Flying The Line

Weather, warm and humid as I arrive at the new Qantas CRI building where most of the Flight Operations Department have been recently moved.

The report time for this pattern, termed a KS60 in Qantas scheduling vernacular, is 11. 30am, one hour before scheduled pushback. A pattern is a group of flights assembled by the scheduling department which is bidded for by the appropriate group of pilots or in some cases assigned to pilots on reserve or standby. Each pattern carries a certain value of hours flown which is used for pay purposes.

The KS60 comprises this first sector, the QF41 from SYD to CGK (Jakarta) followed by a passengering sector to Bali on Garuda. An overnight stay in Bali is followed by the QF76 to PER (Perth) where the next evening is spent. The QF77 is then taken to Singapore, where we stay for thirty hours before returning to Sydney via QF32.

Patterns vary in length from one to fourteen days and are allocated by a computer bidding system which takes into account both personal preference and seniority.

Arriving at the second floor I quickly check my crew mail slot for any incoming correspondence, manual amendments etc and then proceed to the Flight planning counter to sign on duty.

Captain Steve Eastaway, whom I have never met before, (not unusual in Qantas), has already signed on but is not readily apparent. I sign the crew sheet and receive the tickets for the Jakarta/Bali sector. The flight plan has already been produced and is waiting on the counter so, with the limited amount of time available before departure, I begin to wade through the copious amounts of paperwork supplied for the sector. First check is that all the different pages of the Flight Plan have been delivered by the printer and that they have the correct codes for our particular flight. As I do this Captain Eastaway appears beside me and, after introductions, announces that this will be my sector, he will do the next two and I will do the last.

This changes things somewhat and so I ask him to check the NOTAMS and the en route weather whilst I concentrate on the details of the Flight Plan. The first surprise is a pleasant one. Due to the cost of fuel in Indonesia the flight has been planned as a Fuel Saving sector. This means that the bean counters have determined that it is more economical to carry excess fuel out of Sydney, and to wear the subsequent costs of cruising at lower levels at a higher AUW (all up weight), than to buy all the fuel for the subsequent sector out of Jakarta. Some airlines refer to this as tinkering. The practical upshot of this is that we have 17. 2 tonnes (over three and a half hours) of fuel over our MOR- Minimum Operational Requirement of 38. 7 tonnes.

The MOR is derived from the planned flight fuel of 34. 0 tonnes plus the Minimum fuel reserve of forty-five minutes, 2. 8 tonnes. Added to this is the Variable fuel reserve of 1. 5 tonnes and 400kg allowance for start and taxi. The low figure for the Variable fuel reserve is obtained from CAA approved variation which allows Qantas to carry only ten percent of the flight fuel from the last point of diversion to the alternate with a minimum value of 1,500kgs for the 767 and 4,000kgs for the 747.

The Captain has final say over the fuel ordering so it is only with tongue in cheek that I ask Steve if he is happy with the extra 17. 2 tonnes. There are no significant NOTAMS and the weather situation is predicted fine all the way, so the fuel order is signed by Steve and checked by myself. Gathering our bags and chattels together we make our way downstairs to the crew transport for the lengthy trip to the aircraft. Our aircraft today is VH-OGC. A 767-338 fitted with General Electric CF6-80C2 engines. It sits at bay 11 of the international terminal surrounded by a coterie of attendants. The aircraft has just arrived from Melbourne. Steve begins his preflight inspection whilst I climb the aerobridge stairs to begin the cockpit checks. Everyone seems to be trying to enter the cockpit at the same time, from the engineers to the cleaners and sometimes you just have to wait until the dust settles.

Eventually however I manage to take my seat and begin the task of preparing the aircraft for flight. The Inertial Reference units are turned on and initialised with our ramp position as they begin their seven minute alignment sequence. There is about thirty minutes to pushback and much to be done and checked. Steve arrives and settles down to his part of the preflight. We work independently, both extracting the takeoff performance data so as to cross check later. With about fifteen minutes to go and the refuelling completed, the hydraulic and fuel systems are pressurised.

I load the relevant information into the Flight Management System (FMS) such as our planned route, cruise altitude, zero fuel weight etc. and this critical information is closely scrutinised by the Captain. With about ten minutes to run, since it is my sector, I brief the Captain on the expected departure. Points touched upon include expected runway and intersection departure, abort procedures, flap setting and V speeds, clean up altitudes and the SID (standard instrument departure), plus any terrain considerations and actions in the event of an emergency.

With five minutes to run the before start checklist is completed, the load sheet signed and an airways clearance requested. We are given a Sydney West One Katoomba departure which requires us, departing on RW 16, to intercept the SY-163 radial, Then at five hundred feet to turn back over the VOR before tracking to KAT.

We now sit and wait for the Eicas electronic cockpit displays to announce that the loading of the baggage is complete and the cargo doors closed. All doors now shut, the pushback is commenced. We note with some satisfaction that we begin pushback right on schedule at 1230pm local.

With engine start and pushback complete, Steve hands control of the aircraft to myself and we taxi for a Foxtrot intersection departure on RW 16. The BRW (brake release weight) is slightly below 160 tonnes, about 12 tonnes below max AUW. Due to this and the warm temperature the takeoff thrust is only derated by a few percent.

The -300 series 767 with the GE engines is regarded as a racehorse by its crews, we accelerate briskly and one minute after brakes release, we are through one thousand feet and reducing to climb thrust. ROC (rate of climb) is still well over 4,000fpm.

Cleaned-up and departing overhead the VOR, we carry out preliminary checks that the FMS is doing its job accurately, (it invariably is), and pressurisation is proceeding according to schedule. I hand fly the departure until we are established on the track towards Katoomba, then establish autopilot control.

Our planned track is to Katoomba, then Parkes, through to Yulara crossing over Lake Eyre, and then direct to the Halim VOR near Jakarta.

We are planned at FL350 but are given FL310 due to crossing traffic out of Melbourne heading north. We reach 310 about 40 miles past Katoomba and carry out a full scan of the instrument panels. All is operating normally so I determine from our Flight Service Director Peter Fanning that no videos are being shown on the cabin screens before making a PA announcement to our 140 passengers giving the details of our flight.

This chore is no sooner completed when Sy Ctl (Sydney Control) come up to reclear us to FL350 (35,000ft) as we approach Mudgee. The change of level is achieved by simply entering 350 into the FMS Cruise page. Climb thrust is automatically applied and the aircraft smoothly climbs to 35,000ft and levels off. Thrust returns to the appropriate cruise setting and the cabin pressurisation is automatically adjusted by the computers. We monitor the process carefully, but there is no need to touch anything.

We fall into the cruise routine. This involves maintaining a close watch on weather conditions at our en route alternates and our position on track relative to them at all times. With a twin engined, two pilot aircraft, it is not wise to wait until the proverbial hits the turbofans to begin collecting this information. For this route we are keeping an eye on Adelaide, Alice Springs, Darwin, Port Hedland, Denpasar and of course our destination. Regular updates are garnered from VOLMET broadcasts plus the AGARS unit on board. At present, this unit works only within 200nm of a ground station but eventually will be satellite monitored. Distance and bearing information is presented on the FMS Fix page.

The Gulf War is in full swing and as a result heightened security measures are in force. This means we are not receiving the usual stream of visitors to the flight deck, except for the occasional member of the crew. Talk tends to centre on the effect of the war on the flying business. There is a silver lining to this situation as far as 767 crews are concerned. Due to the low operating costs of the aircraft, it is currently the darling of the accountancy set and hence Qantas now has the potential of operating the 767 to the US and possibly even to Europe if problems with the Passenger Oxygen system on the high safety altitude Afghanistan route can be sorted out. Qantas is fortunate to have an aircraft that can substitute the 747 on these temporarily uneconomic routes, something that it could not do a decade ago with an all 747 fleet.

The flight progresses uneventfully. We overfly Ayers Rock.

Making an announcement to the passengers, we engage heading mode on the Auto-flight panel and steer slightly to the right to give a good view of this spectacular landmark.

Crossing the coast north of Port Hedland we deviate slightly off track to avoid some late afternoon buildups. The weather radar display is superimposed over the HSI map display and takes a lot of the guesswork out of this operation. Approaching position UPLOK we lose the luxury of continuous VHF coverage and call Perth on HF. We are told to contact Jakarta on the same frequency at the next position and then the SELCAL is checked.

Referring to the Jakarta forecast and the VOLMET weather reports I begin to build an arrival on the FMS LEGS page. An arrival is selected from the ARR/DEP page, in this case the 25L ILS with an Esala transition. The arrival is modified on the legs page and the appropriate speeds and altitude restrictions are checked and perhaps edited. The FMS VNAV and LNAV modes would fly this track and vertical profile almost perfectly with little help from us, however I have no intention of letting this occur.

We are now talking to Jakarta Control on long range VHF and a check of this ATIS reveals that RWY 25 is in use. We are cleared to track direct to Esala, a point about forty miles from the runway. We contact the company and pass through our cabin and maintenance requirements. We are given our bay assignment and are soon cleared for descent. The FMS constantly recalculates the descent profile with changes in wind speed and direction and makes occasional requests for drag or adds thrust to modify the profile.

Slowdown commences at 10,000ft and we are cleared to intercept the localiser. There are some stray cumulus around but the afternoon is fine if somewhat hazy. I elect to fly a delayed flap approach to minimise noise and fuel consumption. We intercept the glideslope with flap at five degrees and the gear still raised. All gear and flap is out by about fifteen hundred feet and the landing checklist completed. The wind of nine knots is basically all crosswind. We are flying to a VREF of 140 knots. This is higher than normal due to the excess fuel we are carrying. Most crews agree that the 767 is easier to land at higher all up weights although still more difficult than the 747 at any weight. We arrive on the Jakarta runway (reasonably smoothly}about ten minutes ahead of schedule and stay on the tower frequency for the taxi to the bay.

Captain Eastaway completes the after landing procedures and takes over to park the aircraft. The shutdown procedures are completed and checklist and the maintenance log is filled out. We leave the aircraft and are met be the Jakarta company ground staff to be processed through Customs and Immigration. We are then pointed toward the Garuda first class lounge for a gruelling two hour wait till our flight leaves for Bali. Sunday 17 February 1991.

Transport time for this next flight of the pattern allows Just enough time for a quick round of golf at the hotels. The aircraft is arriving from Perth as QF75 and we will be taking the return flight back to Perth as QF76. We reach the airport just in time to see the aircraft VH-EAQ, the last of the -200 series, arrive. There is no Qantas briefing office at Denpasar so we walk straight across the tarmac to the aircraft and wait until the passengers disembark.

Upon entering we find the operating crew in earnest discussion with the ground engineer and a flight deck which looks radically different to what it should. On engine power supply is automatically transferred from the engine driven generators to the APU generators. This has not occurred and attempts to establish ground power have also failed. All the lights on the panel are flicking on and off in unison and the engineer swears that he has never seen anything like this before on a 767. He departs to find a telephone and we only half joke with the departing crew that we will see them around the hotel pool in about an hour.

Steve decides that we should carry on normally in case a quick fix presents itself so he starts his preflight inspection while I carry out the paper shuffling.

The aircraft will be just about full of returning Perth holiday makers. There are no significant NOTAMS and the aircraft has arrived with sufficient fuel for the three and a half hour return leg. We are not carrying any alternates and the weather at both Perth and Learmonth is forecast fine so Steve decides not to load any extra fuel.

At this point the ground engineer arrives back and with fingers crossed, recycles the bus tie breaker switches. Voila!

Power is established and everything returns to normal. A black box in the bowels of the equipment bay is acting up so it is written up in the maintenance log as a hold item to be rectified in Perth.

Wethrow ourselves into the preflight and actually taxi ahead of schedule at 0200pm local. Takeoff is at 2. 09pm on runway 09. Our BRW is 123. 3 tonnes. There is no SID for this particular departure so we improvise the clean up heights etc, off a similar one. Soon we are established on track at FL370. An hour after departure we are crossing the coast at Karratha, our way temporarily obstructed by a mass of huge CBs’ (cumulous nimbus clouds). Steve picks a way to the right of track and when we are clear, Perth Ctl clears us direct to the Perth Omni. Obviously there is not a lot of traffic about so we settle back and enjoy our view of the Pilbara region, some of the most rugged and awe inspiring scenery in the world.

The rest of the cruise is uneventful. About 200nm out we copy the Perth ATIS. The weather is fineand the wind is favouring Rwy 21. Steve briefs a visual approach with the ILS backup. We are cleared to descend and as this is the weekend and the Pearce RAAF Base is not active, we track direct to intercept the centreline about 8 miles out. We fly directly over Pearce, the first time I have done so since leaving there in late 1980. Nothing much seems to have changed except that most of the carports are filled with freshly minted PC-9s instead of Macchi’s.

Five minutes later we are rolling out at the end of a well executed approach and landing and looking forward to reaching the hotel after a thoroughly enjoyable day’s flying.

Monday, 18 February 1991.

The phone rings at about 6. 30am to start the day. We arrive at Perth airport a little ahead of the scheduled one hour before pushback and go into our practised routine. Steve is again doing the sector, so I plough through the mass of NOTAMS presented. The flight once again has been planned as a fuel saving sector. We are carrying a lot of freight and the increase in the ZFW allows the dispatchers only an extra 6. 4 tonnes of fuel on board. Weather forecasts for both Singapore and Jakarta are fine so no extra above the total of 35. 4 tonnes is required.

Arriving at the aircraft VH-OGE, another -300, I pass the flight time of four hours and forty minutes to our FSD Ross Handy to incorporate into the passenger entertainment system. Ross has his wife, Julie, working on the crew with him. They fly together often and she is busy in the forward galley.

The preflight progresses smoothly and we have the 160 passengers on board and the freight loaded about ten minutes before the scheduled pushback time of 8. 50am. An airways clearance is obtained and we commence pushback at 8. 44am. We taxi for RW 21 and are cleared immediately for takeoff. Our BRW is a touch under 160 tonnes. We proceed via a Donal two departure and are eventually cleared direct to Geraldton by Pearce Approach.

Our track takes us directly up the West Coast. Over Shark Bay we pass abeam Monkey Mia and Steve makes an announcement to the passengers. We can almost feel the aircraft lurch to the left as the passengers attempt to get a glimpse of this interesting landmark and its friendly dolphins.

Overhead Carnarvon we alter course for Singapore. There is nothing to see for the next two hours until we encounter Java and the Sunda Strait. We pass the remains of Krakatoa and several other volcanoes having a quite smoke. It is sobering to watch the activity of these imposing cones, Qantas keeps a close eye on them and it is possible to get a constant update of volcanic activity through the HF link to Qantas control or via the Acars.

Approaching the VOA at Palembang we transfer to Singapore Control and copy the ATIS. The duty RW is 02, we are not usually informed of which of the two, left or right, we will land on until on the Approach frequency, however it is usually the runway closest to our parking bay, in this case 02L. Steve briefs an ILS to this runway and shortly afterwards we commence descent.

Arriving at the ultra modern Changi airport is always an efficient and pleasant experience. Today is no different, even the duty CB is not in evidence and the landing is almost a non event. We bid farewell to our cabin crew, they are continuing on to Hong Kong and we walk onto the aerobridge to brief the ground engineer on the aircraft serviceability. Fifteen minutes after touchdown we are in the crew van and on our way to the hotel for

the 30 hour slip. Tuesday 19 February.

The final leg of the pattern is the early evening departure of QF32 direct to Sydney. Our aircraft is VH-OGF, a -300. A flight time of 7. 27 plus traffic holding of ten minutes at Sydney gives a MOR of 41. 8 tonnes. There are no significant NOTAMS, the forecast is reasonably favourable so I decide to put on an extra 1. 2 tonnes for possible weather avoidance en route.

We taxi on schedule at 8. 00pm local for RW 02L. Departure is uneventful. We are cleared, after radar vectors, on track toward Bali at FL330. We soon encounter QF9 and BA12 heading in the opposite direction. Their work is almost done, whilst we are just settling in for the long night ahead.

Weather on track is fairly predictable. We deviate around the mandatory CB’s parked over Surabaya and Bali. A hunters moon supplements the information from the weather radar. It is a smooth night for flying. We constantly update the weather at Perth, Alice Springs, Adelaide and Sydney.

Techniques for staying awake vary from ingesting large doses of caffeine to encouraging lively discussion among the crew. We try all of them throughout the night, and eventually we are identified on radar by Sydney control. We are the first aircrafJ arriving after cur few and with the sky to ourselves, request tracking direct from Parkes to West Pymble. We are cleared and told to contact Richmond Approach. I am pleasantly surprised to hear a good friend of mine operating the frequency.

We engage in light banter during the short time we spend crossing her airspace whilst simultaneously indulging in some imitation low flying over a thick cloud layer as we slow down for the approach. It is a pleasant way to end the flight. We break out over the outer marker on RW 16 and touchdown two minutes later at 6. 45am.

After shutdown we compare notes on our upcoming flights. Steve has four days off while I will flying out again on Saturday on an identical pattern. It seems that flying 767s is the easy part, mastering the Qantas bid system is something else again.