Professional Pilot, March 2018

Picture taken before departure As the pilots taxi out they review the expected takeoff performance PROFESSIONAL PILOT March 2018 59 transmits ADS aircraft position and flight data and pilot controller text communications via satellite link HF is used as a back up but it is rarely necessary as the CPDLC system works quite well If you have problems logging in or are dropping out a re logon usually solves the issue depending on the specific setup in your aircraft Frankfurt to Buenos Aires One of the longest flights I operate frequently is FRA Frankfurt Germany to EZE Buenos Aires Argentina Due to the great distance flown nonstop it is always a challenging and interesting flight as we operate at the performance limits of the Boeing 747 8i the latest version of great B747 Its a flight that requires a little more planning and attention than a routine flight An airport at night always has a special atmosphere The lights the activity the aircraft departing to far away destinations it all seems to have more magic at night As we approached our B747 8i on the apron of FRA on a recent wintry evening in our crew bus I looked at the beautiful big bird named after the German port city of Hamburg As usual the aircraft was surrounded with ground service vehicles and through the large windows of the terminal building I could see the passengers awaiting their boarding and the aerial journey to Buenos Aires over 6200 nm and 13 hours inflight away The good part EZE lies in the Southern hemisphere and thus we expected summer in December I had 22 crewmembers including 3 pilots and 2 pursers Around 400 passengers would join us that night Many were actually transferring from flights out of Japan and China as their business in South America was growing The holds were full of cargo We pushed back on time a good thing as FRA has a very stringent night curfew and deicing the plane would also take some time With 4 engines running we taxied to the deicing pad close to Rwy 18 Corporate aircraft are usually deiced at their parking positions at the southern apron in FRA At 2252 LT 8 minutes before curfew I was finally able to push the thrust levers forward release the brakes and we lifted off weighing over 440 tons for a flight that was planned to last 13 20 hours and required 1672 tons of fuel on board at departure We turned west towards Luxembourg Paris and the Bay of Biscay After transfer to Madrid ATC we headed to Cape Finisterre on the northwestern tip of Spain The airport of Santiago de Compostela was just below us a 3000 m 10000 ft runway and good spot to keep in mind for a diversion In the clear night we could also see the lights of the city with the famous cathedral which marks the endpoint and destination of the Jacobs way pilgrimage that many people undertake on foot starting in southern France The lights of Vigo and Porto on the west coast of Spain and Portugal respectively were visible out of my portside window as the moon lit the quiet ocean A beautiful sight as we left land behind and the long overwater flight began Across the S Atlantic on UN741 The shortest route from London Paris or Frankfurt to Argentina is via the Canary islands and then airway UN741 which takes you over Tenerife and then west of São Vicente island in the Cape Verde islands all the way to Fortaleza on the north coast of Brazil From there you proceed inland to Uruguay Rio de la Plata and Argentina Wind patterns the intensity of the Intertropical Convergence Zone ITCZ and ATC overflight fees may make other routes more economic The Canary Islands Flight Information Region FIR in particular has fairly high overflight fees and also many ATC slot restrictions due to the high volume of tourism related traffic to these islands But this FIR is fairly small and can be easily avoided by either passing over Morocco and Mauretania or by staying west of it Our route that night took us out further into the ocean west of the Canary Islands FIR We logged in CPDLC with Santa Maria Oceanic using the code LPPO to address them The confirmation came back right away From the southernmost island of the Azores Santa Maria our CPDLC logon was confirmed by datalink Since HF communication is still used as a back up on CPDLC oceanic routes we also called them on 3016 kHz to confirm the proper operation of the SELCAL system the backup frequency was 5598 kHz It is nice to have 2 HF sets because reception may be poor and you never know which of the 2 frequencies works better under the prevailing atmospheric conditions so with 2 sets you can monitor both frequencies at the same time Weather and possible alternates Even though dispatch had provided weather forecasts for viable enroute diversion airports for us entry into oceanic airspace is always a good moment to get updated weather reports from the relevant islands On our route TFS Tenerife South Spain PXO Porto Santo Portugal close to Madeira and TER Lajes Portugal on the Azores island of Terceira were of relevance as these have airports with over 3000 m runways There are more islands with airports in the northern portion of the route but they may have much shorter of the heavily loaded aircraft Berendsens B747 400 enroute over the South Atlantic pictured by a another aircraft