๐จ The latest
#CockpitCasual
drops at 12PM EST / 1700Z TODAY!
Itโs a good one, and Iโm stoked to finally be able to release it!
Cockpit Casual - NOMADIC ONE
I posted this last year, (June โ22) but just stumbled on it again - this was over Spain westbound. I was flying a 767-300ER from Nimes France to Lima Peru - this French Air Force E-3 sentry was below us. Great look at the AWACS radar spinning!
#Avgeek
Check THIS out. This was a first for me - a French Air Force E-3F AWACS spotted below us. We were at FL330 over Spain, and it was down around 290 I believe. We slowly overtook her. The spinning radome clearly visible!
#AvGeek
On the leg between Guam (PGUM) and Kalaeloa (PHJR) we experienced a fault with one of our 2 AC packs. This left us a single point of failure away from de-pressurization, which would require a descent to an altitude where we could breathe without supplemental O2. Keep in mind, a
As you all know by now, we bounce around from type to type a lot, but after a few straight days of flying patterns, approaches, maneuvers in a 1986 IA-1124A, jumping right into an Airbus is wild. Bob and I each looked at each other on the climb in the A320 and said: โJesus, this
Hereโs a current (and past) pic of my now 101 YO grandfather / WWII Aviator / Centurion+, grandfather Marty Benoff who celebrated his 101st Birthday yesterday. Also pictured, my mom!
Can we get him 1000 likes? I mean the man is 101 and a vet from the Greatest Generation! RT!
Aloha, & Welcome to Honolulu! ๐บ
From our 767-300ER jumpseat.
โฆ. And please disregard the windshear warning as we were slowing through 40 knots on the landing roll ๐๐คท๐ปโโ๏ธ
Just boarded AA26 in Haneda bound for LAX. FO came back and gave me a nice Concierge Key welcome. Got invited to see the cockpit of the 787! I of course played along. Once up there, I recruited the captain who will be retiring in the next year ๐ Weโll see if he calls ๐คท๐ปโโ๏ธ
Visual approach into Xiamen with an empty B757-200 (Ex American Airlines) - Part 91 Ferry Flight into HAECO for Cargo Conversion. Uniforms make clearing customs easier in China (hence no hoodie and ball cap ๐งข)
#AvGeek
As ferry pilots, we often fly 20-25 hours across long distances and frequently need to service the engine oil enroute. Especially so with the more tired engines. Turbine oil comes in cans, and since we have to go through security to get to a job, we donโt have tools.
When weโre out over the middle of the Pacific Ocean, thereโs no enroute ATC radar coverage, so we make position reports over HF every time we cross a waypoint (roughly every hour). We communicate with San Francisco ARINC which relays our position to KZAK (Oakland oceanic).
500K parts on a 737 Max. At least as many fasteners.
#Boeing
had better figure out how the fuck these all came loose - and soon. And then explain why the ones holding on the rudder on are sure to be tight.
#Boeing737Max9
Couple of years ago, we got a call to move a C-9A (DC-9-30) out of Andrews AFB that had been purchased out of government surplus. This one had quite a history - it famously flew
@laurawbush
around Africa in 2007 as part of the Education initiative. It flew around generals and
Landing an A320 on a pretty small uncontrolled runway. Sรฃo Carlos Brazil has a tiny little airstrip with a LATAM maintenance hangar and base! Itโs a โspecial airportโ with nonstandard ops procedures DAY/VFR only. This is where most of the LATAM A320s will go (many at
@Nomadic_OMD
Last night we lost my grandfather, Marty Benoff - a great man from the greatest generation. He was born on March 17th 1921 and lived 102.5 years on this earth to the fullest.
Born to a Russian/Lithuanian-Jewish family in Philadelphia, he was a first generation American. The
Well conveniently Jake, last night while at 43,000 feet in the 787
@OMD_SkyDog
and I were discussing his
#flatearth
followers on TikTok when I decided to unleash 10,000 cubic yards of arsenic through our
#chemtrail
delivery system out of frustration and got it on tape!
#evidence
๐จ hereโs the quick-tour of todayโs haul - former
@Condor
B767-300ER in the retro livery. She was retired to GYR this past January, but just sold to CAM and reactivated to become a 767BCF freighter. We will take her to Guangzhou China via Anchorage!
#avgeek
Great view of the now-abandoned Johnston Atoll - (about 90 mins by air west of Hawaii) today. Lots of history at this place. Now uninhabited, nature is taking it backโฆ
#Pacific
#Avgeek
Refueling the A320 is super easy. The fuel service panel is on the starboard side of the fuselage below the wing root. The valves and single-point connection are located under the leading edge of the right wing outboard of the engine.
The truck connects to the single point, and
Quite Possibly the coolest
#avgeek
pic Iโve ever snapped. Short final to RW24 in Honiara (AGGH/HIR) in the Solomon Islands. Definitely going to make the 2023 OMD Calendar.
.
@OMD_SkyDog
practicing a V1 cut in our Westwind II today. Thereโs only one 1124 sim in the world - so we do our training in the actual plane!
A V1 cut is an engine failure after V1 (takeoff decision speed). It means weโre past the point where a rejected takeoff is safe or
Ok you 757-loving weirdosโฆ Hereโs the 1 min tour of this B752 heading into conversion at Xiamen. We will be
#OMD345
. Currently in ROW heading to HNL first.
#AvGeek
I have the honor of being my sonโs first passenger on this C-172 today! Itโs been probably 25 years since Iโve been in one of these things, so I hope he knows what heโs doing ๐. Iโll be sitting on my hands!
#Avgeek
Waking up to the news about
#SJY182
with a heavy heart. Jet Test has worked closely with
#SriwijayaAir
since they launched. Some of the nicest folks Iโve met; many people I still call friends. We delivered every single -500W that came from Continental/UAL including PK-CLC.
11 total passengers tonight on SQ24 - the longest commercial flight in the world SIN-JFK. Weโre nearly 20% of the paying passengers and weโre outnumbered by crew 13:11.
๐จMUST SEE PHOTO/VIDEO ๐งต for the
#avgeek
!!
Very rare/unique thing happened this morning.
We departed HNL @ 0130L with 2 B737-800s which we ferried out of Australia yesterday bound for KOPF
OMD554 ๐ซ first. OMD553 ๐ซ 10 min later.
An hour in, 554 deviated for weather โฌ๏ธ
In mid-May, I was operating a
@Nomadic_OMD
flight on this B757-200 from Roswell NM to Xiamen China - where it was going for cargo conversion. We flew via the mid-Pac route with stops in JRF and GUM.
On descent into GUM in the middle of the night, we got a RT ENG FIRE
Just me hanging out at 40,000โ over the S Atlantic in an empty
#Dreamliner
by myself in the
#cockpit
while Dan was sleeping in the crew bunk and
@OMD_SkyDog
was taking a leak in the back.
#AvGeek
Last summer Bob & I flew a beater A320 from Tianjin China to Brunswick Maine as a crew of 2, straight through, no rest - and that was 48 hours after flying a 777 from Phoenix to Abu Dhabi!
2 months earlier, we flew a 757 from Roswell to Xiamen as a crew of 2 with no rest -
LATAM B767-300ER 1Min tour - preflight from Santiago Chile to Auckland New Zealand enroute to WSAP (Paya Labar) in Singapore for BCF Cargo Conversion!
#avgeek
Hereโs the RNAV (LNAV) approach to mins with a tailwind into RWY18 @ KBYH today after a long-haul from Tokyo with a quick customs stop in KGTF. Aircraft is a B767-300 ๐ฌ
#avgeek
#cockpitview
Our ride: a B767-300 still sporting JAL paint, N472TN. Today weโll fly nonstop from Haneda (RJTT) to Great Falls, Montana (KGTF) to clear customs (yes an Allegiant city ๐) then to Blytheville AR (KBYH). We will operate as OMD526 -
@Nomadic_OMD
#AvGeek
1) Overflying Cairo @ FL400
2) HUD-shot
3) climbing through FL300 at 2000 FPM at Mach .85 ๐๐๐
Ok I love it. Also, itโs like part Boeing and part Airbus if Iโm honest - like the best parts of both. Really a ferry pilotโs dream..
Back by popular demand: the 1 minute (and 9 second) tour - Ex JAL (JA8898) now N472TN B767-300 that were about to fly across the pacific to the USA
@SkydogZen
#AvGeek
Airplane I dislike: 737
Airplane I think is overrated: 757
Airplane I like: 767
Airplane I love: 777
Airplane I feel most myself on: MD80
Airplane I still need to fly: A220
Remember when Condor retired D-ABUM, the retro-liveried 767? Well, tomorrow she returns to the skies!
@mikeholliday1
& I will fly her to Guangzhou China to become a freighterโฆ
I remember 9/11/01 like it was yesterday. I had an airline job lined up, and was flying 135 in a Caravan, but was still flight instructing out of KPNE. I had a commercial student that day - actually it was
@stojanmarion
.
I remember walking out to the plane and observing the
About 21,000 gallons of jet fuel tonight to get this โmagic red carpetโ across the Pacific. A random-route across to Guam before joining airways into Guangzhou China.
#OMD361
Everyone asking whatโs next for the
#B747
#AirIndia
planes - we usually donโt know this info. Sometimes itโs obvious, but itโs not our business to know or ask. That said: the scuttlebutt on socials seems to be 2 will fly as freighters, 2 will become parts and beer cans.
1 min tour
Airbus A321-PCF โPrecision Converted Freighterโ. MSN 775 is the 1st production 321PCF and was modified here at Airborne (PEMCO) @ TPA. We will refly the test today, then head out to East Midlands tomorrow (hopefully) for paint. Aircraft destined for Smartlynx.
#avgeek
In 2005, I started at a small nonunion MD-80 op based in Vegas. Over the 10 years I worked there, I saw one of the most unlikely airline success stories unfold, while simultaneously struggling to provide for my family.
Yesterday I saw a Super Bowl played at Allegiant Stadium.
Not saying we donโt have a good life (we do) but we spend sometimes 80+ hours per month riding as PAX long-haul, then immediately flying out as crew long-haul. Premium cabins arenโt a luxury - theyโre essential. Weโd have a ton of health probs if we spent that much time seated in
@OMD_SkyDog
@emirates
@JTTsteve
If this doesn't sum up 'first world problems' .. ๐คฆ๐คฆ.. I'd be delighted to have a business class flight even once in my life. ๐ฅฒ
Since the crew rest area tours are always so popular on Xitter (747K impressions already ๐คช) allow me to share the crew rest area on the DHC-8-200 ๐
It even provides a gentle swaying motion to help you get to sleep!