Speedbird744 on GloboTV Brasil
Wednesday 17 November 2010
Tuesday 16 November 2010
Saturday 6 November 2010
Nearing the end
Since we last updated you the crew of Speedbird744 have all hit the wall for the second time. Tiredness is now the biggest factor we will battle against with still 26 hours to go until we return to Sydney Australia. Everyone has had some sleep but again you can count it on one hand.
Since we last updated we have passed through Europe where we lost a lot of time due to heavy delays on the ground at departure and in the air on arrivals. We have also passed through the middle east, down the persian gulf, over the arabian sea and almost continental india. We are 20 minutes away from Chennai at the moment. Just the indian ocean, southeast asia, indonesia and eastern australia to go then.
Since we last updated we have passed through Europe where we lost a lot of time due to heavy delays on the ground at departure and in the air on arrivals. We have also passed through the middle east, down the persian gulf, over the arabian sea and almost continental india. We are 20 minutes away from Chennai at the moment. Just the indian ocean, southeast asia, indonesia and eastern australia to go then.
Friday 5 November 2010
Overnight Update - Worldflight ATC to our rescue !
We have passed through the UK via London Gatwick and Manchester (Manchester arrival video will follow when we have a bandwidth gap to upload). We arrived 40 minutes late at Manchester and incurred further delays as one of the crew members rostered for the trip to copenhagen (Hoppie !) slept through all his alarms despite his Captains (Malc) best efforts to raise him.
Once underway we enjoyed excellent ATC from Worldflight control who pulled out all the stops to help us maximise a 99knot tail wind at mach 0.89, then best speed descent, cancelled speed restriction under FL100, superb vectoring in place of cancelled terminal arrival procedure and all of this meant we were just 10 minutes late onto the stand at Copenhagen.
Thanks to all the guys at Worldflight ATC HQ we have now lost count (Malc has anyway) of how many times you have helped out this week. We really are "inbound" now as we start the long trip south east back to Sydney......
Once underway we enjoyed excellent ATC from Worldflight control who pulled out all the stops to help us maximise a 99knot tail wind at mach 0.89, then best speed descent, cancelled speed restriction under FL100, superb vectoring in place of cancelled terminal arrival procedure and all of this meant we were just 10 minutes late onto the stand at Copenhagen.
Thanks to all the guys at Worldflight ATC HQ we have now lost count (Malc has anyway) of how many times you have helped out this week. We really are "inbound" now as we start the long trip south east back to Sydney......
Thursday 4 November 2010
On the ground in Milan
Mainland Europe welcomes the worldflight teams for 2010. After lengthy delays for traffic in Greece everyone diverted to athens. The late unexpected change meant new flightplans had to be generated and validated for the trip to Milan which put everyone behind schedule. There was a chance for the crew to say hello to old friends on Eurocontrol_FSS and Roma Control before descending into Milano airspace where local ATC did an excellent job of managing traffic through holding patterns and into a foggy Milan Malpensa airport.
This satellite photo of the international terminal area shows the teams at Milan at 22:55z...
This satellite photo of the international terminal area shows the teams at Milan at 22:55z...
Granville's Little Friends ....
One of our Pilots Andrew "Granville" Harrison is a little bit quirky but fun .... we call him "Granville" because he worked for many years in a small Grocers Shop and Loves Ronnie Barker's "Open All Hours" comedy program.
This year "Granville has been keeping us amused by bringing out different things at our destinations, such as Panama Hat at Panama ... Starbucks Coffee at Seattle, a Pumkin on our first departure on Halloween etc. etc.
This year "Granville has been keeping us amused by bringing out different things at our destinations, such as Panama Hat at Panama ... Starbucks Coffee at Seattle, a Pumkin on our first departure on Halloween etc. etc.
Also he has been introducing to us to his Little Friends
"Space Bear" and "Knitted Character" Although Harry Hill has a "Knitted Character" Granville's was given to him by his mum. Space Bear visited us on Tuesday and shot off into space and hasn't been seen since, but Knitted Character has very much become part of the crew and accompanies us on most flights ... watch out for Pictures
Space Bear reads up on his next mission !
Space Bear visits the Flightdeck
Granville and Knitted Character
Knitted Character Visits the Flightdeck
Knitted Character gets to grips with the 747 Systems !
and flies the plane well !
Chatting whilst in the sim
Gazing out at the South Atlantic
Watch out for more of "Knitted Characters" adventures throughout WorldFlight !
Crew Shirts
This year Malcolm Wood (one of our Pilots) had some Crew Shirts made for each of the Pilots ... many Thans Malc !
The Front including WorldFlight 10th Anniversary Logo
and our name (in case we forget)
The back ... the New WorldFlight Group Logo
Malcolm and Andy posing for the Catalogue !
The Story So Far (A Photo Catch-up) .... Ascension Islands
Leaving South America we started the Long trek accross the South Atlantic and back into daylight :)
Casting a nice Pink hue over the Flightdeck
Ascension Island in Sight
Touchdown at "Wideawake Airport" ... wish we were !
Dawn Breaks over The South Atlantic
Casting a nice Pink hue over the FlightdeckAscension Island in SightOn approach
Touchdown at "Wideawake Airport" ... wish we were !The Story So Far (A Photo Catch-up) .... Into South America
As we flew down throught South America the Crew kept "Happy Snapping"
Granville dons a "Panama Hat" for our arrival into Panama City
The Panama Canal from the Air
Shut down at Tocumen (Panama)
An Abstract view of the Flightdeck
The approach into Quito (Equador)
"Sim TV" sometimes has some "Interesting" Views (Hoppie's Bum !)
The Blogging Continues ....
Busy Crew
Enjoying the View
Chatting during the Cruise
Night Approaches again
A Flight Management Computer
Passing "Qantas 25" The WorldFlight Australia Team
Carl plays " Air Fridge ! "
Andy briefs Carl on the ApproachThe Story So Far (A Photo Catch-up) ... Night Flying
At Sunset the Flightdeck becomes a totally different experience, often very tiring for the Crew, partially because of the many hours they have flown but also because it can sometimes be dark in the Simulator but light outside in Coventry ... it really does do things to your body clock as your senses are fooled .... it can also be a very scenic time as the sun sets and the backlit panels come into their own giving a mellow glow to the cockpit.
Sunset over the USA on the Way to Canada
Carl Beeby enters arrival into the Flight Management Computer
The Sun Sets ...
The Panels Glow
The cities glitter below us ....
Malcolm Falls asleep :)
Finding your way round Airports is more diffcult
The View on Sim TV from our Communal Air bed !
Another WorldFlight Crew ask how we are coping via our ACARS system
Ahhhhh .... on the gate at last ... time for a cuppa !
The Story So Far (A Photo Catch-up) ... San Francisco
Carl Beeby and Andy Keeney flew the long leg to San Francisco where for once the famous Fog stayed away for our arrival
Rolling Out
Passing a FedEx MD-11 as we turn off the Runway
Touchdown on Runway 28R
Rolling OutPassing a FedEx MD-11 as we turn off the RunwayRED ALERT - FIRE !
Morning all,
It has been an eventful night on board Speedbird744. Firstly we Collected 20 Tonnes of Orange Melons In Johannesburg for drop off at Gatwick in the early hours of Friday Morning. They are perishable so something else for the crew to consider in the cargo management of the aeroplane.
Then on the flight to Harare the aircraft encountered several serious failures. We had a fire on engine 2 at top of descent that required quick reaction handling. Once that was resolved a secondary fire occurred in the APU. The crew decided to declare an emergency and with the assistance of ATC were vectored in as number 2 for arrival ahead of other traffic. The situation appeared to be stabilised when under 10,000 feet the hydraulics for the flaps locked out and the autopilot failed. Again the crew dealt with the required actions expediently and though tired and emotional stabilised the aircraft once more. Finally on short finals Engine 3 developed an oil temperature fault which became full failure at just 200 feet and developed into fire on the rollout.
Andy and Malc navigated the plane to the remote apron away from the terminal area where fire services where waiting. Here are some shots of the "Engine Indicating and Crew Alerting System" screen during the last 20 minutes of the flight.
When Andy and Malc left the flightdeck in Harare they went into UK Worldflight Despatch and found someone sat at the instructor station looking really rather pleased with himself (because he had used the instructor station software to introduce all the failures the crew had experienced ! ).....
What goes around comes around. It didn't take long for the virtual Zimbabwean engineers to repair the aircraft and someone who should have been asleep not sitting at the instructor station was forced to fly his leg in his pyjamas. That might have been worse for Malc though !!
Thankfully the flight to Nairobi was extremely routine, instructor station has been locked away and the highlight of this trip was the excellent view of Mount Kilimanjaro during the descent towards Nairobi.
And as you read this Hoppie and Granville are now starting up the engines to depart Nairobi for Khartoum. Satellite Photo's show the teams on the ground together during pre-flight...
It has been an eventful night on board Speedbird744. Firstly we Collected 20 Tonnes of Orange Melons In Johannesburg for drop off at Gatwick in the early hours of Friday Morning. They are perishable so something else for the crew to consider in the cargo management of the aeroplane.
Then on the flight to Harare the aircraft encountered several serious failures. We had a fire on engine 2 at top of descent that required quick reaction handling. Once that was resolved a secondary fire occurred in the APU. The crew decided to declare an emergency and with the assistance of ATC were vectored in as number 2 for arrival ahead of other traffic. The situation appeared to be stabilised when under 10,000 feet the hydraulics for the flaps locked out and the autopilot failed. Again the crew dealt with the required actions expediently and though tired and emotional stabilised the aircraft once more. Finally on short finals Engine 3 developed an oil temperature fault which became full failure at just 200 feet and developed into fire on the rollout.
Andy and Malc navigated the plane to the remote apron away from the terminal area where fire services where waiting. Here are some shots of the "Engine Indicating and Crew Alerting System" screen during the last 20 minutes of the flight.
When Andy and Malc left the flightdeck in Harare they went into UK Worldflight Despatch and found someone sat at the instructor station looking really rather pleased with himself (because he had used the instructor station software to introduce all the failures the crew had experienced ! ).....
Thankfully the flight to Nairobi was extremely routine, instructor station has been locked away and the highlight of this trip was the excellent view of Mount Kilimanjaro during the descent towards Nairobi.
And as you read this Hoppie and Granville are now starting up the engines to depart Nairobi for Khartoum. Satellite Photo's show the teams on the ground together during pre-flight...
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