Re: Brake lights on aircraft

arcticcruiser wrote:

Can I have a really loud horn too? Could come in handy…

Re: RNAV (v. ILS) approach procedures?

Yes, each aircraft is going to be different . I have been practising with the Toliss A319, which works perfectly (I get FIANL APPR on the PFD there). Not as hard to pull off RNAV as I had imagined, in the end. I need to try some other a/c now: I shan't be flying any ILS approaches for a while, I gu...

Re: Craziest things you’ve heard on Guard?

The constant chatter on Guard is a safety problem. Some times it's used for a real purpose but most often it's just people making bad jokes or simply just blocking the frequency. Last summer some guy was playing the Topgun theme on Guard...we are supposed to monitor Guard all the times, but sometim...

Re: RNAV (v. ILS) approach procedures?

Sounds good, thank you for the details. I am going to do a few 'short hops' and see how it goes. I can post a few screenshots too - I use a Toliss A319 or 321, both 'training level' aircraft which are reputed to be amazingly accurate replicas of the real aircraft (and are, as I noted, certified by ...

Re: Most common alternate airports?

rt23456p wrote:

TheEuphorian wrote:

for BKK and DMK: UTP

How about HKT?

Re: RNAV (v. ILS) approach procedures?

Can I ask (any answers in terms of not too highly technical a nature, please: I am not a real-world pilot: I have tens of thousands of hours, but in X-Plane! :-) ) how the RNAV is effected on approach. What I do know (though I think that this varies greatly from aircraft to aircraft and even airlin...

Re: Craziest things you’ve heard on Guard?

Flying over the South and East China Seas. Guard is an intermittent barrage of People's Liberation Army Navy, Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force, US Navy, and a variety of others yelling at each other with no actual effect except filling the air. Lots of posturing. "We are US Navy Aircraft. W...

Re: Planes that do a sudden brief drop in altitude during the approach landing run.

How low was this? If in the last few hundred feet, descending shear AKA downdraft as ArctifFlyer says. If we're near the ground we're following a rather narrow vertical path. If we're approaching "too steep" that would take us off the glidepath. On final any sudden drops will be from exter...

Re: Possible for B787 or A350 to do NRT-MIA Nonstop?

Wondering two things: (1) Can the 787 or 350 do Tokyo-Miami nonstop? The distance is about 7,400 miles, less than ORD-AUK which is about 8,200 miles, so appears doable. Next obvious question is (2) is there market here for Japan Airlines, ANA or American on a daily basis or slightly-less daily basi...

Re: Approaches and departures over dangerous areas

Hello, This question may shock some of the Europeans here, but when I examined the approaches on Flightradar for LAX, I found that almost all of the arriving aircraft fly over not-so-nice parts of Los Angeles like Inglewood, Florence, Watts, and South-Central in general. The crazy reputation of the...

Re: Benefit of being bilingual for a pilot career

As N1120A said, English is the global language of aviation. Regardless of where you are in the world (almost), if you call up ATC in English they will answer in English with varying degrees of competency even if the local language is different. If ground personnel don't speak English at a particula...

Re: Pressurisation of different plane types

For that specific climb, weather change may be the factor. And a fun fact: ICAO pressure value for 8850 meter altitude is about 10% lower than actually observed value. ICAO value is firmly outside physiologically possible range. Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S25890042203...

Re: Use of PC flight sims or BATDs for early PPL material

Weighing in a little late here, but I found Xplane 11 and the Logitech controls to be very useful in my PPL training, specifically for landing. Like a lot of people, I found landing to be the hardest "maneuver" to learn. After ballooning or bouncing it in dozens of times, I started spendi...

Re: Pressurisation of different plane types

GalaxyFlyer wrote:

Everest has been climbed without O2; but they’re “freaks of nature” n the ability to process limited O2.

Re: What’s the toughest/most challenging large commercial airport for pilots to land at?

Part of that is lack of hand flying proficiency. Spinning knobs and letting George fly those vectors they give in VMC can result in being high and overshooting final. At some ports where we often have to do a visual circuit, we are specifically told NOT to use the autopilot to final. Using the auto...

Re: What’s the toughest/most challenging large commercial airport for pilots to land at?

Anywhere ATC keeps you high and/or likes to maintain the same runway even with significant tailwind on final. ;) A lot of TPAC pilots say SFO is not a walk in the park due to being kept high and having to get down in a hurry to join visuals to the 28s. I think crews arriving from the east have it a...

Re: The HUD, why is it common on North American 737NGs but not on European ones

Yeah, I think I took but don’t know how to post it. For a pilot, it’s hokey; but is better than the useless maps. Make a free account on Imgur or another similar service. https://imgur.com/ Upload the pic to there. Embed the image link here. https://imgur.com/a/tF00fDH Thanks! Who says you can't te...

Re: Most common alternate airports?

Typically, for Osaka Kansai, Nagoya. For Tokyo, Kansai. For LHR, LGW. For JFK, EWR. For HKG, Macau. For Taipei, Kaohsiung. For Frankfurt, Cologne.

It bears mentioning that these are all for planning. When you divert in real life you might go somewhere completely different.

Re: What’s the toughest/most challenging large commercial airport for pilots to land at?

May I rephrase this question? Which airport is the most likely to lead to a call from your FOQA folks? Anywhere ATC keeps you high and/or likes to maintain the same runway even with significant tailwind on final. ;) A lot of TPAC pilots say SFO is not a walk in the park due to being kept high and h...

Re: The HUD, why is it common on North American 737NGs but not on European ones

Not worth its own thread but I flew on a DL A321neo and the seatback flight data had a CGI HUD display. It was as if you were looking out the cockpit windows. I've never seen that before. Is there a photo of this? Yeah, I think I took but don’t know how to post it. For a pilot, it’s hokey; but is b...

Re: Why APU after taxiing in narrow bodies?

We actually do NO APU taxi-in, both on narrow-, as well as on wide-bodies at our home base. Most of the time it works pretty well - the ground staff is aware and waiting with ground power. As others mentioned, the main advantage is saving an APU start cycle, not fuel. What I can’t understand is low...

Re: The HUD, why is it common on North American 737NGs but not on European ones

Not worth its own thread but I flew on a DL A321neo and the seatback flight data had a CGI HUD display. It was as if you were looking out the cockpit windows. I've never seen that before. The A350 has the same. It bugs me though, as the tapes show ground speed and GPS altitude, not IAS and pressure...

Re: What’s the toughest/most challenging large commercial airport for pilots to land at?

Florianopolis wrote:

May I rephrase this question? Which airport is the most likely to lead to a call from your FOQA folks?

Re: What’s the toughest/most challenging large commercial airport for pilots to land at?

rt23456p wrote:

zjyx? if you consider that commercial

Re: Why APU after taxiing in narrow bodies?

I have waited 10+ minutes for the ground crew to plug in the GPU, so we won't run an engine that burns 5x more fuel at idle than the APU does. At my carrier, APU comes on the moment we clear the runway, even if it's a 3 minute taxi or a 15 minute taxi (ORD). Wow, sustainability does not seem to be ...

Re: What’s the toughest/most challenging large commercial airport for pilots to land at?

Familiarity is a big thing. Kai Tak was a very challenging, captain-only airport for most carriers. For Cathay, it was home port and FOs flew the approaches routinely. The same would go for many airports. Many places are quite challenging if you operate once every couple of years, but fairly straigh...

Re: Anti-Ice Systems

We very seldom use wing anti ice. I never have, and most guys I talk to may have used it a couple of times in decades. As ArcticFlyer says, it has to be "really bad", like extended holding at -2 in clouds or something. Engine anti-ice is routinely used from +10 Total Air Temperature to -40...

Re: 747 classic flap speed

Looking at it another way, those speeds as more conservative, since you aren't as near flap overspeed.

Maybe they had pilots overspeeding the flaps a bit too often.

Re: Southwest to Halve Flying Time Needed for Prospective Pilots

The US has something similar. You can get a restricted ATP with a subset of the requirements met if you've studied aviation or a few other cases (see 61.159 and 61.160 if you're bored), but none of them allow you to fly an A330 in 121 ops with <500 hours. How hard are the EASA ATPL exams? In the US...

Re: Take-off phases

Fair enough. To my understanding lift-off is not a phase at all. It's just a moment that happens when wheels are up in the air. Thereafter we are in the climb out phase which has its specifications and takes a longer time. Lift-off is an event, I suppose, and not a phase. It then depends on how you...

Re: Cockpit lavs

Not at the airline I worked at. All the whales to include the 100s, 200s, 400s, used the same lav as the upper deck pax. Thanks. I figured it was an option, but didn't know how prevalent it was among long range operators. I though it was an option on the 777, too, to have a flight deck lavatory and...

Re: Number of sims in a major airline

I heard that in some major US carriers(though could be outdated information at this point), taxiing is the responsibility entirely of the captain. Granted, you don't have to parallel park or hill start an airplane and just keep in the centerline, things like braking distance and turning radius may ...

Re: Number of sims in a major airline

We're not talking supercomputers. It's pretty basic computing in modern terms, apart from the graphics. Those used to require a lot of computation a couple of decades ago to render ugly blocks or even just vector graphics, but nowadays Microsoft Flight Simulator on a gaming PC has better graphics t...

Re: Number of sims in a major airline

Very informative. I found it interesting that DL has 3 A350 sims. I wonder if that's hint about future orders Delta has 2 Level D A350 FFS and 1 Level 7 A350 FTD not 3 A350 sims. The FFS are what most people think of as simulators. Level D simulators can be used to certify landings. Level C simulat...

Re: What should the speed be when taking sharp turns

How are these taxi speeds measured. Is there a ground speed speedometer? Yes. Ground speed is shown on the Navigation Display. On the A350, and I presume other so-equipped aircraft, it is also shown in the HUD. On Airbus, it is top left on the ND. In this pic, the GS indicates zero as the aircraft ...

Re: Cockpit lavs

I wouldn't go to another lav just to poop. Take the lav that is available. The ventilation system does a stellar job of getting rid of smells. If someone hears fart noises from the lav when I go, so be it. It's a thin door and the lower air pressure means gases want to leave your body. ;) If you mak...

Re: Delta A330/ 350 pilots

Nope, those fleets are completely separate. Nobody is dual qualified other than the 7ER fleet. And, additionally, those pilots are not certified on the 767-400 either. Why not, it’s considered a common type rating (or whatever the correct term is)? As AirKevin says, AFAIK it is not a common rating ...

Re: Southwest to Halve Flying Time Needed for Prospective Pilots

There are no military pilots clamoring to fly for my ULCC These are all 23-24 year old pilots who have come straight from flight instructing and going from Senecas and 172s going right into 320s/321s Just like in the rest of the world, then. ;) Like many of my colleagues, I went straight from 172s ...

Re: Number of sims in a major airline

Even if a company has its own sims on type, extra capacity is sometimes needed. A few years ago, we would regularly send crew from one of the fleets to other countries for sim sessions, even though we had several of our own sims of that type. Simply not enough resources. all simulators used for trai...

Re: Southwest to Halve Flying Time Needed for Prospective Pilots

Well at least Southwest is still requiring ATP to apply. My airline dropped the requirement for an ATP certificate required. Now the requirement is to have the ATP written test results, but not require an ATP certificate. It will do what the regionals have had to do for years and offer the ATP-CTP ...

Re: How Many Crew on a 747-8

Yes but the crews are assigned for the ROUND-TRIP and so both directions of flight must be accounted for. Otherwise after some months all the "4th crew members" required for the longer westbound sector would be residing in SFO and the FRA crew base would empty out in a hurry. If you send ...

Re: How Many Crew on a 747-8

(over 12 hours westbound). I need to get myself a new map and compass. Personally I would go NE in about 10.5 hrs which is within 3 crew range. Yes but the crews are assigned for the ROUND-TRIP and so both directions of flight must be accounted for. Otherwise after some months all the "4th cre...

Re: Spirit Nonrev Check Loads and Procedures

The only OAL travellers on Spirit are those groups who have reciprocal flight attendant and pilot jumpseat agreements. your union will have the procedure to list for the jumpseat. but the website you access to list for flights will have the loads. Otherwise you can try to use the stafftraveller app...

Re: What should the speed be when taking sharp turns

On the A330/A350, ten knots max for a 90-degree turn is recommended. In practice, this typically means slowing to about eight knots at turn entry since you'll accelerate in the turn, unless it's uphill or something. For sure, once you get over 12 knots or so in a 90 degree turn, you feel it. If it i...

Re: How Many Crew on a 747-8

SFO to FRA is most likely four flight crew. However, apart from takeoff, initial climb, approach, and landing, only two would be on duty at any given time.

No idea about cabin crew. 15-16?

Re: L1011 minutiae - Pneumatics

Thanks for posting. On the basis of that presentation, the A350 has a "conventional" system to all the other airplanes today. No mixing of IP/HP air. Maybe I'm not understanding your statement, but the A350 bleed air system does mix IP and HP air. It's on page 44 of the linked PDF. Bleed ...

Re: L1011 minutiae - Pneumatics

On most airplanes today, you're in either LP/IP or HP, no mixing That's my understanding too. The IP or LP bleed ducting is often equipped with a check valve specifically to prevent HP discharge air from back flowing into the IP or LP compressor. but on the A350, the "low pressure" bleed ...

Re: Lockheed Tristar original FMS

I find myself wondering what delights Lockheed could bring to the commercial aviation table today. I flew on a few 1011s when I was in my late 20s (I'll be 74 in a few weeks :old: ), and found it to be a true wonder. I also wonder the same thing, the L1011 really was innovative. Lockheed is one who...

Re: A32x Side Stick- What is the Removable Plate on Top?

What is the red button? Bomb release? Sometimes an errant knee has been known to accidentally release the bombs. don't forget the cannon trigger in front of the side stick to clear the runway of birds during landing. There are those who have and those who will disconnect the autopilot when they put...

Re: Can someone help me calculate the cabin altitude?

I'll add that airliners carry oxygen bottles in case a passenger does develop breathing difficulties, or otherwise has a medical need. If your grandma feels short of breath, woozy, or the like, tell her she should inform the cabin crew. They can give her oxygen as needed.