The great big "ask an airline pilot" thread!

Cessna_Pilot · 22-07-2014 09:44AM

Edsonbarboza wrote: »

Probably been asked before but has any of the pilots on here had any near death experiences at the controls?

Like a heart attack? No for me, although there are many stories out there of pilots suffering heart attacks, strokes etc while airborne.

Cessna_Pilot · 22-07-2014 09:45AM

protog777 wrote: »

How long does it take to become an airline pilot? Is it like 2 years or more like 6 years? And did you enjoy the road to becoming a pilot was it time consuming and boring or exciting?

Two years to get my CPL IR etc. Training lasts forever as you never stop learning

protog777 · 22-07-2014 10:11AM

Cessna_Pilot wrote: »

Two years to get my CPL IR etc. Training lasts forever as you never stop learning

thanks for the reply!

Edsonbarboza · 22-07-2014 12:11PM

Cessna_Pilot wrote: »

Like a heart attack? No for me, although there are many stories out there of pilots suffering heart attacks, strokes etc while airborne.

Haha No I mean like very close go arounds,engine failure and equipment malfunction,midair collisions bit far fetched but close calls not impossible,surely one ye lads have a story or two when fearing the worst.

smurfjed · 22-07-2014 12:25PM

near death experiences at the controls?

Most of my landings could be considered near death experiences

keith16 · 22-07-2014 10:10PM

ProfessorPlum wrote: »

So would most of the Poles

Gets really interesting in bad weather and informing pax where the aircraft is diverting to. I've heard some real crackers

Where would the diversion airports be out of interest?

I actually heard a story about a Ryanair flight from London to Lublin.

The flight couldn't land because of heavy snow and diverted to Rzeszów and offloaded the PAX.

At this stage, the weather had passed so the flight headed back to Lublin to pick up the returning PAX to London, but Lublin airport decided that they were finished for the day and everyone just clocked off :eek:

KnotABother · 23-07-2014 05:50PM

Edsonbarboza wrote: »

Haha No I mean like very close go arounds,engine failure and equipment malfunction,midair collisions bit far fetched but close calls not impossible,surely one ye lads have a story or two when fearing the worst.

I once was checking a prop(as a PPL student) that had it's magneto left on both after shut down(previous guy not my favourite person) and as I moved it slightly it shuddered to life momentarily.....it didnt fully start but my underpants were of little use to me for the rest of the day shall we say....

smurfjed · 23-07-2014 06:02PM

as I moved it slightly it shuddered to life momentarily

Who trained you to move the propellor during a pre-flight?

eatmyshorts · 23-07-2014 06:09PM

smurfjed wrote: »

Who trained you to move the propellor during a pre-flight?

During my basic training, an instructor told me..."touch a prop as if it was your best friends cock. Only if completely necessary, and then only with two fingers".
Funnily enough, an Airbus instructor in Toulouse said the exact same thing about the 330 sidestick.

KnotABother · 23-07-2014 06:14PM

smurfjed wrote: »

Who trained you to move the propellor during a pre-flight?

I wasn't moving it deliberately. I was just checking it with my hand and it started off. Engineer said after I most likely moved it enough to trip a start and that it sometimes wont take much when the engine is warm.

smurfjed · 23-07-2014 06:24PM

"touch a prop as if it was your best friends cock. Only if completely necessary, and then only with two fingers".

Priceless advise

:)

Cessna_Pilot · 23-07-2014 06:24PM

KnotABother wrote: »

I was just checking it with my hand

Not deliberately being pedantic, but what were you checking by touching it? :pac:

TheBoss11 · 23-07-2014 09:43PM

Would the banks cover an integrated course with a student loan. My family don't Own property

Tenger · 23-07-2014 09:52PM

Edsonbarboza wrote: »

Probably been asked before but has any of the pilots on here had any near death experiences at the controls?

I would guess that most professional pilots would be quite reticent about describing the situations that you are looking for.

Cessna_Pilot · 23-07-2014 11:22PM

TheBoss11 wrote: »

Would the banks cover an integrated course with a student loan. My family don't Own property

Have you asked them? Lots of info online. They may have once, when money grew on trees ten odd years ago, but certainly not anymore.

Tenger · 24-07-2014 01:45AM

eatmyshorts wrote: »

During my basic training, an instructor told me..."touch a prop as if it was your best friends cock. Only if completely necessary, and then only with two fingers".......

As stated above...good advice. However I may query the need for more than 1 digit being required.....I doubt a 2nd would help in any MEL check situation.

KnotABother · 24-07-2014 01:30PM

Cessna_Pilot wrote: »

Not deliberately being pedantic, but what were you checking by touching it? :pac:

I was just checking to make sure the blades edges were smooth and not cracked or chipped. Like I said I was pre-PPL issue(may have even been pre SPL come to think of it). All that book learning I did with regards making sure your prop is in good working order may perhaps have made me be a little over zealous in that incidence. I was patting the edge to make sure it was smooth rather than sliding and potentially slicing my hand open. The patting was what moved the prop I'd say. I was a little wet behind the ears back then but as you can imagine....lessons were learned that day. I now would always check the mags before even moving into the vicinity of the prop!

Irish Steve · 24-07-2014 08:32PM

Edsonbarboza wrote: »

Probably been asked before but has any of the pilots on here had any near death experiences at the controls?

A couple. Closest was when I was doing IR training in the UK, flying my (PA39) twin over Midhurst VOR doing holds at 2400 Ft, just under the base of Class A controlled airspace, with a radar service from Dunsfold. We'd done a number of holds, and suddenly, we got a call, "Fox Tango, sorry for late call, opposite direction traffic 3 miles, height unknown". We looked out, and moments later, we saw a Dan Air BAC1-11 coming put of the murk towards us. At the last moment, it turned left (not the normal direction for an emergency turn) and continued on it's way. We didn't really have time to respond to seeing it, let alone turn away, and on "mature reflection", we estimated the separation as 100 Ft vertically, and probably 50 Ft horizontally, we were close enough to have been able to count rivets had we been so minded,

My instructor contacted the controller at Dunsfold, in an even more clipped voice than his normal style, and told him what we'd seen, and the controller told us that he would file the airmiss, as we'd been under his control.

A while later, we were notified that the investigation had found out what had happened, the 1-11 was positioning from Lasham to Gatwick, under their control, and the controller at Gatwick had cleared the 1-11 to fly on the base of the TMA, at 2500 Ft, but had done so with his radar still set to suppress all non Gatwick transponder returns, so he was not aware that we were operating 100 Ft below the base of the TMA with a radar service from Dunsfold. There wasn't time for an adrenalin rush, it happened too quickly. This happened a good while ago, and before TCAS was in use by all operators, and back then, light aircraft didn't have TCAS capability, although they did have Mode C transponders, so we should have been visible to Gatwick if the controller hadn't made the mistake he did.

Not as close, but a couple of weeks later, we had a Belgian Cherokee pop out of a cloud and fly across in front of us at about 400 Ft separation, and then disappear into another cloud almost as quickly. Problem was, we were flying in the approach pattern for an ILS at Lydd, and the cherokee had not contacted Lydd for traffic information, he's gone straight through their approach pattern at 1500 Ft. He was "approached" by ATC at Biggin Hill on landing and the error of his ways was made clear to him!

So yes, a couple of pucker making incidents, neither of them of my making, but that's not much comfort if someone else has done something, or been told to do something that causes the conflict.

n32 · 03-08-2014 08:46PM

A quick question for the Transatlantic pilots;

When travelling between Ireland and the US, at what stage of the flight are you at your furthest from a possible emergency landing airfield?

basill · 03-08-2014 08:57PM

It depends on what tracks are in use or the random routing you are flying. We are approved for 180mins etops which is the limit but it would be rare that we would be right on the limit given the relative proximity to landfall given the latitudes we typically operate at. Still it would on an "average" day be around the 2 hr mark to the nearest aerodrome for most of the crossing. Hence all the redundancy built into etops aircraft, fire suppression, sat comms, medical equipment etc etc.

n32 · 03-08-2014 09:43PM

basill wrote: »

It depends on what tracks are in use or the random routing you are flying. We are approved for 180mins etops which is the limit but it would be rare that we would be right on the limit given the relative proximity to landfall given the latitudes we typically operate at. Still it would on an "average" day be around the 2 hr mark to the nearest aerodrome for most of the crossing. Hence all the redundancy built into etops aircraft, fire suppression, sat comms, medical equipment etc etc.

Would you ever get spooked out over the open ocean and think ''we re a long from anything if we get a problem''?

smurfjed · 04-08-2014 05:42AM

Would you ever get spooked out over the open ocean and think ''we re a long from anything if we get a problem''?

Isn't that where the excitement comes in?

eatmyshorts · 04-08-2014 06:01AM

n32 wrote: »

A quick question for the Transatlantic pilots;

When travelling between Ireland and the US, at what stage of the flight are you at your furthest from a possible emergency landing airfield?

We operate trans-polar with up to 207 mins ETOPS. Once north of Murmansk or Arkangel on the northern Russian coast, there isn't many options until Yellowknife, Canada or Fairbanks, Alaska. There is Svalbard and Thule, but in the winter they can often be either snow closed or below minimums. In this case the options would be to to continue, turn back, or nip down south to Sondestrom or Keflavik.
Even though the ETOPS limit is 207 mins, this is based on still air cruising time at 420kts TAS. In reality, the diversion will be flown at Long Range Cruise/Max Range Cruise/300kts, depending on the scenario. This can result in an actual time to diversion of greater than 207 mins. I've seen Keflavik, our nominated ETOPS suitable, over 230 mins away in reality.
Of course, all the ETOPS requirements are for planning only, so once dispatched you make your own call as to what to do.

My last polar trip was a few days ago, and we passed within 30nm of the North Pole. It's handily marked with the waypoint NPOLE!
In the case of an uncontrollable fire, putting the aircraft down on the icepack may be your only option. During the summer it's perpetual daylight, but in winter the constant darkness would make this a tricky option.

Other routes eg. across the Sahara, central and eastern Russia, Southern Indian Ocean and even mid-Australia can leave you a long way from any available airfields.

Our route guide categorises available airfields as Destination/Alternate/Adequate/Emergency/Critical. Which one I'll use depends on the scenario in hand. For something like a medical emergency, then a destination, alternate or adequate would be the choice. Engine failure, dual hydraulic failure or down to one remaining electrical source dictate "land at nearest suitable airport". Then emergency airfields would be justifiable. Critical, as the name implies, is only really for dire life or death situations.
Uncontrollable fire or smoke...all bets are off and any flatish surface maybe your only option.

pconn062 · 05-08-2014 09:15PM

*Noob alert*

Hopefully this question doesn't make me sound like an idiot, but I am fascinated with the details of commercial flying. I follow planes of flightradar quite a bit and have seen this a few times. I am watching an Aer Lingus flight tonight from Berlin to Dublin and a little more than halfway through the flight the plane dropped in altitude from 36,000-34,000 feet, long before it started it's descent. It then held at 34,000 feet. Why would the pilot have to do this during the middle of the flight, would you be given one cruising altitude and then be asked to change it during the middle of a flight or would that be set out before you took off? I'm love aviation but am a nervous flyer and something like that would freak me out a little during a flight, even though it's probably totally normal. Would love to understand the reasoning behind it. Thanks!

scudzilla · 06-08-2014 01:06AM

pconn062 wrote: »

*Noob alert*

Hopefully this question doesn't make me sound like an idiot, but I am fascinated with the details of commercial flying. I follow planes of flightradar quite a bit and have seen this a few times. I am watching an Aer Lingus flight tonight from Berlin to Dublin and a little more than halfway through the flight the plane dropped in altitude from 36,000-34,000 feet, long before it started it's descent. It then held at 34,000 feet. Why would the pilot have to do this during the middle of the flight, would you be given one cruising altitude and then be asked to change it during the middle of a flight or would that be set out before you took off? I'm love aviation but am a nervous flyer and something like that would freak me out a little during a flight, even though it's probably totally normal. Would love to understand the reasoning behind it. Thanks!

Probably other traffic at 36k so was told to drop to 34k, it's very normal so don't be worrying about it

smurfjed · 06-08-2014 02:11AM

Usually ATC will assign the requested altitude for their airspace, when the aircraft gets assigned to the next sector, they may have other traffic at that altitude that is slower or crossing your path, so you will have an option of climbing to a higher altitude or if you are unable, then descending. Another reason might be to avoid strong winds and give a smoother ride to the passengers.

TheBoss11 · 07-08-2014 08:06PM

Where's the best place (in terms of getting employment) to train in the world? I'm completely flexible on moving anywhere in the workd and although I'd prefere the airbus I'd fly any aircraft.

View Profile · 07-08-2014 08:37PM

The best place for anyone is the cheapest place. A CPL ME IR MCC is the same qualification no matter where you train and how much the school charges.

(Obviously train for a European licence if you want to work here.)

TheBoss11 · 07-08-2014 08:49PM

View Profile wrote: »

The best place for anyone is the cheapest place. A CPL ME IR MCC is the same qualification no matter where you train and how much the school charges.

(Obviously train for a European licence if you want to work here.)

So employers wouldn't prefere a CTC graduate over a AFTA graduate?

View Profile · 07-08-2014 09:04PM

If you can perform well in airline psychometric testing, interview and sim check then your school should be irrelevant.

The great big "ask an airline pilot" thread!

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