Life east of \”30 West\”

Yet again, it’s been a while since my last update.

But there’s a couple of new areas of operation that I’d like to talk about.

This month, I’ve flown to both Accra, Ghana and Moscow, Russia.

Let’s start with Accra first. Flying from New York to Accra, you’re pretty far south of the organized track system. So we fly a thing called a “random track” further south on the earth’s latitudinal lines.

This presents two challenges. First, you’re very far south of most of the trans-Atlantic traffic so gleaning things like weather reports and turbulence conditions are hard to receive. You’re pretty much the only aircraft that far south flying the route so apart from being radio-monitored by New York and Santa Maria Oceanic, so you’re on your own.

The actual crossing enroute to Africa isn’t so hard, it’s a lot like flying a non-SATCOM aircraft.

What’s SATCOM? SATCOM is short for “Satellite Communications”. In the northerly latitudes, the aircraft will automatically uplink a position report to the controlling agency so besides a few SELCAL checks over the ocean, there’s not much else to do.

SELCAL is short for “Selective Availability”. This means instead of constantly monitoring VHF or HF radios, we can actually de-select or turn the volume down and when an agency wants to speak to us, they’ll send a special signal to the aircraft which will send us an audible and visual alert which directs us to re-select the radio. Unfortunately, it sounds a lot like the flight attendant call button so whenever we hear an “Bonnnng!” in flight, the first reaction is to look up at the ‘cabin call’ panel and see if it’s forward, mid or aft cabin, SELCAL or the cockpit printer alert.

Large parts of Africa aren’t in radar coverage so that presents a few challenges.

The first challenge is that you’ll be flying “offsets” or parallel courses on your cleared route. This does two things. Provides an extra level of separation between you and opposite direction aircraft plus helps you avoid VFR aircraft.

VFR aircraft? At FL390?

Absolutely.

Africa has an epidemic of smugglers flying 727’s at all sorts of altitudes, without transponders, flight plans or anything. Some of the countries you fly over enroute to Ghana can be buckwild so you have to lookout for yourself by taking extra precautions.

Descent and arrival into Ghana is just like any other airport, but as you descend lower you’ll see lots of red dirt roads, some ’shanty towns’ and sparse amounts of organized development.

Upon arrival, I was surprised how friendly and absolutely professional the ground crews were. They’re sharp, run to help marshall the aircraft to the parking spot and do their job right the first time. It’s not like taxiing into the gate in some cities where workers slowly meander out to the aircraft and marshall the aircraft into the parking spot with wreckless abandon. They’re happy to be there, happy you came and absolutely aim to please.

After we park the station manager, I can’t remember her name, comes directly to the cockpit to introduce herself. I tell her that I’m bringing my wife, make sure Kristie meets her and she gets her expedited through immigration.

An American plan arriving in Ghana is big news. There might be several hundred people standing outside of the fence to greet you and wave. It’s bizarre because you almost feel like a rockstar. They LOVE American magazines so I’ll have to remember to bring some next trip.

Accra was a fun city. I didn’t see anything larger than a fly, even though I had copious amounts of 97% Deet on my skin in an attempt to shoo away mosquitoes. People are absolutely friendly, will help you across the street and are more than willing to make sure you have a great experience.

Moscow.
Flying to Russia is a lot like other oceanic crossings, right until you hit the former Eastern Bloc nations because they’ll use “meters” for the flight levels.

In most of western Europe, you say “Flight Level 310″ but in many parts of Eastern Europe, they’ll say, “Climb and maintain flight lever 9600 meters standard”. Some aircraft like the Airbus and the 767-400/777 you can press a button and convert the altimeters and altitude windows to metric, but on the 767-300, whenever we get an altitude assigment, we’ll dial in 096 into the VOR course window to remind us that we’re going to 9600 meters, then use the international conversion chart to determine how many feet 9600 meters is, triple confirm then climb or descent appropriately.

At first, it’s a little intimidating but after a few altitude assignments, it’s pretty easy.

Almost fun.

On second thought, very fun as it’s something I would never experience flying into Fresno!

Arrival into Moscow is a little strange. It’s almost like you perform an FMS-driven overhead break and line up for the final approach course.

There are special civilian corridors and a large amount of “DO NOT CROSS ZYX radial 089″ directives and special lost comm procedures. From reading the “Moscow Gouge”, you don’t want to fly over downtown or blast into Moscow airspace without talking with anyone because there are a lot of “shoot down” warnings.

The runway markings are quite different in Moscow, which is why it’s always good to brief what you expect to see when you break out of the clouds. Surprisingly enough, Moscow has no radar so you’re still conducting position reports on arrival.

Taxiways are numbered. They’re not designated with ICAO alphabet like most other airports (”taxi via echo, hotel, foxtrot 2, mike delta to the ramp”, it’s more like “taxi via taxiway 12, taxiway 43, main taxiway two, report “follow me truck”)

Arrival at the ramp is a little different.

We’re met by an officer in the standard “old style” Soviet Union military outfit that takes out secondary passports w/Russian visas. We exit the plane via the staircase and make a long walk outside (rain, snow or shine!) through passport control and go wait in the terminal for our passports to be given back to us.

If there’s a person on the crew that hasn’t been to Moscow before, the wait can be (and WAS) about 45 minutes before you’re able to get your passports back and depart for the hotel. I’ve been told they’re checking to see if you were in the military and whatever branch you’re in, to make sure you’re not presently in armed conflict with any part of the Russian Federation.

The drive to the hotel can last anywhere from 40 to 90 minutes depending on traffic. It’s not a matter, as much, of the conditions of the roads, but it’s contingient on how many automobiles are broken down along the road, it’s pretty interesting.

There are also quite a few landmarks along the road as well, most notable is a large monument to the limit of the advancing Germany Army during the siege of Moscow during World War 2. Check out the “Pictures from the Road V2.0″ section of http://forums.jetcareers.com under one of the Moscow threads.

The hotel is a great hotel, but then they make additional copies of your passport for a ‘hotel certification’ (whatever the hell that is) and such.

Departing is a little stranger.

We drop our passports off at the immigration control window, screen our bags twice thru the x-ray, pass through crew “duty free” and then a metal detector, and then we have another person dressed in the standard olive drab Russian military physically dig through each and every bag looking for God knows what.

After the inspection, there’s an inspection sticker affixed to your articles that really doesn’t come off and damned near semi-permanent.

Actually departing Moscow is a lot like arriving, not that big of a deal at all as long as you mentally prepare yourself for the differences.

Moscow was a six-day trip. We flew JFK-SVO-ATL-SVO-JFK.

The first two legs, I flew with Jetcareers member “Staplegun” and that was exciting because the first time I flew with him, I was doing my very first North Atlantic crossing and was absolutely clueless. It was fantastic to fly with him again and demonstrate how much I had learned in the last three or so months. I really think he’s ‘got it going on’ and his procedures and techniques I strive to fashion my own after.

On the next two legs, we had a new pilot to the 767 international operation at the level of experience that I had when I first flew with Staplegun. It was great being able to impart some wisdom on a new guy, showing him what matters, what doesn’t and what REALLY matters. He did a great job. Former Skywest pilot and their loss is my airline’s gain! ;o)

Conclusion:
After four months on the 767 international, it’s going to be a LONG time before I fly another domestic leg. I thoroughly enjoy the principles of teamwork dealing with 11 crew members, I love the cultural differences and opportunities to go places that I couldn’t go with any other airline and especially the international mindset. People look after one another, we all have a great time together and best of all, the aircraft WORK. There’s a mechanic on every leg to make sure the aircraft is certified and the entire team really pulls together to make sure the flight is successful.

Despite what some people say, yes, international is the bomb-diggity and so much more rewarding than I experienced during my 11 years flying domestic airline operations. Gate changes, broken airplanes, short layovers, angry needy passengers flying to Orlando, the “people with the wife-beaters sporting the neck tatoo”…. ehh, you can keep it.

I’m not afraid to say that.

I’ve worked 12 days this month for 93 hours. Kick ass.

I’ve got a better feeling for the aircraft as it lands a lot like an MD-90 without all of the “Yoke English” that you’ve got to exert during the landing phase. The Boeing is logical, works great, lasts a long time. It’s impossible to love an inanimate object, but “love’s” pretty damned close.

I’ve think I’ve found a home for the next phase. I can almost hold ER captain so that’ll be grand for when I need a change, I enjoy 98% of the guys I fly with, I love the exciting aspects of learning about new cultures and seeing things I’ve only seen on television and exploring parts of cities I had no idea existed. That little ‘tingle’ of fear is back so it’s really brought my ‘edge’ back and I feel more fulfilled.

In October, I fly to Istanbul, Turkey for a 48-hour layover and to Budapest, Hungary for another long layover and I’m dragging Kristie along. But between now and my next string of trips, we’re going to Oktoberfest in Germany for a little “Beer ‘n Chicken”.

Thanks for reading! :o) :o) :o)

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