Flight Times
 

How can I find out how long a flight is?

Michael

My fastest way is to refer to any of the older thick route timetables pre 9/11, as every flight # worldwide has a duration time on it. I ask UA on the phone when I book now if not sure, but there *may* be somewhere on ual.com that has same info.

One method; download the electronic timetable from ual.com. The .pdf version has the flight duration in the far right-hand column much like the old paper timetables.

http://www.uatimetable.com/United.pdf

The Windows version of the electronic timetable has the same information, albeit in a slightly different format.

http://www.ual.com/site/primary/0,10017,1891,00.html

I'm not sure if your talking about how long the ACTUALL flight is, or how long the padded "flight" is. If your referring to the time between the schedule departure and scheduled arrival "the padded flight", then just hope over to ual.com/ua.exe (I think that's the URL) to download the timetable, which lists durations. You can also get there by going to UAL.com and clicking on Timetables on the lower left hand side. If your referring to how long the actuall time in the air is, it's going to be pretty hard to tell because of winds, weather, ATC, airport congestion, and most importantly, how quickly the pilot wants to get home.

Slightly OT, but is there a "standard" padding built in? IIRC LAX-SFO shows as 93 minutes or whatever.

And on longer flights, the transpac show as 14.5 hours or whatever on timetable, but the second you take off the airshow screen shows 13.25 to destination etc.

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~ Glen ~

The padding is push-back/taxi time. If you look at a schedule with similiar aircraft flying a route ORD-DEN, SFO-LAX you will see that at peak travel times it will differ by sometimes 5-10 mins. This is due to additional ground congestion and speed restrictions en route.

Example: ORD-DEN, 757 equip
UA#259 = 2:36
UA#271 = 2:38
UA#959 = 2:23

I once listed to channel 9 and heard an upset 747 pilot complaining about being stuck behind a company 757, both going ORD-DEN, since he was restricted to mach 0.80. Due to T-storms they could not get around, and most other altitudes were very turbulent. I was on the 757, so I had no problems with it. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Lastly if you go to a site like travelocity.com you can lookup a flight and check the time there, the flights time that are usually listed on the map below are the ATC times, so that will give you a better estimate. Of course the site will not give that data until a couple of hours before scheduled flight time.


[This message has been edited by ncorman (edited 06-23-2002).]

ncorman. Thanks! For long It'l they often build in about an HOUR or more on the transpacs at least. I can never quite understand why as some folks will NOT book a 14.5 hours flight for vacaton I know, but 13.25 is not QUITe so scary sounding I guess!

I'm glad you all answered, because the only response I could think of was "Look at your watch when you take off, once again when you land, then subtract the difference". http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Oh my. Aren't you in charge of loading enough fuel? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/eek.gif

Nah, that belongs to dispatch, operations, and the fueler. Btw, the "padded time" is referred to as the "block time" in the industry and it measures the time from when the aircraft is "out" of the gate and back "in" the gate.

Do you still fly SFO<->NRT occasionally?

Taking off from NRT, i look at my watch and
it says (say) 5 pm, then upon landing, i see
that it says 9 am... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Hey, that's not fair. Our primary purpose in flight planning is to determine the fuel load, and we change it probably 1/3 to 1/2 the time. Otherwise, why would we even look at the weather? It's not like we ever decide not to go because it's raining/snowing/windy etc., like when I was flying Cessnas around. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

To answer the second question, I haven't ever actually flown NRT-SFO, although I've flown NRT-JFK and NRT-TPE a number of times. Last night was my last 777 trip (returning from LHR), and I start 757/767 training tomorrow.

So Mark, two quetions:

1) What aircraft are you trained on?

2) What prompted you to go to the 757/67 from the 777?

3) (Ok, three questions) Does that mean once you complete 57/67 training that you are still allowed to fly 777 aircraft, or do they limit/stop that?

Msnowdon, Expedia.com gives you exact travel times. If it is a connecting flight, continue on to "Flight Details" for a breakdown.

1) I just started training for the 757/767. Previously I was flying the 777. I've also trained on the 737 and A320 (please clarify if I haven't answered your question).

2)They told me they didn't need my help anymore. After September, flight schedules were drastically reduced, which results in fewer pilots needed and furloughs. Basically the entire pilot group moved backwards, which forced some people to smaller airplanes and others to a furlough. It takes about a month to retrain a pilot, however, and because our training center is only so big, the retraining of the pilots takes a while. My turn has come - the transition was not my choice, but to be honest, there are a number of advantages in it for me.

3) No more 777 flying. We only fly one aircraft type at a time (the 757 and 767 are considered one aircraft type). At some point, I'll go back and fly the 777 again. I anticipate that will be between 2 and 5 years from now (with 5 years likely being because I chose to stay on the 767).

Because of training, I'm also going to be very busy for the next month, so you probably won't see as much of me on Flyertalk.