Airliners-India.com Flickr Group & Facebook    FAQ   Search   Memberlist   Usergroups   Register   Profile   Log in to check your private messages   Log in  MCT-ZNZ on WY - Finished          Airliners-India.com Forum Index -> Trip Reports View previous topic :: View next topic   Author Message iflytb20 Member Joined: 27 Jan 2007 Posts: 1079 Location: Next to the Airport Posted: Sat Jul 06, 2013 7:15 pm    Post subject: MCT-ZNZ on WY - Finished SECTOR: OOMS-HTZA ACFT : A4O-BB B737-81M FLT NO : WY 717 SEAT NO : 0A STD : 0645Z / 1045 LT ATD: 0701Z / 1101 LT DELAY of 16 min STA : 1155Z / 1455 LT ATA: 1239Z / 1539 LT DELAY of 44 min CONFIG : 12J/144Y LOAD : 2J/132Y PAX [85% Loadfactor] WY operates a daily flight from Muscat (OOMS/MCT) to Dar e Salaam (HTDA/DAR) via Zanzibar (HTZA/ZNZ). Oman has lot of traditional ties with Zanzibar & Dar as they were once part of the Sultanate. Almost every other person from Oman has a relative in Dar & Zanzibar. Especially during the holiday season one can see a lot of VFR traffic on board. With the introduction of the A330s, WY connects the EU flights to the ZNZ/DAR flight. Almost 80% of the pax on board my flight were European holidaymakers. This was a scheduled flight for me. In Oman Air we get a monthly schedule. We get 8 days off in a month (excluding post flight rest) out of which 5 days are allocated by the company while you can chose the other 3. I had a day off before the flight, so I was very well rested As per the company policy, one has to reach the HQ (which is opposite the airport - a 1km journey) 90 min before the flight. So that meant I had to be there by 0915 LT for an 1045 LT departure. Unlike the airlines in India, WY does not provide transport to the Cockpit Crew. So one has to drive to work. I stay about 10 min away from the airport, so I started from home at 0900 and was there by 0910LT. Flight Dispatch WY has a self briefing room for pilots in the HQ building. The dispatchers prepare all the documents and leave the briefing packet for the pilots. For any extra information / document, the dispatchers are available next door. WY717 is one of the longest flight operated by WY. It is also the longest ETOPS flight in WY's 737 network. The route basically follows the Somalian coastline till Mogadishu and proceeds in a straight line till ZAN. The total air distance is 2133 NM. For those interested in the actual routing, it is : Code: MCT B400 VEDET UB400G ITMAR UB400 ELAVA ZZ The two ETOPS alternates are Aden (OYAA) in Yemen and Mombassa (HKMO) in Kenya. The route takes us over Yemen, Somalia, Kenya and finally Tanzania. The flight plans at WY are more accurate than the ones I used to use at IX. Therefore very little additional fuel is required to be added as the flight plan caters for a lot of enroute contingencies. So with a flying time of 04:49 hrs, and a recommended Ramp fuel of 15920Kg, Fuel was finalised as 16000Kg. With all paperwork completed, we went to the next phase called.... Crew Briefing In WY, the Cabin Crew have a separate briefing area with 8 briefing rooms. While the pilots go thorough the paperwork and documents, the Crew carryout their own briefing. They review the Emergency & First Aid procedures, Pax requiring special handling, Work positions etc. Usually this takes about 20 min - more or less the same time we require with our paperwork. So at D-70min, we meet up for a joint briefing in the relevant briefing room. The joint briefing involves security procedure, Cockpit entry procedure and of course the expected weather enroute. Commuting to Airport Once all this is completed, the entire crew proceeds to the airport via the crew coach. On the 737s, the normal crew complement is 2+5 and the minimum is 2+4. This is usually at D-60 min. On reaching the airport, we enter via the crew gate. As this was a layover flight we all had luggage to be checked in. Once that was dropped off at the Crew counter, we proceeded for Immigration and Security. Once all formalities were completed, we reached the crew gate to hitch a ride to the airplane. On Board We reached the aircraft at 0600Z / 1000LT. The Crew immediately got busy with their pre-flight duties. On reaching the Cockpit, we were met by the AME bearing bad news - the inbound crew had written up the APU. The APU was running fine on the ground but was having issues starting up at high altitude. As the APU high altitude start is an ETOPS requirement, this meant that we will have to take the non-ETOPS route. This route is longer by 30min and would require completely new fuel calculations. So we called up our operations on the radio and told them to send us the new flight plans. The new flight plan required us to carry 18300Kg of fuel and gave us a flying time of 05:19 hrs. With a planned block time of 05:10hrs, this meant that we were going to be late. The new route looked like this : Code: MCT B400 ASTUN UB535 KAPET B535 TORBA UB535 DTI UM997 WAV UR611 MOV UA407 UVUKO ZZ Nevertheless we informed all concerned about the new figures and gave the clearance for ...... Boarding As per WY policy, unless otherwise informed by PIC/SFS, the ground staff start the boarding process at D-25 min. The company calls this the autoboarding procedure. So within 15 min we had all 134pax on board. As I mentioned earlier, bulk of the pax were holidaymakers from the EU. This meant a lot of bags and rucksacks. Unfortunately this resulted in the aft cargo hold becoming full and the staff had to redistribute the bags to keep the CG within limits. This resulted in a 10 min delay in closing the doors. Once the doors were closed, we called up the Ground controller for.... Startup and Taxi We called up Muscat Ground and got our ATC clearance as well as start up clearance in instructions to call Tower for taxi. Both the CFM56-B26s were started in sequence and once all checklists were completed, we called up Tower for taxi. We were instructed to wait for a company aircraft which was on its landing roll. By the time we started moving, we had an additional delay of 6min. From Bay 24, our taxi route was via C8 A to hold at A1 short of 08R. Any hopes of expediting our departure were dashed when we saw the 4 aircraft ahead of us. By the time we lined up, we were already 26min late. Finally we got the takeoff clearance at 0712 Z / 1112 LT and were airborne at 0713 Z / 1113 LT. Now I didn't take a video of this particular takeoff, but this is from another flight. Hope its acceptable Climb We climbed on runway track to a 1000ft and were instructed by Muscat Approach to maintain heading 080. At 4000ft we were cleared for a left turn to the Izki (IZK) VOR. This involved a 240 degree turn as a right turn would put us uncomfortably close to terrain. Once we started our turn, we were cleared to climb to FL150. Passing FL135, we were handed over to Muscat Control who cleared us to our initial planned cruising level of FL340. We planned to climb to FL340 initially and after 30min at that level step climb to FL360. So after 22min of climb, we were in ...... Cruise Top of Climb (or TOC as we call it) was reached at 0735Z. As per WY policy, we carry out a cruise brief at TOC and thereafter every one hour. The initial brief involves reviewing the Engine Failure and Loss of Pressurisation procedures. We then review the course of action following the failure and the airports that we are considering as enroute alternates at that point. Some of our routes takes us over high terrain, so we have special escape routes which help us to leave the area of high terrain in case we loose cabin pressure. Even this is covered as part of out cruise brief. Normal ETOPS route New non-ETOPS route Our new routing would take us over Yemen, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and finally over Tanzania. Just before leaving Muscat airspace we climbed to final cruising level of FL360. Once we entered Ethiopian airspace, we took out the Escape route chart to brief ourselves and kept it out for handy reference. Various charts to follow our flight Saw this Waypoint near Adids Ababa. I am still scratching my head on how to pronounce it without getting shot down One advantage of flying the non-ETOPS is that throughout the flight we were in VHF range of the various ATC units. This is a great help incase you need any kind of assistance enroute. But sadly the 25 odd minute delay on the ground and the 30 minute extra flying time meant that we were expecting to arrive about 55 minutes late. Thanks to some direct routing and some favorable winds we were able to gain about 12 minutes - not an easy task when you are cruising at M.77. Food This section is specially made for our member sumantra WY Cabin crew try their best to kill the cockpit crew by over-feeding them. The food on board is fantastic - not to mention rich also. Before takeoff we get a "small" tray of munchies which looks like this Then an hour into the flight we were served with "snacks" It was a chicken stuffed roll thingie which tasted awesome. And yes - that white powder on the brownie is sugar. On some sectors instead of a roll we either get a Panini sandwich or a Club sandwich. Then about 2.5 hours into the flight, the SFS came to the cockpit to ask about Lunch. The options were: Chicken with Rice Pasta Arabic Mezzah Beef with Rice As I was already half stuffed, I settled for the Arabic Mezzah while my FO went for the Chicken option. Chicken with Rice Arabic Mezzah All this was washed down with coffee and we both were contently rubbing our full tummies. Descent & Approach The runway in use in ZNZ was R18. This runway has no publish instrument approach. So the options are to either do an VOR approach for R36 followed by a circling for R18 or an Visual approach. Since WY does not permit Circling approaches, we were left with the visual approach Were were cleared by DAR control to proceed direct to a 10nm final for R18. We saw the runway at 15nm and the approach was flown visually with a big smile on my face Landing and Taxi in This is a video of the approach. After landing on R18, we backtracked and vacated via C. Now parking in ZNZ is a totally different animal. There are no "fixed" stands and the capacity of the ramp depends on the skills of the marshaller. He managed to fit 4 aircraft (1xB737-200, 1xB767, 1xB737-800, 1xA320) in a space where one would struggle to fit 2. 3 Airlines in one shot I have a video of the ramp, but have not uploaded it yet. Once I do I will post it here. Additional Pics DAR airport Follow Me "vehicle" African Sunset **All the photos were taken with my mobile camera. I had more pics but in my Infinite wisdom I managed to format my iPhone which means RIP photos **Hope you guys like this report. I had a more detailed report but along with my photos, I managed to delete my notes from my phone. So this is from memory only _________________ Always do everything into wind...... except piss Last edited by iflytb20 on Sun Jul 07, 2013 9:13 pm; edited 2 times in total Back to top sumantra Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi Posted: Sat Jul 06, 2013 7:30 pm    Post subject: Captain...we really look forward to the report after this lovely view from the front left seat! And what a nice and soft landing! Back to top iflytb20 Member Joined: 27 Jan 2007 Posts: 1079 Location: Next to the Airport Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 9:12 pm    Post subject: I'll try and upload the video for the DAR and MCT approach soon. Don't bank on it though - got a busy 10 days ahead _________________ Always do everything into wind...... except piss Back to top abhijith16 Member Joined: 14 Sep 2010 Posts: 1575 Location: DOH/IXE/MEL Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 9:34 pm    Post subject: Fantastic TR! And so nice to have you back! So you've moved from IX to WY? Nice going! I love how WY over-pampers you. The food looks awesome! _________________ <a><img></a> Back to top jbalonso777 Member Joined: 05 Jul 2012 Posts: 1501 Location: Never, never land Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 10:16 pm    Post subject: So that's what a pilot does before and during a flight! And that's what a pilot eats! This is a very very informative and interesting TR. Everything from the distance between the HQ and the airport, to the routings (ETOPS and non-ETOPS). I think this is the first time I have read a TR from a pilot's perspective (I'm sorry if I missed out on any other ). I particularly liked the little bits of humour in the TR, obviously, the pronunciation one taking pole position. Both videos were brilliant too! Looking forward to more pilot's-eye-view trip reports! Regards Jish _________________ http://www.youtube.com/c/JishnuBasu777 Back to top Spiderguy252 Member Joined: 10 Aug 2007 Posts: 4259 Location: Indian Ocean Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 10:40 pm    Post subject: Long time no see Raj - excellent read! _________________ Yeah. Back to top iflytb20 Member Joined: 27 Jan 2007 Posts: 1079 Location: Next to the Airport Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 12:33 am    Post subject: jbalonso777 wrote: I think this is the first time I have read a TR from a pilot's perspective (I'm sorry if I missed out on any other ). Jish, I had written a TR in 2009. Follow this to the post. _________________ Always do everything into wind...... except piss Back to top sumantra Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 7:14 am    Post subject: Captain, thanks for yet another extra-ordinary trip report. It had all the elements which the regular reader finds in your earlier report, as well as the numerous posts you make on AI.net: wit, humour, detailed descriptions, and all the little things which we aviation enthusiasts look for, and on top of it, a perspective from the front office's left seat - something most of us AI.netters (primarily passengers and plain/plane enthusiasts). The very detailed flight operations were a real joy to read - though I am not sure how much of a drudgery it is for regular operations, for you. Thanks for a highly detailed section dedicated to the resident glutton on the forum Believe me, seeing so many lovely appetising pictures and that too, and great resolution - resulted in some excessive hogging close to midnight, when I started the report, on a loud scolding from The Wife, I went back to sleep, and as I just completed reading it in the morning, half the cereal jar looked empty. WY has some lovely fruit platters - how would you compare the food with a similarly-timed IX flight? The ramp video will be an interesting addition - 4 planes including a wide-body, in the space for two! Please also post a line to the effect, so that we locate it better. We really look forward to more from you. Each flight is different from the other. And you describe them in your inimitable manner - a treat for the senses. Thank you! Cheers, Sumantra. Back to top ameya Member Joined: 09 May 2007 Posts: 3671 Location: Pune,Maharashtra Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 10:16 am    Post subject: WoWW.. this is an extra ordinary TR, with enroute points, co-ordinates, the flight planning in detail, food, African experience, the pax profile and what else ? ! All done from the front office seat. Thanks a lot for posting and letting us have the fantastic African views, not to mention the Follow Me Back to top himmat01 Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 1392 Location: DEL Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 1:52 pm    Post subject: Thanks for posting this detailed report. It was a pleasure going through it. _________________ Save Maharashtra! Back to top Nimish Member Joined: 16 Dec 2006 Posts: 9757 Location: Bangalore, India Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 5:38 pm    Post subject: Hey Raj - loved the videos and the food seems fit for a king! You guys clearly have a lot to fear when it comes to the periodic medicals and your BMI/ weight . How do you clamp your video camera in place? Is it possible to clamp it somewhere so it has a view of the center line, right now it always seems like you're so far left of the runway _________________ We miss you Nalini! Back to top PAL@YWG Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 438 Location: YWG, Canada Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2013 3:32 am    Post subject: Excellent TR, iflytb20! Some of us here who wanted to sit in the cockpit as a professional but couldn't fulfil that dream, wait for TRs like this. Please find time and post more TRs and don't forget to add videos! Thanks again! _________________ Tally Sheet: 41 Countries ||55 Aircraft types ||60 Airlines ||75 Airports Back to top stealthpilot Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 2325 Location: BLR, DXB Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2013 4:41 pm    Post subject: Re: MCT-ZNZ on WY - Finished iflytb20 wrote: One advantage of flying the non-ETOPS is that throughout the flight we were in VHF range of the various ATC units. This is a great help incase you need any kind of assistance enroute. But sadly the 25 odd minute delay on the ground and the 30 minute extra flying time meant that we were expecting to arrive about 55 minutes late. Thanks to some direct routing and some favorable winds we were able to gain about 12 minutes - not an easy task when you are cruising at M.77. Request direct ASOLE ehhhh. Hahahaha yea the longer route seems OK coz you don't have to deal with Mogadishu that's for sure (not like Sanaa Djibouti or parts of Adis are much better ) Trying to talk to people over those areas can be even worse than the weather. Nice TR! _________________ eP007 Back to top shivendrashukla Member Joined: 21 Dec 2006 Posts: 1354 Location: Mumbai, India Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 7:40 pm    Post subject: Nice TR there Captain. And a switch from IX to Oman Air? Looking forward to more from you. Cheers Shivendra Back to top iflytb20 Member Joined: 27 Jan 2007 Posts: 1079 Location: Next to the Airport Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 2:16 pm    Post subject: As promised, here is the ramp video from Zanzibar. And one of the night landing back in Muscat _________________ Always do everything into wind...... except piss Back to top shivendrashukla Member Joined: 21 Dec 2006 Posts: 1354 Location: Mumbai, India Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 4:46 pm    Post subject: iflytb20 wrote: As promised, here is the ramp video from Zanzibar. And one of the night landing back in Muscat Super vids Captain. Back to top Nimish Member Joined: 16 Dec 2006 Posts: 9757 Location: Bangalore, India Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 8:53 pm    Post subject: iflytb20 wrote: As promised, here is the ramp video from Zanzibar. And one of the night landing back in Muscat Lovely videos! _________________ We miss you Nalini! Back to top Optimus.Prime Member Joined: 21 Dec 2009 Posts: 302 Location: VAJJ (No, not Va-Jay-Jay) Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 10:24 pm    Post subject: iflytb20 wrote: As promised, here is the ramp video from Zanzibar. And one of the night landing back in Muscat Lovely videos there Captain. If I may - Was it a GoPro Hero? If it was a DSLR, I would love to know the mount. I shall attempt a similar video on my aircraft. _________________ Why can't Donuts be square? Back to top jbalonso777 Member Joined: 05 Jul 2012 Posts: 1501 Location: Never, never land Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 11:03 pm    Post subject: iflytb20 wrote: As promised, here is the ramp video from Zanzibar. And one of the night landing back in Muscat Good stuff! _________________ http://www.youtube.com/c/JishnuBasu777 Back to top sumantra Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2013 10:06 pm    Post subject: Lovely videos,. Captain! Back to top iflytb20 Member Joined: 27 Jan 2007 Posts: 1079 Location: Next to the Airport Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2013 12:36 am    Post subject: Nimish wrote: Hey Raj - loved the videos and the food seems fit for a king! You guys clearly have a lot to fear when it comes to the periodic medicals and your BMI/ weight . Tell me about it Quote: How do you clamp your video camera in place? Is it possible to clamp it somewhere so it has a view of the center line, right now it always seems like you're so far left of the runway I clamp it to the side window so that it does not block the forward vision. I took another one into BLR with a different location. I will post it here once i've uploaded it _________________ Always do everything into wind...... except piss Back to top iflytb20 Member Joined: 27 Jan 2007 Posts: 1079 Location: Next to the Airport Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2013 4:05 pm    Post subject: Nimish, how is This angle?? _________________ Always do everything into wind...... except piss Back to top Nimish Member Joined: 16 Dec 2006 Posts: 9757 Location: Bangalore, India Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2013 4:32 pm    Post subject: iflytb20 wrote: Nimish, how is This angle?? Definitely better IMO, though you don't get the full panoramic view, at least the landing appears to be on the center line! _________________ We miss you Nalini! 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