Flight UA 862 Sydney-San Francisco
On 3. November 2003 Claudia is on United Airlines UA 862 from Sydney to a conference in San Francisco. During her time on board the aircraft staff asks for email addresses to send videos of take-off and landing to. It is getting obvious that this is Captain Walt Bates' last flight before he retires. Below you can find the email he sent to Claudia and all passengers. It contains lots of interesting aspects about flying a modern aircraft.
It was my pleasure to fly you today on my very last flight. The 747-400 is the world's largest airliner. In fact, if it weren't for a few Russian Antonov freighters - the 224 and 225 - it would be the largest airplane period.
At the start of the takeoff roll on Sydney's runway 16R we weighed the aircraft limit of 875,000# (the max for the C5 Galaxy is 769,000#). This included nearly 400,000# of fuel (there are 6.7# per gal.). It took over 60 seconds and 2,000# of fuel to accelerate to a speed of 187 knots - about 215 mph - where the 16 main wheels left the runway. We used 11,500' of the 13,000' runway. Runways are numbered according to their orientation - put a zero after any runway number and you get the direction the runway points on a 360 degree compass. This one points to 160 degrees or south southeast. "R", "C", and "L" refer to parallel runways.
The takeoff video is of the first 1:54 minutes of the flight. Have the volume up as full audio is included. At the start of the video you hear Sydney tower's takeoff clearance to us over the cockpit speaker referring to runway 16R. My "93%" and "1.43 EPR" comments refer to the power setting for takeoff - nearly full power. That is 224,000# of thrust that is held for the first 100 seconds and you hear the engines come up clearly. The "80 knots" call identifies the latest time by which takeoff power must be set. The call of "V1" (156 knots) occurred at the precalculated last point where we could abort the takeoff and stop on the runway. After that we're committed to go though certification and weight limits insure that if the most critical engine (they're not equally important) were to fail at that point we could still climb away safely. The "VR" call (174 knots) is where we lift the nose about 20 degrees. The "V2" call is when we lift off. You clearly see the marks identifying the approaching opposite end of the runway going by at this point. If the speeds don't look that fast it is because the camera, and my windshield, are 32 feet above the ground. After liftoff you have a nice view of Botany Bay ahead.
Though the miles per gallon per passenger (it carries 372) is better than a Honda Accord the plane as a whole is impressive in the other direction. Passing over the North Pacific Ocean we were getting about three airplane lengths per gallon. Our final step up in altitude to the max of 39,000' did not occur for 11 hours. We landed in San Francisco after a 12:37 flight with 22,600# (about 1 hour) remaining.
Enroute navigation is based on GPS updating our inertial guidance system. And that system calculates our heading by sensing earth rotation before the airplane moves from the terminal. It then sums rotations to keep it current. The compass system was removed to save weight! In the mid Pacific we know our location to within the size of the airplane.
I also include a video of our landing in SFO from about 1,000' altitude on down - that's Coyote Point Yacht Harbor off to the left at the start of the video. Just before touchdown you hear the automated voice of our radar altimeter calling off 50, 30, and 10 feet above the runway - and that's calibrated from the bottoms of the first main wheels to touch the pavement. At touchdown my eyes are still nearly 60 feet up. At this point our inertial guidance system is being updated by transmitters on the end of the runway giving us an accuracy of less than 2 feet. With this system we can land with visibility of only 600 feet. We touched down at about 170 mph being over 350,000# lighter than at takeoff and use reverse thrust from the engines and a sophisticated antiskid braking system to get it stopped. All takeoffs and over 99% of landings are done manually. Only in Hollywood do autopilots do so much flying.
If any of this has piqued your interest and you have some technical questions please email them back to me. One that I always get back is "Will it fly on only /two/ engines?" Answer - if it's the worst case (two out on the left side and at max weight) - we must have reached about 350 mph and have all flaps retracted - then it will. For the record, I have not lost any engines at United since 1967. As an interesting aside here, this extreme engine reliability has diminished the extra comfort one used to feel with four engine vs two engine airplanes. Remember my comment that all airline takeoffs must assume that one engine will fail and still leave the airplane with safe climb capability. On normal takeoffs this means that a four engine airplane is 33% overpowered while a two engine airplane is 100% overpowered. This degree of "overpoweredness" is what enables the two engine airplanes to accelerate faster on takeoff (a typical two engine takeoff will last only about 30 secs and use a bit more than half the runway) and to climb higher sooner in their flights. Our first cruising altitude was 29,000' while a 777's would be at least 33,000'. We both have our advantages.
I recorded the takeoff in two different formats and the landing in three. The ones entitled "Small" are in a coarse resolution and small screen. They are just under 3 megs each. You will also get ones entitled "Medium Large". This a larger screen and a finer resolution and comprises over 10 megs. "Large" is nearly 14 megs. The latter is obviously better but not all ISPs can handle that much in a single mailing. My advice is to try to download the "Large" ones first and if that doesn't work to go for the smaller versions. I will send the five videos in separate mailings. If this is typical of my previous attempts at mailing these videos about half will be returned labelled "too large for delivery".
UAL and I appreciate your patronage and support as we rebuild a leaner and meaner airline. Sadly, I'll not be around to see it all happen as the FAA's age 60 mandatory retirement rule has finally caught up with me after 38+ years in the cockpit. I started with the DC6's and 7's of the "golden age". It has been a wonderful time with countless memories and enabled me to meet the wife of my dreams as well - 36 years ago. I only wish someone had invented digital cameras in 1965! There was nothing like that sound of a big radial engine.
Thanks again,
Capt Walt Bates