Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 4:11 pmLast Thursday I was flying from Nelson to Auckland in an Air Nelson Q300. As we entered the cruise, the flight hostess invited me up to the cockpit for a look around. Obviously my dad had organised this before we boarded.
I walked to the cockpit and opened the CREW ONLY door. The pilots invited me in and sat me down in the jumpseat. Neither of them had headsets on, and instead used a handheld microphone and speakers to interact with ATC. I chatted to them about how my flight training was going (8.8 hours flown in a Tecnam P-2002 in Nelson). Apparently the copilot taught 2 of my instructors how to fly! With this he let me stay in the cockpit for the whole flight.
They talked me through the route we were flying (when I reached the cockpit we were headed to a waypoint called POKOM, which is basically Raglan Beach, then to the Ohura VOR (OH), then to Auckland. The route was programmed in the Flight management computer (FMS), and the Autopilot simply followed the route (e.g. when we reached POKOM we turned towards OH).
I flicked through the Checklists (very brief, far briefer than anything I've flown) and the Quick reference guide (a meaty bound book that tells you what to do in an emergency, or when the annunciator panel lights up), but unfortunately I didn't spot the POH.
We cruised at FL170, then dropped to FL140, then 11000 feet, then ten, then six. The copilot showed me how VNAV worked, where they specify a certain point (example: a VOR) and a certain altitude, and the autopilot descends the plane so that it will arrive at the specified place at the specified altitude.
I also noticed the ATC barely talked to us, contrary to my experiences in the Tecnam and on VATSIM. At OH, we were cleared to descend to 3000ft and head for the waypoint TOMAS, which is basically the point for a 3-mile final into Auckland 23L on a visual approach.
They slowed the plane down (I can't remeber the speed though) and turned at Tomas, straight onto 23L. They couldn't slow down too much though because a 737 was on our tail. They loweder the flaps to 5, then 15 as we descended towards the tarmac. We flared, and the runway seemed far wider than Nelson (it probably is though). "Link 378, taxi gate 43 via Bravo 4", "Gate 43 via Bravo 4, 378".
We would've used B3 but some damn Eagle 1900D was sitting with its engines on in the middle of the taxiway. Anyway, we passed some other interesting planes (incl that weird light jet, dad says it's a westwind) into the gate. We said our goodbyes and that was it.
Cool flight that.
I walked to the cockpit and opened the CREW ONLY door. The pilots invited me in and sat me down in the jumpseat. Neither of them had headsets on, and instead used a handheld microphone and speakers to interact with ATC. I chatted to them about how my flight training was going (8.8 hours flown in a Tecnam P-2002 in Nelson). Apparently the copilot taught 2 of my instructors how to fly! With this he let me stay in the cockpit for the whole flight.
They talked me through the route we were flying (when I reached the cockpit we were headed to a waypoint called POKOM, which is basically Raglan Beach, then to the Ohura VOR (OH), then to Auckland. The route was programmed in the Flight management computer (FMS), and the Autopilot simply followed the route (e.g. when we reached POKOM we turned towards OH).
I flicked through the Checklists (very brief, far briefer than anything I've flown) and the Quick reference guide (a meaty bound book that tells you what to do in an emergency, or when the annunciator panel lights up), but unfortunately I didn't spot the POH.
We cruised at FL170, then dropped to FL140, then 11000 feet, then ten, then six. The copilot showed me how VNAV worked, where they specify a certain point (example: a VOR) and a certain altitude, and the autopilot descends the plane so that it will arrive at the specified place at the specified altitude.
I also noticed the ATC barely talked to us, contrary to my experiences in the Tecnam and on VATSIM. At OH, we were cleared to descend to 3000ft and head for the waypoint TOMAS, which is basically the point for a 3-mile final into Auckland 23L on a visual approach.
They slowed the plane down (I can't remeber the speed though) and turned at Tomas, straight onto 23L. They couldn't slow down too much though because a 737 was on our tail. They loweder the flaps to 5, then 15 as we descended towards the tarmac. We flared, and the runway seemed far wider than Nelson (it probably is though). "Link 378, taxi gate 43 via Bravo 4", "Gate 43 via Bravo 4, 378".
We would've used B3 but some damn Eagle 1900D was sitting with its engines on in the middle of the taxiway. Anyway, we passed some other interesting planes (incl that weird light jet, dad says it's a westwind) into the gate. We said our goodbyes and that was it.
Cool flight that.
Man your lucky!