Something for Freight Dog

Earlier this week, I went to an aviation museum about 30 minutes from Amsterdam, together with a fellow Trucknet member who had popped over to Holland for the day. Among the exhibits was a decomissioned ex KLM Boeing 747. I thought Freight Dog might be interested as the 747 is his work horse.

I’ve included a photo of the fuel bowser so that this is a truck related thread.

Staying on the aviation theme, my wife was due to work a flight to the US. She commuted from Holland to her base at Heathrow, but then the flight was cancelled because the Captain had gone sick. They tried getting an agency Captain but he’d never driven a manual Boeing 767, only automatics. So they couldn’t use him and the aircraft had to stand in the yard, and my wife had to fly back to Amsterdam again. At least she got a couple of extra (paid) days at home.

Ah beauty my friend. Great pics! The good old classic.

We used to use KLM when I worked for CV to position back from darkest Africaaa after our “round the world” tours on the 747-8F.

I’ve never operated the classic, 744, 744F, 744BCF, 748F and now back onto the 747-400 again for a passenger airline.

Worked with plenty of South African flight engineers flying for Saudi Arabian who retrained as Pilots after the classics left. Good lads flight engineers. They know all the bars and all the jokes.

Who’s your good lady work for out of LHR? LHR is a royal pain in the arse to work from. I’m sure you know from your misses :laughing: . Car parking, getting to and from the terminal. The roads. You could live next door and still have an hour commute!

The only type that I’ve ever flown on.My first ever flight was a BA Rolls Royce 747 like these from LA to Heathrow having gone out on the QE2 and will never forget the acceleration of the thing on takeoff.Then wondered what was going wrong the next time I flew from Heathrow to New York on an older type Pratt and Whitney version.I’d heard they were marginal on power but my only experience of the Rolls powered version previously made me think either that was an understatement or we’d lost two engines and we weren’t going to get off the ground before the end of the runway. :laughing:

youtube.com/watch?v=yvJjVlqu9Yo

Also found out that turbulence and the 747 don’t mix.That first flight ended up with my in flight meal all over me together with my drink having found out that their and the serving tray’s flying capabilities were better than the plane’s in those conditions and the second time I knew was going to be even worse when the Captain told the cabin crew to stop serving everything and secure their trollies etc and everyone had then buckled up even before the seat belt warning lights came on and can only describe what followed as not only worse than a roller coaster but in every direction at once,lots of terrified passengers and the massive applause when we landed. :open_mouth: :laughing:

The cockpit looked really rough and ready. You could imagine the pilots wearing Ray Ban aviators and chomping on unlit cigars as they flew a cargo full of plastic tat out of Hong Kong or Taiwan !

What do all those switches in the ceiling panel do? Only joking, too many up there to list.

citycat:
The cockpit looked really rough and ready. You could imagine the pilots wearing Ray Ban aviators and chomping on unlit cigars as they flew a cargo full of plastic tat out of Hong Kong or Taiwan !

What do all those switches in the ceiling panel do? Only joking, too many up there to list.

Ha! I honestly couldn’t tell you on the classic its quite different. Most of what you see in the photo from halfway up the panel back are circuit breakers.

I can tell you what the 747-400 is. The overhead is split into 3 vertical sections. Starting top left going down - IRSs selectors, Engine EEC, Electrics, bus tie selectors, gen switches and disconnects, hydraulic pumps, cockpit lighting. Middle down - audio switches, Fire handles and switches, engine start selectors and ignition controls, fuel jettison valves, fuel control panel, anti ice and de icing switches, external light switches. Right panel down - passenger oxygen mask selector, yaw damper switches, voice recorder switch, pressurisation outflow valve controls, air conditioning and pressurisation panel. More external lighting.

Freight Dog:
Ah beauty my friend. Great pics! The good old classic.

Who’s your good lady work for out of LHR? LHR is a royal pain in the arse to work from. I’m sure you know from your misses :laughing: . Car parking, getting to and from the terminal. The roads. You could live next door and still have an hour commute!

She flies for United. Because the cockpit crew is from the US, they didn’t have a spare pilot at LHR when the Captain went sick, so had to cancel the flight.

A mathematical question foe Freight Dog .
What calculations or formula is used for using fuel and the aircraft becomes lighter in the flight plan ?
With the weight of the fuel becoming less, do you increase speed or maintain it, and does a commercial airline make a profit as less fuel is used as it becomes less heavy ?
And could a four engine aircraft fly halfway across the Atlantic with one engine working, what are the stress factors put on the fueselage and other parts ?
With a total loss of avionics, where you flying blind, how do you calculate the glide slope to an emergency airfield, I saw the co pilot do the maths on a back of an envelope, in a true story of landing on a shut down airfield with no power, in a movie ?

Had a good friend crew (loadmaster2)on a Shorts Belfast for Heavylift.au. he did a few rounders from Prestwick to Brisbane.(with all the stops for fuel and an emergency landing on a military airfield in sri lanka,(lots o guns pointed at them until they replaced the electrical part that failed)…then on to the fish run from the pacific islands back to Brisbane…wasn’t a bad job for an old wagon driver RIP.

toby1234abc:
A mathematical question foe Freight Dog .
What calculations or formula is used for using fuel and the aircraft becomes lighter in the flight plan ?
With the weight of the fuel becoming less, do you increase speed or maintain it, and does a commercial airline make a profit as less fuel is used as it becomes less heavy ?
And could a four engine aircraft fly halfway across the Atlantic with one engine working, what are the stress factors put on the fueselage and other parts ?
With a total loss of avionics, where you flying blind, how do you calculate the glide slope to an emergency airfield, I saw the co pilot do the maths on a back of an envelope, in a true story of landing on a shut down airfield with no power, in a movie ?

Eh up up Tobe, I might as well stick this in before I toddle

Yeah actually dead right. The fuel is burnt off and we do step climb as we go along. You start out at maybe 400 tonnes, only able to achieve 34000ft. Its roughly 10 tonnes an hour burn in cruise on the 74. The aircraft is stepped up when its light enough to achieve an optimal flight level. The optimal level depends on a combo of favourable winds, temperature, fuel burn and speed. The speed depends if you want to get there quickly to make a time restriction, or save as much jungle juice as possible. Most airlines want to strike a balance. They calculate a useable figure to represent this called a cost index. It’s a number that’s then input into the flight guidance computers during on the ground. You can change it if you wish in flight.

Generally we keep going higher and actually fly slower Mach numbers as we go along.

A four engined aircraft even on two engines wouldn’t be able to carry on if halfway across the ponds it would have to divert. On one engine, you’re aiming somewhere quite close. We have a variety of diversion airports we use in Iceland, Greenland and Nova Scotia.

You don’t actually need to calculate a glide slope angle. The glide slope beam from the instrument landing system is fixed and radiates from the ground. It’s published on the approach charts, it’s normally 3 degrees. It’s about 300 feet drop per mile.

Cheers mate

Freight Dog:

citycat:
The cockpit looked really rough and ready. You could imagine the pilots wearing Ray Ban aviators and chomping on unlit cigars as they flew a cargo full of plastic tat out of Hong Kong or Taiwan !

What do all those switches in the ceiling panel do? Only joking, too many up there to list.

Ha! I honestly couldn’t tell you on the classic its quite different. Most of what you see in the photo from halfway up the panel back are circuit breakers.

I can tell you what the 747-400 is. The overhead is split into 3 vertical sections. Starting top left going down - IRSs selectors, Engine EEC, Electrics, bus tie selectors, gen switches and disconnects, hydraulic pumps, cockpit lighting. Middle down - audio switches, Fire handles and switches, engine start selectors and ignition controls, fuel jettison valves, fuel control panel, anti ice and de icing switches, external light switches. Right panel down - passenger oxygen mask selector, yaw damper switches, voice recorder switch, pressurisation outflow valve controls, air conditioning and pressurisation panel. More external lighting.

Wow and to think many on here cry about wether their truck is manual or automatic gears!! Let alone daily/pre-flight checks which don’t even come close to being comparable

They’d have a fit if they had to do even an minuscule amount of what you pilots do!!

Top respect FD for doing what you do, in my eyes it’s some achievement to be pilot [emoji67]‍[AIRPLANE]️!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Citycat
Where is this museum please?
Paul

“Don’t touch anything – just feed the monkey.”

sonflowerinwales:
Citycat
Where is this museum please?
Paul

aviodrome.nl/aircraft-theme … therlands/

Hopefully the link takes you to the English site. If not, just scroll down and there is an English button to press. It calls itself a theme park but there are no rides apart from a simulator. It’s just a indoor and outdoor museum. It was the original airport for Amsterdam before Schipol.

Lelystad airfield is just next door so lots of trainees in light aircraft and helicopters coming and going too.

Railway museum at Utrecht is really good if anyone is into trains.

Wheel Nut:
“Don’t touch anything – just feed the monkey.”

:laughing: