Now this blog entry could be about the interest rate on your bank account, buying things at Cord Camera, or even a scary movie. The point of no return conjures up thoughts of entering an old, spooky house, with cob webs, knight’s armor, and paintings on the walls where the eyes follow you as you slink down the long hallway, and pipe organ music playing demonic chords. That could all be true, but I want to talk about what the point of no return has to do with crossing large bodies of water, like the Pacific, while flying (enter more creepy pipe organ music).

Even though the term point of no return sounds ominous, and nervous flyers might think it would be one more reason not to fly, it really has everything to do with safety. On a typical flight from Hong Kong to L.A. as we fly across the Pacific, we depart the Japanese coast and head out for the West coast of the U.S. Because there is only water beneath us, or because there are limited airports available to us along the Alaskan Aleutian Islands, we come to a place in the sky where we no longer can return to the airports in Japan based on the amount of fuel we have remaining.

On our flight plan, we have lat/long coordinates that tell us when we’ve passed the point of no return, based on two airports, say Narita in Tokyo, and Vancouver. This point is often not equidistant between the two cities because of how the winds will affect a turn-around. However, we have this point of no return, or PNR, calculated for us so that in an emergency, we don’t turn back toward an airport we can’t get to based on fuel remaining. Prior to reaching the PNR, we tell ourselves that if we lose an engine, we will return to Tokyo, and once we’ve passed the PNR, we will continue to Vancouver. We always have enough fuel to get to one of these en-route alternate airports, or ERA’s. We can’t depart on our trip unless we have the fuel at any point along our route to get to a safe landing airport, and the PNR helps us to make a better decision on where to divert in an emergency.

The PNR is also helpful because the two airport choices may not be as friendly as Tokyo and Vancouver. They may be Cold Bay (shown on the left) and Shemya, both in the Aleutian Islands. Neither are wonderful places to visit, especially in the winter time, but I’d rather divert to Cold Bay because Shemya is a postage stamp in the middle of the North Pacific. The PNR is important because even though we may want to go to Cold Bay, if we’ve passed the PNR, it’s hello balmy Shemya for us.

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One of the results of Mt. Redoubt’s eruption is that Cathay Pacific hasn’t been flying into Anchorage since. The volcano is less than 100 miles from the Anchorage airport and the ash, that is harmful to jet engines, is still affecting the entire area. Anchorage is used by many carriers as a fuel stop between the East Coast of the U.S. and Asia. The cargo version of the 747 that I fly has a very long range, but the amount of cargo we carry sometimes limits the amount of fuel we can then carry as well, thus limiting our range. There is nothing special about Anchorage, per se, it’s just positioned well to be within the range of flights coming from both Asia and all over the U.S.

We always fly a great circle route to save on distance between to points on the Earth. A flight leaving Los Angeles bound for Hong Kong passes off the coast of San Francisco, right past Vancouver, just off the coast of Anchorage (well above the ash cloud at this stage, I might add) over southern Russia, over Japan and Taiwan, and then into Hong Kong (via the Elato 4 arrival). Sometimes, when the winds over the great circle route are strong, it pays off to fly farther south of that track, and fly over the fatter part of the Earth, closer to Hawaii. In this case, even though we are flying a farther distance, we get there with less fuel burn because the headwinds wouldn’t slow us down as much.

Right now, I’m on a rest period from Vancouver to Hong Kong, at 34,000 feet over the Pacific, as I help operate flight 81. Below is a picture of our route plot, to give you another idea of what a great circle route looks like. If you click on it, it will open up much larger on a new page.

This is where you can see that western Alaska makes for a great pit-stop. It also shows you that a flight from Asia to almost anywhere along the Western seaboard of the U.S. is just about the same length of time. Yes, Hong Kong to L.A. is far, but not much farther than San Fran, as you can see. Going from Hong Kong to L.A. is not too bad, because the winds also blow West to East, helping to push us along. However, going from L.A. to Hong Kong is much trickier. On a flight like that, into the headwinds, we have to watch our fuel very closely. If there is any weather affecting Hong Kong, or the winds are stronger than forecast, a stop in Taipei or Southern Japan is usually what ends up happening.

Because Anchorage is unavailable, we’re flying to Hong Kong from Vancouver instead. By looking at the above route plot, you can see it is much longer than from Anchorage, more than 13 and a half hours, instead of 10 or so. That hurts Cathay, because the longer flights mean less cargo can go on each flight due to the fuel requirements. They want Anchorage to open back up soon so that payloads can increase again.

Today, we are flying the newest Boeing 747 in the world — literally, as it just came off the production line. It even smells new inside! (You know, that new airplane smell?) It is officially a 747-400ERF, or extended range freighter. It is more efficient, has more thrust, can carry more cargo, and has a longer range than a normal 747 freighter. Cathay Pacific has purchased six of these, and they are one of the last 747’s that are coming off Boeing’s production line. I’m not sure where the last 747 will go or who has purchased it, but it’s a sad end to an era, at least until the 747-8 comes out. This ERF is so awesome, that we actually CAN take a full compliment of cargo from Vancouver to Hong Kong, like a normal freighter could from Anchorage, but the company only has six of these, so not every flight can be an ERF flight.

One advantage of flying from Vancouver to Hong Kong instead of from Anchorage, is that because of the longer flight times, we have a four-man crew, instead of the normal three. Dividing the flying between four of us (like we have right now so that I can be typing this) is much better than dividing it by three of us. That means more rest for us, or goofing off blogging like I am. The ERF’s have power ports in the seats behind the cockpit, so I’m in heaven.

The other advantage is that we get to see some of Vancouver. It’s a beautiful city and I hope to spend more time there when I have a longer overnight. It sits at the base of a mountain range and when its not raining there are some glorious views. It’s fun to fly into Anchorage, but I’m glad for the volcano eruption because it gives me the chance to fly into and see something else for a change.

I feel pretty blessed to have this job. It was four a.m. this morning and I was doing the walk-around in the dark cool air that Vancouver provided. Out of the darkness stood this huge beast of a machine, all lit up from the lights on the ramp. The newest 747 in the world looked amazingly clean without a single scratch or grease mark. The tires still had the rubber spikes that stick out from the manufacturing and I could have eaten off the wheel wells they were so clean. I wasn’t particularly excited about being away from my wife or having to be up at such an early hour, but all in all, I have little to complain about and get excited every time I do a walk around inspection. I think: “I going to fly this huge thing across the Pacific.” It was a great trip today.

TobyLaura.com

A friend of mine sent me this video over the weekend. It’s a good two minute animation of the crash in the Hudson River; flight 1549. It’s nice because it incorporates animation with the radio and air traffic control. You can hear the departure controller in LaGuardia frantically calling controllers at other airports and stations to try and clear a way for the powerless airplane to get a safe place to land.

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This is a picture of Cathay Pacific’s dispatch room in Hong Kong. This is where the pilots meet prior to a flight. This is a really nice setup, and most of Cathay’s ports don’t have this, but at headquarters, we get a nice facility.

At an hour and ten minutes prior to departure time, the pilots for the flight meet up at the table that has their flight number and flight paperwork. We shake hands and greet one another if we’ve never met in the past and get to know each other a little bit. There is a sign in sheet that we initial, and then we all have a look over the paperwork.

One thing that is a lot nicer than my last job, is all the prep work that the dispatchers do for us as far as paperwork. There is a sign with the flight number on it, so we know where our paperwork is. The dispatcher has laid out all the paperwork: the fuel slip, flight plan, dispatch message, notams, weather, and other various bits of information. All we have to do is show up and look at it all, and that makes it pretty nice. Also, all this information is posted on the internet a few hours prior to a flight, so we can save time in dispatch by making some decisions before we even show up at work.

After signing in, we each have a look at all the paperwork involved in flying from A to B. The dispatch message shows us our expected weight for takeoff and the maximum allowable weight for takeoff, tailored specifically for the aircraft we will be flying that day. A lot of the planes don’t weigh the exact same amount, and it would be crazy to try and memorize the weights of each plane, so it is written down for us.

The Notams, or notices to airmen, are notes about defects at airports that are on our specific route of flight. For example, the approach guidance may be inoperative at the last airport we fly over prior to going oceanic. That would be nice to know, because if we need to turn back or have trouble, we will know that if the weather is bad, we won’t be able to use that particular airport. The weather report shows us general weather and winds along the route, and then also at all the airports along the way. This is valuable information because if we have to divert with trouble, we need to know which airports we can expect to be able to use or overfly due to poor weather.

The flight plan is looked at, and it gives us tomes of information about what our flight will entail. How high will we be flying, where our step climbs will be, what the route is, and what our fuel load should be. Step climbs are important because on a long flight as we burn more fuel, the aircraft gets lighter. As it gets lighter, it can fly at a higher, more optimal altitude for fuel burn. A heavy plane can’t climb all the way to it’s top cruise altitude because it is too heavy. After five hours or so, it will have burned off tons of fuel, be lighter, and thus be able to climb to a higher altitude. Higher altitudes save fuel, so we want to climb when we can. On a 16 hour flight from JFK to Hong Kong, the Boeing 777-300ER might start at 29,000 feet, but 15 hours later, just prior to the descent into Hong Kong, it might be at 39,000 feet, climbing a few thousand feet, every few hours.

Finally, we all agree on a fuel load, based on things like weather, how heavy our cargo is, and so forth. Filling out the fuel slip is the last thing we do, and then we gather all that paperwork up and head out to the bus that takes us to the aircraft. At other ports, we just look at the paperwork online and then again in the cockpit, but in Hong Kong, the setup is really nice. Also nice in Hong Kong is that Cathay’s crew hotel is connected to dispatch, so we just walk out of the lobby, and we’re at work!

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I’m headed back Eastbound toward North America after a stressful but necessary few days in Hong Kong. This past week was my biannual checkride, two simulator sessions to keep my flying licenses current and my emergency procedures up to standard. After a while, these six month checks become a little more routine, but as a fairly new hire, they are still very stressful and honestly, a little nerve-racking and scary.

Each six months, a pilot’s license currency expires and thus has to be renewed. Also, it is a chance to practice emergency procedures, like engine failures on takeoff, fires, electrical problems, technical problems like the landing gear not coming down, and so forth. These are drills that a pilot will almost never experience in a career, so they need to be practiced in a simulator so that if bad luck strikes, we will be ready to act.

People who say that planes basically fly themselves (who are usually not pilots or even frequent fliers) are wrong, as of 2009. There is so much that goes on in the planning stages, takeoff and landing phases, and during an emergency, that I don’t see pilotless planes in the near future. I guarantee that a computer could not have landed safely in the Hudson river! A pilot really earns his money when there is a problem. Some like to say that pilots are over-paid – until that pilot saves that person’s life when an engine quits over the North Pacific!

I spent the last few days in two simulator sessions, an RT (recurrent training) and a PC (proficiency check). The RT is graded, but it is more of a chance to warm up for the PC, that is graded on a lot more strict level. The RT is also a good chance to practice more non-standard problems, that the PC just wouldn’t have time for.

Every pilot learns to hate checkrides. They are stressful because if a pilot doesn’t perform well on the day (as he is just having a bad or off day) then there is chance he could lose his job. Real world emergencies are often non-events or at least only happen as a singular event. In the simulator, the checker running the profile is throwing problem after problem at us. Once we solve one problem, we have another one, and once that is solved, another problem pops up. Four hours later, you hope to still have your sanity.

The simulator is quite a cool machine in and of itself. It is a huge box up on hydraulic stilts that moves all around in space. It has a wrap around visual system on the front of it so that as we look out the front windshield, we see the “real world.” The large boxes on the top of the sim are the visual projectors. A ramp moves down into position so that we can walk into the sim and then it pulls away to allow the sim to move all around. For example, on takeoff, the sim tilts back, and gives us a sense of acceleration. The sims are real enough that pilots can be certified to fly the real airplane without having flown the real airplane, just the simulator. — and this is old technology. These 747-400 sims are 20 years old and don’t always cooperate. During our RT, the sim we were in quit working on us twice, and just like a poor windows user, the sim tech had to reset the computer. Luckily for the more stressful PC, nothing like that happened to us.

Needless to say, checkrides are not fun, but they are a necessary part of being a pilot. I will certainly take the stress of having a check every six months, over not remembering what to do when an engine quits for real. And as for the burning question, yes, I passed! I had a great captain to fly with and he was good and making sure I was doing everything correctly. The examiners were also very nice and laid back, which helps to set a good tone. So, I’m safe for another six months, until I get to do it all over again.

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There are three of us pilots on the flight from Anchorage to Hong Kong, one captain and two co-pilots (known as first officers, by those with a title complex). The other co-pilot and I were discussing our pasts, like most pilots do to pass the time, and I discovered that he was Argentine and has lived in the U.S. for the last six years. Alfredo is getting his U.S. citizenship soon — a great guy, but unfortunately, he will add to the liberal voting bloc :o)

He was a pilot in the Argentine military back in 1982. I immediately asked him what he thought of Margaret Thatcher and he laughed. He continued to regale stories from the war and how the Brits would shoot at ships, just as his friends were launching off the decks of those ships in navy fighters. Asked why he thought that Argentina would want to fight the British, he talked about how there was economic hardship in the country at the time, so a war may spur on national pride and recovery. There also was a sense that the Brits wouldn’t fight as hard, being so far from home, for just a few islands. He felt that they had a fighting chance, but that they didn’t count on Reagan sending in help. Looking back, he said, it would have been obvious that Reagan would try and help Thatcher.

Fast forward twenty five years. A lot of the British Aces from that war are now senior training captains at Cathay Pacific. As a matter of fact, a great check captain Paul Barton, the one who did my base training – where we practice takeoffs and landings, was the first British Harrier pilot with a kill in the Falklands war. He probably shot at my new friend Alfredo! When Alfredo was hired and did his initial checkrides, Paul Barton was the examining check captain for him. Alfredo’s sim parter was also in the Falklands war. As they were in the middle of their training, Fredo’s sim partner asked him when he flew in Argentina. He answered, “In the early 80’s.” His sim partner laughed and said, I was in her Majesty’s Navy, and I’ll bet I shot at you! They had a good laugh about it. Alfredo likes to remind the British guys that the weapons technology was so much more advanced in the Royal Navy than what he had. “The Brits could just click the fire button and the missile would launch and head for the targeted aircraft, chase it, and blow it away. They could even fire on an Argentine airplane coming straight at them and if the missile missed, it would turn around and follow the target! We had nothing like that, so we earned our kills.”

I guess time does heal all wounds (or it wounds all heels, I can’t remember). Alfredo can laugh about it now, but I find it more than ironic that when he came to work at Cathay Pacific as a new hire, he had a sim partner and then a checkride given by pilots who tried to kill him earlier in his life! Luckily, everyone is around to laugh about the stories and I guess it proves that the pilots at Cathay are truly diverse.

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