mrparsons

Today's 293 from LHR to IAD is showing as switched to a 772 instead of a A380 (keeping an eye on this route as flying it Sunday)

Pilot37

That has been happening quite frequently on that route due to a combination of A380 tech issues (freeing up that A380 gives an extra bit of slack in the system) and a lack of A380 pilots which has also hit quite a few services. SIN at 4 pilots each day across a 5 day roster is having a bigger impact then expected and is one of the main reasons SIN drops the A380 service next March apparently.

Pilot37

mrparsons

Must be a fun exercise trying to pack an A380's worth of passengers on to the 772, especially as the route often seems quite full.

Naive question - is piloting an A380 so different to other planes due to the size? different cockpit layout, or a small fleet just not having much opportunity to qualifiy?

Pilot37

During Covid a lot of the A380 flight deck crew transitioned to the A350 (nobody was even sure if the A380 was coming back), which left flight crew numbers short and they’ve basically been trying to recover from that ever since I think (no different to most of the fleet - crew training is maxed out until well into 2025 and you also will have seen 200 entry level pilots being recruited directly by BA with the airline paying for all their training!).
Also, unlike cabin crew, who can hold multiple type ratings, BA doesn’t cross qualified flight deck crew between the A380 and A350 - so you just have a smaller number of flight crew to select from until the training catches up.

Pilot37

flarmip

The cockpit layout is very similar to the A330 and A340, and somewhat similar to the older A320. It was designed to make a type rating change easier. The A350 has a different, more modern design but is also made along similar lines.

By contrast there are significant differences between the Airbus and Boeing systems and design philosophies. In very broad terms, on Airbus aircraft the pilot tells the plane what they would like it to do - but it only happens if the computers agree, working to a set of safety constraints which (in theory) prevent stalls, excessive bank angles etc. With Boeing aircraft, the pilot makes the plane do what they want and the system only intervenes if an unsafe situation actually arises.

BA's A380 pilots aren't rated on any other type so there is only a relatively small pilot pool to draw from with 10 aircraft planned in service. Hence if there are routes requiring multiple sets of crew due to sector duration (e.g. SIN) this causes a strain on resources. Pilots are legally only allowed to operate 900 block hours a year, so even if they wanted to they may be unable to work overtime - or BA may need to save hours to allow them to operate according to the roster at other times in the year.

fartoomanyusers

some airlines allow pilots to fly both the A350 and A380 - such as Etihad
British Airways does not allow this

https://onemileatatime.com/news/etih...bus-a380-a350/

the-doctor

I read that as 'small feet'...bigger plane...bigger pedals right? Can't be piloting that with size 3 feet...makes sense

suley

Now showing on Fridays which I am flying, I guess having been out of service since the 4th Sep its likely to run on time unless they find something else wrong

jwhite9185

Bit of an interesting one on LEK the other week.

Made an unusually low (28,000ft) transatlantic crossing. Was sent a link ( https://ops.group/blog/data-link-mandate/ ) by a BA captain, and whilst most of it was a bit over my head, from what I can gather, there’s basically a new software update which is needed to cross the Atlantic at more traditional altitudes.

From looking at FR24, the rest of the fleet crosses the Atlantic at 30,000ft+ but sure enough LEK goes no higher than 28k.

I guess this is the odd one out when it came to getting the latest updates!

fartoomanyusers

wow - XLEK is actually descending to cross the Atlantic - the extra fuel burn must be mental !

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/a...-xlek#370de18c

XLEK trans atlantic flight track

Markie

Flew LEK to DFW earlier in the week. Noticed it was only going about 450 MPH. Later on told by IFL that there was a radio problem which caused them to fly lower, and slower, than normal.

Sigwx

It is an issue with the Satcom system trust precluded data link mandate airspace entry for certain navigation performance specification blocks of airspace.

The difference in fuel burn is around 8 tons between yesterday and today’s 213 runs.

fartoomanyusers

8 ton = 7.257 tonnes = 9,071 litres = 8,226 gbp using price from this site

not as bad as I had expected

skipness1E

So G-XLEK is longer MNPS able? (Minimum Navigation Performance Specification) Allows 1000ft seperation on the North Atlantic rather than 2000ft. Basically you get a rubbish routing at a lower level of you can't meet spec.

oceanscape

Is it more comfortable travelling at that lower altitude?