Airbus have really got to sit back and learn from this experience. It’s such a shame as many people like myself who use their products have immense faith in their goods but they are continually shooting themselves in the foot at present. Time perhaps for a little less French arrogance and a bit more German efficiency.

This is surely going to hurt sales for many types as their widebody deliveries are just no longer credible.

How many hours can a 3 pilot crew fly?

Do Airbus 340-500 and Boeing 777-200LR fly with 4 pilots, or are their ranges longer? The Worldliner record flight of 22 h 42 min had 7 pilots, but this was a demonstration… will service flights need 5 or 6 pilots?

Do 747SP or 747-200 or -300 long flights need extra flight engineers as well?

How many hours can a 3 pilot crew fly? – Depends on many things such as the time of day you start, how many sectors you are doing, how many nights you have spent within countries on adjacent time zones from your own, etc, etc. As you can see it’s a how long is a piece of string type question that we consult tables for to deal with all the variables. Even then we can extend the resultant time by varying amounts by different types of inflight rest or doing what we call ‘using discretion’.

Do Airbus 340-500 and Boeing 777-200LR fly with 4 pilots, or are their ranges longer? The Worldliner record flight of 22 h 42 min had 7 pilots, but this was a demonstration… will service flights need 5 or 6 pilots? – The flight you mention was not operated under Public Transport rules so was not subject to the same Flight Time Limitations scheme. Similarly a few years ago 2 friends of mine put some A330 spares in a 757 and operated on their own without a break from Manchester to Solo City in Indonesia in 3 sectors. That would never be permitted if it wasn’t in effect just a private flight. A330’s, A340’s, B777’s and B744’s can be operated by 2, 3 or 4 pilots depending on how long you need the aircraft to stay in the air for, however there is no Flight Time Limitations benefit under JAA rules for having more than 4. If you had more than 4 pilots then the extra guys/gals would have to sit in the cabin for take off and landing as only the A380 has 5 seats in the flightdeck (out of the current modern long haul aircraft).

Do 747SP or 747-200 or -300 long flights need extra flight engineers as well? – When I used to be cabin crew we used to do extended FTL operations on the 747-200 from Heathrow to Tokyo. In order to achieve this we carried 1 Captain, 2 FO’s and 2 Flight Engineers.

HON 1R – The 8 hours thing on the B744 may be some obscure FAA ruling however it isn’t the case under JAA rules. Our B744’s do sectors to Florida and all over the Carribean with 2 pilots and flight times over 8 hours. In fact 3 weeks ago I did a Miami as a 2 pilot crew with a flight time of 9.30 outbound and 8.05 inbound.

I thought the word was ‘crapaud’ not ‘crappo’. For those that don’t know it’s supposed to mean a ‘toad’ and is used by Guernseymen to describe a Jerseyman. A man from Jersey calls someone from Guernsey a donkey.

… also The Guardian, The Times, and The Daily Telegraph, etc. :diablo: :diablo: :diablo:

No, I disagree. The papers you refer to are not perfect but they are less inclined to sensationalise as the tabloids.

It’s interesting that many people on this thread are very keen to be accurate in how they view aviation but don’t seem to want to understand the difference between a genuine emergency and the need to resolve a situation before a problem occurs. To brand an arrival at anywhere other than destination as an emergency is just not reality.

…proves that it was most likely…

…or alternatively ‘100% sure there is a 50% chance’ 😀 😉 :confused:

PS Sandy is quite right. Otherwise captions like the title make people think events have happenned when they havn’t.

…Reverse thrust isnt taken into account in stopping distances?

In modern aircraft take off performance is usually more restrictive than landing performance on the same runway. Under JAR-OPS reversers are all considered to be inoperative for take-offs on dry or damp runways. They are allowed to be considered serviceable on wet runways but as so few aircraft these days need the preformance they are generally considered inop in order to standardise take off calculations.

The problem with the Sydney service is that to do it daily requires 4 aircraft! It has been discussed as an A380 route but the fact I just mentioned means it couldn’t be done until all the deliveries have been made (and possibly more).