On the Airbands

And a few more from Richard, who resides in Dannevirke NZ. This next story took place at Kissimmee, Florida USA. The Sea World Shamu Airship had just lifted off when an inquisitive pilot enquires on the frequency: “Can you loop that thing?” The answer: “Not intentionally!”

Richard was monitoring activity at the Tom Reilly Warbirds Airshow and watching a beautiful formation of a P-51 Mustang and a T-33 jet trainer, with a MiG-15 taking up the rear position. T-33 (to MiG): “It’s your formation, so it’s your call!” MiG-15: “Okay … I call GUNS COCKED and LOADED!”

We’ll leave Richard at Auckland’s Mangere Airport, where an Ansett aircraft is calling Ansett Operations. AIRCRAFT: “Our number two oven was smoking a bit in flight, and as you know, there is a non-smoking rule on board.”

Hong Kong’s Kai Tak International Airport is to be the location of the first combined Qantas-British Airways Flight Lounge. Airport authorities have agreed to allow the two airlines joint space for two lounges which should be open by the time this issue reaches you. A finalised name for the facility has yet to be decided upon. The reason for the two lounges is First and Business Class will be separated, with passengers from both airlines intermingling.

Qantas staff worldwide are now wearing brand new ID cards with a new vertical format, similar to the ID cards that used to be worn by Australian Airlines personnel. Product Development Manager Donna Meredith told “On the Airbands” that the swing away from the old “horizontal format” cards conformed to parameters defined by Air Navigation Regulations.

Greg Baker from Sutherland NSW works for “Listening In” magazine as a staff photographer. Greg would like to point out how useful owning a scanner capable of monitoring aircraft is to any person interested in photographing aircraft. He tells me: “If I am waiting at Sydney Airport in a prime position waiting for a Runway 16 arrival, when the aircraft comes onto Approach, the arrival runway is always nominated. As such, if I am in error, and the approach is for Runway 25 or whatever, I have approximately eight to ten minutes to change position and do something about it. This is something I could not do without the receiver. It gives me warnings I would not otherwise get!” I couldn’t agree with Gregory more. Even if you are not really all that interested in listening to aircraft, but you are a photographer, then the investment in a radio may be worth the outlay.

Tony Horneman from North Ryde NSW monitors the airbands using a Sony Air-7 receiver. One day, while monitoring a British Airways 747, callsign “Speedbird 9”, inbound to Sydney very early in the morning, Tony realised the Air Traffic Controller was getting nervous about the aircraft landing before the curfew finished at 5:00 am local. The aircraft was for a Runway 34 arrival, approaching from out to sea, and was on Sydney Approach frequency 124.4 MHz.

APPROACH: “Speedbird niner, you have 30 miles to run, what is your expected landing time?” SPEEDBIRD 9: “About two minutes to the hour Sir.” APPROACH: “Speedbird 9, your computer is worth much more than mine!” SPEEDBIRD 9: “Actually Sir, I was using my fingers!” APPROACH: “In that case Speedbird, we have the same computer!”

John Lynch from Scarborough in Queensland listens to HF a lot, saying that “HF propagation is not so good in Queensland at the present time”. One evening, John was monitoring the SP (South Pacific) HF frequency 5643 kHz and heard Honolulu SELCAL-ing Qantas 11. The Qantas aircraft was a Boeing 747-400, nonstop from Sydney to Honolulu.

HONOLULU: “Qantas one-one, Honolulu, call your company please, call Qantas Operations now”. QANTAS 11: “Roger that Honolulu, we’ll call now.”

John then successfully found the Qantas Operations frequency which Qantas 11 used to contact its Sydney Operations Centre. QANTAS 11: “Qantas Sydney, this is Qantas 11”. QANTAS OPS: “Yes, your satellite message stated you had a bad odour in the aircraft. Please advise status”. QANTAS 11: “Qantas Ops, Qantas 11 … it’s at its worst around the galley and cockpit area”. QANTAS OPS: “Is it affecting First Class and Business?” QANTAS 11: “No, but it’s real bad in the cockpit!” QANTAS OPS: “Regardless of that Qantas 11, have the Flight Services Director hand out Pax (passenger) Comment Cards to those areas, and return them as soon as possible to our Qantas Public Relations people. Our first priority is making sure no passenger was compromised regarding comfort!”

Okay, by now, you’re probably wondering what was the cause of this situation. I investigated and found that several “animals” were placed in the forward hold for “quarantine reasons”. The odour resulted from their location. Normally, the animals would have been carried in an aft hold, which would not affect the comfort of crew or passengers. To their credit, Qantas apparently did everything in their power to make up for any unpleasantness caused by the odour, and all passengers went away satisfied.

John Lynch has also suggested we do reviews of current VHF/UHF and satellite receivers. Unfortunately, this is not really part of the format of this column, John. We’ll try to sneak details of a few of the better receivers in between the main stories from time to time.

I enjoy listening to aeronautical HF radio, and I receive a regular flow of letters asking me all sorts of questions about my own equipment and stations monitored. Just lately, these are some of the airlines and ground stations I have monitored on HF: Dynasty 656 on 8903 kHz calling Manila; Brunei 533 on 5658 calling Bombay; Speedbird 64 on 8879 calling Mauritius; Air Hong Kong 1 on 8942 calling Singapore; Avianca 011 on 11309 calling New York; Pakistan 763 on 8903 calling Manila; Ujung Pandang on 11396 calling Qantas 1; Marshall Islands 012 on 8846 calling Nadi; Ethiopian 9710 on 11300 called by Cairo; Iberia 6401 on 8906 calling New York; Saudi 882 on 5658 called by Bombay.

Speaking of satellite operations, the world’s first six-channel aeronautical SatComs installation has entered service with Air Afrique. Commissioned on December 2, 1993, the installation comprises Collins SAT-906 avionics, Ball Airlink antenna, and GEC-Marconi Avionics AD5100 cordless cabin telephone system aboard an Airbus A310-300, registered TU-TAF. This is the world’s first digital integration of SatComs avionics and cabin telephone. The phone service for passengers costs $10.00 per minute! Qantas currently has ten 747-400 aircraft commissioned for satellite data (only) at this stage.

An Ansett captain who lives in Victoria would like to offer a few stories. An Ansett 767 flying the Melbourne/Perth route as AN 1169, callsign “Romeo Mike Delta”, rotates from RW 16 at Melbourne. In doing so, it collides with a fox on the runway. The Captain, a Canadian with a big sense of humour, politely informs Melbourne Departures they may have a carcass on their runway. Later on, Melbourne Control confirms the strike. It brought this response from the skipper: “Ok … save the tail will ya, I’ll pick it up on the way back for my car aerial!”

Copied by the same contributing captain on Ansett company channel 130.65 MHz, an Ansett 767 flying from Denpasar to Melbourne, with the callsign “Ansett 220”. ANSETT 220: “Ansett Melbourne, Ansett 220, do you read?” ANSETT MEL: “Ansett 220, Ansett Melbourne, hi daddy!”

And our final anecdote involving a 767 on the Melbourne/Perth service, AN 1169, this time being flown by “Romeo Mike Foxtrot”. It occurred on Melbourne Departures frequency 129.4, with a Texan captain aboard. VH-RMF: “Melbourne Departures, Romeo Mike Foxtrot passing one thousand eight hundred climbing flight level three-seven-zero”. DEPARTURES: “Romeo Mike Foxtrot gidday, you’re identified … and to Tim, Happy Birthday for tomorrow!” VH-RMF: (Tim) “Thanks Anne, funny way to celebrate!” DEPARTURES: “I’m sure they’ll look after you!” VH-RMF: “We’re going to spank him at midnight!” (Texan captain)

NASA/Langley Research Centre has just completed initial flight and ground-based tests on an upgraded datalink system designed to provide airline pilots with graphical weather depiction and digital air traffic control communications. The system displays real-time weather information on cockpit screens, including lightning activity. Successful tests were carried out using NASA’s Boeing 737-100 Transport Systems Research Vehicle (TSRV). Pilots involved liked the reduction in communications errors and lack of radio frequency congestion.