United Pilot Q & A {Archive}
 

Hello all-

Luckycoins, flyinryan, cepheild suggested an "Ask the pilots" thread might be a good idea so...........here it is. Honestly, I'm surprised that there would be an interest in a thread like this since you are all such frequent flyers and probably know all the answers to many of the questions asked about the airline industry, but if there's one I can answer (or maybe other pilot members can answer), fire away.

Do your arms ever get tried? :) Sorry.

Are you UA? If so, do you Channel 9? Why do so many not?

Actually, I asked if you would be willing to start the thread - so I guess I will ask:

Since most of us have no idea what goes on behind the cockpit door:

1. How do passengers affect your job? i.e. is there anything we do that makes your job more/less enjoyable?

2. What regular part of your job do you enjoy most, or maybe paraphrased as what makes you tick as a pilot?

3. What is the most annoying part of your job?

N I C E !!!
Great idea, and thanks for taking the ball on this one, waterfalls123.

Some of the random things I wonder about:
-How early do you arrive at the airport for a flight? Home much planning is involved for the routes/equip that you fly?
-During the flight, how much do you use the autopilot? Just at cruise, or do you switch it on fairly early in the climbout?
-During an ILS approach, do you use the APPROACH HOLD feature of the autopilot, or do you fly the needles manually?

I know I will think of a lot more. I see this becoming a hugely popular thread. Maybe to keep it in the UA forum, we should call it "Ask a UA pilot about UA stuff?"

Go over to this thread and all your questions will be MORE than answered with all the posts in the last few days!

He/she is UA, and for the answer to Channel 9, I suggest you read the last 150 or so (:)) posts in the Channel 9 availability thread, where the topic has been covered in excruciating detail.

And how. :eek:

When you do the walk around before the flight, is there honestly anything that you can really see that is out of order? Have you ever caught something awry during the walkaround?

Great idea for the thread!

how often are CAT II/III approaches shot when the conditions are there (assuming all aircraft/pilot req's are met) or are the flights just delayed/diverted until the weather clears?

Actually, that thread is full of stories, opinions, and other noise about CH9. I'm asking a pilot directly, as he requested.

Well, yes, but this pilot and a number of others (including freshairborne and flyguppy) have provided their explicit opinions in that thread. They were asked that exact question and replied to it already, though you may have to dig for the replies.

What is that annoyingly loud hum that is heard on Channel 9 on 767s (when Channel 9 is tuned to ATC). Is it 400Hz pickup? Why is it so much more pronounced on 767s than other aircraft? Thanks in advance.

My attempt at answers from flyinryan:

Im not a UA pilot but I can take a stab at these. I am am currently flying a 767 on a contract with a Japanese Airline based in Tokyo. Im on here because I commute to work on UA each month. Japanese airlines are much less "laid back" that US Airlines but some of the stuff is similar.

1. At my company, we do all international flights and we start our briefings 1:30 minutes prior to departure time. For us, we only do an actual face to face briefing with a dispatcher for an ETOPS flight. For all other intra-Asia flights, we do out own briefing on a computer. All flight plans and calculations are pretty much done and we just review the weather and make any necessary changes then off we go to the airplane. China flights are a little more involved because well, it's China.

2. Autopilot use varies on the pilot. Some turn it on immediately, some hand fly to 10,000 ft, and there are a few who hand fly all the way up to cruise altitude.

3. Most approaches are flown coupled to the autopilot initially. I personally disconnect around 1500 - 1000 feet to do a manual landing. Autolands are not all that common unless done for currency. Every once and a while I will manually fly an ILS, especially if I have a sim check coming up.

There are lots of things that can be caught on a walk around. At my previous company in an RJ, I have seen a smashed wing from a baggage cart that no one bothered to report, damaged fan blades, damaged tires, leaking hydraulic lines, and a scraped wing tip from too much bank on a previous landing.

On bigger airplanes, you pretty much are looking for the same things. Condition of tires, remaining brake pads, any strange fluids on the ground that would indicate a leak, bird strike damage, fan blade damage, open inspection panels, tail strikes, etc...