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EY 454

If you think my last take off to JFK was real heavy, wait until you finish reading this story.
Last night I was out of Abu Dhabi for Sydney on Airbus A340-600. Total number of crew was 19, with me the only Malaysian on board as the Pilot in Command. ( Bangga sangat, Melayu World! ). Total passengers were 297 and the fuel I ordered was 142,000 kg and that was the minimum fuel required to fly to Sydney including the reserve and contingencies. So the total weight for take off was 378,000 kg, just short by 2000 kg for the maximum limit. After computation, the rotation or lift off speed was at 170 knots or 315 km/hr. Wow that was fast! Just imagine a metal tube traveling at that speed on the ground. Even Michael Schumacher got jealous!

How do we compute the take off speed? Well for each airport, there is a take off chart and what we have to do is just get the wind direction and speed and the take off weight. From the chart, read out directly the take off speed (VR). Beside the VR speed, V1 and V2 speed also can be obtained.

V1 is the go no go speed or decision speed. If any malfunction occurs before V1, the remaining runway length is available for you to stop the aircraft or to abort the take off. After V1, the take off should be continued because the remaining runway length is not sufficient for stopping.

V2 is the safety speed at which the aircraft having one engine failed can safely climb out.

Airbus makes the life easy for the pilot by setting the program for this take off computation installed in laptops. All the pilots in the airline that I am working with are issued with a laptop each so that we can compute the speeds fast and accurate. That is why Airbus removes the steering wheel in the cockpit and replaces it with table.

Using this laptop, V1,VR and V2 speeds can be found simply by filling up the required data on the left hand side.

HEAVY WEIGHT TAKE OFF

This is about my recent flight to JFK, New York, 10 Jul 09. Very heavy weight takes off on the Airbus 340-600. Even though 4 engines used to accelerate the longest aero plane in the world down the long hot Abu Dhabi International Airport runway, it took slightly over a minute to get airborne. The lift off speed was at 167 knots or at about 307 km per hour for 368,000 kg big bird. The Maximum Take Off Weight for this aircraft is 380,000 kg. The lift off speed or the rotation speed (Vr) must be followed strictly in order to avoid any catastrophic disaster. If pilot try to rotate or make the aircraft airborne before reaching the correct Vr speed, necessary ‘lift’ to lift the plane off the ground is not sufficient yet. What will happen then? Rotation means the pilot pulling the control stick aft ward to command the flight control surfaces through the flight control computer to move the control surfaces, the elevator in this case to pitch the plane up. Fly by wire aircraft, does not use cables or push rods anymore. The nose will pitch up but as the lift force for lift off is not sufficient yet due to the low speed, the plane will stay on the ground. Bear in mind A340-600 is 75.3 meters long, the main wheels located at the midpoint. When the nose pitches up, the tail section relatively will go down and due to the length of the plane, it easily strikes the runaway! The plane will get airborne though when it reaches the correct speed. The Tail Strike can damage the structure or make a hole which forms a leak for the aircrafts pressurization. When that happened, no other choice but have to return for landing .This incident happened to an Emirate aircraft 4 months back during take off in Melbourne.

The pitch limit angle is presented as V in this PFD, Primary Flight Display during take off.

BONJOUR !!!

I was in Paris from 3rd to 5 July 09. 50 hours on ground, took the chance for a small tour to the city ,even though been there a couple of times already. Probably the nice 24/25 deg C sunny days were so tempting.

From the hotel, I took the shuttle bus provided, about 30 mins ride and got down at Palais de Congress. Boarded the train there and stopped at Champ de la Mar station. The Eiffel Tower is only about 5 mins walk from the station.

Beautiful flowers at the park, overlooking the base of the tower.

This one I snapped from my hotel room at 10 pm local time there. Night time is short in summer.

Taken from the cockpit as I was taxying out for take off. The lagendary concorde.

Busy Charle de Gualle Paris airport as usual.

The front door of Notre Dame.

Another shot at the tower before i head back.

DUBLIN part 2

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DUBLIN

Agak lama juga tidak update update blog ini kerana telah bercuti selama sebulan. Menghabiskan masa dengan membuat kerja kerja DIY rumah , projek yang telah siap ialah pintu pagar kayu, pergola dan gazebo. Mungkin diposting akan datang akan saya update dengan gambar gambar projek tersebut.




Sekarang saya berada di Dublin, sejuk dan nyaman udara disini, penuh dengan kehijauan, tak banyak bangunan bangunan pencakar langit, kebanyakan adalah bangunan bangunan lama. Berada disini selama 35 jam dan akan berangkat semula ke Abu Dhabi esuk.












Ini ada lah software terbaru untuk pesawat Airbus, garisan hijau yang dilalui oleh gambar pesawat itu menunjukkan jalan yang akan di lalui. warna biru menunjukkan permukaan air warna hitam, tanah rata dan warna hijau menunjukkan tanah tinggi. Lapangan terbang Dublin adalah yang betanda EIDW. Kapalterbang akan terbang mengikut garisan hijau itu untuk mendarat.






















Ini adalah gambar sebenar yang di paparkan oleh instument yang di atas. Kelihatan air laut, dan Dublin di sebelah kiri, mngikut peta yang dipaparkan. Tidak berapa jelas kerana masih awal pagi, 0720 am


















Plan view sekitar Dublin. Lebih kurang Kedah jer,sebab banyak hijau dan petak petak tanaman yang nampak macam tanaman padi.

Mendarat di landasan 10 di lapangan terbang Dublin

NEW YORK TO ABU DHABI

While relaxing during my flight from JFK to AUH, I took these pictures, shown on the screen infront of me. I was in team B, resting on the first half of the flight and took over on the second half. The total flight time was 12 hrs and 20 mins. As seen on the picture, we flew over the North Atlantic, no radio aids to fly to, just point to point using coordinates.. Basically on latitude of 50 deg North, from 50 deg West up to 20 deg West longitude. The first land that we met was somewhere near the Landsend, south of England. after that pretty straight forward route, overflying France, Italy, Athen, over the Mediterranean ,Cypros Lebanon,Damascus,Jordan,Saudi and Bahrain.

BEIJING AND PYONGYANG

Lama tak pergi Beijing. Dulu semasa bekerja dengan MAS almost 3 bulan sekali dapat buat Beijing flight. I was tasked to bring back UAE National football team from Pyongyang ,North Korea after playing there againts them for the wold cup qualifying. UAE was beaten by N Korea 2-0 . We took off from Beijing on 28 Mar, reached Pyongyang at 1800, just after the match,stayed on ground for refueling and took off for Abu Dhabi. It was slightly over 10 hours flight. Unable to snap any picture at Pyongyang becouse it was already dark when we landed there, beside we were afraid that our camera might be confiscated or worst we might ended up in jail. Until now I still can remember the smiling face of their president big photo that can be seen miles away at the Pyongyang airport.

The exitement was when we were in Beijing. Went up the Great Wall at Bedailing, the nearest point from Beijing city. Then we went to the Summer Palace and lastly the whole day completed with shopping at silk Market and Ya Show Market. Things getting more expensive nowadays, not as cheap as before the olympic game.

http://picasaweb.google.com/abakarhassan/TheGreatWall?feat=directlink

LATEST SYDNEY TRIP

I had my breakfast at 7 am and then grabbed my camera , walked to the Opera House which is only 5 minutes walk from the hotel. It was cloudy morning and I forgot to set my camera accordingly.

The city view from The Rock. My hotel, The Four Seasons is further right of this picture.

The Sydney Control Tower can be seen on the far side, and the big Qantas monster ,A380 on tow out from the hangar.

And finally we were on the way back to AUH again. I was in the jump seat, took over control half way through the flight. A330 captured on the gun sight of A340.

TORONTO @ NIAGARA FALLS

Entering Toronto City. The tall CN Tower can be seen from far away and something different here, all vehicles while on the road must put the headlights on either day or night.

Quite easy to drive around the city with the prominent signboards and if getting lost due to wrong turn taken, there is always an alternative routing.

The towering CN Tower, the most prominent feature in Toronto. Would like to go on top one day, just want to see Toronto from bird"s eyes view.















Niagara Fall is about 120 km to the South of Toronto. It takes about one and the half hour driving, very easy to find. It is very near to the border of Canada and USA.


Please click to my slide show to see more of Niagara Fall.




http://picasaweb.google.com/abakarhassan/NiagaraFalls?feat=directlink