Captain Robert Ting, the pilot in charge of Thursday’s historic first commercial flight of an A380, found himself facing the adulation normally reserved for rock stars.
The affable Singapore Airlines captain signed autographs and was surrounded by fans wanting their picture taken with him as he wandered the double-decker’s cabins talking to passengers and presenting first-flight certificates.
“I was trying to get him, but it was like a celebrity walking,” observed one SIA staffer.
However, the man himself was sanguine about his new-found celebrity. “It’s just for six hours,” he said. “After that they will all forget me.”
His job in flying the plane was no different than any other flight, he said, but he admitted being in command of the first flight was a special experience.
“The occasion is there – it is a special occasion,” he said. “There are so many of you who have come to Singapore just to be aboard this flight.” The flight pushed back from the gate as scheduled from Singapore’s Changi Airport, but had to wait while another plane to took off before it.
After a stunningly quiet taxi to the runway, it took to the air at 8.15am with 455 passengers and 35 crew.
Captain Ting said the big plane handled similarly to an A340-500 that he had previously flown.
“Airbus has the family concept, so when it built this A380 a bit bigger, it said it wanted it to fly very close to the A340-500 or the A330.
“Because it’s fly-by-wire, Airbus is able to tune it so the response comes in almost the same way,” he said. “So, in that way, it was very easy to make the transition from a 340-500 to an A380.
“Even though the plane is heavier, once in the air you don’t feel the size – you don’t feel the wings.”
The aircraft took off weighing 468 tonnes. The passengers and crew accounted for just 8 per cent of that total, with fuel making up another 28 per cent.
“It took 40 to 45 seconds for the aircraft to rotate – reach take-off speed – using about 76 per cent of maximum engine thrust.
“We de-rate the engine thrust so we don’t push the engines unnecessarily, which is common practice these days,” he said.
“With a lighter rate, you just de-rate the thrust. When you do that you use the runway a little bit more but it’s all within a safe distance.”
The A380’s huge wings, with twice the surface area of those on a Boeing 747, make it keen to take to the air and it can land at slower speeds than the venerable jumbo.
We rotated at 154 knots,” Captain Ting said. “At max landing weight of this plane compared to the max landing weight of a Boeing 747-400, we are at a lower landing speed, 138 knots.
“This is mainly because of the size of the wings.”
The wing’s aerodynamics also play a part.
“If you are on the main deck and you go to the section where the wing root is, you look at the shape of the wing and how it curves upwards. I have never seen a wing like this – it’s like the back of whale.”
The flight had a party atmosphere and most passengers came away impressed with the aircraft’s layout.
It includes 12 cabins in first-class, 60 extra-wide seats in business-class and 399 economy-class seats.
Source: The Australian
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October 30, 2007 at 4:26 am