Jump to content


  • Content Count

  • Donations

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Community Reputation

0 Neutral

About woodreau

  • Rank

Profile Information

  • Gender

Flight Sim Profile

  • Online Flight Organization Membership
  • Virtual Airlines
  1. One of the things about new airplanes these day is that the airplane itself is monitoring a lot of the systems and the first thing the crew knows about it is when an EICAS message displays on their screen.If it happens at the gate - well you call maintenance and get it looked at - you can delay boarding, etc. get it fixed before you depart. But there a lot of messages at the gate as the aircraft isn't started up, but you tend to know what messages are supposed to be there and what isn't.Sometimes messages occur after you've left the gate but before takeoff. You run the checklists, but you also have to check the Minimum Equipment List to see if the airplane is airworthy still to takeoff (because you're not airborne yet). There are a lot of messages that do come up where the checklist will state that there is no pilot action required (e.g. continue flight to destination), but when you look at the MEL - the message will ground the aircraft.
  2. At most places there's two sets of rules which govern who flies what type of aircraft: the FAA rules, and the union/company workrules.As far as the FAA is concerned as long as you are current and qualified in an aircraft, you can fly it.The other one is the union/company workrules - seniority plays here in determining what equipment you can hold and fly. Let's say you are the #1 pilot in the company - this means you can bid and hold any airplane you want. However since the cost of training you to fly a single type is usually expensive, the airline is going to want its investment in you to pay off, so will probably impose something called a "seat lock" which stipulates that you need to fly what you were trained to fly for a minimum length of time (say a year or maybe as long as 3 or 4 years) before you can successfully bid, be awarded and be trained to fly another type of aircraft that the airline owns.Usually different rules apply when just laterally moving from one type to another - captain in one jet to captain in another jet. as opposed to upgrading - FO in one jet to captain in another or same jet. Depending on the company upgrading is a little more liberal, meaning you can upgrade before your seat lock is up, but once you're upgraded, then you will need to wait the minimum length of time before you be a captain in another type aircraft.It all depends on the airline.
  3. Nothing really. If someone is really determined to do something, you can't stop them - all you can do is mitigate the aftermath.The original poster wanted to know if he could land on a carrier if the engine stopped running and there was one nearby within gliding distance. The probability of successfully landing is very slim - a lot of things have to go right in order for it to happen.Pilots don't have training to land on a moving object, but they do have training on engine failures and have been taught how to ditch an aircraft into the water (now whether you remember how to ditch - that's another question - it IS in the private pilot PTS - it's just probably glossed over because most pilots don't fly over water.)Once the carrier realizes you're coming their way, it is going to try to ID you, figure out what you're doing - try to establish comms with you and warn you off. You can argue your emergency and demand to land on the deck, but there probably isn't enough time to set up any ad hoc procedure for the emergency landing. Is the rewards of successfully recovering you on the flight deck worth the risks involved to you, the ship and the sailors? Probably not. That is what is going on aboard the carrier and what is going to drive the decision to tell you to ditch close and we'll pick you up.We tell you no landing, ditch here, and you try to land anyway - we can always maneuver the ship - my standing joke with the air wing is: if you #### me off, I'll mess up your OK 3-wire - all I have to say is "left full rudder" at the opportune time (like when you're about 1/4 mile final.)No we can't outrun your light single. You fly around 65kts best glide - we can run at 30kts (or faster) - you'll have a 30kt overtake. The best we can do is maneuver the ship and force you to use up your altitude to chase us. A carrier is pretty maneuverable considering its mass. All we need to do is hold you off until you run out of altitude to trade for airspeed.We haven't talked about sending fighters and helicopters to get in your way. Haven't even thought about trying to shoot you down - that is a pretty serious decision and only three people in the US can authorize that one - we probably wouldn't have anything to shoot you down with anyway (off SOCAL).If you do have a working engine, and all you wanted to do is land on a flight deck, no, there is really nothing we can do to stop you from doing it other than to make it really unplesant for you.If we let you do it, with a fully working single, you can probably land successfully and still have a usable Cessna afterwards - you have to put up with a 30kt - 10 degree crosswind from the right - you've got to stop within 600ft - and your runway is moving away from you at anywhere from 10-30kts. Your relative "groundspeed" when you cross the theshold is about 25-30kts. Do you know of any flight instructors who can land and stop within one runway stripe on a very windy day? Every flight instructor I know has challenged their Cessna 152 students to land and stop on one runway stripe (200ft).
  4. >what would really happen if you were in a light aircraft with>an engine failure in the vicinity of an aircraft carrier?>>As far as I know this has never happened in real life, but its>possible.>>Would you ditch or try to land on the carrier, and what ... if>any real life procedures are in place for such an unlikely>event?>>This is assuming you had declared an emergency before>attempting the carrier landing.The first question is why are you out that far out of gliding distance from land in a light single in the first place? (Well - you can be flying between Los Angeles and Catalina Island and there's a carrier out in SOCAL that you happen to be flying near.)The carrier won't be aware of any emergency you declare (even if you declare one) - you aren't talking to it. Hopefully you are talking to LA Center or SoCal Approach - You can try on 121.5, the carrier should be monitoring 121.5 but it's not its first priority. You'll have better luck declaring your emergency to LA Center or SoCal who will probably turn it over to the Coast Guard who will respond. If the Coast Guard can't get to you in time, the Coast Guard will probably turn it over to the Navy ("Beaver" on San Clemente) who will find the closest Navy ship with the ability to provide Search and Rescue services which will usually be an aircraft carrier or any helicopter equipped ship. So that is the real-life procedure in place in Southern California. Similar procedures are in place in the Pacific Northwest, Jacksonville, etc.Now landing on the carrier - it's probably doable - but they're most likely not going to let you do it. The Navy would rather you ditch it, and we'll send a helicopter your way or if a helicopter is not available, send an R&A team via motor launch to pick you up.Will we shoot you down? Well CIWS won't do it - your light single doesn't fly fast enough to trigger the CIWS engagement "logics" to get it to engage you - even if we modified the engagement speed paramenters to the lowest threshold. Well those new model CIWS's that are starting to show up have joystick controls that allow a person to aim and fire - but it's designed to engage surface targets. A moving airplane is actually hard to hit when you're manually controlling the gun.Will the carrier's or cruiser's/destroyer's radar pick you up without a transponder, absolutely - we'll know you're there, and you'll get evaluated and filed away in the evaluated tracks folder - like all the other radar contacts in the sky. Though you will probably be an interesting one that holds our interest a little bit longer that most tracks because of the fact that you don't have a transponder. If you're just squawking 1200, you'll get lost in the shuffle in the evaluated tracks folder.
  5. This was US Airways 488 and 1014's flight plan between New Orleans and Charlotte this past week (it was the same over the week) however was filed for various altitudes 35, 37, and 39,000ft.PCU..MGM..ATL.UNARM1Mesa 5014 between New Orleans and Charlotte also used the above flight plan, but a different flight plan was filed 3 times within the last 2 weeks.Jul 29: J31.MEI.J22.VUZ.J14.ATL.UNARM1Aug 3 and Aug 9: J31.MEI.J239.ATL.UNARM1
  6. I'm not sure how ATC works in FS. But the physical task of landing on 8 is doable.If you do look at the approach plates for LOWI in the package from the VACC-SAG: The LOC/DME WEST procedure is one of the more unique approaches I've seen in that when you get down to the missed approach point at the MDA of 5000ft you have to look 7 miles BEHIND you to find the runway. From that point you have to be visual and execute the visual approach procedures to land on either Rwy 26 or Rwy 8.AI traffic shouldn't be flying left traffic to Rwy 8, all of the visual approach procedures published indicate it is right traffic to Rwy 8.The LOC/DME EAST procedure is slightly easier, but no less dangerous - it gets you down to an MDA of 3929ft before you go missed, but sets you up pretty well for Rwy 26, but you can still use it to go to Rwy 8 by following the visual approach procedure.The one approach plate that is missing is the RNAV(RNP) Rwy 26 approach plate (came out in May 2005). That approach sets you up on a 3.7 mile straight in final for Rwy 26 and has a DH of 2600ft (700ft above touchdown zone). The missed approach is pretty wild, you basically follow a convoluted 30 mile missed approach track west down the Inn River Valley turn around the valley around the town of Telfs, then back east up the Inn River Valley back to Innsbruck and back up to Rattenburg NDB.But I was able to fly the PMDG 737 to Rwy 8 after doing both the East and West procedure. You're handflying with the yoke, I cheat and leave the autopilot in CWS mode.I have no idea how to attach the RNAV(RNP) Rwy 26 approach plate for LOWI. (it's a 2.5MB PDF)
  7. woodreau


    I'd just switch to heading mode, get the airplane flying toward the next waypoint, bring the next waypoint into the active waypoint, and input in the appropriate intercept course, execute and readjust the heading to intercept the course line.Once you enter the hold, you'll fly the hold indefinitely until you exit the hold, so you shouldn't have any problems with #2.Sorry..edit... Steve
  8. I'm not nitpicking but am clarifying what was posted above: It is correct for the most part.I work Part 121, but we are granted an exemption to allow us to use Scheduled Part 135 duty time/rest time regs under Part 121.For Part 135: (scheduled 135) - unscheduled Part 135 duty/rest times are different.>> 34 hours flight time max per weekIt is actually 34 hours in 7 calendar days, whereas the 1200 and 120 hour limitation is for the year and month respectively - it resets on Jan 1 and the 1st of every month. The 34hrs is a rolling time period - you have to look back 6 days, and if the time you flew in the last six days plus the time you are scheduled to fly on the 7th day exceeds 34 hours, then there is a problem.>> 8 hours of flight time per day (24 hours)It is 8 hours of flying without a rest period.You can fly more than 8 hours in a day, but you have to be given a rest period before you can exceed the 8 hours. The minimum rest period is 9 hours, but is reduceable to 8 hours of rest.There is no regulatory maximum flying allowed in one day, or maximum hours you are on duty, but since there are only 24 hours a day, if you reduced the rest to the minimum 8 hours, then it follows that you can only be on duty for 16 hours in a day. You just run out of time. So really the maximum flying you can do in one day is 16 hours of flying - that is a lot of flying.Under Part 121 the flight time duty times are more restrictive and it depends if you are running a domestic, flag or supplemental operation and how many people are in the flight crew.I'll just stick to Domestic Part 121 - 2 pilot crews. In this case your maximums are:- 1000 hours of flying in a calendar year.- 100 hours of flying in a calendar month.- 30 hours of flying in a 7 day period.- 8 hours of flying without a rest period.- 24 consecutive hours of rest every 7 days. - You can still work 365 days straight so long as you are given 24 consecutive hours off every seven days (e.g. off at noon, duty back on at noon the next day) - This does not require the air carrier to give you a calendar day off.- 9 hours of rest if you are scheduled for 8 hours of flying or less in a 24 hour period, reduceable to 8 hours if you are given 10 hours of compensatory rest (at a specific designated time that escapes me at the moment - I think within 24 hours from the start of the reduced rest period)- 10 hours of rest if you are scheduled for 8 to 9 hours of flying in a 24 hour period, reduceable to 8 hours if you are given 11 hours of compensatory rest- 11 hours of rest if you are scheduled for more than 9 hours of flying in a 24 hour period, reduceable to 9 hours of rest if you are given 12 hours of compensatory rest.I have heard horror stories from pilots whose companies follow the letter of the FARs, e.g. I've heard a pilot flying for an unscheduled Part 135 carrier being only given 13 days off in 3 months (totally legal) - the FARs only require 13 rest periods in a calendar quarter.
  9. If you are a member of AOPA, then they have a free Real-Time Flight Planner, basically the Jeppesen Low Altitude Enroute charts online.You put in your origin and the destination, specify whether you want airways or GPS direct, and it concocts a flight plan and a nav log for you.Free if you are a member.
  10. Canada should be RVSM. The North America ICAO region which includes Canada, Mexico and the US went RVSM in Jan 2005.
  11. I don't know about the PMDG airplanes, but I fly the D in real life, and it does not have an FMC.Navigation is accomplished by, NAV1/NAV2, and asking for radar vectors direct. Some airlines do have a Bendix/King KLN-89 GPS receiver installed in their 1900DsThere is no altitude limitation imposed on a turboprop by ATC, you can go as high as you want. - for the D, it's 25,000ft, but it takes a while to get there for the short flights we operate, so FL 210/FL230 is about as high as I've ever flown the 1900D in real life. When you get into the mountains like in Colorado/Wyoming/Utah/Montana, you'll routinely see it at FL210-FL250.
  12. >One possible application for this would be use on airline>approaches, such as the one at Reagan National Airport in>Washington, DC. Due to airspace restrictions over the city,>airliners have to follow a curvy path down the potomac river. >With an MLS, it would be possible to have precision guidance>all the way to the ground down what is now a largely>visually-flown approach.To supplement what w6kd posted, MLS become OBE by GPS and WAAS. Now that approach that Capt Smith mentioned is now possible with the new RNAV(RNP) 19 approach into Reagan.Although this is the NACO version, the Jepp version of the chart is a little less confusing, the flight path on the approach follows the Potomac and avoids the P airspace around Washington DC quite nicely.http://www.naco.faa.gov/d-tpp/0513/00443RR19.PDF
  13. You can purchase an HP Designjet 5500 printer to print it:Paper comes in 24, 36, 40, 60-inch widths in 25ft, 50ft, 75ft, 100ft, 150ft rolls for the printer.http://h30267.www3.hp.com/country/us/en/de...?pageseq=590009Failing that you can go to an Office Depot/Office Max/Kinko's and have them print it out on their industrial/engineering printers (like the Designjet 5500)
  14. >I'd appreciate advice as to which sites offer charts for>airports in Europe, including the UK.>>I need both airport charts and charts allowing me to select>relevant STARs>>CliffIf you need high and low enroute charts you can get them in PDF format here: only charts you can't get are US enroute charts you can get coverage for the rest of the world here.
  15. >Questions I have come up with - >I connected a MS yoke to it as suggested but only get slow>pitch and roll response on the PFD and the airplane icon does>not follow the control movements. Has anyone a better>response?>>I cannot turn the Demo mode off. Has anyone a different>experience?>>In the DEMO MODE with the TRK MODE in "TRK FPL" the airplane>icon does not track the flight plan. Same question, has>anyone got it to track the flight plan?>>I've read the manuals - there's a lot to read - but find no>answer to my questions. >>As I read the manuals I get the impression the yoke can be>used in the manual mode of the DEMO MODE to fly the airplane>thorough a simulated flight plan. Another impression is that>the airplane icon should track the flight plan with TRK FPL>enabled. >>The engine RPM goes uncontrollably to 2940 RPM and the>airspeed to 178 knots and stays there.>>Still a heck of a lot to learn from it. >>Can anybody help me? What am I missing?>>RussAs far as I know, if you are in Demo Mode, then the program thinks that there isn't a external joystick attached.I don't have a joystick, so I am using it in Demo Mode. I have been able to program in a flight plan, position it at an airport, then with it in TRK FPL, I have been able to fly the flight plan route. I can't simulate vectoring unless I switch the track mode to MANUAL.I don't think you have any control over the engine MP or RPM. But you do have control over the airspeed and altitude and climb rate from the DEMO MENU, it's the same place where you switch the TRK MODE from MANUAL to TRK FPL and vice versa.If the TRK MODE is in MANUAL, then you can control the heading from the DEMO MENU.Just my opinion, use the demo mode to learn how to use the MFD - don't need a joystick to do that. Let the autopilot fly the plane - that's what you'd do in the real plane while you're fiddling with the MFD anyways, with my limited experience with the real G1000 - do what you need to do to the MFD, redo your flight plan, select and arm an approach, etc. then when you're done, you can take the controls back from the autopilot.Plug in the joystick to get used to flying using the PFD. As to why the program isn't seeing your yoke, I can't say - only that if all you can get is DEMO MODE, then it's not seeing your yoke.
  • Create New...