Flying the Boeing 787 E-Book

Gib Vogel

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Seitenzahl: 164

Beschreibung

Since its first flight on 15 December 2009, the Boeing 787 'Dreamliner' has been the most sophisticated airliner in the world. It uses many advanced new technologies to offer unprecedented levels of performance with minimal impact on the environment. Flying the Boeing 787 gives a pilot's eye view of what it is like to fly this remarkable machine. It takes the reader on a trip from Tokyo to Los Angeles as the flight crew see it, from pre-flight planning, through all the phases of the flight to shut-down at the parking stand many thousands of miles from the departure point. Lavishly illustrated with specially taken photographs of the B787's controls and instruments, this book will be of interest not just to commercial pilots, but to all aviation enthusiasts: it gives an insight into a world normally hidden for the flying public, at the technical and operational cutting edge of commercial flying. Gives a pilot's eye view of flying this remarkable machine - the Boeing 787 'Dreamliner'. Also an insight into a world normally hidden from the flying public, at the technical and operational cutting edge of commercial flying. Lavishly illustrated with 176 specially-taken colour photographs of the B787's controls and instruments.

Leseprobe

Flying the Boeing787

Flying the Boeing787

Captain Gib Vogel

Airlife

First published in 2013 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

The e-book first published in 2013

© Captain Gib Vogel 2013

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 84797 636 9

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all those who have helped me write this book. Firstly, I’m indebted to the contributors to the Internet who have allowed me to use their wonderful 787 pictures.

To my colleagues and friends who have helped me source material and provided me with information on the 787, I’m thankful.

To my mentor and friend Stanley Stewart, author of Flying the Big Jets and chairperson of the charity Aviation Without Borders, I am immensely grateful for his offering to guide and help me write this, my second book. His invaluable help enabled me to realize my idea of writing my first book, Flying the Airbus A380, and again he has selflessly given up much of his time to check and assist me with my manuscript.

Photographs by the author unless otherwise stated.

Frontispiece: © Dobel.

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1   Flight Preparation

Chapter 2   Birth of the B787

Chapter 3   Pre-Departure Preparation

Chapter 4   Engine Start and Taxi

Chapter 5   Departure

Chapter 6   Cruise

Chapter 7   Descent and Landing

Boeing 787 Specifications

List of Abbreviations

Index

Introduction

Ever since I was given my first Airfix model kit, a BOAC VC-10, at age eleven, I have been fascinated by airplanes. Living near an RAF base, watching the Avro Shackletons and Gloster Meteors take off and land, inflamed my passion even further. It will come as no surprise, then, that I thoroughly enjoyed my first job as an aircraft engineer before I was fortunate enough to be selected for flight training by a local airline. Having earned my wings with AST at Perth, Scotland, I have since been piloting both Boeing and Airbus airplanes for the past twenty-seven years.

When the 787 project was announced in the early nineties, naturally I keenly followed its birth and development.

Not long after my first book Flying the Airbus A380 was published, Crowood approached me to write a similar book on the Boeing 787.

Unlike the book on the Airbus A380, which I am still piloting, it was a difficult task for me to write about an aircraft on which I was not rated. I made a study of the possibility of writing it, discussing it with my 787 pilot friends, speaking to ground engineers and trawling the Internet for information.

Having flown Boeing aircraft for most of my career I am familiar with Boeing’s operational philosophy but I needed to update and re-familiarize myself with the improved flight management and electronic systems. I got my hands on maintenance manuals, flight crew operation and training manuals and, after much research, decided the project was ‘doable’.

I decided to write about a typical 787 flight from Tokyo, Narita airport to Los Angeles, taking the reader through the flight operational procedures from pre-flight to ‘chocks on’ at Los Angeles. Along the way I would discuss the aircraft systems and equipment and introduce the latest in air traffic management and navigational procedures.

It is my hope that both professional pilots and aviation enthusiasts alike find this book informative and enjoyable.

Chapter 1 Flight Preparation

FLIGHT PLANNING

It is one-and-a-half hours before the 8pm departure of Skybird 787, a flight from Narita airport, Tokyo, to Los Angeles. Captain Yakota is in a taxi as it approaches the security checkpoint at Narita airport’s protected perimeter.

The security guard at the checkpoint inspects Captain Yakota’s security pass and waves the taxi through. Earlier the driver had picked up Captain Yakota at his home for the journey to the airport to command this evening’s flight to Los Angeles and, whilst travelling, the captain logs on to his company’s website on the Internet. He retrieves a copy of the flight briefing package for Skybird 787’s sector from Narita to Los Angeles and downloads it into his iPad for perusal.

The two-man cockpit. (Keisuke Kambara)

The flight plan downloaded on the iPad for perusal.

iPad showing the Standard Instrument Departure route out of Narita.

The flight briefing package contains the Air Traffic Control (ATC) filed flight plan, the en route weather maps and other operational details such as expected passenger and cargo loads, planned fuel load and the airplane weights. He studies the weather reports for the departure and arrival airports and for the flight planned route. Good weather is reported for Narita, clear skies are forecast for Los Angeles and the en route weather across the Pacific gives no cause for concern. The captain notices, however, that a strong tailwind aloft will considerably cut his flight time to Los Angeles. He reads the Notices to Airmen (NOTAM) which are published by the local air traffic authorities notifying pilots of information pertaining to their flights. These tell of runway closures, unserviceable radio beacons, airspace restrictions for air defence exercises, taxiway works and other useful information that may have an impact on the flight.

NOTAMs include daily published routings across the Pacific that are normally used for filing aircraft flight plans. On the evening prior to the next day’s operations, the air traffic management authority of the US, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), selects and publishes the most favourable parallel easterly tracks across the Pacific taking into consideration wind and weather patterns. These parallel tracks, 60 nautical miles (110km) apart, are plotted to capture the strong westerly polar jet streams that blow with wind strengths of up to 250 knots (kt) from the countries of the Far East to the Americas. These changeable tracks are known as the Pacific Organised Track System (PACOTS) and are published every day. Airlines take full advantage of these tracks, saving time and fuel on their easterly Pacific crossings.

Initial routing across the Pacific as displayed on the iPad.

Final route segment over the Californian coast.

Opening the ‘Jeppesen App’ (application) with his password on his company-issued iPad, Captain Yakota transfers the flight route from the briefing package into the iPad application. The planned flight route is automatically plotted across the Pacific and the departure, arrival and alternate airport charts for Narita, Los Angeles and the alternate airport Ontario, California are loaded in ready for viewing. The Jeppesen airport charts offer guidance for taxiing, take-off and landing and are ready for display at a touch. The en route navigation charts are displayed with the flight routing plotted in. All relevant information, such as Air Traffic Control radio frequencies and other useful flight details, are highlighted for the different Flight Information Regions (FIRs) along the way.

En route information displayed.

Los Angeles Airport Jeppesen landing charts.

The taxi drops Captain Yakota by the kerb in Narita’s Terminal One where he proceeds to a special crew-receiving counter to check in his suitcase. He then takes the elevator down into the lower levels of the Terminal One building and makes his way to the airline’s flight dispatch room. There he meets his crew, First Officer Endo and Captain Izumi. Although the 787 is a two-man operated aircraft, on this evening’s nine-and-a-half-hour flight, a relief captain is provided for in-flight rest with the three cockpit crew taking turns for a break during the long journey. As Skybird Airways is not a big airline, the three-man crew are familiar with each other having flown together on previous duties. After a quick exchange of pleasantries, they proceed to the flight dispatcher’s desk for a pre-flight briefing. Laid out there is the paperwork for the flight, which is the same briefing package that Captain Yakota had earlier viewed on his iPad while riding in the taxi. They discuss the various details pertaining to the flight with the flight dispatcher.

Earlier, three hours before the scheduled departure of the flight, the flight dispatcher at Narita operations would have drawn up a flight plan for Skybird 787. The dispatcher collects the necessary information such as the Notices to Airmen (NOTAM) from the Air Traffic Information publications, the en route and destination weather reports, the provisional passenger and cargo loads from the Traffic Office and the reports of the serviceability of the aircraft from Engineering. With the provisional Zero Fuel Weight (ZFW) of the flight, he enters the departure and arrival airport into a route search program. The route search program, taking into consideration the en route winds, scans for the most favourable published air traffic routings available and presents the best route options. The dispatcher then selects the ‘least cost’ flight routing from the options that are displayed.

The cost of the flight can be divided simply into fixed and variable costs. Fixed costs are crewing, catering and landing fees, while variable costs are the required fuel load, the time-based airplane usage charges and the Air Traffic Control (ATC) service charges along the route. ATC charges vary depending on the transit time through air traffic regions and the fees imposed by the regions’ governing authorities. Owing to the high cost of fuel, the selected routing is, more often than not, the one with the shortest flight time with the least fuel used. Ensuring that no bad weather is forecast along the way, the flight dispatcher chooses a route and files a flight plan with the Japanese Air Traffic Control (ATC) centre. With the flight plan to Los Angeles accepted, he compiles a briefing package with all the assembled information. The flight briefing package is then uploaded onto the company’s website, allowing the operating pilots to download and examine the flight details via the Internet before arriving at the airport.

At the briefing desk, the flight dispatcher briefs the crew on the forecast en route and destination weather. Referring to the en route airports between Narita and Los Angeles, he briefs that the forecast weather for them is favourable for a diversion if required. Included is the technical report provided by Engineering indicating that the newly delivered 787 has no significant engineering defects that may affect the flight. The dispatcher then highlights the appropriate air traffic NOTAMs for closer attention by the crew.

FUEL REQUIREMENT

The dispatcher informs Captain Yakota that he has selected the minimum flight plan fuel for the route and awaits his concurrence that it is sufficient. ‘Minimum fuel’ for a flight basically consists of the fuel required for the taxi and departure, the ‘burn-off’ en route and the fuel required for arrival and taxi at destination. In addition, contingency fuel amounting to 3 per cent of the ‘burn-off’ is carried in case of unexpected circumstances. Fuel to proceed to an alternate airport if the flight is unable to land at the destination, in this case Ontario California airport, with an extra 30 minutes’ holding is provided. The total of the above fuel requirements is the mandatory minimum fuel load for a flight. On today’s flight, as the twin-engine 787 will be flying over the vast Pacific Ocean for an extended period, it is a requirement that extra fuel is included in the mandatory minimum fuel load in case of an engine failure or cabin depressurization in a remote region. If an engine failure occurs, the aircraft would not be able to maintain cruise at the planned flight level with the loss of one engine and would be obliged to descend to a much lower altitude. In the case of a depressurization, the aircraft would also be required to descend to a life-sustaining altitude of 10,000ft. In both these circumstances the aircraft could not continue to destination, and with jet engines being less fuel efficient at a lower cruising altitude, additional fuel would be required. Sufficient fuel must be planned to ensure that an en route diversion airport can be reached at the lower altitudes.

In case of an engine failure in the 787 twin-engine aircraft flights over remote regions, it is a legal requirement to have a diversion airport within 180 minutes single-engine flying time from the planned routing. This procedure is called ExTended OPerationS (ETOPS) by the USA’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) or Extended Twin OPerationS (ETOPS) by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and, just to add to the confusion, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) calls it Extended Diversion Time Operations (EDTO). However, ETOPS is the most commonly used term and for today’s flight, the ETOPS en route alternate airports are Shemya in the Aleutian Island chain, Anchorage in Alaska and Vancouver in British Columbia. With the introduction of more modern and reliable engines, Boeing is trying to get approval to extend the 787 ETOPS to 330 minutes’ single-engine flying time to a diversion airport. This would enable the 787 to operate unhindered in more remote routes such as between the west coast of the USA and New Zealand.

The captain considers that, with no expected inclement en-route weather or air traffic delays at the destination, the flight plan minimum mandatory fuel is sufficient and no top-up of extra fuel is required. Taking excess fuel in addition to minimum flight plan fuel is always given careful consideration as extra fuel load is basically ‘dead weight’ and results in costs being added to the operation with part of the extra fuel being burned just to carry the excess. The captain has to assess the benefit of carrying excess fuel to extend his options if the destination weather forecast is poor. It could be that he arrives at an airport without any excess fuel, has to wait out bad weather by holding to land, and the flight would have to immediately divert. For today’s flight the captain approves the planned fuel load of 61,000kg (134,000lb) giving a planned take-off weight of 201,000kg (443,000lb), much less than the 228,000kg (503,500lb) maximum take-off weight of the 787-8.

With the fuel decided, Captain Yakota signs the fuel-order form and hands it over to the dispatcher, who then relays the fuel requirement to Engineering for refuelling. The fuel details are also relayed to the Load and Planning department which performs weight and balance calculations to ensure the aircraft is properly loaded. The disposition of cargo and passengers is also calculated and, to ensure that the centre of gravity remains within limits, with the aircraft balanced in all phases of flight, the aircraft loaders are notified of the proper distribution of cargo and passenger loads. All these details are displayed on a load sheet for presentation to the pilots prior to the flight’s departure. They will cross-check the figures and note the aircraft’s final operating weights and the position of the centre of gravity that is used to determine the setting of the horizontal stabilizer trim take-off position. After engine start, the pilots position the horizontal stabilizer to the calculated take-off trim setting to maintain the aircraft in balanced flight immediately once airborne. Correctly trimming the aircraft in this manner before departure is of the upmost importance.

CREW ARRIVAL

The three pilots gather the paperwork and proceed to the departure gate, passing through more security checks on the way.

Security at Narita airport has always been extremely tight. From the beginning, the construction of Narita airport was opposed by activists and locals in sympathy with farmers who were displaced by having their lands forcibly expropriated. Once in a while, attempts still occur to sabotage airport operations. The airport was originally scheduled to open in 1971 but frequent disruptions and sabotage delayed its completion until 1978. As a result, all airport perimeter entries are heavily guarded, visitors’ identities are verified and vehicles thoroughly searched before being allowed to proceed to the passenger terminals.

When expansion plans for a second runway were implemented, the government purchased the land from the farmers rather than forcibly acquiring it. However, they were unable to obtain all the land required for the runway. The second runway opened in 2002 with only 2,500m (8,000ft) of the intended 4,000m (13,000ft) completed. Holding out against the complete runway construction was one stubborn farmer, whose refusal to sell his land limited the building of the full runway length. The resulting shorter runway is now only suitable for smaller aircraft. The farmer’s house can still be seen today, sitting defiantly just south of the threshold of Narita’s Runway 34 Right.

The grey fence surrounds the farmhouse in the centre of the airport.

The 787 awaiting passengers. (Keisuke Kambara)

The pilots do not have far to walk as the aircraft is parked at the nearby Gate 27 in Terminal One. As they pass through the ‘gate holding’ area, their passengers there are eagerly awaiting embarkation. It is now forty-five minutes to departure.

On arrival, the pilots proceed along the aerobridge to a final security inspection, where their names are cross-checked against the published crew list, before being permitted to board the aircraft. As the pilots enter the cabin, the unmistakable smell of a brand new aircraft greets them, as the 787 used for this flight was delivered to the airline only three weeks before.

A wide, spacious cabin illuminated with LED coloured lights welcomes passengers. (Keisuke Kambara)

When designing the 787, Boeing made an extra effort to make the aircraft’s interior cabin as welcoming and passenger-friendly as possible. On boarding the 787, passengers are greeted by a sense of spaciousness with a wider cabin and higher ceiling which is enhanced by the galleys being located away from the doors giving the passengers an open view on entry. Cabin lighting utilizes light-emitting diodes (LED) rather than the fluorescent lights of earlier airliners; the colours of the LED lights can be changed to suit different mood settings. Lighting with a hue of purple, the corporate colour of Skybird Airways, is selected to welcome the passengers on board. A bright yellow sunrise or an evening red can be selected to help passengers adjust to the time changes of long-distance travel. Passengers seated by the windows enjoy a better view with a taller window, 30 per cent larger in area than on conventional aircraft, made possible by the stronger, revolutionary carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) fuselage structure. The taller windows also allow passengers seated in the inner rows to catch an outside view in flight.

Electrically controlled shades showing three different settings. (Sukhbir ‘Shukhi’ Ahdan)

Larger windows offer better passenger flight experience. (Sukhbir ‘Shukhi’ Ahdan)

The 787 cabin windows no longer have the pull-down shades used on earlier aircraft, where the only options were a totally darkened cabin with the shades down or blinding bright daylight with the shades up. The 787 is equipped with electrical dimmable windows (EDW) with electro-chromic film that are electrically activated, allowing passengers to adjust the amount of light passing through using a switch located by each window to vary its opacity. A master control switch for use by the cabin crew located at Entry Door One-Left can adjust the shading of all the windows.

As the captain boards the aircraft he greets the cabin manager and briefs her on the expected flight time and the en route weather. In response she informs Captain Yakota of the anticipated load of passengers and that she plans to serve dinner half an hour after take-off and breakfast three hours prior to their arrival into Los Angeles.

ENGINEER BRIEFING