It’s tax time again and time to drag out the spreadsheet I use to calculate the allowance gap between the ATO overnight stop allowance and what the Company pays. Last year this netted me thousands on my tax refund, so it’s worth doing …
![Tax Time : Crew Allowances (v3.9) [04Feb23]](https://www.infinidim.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Tax.jpg "Tax")
MaxFDP – Last Sector Push Calculator : 17Dec22
So having recently come from a night freight operation where we were quite often operating towards the limits of the Maximum Flight Duty Period (MaxFDP) – After having stuffed up the calculations a couple of times, I decided to create a VA Max FDP Calculator Spreadsheet that would calculate for me the number I usually […]
B737NG Type Rating – 17Dec22
So … for the second time in 2 years and the third time in 25 … I’m doing another Type Rating. This time it’s the Boeing 737NG and it’s very … different. For the first thing – I have LOTS of time. As practically every other pilot who’s ever gone through a type rating knows […]
Procedures and Techniques – Feb 2022 Update
For the last decade or so, I have been working on a document called Boeing 777 Procedures and Techniques. It has it’s genesis in what was originally a Common Errors document based on observations of Pilot/Student actions in the Simulator – but most particularly Instructor/Examiner activity in the Brief/Sim/Debrief as well. If you would like […]
EBA Allowance Calculator (Domestic Only) UPDATE
I recently developed a spreadsheet to check the domestic allowances I was being paid. The process was educational, to say the least. This initial version only checks domestic allowances – I will develop further to facilitate the checking of rostered vs actual international allowances as well. Update : Recently Payroll have been paying correctly the […]
Flightpath and Automation Management Workshop
Recently I attended Day One of an industry workshop sponsored by CASA and the University of NSW on “Human Factors and the Automated Flight Deck.” Day One consisted of a series of highly qualified and experienced speakers across a range of regulatory based automation management subjects, and Day Two we moved into a series of […]
The Volcanic Ash Encounter
Procedure and Techniques : Volcanic Ash Encounters Hang onto your hats everyone, here we go … The Volcanic Ash Encounter is the last remaining bastion of the major NNM exercise in the 777. Enjoy it while you can folks – in the 787 the AP remains engaged for Dual Eng Fail/Stall and in the event of […]
EICAS CABIN ALTITUDE – Controllable?
I’m working on an update to the Practices and Techniques document I developed in 2008. While this has been a published document in my airline for several years, it was recently taken offline and is now a training background reference, as was the original intention for it’s development. Just one of the many subjects currently […]
B777 NNM Vref & Speed Additives
I was recently asked to confirm that 5 knots is added to the Vref Speed on final approach when an unusual Vref is specified by the Non Normal Checklist. I eventually found a reference …
How Common Errors became Practices and Techniques
One of my first tasks when I arrived at V Australia in early June 2008 was to watch simulator transition training being conducted at our new simulator in Silverwater, Sydney. The students were straight off the street pilots who had come from regional airlines – in most cases it was their first jet, their first […]
LNAV for a Localizer Approach
I was recently asked whether we could still use LNAV to fly a Localizer Instrument Approach, and whether that was the preferred mode. This question was asked during a briefing on PBN which has caused some confusion. Recently we’ve seen some changes in the way we do aircraft Navigation, or at least in the way […]
Slats Drive Go-Around
The last phase of recurrent simulator training included a two engine go-around after a Slats Drive failure. For no apparent reason the AP/FD pitches to less than 10 degrees and accelerates well through Flap Limit speed. According to Boeing, this is expected behavior.
V Australia 777 Delivery Flight : #2 Melbourne Airport – 07:00 03Feb09
In February 2009 I was part of the team that picked up Virgin Australia’s (then V Australia) first Boeing 777-300ER. Having arrived into the airline in June 2008, it had been a long 7 months – very long – but now we were about to get an aeroplane – and fly it. For the benefit […]
How to get a ZFW from a changed TOW using LNDG
Sometimes you need to be able to calculate a limiting ZFW based on a forced change in TOW. You can use the OFP LNDG correction figure to do it. And it’s not VooDoo – just mathematics.
Clean, CON then …VNAV ENG OUT -> EXECute.
A not-so recent amendment to the B777 FCTM (followed by a more recent update to the FCOM and QRH) instigated a procedure where ENG OUT mode of the FMC VNAV page is selected (confirmed) and EXECuted once CONtinuous thrust has been set after takeoff. While this sounds logical and orderly – as usual the devil […]
Android Apps
Here is a collector post where I’ll review and update the software I use and recommend on my Android phone. I’m now on my third android phone, through at least 4 major operating system upgrades and a host of minor ones. I use my phone for work and pleasure, to tell me where I’m supposed […]
Jet Lag
At parties, one of the first questions I’m asked, once we’ve done the profession swapping process, is “How do you get used to the Jet Lag?” They’re looking for the secret to my success, the key to adapting to a lifestyle of time zone change, and they’re faintly disapointed in me when I don’t have […]
You Can’t Always Get What You Want
Boeing won’t tell you what you want to know (which is usually everything) about a NnM – just what you Need to know.
I was THAT GUY …
Recently, I was THAT GUY … Have you ever slept in for work? In aviation that takes on a special meaning, given the way the tasks of dozens of people and departments revolve around the scheduled departure time of a flight. In my previous company we were collected for work by crew transport – a […]