I’m planning to pop up to Melbourne and see the plane – I’m waiting to see if there’s any spaces in the list Virgin Australia is defining of who from our organisation will get to go see the aircraft.

Marty in the other hand, is going for a fly in it. More on that later.

I was sent this recently – it’s an interesting insight into the aircraft from a senior pilot converting across from the 767. I can’t swear to the accuracy of the following, but it makes interesting reading all the same.

• A computer nerd would describe the 787 as 17 computer servers packaged in a Kevlar frame. The central brain is the Common Core System (CCS). Two Common Computing Resources (CCRs) coordinate the communications of all the computer systems, isolating faults and covering failed systems with working systems. When battery power is first applied to the airplane in the morning, it takes about 50 seconds for the L CCR to boot up. After this, a few displays light up and you can start the APU. If there is a major loss of cockpit displays, this may require a CCR reboot, which would take about a minute.
• The 787 has four times the potential electric generation of the 777 – 1.4 gigawatts. It only took Dr. Emmett Brown only 1.21 gigawatts to move Marty McFly through time … The generators produce 235 VAC for the large users on the bus – otherwise the traditional 115 VAC and 28 VDC are there. Seventeen Remote Power Distribution Units (RPDU) power about 900 loads through the plane. The power distribution system is in the aft belly along with the Power Electronics Cooling System (PECS). It’s liquid cooling for the large motors, along with an Integrated Cooling System (ICS) for use by the galley carts and cabin air – and IFE.
• If 3 of the 4 engine drive generators fail, the APU starts. Two APU generators can be operated to the certified ceiling of FL430. Lose all 4 generators and Ram Air Turbine (TA) deploys to power essential buses and if necessary hydraulic power to the flight controls. Even if the RAT fails, standby power the autopilot and captain’s flight director and instruments, FMC, 2 IRSs, VHF radios, etc. But if you’re down to battery only, time is limited. Brakes and Antiskid are electric – 28 volts – so even on standby power you have brakes and antiskid.
• Flight Controls are hydraulic with a few exceptions. Engine drive and Electric pumps operate at 5,000 psi to allow for smaller tubing and actuators (saving weight). The loss of all three systems, two spoiler panels on each wing are electrically powered all the time, as is stabilizer trim. No Flaps – but you can still fly the plane. The loss of Hydraulics and Electrics result in power from Permanent Magnetic Generators (PMG’s) which produce power even if the engine is wind milling. PMG’s failed – flight controls are powered by the 28 volt standby bus.
• The majority of circuit breakers are “virtual” and if necessary can be reset through the circuit breaker indication and control display on an MFD. Actual “thermal” circuit breakers can’t be reset.
• Loss of the Attitude and Heading Reference units (AHRU’s) and reversion to standby instruments – displayed on the normal PFD’s.
• Loss of all three pitot/static systems or air data computers and the aircraft reverts to angle of attack converted to speed – displayed on the normal PFD’s airspeed tape. GPS altitude is substituted for air data altitude – and also displayed on the PFD.
• Loss of the inertial reference units defaults to GPS positioning. The IRS’s can even be aligned airborne from the GPS, iv available.
• There isn’t a pneumatic system as such. Engine Bleed is used for anti ice only. Wing anti ice is electric.
• The two air-conditioning packs control two electric cabin air compressors (CAC). The four CAC’s share two inlets under the aircraft. If a Pack controller fails, the remaining pack controller takes over all four CACs.
• Differential pressure is increased to 9.4 PSI, giving a 6,000 ft cabin altitude at FL430. Cabin air humidity is automatic, with a flight deck humidifier. Cabin windows are larger with 5 levels of electric shading from clear to black.
• The APU shuts down automatically in the event of an APU fire – airborne or on the ground. Cargo Fire also results in automatic fire extinguisher discharge.
• Like the 777 – a nitrogen gas generation system pressurises the fuel tanks to displace fumes and provide full time flammable protection.
• CPDLC is installed in overdrive. Uplinked speed, heading, altitude display on a second line on the MCP and can be transferred into the actual speed, heading and altitude control. Even conditional clearances can be uplinked, accepted and action by the pilot and FMC.
• There’s an auto drag feature that operates when the aircraft is high on approach and landing flaps have been selected. Ailerons and the two most outboard spoilers are extended, while maintaining airspeed, to assist in glide path capture from above.
• Flaps, Ailerons, Flaperons and Spoilers are symmetrically moved in cruise based on airspeed, weight and altitude to optimise cruise performance to alter camber to reduce drag.
• Fuel Jettison is installed but an automatic Fuel Balancing system is also installed. No more opening crossfeed valves – or forgetting to close them.
• Gust suppression is enhanced to symmetrically deflect the flaperons, ailerons and elevators to smooth the ride in turbulence. There’s a lateral component as well, enacted through the rudder on approach in response to gusts and turbulence.
• The aircraft is approved for ILS using GPS and a ground based augmentation system (GBAS) with conventional Cat 1 minima. HUD approaches will allow lower minimums augmenting vision at approved airports with runway centerline guidance from either ILS or GPS.
• The CDU’s are virtual – and can be moved from one MFD to another. Lots of shortcuts and customisation is built into the handling mechanism in the MFD controls

And they did a thorough job too. They infected posts, hacked the back end – they even inserted malicious code into the jpeg images inside the posts (I didn’t even know you could do that). Thanks to Marty – I’m back up and running again, although I now have to go through all my posts and re-insert the images, as well as review the posts for corruption. Sucks to be me.

Needless to say this will take a while. While I have to odd new post to stick up – for the most part the next few weeks are going to be me resurrecting the resurrection of Infinidim. Hang folks, it’s going to be a while …

Meanwhile have a look at the following youtube video. It made me laugh, it made me cry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hUIVBN3YsI&feature=g-like

Flying Slow.

It seems that no matter how close we are to our scheduled arrival time, ATC regularly require us to slow down as we approach top of descent. You’d think that after managing a flight of 14 hours so as to be exactly on time into Sydney, they could at least give us some credit over those who are arriving early or late.

This brings about a question I’ve been asked a few times lately – how slow can we go? The Boeing FCTM is curiously absent on this question. If you want a short answer – use FMC Best Holding Speed, unless in Turbulence or near Maximum Altitude (in which case choose something faster). If you want to know some background … read on.

There are several possible answers to this question.

• Turbulence Penetration – 250 kts; 270kts; .82M or Vls +15 knots, whichever is higher.
• FMC Best Holding Speed
• Vls (lowest selectable speed) itself.

NB : Vls is an Airbus term. On the Boeing it’s the top of the amber arc on the Airspeed tape, and is given the cumbersome name Minimum Maneuverer Speed by Boeing. It’s the lowest speed the Autopilot will choose to fly at, it’s the speed the Auto Throttle will maintain if you try and fly slower.

Turbulence Penetration (Vb)

Remember that Turbulence Penetration Speed (Vb) is just that – a speed chosen for the penetration of Severe (or more typically Moderate) turbulence. It’s not a speed designed to give a smooth ride to the passengers; it’s not a speed selected to provide the greatest compromise between low and high speed stall – instead it’s a maximum speed at which the aircraft is designed to survive a maximum gust of 50 fps/3000 fpm (yes, this is simplifying more than a bit). As such it’s not a speed designed to limit how slow you can fly the aircraft. It’s not bad choice – particularly if you are being asked to slow down in light or moderate turbulence – it’s just that if the air-mass allows and you wanted to fly slower, you could.

As an aside, those of us who were on the aircraft in the early days will remember that turbulence penetration used to be Mach .84 at altitude. You’d be cruising along, hit a bump, speed intervene and speed up. It was awesome – we encountered a lot of turbulence in those days, particularly when we were in a hurry … On the 777-300 with its higher Vmo this had no real issues but on the -200 aircraft, particularly when the turbulence experienced produced indicated airspeed instability – high speed excursions were not unusual past Mmo. Eventually Boeing brought Vb back to .82 (and then later modified it to be at least Vls +15) in order to provide a consistent speed across the range of 777 aircraft that kept us clear of Vmo on the -200 and Vls on the -300/200LR.

Best Holding Speed

FMC Best Hold Speed

Best Holding Speed is a good choice. It’s often closer to Vls than Vb but still provides an increased margin of available bank angle (or dynamic increase in aircraft weight) than Vls itself.  The best holding speed can be obtained by inserting a present position (PPOS) hold in the flight plan – without executing – look at the pending hold, the best holding speed is on the bottom right hand side. Remember that this speed does not account for turbulence. Also while it does account for weight and altitude and therefore will provide a margin over high and low speed stall/buffet – best holding speed is in fact chosen specifically for maximum endurance – maximum time aloft. Don’t forget to erase the modification to your flight plan.

While it’s not specifically a minimum speed – the FMC Best Holding Speed is usually a good compromise choice when asked to slow down by ATC.

Lowest Selectable Speed

By design, this is clearly the lowest speed that should be considered for flight. This speed will be less than Holding Speed, and less than Vref 30+80 when below FL200. While a valid choice at lower altitudes, it reduces your margin above events such as auto throttle wakeup, EICAS AIRSPEED LOW, stick shaker and other occurrences that are down linked expeditiously to home base. When cruising between FMC Optimum and Maximum Altitudes in the 777-200 (and especially 777-300) slowing towards Vls could well leave the aircraft without enough thrust to recover speed – a descent would be required. Excess thrust simply isn’t available in those aircraft (particularly when CRZ was the chosen thrust reference) and anything below approximately best hold speed was behind the drag curve – occasionally you required simply more thrust to recover speed than was available, and a descent shortly followed.

NB : Vls is an Airbus term. Boeing refer to it with the  cumbersome name Minimum Maneuverer Speed

In Summary

There are of course a myriad of speeds you can choose to fly at. It’s incumbent on the PF to select a speed that complies with ATC as much as practicable, in keeping with the safe operation of the aircraft. The speed you choose needs careful consideration anytime you’re operating in turbulence or above Optimum/near Maximum Altitude – margins are reduced and while the 777-300ER doesn’t lack thrust, in turbulence you might find yourself having difficulties recovering if you choose a speed too far behind the drag curve.

Naturally my recommendation was – “Buy Apple – that would be the iPhone 4″ – as is always my recommendation when I have no interest in providing after sales support for a computer product (which is what a smart phone is) that I didn’t sell. I’ve been advising people for years to buy Mac. When it breaks or they get a virus, or can’t get it to work (and yes, that does happen, even on a Mac)  - what do I know, I’m a PC-Guy, I can’t help you.

Of course Marty didn’t fall for that and instead bought … a Samsung Nexus S, the exact same phone I have. Boy, didn’t that backfire.

So now of course he’s asked me to recommend him software for his phone. To top THAT off – he suggested I make it an article on Internoetics. Sure, why not. That will take at least 4 times as long as jotting down notes randomly in an e-mail. Now I’ll have to actually THINK about it.

Disclaimer : Sorry – you were hoping for a little more altruism in a tech writer were you? Well in that case – go read someone who doesn’t work at least one other (sometimes it feels like two) full time jobs. So that’s why you won’t find this article rife with gradings or competitive products, or links to the developer’s web site. You’ll work it out. Just search the Market. I will say that I actually use these apps, have done so for a while, and in most cases have come to them through a process of elimination, in several cases paying for the app when I didn’t have to, because they’re that good.

Operating System – Cyanogen

This may seem like a weired place to start – but that’s what Android is all about. Absolute freedom of choice. Want a phone with a slide out keyboard? Sure thing. Want something with the mother of all screens (Dell Streak, you were a ridiculous choice for me, I couldn’t even fit you in my pocket) – we have that. Want something with lots of manufacturer’s software plastered all over it – we have that in spades as well. Damn you HTC.

Current Google Android is 2.3.2 the “Gingerbread” version, the last release prior to the tablet 3.x “Honeycomb” release. This should do almost all users fine. But if you want something better (and it is better) the have a look at Cyanogen.

Because Android is open source and therefore the source code is available – the crew over at XDA decided a while ago to tweak the original code and add some features of their own. Once thing lead to another and now there’s a complete alternative operating system (actually several of them) sitting out there for your phone. It’s replete with settings and features over and above the already flexible Gingerbread.

I was running Cyanogen 6 and then 7 beta on my Nexus One and if I could figure out how to “Root” my Nexus S I’d be running it now. That’s one disadvantage of alternative operating systems – you need to have root access to your phone first, which should be easy … but …

ROM Manager

If you are going to evaluate and use a different ROM (not just Cyanogen – there are quite a few out there) then ROM Manager is for you. Once you have root access it will allow you to swap in and out of different operating systems on your phone – it’ll even find them for you. Note that an operating system release is particular to a phone so if you have for example a HTC Insult you’ll need the Cyanogen build for that particular phone.

ROM Manager also handles entire ROM (including user data) backups to SD which is nice – and it does it from the boot manager so it’s a 99.9% perfect backup – based on the assumption that nothing is ever 100% :)

Twitter for Android

I don’t use this application, but it comes with Gingerbread now, and you need to keep it up to date. It does the integration of your twitter followee’s (people you follow) with your address book, which I find handy. It’s ok as a basic twitter client, but I prefer TweetDeck.

But thanks to Twitter follower syncing on my Android phone – and Marty’s METAR twitter feeds (eg: www.twitter.com/YMMLMETAR) – my contact list now has the most current METAR for each airport I operate to.

Dropbox

If you’re a Dropbox user (why not?) then then this android client from Dropbox themselves does the job nicely. There are some things that would be nice if it could do like automatic sync of nominated folders, but as far as it goes, the official Dropbox Android app lets you access your dropbox files while you’re on the go, which is what you need.

FlightBoard, by Mobiata

Flight board is a really simple concept. Pick an airport, choose departures or arrivals, see the equivalent flight board. As someone who travels all the time this really simple app is excellent and serves me well.

Yes you can Facebook or Twitter about your flight and all of that shite, yes you can shoot a flight over to FlightTrack (slightly more useful). You can access delay data etc. The point is, at any stage during your travel journey, you can look and see if the flight is delayed, if there’s a gate assigned, if flights just before or after yours have been cancelled.

Dolphin Browser

The inbuilt android web browser is ok as far as it goes – but Dolphin goes a lot further. For a while I was using the executive-on-steroids Dolphin HD version with it’s gestures, sync’d bookmarks, library of plugins that could do everything from snapping pictures of web pages to converting them to PDF documents on the fly. Eventually I decided simple and quick was what I needed on my phone – which is NOT a pc, and shouldn’t be treated as such – and defaulted to Dolphin Mini. It does flash on demand, stores a few favorites on a home screen, basic gestures and a few other bits and bobs. If you want the full featured browser experience on your android phone – or your android tablet – I’d recommend Dolphin HD. Otherwise – Dolphin Mini is good.

Skype

Skype pretty much sucks. That goes for the PC experience as well. I’ve used a dozen different VOIP solutions over the past 12 years or so, all mostly as a means of avoiding Skype – to make cheap calls also – but to avoid Skype.

Whether it be the bloatware that Skype is on your machine, the restrictive private protocol that offends my open source sensibility, or just the fact that when you agree to install Skype you agree to potentially become a Skype supernode, routing calls to and from people you’ve never heard of, chewing up your bandwidth, Skype pisses me off.

But there are so many people on Skype, we’re now so far beyond the point where I can choose not to use it.

Skype on Android is in it’s early days and it shows. Still no Video. It took them long enough (ages after the iPhone) to get Skype on Android, so I shouldn’t be surprised. The damn app hangs around in memory, it’s difficult to get rid of it once you stop using it, and it’s the five stars all hands down winning app most likely to force me to reboot my phone. I played with Fring or a while, but then Skype stopped Fring’s ability to access your Skype contacts, so back to square one. Fring of course now does video calls, but what use is that when all your friends are on Skype? Damn it.

NewsRob

I follow a lot of RSS feeds. Whether it be podcasts or news feeds, I managed almost all of them through Google Reader and it was a bitter disappointment when I found Google didn’t have one for Android. I went through quite a few of them (honorable mention for FeedR and NewsRoom) but settled on NewsRob. It integrates exceedingly well with Google Reader (which was my primary requirement) as well as allowing me to subscribe to other feeds separately. It has it’s own built in browser when you just want to look at the site version of the rss stream, including flash integration; it includes image snapshot in the story summary page where available – and if Marty would turn it on at Flight.Org, allows you to download both the feed and web version for offline reading – very important to me since I use the rss feeds mostly when I don’t have wifi access. Maybe now Marty has a decent phone …

Juice Defender Ultimate

You won’t be using your new shiny smartphone for very long when you come to realise your battery life is crap. Gone are the days when you charge your phone every couple of days and when the battery is starting to look low you know you have until at least that night before you have to charge it.

Between these lovely big bright screens, ‘N’ wifi, 3g connectivity, GPS, Bluetooth, etc – you need a battery bigger than the phone itself to get a decent life out of it. Just one of the reasons I’m Android is because I can carry a spare battery and throw it in if I need to – try that on an iPhone.

Juice Defender give you Time of Day /  Location / Data throughput / Application aware control of the high consumers of power such as screen/wifi/3g as well as controlling application access and sync. Let me explain.

I’m in the hotel foyer in LA. I pull out my phone and turn it on. Because I’ve been there before, JD turns on the wifi and logs onto the hotel network. Depending on how long since the last one, Google Sync is started – checking mail, twitter, facebook, etc. Before this completes, I turn my phone off. In my pocket, as the data finishes downloading and the data throughput reduces below a nominated threshold, JD turns off the Wifi.

I leave the hotel. Every 15 minutes or so (you choose), JD turns on the 3g and another sync is activated. JD turns it off again shortly afterwards.

I approach “It’s a Grind” the coffee shop I frequent which has free wifi. JD knows where I am (cell towers) and turns on the wifi as I enter the shop. It attempts to log on but the Cafe has changed their password (again). The lack of data throughput is a trigger and JD turns off the Wifi again.

Juice Defender is indeed Ultimate.

Car Locator

Edward Kim has made a fortune out of this App and it’s easy to see why. As someone who arrives back from a week away in Sydney/Los Angeles to a large staff car park with no markings whatsoever (goddam I hate Melbourne Airport non-Management) – remembering with my fatigue addled brain where I parked my car is a real hassle.

This little gem lets me press a button when I park; then when I return, I run it again and it leads me to my car. The sonar mode (it “boops” faster and faster as I draw closer) is a little kitch, but you can turn it off.

There’s lots of other tricksy bits built in but essentially it does very well what I need it to do – locate my car.

More to come … Next time SMS and Call replacement Apps, Exchange Mail App and how to fill your phone with music from your computer – wirelessly.

We don’t just go there for the food and fare. Don’t get me wrong – they do a gorgeous breakfast made with for the most part locally grown organic produce. The coffee is good and nothing beats a Joy Slice, one piece of which cuts up into 8 or so delectable pieces that spreads nicely amongst a breakfast crowd of two or more. If you go – make sure you have the home made baked beans with whatever else you order.

But it’s not just the food – it’s just great people. Red Door has the atmosphere of people who live in the local area, enjoy working there and seem to have good relationships with the people the work with and for. And that permeates into the environment and I suspect the food (or at least the preparation and cooking).

So today we had an hour before I had a meeting in Geelong and we decided since it’d been so long – we’d whip out to Red Door for a quick breakfast. Cheekily (and just this once) we rang ahead, booked our favorite table and order our breakfast. We rolled up with 40 minutes before we had to be back in Geelong and our food was brought out. Coffee’s served 5 minutes later and twenty five minutes later I was paying the bill. That’s when things got interesting.

Danny asked me if I knew about the new hours – “No!”, I said, “What’s Changed?” Previously they were a Thursday through Sunday am Cafe, catering to the brekky and lunch crowds.

“We’re now Wednesday through Saturday, closed Sunday”. I was at little taken aback at this. We’ve been through on a Sunday and to be honest, tend to avoid Sunday at Red Door because our quiet little out of the way Cafe becomes a yuppie frenzy morning full of people from out of town (ie: from Geelong). I’d always presumed it was their best day – and now they’re closed for it?

“Well, were were sitting down working out the roster, and Sunday has always been a hassle for us. So we stopped talking about the roster and started talking about why Sundays were a problem for us – and it just turned out that everybody wanted to be home with their families”, she said – as if this were the most normal thing in the world.

“So you’re closing one of your biggest mornings, because you and your staff would prefer to be home with your families.” I said, hoping this would communicate clearly my incredulity at this concept.

“Yes, basically” she said.

Staff of Red Door Cafe – my hat’s off to you. See you Wednesdays.

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 blue Volvo Station Wagon. The car would come and collect each crew member in turn until both (or all four) crew were in the car, then head for the airport. Every now and then you’d be in the car, waiting outside someone’s villa, wondering where the guy was. A few phone calls later and you’d be on the way to the airport on your own while “that guy” got up, dressed and headed to the airport under his/her own steam. Meanwhile at briefing, at the aircraft – you’d manage the departure – doing the job of two pilots – while you waited for your collegue to turn up.

Recently, for the first time in my career, I was That Guy.

I was due to operate Melbourne to Johannesburg on a Saturday. As is my custom, I e-mailed the crew (including Mark the Captain I was to be training) on the previous Wednesday evening, introducing myself, discussing the flight and the training that was to take place, laying out a suggested rest pattern for the flight. I mentioned the departure time of 22:00 (10 pm) and said I would not be staying in the crew hotel the night before, but driving up from Geelong for the flight. I received two replies and one phone call as the result of the e-mail, none of them raising the point that I had written 22:00 whereas the actual departure time was 10am.

The stage was set. Roll on the First Act.

So I’m in bed Saturday morning at 8:30am, grumpy at the kids because their noise downstairs had woken me when I was trying to sleep in, when the phone rang.

Sleepy Me : “Hello?”

Strange Female Voice : “Hi this is Mark’s girlfriend.”

Confused Me : “Ok.”

Mark’s Girlfriend : “I have his mobile phone.”

Confused and increasingly dis-interested Me : “Ok.”

Mark’s Girlfriend, trying harder : Can I give it to you, to give to Mark?”

Increasingly confused Me : “Sure. Are you in Geelong?”

Mark’s Girlfriend, becoming confused : “Geelong? No, I’m near the airport.”

Seriously confused Me : “Well, I’m in Geelong. How can I get his phone?”

Mark’s Girlfriend : “Mark is at the plane – why are you in Geelong?”

Still slow on the uptake Me : “Why is Mark at the plane? The flight is not until tonight.”

Slightly alarmed Mark’s Girlfriend : “No, it’s a 10am departure this morning.”

Not yet alarmed, but mildly concerned Me : “No, it’s 10pm tonight.”

Annoyingly sure of herself Mark’s Girlfriend : “No it’s 10am. I just dropped Mark off, and the crew were there.”

Me : ” … ”

Me : ” … ”

Me : ” … ”

Mark’s wondering Girlfriend : “Hello? Are you there?”

Me : “Hang on. I’m having a Moment.”

Me : (having collected myself) “I’ll call you back.”

I headed to the nearest computer and logged on the company web site. Eventually … 10am departure. “Oh Shit.” I said. My wife Meg called over – what’s wrong. “Departure is in ninety minutes” I said. Un-said is that Geelong is a 70 minute drive from the airport, I’m in pyjamas, un-shaved, un-showered, unpacked, un-breakfasted, generally un-all round. “Oh Shit.” says Meg.

I headed for the shave/shower routine, while Meg rounded up the kids and doled out jobs. Then she threw clothes into a suitcase for me, dressed and headed down to iron a uniform. I raced through the morning routine, threw a few extras into the suitcase (including a jumper after a quick look at JNB weather) and headed downstairs. Fin had made Brekky and Coffee for me. Ruby had packed a sandwich. Lewis was headed for French tutoring that morning, and was getting ready to get himself home afterwards. I threw on my uniform, attached the pilot paraphernalia (wings, ID, name badge, pen, calculator, etc) and grabbed my flight jacket and headed for the car. From the first phone call at 8:30am, it was now 8:50. We were on the road by 8:55am. There was no time to drive myself – parking at the airport could cost me 30 minutes.

After dropping Lewis at tutoring, we hit the highway for Melbourne Airport.  I rang the FO and discussed Flight Plan, Weather, NOTAMS, Johannesburg and how the departure was progressing. To complicate matters, immigration was chaos and the entire crew was late getting to the aircraft. The GPS gave us an ETA of 9:58 (for the 10:00am pushback). I eventually got through on the phone to Crew Control who were bemused and of course unable to make any impact whatsoever on the chain of events that were to come.  But it gave them that feeling of being part of a team …

Pulling up at the Airport at 9:55 I got out, kissed my wife and she said “Are you going to wear that jacket?” I looked down and found I was wearing my Tamair pilot bomber-jacket from 1995. Hm. Jacket off and I went in.

Check in was quick – funny how quick it is when there’s no-one else there and the staff are waiting for you-and-only-you – and the ground staff escorted me to the aircraft. I only began to slow down as I entered the aerobridge and had to work my way past 100+ passengers waiting to board. So much for a surreptitious arrival …

It was 10:00 am and we were obviously not going on time – I hoped that wasn’t because of me. I arrived at the flight deck and Mark (Captain under training) and Stuart and Wayne (FO’s) had things well in hand. We were still waiting for a final weight from load control so we could determine a fuel load. We were going to be delayed 20 minutes for connecting passengers. I sat down, and caught up.

After that, the departure became the normal routine.

Because of connections, the passengers weren’t all on board until 10:25. We received a final weight at 10:15 and tried to advise the refueller, to find that he’d decided he had better things to do than wait for a fuel figure from the pilots, disconnected his truck and driven off (we were still 5 tons short). We eventually got him back at about 10:40 to finish us off. ATC delayed our push 10 minutes because of Ramp congestion. When we finally did get push clearance, ATC could not contact the Tug Driver – and so cancelled our push/start clearance. For some reason known only to themselves, Melbourne Airport is the only airport IN THE WORLD I’ve ever encountered where ATC insist on talking separately to the tug as well as the pilots. When they were unable to contact the tug quickly enough, ATC cancelled our Push/Start. It would have been nice if ATC’d told us as well …

As I said, things settled quickly into a normal departure. Not. We pushed an hour late.

Once we were on our way, I apologised to the crew and thanked them for their efforts to get things going without me. Once in JNB I realised that I was woefully under packed with no warm clothes and an overnight low of 1 degree. I wished I’d kept the Tamair jacket actually, it would have fitted in nicely in JNB society, although may have gotten me mugged. I bought a round of drinks or two in JNB and a box of chocolates for my wife and Mark’s girlfriend. About halfway through the trip I realised I had only the pair of shoes I was wearing (nothing extra packed) and they didn’t match. They were close enough that no-one else noticed (or so I keep telling myself) but I kept looking down at them, thinking …

So I have been “That Guy” finally. Congruent with my past experiences, the wheels didn’t fall of the trolley as a result, despite some wobbly-ness. As usual the rest of the team pulled together to get the job done. One of the many benefits of working as part of a crew as opposed to an individual in an office – where they probably wouldn’t notice me being late for work!

Back in 2001 I decided I needed a web site. In the years that followed I documented various activities – most of them associated with my employment with Emirates and the activities I undertook there both for and apart from my employment as a pilot.

Since I left Emirates and Dubai and moved to Geelong to work for V Australia – Infinidim.Org has lain barely touched. The last three years have been a frenetic ride which hasn’t really subsided at all – but I felt it’s time Infinidim.Org was renovated and I returned to some blogging and documenting of what I’m doing.

Not that the web has been neglected in my absence from Infinidim – much great work was done (mostly by Marty Khoury, but I had some involvement) with Virginetics – a web site dedicated to the pilots and cabin crew of V Australia. Unfortunately with the introduction of the company’s own LMS, Virginetics will come to an end soon.

I’ve also been contributing to Flight.Org – in concert with Marty Khoury, Adam Saddington and a few others – you’ll find a large number of my blog posts over the past couple of years, notably those associated with the Delivery and Inaugural flights of V Australia’s 777 operation, as well as (two years after the event) the blog I wrote associated with Leaving Emirates. I will bring those blogs over to Infinidim at some point.

More recently I’ve been fortunate to be involved with Flight Podcast – broadcasting conversations with such amazing aviators as Eric Moody of Speedbird 9 (“All Four Engines Have Failed”), and just recently John Bartels of QF30 – the inflight oxygen bottle explosion. If you haven’t listened to any of our podcasts I encourage you to do so. I listen to them again even after recording the episodes!

This post is the commencement of my return to personal blogging on Infinidim. I encourage you to also keep an eye on Flight.Org and Flight Podcast – I’ll be posting there as well.

Take care all – Regards, Ken Pascoe.