Great information steve..thanks for sharing

Could anyone tell me what the difference between the -419 variation and the standard -400 is? Do only Air NZ fly the -419?Thanks!

The two digits indicate the airline that first bought the aircraft. I'm not sure the exact codes but if ANZ first bough the aircraft and their cust code is 19 then it is a -419, is say British Airways bought it first and there cust code was 27 then it would be -427.RegardsRussell Jourdain (ANZ007/ZK-RHJ)

One route is pretty much the same as another to me. It is more the quality of time off at the destination that is important to me :)CheersSteve>Hi Steve - as a real world pilot do you have any routes that>you really like to fly or are they all the same when your in>the air except for flight time?>>Thanks,>>Darren

Hey Steve.But there's got to be some exciting APP's like it was on Kai Tak? What was the most exciting thing you experienced during a 744 flight?Many greetings from Germany@lex

Yes Kai Tak was great fun. You could never have an approach like that these days.Probably the most exciting would be a bird strike on TO in the old 747-200. We got hit just after rotation. It was not a straight out failure just severely damaged. We had 2 flight engineers on board so the whole thing was really a non event. We dumped 60 tonne of gas and returned. Did one of my best landings i(n case the media were watching) and it was only on 3 engines. Big pussy cat and a total non event but good to put all that training to some use.CheersSteve

Hi Steve - a question for you and its if the 747-400 will be in service from london - auckland via hong kong, with air nz on the new route that starts at the end of october. oh and will you be flying it?Thanks-Darren

Yes the 747 will be doing the AKL/HKG/LHR return service. The 777 will take over the AKL/LAX/LHR service. There is talk that the 777 will only do the Northern winter schedule and then it will go back to a 747 for DEC?JAN but I have seen nothing in writing yet that confirms this. Yes I will be doing this service....should be interesting flying thru chinese airspace.CheersSteve

Oh right thats good, so is it a longer flight from AKL-LHR going around the world the 'other way' via HKG instead of LAX? is the distance info available. one thing at least no more scary approaches into kai tak !Thanks -Darren

Great log Steve, hopefully I will be on NZ to LHR in Nov/Dec. Ah another oppourtunity to play the "confuse the flight attendant by asking which system my cellphone interfers with by naming a couple and laughing internally at the look on thier face"I know, I'm evil! :)I do have a question about the fuel. I've converted the following into pounds for my American trained brain.BURNOUT: 235,316ALTERNATE: 13,552 RESERVE: 8,443EXTRA: 4,743TAXI: 4,730TOTAL: 266,784Now, this would be considered a "flag" flight under the Federal Air Reg's and because you enter U.S. airspace I was trained that you must abide by thier rules as such.Flag fuel requires 10% of BURNOUT (unless OPSPEC allows lower) as RESERVE plus 30min to HOLD at 1500ft at landing weight (well that's the EXTRA fuel I guess)I worked out that if NZ's OPSPEC does not allow for lower RESERVE fuel then 10% of BURNOUT is somewhere around 23,000lb, using redispatch you could possibly reduce that by dispatching say EGLL-CYWG then CYWG-KLAX.So my question is, assuming I am not mistaken, obvioulsy I'm not saying your fueling was "illegal" but I am just wondering if your OPSPEC is different than the FAR, if so, what does it say (if you don't mind sharing it, we'd al love to know!)Also, FAT was chosen as an alternate, was this due to WX/MX/NOTAM? I usually see that the longhaulers into LAX usually use SAN/LAS/ONT if they can because of proximity/ARFF/pax handling/other airline connections etc.Well ... I do have another one, does NZ utilize redispatch on those long flights?Thanks, keep the Koru flying higher than the Kiwi :)

Hi Ben,I am not sure what our op specs are in relation to FAA requirements. We just operate to SOP's which the company ensures comply. Altough on the surface it would appear that we are short on fuel this is not actually the case. Yes US operators use a 10% "burnout", or contingency provision as we call it which on the surface seems generous, the provision of an alternate aerodrome differs. Essentially they dont necessarily need one and can redispatch in the air. We do not. We run a performance deterioration program where actual burnoffs are compared to book figures (for each airframe) and an allowance made. Typically these can be anywhere from 0 to 5 %. This allowance is applied to all fuel calculations. We also carry a 2 % A to B and B to C contingency allowance. We also always carry a destination alternate with fuel for 30 min holding at 1500 ft plus a visual approach fuel allowance (650 kg). This alternate fuel must not be less than the equivalent of 60 min holding at destination. Also for some airfields we carry a departure or arrival fuel allowance to cover known local operations (ie early descent into LAX ex pacific routes or LOOP departure ex LAX to Europe.) In my opinion this is much better than a blanket 10%. As was seen recently several overseas operators were caught short when AKl closed with fog and they ended up at Ohakea which they are not approved to use.I assume that regular operators op specs would be assessed by the FAA and approved and that this would be the case with ours. I will have a closer look on the way back and see what is there.CheersSteve

>Hi all. Attached is a zip file with a word document that>details the winds, fuels and times for the flight.>Cheers>Stevesteve,any chance you post again the zip link seems a dead one tonight ...see youphil

>>Hi all. Attached is a zip file with a word document that>>details the winds, fuels and times for the flight.>>Cheers>>Steve>>steve,>>any chance you post again the zip link seems a dead one>tonight ...>>see you>>phil>Sure here it is again.CheersSteve