Auckland - Sydney - Auckland

There and back again on a Boeing Triple 7 - Article and Photos By Max Hanna

 
 
Tuesday the 10th, my school received a message of absence detailing that I was not just ditching school for the day, but ditching the country.
 
“Cleared for takeoff, NEW ZEALAND 119” was the voice of Captain Andrew Lyttle on Air New Zealand Flight 119 from Auckland to Sydney. Hold on, let’s rewind a bit here. Before I ramble on about my flight I thought I would give you a bit of a background as to how I got there in the first place. Starting off in No. 30 (Hobsonville) Squadron Air Training Corps in March 2007 I've gone through the past few years waiting for the Air Training Corps National Aviation Power Flying Course. January 2009 finally rolled along where I had been accepted onto, and attended this well sort after course. The Power Flying part of this course consisted of 10 days flying, 8 Instructors, 7 Aircraft and 35 keen Cadets, with the aim of flying solo. After 3.8 hours (7.7 hours total) in ‘The Damager’ I flew solo in the trusty old 90hp Cessna 150 ZK-DMG. In total I think there was something like 30 out of 35 cadets who flew solo for the first time on this course. Anyway at the end of the course various awards were given out and I was lucky enough to be the recipient of the Air New Zealand Scholarship. This meant that I was able to choose a destination across the Tasman, or domestic and fly there (and back) on the Flight Deck – free. Being the Boeing fan that I am, I chose to fly on a Boeing 777. I was met at gate 6 by Captain Andrew Lyttle and First Officer Colin Rippey, where I then Boarded first and was taken around on the tarmac for the Pre-Flight Inspection - similar to a C-150, just a bit more walking to do.
 
ZK-OKG 767 On the Stand Lunch Arrives Trent 800 Atlas 747's 777 Gear
Nose Gear Nose Gear Door Radome Cover Main Gear Underside Starboard Tail
High Bypass Fan Blades Engine 2 Rego Port Tail The Author
 
Entering the Flight Deck I was amazed at the simplicity of everything. No columns of round gauges, no thick as Chart Books, no primer for the engines, and no carb heat! Ok, maybe that was expected, but still. Anyway we pushed back at exactly 1245 and started our engines with the push of 2 buttons and the flick of 2 switches – amazing. The sound of Jet fuel being burnt and intoxicating the atmosphere filled our ears, although the 777 is one of the quietist jets around you can’t miss this sound. With First Officer Colin Rippey flying the aircraft to Sydney we taxied down runway 05L, passing a landing Cathay A340 (which had a rather nasty landing by the way) and almost running down a Company 737. Doing our pre-takeoff checks we lined up on runway 23L – holding for about 2 minutes for wake turbulence before the Captain then ‘Stood the Thrust Levers’ (moving thrust levers up to about 40% N1) then again flicked yet another button which automatically moved the levers forward. This is what it has come to. You don’t even push the levers forward instead you guide the autopilot through its manoeuvre. With a V1 speed of 147KIAS and 33 tonnes of fuel on board we rotated soon after. The First Officer then flicks another switch about 1000ft AGL which then engaged the autopilot that would not be flicked off again until 300ft AGL coming into Sydney.
 
Front Office Throttle & FMC's Overhead Autopilot LCD's
       
    Flight Deck    
 
Disappearing into the clouds and leaving behind the crowded city and algebraic equations (yus!) we climbed on up to FL390. Both crew were ex-RNZAF pilots and they shared valuable knowledge about their experiences and what not throughout our flight to Sydney. Despite the fact that I was flying on the Flight Deck, I was booked a certain type of ticket which I will probably never get again for the rest of my life. (insert picture of Business class ticket :P) So I thought I better embrace this opportunity and test out the In-Flight entertainment service Air New Zealand had onboard. A few TV episodes and video clips later I reclined my ‘Lie Flat Businessmen’ Seat to enjoy the turbulence, the other in-flight entertainment service our National Carrier offers.
 
Flight Information Games More Flight Data Waypoints Lunch
 
Back to the Flight Deck I went where I was met by a nice little plate of food and a bowl of ice-cream! We started our descent into Sydney not long after following our flight plan which took us past a Shark, Marlin a Whale and a Prawn - all intersections of course. This route took us to the ILS/DME approach for runway 16R at Kingsford Smith Int. On approach we almost had do a go-around because our view was skewered by the sight of so many Red Tailed Airbus’s! Honestly the Qantas ratio to other Airlines was about 10:1 Landing slightly to the right of the runway we then vacated right. The Captain, who was acting as the First Officer on this Flight did the after landing checklists and which detailed most of the checks that you would do in a Cessna! Most of the exterior lights went off and flaps were retracted – however in this case the purpose was not to increase visibility but to make a cool clicking sound :P
 
We crossed runway 07/25 passing an Etihad A340 which I have to say had one of the best paint schemes I’ve seen and then continued on our road to Gate 56. This was located around the corner from two United 747’s and a Singapore A380 (chubby bugger). Now, one of the cool things I noticed when we were coming up on our Parking Spot was this little board in front of us which told us how far we were from the Jetway and was even bossy enough to tell us to SLOW DOWN about fifty times. “Bossy little thing,” said Colin (First Officer). The engines were turned off, this time only by flicking two switches and most of the buttons and switches in the overhead panel were toggled. I hopped off the plane and went through the International Transfers gateway as suggested by the Captain to avoid paying Departure Tax for being in the country for about 40 minutes – not even stepping out of the International Terminal. Now the difference between the Terminal at Auckland Airport and Sydney Airport is probably due to the fact that there were about 20 times more people at Sydney. Just getting around to have a look through the Terminals was a mission in itself. I only got few pictures while I was terminal bound because all the aircraft were the same – Qantas, Qantas and more Qantas. There was the A380 but that wasn’t worth the effort. I did notice a little slide for the kiddies also.
 
Taxi to the gate Etihad Formula 1 Close-up BA 744 Qantas A330 International Tails
A380 1 A380 2 Our Gate - #56 Engine's Off Pre-Flight United 744
Air China Special Virgin Red Tails Qantas link Q400's Take-off Thrust FO Colin Rippey
 
Anyway, I re-boarded the triple seven and we went through the clearance back to Auckland. A little different to how we do it on our Friday Night Flights (Our regular Friday night Multiplayer session in FSX, visit the forum for details) as Airlines are issued a clearance through their FMC and all they have to do is simply ‘print it out’ and read it back to Clearance Delivery. Runway 16R was still in use so we taxied out to there and held short of it on taxiway G which is about ¼ way down the runway. Who needs almost 4km of runway when you have 90,000 pounds of thrust in each engine? We waited there for about 5 minutes as 3 aircraft departed and 2 arrived. Getting a spot in while a Qantas 747 was towed across the runway to Maintenance we took off, this time the Captain moving the levers manually,( good on you mate!). Through the clouds again up to Flight Level 400 this time. The weather was similar in Sydney as it was in Auckland, cloudy, dark and rainy. The Captain diverted 10 miles to the right of our course initially, diverting another 10 miles soon after due to the weather.
 
Climbing to FL400 The Authors Seat "3 Coffees thanks.." Manual Control
Inclement Weather Flight Progress Pedastal Auckland Weather
Descent The Clouds Part Auckland Approach
 
Coming into Auckland the weather was slightly worse than what it was when we departed 7 hours earlier. Our flight ended up being about 40 minutes early due to the strong tail wind. 650 knots I think we got up to on the way back at one stage, ground speed of course. We did a RNAV approach which joined up to the ILS/DME Runway 23L approach. Visibility was limited and there was a mild crosswind but the Captain managed to get it down perfectly – in my view at least. So, we taxied to gate 3 I think it was. Either that or gate 7. The Captain had to get going as he wanted to catch the last 737 down to Christchurch for the day, which was where he lived. So he shot off and left the First Officer to do all the finishing paper work while I tried to get my damn zip in my pants to work, as they broke on the way back. That probably shouldn’t have been said but it was true. This was the first time I had been through the New Zealand imports terminal since I was 7 and given the last 7 hours or so was an anticlimax to say the least. Thanks Air New Zealand and Captain Andrew Lyttle and First Officer Colin Rippey for an awesome day!