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v2!
The Team
Editor
Oliver Parker
Image Editor
Neel Patel
News Editor
Chris Siegrist
Website
www.bavirtual.co.uk/about/
press
Editorial Contact Email
airways@bavirtual.co.uk
BAV Directors
CEO: Graham Young
HR: Tom Moseley
Operations: Florian Harms
Technical: Alan Hunter & Adam Parnell
Training: John Barnes
Board: Stephen Ellis, Ralph
Watson, Dan Parkin,
Lee James & Antony McGarr
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under any circumstances.
2
H
ello and welcome to the Christmas 2012 issue of Airways!
Whilst you have all been enjoying the delights that the festive
season brings, the Airways team have
been hacking away at their keyboards
working hard to bring you this long-timecoming instalment of the virtual skies’ favourite magazine!
I would like to begin by thanking the
former editor of Airways, James Palmer.
His contribution to previous issues was
tremendous and the work that James and
his team were doing made it very easy for
me to take over the reins and continue
where he left off.
Winter is often met with mixed emotions by a lot of people. Varied reasons
such as the weather, frosty mornings, earlier nights as well as having to buy gifts
and vouchers for distant relatives whom
you see on bi-annual basis. That being
said, it’s the most wonderful time of year,
as the song goes. Gatherings of family, receiving cards and messages from past
friends you forgot existed and who doesn’t
love a good sing-a-long to Jingle Bells?
In my opinion, there is one item on
the Christmas agenda that makes it memorable. You spend a lot of time talking
about it and the planning that goes into
its production would rival that of a Boeing
747 D-Check. Yes, I am talking about the
Christmas dinner. It is all in the preparation. Much like a flight, the first thing you
must do is find out how many people will
be in attendance. You then have to decide
how much food you will need to get you
through the entire day without running
dry. Very similar to fuel calculations only
instead of Jet-A1 you are dealing with Baileys and red wine.
Your pre-start checklist comes in
the form of getting your meat or fish of
choice suitably prepared. Cross checking
your ingredients with your recipe and
priming yourself to get underway. Onto
your push and start checklist, you approach the engine start switches. It is
time to turn on the oven and set this almighty journey in motion. Start-up is complete and you are ready to go. As we approach the cruise we find ourselves sat
down with a drink, perhaps watching the
Queens speech or enjoying a game we
would only play on this one day of the
year. Finally, dinner is served. Everybody
sat around the table enjoying your culinary magic. All the work that has gone into making this moment special is finally
coming to fruition. Then, as quick as it began, it is over.
Approach checklist time; After
Eights – open and available, cold turkey
sandwiches – set to standby. You are now
on final and your landing checklist is complete. All that is left is to park up and on
stand and shutdown. The oven is turned
off, table free of crackers, and everything
is thrown into the dishwasher. Securing
the kitchen comes in the form closing the
door and resting your feet.
It only happens once a year so we
have to be sure to enjoy the journey that is
Christmas day. Therefore, the Airways
team wishes you all a safe Christmas filled
with laughs, family and a well-deserved
break as well as an exciting, prosperous
and happy New Year!
Oliver Parker
Airways Editor
3
4
5
Openskies, the British Airways subsidiary
offering premium airline services between
Continental Europe and the USA, joined the
Oneworld alliance as an affiliate member on
the 1st December 2012.
Openskies is now amongst 30 Oneworld affiliate airlines, who generally have strong
links with full Oneworld members. The airline, which operates daily flights from Paris
Orly to both New York JFK Airport and Newark using Boeing 757s, offers the full range
of benefits to members of the Oneworld airlines' frequent flyer programme, such as the
possibility to earn and redeem miles on
Openskies flights and lounge access for top
tier members .
Openskies was founded by British Airways in
2008 using two ex-British Airways Boeing
757s.
After a 15 year absence,
British
Airways
announced that they are
returning to the Sri
Lankan capital from the
31st of March.
The flight will operate
three times a week from
London Gatwick, as an
extension of British Airways’ existing services
to Male. The new flights
are going to be flown using the three-class Boeing 777-200’s.
As part of their ‘‘Flying
home for Christmas’’ programme, Air Berlin applied a special livery to
their Boeing 737-800 GABMJ.
The livery features a Santa Claus, which spans
4.5m in width and 2.54m
in height, which is made
from over 2,000 Air Berlin
fans and employees, who
posted their pictures on
the airline’s Facebook
page. The aircraft will appear throughout the carrier’s European network until January.
To further enhance the
festive season for their
passengers, Air Berlin decided to carry Christmas
trees free of charge, as in
previous years.
At a press conference held on
the 8th October at Oneworld’s
head office in New York, it was
announced that Qatar Airways
had passed the election as a
Oneworld member designate.
The press conference was attended by the senior executives
of Qatar Airways and other
members of the Oneworld alliance. Qatar Airways’ implementation is expected to take
between 12 and 18 months.
The carrier’s entry into Oneworld is going to be sponsored
by British Airways.
Oneworld CEO Bruce Ashby
said: “The big three Gulf carriers have been embraced by
millions of consumers the
world over – just as consumers
have embraced global airline
alliances. Our own analysis
clearly demonstrated that Qatar Airways is the best fit for
Oneworld’s network requirements, philosophy and strategy. Oneworld is delighted to be
the first of the global alliances
to welcome a member airline
from this region, enabling us to
be the first to offer consumers
the services and benefits offered by both a global alliance
and a Gulf carrier. We look forward to welcoming another
great airline to Oneworld.”
Qatar Airways was launched in
1997 and quickly established
itself as one of the world’s
fastest growing and highest
quality airlines.
6
Doncaster Airport, which can trace Customers are able to evaluate the
its roots back to 1936 when it was scenery by downloading the demo
then RAF Finningley, has been re- supplied on the UK2000 website.
leased for FS2004 and FSX by the
popular scenery designers UK2000.
The scenery comes with fully detailed buildings, realistic ground
markings, high-resolution ground
imagery and much more.
The scenery is full of details such as
parked cars, grass edge effects,
moving vehicles and even the airport’s most famous resident: The
Avro Vulcan XH588.
After years of waiting, ORBX has released its first European scenery covering England.
The product covers an area of 130,41
km2. It covers the whole of England
with 10m mesh and highly-detailed
ground textures combined with custom landclass. Covering the ground
are custom trees, roads, river, rail-
At the National Business Aviation
Association (NBAA) Conference
in Orlando, Boeing announced
their latest product. The BBJ
MAX will come in two versions:
The BBJ MAX 8 and the BBJ
MAX 9. Both will be based on
Boeing 737 MAX versions.
The BBJ MAX 8 will be powered
by two efficient CFM LEAP-1B
engines and together with
advanced technology winglets, the BBJ MAX 8 will benefit from a 16% increased
fuel efficiency and a range of
up to 6,325 nautical miles
(14% more than the BBJ 2).
The BBJ MAX 8 will share
the same cabin size as the
BBJ 2, the cabin length will
increase by 5.8 metres
ways and hand-placed autogen. The
coastlines have also been re-done.
Certain airports have also received
some improvements such as custom
objects and markings.
The capital of the UK, London, has
been given special attention to detail
with an impressively detailed rendition of the European metropole.
FTX England is available as a download or boxed version.
London Gatwick Airport has
awarded its largest construction contract to Vinci Construction to transform Pier 1 in the
South Terminal.
The building was first opened
in 1958 by Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth II, making it one of
the oldest buildings in the
South Terminal. At a cost of
£183.9 million, this project is
The organisers of the Farnborough Airshow Gatwick’s largest capital inhave confirmed that the next airshow is taking vestment since the change of
place from the 14th until the 20th of July ownership nearly three years
ago. The project is going with
2014. The event is held every two years.
the pier being demolished in
the New Year.
(19ft) and there will be three
times more cargo space.
Despite being announced, the
plans for the BBJ MAX 9 are yet
to be drawn up and it is expected
that they will be based on the
737 MAX with performance improvements similar to the BBJ
MAX 8. According to Boeing,
plans for a BBJ MAX 7 are also
being studied.
The new building will house a
new baggage system and new
gate-rooms for passengers,
and will be linked to five new
aircraft stands by air-bridges.
The building will make it easier
for customers to find their way
and it will offer facilities to cater their needs, such as new
seating and child-friendly
zones. The new baggage system will allow faster baggage
processing and the possibility
for airlines to offer ‘day before’
check-in and use of automated
fast-bag drops.
The new building is expected
to be opened in Summer 2015.
Cathay Pacific unveiled their new Regional
Business Class at an event held on the 24th
of December in Cathay Pacific City, the airlines’ headquarters.
The new design brings a bigger seat pitch
(47’’), a wider seat (21’’) and a better footrest recline (26° and 60°).
The entertainment system has also been
improved by fitting larger screens, installing
Audio Video On Demand (AVOD), multi-port
connectors and PC power on every aircraft.
Speaking at the unveiling event Chief Executive John Slosar said: “Our new Regional
Business Class seat was developed after listening to our customers feedback and it underlines our commitment to excellence in
innovation and providing an exceptional
travel experience.”
The new product will be installed on all of
the carrier’s regional Boeing 777-200/300
and Airbus A330-300 aircraft, with the first
refitted aircraft entering service in January
2013.
7
Britain's most successful civil jet has
been carefully recreated by QualityWings for both Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 and X.
The product comes with all models of
the BAe 136 and the Avro RJ family,
all of which include a highly detailed
exterior model. Cockpit-wise, the prod-
uct comes with a fully analogue, a
simple EFIS or a full EFIS cockpit depending on the variant.
Unlike other developers, QualityWings
developed a 2D and a virtual cockpit,
both of high quality, for all models.
The cockpit comes with all systems
modelled such as FMS, autopilot, hydraulic systems and many more.
For the ‘casual simmer’ there is an option which simplifies the panel and
subsequently allows you to bring the
aircraft into the air in no time. All that
is complemented by a realistic sound
set.
A preview video can be found on the
developers YouTube channel.
In support of the Movember
charity, British Airways applied a moustache decal to
their Airbus A319 G-EUPM.
The aircraft’s new Connoisseur moustache was unveiled by British Airways
cabin crew member Kyle
Patchett, one of several British Airways employees showing his support for Movember throughout November.
The airline is encouraging its
employees to join the campaign and is hosting a number of road shows to educate them on health issues.
On the 1st of December 2012, S7's
cabin crew greeted their customers
for the first time wearing their new
uniform.
Air New Zealand has applied a
special livery to one of its Boeing
777-300ER aircraft.
The new livery carries a picture
depicting characters from the
new film 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey' and spans along
the whole aircraft's 73 metre fuselage.
The aircraft's new livery was unveiled among special guests by
the airline and just prior to the
28th of November, the aircraft
arrived at Wellington in time for
the film's red carpet event.
For the new uniforms, the airline
chose black for the men's suit and
crimson for the women's dress.
Both uniforms are complemented
by a green tie for male cabin crew
and a green neck bow for female
cabin crew. The uniform uses natural, wrinkle-proof, breathable fabrics – wool and silk – with the addition of synthetic fibres for durability and greater elasticity.
Anna Kornisheva, Flight Attendant
Trainer for the S7 Group, said: “In
Liz Wilkinson, British Airways’ head of health services, said: “We’re always
delighted to support Movember, it’s a charity that is very
dear to our hearts here at
British Airways, especially as
our former CEO Lord Marshall suffered from the disease.
Movember is a charity that
is committed to raise awareness and vital funds for
men’s health, especially
prostate cancer and testicular cancer.
our job we have to move all the
time. We help passengers with luggage, walk around the cabin to offer lunch – the new uniform lets us
do all that really easily. Uniforms
often restrict you – but ours allow
us to feel elegant and comfortable
at the same time, which gives us
confidence. The bright colour lifts
the spirits, and with a sincere
smile it is so much easier to help
any passenger, however demanding they might be."
S7 is a Russian airline utilising
modern Airbus and Boeing aircraft
for their operations from Moscow
Domodedovo and Novosibirsk Tolmachevo airports.
Fastjet, a new venture
between easyjet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou
and the Rubicon Group,
commenced operations
from Dar Es Salaam
Julius Nyerere International Airport.
The first flight took-off
bound for the Tanzanian city of Mwanza using
one of the carrier's
three Airbus A319 aircraft. Later that day,
Fastjet also operated its
Airbus’ A350 XWB
static test airframe
has been rolled out of
the final assembly line
at Toulouse Blagnac
Airport.
The airframe has been
moved to the L34 static test hall, situated
across the airport in
the Lagardère industrial zone – home to the
A380 final assembly
line.
The airframe will undergo a campaign
which involves nearly a
year of evaluations.
The evaluations con-
maiden service to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.
The carrier has acquired African carrier
Fly540, which they plan
to integrate into their
operations in the near
future.
In early 2013, the carrier will open a second
base in Nairobi, Kenya,
while planning to open
two further bases in Accra, Ghana, and Luanda,
Angola,
during
2013.
sist of limit load and
ultimate load validations, as well as residual strength and margin research. 200 people will be conducting
the testing, using a rig
that
incorporat es
2,500 tons of steel
and 240 jacks/loading
lines, which are used
to induce structural
loads.
The static test airframe was assembled
at the A350 XWB’s
new Roger Béteille final assembly line in
Toulouse.
8
WHITE
CHRISTMAS
SCREENSHOT
WINNER!
9
You would be surprised how often a
certain topic of conversation comes
up in the Flight Deck, "Do you not
fancy going somewhere else to do
Long-haul?" The answer I give is always the same, "The grass isn't always greener!"
For many pilots the target is to get
into a 777 or a Jumbo, and sit there
for 10 hours, (well apart from 3
hours in the bunk), and visit far
flung corners of the globe. Now I
would never criticise someone else's
goals, but from my point of view,
whilst it may be nice for the first few
years, once you've visited Lagos for
the 6th time, I'd start to get rather
bored and wish I was at home with
my family. Another reason I'm happy
where I am is the amazing variety of
interesting and challenging destinations that are available right on our
doorstep here in Europe.
So here is a selection of my favourites, some available for us to fly
here at British Airways Virtual, and
some not, but I can heartily recommend giving each one a go, especially if you can get some of the excellent sceneries available for them.
If I had a pound for every time
I've been flying down the Dalmatian Coastline of Croatia,
and the cabin crew have called
us in the front saying that the
passengers want to know where
we are, I would be a very rich
man. The reason for this is obvious when you look out the window, no one can fail to see what
is undoubtedly one of the most
beautiful coastlines in Europe,
the clear turquoise waters and
white sandy beaches attract
travellers from around the
world.
The city of Split sits just over
half way down the coastline,
and its Airport, Kastela, is
around 6nm west of the city,
across the bay.
The usual approach, an ILS to
runway 05, isn't the most challenging you'll find, but the scenery out of the window makes it
difficult not to be distracted.
However the real fun starts if
the wind is favouring the southwesterly runway, 23. With the
close proximity to a ridge of
high ground which surrounds
the whole Northern and Eastern
side of the bay, an instrument
approach just isn't possible. So
the only method of landing on
the runway is a prescribed track
circle to land.
After breaking off the ILS at
Trogir NDB you turn right to
Split VOR, and then it's a left
turn to track downwind for 3.4
miles. On the downwind leg you
start your descent from the circling MDA of 2040 feet to pass
the 3.4 DME point at around
1600 feet, and ensuring you are
fully configured to land at this
point. The final turn must have
commenced at 3.4 miles from
the SPL VOR to avoid overshooting the 4.6 DME arc during the
final turn and getting too close
to the terrain. Once the turn is
started the descent is established at around 700-800fpm
and you will intercept a 3 degree descent path on finals.
Throw into the mix some interesting winds and you have got
yourself a very satisfying approach, well as long as you
don't mess it up!
10
One of the Cyclades Islands in the Aegean Sea, Mykonos is located roughly
70nm South East of Athens. As with many of the Greek islands it is a tourist
hotspot but the size and topography of the island results in a rather small airport with interesting approaches.
As we're on the subject of challenging approaches I couldn't really exclude Gibraltar from the list, it’s pretty much as close as you'll get to landing a commercial airliner on an Aircraft Carrier! The airport itself occupies the northern end of
the Gibraltar peninsular and is just to the South of the Spanish Border.
Many of you may have seen my
video on the VOR Approach to
runway 34 which is exciting as it
is, the narrow 30m runway and
localised wind effects result in it
being Captains only Approach,
Landing and Take-off. The real
fun begins on the rare occasion
when the wind is favouring the
Southerly runway, 16. With the
terrain situated north of the airfield there is no Instrument Approach, and again we have a prescribed track circle to land.
The three reasons why this
airfield is entertaining are obviously the runway location,
types of approach needed to
land there and the unpredictable weather that can occur
as a direct result of the Rock
being just to the South. The
wind can present a real challenge when blowing from certain directions and indeed
approaches are banned
above set values as the risk
of turbulence and windshear
is just too great.
As you can see from the chart it
brings you onto finals at only 1nm
from the threshold of runway 16
so there really is no room for error on this approach, with a shortened downwind leg, then base flying over the port prior to the turn
onto final. The recent release of
Aerosoft’s Mykonos X created by
29 Palms Scenery Design is an
incredible rendition of the airport
and the island as a whole and is
well worth a go if you fancy a
challenge!
All of the approaches are SRAs (Surveillance Radar Approaches) with the approach to runway 09 requiring a visual right turn onto finals, and with the runway
only being 1777m long don't miss the touchdown zone or you might end up getting your feet wet!
This time the route is of course available to us here at BAV, so take a trip to the
Rock and stock up your cheap duty free while you're there! (Don't miss the Gibraltar Ops guide in the Airbus Training section of the forum.)
11
The Madeira group of islands lays approximately 520nm SW of Lisbon
and 250nm north of the Canary Islands and the main town of Funchal
is 7nm to the west along the coast. The airport itself is on a narrow
plateau on the east coast of the island, and parts of the runway are
built on a man-made platform which was constructed when the runway
was extended.
Again, as the airfield has challenging
surrounding terrain the approaches
to both runways have to become visual at an early stage. Perhaps the
more famous of the two is the VOR
to Visual Approach to runway 05. As
you can see from the chart, the instrument procedure terminates at a
point 3.6nm from the FUN (aptly
named I know!) VOR on the 212 radial. At this point you follow the same
track descending to 1140 feet until
the 6 mile point, at which a gentle
right hand turn is initiated, turning
you towards GELO (which can be located visually as the large white Banana packing sheds on the coast!).
Descent is continued as you start the
turn to pass GELO at 850 feet, at
which point you follow the curved
lead in light system, passing ROSARIO at 460 feet to bring you onto
the extended centreline at approximately 1nm from touchdown.
If the approach itself wasn't challenging enough, then the weather
certainly can be. Like Gibraltar because of the mountainous terrain the
risk of windshear is very high, and
there are also hard limits to the
strength of the wind from particular
directions which prevent the approach being started if they are exceeded. As a result of this on the arrival ATIS you will be given not just
the landing threshold wind, but also
the wind at ROSARIO and the opposite threshold, all of which allow you
to build some sort of mental model
as to the conditions you can expect.
12
I'm sure I'm not surprising too many of you with my choice for the most interesting destination
in Europe, it is of course Innsbruck, a place I know is a firm favourite amongst many of you
when the ski season hits the schedules.
Located down the Inn valley,
Innsbruck is in the Tyrol region
of Western Austria in the Northern Alps and the airport is 2nm
West of the city. The terrain rises rapidly either side of the airfield with many of the mountain
peaks reaching over 9000 feet.
Due to the nature of the airfield
special authorisation is required
from the Austrian Aviation Authority which requires them verifying the performance of your
aircraft and the training of the
crews. As such to be Innsbruck
'rated' you are required to complete a special 4 hour simulator
session every year during which
you will fly every approach,
missed approach and departure
that your company has been approved for, then to stay current
you must visit the airfield itself
at least once every 3 months or
you are required to visit the sim
again!
So onto the nitty-gritty. Well,
most of you who go there will
probably be familiar with either
the LOC/DME East approach or
the Special LOC/DME East approach to runway 26, and the
brave amongst you may even
have had a go at the circle to
land on 08, a procedure that
certainly gets the pulse racing.
But next time you're done there
why not attempt one of the
more unusual approaches to
get your alpine fix.
If its daylight and the visibility
in the valley is greater than
5km, with a cloud base at least
5000agl why not give the LOC/
DME West a go as it saves you
having to go all the way out to
RTT?
As the chart shows head to KTI
NDB and ensure that as you
pass it you are at 11500 feet
with your speed back at around
150 knots, gear down and Flaps
extended to the equivalent of 3
on an Airbus. Once established
inbound on the OEJ you start an
eye watering 4.7 degree descent path! (And no unfortu-
nately we don't have the Steep
Approach pushbutton installed.)
When you approach the MDA of
5000 feet over the RIN marker
you have already overflown the
airfield and are looking in the
wrong direction, so as long as
visibility is good and you are below the cloud base you can continue to AB, then start a tight
right hand turn maintaining
5000 until visual with the airfield and on the correct descent
profile to touch down.
Of course the other option if
your feeling really brave is to
follow the West Approach with
the circle to land on 08, but if
the weather is that good you
may as well have a go at either
the Western Valley visual approach or if you happen to be
GPS equipped then go for the
RNAV (GNSS) 08, either way variety really is the spice of life at
a destination like Innsbruck,
just make sure you enjoy the
Gluhwein and Strudel on arrival!
13
14
Its 4:45am when the alarm goes off signalling the start of a new cycle as a
Heathrow tower air traffic controller. I
reluctantly get out of bed, have a quick
shower and jump in the car for the 40 minute drive to Heathrow. This is my first
day of six where I work a shift pattern of 6
days on followed by four days off. The six
days consist of two
morning
shifts
(0700/1430), two aftern o o n
s h i f t s
(1430/2200) and then
two ‘spin’ shifts.
The
spin shifts change from
cycle to cycle and may
either
be
nights
(2200/0700), another
pair
of
afternoons
(1330/2200), or a day
off followed by two
mornings (0600/1230)
and then three days off.
Arriving in the tower after a 20 minute
walk through Terminal 3 my first port of
call is the SBU or Self Briefing Unit. We
have two books, both around 400 pages in
length; these list all the rules, regulations
and restrictions for providing ATC both
nationally, and locally at Heathrow, these
must be known off by heart. These books
only get updated every six months and
therefore we also have five folders which
contain information that hasn’t yet made
the books or is temporary. The only new
item of information is in regards to the
holding point AY1 which is only available
to towing movements (i.e. not live ones)
due to work in progress.
Ensuring I have a cup of tea I get the lift
up 10 floors and walk out onto the viewing
balcony, this offers a commanding view
over Terminals 1 and 3 from about 80 metres. One more flight of steps brings me
to the VCR (visual controlling room).
We’re qualified to control any of the positions in the tower - delivery, ground, arrivals or departures - and therefore I quickly
ascertain which controller it is who is next
due a break and go and take over from
them.
I plug my headset into the air
north
position
which is responsible for the all
movements relating to the northern runway or
27R/09L. When
I plug my headset into the communications
socket it is the
signal to the controller currently occupying the position
that I’m ready and they can begin the
handover.
“Easterlies, right up with TEAM, left down,
no work that affects you. Ground are 1
and 2, INT S are on a non-standard of
121.975, anything off at 9 for T5 goes to
them, spacing is good however they’re a
little slow off due to the wet. Traffic is
UAL34 at 1 cleared to land, BAW20R is
continuing, the rest aren’t talking”.
It’s almost a language in itself which
would be translated into: the airfield is
currently in easterly configuration using
runway 09R for both departures and arrivals while runway 09L for arrivals. There
is no work in progress on the airfield
which blocks an exit or may delay aircraft
leaving the runway. We have three Ground
positions, however we often just operate
with two and therefore the Ground 1 controller is also covering Ground 2 area of
responsibility too. The approach controller responsible for the OCK and BIG stack
isn’t on their usual frequency due to interference and therefore if you need to hand
an aircraft off to them you need to use the
special frequency. The exit A9 is technically in Ground 1 area of responsibility,
however if the traffic that vacates there is
bound for Terminal 5 it can just go to
Ground 3 without having to talk to Ground
1 thus reducing workload and R/T loading. The spacing between the aircraft on
the approach is working well and there is
no need to get increase this, however due
to the runway being wet the aircraft are
slower than normal to vacate and therefore it’s something to keep an eye on.
UAL34 which is at one mile has been
cleared to land, while BAW20R is four
miles behind and has been handed over
from approach and been told to continue.
Finally the rest of the aircraft currently on
the approach have not been handed over
from yet. The short hand is much easier!
Once I am happy that I know exactly what
is going on I flick a switch which transfers
control of the frequency from my colleague to me and apart from a change in
accent no-one would be the wiser we’ve
swapped controllers.
I clear things to land for an hour before
another controller comes to relieve me
and we conduct the handover process
again. I head down to the rest room, have
breakfast and a quick catch up on the
news before going back up around half an
hour after unplugging.
This time it’s a bit of Ground 1+2 for me; this
means I’ll be responsible for the entire ground,
excluding the runways and Terminal 5. The aim
of ground is to get all the departures to the runway and all the arrivals to the gate in the minimum time possible without ending up with any
head to head on the taxiway. Since Heathrow is
so busy the stand plan is quite tight with aircraft
often landing for gates which have only had aircraft leave them 5/10 minutes beforehand. If a
flight is delayed for any reason this means that
the inbound aircraft is unable to park and therefore must sit on a bit of taxiway somewhere and
wait until their stand becomes available. When
an aircraft is sat waiting for their stand you obviously can’t use that bit of taxiway and therefore
you need to be quite clever as to where you
block. There is no point in holding an aircraft
behind stand 192 if the next aircraft is due to
park on that stand it is also imperative not to
block any runway exits.
Finally the aircraft on the blocked stand is ready and I give him push, however, I ask him to do
a long push so that his stand is clear. This means that while he is sat starting his engines we
can then park the waiting aircraft on the vacated stand, thus wasting no time and allowing the
inbound aircraft to get on stand 5 minutes earlier. The next problem is I have stand 231 and
232 which are both are ready to push at the same time, our rules state there needs to be 2
intervening stands between them due to jet blast issues – what would you do?
I get stand 232 to push into the apron and get stand 231 to push out of the apron onto Bravo
(the red taxiway) facing west as jet blast isn’t an issue if the aircraft are facing each other.
15
We tend to do a lot of non-standard
pushbacks in order to keep things moving whether they be long pushes, push
and pulls, facing the wrong direction or
onto a different taxiway. This can make
ground very complex as you have to be
careful not to snooker yourself when trying to be clever with the aircraft.
After 45 minutes a new controller takes
over from me and I go back to the rest
room to read the rest of the
paper and catch up on the
latest gossip I’ve missed.
30 minutes later I find myself doing ground again however this time it’s ground 3
or basically Terminal 5.
While this covers a much
smaller area than the other ground, it
can be much more complex during easterly operations. You don’t have a lot of
spare taxiway to use tactically and aircraft waiting at the holding points VIKAS
and DASSO block some stands and the
entrance into the Yankee cul-de-sac. It
may be 10/15 minutes after giving the
departure controller the aircraft at the
hold before they’re able to move it and
therefore you need to plan quite far
ahead.
It’s all going rather well until an aircraft
who has pushed back has a technical issue and is unable to move. I quickly coordinate with the other ground controller
that I would like inbound traffic to particular stands handed-over at a non-normal
point. I then let the delivery controller
know about the issue so that they don’t
give me any traffic near that stand for
pushback since they can’t go anywhere.
As this is a technical issue it could be
something they could fix quickly (it’s
amazing how many times a reboot ap-
pears to fix an airbus) or they could be
there a while and require a tug to pull
them back onto the stand. While this is
going on, an aircraft at the hold has declared a PAN due to a passenger becoming ill just prior to departure and requires
to return to stand ASAP. In order to facilitate this, the traffic I’ve just asked to be
re-routed due to my tech aircraft now
needs to be re-routed for a second time.
I shout across to the
other ground controller with a different plan and we’re
able to get the emergency aircraft back
onto stand without
having to stop it
once. During this time you’re continuing
to have to deal with the other traffic that
is ready to push back or that has just
landed. The best description I’ve ever
heard is that it is like trying to complete
a jigsaw however the picture keeps
changing.
An hour of ground and its break time
again, having been thoroughly depressed
by the news on previous breaks I decide
to go and check my emails and the company intranet to see if there is anything of
interest there. I manage to pass 30
minutes sat idly on the internet and return back upstairs for a stint of delivery.
While delivery may appear to be a simple
position, passing clearances and telling
aircraft which ground controller to talk
to, it’s integral to the airfield running efficiently. You’re responsible for ensuring
that there is an adequate mix of traffic on
the airfield while protecting the ground
controller. In basic terms this means
that there is no point in starting an aircraft if it’s not possible for it to get airborne for 40 minutes due to the amount
of traffic already ahead of it at the hold.
It’s better for it to wait on the stand for
20 minutes or so and then taxi out and
get airborne with minimal delay and
therefore reducing emissions, noise, etc.
Similarly there is no point in giving a
ground controller eight planes next to
each other or giving them more planes
when they already have over twenty to be
looking after. As a delivery controller you
gain a sixth sense of being able to listen
to everything that is occurring in the tower.
As an aircraft asks me for
start-up, I can hear that ground is
struggling to get another which
has just landed to taxi the right
way. There is little point in me
sending my aircraft across to add
to the situation and therefore just
hold onto it or 30 seconds until
the situation is resolved.
Due to our location the majority
of our traffic departs either towards the west or south meaning
that these are the routes which
normally incur delay. They get a
delay because the number of aircraft wanting to fly a route exceeds the numbers which are
able to do so creating an excess
or delay. In simple terms we can
depart southbound aircraft two
minutes apart and therefore theoretically we can get thirty southbound departures airborne an
hour. However due to the North
Atlantic track system being towards the south everything going
towards North America has filed
in the direction of the south rather than a
split north and south meaning that we
have 40 aircraft in the hour wanting to
get airborne. It will take an additional 20
minutes to get those extra 10 aircraft air-
borne and therefore we end up with a delay situation.
When I plug in it’s a 10 minute delay on
southbound routings and therefore anything which has filed a southbound SID is
told of the delay and a time to expect
start. Since they can depart every two
minutes, it’s a generally a case of adding
two minutes to the last aircraft, so if
BAW123 is starting at 10, the next would
be 12, then 14, etc.
than the usual 2 minutes between 2 successive Midhurst departures they require
5 minutes. So in this situation it would
be 10, 15 and 20. It becomes inherently
more complex when you have different
MDIs on different routes so you could
have MID+5, CPT+4, DVR+10, BPK+3
which may be all over the place yet would
be easy to do; however you still need to
remember that you need two minutes between certain routes so although you
could start a CPT at 04 and a MID at 05
you couldn’t actually start the MID until
06. After an hour of delivery in bad
weather your head is ready to explode
with numbers!
Thankfully there is no weather today and
after doing one and a half hours of delivery it’s time for lunch.
I get three quarters of an hour off going
back up at 1pm to do a bit of air south,
which happens to be the departure runway. The principle of departures is simple – get as many aircraft airborne as
quickly as possible - if only it was that
easy! Every departure needs to be separated from the aircraft that departed before them in terms of both vertical/
horizontal IFR separation and wake turbulence. To achieve this you need to
manoeuver the aircraft at the holding area to gain the most optimum departure
order, rather than on a first come first
served basis.
In bad weather situations the en-route
sectors require a lot less aircraft to be
airborne and therefore instigate a minimum departure interval or MDI. So they
may ask for MIDs+5 which means rather
To achieve the IFR separation each
Standard Instrument Departure (SID) has
a minimum time which must have
elapsed between that SID getting airborne and the next one on a particular
SID getting airborne. For example if a
Midhurst had just got airborne it would
be 2 minutes until the next Midhurst,
Detling, Dover, Southampton or Compton
could get
16
airborne, however, only 1 minute for a Brookmans
Park or Buzad. If we departed a Buzad next the opposite would be true with a MID, DET, DVR, SAM or
CPT requiring 1 minute and a BPK or BUZ needing 2
minutes. Since we’re trying to get as many airborne
as possible this means we end up departing in a left
right left right pattern.
If the weather is good we can reduce these separations by watching the aircraft out of the window until
they’re 3nm and/or 1000ft apart, therefore rather
than waiting for 1 minute I can clear the next aircraft
for take-off as soon as the preceding aircrafts wheels
have left the tarmac. If it’s an A319 it may be airborne as little as 35/40 seconds behind the next one
– or a Heathrow minute.
We can’t reduce the spacing required for wake turbulence, it’s an absolute, however we try and use it
tactically. If a BA 747 has just got airborne on a
Compton SID it makes sense to put the next aircraft
behind it another southbound departure as you need
to wait 2 minutes for wake turbulence and you also
need 2 minutes for route separation, therefore
you’re not losing time.
Apart from the usual issues of getting a perfect departure order and then an aircraft not been ready
and having to redo the whole thing again I manage
to get 56 airborne in the first hour.
For the last 30 minutes of the shift I’m staying on air
south however we’re going to begin TEAMing. TEAM
stands for Tactically Enhanced Arrival Mode, which
allows us to land a certain number of aircraft on the
departure runway to reduce the amount of inbound
delay. The aim of the game now becomes to try and
get as many aircraft airborne as possible in the gaps
between the arriving aircraft; for example you have
an inbound at 12 miles – how many more aircraft
can you depart before you need to issue a landing
clearance? If one of the aircraft at the hold is a
heavy and the next one is a medium how big a gap
do you need to ensure you attain wake turbulence
spacing? If you play it too safe (i.e. clearing them to
land at 8 miles) you lose movements. You may have
got another 2 or 3 aircraft out in that gap, and therefore create an outbound delay. Similarly if you play
it too tight you may end up having to send the inbound aircraft around and therefore lost any advantage that TEAMing may have brought. There are
a few rules of thumb however it very much comes
down to the controllers’ judgement, experience and
skill. It’s quite a buzz and the 30 minutes soon flies
by and I’m relieved. One of the main advantages of
being a controller is that when you unplug that’s it –
you don’t take any work home, there are no deadlines to be worried about, etc. I’m soon in the car
heading home down the M4, I may even treat myself
to an afternoon nap!
You may also find it interesting to know that at the
end of night shift we operate the tower with reduced
manning and therefore I was doing air band boxed
meaning I was controlling both runways at the same
time, or in other words I was doing the equivalent of
Gatwick on one runway while controlling aircraft
landing on the other. In order to make it more fun
we were in Low Visibility Procedures and we also had
an emergency aircraft coming in with a hydraulic issue. The emergency aircraft landed and managed to
vacate however the runway couldn’t be inspected in
time for the next arriving aircraft which I had to send
around. Therefore I’m dealing with an emergency, a
missed approach, TEAMing all while still controlling
landing aircraft on the other runway. I was certainly
ready for bed by the time I got home!
Although the following days are identical in terms of
the job, the situations you’re given to solve change
drastically meaning that each day it is a completely
different job. Whether it’s different runways in use,
the weather, taxiway closures, airspace restrictions
or the NAT traffic being early/late, it’s always a new
scenario to try and solve.
If you’re interested in a career in Air Traffic
Management, it’s not just ATCOs but engineers,
airspace design, etc, please visit http://
www.nats.co.uk/careers/
17
18
CRITICAL
PHASE!
SCREENSHOT
WINNER!
19
complex which required some more
lateral thinking by the crew and less
input from the instructor, culminating
in a mock licence skills test session.
May I first begin this article by apologising for the
lack of a previous account of my instrument rating
flight test. I’m afraid I was constrained by time
and did in fact begin writing it, but the rigour of
actively looking for an airline job unfortunately
took precedence, and that certainly paid off. Some
of the guys on my course at OAA and on previous
courses still haven’t found employment and are
having to do IR renewals to keep current – I was
lucky to be able to have found a job flying a 737
within a month of completing flight training.
Many people have asked me, “Wow, going from a
Piper Seneca to a 737, isn’t
that a massive jump with nothing in between the two?” And
my answer is pretty much always the same: Not really. To
put it bluntly, they are both aeroplanes at the end of the day.
Both have controls to go up and
down, left and right, slower and
faster. It’s the anticipation and
the thinking ahead that dictates
how you transition from one to
the other, as things happen a bit faster in the jet,
and in the jet environment.
The type rating lasted around 8 weeks and was
done at the East Midlands Airport training facility.
It was preceded by a series of ground school classes lasting around 2 weeks, in which we followed
the Boeing CBT program to learn about the 737
systems. We then learned how to do our take-off
and landing performance calculations and had a
couple of days learning the airline SOP’s. This is
an interesting point as the SOP’s for the type rating are ‘stuck’ – in other words, if there is a
change in the real SOP that is in use on the line, it
is not implemented in the type rating in order to
keep it as simple as possible (and simple is not
the right word here!). This was a little tricky as
you got onto the line having learnt one way to do
something, but it turned out that it had now
changed.
After the ground school and having done safety
and emergency exams (putting out a fire and
jumping out of an emergency escape slide was the
highlight here), SOP exams, performance and
technical exams, it was time to jump in the £22
million simulator. Rosters were fixed four days on,
four days off, which was a
good balance. You were
paired up with another
guy/girl on your course
and the first few simulators were fixed base, in
other words, the sim wasn’t actually moving. The
objective was at first making you feel comfortable
and familiar with the
cockpit, learning the setup from cold and dark and basic procedures. After
this, things started to get a little more complex as
the simulators then started moving. Each session
was four hours, split between you being the pilot
flying and pilot monitoring. The sessions where
set out very well, with each getting more complex
than the previous one. After the basic principles
and procedures were dealt with and hand flying
was up to standard, failures were introduced.
They were fairly simple to being with, mainly focussing on what had caused the failure, good QRH
reading and use, and good implementation of decision making and risk analysis. The sessions built
upon this to make failures a little more
The licence skills test itself was 5
hours in the simulator, again with you
acting as pilot flying and pilot monitoring with a 10 minute break between
the two. I went first as pilot flying,
which is both beneficial and dangerous
– after you’ve finished your flying you
can go back in with the mind-set that
you’re only monitoring now and you
can relax – certainly not the case. You
can fail the skills test as pilot monitoring as well as pilot flying. On my stint
as pilot flying we had a fuel pump failure, cargo fire, circle to land procedure, engine failure after V1, single engine go around and single engine landing. My sim partner had a similar set
of exercises apart from he had an engine severe damage at V1, which is a
little nastier than a failure.
After having passed the licence skills
test it was time for the base training,
which, looking back at it was the best
time anyone can possibly have in a
737. Getting your head round the fact
that you’re doing circuits at 1800 feet
in a 60 tonne airliner takes some doing! A group of six of us went up to
Glasgow Prestwick to do it, and it was
a feeling like no other. Six touch and
goes, and then because I went last I
got to fly us back to East Midlands,
which was a great little bonus. And another bonus was that I didn’t break anything!
As I said in the introduction, most aeroplanes do the same kind of things.
And this is one of the first things that
we were taught during the type rating
training at East Midlands. A 737 can
turn steeply, stall, buffet and so on.
We did the same things that most
FTO’s do with their cadets the first
time they set foot in a Warrior or Cessna – effects of controls. Flying slowly,
the controls are more sluggish. Flying
quickly, they’re more responsive. We
also disabled the
spoilers to see
what effect this
would have and
the turns became
sluggish
again.
Stalling is much
the same, apart
from you get a
host of additional
warnings in the
737 which it yells
at you to warn you of the impending
stall. Airspeed low, a flashing ASI and
then of course the stick shaker.
Stalling at high altitude was a tad different as it’s obviously something a
Seneca isn’t able to do – sacrificing
altitude to regain airspeed was the key
here.
Overspeeds are also something you
have to consider in the 737– the natural reaction of the pilot is to retard the
thrust to let the speed come back –
this is not an ideal way to do it, especially at high altitudes. We were taught
to bring the thrust back to around 60%
N1, then use the speed brake to get to
below VMO/MMO. Reason being, if you
have the thrust at idle at high altitude,
then advance the thrust levers again,
the amount of time that it takes to
reach that target N1 because of the
reduced air density and jet engine lag
is monumental. Also noticeable in real
flying and not so much in FS, is the
dead band on take-off. On initial rotation, the plane wants to fly quite happi-
ly. However, at around 8 degrees she
wants to stop flying, due to aerodynamic dampening of the elevator. You
really have to pull through this dead
band to reach the target pitch attitude,
or she’ll stay at 8 degrees and your
performance has gone out of the window, not to mention you’ll gain speed
and your flight
directors
will
want you to
pitch up even
more to regain
V2+20.
This
comes
with
practice. On a
light twin for a
crosswind takeoff, the technique is to start
the roll with ailerons into the wind and
smoothly neutralise before you lift off.
With the 737 it’s almost the opposite.
Start the take-off roll with ailerons neutral, and then slowly put them into the
wind as the speed increases, with opposite rudder inputs as the aircraft
wants to weathercock into the wind
because of the massive rudder. You
need to be careful though not to put
over 1.5 units (on top of the control
column) of aileron into the wind, or
you’ll get the spoilers deploying too
which will increase the drag on that
wing. You’ll lift off with crossed controls which you need to smoothly neutralise once airborne. You need to anticipate some wing drop as even a couple of knots of crosswind can cause
the windward wing to lift. This is quite
pronounced because, even though a
swept wing produces less lift than a
straight wing, the 737’s wing effectively acts like a straight wing with a
crosswind as the oncoming airflow hits
the swept wing at right angles, therefore producing more lift.
20
This is obviously one of the main differences between the two aircraft. The most
pronounced aspect of a jet engine compared to a propeller is the lag, and therefore the speed control. In the simulator
we took the 737 up to around FL100,
290 knots. We then retarded the thrust
levers to idle, and maintained FL100 with
pitch.
This
was an experiment to see
how quickly
the
aircraft
would
slow
from
290
back to 250
knots. It took
about 7 miles
to do this.
This
fundamental difference comes
into play with
profile management and descent planning. The 737, especially the -800, is an
incredibly slippery aeroplane, and is a
real pain to slow down sometimes. People who use the PMDG NGX have asked
me whether the flight dynamics are correct, as they have commented that on
final, they are at around 3 degrees nose
up with the thrust at idle, and the speed
does not want to decrease. This is completely accurate, and is difficult to believe
at first, but the main reasons are the slipperiness of the plane, the highly efficient
wing which produces lots of lift and not a
lot of drag without the leading and trailing edge devices out and the winglets. If
you are not at flaps 5 by the time you
have captured the glideslope, speed control becomes very difficult. Whilst we’re
on the subject of lag time and final ap-
proach, our stable approach criteria
states that the engines must not be at an
idle setting by the time the landing gate
is reached. Reason being, if you need to
go around and the thrust is at idle, imagine the time it would take to spool up to
your go around N1. If at the same time
you’ve pitched up to 15 degrees and are
just waiting on the thrust, it’s a recipe for
disaster.
Jet engines are
also
prone
to
some quite spectacular
failures,
or ‘jet upsets’ as
they’re
known.
Compressor stall
or surge is a big
one,
basically
caused by the
breakdown of airflow within the
compressor section of the engine.
The rotors and stators in the compressor
are basically little aerofoils which work
off angle of attack just like a wing does,
and if this angle becomes too large, the
section can stall, and in extreme cases,
cause a reversal of the airflow in the engine, usually accompanied by a loud
bang. Ever wondered why on most takeoffs we advance thrust to 40%, wait for it
to stabilise, then set take-off thrust? The
first is to make sure take-off thrust is set
in a symmetrical way, and the second is
to encourage a positive flow of air
through the engine before spooling it up
– particularly important during crosswind
and tailwind take-offs.
Another big difference between jets and
props are the effect it has when one of
them fails, or the effect it has if you just
want to slow down. In the Seneca, as
soon as you close the throttles, you can
feel the plane slowing down, you’re even
pushed forward in your seat – it’s like
putting the brakes on. In a jet, there is no
initial response. The yaw effect from an
engine failure in the Seneca is more pronounced than the yaw effect in the 737,
when flying straight and level at least.
This might be different when doing a 26K
take-off in the 737 and having an engine
fail at V2 (Can’t speak from experience, it
hasn’t happened to me... yet!) But this is
part of the reason why we de-rate the
take-offs whenever we can, to preserve
engine life, fuel, noise abatement and to
minimise the yaw if an engine should fail.
As far as engine indications go, the 737
has much the same as the Seneca. Oil
quantities, pressure, temperature, then a
few additional ones obviously like N1, N2
and vibration. The importance of monitoring these during engine start are definitely something you overlook in FS.
Whilst the engines are incredibly reliable
and have Electronic Engine Control (EEC)
to take extra care of them, starting them
is one of the most important parts of the
engine usage cycle, and there are three
things you want to avoid. The first is a
hot start, where the EGT rises rapidly and
potentially over the upper limit. If, during
start, EGT is constantly leading the N2
value, it’s a good indication that you’re
going to get a hot start. In addition, the
EEC will flash the EGT indication if it
senses a hot start is likely. If you don’t
shut it down ASAP and the EGT rises
above the limit, it is game over for that
flight unfortunately. The turbine section
of a jet engine is one of the most temperature sensitive, and it’s actually one of
the most limiting parts of an engine. One
degree over the max EGT and it’ll need to
be shut down and checked. The indica-
tion will also remain red on the lower DU
to indicate something has been exceeded. The second thing you want to avoid is
a hung start, where N1 rises very slowly
or fails to rise at all. This is often caused
by the starter motor not cutting out when
it should, and can result in damage to
the starter. The third one is a wet start,
which is where the start progresses normally but there is no ignition once you
put the fuel in. Obviously you’ve got fuel
pouring into the engine but the igniters
aren’t doing their job – this will result in a
flooded
engine,
which you
then need
to motor
on
the
starter for
30
seconds
to
get rid of
the
fuel.
Monitoring
all of these
i s s u e s
plus vibration and oil indications makes
starting an engine in the 737 a bit more
involved than starting one in the Seneca!
Obviously anyone who is reading this has
had enough play time with the NGX to
know what equipment it has, so no real
need to go into too much detail here. It’s
got almost all the bells and whistles, and
ours are also CAT III B certified. A good
thing to mention is the ability to use the
displays on the 737 to revert to conventional navigation, just like in the Seneca.
The VOR and ADF needles are similar,
the VOR display is similar to a conventional HSI like I used during my instrument rating – you just need to get your
head around the fact that you’re in a 65
tonne jet whose displays are a little different! Even the 737 suffers the same ADF/
VOR errors that a twin prop suffers. We
were climbing out of Palma de Mallorca
past quite a big storm cell and had the
ADF tuned to a nearby station which was
straight ahead of us, and the needle was
just pointing straight at the storm cell on
our left hand side. Worth mentioning too
in my opinion is the excellent warning
system on the 737 – the master caution
and fire warning system certainly helps us
find the problem and
solution quickly and
easily. You’ll notice
that if you press the
recall button to illuminate the ‘six pack’ as
we call it, all of the
malfunctions listed on
it are set out in a particular way that mirrors
where in the cockpit
you will find the panel
relating to that malfunction – try it!
The flight controls in the Seneca are not
hydraulically powered, they are moved
directly by the pilot. In the 737 we have
three hydraulic systems, A, B and the
standby system. These help us to move
the flight controls along with an artificial
feel system which gives ‘feels’ to the controls relating to speed, pitch and other
flight conditions, so the controls don’t
feel the same all the time. During the
type rating we simulated a complete
manual reversion, which was a total loss
of hydraulic systems A and B. Trying to
control the aircraft without help from the
hydraulics was one of the most physically
exhausting things to be done in the simulator – heavy doesn’t even cover it!
21
Electrically, the 737 and Seneca are surprisingly similar. They both have batteries for DC power, and both have engine
generators for AC power. The 737 obviously has an APU with a generator for AC
power on the ground when we don’t have
ground power connected. The fuel system is a little more complicated in the
737. In the Seneca we have engine driven
fuel pumps and an electric booster
pump, with a fairly simple cross feeding
system. The 737 has four main tank
pumps, two on each side,
and 2 centre tank pumps.
The centre tank pumps
need to be kept an eye on,
as they can be quite temperamental – when they are
on, someone always has to
be in the cockpit, as they
can run dry and actually
cause a substantial amount
of damage to themselves
and the aircraft.
Regarding ice and rain protection, the
Seneca has mostly a de-icing system for
the main surfaces, apart from the probes
and stall warner which are constantly
heated. The 737 has an anti-ice system
using hot air from the compressor sections of the engine, passing through a
series of valves and ducts to prevent ice
build-up. The exception to this is the
wing anti-ice, which we largely use as a
de-icing system; as it takes a lot of bleed
air out of the compressor section. The
wing light (often confused for the navigation/strobe lights on the tip of the wing)
illuminates the leading edge so we can
have a look whether we need it, but ice
build-up on the windscreen and wipers is
a good indication too. The technique for
using de/anti-ice systems is largely the
same on both aircraft – we check the
temperature and outside conditions to
see if we need it, then use as required.
There is a topic on anti-ice usage in the
737 forum which is a good read.
The Seneca was an unpressurised aircraft, whilst the 737 obviously needs to
be pressurised to operate at the altitudes
that it does. The cabin altitude indicator
is known to us as the ‘life support gauge’
– in other words, very important. We
check it after
take-off,
at
FL100, 200, 300
and 400 for correct indications.
Pressurisation is
controlled automatically by the
pressurisation
controller using
pilot inputs in the
flight and landing
altitude windows. It then adjusts the
pressure inside the aircraft in proportion
to the climb, using a constant flow of air
into the aircraft via the packs and adjusting the outflow of air using the outflow
valve which is at the rear of the plane.
The pressurisation controller has three
different modes, AUTO, which is the normal operation, ALTN, which is an alternate operation but still automatically
controlled, and MAN, which is where automatic operation is no longer working
and the pilots have to adjust the position
of the outflow valve manually to control
pressurisation – you can imagine how
much workload this adds.
Strictly not a technical difference between the two aircraft in question, but
still a huge part of transitioning from single pilot IFR to airline operation. During
the instrument rating,
you were on your own –
you flew, you spoke on
the radio, you handled
abnormalities on your
own and you did the
checklists on your own.
One of the biggest differences in transitioning
to jets was the fact that
you have another chap
next to you and you
need to work together.
Many people ask me if
flight simulator helped
me on the way to flying
an airliner, and the answer is two-fold.
The first answer is yes, as FS definitely
helps you realise where everything is in
the cockpit, what to expect from the systems and how to operate the aircraft in a
basic way. The other edge of the sword is
that it in no way prepares you for airline
SOP’s and crew resource management.
Looking through the normal procedures
in an SOP manual is a bit like learning
the lines and actions to a Shakespearian
play – “Okay so when he says this, I then
need to do that, then say this to confirm,
then we can carry on and do that”. During single pilot operations you have a bit
more freedom to find your own way of
doing things, still sticking to SOP’s of
course, but it’s a less stringent way of
doing things. As soon as you find yourself
in the cockpit with someone else it’s essential that you both stick to the dictated
way of doing things. Most air accidents
are as a result of CRM issues, and it’s
certainly not something that you think
about as you sit in front of your computer
happily flying your NGX – but as soon as
you’re out of single pilot ops, you have a
whole other hill to get over. There can be
many different cultures and races of people operating aircraft together, and this
is one of the many things that you have
to be sensitive to. Someone may have
problems at home, be distant, unenthusiastic, you name it and after all, we’re all
human. These are the things you have to
deal with operating a modern airliner –
you have to tailor your behaviour and attitude in such a way that allows you to
work together with the guy next to you to
achieve your common goal – to get the
aircraft safely and efficiently from A to B.
If a failure is simulated (or real) in the
Seneca, you are expected to handle it on
your own and do all the appropriate actions. In a multi-pilot aircraft, you work
together to handle the problem. Achieving a good knowledge of SOP’s, memory
items for failures and knowing the QRH
inside out is essential for when things go
wrong. The road to learning all the things
that you need to learn to operate the aircraft as a team is a long and difficult one
– but once you get there it makes things
a lot easier. I’d much rather have problems in the 737 working as a team than
have a problem in the Seneca working on
my own.
The above point brings me to the notion
that my 737 type rating skills test was
actually not as difficult as my instrument
rating in the Seneca. On paper it sounds
a lot worse, engine failures, cargo fires,
fuel/electrical problems – sounds like a
nightmare! But, you’re in there as a team
– that’s the key, whereas for the IR, the
instructor was the only person next to
you and was acting as a passenger. When
they simulate an engine failure after a go
around and you have to negotiate securing the engine, talking to ATC and navigating all whilst not being able to see
outside, it’s not a fun thing to do at all. I
also find the 737 is a little easier to land
than the Seneca. The Seneca was an absolute pig, too heavy at the front, needed
far too much nose up trim on final approach, and sank like a brick if you
brought the power back to quickly. The
737 is simply a pleasure to fly, and whilst
I’ve only got around 160 hours on it so
far, I couldn’t have asked for a better jet
to fly for my first job. There’s no doubt
that she’ll bite you if you do something
she doesn’t like, but that’s true of any
aeroplane, or even any car.
I’ll leave you with something my line
training captain told me a few weeks ago
which is essential to jet operation:
“Never let the aircraft go somewhere your
brain hasn’t been five minutes before.”
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Special Thanks go to David Haxwell from www.british-caledonian.com for his help in preparing this article.
For some years, British Airways had a small
amount of A320’s operating with CFM engines,
alongside with all other IAE powered A320’s. They
worked together with the other Airbus aircraft until
the remaining airframe was retired just over a year
ago. With them, an interesting history came to an
end.
© DAVE THAXTER
In December 1981, British Caledonian were looking
for a suitable replacement for their ageing fleet of
BAC 1-11’s. British Caledonian considered these
three aircraft types; Airbus A320’s, DC-9’s and the
Boeing 737-300’s. Nine months later, in September
1982, the A320 was at the top of the list and there
was a requirement for ten new airframes. Then, on
the 11th of October, an order for seven examples of
the A320 was placed, with an option for a further
three airframes. The order was worth approximately
£150 million. The three initial airframes were due
in Spring 1988, the rest were to be delivered in
1989. This order qualified British Caledonian as the
launch customer for the A320. Air France placed
numerous after BCAL, however, French politicians
decided to give Air France a delivery slot ahead of
British Caledonian. Airbus were going to have the
airframes 001-004, Air France got 005 assigned,
while British Caledonian were going to receive the
airframes 006, 008, 011, 017, 018, 039 and 042.
As the decision was made to opt for the A320, British Caledonian was respectfully described in one
report as “the bastion of free enterprise in the airline industry”. Adam Thomson, managing director,
chairman and shareholder of British Caledonian,
later expressed that Airbus may not survive without
the A320 programme.
In October 1983, the decision was made to refurbish all 13 BAC 1-11’s in the fleet, as they were expected to remain in service for another 5-6 years.
Each aircraft cost half a million pounds and 16,000
man hours were spent on each airframe. G-AWYS
was the first aircraft to undergo this overhaul.
In April 1987, airframe 002 was painted in the British Caledonian livery on the starboard side and in
the Air France livery on the port side. This aircraft
visited London Gatwick on the 26th of June. The
aircraft was met by the pipes and drums of British
Caledonian, as well as Adam Thomson. The first
delivery was due for the 24th of March 1988, while
the first scheduled flight was planned to be on one
Later that year, on the 9th of November, British
Caledonian’s first A320 completed its maiden test
flight. Airframe 006, had the British registration GBRSA assigned, “BR” being the airline’s IATA code.
But for the time being, the aircraft kept its French
registration for its test flights. Meanwhile BA stated
that they would take delivery of the A320 as part of
the takeover.
The first aircraft, G-BUSB (instead of G-BRSA), was
delivered to British Airways on the 31st of March
1988. The aircraft was painted in British Airways’
Landor livery. On the 14th of April 1988, British
Caledonian ceased operations and was taken over
by British Airways. The remaining A320’s (G-BUSC
through to G-BUSK), were delivered between 1988
and late 1990, with G-BUSG through to G-BUSK
being -200 series aircraft instead of -100 series aircraft.
© JAVIER RODRIGUEZ
After British Caledonian was taken over by British
Airways, the A320’s were flying to a variety of destinations throughout the UK and Europe, wearing the
Landor livery. While aircraft G-BUSB through to GBUSK were equipped with CFM engines, all future
Airbus orders were equipped with IAE engines.
After the launch of the “Utopia” tail-fins, many of
the G-BUS* registered aircraft received special tailfins. Benyhone, Water Dreaming, British Blend and
many more.
© DARREN WILSON
of British Caledonian’s flights to Paris. At that time,
British Caledonian was still the only British airline
to order that type.
On Thursday the 16th of July 1987, BA announced
that they had made an offer for British Caledonian’s entire share capital.
Caledonian aircraft to be put into storage. It was
stored at Lasham, before being scrapped. All remaining A320-100’s were put into storage in November 2007, except for G-BUSE. G-BUSE then operated the last British Airways passenger flight operated by an A320-100. The flight was BA569 from
Milan-Linate to London Heathrow, on the 29th of
December. Afterwards, the aircraft was put into
storage at Goodyear, before being scrapped in
2009.
G-BUSC received a special tail-fin for the 2000
Summer Olympics held in Sydney, together with GBMRC (Boeing 757-200) and G-BKYG (Boeing 737200). The tail-design carried the name “Teaming up
for Britain”.
From March until October 2005, G-BUSJ was
leased to GB Airways.
In October 2006, G-BUSD was the first ex-British
The other G-BUS* registered A320’s continued appearing on British Airways flights within the UK and
to Europe.
G-BUSG was retired in 2009 and put into storage.
In 2010, G-BUSI was also put into storage followed
by G-BUSH. That left only two ex-British Caledonian
A320’s in the fleet: G-BUSJ and G-BUSK. Three
months later, G-BUSK was withdrawn service and
placed into storage. The only ex-British Caledonian
A320, G-BUSJ operated until its retirement flight.
That flight was BA869 operating from Budapest to
London Heathrow, on the 31st of August 2011.
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The first British Airways A380 took to the
skies on its maiden test flight on the 9th
November. The super jumbo, which is the
first of 12 A380 orders from BA, departed
Toulouse wearing the test registration FWWSK. BA are expecting delivery of GXLEA in July 2013 where it will be initially
used on a training route.
British Airways currently have four pilots
who are A380 type-rated. They expect that
it will take experienced Airbus pilots
around a month to gain enough understanding of the aircrafts systems in order
to be able to fly it on the line. They also
say that a longer course will be necessary
for crews of Boeing aircraft, and they have
given a conversion course estimation of
seven weeks. BA will take delivery of their
first A380 simulator in January 2013 and
this will give them around six months to
train crews before the aircraft’s arrival.
The training route that BA are expected to
use is London Heathrow – Madrid.
The new super jumbos will be fitted with
four Rolls Royce Trent 900 engines. These
huge turbo-fan engines have been developed from the RB211 engine which was
first created for the Lockheed TriStar. The
engines are chosen by the majority of
A380
operators including Qantas,
Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, China
Southern Airlines and Malaysia Airlines.
British Airways has also opted for the
‘Brake to Vacate’ addition. This means the
aircraft will automatically brake in time to
exit the runway at a specific point in order
to reduce runway occupancy.
The A380 will not be the only new aircraft
joining BA’s fleet in 2013. The UK’s flagship carrier are also set to receive their
first Boeing 787 Dreamliner in May of the
same year. They currently have a total of
24 orders for both the 787-800(8) and
787-900(16). The 787 is being lined up to
replace the current fleet of 767s that BA
operates out of London Heathrow. With 21
767-300ERs currently in the air, the phasing out process will not be a quick one.
It is expected that after training the aircraft will be used on routes to Hong Kong
and Singapore. There has also been speculation that the A380 will be used on Eastcoast USA flights such as New York, however more recently BA has reinforced its
intentions to use their first on flights primarily to the West.
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