Pacific Crossing Long Haul Style

[Guest groundpounder75]

Just completed a 13 hour and 7 minute haul from what was supposed to be KLAX to Melbourne Australia, but about 1000nm north of New Zealand I hit some clear air turbulance and had to divert to Auckland International. I had problems with some passengers. -"Approaching Minimums"-"Minimums"-Localizer Mode locked on, then approach mode locked on, flaps set to 25, gear down, heavy cross wind, some left rudder, and touchdown. Another awesome PSS 747-400 Qantas VH-OJM flight. Let me just say one thing, I am going to rack up the nautical miles on that monster. Flight simulation, nohting like it in the world. Next stop from NZAA is VHHH. Ah, but probably not till this weekend.

[Guest]

Mind if I ask something? Do you personally sit and fly the entire flight, or do you increase the simulation speed? I would love to do some long distance flights but I can only stand to fly for at most an hour before I can actually be involved (ie takeoff, landing etc).

[Datalink 26]

Not sure I could stand a 13hr sim flight. I don't mind 4 - 6 hours and have stretched to the odd atlantic crossing. Anything longer gets a sim rate increase, until about an hour before destination

[Guest groundpounder75]

See the trick to long haul flights is to treat it like a real flight. I do all the pre-flight planning and setup the route and get the bird flying. See, all the QANTAS flights leave out of LA at night, usually the first is between 8:00-9:00, which is the one flight to NZAA and then the Sydney and Melbourne bound flight leave later in the night. I think the last flight leaves by midnight. So for me being in NY and three hours time difference I leave out of LA around 11:30 EST. Then I will hand fly the departure and sit behind the controls for the first few hours then I go to bed, just like the real pilots due. Then I wake up and fly the last 4 hours or so. I love it and wouldn't trade it for the world. Also, I don't increase the sim rate. I try to be a close to real world as possible.

[Guest]

I am the same I love flying flights that are longer than 3hrs I always fly in real time and even if I leave LAX 20min late due to traffic on the ground I never speed it up even if I than run 20min late into YSSY. The best flights are to Europe from Asia nothing like the sun rising over Europe!!!!Regards

[Guest]

Just wondering how you set up a long flight. Do you use the A/P to fly the GPS bearing overnight? Out of curiousity I only tried it once, from Miami, FL to Rome, Italy and when I checked the computer the next morning, I was over the North Sea just east of Greenland, still on my bearing, but nearly 2500nm off course.

[Guest groundpounder75]

I use the PSS 744 when I fly and I use the Flight Management Computer to navigate. I will generate a flight plan using whatever software I feel like at the time and then load it in to the FMC. Then I have LNAV and VNAV engaged when I takeoff and then engage the autopilot after I hand fly the departure for a while and the plane flies the route. I know with the MS 747 you have to either use GPS to fly a long route, fly it by hand, or fly it by VOR/NDB. When you fly it using GPS you have to have the ND on GPS and the NAV button engaged on the autopilot. This will track the plan you file with ATC. Hope this helps.

[Guest united777]

I NEVER increase sim rate. when I do long hauls- 7hours or more- which is always, I take the 30+ minutes to create the flight plans and such, get weather readings and nat tracks. then imput that info into the fmc( if I want to save time, I'll get a pre made fp from fsbuild) then take the FP and import it, imput the INIT REF info into the 777 FMC do the flight checklists and get underway.. if its a long flight (LAX-VHH etc..) I'll still do it in real time LIKE ALL MY FLIGHTS, but I'll start it before I go to bed and wait an hour or so after take off and then go to bed using LNav and Vnav to navigate, then before I go to bed, do some simple DTG divided by GS calulations and get the remainder of my flying time and set my alarm accordingly. simple as that! then land with the sun rising.. "... AND I'M PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!"[b/]

[Guest]

then before I go to bed, do some simple DTG divided by GS calulations and get the remainder of my flying time and set my alarm accordingly. simple as that! then land with the sun rising.. Strange, so you're really not flying the "Long-Haul" flights, you're only flying for an hour or two, then off to bed?Seems more like a short-haul flight if you ask me ;-)

[Guest]

How do you Step Climb ??

[Guest groundpounder75]

Pertaining to the 747-400 I am not exactly sure when you are supposed to climb to a higher altitude, i.e. I don't know the exact weights that you want to climb at. From my experience flying in 747-400s to New Zealand, the first initial cruise altitude is FL290. Then when the fuel load drops the next altitude is around FL330 and I have seen the final altitude at FL390. This is all taken care of in the FMC. The PSS 744 doesn't simulate the step climb but you can program your legs to have different cruise altitudes but as I said I don't know at exactly which weights the step climb occurs. Hope this helps.