The great big "ask an airline pilot" thread!

smurfjed · 31-01-2016 07:53AM

I thought that you started flying commercially a couple of years ago?

I think that in time you will realise that it isn't what you fly or who you fly for, but it really comes down to Quality of Life. Flying big shiny airliners may be great fun, but when you are doing 100 hours (in the seat) per month, it can get very tiring. Looking around my friends who all fly 100 hours per month, the short haul A320 guys are much more relaxed and appear to be less fatigued than B777 guys. We also account for all the flight time rather than the in seat time, so for an LAX flight which is 17 hours and 15 hours, the crew would get 32 hours block time towards their monthly limit. In some of the other ME airlines, they would only get half of that time, so basically our crews can go to LAX 3 times a month, for the others they can go 6 times.

Gone are the days when long haul flying meant flying to exotic destinations and staying for a week to enjoy them

The grass isnt always greener

Lustrum · 31-01-2016 10:29PM

I'm on a jet here in Europe.

Interesting that you should say that smurfjed about the tiredness, I've heard the same thing from lads who moved from our place into BA long haul and they find that they're wrecked a lot.of the time now. Since I was little I've been aiming to get onto a 747, but as you pointed out, the grass may always not be greener

eatmyshorts · 31-01-2016 10:31PM

Lustrum wrote: »

I'm on a jet here in Europe.

Interesting that you should say that smurfjed about the tiredness, I've heard the same thing from lads who moved from our place into BA long haul and they find that they're wrecked a lot.of the time now. Since I was little I've been aiming to get onto a 747, but as you pointed out, the grass may always not be greener

BA long haul rosters are like a holiday compared to ours.

faceman · 03-02-2016 03:39PM

Flying to JFK today. Foolishly has a look at the Turbulence Forecast website which paints a grim picture of flying today pretty much from door to door!

Red boxes and bars everywhere. How gloomy a trip ahoy should I expect?

Pat Dunne · 04-02-2016 09:54AM

faceman wrote: »

Flying to JFK today. Foolishly has a look at the Turbulence Forecast website which paints a grim picture of flying today pretty much from door to door!

Red boxes and bars everywhere. How gloomy a trip ahoy should I expect?

Memo to self, delete Turbulence Forecast website from bookmarks!
Hope you flight wasn't to bad.

faceman · 07-02-2016 07:51PM

Pat Dunne wrote: »

Memo to self, delete Turbulence Forecast website from bookmarks!
Hope you flight wasn't to bad.

Flight had a couple of rough moments but nothing as bad as I was expecting.

Of course flying back to Dublin today and it looks like the forecast is even worse I'll delete that website the next time!!

Shannon757 · 07-02-2016 07:54PM

faceman wrote: »

Flight had a couple of rough moments but nothing as bad as I was expecting.

Of course flying back to Dublin today and it looks like the forecast is even worse I'll delete that website the next time!!

How's your website btw?

JCX BXC · 07-02-2016 07:56PM

faceman wrote: »

Flight had a couple of rough moments but nothing as bad as I was expecting.

Of course flying back to Dublin today and it looks like the forecast is even worse I'll delete that website the next time!!

Nothing too bad tbh, just be thankful its not ORK

faceman · 08-02-2016 01:05AM

Shannon757 wrote: »

How's your website btw?

Ugh. Don't know what's up with it. Flattered to be hacked. Probably going to have to pay someone to fix it.

faceman · 08-02-2016 01:08AM

Carnacalla wrote: »

Nothing too bad tbh, just be thankful its not ORK

Thanks. It's been seatbelt sign on since take off and we're 90 minutes into the flight. It's bumpy from time to time although pilot says we *should* be grand once we start oceanic crossing.

I think he's fibbing. He told us originally seat belt sign and turbulence would only last 20 minutes. :eek:

TopTec · 08-02-2016 10:41AM

My daughter flew from LHR to Chennai yesterday afternoon. The flight departed LHR 45 mins late, due to congestion I think, but it still managed to arrive 10 mins early.

Is there that much elbow room on fight times or did the flight likely pick up a big tail wind? It was doing 530+ knots most of the way according to FR24

Just curious.

TT

Growler!!! · 08-02-2016 12:07PM

TopTec wrote: »

My daughter flew from LHR to Chennai yesterday afternoon. The flight departed LHR 45 mins late, due to congestion I think, but it still managed to arrive 10 mins early.

Is there that much elbow room on fight times or did the flight likely pick up a big tail wind? It was doing 530+ knots most of the way according to FR24

Just curious.

TT

There will be a certain amount of leeway on block times ie. start up to shutdown. This is to cover any unexpected winds aloft or possible re route. On longer sectors such as you described with a substantial tailwind it's entirely possible to catch up with yourself and even land early.

On the flip side with a large headwind the flight time can exceed the estimated block time by quite a bit.

faceman · 08-02-2016 04:16PM

Less serious question. Do long haul pilots wear flight socks?

Gaoth Laidir · 08-02-2016 06:03PM

TopTec wrote: »

My daughter flew from LHR to Chennai yesterday afternoon. The flight departed LHR 45 mins late, due to congestion I think, but it still managed to arrive 10 mins early.

Is there that much elbow room on fight times or did the flight likely pick up a big tail wind? It was doing 530+ knots most of the way according to FR24

Just curious.

TT

Departed or took off 45 mins late? There is a difference. Departed means pushed back from the gate, and that is what is quoted in the schedule. Likewise, arrival time is when it arrives at the gate the other end.

Locker10a · 08-02-2016 06:07PM

faceman wrote: »

Less serious question. Do long haul pilots wear flight socks?

That's an interesting question actually!!
I know pilots where I work certainly don't :P the seem to struggle with having matching pairs of regular socks :pac:

TopTec · 08-02-2016 06:34PM

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

Departed or took off 45 mins late? There is a difference. Departed means pushed back from the gate, and that is what is quoted in the schedule. Likewise, arrival time is when it arrives at the gate the other end.

Took off. I watched it queue for 30 mins waiting its turn on the apron after a late push back.

TT

smurfjed · 08-02-2016 06:48PM

Do long haul pilots wear flight socks?

I do and the max range that we had was 8 hours. Only problem with them is that arent very warm, so i would end up wearing another pair of normal socks over them

Bog Man 1 · 08-02-2016 08:01PM

smurfjed wrote: »

I do and the max range that we had was 8 hours. Only problem with them is that arent very warm, so i would end up wearing another pair of normal socks over them

Great you can fly the plane but cannot understand how the heater controls work . Do you have dual climate control likes on cars if you are flying with someone that has warm feet .

smurfjed · 08-02-2016 08:18PM

You are assuming that we have foot warmers, you are also assuming that we don't operate to cold places.

eatmyshorts · 08-02-2016 09:52PM

faceman wrote: »

Less serious question. Do long haul pilots wear flight socks?

Never. I honestly don't see the benefit of them. Seem like quackery to me.

eatmyshorts · 08-02-2016 09:54PM

Bog Man 1 wrote: »

Great you can fly the plane but cannot understand how the heater controls work . Do you have dual climate control likes on cars if you are flying with someone that has warm feet .

Separate "foot heater" and "shoulder heater" controls on each side. But they're never used. In fact, I don't think they even do anything.
Although a question about them did pop up on one of our recurrent exams recently. Had to dig in the FCOM for that one.

Tenger · 09-02-2016 12:54PM

TopTec wrote: »

.....
Is there that much elbow room on fight times or did the flight likely pick up a big tail wind? It was doing 530+ knots most of the way according to FR24
.....

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

Departed or took off 45 mins late? There is a difference. Departed means pushed back from the gate, and that is what is quoted in the schedule. Likewise, arrival time is when it arrives at the gate the other end.

Total journey time is referred to as 'Block time'. This block time includes taxi time, take-off, flight time, landing, and taxi to stand. Hence the industry term 'chock to chock'.
A flight may take normally 2 hours, but the airline may add 40 mins to the advertised schedule to cover taxi and common small operational delays.

My favourite example is DUB-LHR with Aer Lingus. It normally takes about 45-50 mins inflight. But with LHR being a busy airport with regular delays, they schedule the entire journey as 1 hr 20 mins.

As stated above with favourable routing and/or winds a long haul flight is capable of taking off an hour after scheduled departure and still making it to destination ahead of the schedule. In the past I had many heated discussions with passengers who thought we were going to be late and they couldn't understand how we were landing early when we left late.

Irish Steve · 09-02-2016 02:06PM

Tenger wrote: »

As stated above with favourable routing and/or winds a long haul flight is capable of taking off an hour after scheduled departure and still making it to destination ahead of the schedule. In the past I had many heated discussions with passengers who thought we were going to be late and they couldn't understand how we were landing early when we left late.

My brother flew out of Heathrow last week on Malaysian to Kuala Lumpur, they were airborne at 22:15 on a scheduled departure time of 21:35. An hour into the flight, the arrival time was showing 10 minutes before the scheduled arrival time.

The eastbound flights from the USA are another example, if you look at the arrival times into Dublin or Shannon, some of the flights can be anything up to an hour ahead of scheduled arrival time, and at Dublin it does cause problems if the early wave of departures have not left on time. There are times when if there are no pressures for the gate, they will hold the departure and leave "late" to avoid arriving this side before the handling crews on the ground are available.

highlydebased · 09-02-2016 05:16PM

Irish Steve wrote: »

The eastbound flights from the USA are another example, if you look at the arrival times into Dublin or Shannon, some of the flights can be anything up to an hour ahead of scheduled arrival time, and at Dublin it does cause problems if the early wave of departures have not left on time. There are times when if there are no pressures for the gate, they will hold the departure and leave "late" to avoid arriving this side before the handling crews on the ground are available.

Some relatives of mine flew JFK-SNN last year and arrived at Shannon at 4.40am- Some 80 minutes early. They had to wait 20 mins for ground crew to arrive to meet the flight

pepe the prawn · 23-02-2016 11:37PM

Just wondering, are datalink communications regularly used among all airlines, or is it a region/operator specific practice?

smurfjed · 23-02-2016 11:39PM

Probably more dependent on the aircrafts capabilities, followed by the airline convincing their authorities that their training is sufficient.

ceadaoin. · 24-02-2016 07:15AM

I read something a while ago saying that climate change is resulting in more incidences of unexpected clear air turbulence which is impossible to predict. Have any pilots noticed that this is the case? It's the thought of turbulence that makes me very anxious, especially severe, which thankfully I've never experienced!

eatmyshorts · 24-02-2016 07:54AM

ceadaoin. wrote: »

I read something a while ago saying that climate change is resulting in more incidences of unexpected clear air turbulence which is impossible to predict. Have any pilots noticed that this is the case? It's the thought of turbulence that makes me very anxious, especially severe, which thankfully I've never experienced!

Scaremongering rubbish. Turbulence has always been present, and will always continue to be.
Clear air turbulence, although not able to be detected by radar, is predictable. Forecasting these days is pretty accurate and when combined with experience and knowledge, it's easy to know where it'll be.
Of course there's always going to turbulence that no one has predicted, but that's a fact of flying through a mass of constantly moving energy packed air.

In the last 3 years I've only had one episode of severe turbulence, a few weeks ago on the North Atlantic, caused by wind shift and a severe mountain wave in the lee of Greenland. Again, it was forecast, predicted and previously reported by other aircraft. We tried to avoid it by ducking under it, but to no avail. Cue 3 minutes of roller coasting as we surfed the wave!

Tenger · 25-02-2016 12:21PM

eatmyshorts wrote: »

Scaremongering rubbish...........................

In the last 3 years I've only had one episode of severe turbulence, a few weeks ago on the North Atlantic, ....We tried to avoid it by ducking under it, but to no avail. Cue 3 minutes of roller coasting as we surfed the wave!

I hope no wine was spilt.....that can be quite upsetting. (or indeed any loss of warm beverages for the operating crew)

Locker10a · 25-02-2016 07:06PM

Tenger wrote: »

I hope no wine was spilt.....that can be quite upsetting. (or indeed any loss of warm beverages for the operating crew)

Ive just done my recurrent and we discussed a scenario in which a crew member hit the ceiling on decent and broke her hip, was temporally paralysed and had to land lying in agony in the aisle, It can get very nasty at times!

The great big "ask an airline pilot" thread!

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