You get some amazing shots flying. I guess that's the second biggest perk of the job! With number one being i get paid to do what i love. There aren't to many jobs around where people bring cameras to your place of work and take photos of you working. I guess i share their passion, except i get to take the photos from inside the flightdeck. So this is my second favorite part of my job, being able to take photos of the amazing things i see.. unfortunately a lot of scenes just aren't easily captured by a camera. Sunrise and sunset in particular. Maybe when i fly a bigger plane with longer sectors i will bring my big SLR to work and try capture some more. Until, i have only these.

Once again i thank everyone who still follows this blog. I know i don't post anywhere near what i used to, but i have to be careful in the day and age of social media and what is acceptable at my work and what isn't.

Until the next post, enjoy sunrise from FL190.

Well.. i haven't blogged in a while.. I didn't really know what to write.. but here are some pictures in the mean time!

For those who read this still (if there are any) i recently flew a Sydney to Gladstone routing, which is a long way, but had solid loads which was good to see.. Here are some photos from that.

For those other readers, Gladstone is 50nm south of Rockhampton in North Queensland. I didn't really realise how far away it is, and really is too long for a turboprop, even one with 'jet like speeds'. But i'm sure those who need to get to GLA without the need to transfer through Brisbane, would be a big time saver.

Northbound to GLA, Flightlevel 240

Various FMS shots on our 610nm epic journey!

Finally, landed at GLA.. Token prop shot from the foward door

Night time shot from cruising level FL250

A few photos from doing various flights, all the way from Adelaide, up to Brisbane..

Flying the Q400

First flight was from Melbourne to Adelaide, for a 4 sector day. After the Adelaide we do a few Port Lincoln shuttles. Port Lincoln is a small town 200km due west of Adelaide, famous for its tuna fishing and great white sharks.

I have done a lot of flying out of Melbourne and it was no real surprise there, so I was reasonably comfortable with my surroundings. However, a new plane, a training environment, a long and then short, fast sector to Port Lincoln.. anyway, what an introduction to the plane than with a 360nm leg between two major Australian cities and a smaller outport, both of which i haven't flown into.

Training captain decided first leg and last leg should be mine, afterall what better way to learn than be thrown into the deep end. Short taxi out to the runway 27 threshold of Melbourne.

"Line-up drills"...

I turn on the radar, get the external lights on, turn on the pitot heats, get the control locks off and see full free movement of the spoilers, ailerons and elevator and set the bleed air to min flow, and but leave the bleed air on.

"Cleared for take-off, heading 263"

V1.. Rotate..

We pitch up to approximately 9 degrees nose up.. All i have to say is 'wow' at this point. The plane rapidly increases speed to about 185 knots, climbing at around 3000FPM. (To put this into comparison, the 200/300 used to climb out at 170kts at about 1000FPM)

Passing 1400ft, i call for the flaps to zero, bleeds on and set climb power. We accelerate to 210 knots and contact departures.

We are cleared straight away to our cruising level of flight level 240, and get tracking direct to Bordertown, our first waypoint of our flightplan.

At this stage, being not overly heavy at 26.5 tonnes, we are able to accelerate to 240kts climb, and still achieve 2000FPM climb. Through transition altitude we turn off the exterior lights, turn off the tank aux pumps, and set climb power of 850RPM.

We make a cabin announcement to passengers which is an indication to the cabin crew that we are no longer sterile flight deck, and is also an indication that we are hungry and to please bring up our lunches! :) Leveling off at FL240 we set cruise power. We are pushing into a 60kt headwind, and have a TAS of 360Kts, but achieve only a groundspeed of 300. Still, 300 groundspeed is one of the best i ever saw in the Dash-8-200/300.

So far so good with the training! It's been fun so far, the training captain is very relaxed and we are having discussions about certain aspects of the plane while we eat our meals. He tells me the easiest way to prepare for descent in the Q400 is to remember: Bugs, Brief, VNAV, format. (I personally like to brief the STAR and approach first then set the up the bugs, but each to their own)

Anyway, this makes sense and works quite well.. We bug for a flap 15 landing, on the speed tape and set the GPWS flap selector to 15. (If this was say set to flap 35 then we would get a GPWS warning of "too low - flaps" which would necessitate a go around) Since it is going to be a visual approach via the 23 ILS into Adelaide, we set the MDA bug to 1000ft as that is the acceleration altitude if we had to do a go around.

We then brief the STAR and ILS arrival into Adelaide (we do the ILS for practice in this case for my benefit) and we prepare a VNAV into the FMS for the our decent planning. I set the format (this is a key that allows us to switch our MFD (multi function display) to "blue needles," or in other words, raw data VOR format and we can set up the runway direction of 222 degrees for the ILS approach.

All ready for our decent! We receive clearance to FL140 and begine descent. Passing through FL200 we ask the cabin crew to prepare the cabin for landing.

Further descent clearance is to 7000 feet. Passing through FL110 is our transition drill where we turn on the lights, put on the tank aux pumps and set the QNH for the landing airport. At this stage we are racing a 737 inbound and due to the fact we don't accept track shortening (as we are doing the ILS for practice) we are given a few short vectors to the north.

"Track direct track to Modbury, descent 3000 cleared ILS 23 approach"

Modbury is the NDB about 12nm north of the 23 ILS and is also the initial approach fix. We pass over it at 210Kts, which is the company speed for the initial approach fix. Power levers to flight idle, we prepare to configure the aeroplane. At around 7nm from the airport we configure flap 5, and shortly after gear down. Continue to decelerate past 172 knots and call for "flap 15, landing checklist"

Well.. a bit of wind, and few bumps, but otherwise a nice day.. First landing in the new plane was a greaser! Good start with good landing mojo! Awesome.. I must say though, the power levers and my hands were reasonably sweaty and i apologised to the skipper when he took over control passing 50 kts on the landing rollout..

All in all a great flight, and i'm loving the new plane. Thanks for reading

Sim training

Flying the Q400 sim, after a lot of time sitting around and studying, i have started training on the level-D sim at the training facility. So far we have only been practicing the drills and procedure side of flying the aeroplane, and also circuit practice, landing at different flap settings, crosswinds and night time landings. Next up we have some more abnormal situations, bad weather circling approaches, lots of V1 cuts, engine fires - basically anything exciting that could potentially end in tears!

The sim!

Its been good to re learn everything and brush up on all the abnormal procedures again. Although we practice it every 3 months in the sim as line pilots, it's primarily 'checking' that we are proficient, rather than training us as I am getting now. Some people dread the sim and this sort of flying, and i admit it's not particularly 'fun', but i do find it beneficial overall.

I also went on some jumpseat rides to get familiar with the aeroplane. Very cool overall. Climbs like a rocket at 29 tonnes out of Sydney, and at a climb speed of 240kts indicated, we are still getting around 1700FPM in the climb. The Dash 200/300 was lucky to get 1000FPM at 170kts to give you some idea of how much more power this bus has. As turboprops go, you can't really match it for performance.

Anyway looking forward to finally flying the real thing!

This was taking a sticky beak in the 767 simulator! Might be old now, but i would still do anything to fly this aeroplane one day! Absolutely love it!

Captains Primary Flight Display (PFD) and multi function display (MFD) 

The Engine Display (ED) and the copilots instruments. You can see the electrical page on the co-pilot MFD which is normal procedure, other wise you have no other indications that the ground power is connected or batteries discharging when the plane is on the ground.

Looking back from the from the captains seat at the engine and wing! Looks bigger and better than the 300 ever did :)

Thanks for reading!

Finished CBT

The PW150A of the Q400. Much bigger and looks better with 6 blades. The prop diameter is actually the same (well very similar) to the 200/300. Just 2000 extra horse power!

The flightdeck of the Q400. Nice LCD screens, less clutter and much nicer layout over all.

CBT and the Q400

Well, what can i say. It's a much better plane, that's better where it wants to be, and simplified where it needs to be. Much bigger donks, FADEC, glass cockpit, more seats, more features. More fun perhaps?

Well, it's going well, half way through the ground school and work has already put in my roster some jumpseat rides to get familiar with the aircraft.

But, back to the computer based training. Roughly 1000 slides past, and another 1000 to go....