I'm not totally new to NAT crossings, as I have flown them quite a bit some years back in the PMDG 747/MD11 and LevelD 767.   I had learned that throughout the part of the route where radar coverage is lost, aircraft are expected to fly a fixed mach speed cruise and are not allowed to deviate from the altitude they were assigned until the crossing is finished.   But I have a few questions I wanted to ask in regards to that rule:

 

1.  At what point is the aircraft expected to adhere to the fixed speed/altitude, at or before the entry waypoint (the named waypoint, not the lat/long coordinates)?

 

2. What would be a realistic speed to use on the crossing?  For the 777 with a 60 Cost Index, I average about M.83.   Would I keep that speed or use a speed that other (and maybe slower) traffic uses, say M.82? 

 

3.  How do you simulate the point where ATC coverage is lost and you start to "fly blind" by giving position reports to Oceanic controllers?   Would that happen when I enter Gander Oceanic airspace, on a East bound route?  And when I transition from Shanwick to Scotland, London, or France control would I then return to normal cruise speed/step climb if necessary? 

 

I believe I first learned about this from reading the excellent book by a British Airways 747-400 captain, "Flying the Big Jets" by Stanley Stewart.  It goes into great detail about every facet of 747 ops on a typical transatlantic crossing.  

After 2 years of NGX flying mainly in the United States, I envision many oceanic crossings in the 777 and want to brush up on my NAT skills!

1. At entry fix, you should be at the speed, altitude and time proposed by ATC.

 

2. Econ speed is always the best option, but if ATC wants you to fly slower due traffic, nothing you can do other than to comply.

 

3. As soon as you exit NAT you can ask for steepclimb and you can fly with no speed restriction. If you enter NAT with MAX FL you will end up at optimum level at exit.

When enter NAT just reset squawk to 2000, you will get new one at exit.

AFAIK (but correct me if I'm wrong) you can ask for a step climb while on a NAT, you're just really, really unlikely to get one because the flight level above you is probably already filled. It's a very busy piece of airspace.

Although ATC has the term 'control' in it, they are there to control your flight for the very best for everyone. As a service, ATC answers back to its customers, the airlines.

 

As a captain you are free to ask for whatever you want (presumably this will be in the best interests of your passengers and your airline). Certainly if you don't ask, you will not get. That said, don't expect the controller to have very much to offer if there is currently a lot of traffic.

 

HTH.

Control= Separation, Controlling the likely hood of a mid air collision.

As Richard says, you ask ATC and they may or may not be able to provide.

 

IIRC, a request for Atlantic crossing will invole asking for the following: the track you require (NAT A, B, C etc), flight level and mach no. I think you give your ETA for the NAT entry point in the request too, as this will influence ATC's descision.

 

 

1.  At what point is the aircraft expected to adhere to the fixed speed/altitude, at or before the entry waypoint (the named waypoint, not the lat/long coordinates)?

 

As soon as you hit your NAT Entry Point.

 

 

 

2. What would be a realistic speed to use on the crossing?  For the 777 with a 60 Cost Index, I average about M.83.   Would I keep that speed or use a speed that other (and maybe slower) traffic uses, say M.82? 

 

You would use the speed that you filed as part of your flight plan.  That's the /M083F350 when it shows something like MOATT/M083F350.  In this case, my entry point is MOATT and I'm expecting to be at FL350 at a speed of Mach 0.83.  I will hold this altitude and speed for the entire crossing.

 

 

 

3.  How do you simulate the point where ATC coverage is lost and you start to "fly blind" by giving position reports to Oceanic controllers?   Would that happen when I enter Gander Oceanic airspace, on a East bound route?  And when I transition from Shanwick to Scotland, London, or France control would I then return to normal cruise speed/step climb if necessary? 

 

You give position reports on the fixes.  Check this site out (yeah, it's IVAO, but the procedure is the same):

http://occ.ivao.aero/index.php?site=pilots

 

 

 

AFAIK (but correct me if I'm wrong) you can ask for a step climb while on a NAT, you're just really, really unlikely to get one because the flight level above you is probably already filled. It's a very busy piece of airspace.

 

Bingo.  It's congested, but not because it's super busy like you'd expect.  It's congested because separation minimums out over the ocean are about 50-90nm, depending on the aircraft being separated (RNP or non-RNP).  In radar coverage, it's 3-5nm.

 

So, it's not that there's an aircraft above you - it's that I can't approve something going through that 50-90nm buffer of the aircraft above and slightly ahead or behind.

 

 

 

As a captain you are free to ask for whatever you want (presumably this will be in the best interests of your passengers and your airline). Certainly if you don't ask, you will not get. That said, don't expect the controller to have very much to offer if there is currently a lot of traffic.

 

Good point.  A lot of people don't realize that.

 

 

 

IIRC, a request for Atlantic crossing will invole asking for the following: the track you require (NAT A, B, C etc), flight level and mach no. I think you give your ETA for the NAT entry point in the request too, as this will influence ATC's descision.

 

Have a gander at the PROG PAGES > PROG REPORT.  You literally read what's on that page (or, in today's world with CPDLC and all that, it gets sent to them as a text-based message).

If you google 'shanwick video' you will see a set of excellent videos for understanding oceanic operations.

 

HTH

I have found the video at

particularly useful.