lines, each triangle is 50 kts. and each line 10, so you have a 130 jet stream. that area is surrounded by dashed lines and the number 4 is associated with that area, looking to the reference box, you can see area 4 has turbulence from 280-460.

If you look closely you can see individual letters, like Z, P, S.... these are actually city names, Zurich, Paris and Stockholm etc.

What else can you see?

Jack1985 · 22-04-2014 07:16PM

This is what we used yesterday, the first thing to do is check the date and time and the appropriate levels. Then have a look at your route and see what lies ahead of you.

You can see a number of ISOL EMBD CB 300/XXX, basically means isolated CBs embedded in other clouds with a max height of FL300 but the XXX isn't actually the lower level, it means that they are lower than the lowest level that the chart was based upon.

Around Italy you can see a Jetstream with black triangles and lines, each triangle is 50 kts. and each line 10, so you have a 130 jet stream. that area is surrounded by dashed lines and the number 4 is associated with that area, looking to the reference box, you can see area 4 has turbulence from 280-460.

If you look closely you can see individual letters, like Z, P, S.... these are actually city names, Zurich, Paris and Stockholm etc.

Brilliant that's made that chart so much easier to read now!

Any idea what the name of that app is smurfjed?

, just hope you can confirm a few details:

[500] - There are various numbers of three figures in boxes around the chart, do these represent Tropopause levels?

Where can you determine areas of CAT? or is this made known via the detailed information using the reference numbers?

Cheers.

smurfjed · 22-04-2014 08:37PM

Wx Charts by company called ProgAero....

[500] or similar is the Tropopause Level, if it has a H above the value, it means HIGH, the letter L stands for LOW.

Before the edit you asked about wind strength, the levels show where the wind is greater than 80 kts. with the maximum shown by the symbols.

Read the tiny text above the box with numbers, it is labelled CAT AREAS. So this indicates where you will encounter CAT.

Jack1985 · 22-04-2014 09:30PM

smurfjed wrote: »

Wx Charts by company called ProgAero....

[500] or similar is the Tropopause Level, if it has a H above the value, it means HIGH, the letter L stands for LOW.

Before the edit you asked about wind strength, the levels show where the wind is greater than 80 kts. with the maximum shown by the symbols.

Read the tiny text above the box with numbers, it is labelled CAT AREAS. So this indicates where you will encounter CAT.

Brilliant thanks to all of ye who helped, plenty of study now to understand this fully.

Cheers!

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