I’ve started loading some of my old flying articles onto the site for you to enjoy. So far there’s:
| Simulator Session | A friend and I went to Adelaide in 2002 for a few hours flying a B737-400 full motion simulator – woo hoo. | ||
| Albury Airshow 2002 | I went up to Albury in 2002 to cover their airshow – a great time with some wonderful people. |
Hope you enjoy them – I’ll get around to putting some more up there one day (and writing some new ones).
Given I’ve been involved in flying adventures for quite some time before I started this blog, I’ve wound up with a number of entries about flying over on my regular blog. I decided to split off my flying related activities to this site, including my photos, as I wanted to have everything flight related in its own space.
So, now that it’s up and running, I’m going to start copying my early flying related stories into this blog. Not sure how these will appear in the RSS feed but what the heck – at least I’ll wind up with everything together. Apologies for any confusion this may cause.
EDIT: And we’re done – about a day later and I’ve loaded a stack of back entries from the old blog over to here. Now all my flying related posts are in one place and the RSS feed didn’t get all stuffed up either.
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I’ve loaded the photos from yesterday’s Hawaiian Island simulator session. I’m the bald one in the photo on the left. We took a few photos but only 4 were worth keeping. I’ve loaded them in the Hawaiian Island Sim Run section of my photo gallery. |
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Just got home after another session in the Flight Experience B737-800 fixed base simulator. While another great time, it was a major wake up call for me as my landings were abysmal.
We had planned to spend 1.5 to 2 hours in the sim flying around Hawaii (PHNL -> PHOG -> PHKO -> PHTO -> PHNL) in “real time” with as quick on the ground as we could be. Well, it wound up taking us 4 hours because:
So, we could have done this a LOT better and we have a few ideas to speed things up on the next one:
We figure if we can do that, we’ll fly a tighter, faster run and come in much closer to expected times. Lots of lessons learned tonight – plus a reminder that I need to find a bit more time to study the panel layouts and autopilot modes. Still, I must admit I was a LOT better by the end and was finding my way around the panels faster plus my landing back into PHNL was actually not too bad (even with a head wind grabbing us in the last 300 feet or so).
Al up, it was another great fun time and we once again got to pretend that we knew what we were doing. You really can get caught up in it all and let the magic take you away. With a few more sessions, I may even be able to make a few acceptable landings in a row.
Today we flew back from Tweed Heads to Melbourne and I have to say the time in the Gold Coast terminal wasn’t that bad at all. While our aircraft was packed solid, there was lots of space in the departure lounge, check in was a breeze and the walk out to the aircraft was fun. Of course, the clear blue skies and lack of rain helped (we’d had rain all weekend so I was dreading getting soaked today).
This time we flew back on a B737-700 and the differences inside between it and the B737-800 we flew up on were quite obvious. Only one over-wing exit, row 12 is the exit row (on the way up we were in row 12 and were one or two rows ahead of the exit at least) and much more cramped seating.
On the way up from Melbourne we’d had a bunch of young sporting types in the back who were being a tad rowdy at times. I was thinking this time would probably be crying kids but no, it looked like the same bunch of rowdies were heading back home this flight. DOH!
So, which is worse. An aircraft with crying kids or an aircraft of rowdy sporting types? Hell, how about both? We had some kids behind us and rowdies all around us. Hmmm… Actually, it wasn’t too bad as I think they were all pretty tired and slept or snoozed all the way down.
We hit some chop coming into Melbourne as usually – a bit of sharp stuff around the tops of the clouds as we descended then some rolling lumpy stuff around 8,000′ which lasted until around 3,000′ then mostly cleared up. Sadly, one of the lads around us couldn’t handle the ride and barfed during the last few minutes – whoops – there goes that “cool status”…
We’re having a break in Tweed Heads to visit family and are staying in a house not far from Coolangatta / Gold Coast Airport (YBCG). Sitting on the balcony with a beer, I can watch the commercial jets heading out (mostly Virgin Blue and JetStar), the occasional corporate jet, helicopters and a few lighties. There’s a couple of flight schools at this airport so there are a few lighties doing circuits in the gaps around the jets. This house would be perfect if it were only a little higher up the hill behind us, then I could see the tarmac as well.
As usual, we flew Virgin Blue out of Melbourne. We could fly JetStar but we’re not too impressed with them and only use them when there’s no alternative. While waiting for our flight at a cafe in Melbourne airport, we got our first “in the flesh” look at QANTAS’ new A380. It’s not yet in commercial service but is flying around Australia doing familiarisation and shake down flights. Damn that thing is huge – at first glance it was just another aircraft until you realise it’s got two levels of windows and/or it goes past another aircraft. They parked over on the freight ramp with a terminal building between us. We could only see the tails of the other aircraft there (including a B747) but the whole upper deck of the A380 could be seen. Amazing.
As we taxied out to the runway we passed one of Virgin Blue’s new Embraer E-jets. At first glance they look like a 737 until you get a better look at it. When seen against a 737, it looks like someone’s shrunk it down. I’d love to see one next to the A380.
After holding short for a Tiger Airways A321 to land we moved out onto the runway and sat there for ages. I have no idea why we waited so long on the runway but finally the engines were powered up and away we went. Otherwise, the flight was uneventful – some light chop in the early cruise and some sharp jolts as we descended into cloud on approach. Coolangatta terminal is undergoing some massive rebuilding so getting in involved long detours, queuing when the path narrowed and filing through a single door into a complete disaster inside – I imagine it’ll be great when it’s all finished, but for now it’s a place to avoid. Not looking forward to flying out on Monday, that’s for sure.
Meanwhile, for now it’s time to relax, unwind and watch the aircraft while drinking some beers on the balcony.
I received an email from a friend of mine this afternoon after a rather wild attempted landing at Hong Kong (VHHH). Gotta love that inflight Internet access, no?
I am currently typing this at 29000 feet, 804km/h, sitting in row57h on an A330. We took off from Taipei .. got to Hong Kong and was put in two holding patterns with 4 circuits each then we start the approach in to the airport …. Mate I have never been thrown around like we were !!
The plane was like out of control …sliding and buffering and then lurching ….crazy !!!!
The wheels went down … I held my breath …. We were all over the place … I couldn’t see anything as the fog was so low.
Then out of nowhere in the middle of a lurch to the left a wheel hit the ground and then we had full power come on and we went hard up and took off straight away !!
So now were are on our way to Taipei again to refuel and then come back ….. but now the captain has told us we don’t have the fuel to get there so we are going to a smaller airport closer called Kaohsiung. We are to refuel there and then head back to Hong Kong
That’s certainly worse than my scariest landing which was going into Boston (KBOS) on a dark & stormy evening, rocking & rolling all over the place. Looking out the window at gray water then gray sky, engines spooling up and down – woo hoo – quite the ride. At least on my flight we made it down and didn’t need a go-around (all be it we touched down with a very positive return to earth).
We’ve just started Spring Carnival here in Melbourne – about 1.5 months of horse racing on tracks around Melbourne and through out the state of Victoria.
So, what does this have to do with helicopters?
Plenty!
Due to the popularity of the races, driving to the track can be a real joke. Long queues of cars often start before the off ramp on the highway let alone within a few blocks of the track. So, a number of people will arrange to get a helicopter ride into the track rather than go through the hell of driving or public transport. People typically get picked up in the city but some will go from Moorabbin (YMMB), Essendon (YMEN) or Melbourne International (YMML) airports.
Our apartment building is under the flight path most of the helicopters take between Moorabbin airport and the city and/or Flemington race track. So we’ll see a stream of various helicopters flying in to the city to track runs. Then, as they need to refuel, they’ll head back to YMMB before coming back again. Once the days racing is underway things settle down until later in the afternoon when the whole lot starts up all over again.
Sure makes for a great time if you like watching them pass overhead.
We’re sitting here late at night watching the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta’s “mass ascention” streaming live on the ‘net. Hundreds of balloons launching and flying together, a sky packed with balloons. Amazing. You can see it via KOAT’s live feed running at 7am to 9am local time on the weekend mornings of the fiesta.
The special shapes this year are amazing. There’s been a giant cow, Darth Vader’s head, a wagon, a cathedral, strawberry, lady bug, American eagle, the two honey bees (often seen at the festival in Canberra) and many more. It’s a shame we never got to take the F1 Racer over there – it would have looked great.
The balloons were right up next to each other on the launch field – much closer than when we were launching the commercial flights here in Melbourne. They’re also letting the public right up to the balloons as they inflate, which freaks me out somewhat.
During their flight a number of the balloons are dropping down over the river and dragging their baskets through the water. Not sure if today’s weather will allow a box-flight as I’ve turned off the sound (TV presenters are annoying at best during these sorts of events).
NOTE: A box-flight is where you take off and fly away from the launch field with the wind then go up higher and encounter a reciprocal wind that brings you back towards the launch field. Very rare in ballooning but rather common during this time of year at Albuquerque. Usually the wind is blowing in different directions at different altitudes but generally at smaller angles, not 180 degrees opposite.
You know what? Stuff the Olympics – this is something worth staying up for and watching live :)
Reducing the load helps smooth out the system
I’ve been posting some comments on a couple of stories from Dan Webb’s ‘Things in the Sky’ blog. He’s noted that the transport statistics for August 2008 show the on-time arrivals improved and mishandled baggage rates reduced and that he’s looking forward to September’s figures as there should be further impact from the capacity cuts recently introduced by the airlines.
I think the improvements we’re seeing now are related to a reduction in passenger numbers (the figures didn’t show pax volumes but Dan found them somewhere else in his second post). We should see even more improvement due to the capacity cuts.
To me, the US airport system is like juggling balls. You’re doing fine with 4 balls but when you add a 5th, you start to drop one every now and again – nothing major, just the odd “ooops” moment. The problem is when you wind up juggling 8 or more balls: it’s overload and you’re dropping lots, if not all of them.
In the US most major airports have more flights scheduled per hour than the airport can physically handle. An aircraft can’t land until the runway is clear and can’t take off until sufficient time has been allowed for wake turbulance from the aircraft that went ahead of it. So, imagine an airport that can process 60 movements per hour (landings & take offs) in good weather. Sadly, the airlines have scheduled 65 movements per hour during peak periods, meaning that airport will always have 5 movements per hour (cumulative) that are delayed at those times. These delays will increase for every hour that there are 65 movements scheduled until the peak time passes and they can start to catch up.
Now, imagine that the airport’s movement rate reduces to 40 in bad weather (increased separation between aircraft and so on). That means every hour at peak times during bad weather, 25 aircraft will be delayed. If the weather remains bad for long enough, it may take a day or two to recover.
Sound familiar?
Passenger loads play a factor in aircraft turn-around times. The more pax that have to get on & off, the longer it takes. Also, more pax usually means more luggage to unload and load. More pax & more luggage means longer on the ground.
So, if we’ve got fewer pax and they’re checking less baggage, guess what, you get faster turn arounds which leads to a better on-time rate (especially if on-time departure means pushing back from the gate on time and doesn’t include 20 minutes waiting on the ground before you leave). With prices going up and checked luggage rates being introduced, there has been a reduction in passengers which, in turn, has helped increase on-time rates and decrease lost luggage rates.
Yet another factor is the volume of luggage going through the system. After the “liquid bombers” in the UK, security introduced major restrictions on liquids, gels and such in carry on luggage. This lead to a lot of people checking their luggage and, surprise surprise, straight away there was a huge increase in the number of lost bags. A classic example of the juggler going from 4 balls to 8 and starting to lose it. Now we’re seeing a reduction in luggage with the checked luggage fees which, in turn, has helped reduce the stress on the system leading to less mishandling of luggage.
Given there’s less luggage going through the system, fewer passengers and the airlines are cutting capacity (which helps reduce scheduled movements at overloaded airports), I’m expecting that the reports for September & October will see some bigger improvements in on-time rates and much smaller mishandled baggage rates.
Now, as to the number of customer complaints – who knows where that’ll go. Until all the airlines in the US learn about customer satisfaction, I doubt we’ll ever see that number reduce significantly…