Professional Pilot, March 2016

This means that the location of the jet stream has a big influence on the density of traffic on the NOPAC route system NOPAC route structure The NOPAC route structure consists of 5 fixed established airways that run in 60 nm intervals off the Siberian coast the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Russian formerly Japanese island of Sakhalin The 2 northern tracks are westbound only and the 3 southern tracks travel predominantly eastbound but a mixing of traffic flows occurs if demand requires it although at different flight levels At certain times of the day the NOPAC routes form a bottleneck as everybody wants to fly at the same time Due to airline customer demand and scheduling eastbound traffic is heaviest between 0700 and 2100 Z whereas westbound demand is the highest between 1200 and 1900 and 2200 and 0700 Z As the sector lengths involved are very long and at the performance limits for almost every flight dispatchers and pilots compete for optimum flight levels in order to keep fuel burn to a minimum Consider for example that there is a Newark Singapore nonstop flight which burns almost 3 times its payload in trip fuel However on the plus side airliners mostly operate between FL310 and FL390 while corporate jets can efficiently fly much higher where it is easier to obtain an optimum route clearance NOPAC routes are RVSM airspace required over FL290 just like most of the world nowadays Vertical separation is 1000 ft and lateral is about 60 nm while longitudinal separation is 5 min when a Mach number is assigned and 10 to 15 min without an assigned Mach number You should not plan to transfer from a NOPAC route to another during the non radar part of the flight Option in case of emergency As we enter the non radar Anchorage oceanic airspace we should consider our options in case of a serious emergency Russian airspace to the west is controlled by Petropavlovsk ARTCC on the Kamchatka Peninsula If you really need to get down quickly you may consider using Siberian airports such as DYR Ugolny at 64 N 68 PROFESSIONAL PILOT March 2016 177 E with an 11000 ft runway PKC Petropavlovsk Kamchatsky with an 11100 ft runway and UUS Yuzhno Sakhalinsk at 46 N 142 E also with an 11000 ft runway There may be some paperwork and hassles but at least these are nice long strips of concrete Make sure to carry these airport approach plates when flying on NOPAC routes If you have to leave your assigned route in the non radar environment of the NOPAC track system there are special rules for inflight contingencies in this airspace Aircraft unable to maintain their assigned route and altitude should receive a new clearance first If that is not possible in time the track should be departed in a 45 degree angle with minimal altitude loss until a 15 nm offset is reached Then a flight level or altitude plus 500 ft should be maintained All aircraft should be alerted with calls on 1215 MHz emergency frequency and 12345 MHz air to air frequency preceded by either PAN PAN or MAYDAY as appropriate Watch out for other traffic on TCAS and also visually as you turn Switch on all your lights If you need to reverse course keep turning through 180 degrees until reaching the 15 nm offset from your assigned track the turning radius at these altitudes and speeds may be larger than 15 nm This may be a problem in those areas that have initiated a 30 nm lateral track separation trial Weather deviations for example for CB activity require a slightly different procedure Aircrews should try to obtain a revised clearance from ATC via datalink or HF with the prefix weather deviation required ATC will issue this clearance if there is no conflicting traffic If ATC is unable to grant the clearance due to other aircraft they will advise of the conflicting traffic and ask for the intention of the flightcrew The crew should then deviate from the OTS as required but advise surrounding aircraft on 1215 and 12345 Remain vigilant for other aircraft always turn on your lights and keep the transponder code as assigned as youd do in any deviation from a clearance If deviation from the track centerline is less than 10 nm the flight level should be maintained If required deviation is larger deviating north requires a descent of 300 ft and deviating south requires a climb of 300 ft This is a procedure not very well known and its seldom done right by pilots flying international missions Usually they just maintain their flight level while deviating around CBs After the halfway point the next airport in Japan is CTS at 42 N 142 E It has 2 parallel 9800 ft runways and perfect infrastructure as expected from this country Sapporo hosted the Winter Olympics in previous years so watch for high terrain Before you land in CTS NRT Narita Intl Tokyo or HND do not forget to tell your passengers about the international dateline As we flew west all day long we probably had daylight all the time But in Japan the new day started long ago already so we have to add 1 day to our date As we fly back to the US we will get back that day so no worry there Reward yourself you made it across the pacific After a long flight over an impressive landscape a flawless approach with a landing soft as a feather and precision Japanese ramp handling it is now time for real Japanese sushi a hot bath and a well earned rest Peter Berendsen is a Boeing 747 8i captain for an international airline He writes regularly on aviation related subjects When flying over ocean the need for clarity of ATC instructions really makes having CPDLC essential Here is a Universal Avionics UNS 1EW with CPDLC message instructing the pilot to Climb to and maintain FL350