Recently a crew in the sim elected to hold until the completion of the Fuel Imbalance checklist before commencing an Approach. Since fuel balancing can take quite some time, they were in for a long wait …

Recently a crew in the sim elected to hold until the completion of the Fuel Imbalance checklist before commencing an Approach. Since fuel balancing can take quite some time, they were in for a long wait …
Ken | | Practices And Techniques | B777, Flight Techniques, Flight Training, PracticesTechniques |
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 […]
Ken | | Practices And Techniques | Airline Pilot, B777, Diary, V Australia, Virgin Australia |
Recently I conducted some research into the concept of the requirement for the Pilot Flying (PF) to guard the flight controls when the autopilot is engaged during critical phases of flight such as takeoff or landing. Something I thought was clear cut – is apparently not.
Ken | | Practices And Techniques | B777, PracticesTechniques |
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 […]
Ken | | Aviation, Practices And Techniques, Virgin Australia International | B777, Flight Techniques, PracticesTechniques |
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 […]
Ken | | Practices And Techniques | Airline Pilot, B737, Flight Training, PracticesTechniques, Virgin Australia |
I’ve been operating under the miss-understanding that if the visibility observed at the airport matches the minimum required to commence the approach – you’ll have a reasonable chance of completing the approach to a landing. As it turns out – for JAR OPS compliant NPA’s – this is not the case.
Ken | | Practices And Techniques | B777, Flight Techniques, Flight Training, PracticesTechniques |
Some time ago I wrote down all that I had been taught and learned about operating the Boeing 777 Electronic Checklist (ECL) in conjunction with the onboard Electronic Indication and Crew Alert System (EICAS). I’ve updated it along the way as I became an instructor and it’s become more and more of a formal document […]
Ken | | Practices And Techniques | Airline Pilot, B777, Flight Techniques, Flight Training, PracticesTechniques |
An engine failure at altitude above the maximum engine out altitude, followed by the obligatory engine out drift down is a bread and butter event for a cruise pilot. Typically this is practiced and evaulated using the highest levels of automation in LNAV and VNAV. For more information see Engine Out Drift Down and the […]
Ken | | Practices And Techniques | Airline Pilot, B777, Flight Techniques, Flight Training, PracticesTechniques |
The recent recurrent training phase included a SLATS DRIVE failure during takeoff at high weight. At some point, the crew is confronted with the decision about whether to retract flap or not. The results of doing so would not be so amusing had I not done the same myself ……
Ken | | Practices And Techniques | B777, Flight Techniques, Flight Training, PracticesTechniques |
This article further expounds on the paradigm established in the Post and Training Video B777 Engine Failure Analysis. The following resource material were drawn on for the contents. Airbus Flight Ops Brief : Handling Engine Malfunctions Flight Safety Foundation : Understanding Airplane Turbofan Engine Operation Rolls Royce : The Jet Engine Book. Boeing 777 FCOM/FCTM/QRH […]
Ken | | Practices And Techniques |
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 […]
Ken | | Practices And Techniques | Airline Pilot, B777, Flight Techniques, Flight Training, PracticesTechniques |
The Airspeed Unreliable scenarios is one of the more challenging non normals faced by pilots in the simulator. Of the many serious malfunctions I’ve witnessed crew deal with in the simulator – this one more than any other has caught crew out to the point of a serious limitation exeedence (high/low airspeed) or potentially an […]
Ken | | Practices And Techniques | Airline Pilot, B777, Flight Techniques, Flight Training, PracticesTechniques |
The next phase of refresher training includes dispatch without the benefit of Electronic Checklist (ECL). No ECL requires some (very) rusty skills on the part of our Glass Cockpit Crews. This is going to such fun to watch …
Ken | | Practices And Techniques | B777, Flight Techniques, Flight Training, PracticesTechniques |
Firstly, it has to be said that most of the time, this is not a good idea. Broadly speaking Aircraft Manufacturer checklists are designed to be followed and not second-guessed. When you’ve lost all your hydraulic fluid, and therefore hydraulic pressure, and the checklist tells you to turn first one and then another hydraulic pump […]
Ken | | Practices And Techniques |
With the airline industry moving progressively towards GPS and GPS Augmented based approaches and away from the more traditional ground based navigation aid approaches, the use of LNAV/VNAV – with all it’s eccentricities – are becoming the norm for many airlines, rather than the exception. The boon of flying such approaches more often is that […]
Ken | | Practices And Techniques | Airline Pilot, B777, Flight Techniques, Flight Training, PracticesTechniques |