Splash and Dash Searey Seaplane Delights
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Posted By: Steve Kessinger
Date Posted: Feb 12, 2015
Description: Another reason why I haven't been working on my SeaRey

Let's see... In the last 12 months I've
-gotten married
-sold my house
-bought a new one
-sold Giuliana's house
-redone a bunch of stuff at the new house (the only thing we didn't touch was the carpet on the stairs)
-capped the year off with a 787 type rating. I'll start flying it out of SFO next week. (and there's still work to do on the house!)


It's not a SES rating, but it means no more SEA-EWR commute.
Date Taken:
Place Taken:
Owner: Steve Kessinger
File Name: Preflight (1).JPG   - Photo HTML
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Category: 787, N805PY, Florida_Flying
Favorite option: If you want this item to be marked as a favorite, click on the black heart. Another reason why I haven't been working on my Se    Make Cover Photo     
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Read what others had to say:

Dennis Scearce - Jan 10,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stop making excuses and get on that plane.     
  
Don Maxwell - Jan 10,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    Tsk. Whiner.     
  
Batterman, Eric - Jan 11,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    Where's your new base? Don't forget to carry epoxy in your bag.     
  
Steve Kessinger - Feb 12,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    During my preflight last week I rapped my knuckles against the fuselage, Eric, weird to hear the hollow *thunk* of carbon fiber instead of *tink* of metal.     
  
Steve Kessinger - Jan 11,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    Coming home to San Francisco, Eric, but we're going to keep living in Bellingham.

http://seareybuild.blogspot.com/2011/03/where-clippers-sailed.html 		    
  
Steve Kessinger - Jan 11,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    That's great, Dave, congrats to everyone in your family for their good fortune.     
  
Carr, Frank  - Jan 11,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    So you can fly one but can you build one and then fly the one you build?

Just kidding Steve, I'd just love to see the inside of a 78 		    
  
Steve Kessinger - Jan 12,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    I'm working on a Pirep for another website, it'd be way off topic but if the Mods and members are interested I can also post it here (with photos).     
  
Steve Kessinger - Jan 13,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    I'll post it when I'm finished with it then. In Narita right now, head to Denver later tonight.

Fellow Puget Sound builder Jeff Raecker is a Boeing engineer, anything Jeff would like to add would be welcome. 		     Attachments:  

787 planform
787 planform

    
  
Steve Kessinger - Jan 14,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    Instead of tying up bandwith on this site, I've posted some pics on my build blog. http://seareybuild.blogspot.com/ I'll post a pirep when I have it complete.     
  
Donald White - Jan 15,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    Steve, there are NO restrictions on bandwidth on this site, so I would like to keep as much information related to Seareys and
Seaplanes on this site. I've seen a lot of people put in information on other sites and when the other sites get abandoned, so goes the
valuable information.

Thank you, Don White 		    
  
Don Maxwell - Jan 12,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    Steve, the name of this site is ""Splash and Dash,"" but it seems reasonable to assume that that means ""and/or""--so if your pirep is either dashing or will make a splash, then why not try it here, too?     
  
Nickens, Dan - Jan 12,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    Can't you just see how the bow of the new Boeing would make an excellent hull? Not that I'm keen for you to try that out, Steve, but I'd love to see your photos and Pirep.     
  
Steve Kessinger - Jan 12,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    Funny you mention that, Frank... ;-)      Attachments:  

Windrider 787 review, Fly RC Magazine
Windrider 787 review, Fly RC Magazine

Steve Kessinger 787 flying model (3)
Steve Kessinger 787 flying model (3)

Steve Kessinger 787 flying model (4)
Steve Kessinger 787 flying model (4)

       Attachments:  

Steve Kessinger 787 flying model (12)
Steve Kessinger 787 flying model (12)

Steve Kessinger 787 flying model (13)
Steve Kessinger 787 flying model (13)

    
  
Don Maxwell - Jan 12,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    Very cool, Steve!     
  
Carr, Frank  - Jan 12,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    Really cool Steve. Realistic photos too. You've answered my question. Fellow SeaRey pilot and RC builder, Ron Sheridan, would also
be really impressed. 		    
  
John Dunlop - Jan 18,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    Congrats all round Steve! A man of many talents!
Sweet! 		    
  
Steve Kessinger - Feb 12,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    I've spent the last 8 years flying the 77 out of EWR, I held 787 FO when it first came out (and pre UAL/CAL merger) but was bumped off it in a reduction bid when the #2 aircraft caught fire during a test flight. By the time the airplane was reopened for bidding I had a full plate in my personal life so I held off, betting on the rumored opening of a post-merger West Coast base. The 787 and 747 were both "fenced" after the seniority list integration, allowing me to bid and hold the SFO base when it opened last summer. I grew up in Alameda, dreaming of being a pilot, and to come back to the Bay Area in the prime of my flying career is an unbelievable dream come true.

I had seen the -8 version in various places but wasn't really impressed, the 77 is such a beautiful and impressive machine I didn't want to leave it, and I wasn't really excited by the 78 when I had seen it in person. It was smaller than the 77, and I enjoyed the destinations of the we flew on it (TLV, DEL, BOM, NRT, HKG, LHR)

Sure enough, in the spring of 2014 a SFO base was announced, because of the fence I was able to hold it. Since the merger of the United/Continental pilot seniority lists many "Legacy" United pilots had been bidding into the EWR 77, and in 2014 I lost almost 15% seniority in the base as a result of more senior pilots transferring in above me. I could see that if the trend continued I was in danger of going back on reserve. It was time to move on.

Shortly after the -9 rolled out I saw it parked outside the Museum of Flight after an event, and was able to spend some time looking at it. For some reason this time she spoke to me, and I found myself excited of the thought of flying her.

In late November I was notified of my class date and my schedule. I had been warned and found out that it was a very intense syllabus. Coming off the 77 I was given the transition course, (The joke is that it was a 5 week course designed to be done in 4 weeks that we were given 18 days to accomplish.) and while the flows and procedures were the same or similar, the systems were very much different, and I stayed at the hotel during the first 3 day break, cracking the books. I didn't do as good as I hoped, only scoring a 92 on the written/system validation, I made some dumb choices on questions I wasn't quite sure about, and flat out didn't know a few things as well as I should have. I learned from the ones I missed.

As always, I was paired up with another pilot, regretfully he was under a great deal of stress from a seriously ill family member at home, and after the second FFS (Full Flight Sim) he withdrew from training. He's a good guy, withdrawing was a difficult call but it was the right one. I heard from him since, the home situation has been resolved, and he's already been notified of a new training date. In his place other instructors sat in as my sim partner, I was told they would not hinder but would only perform to line pilot standard but not to Instructor standard where they could see my mistakes coming before I even made them and warn me. Fair enough, and on December 21 I passed my "maneuvers validation" where I was tested on a selection of maneuvers such as Cat III ILSs, circling/curving RNAV approaches, engine failures and single engine approaches/go-arounds. As usual, I crawled out of the sim at the end kicking myself for things I thought I should have done better and happy for the things I did right.

On December 22 I passed my type ride, which consisted of 2 legs in real time. On the first leg we were given a variety of situations culminating in a compressor stalled engine, and were returned to our launch airport for a single engine landing. The second leg was an in-flight baggage compartment fire we were unable to contain, combined with a no-win weather scenario where it was a judgment call where to go. We made good calls and landed successfully. I'm not sure of the exact date, but it was pretty close the the 25th anniversary of my ASEL checkride.

After a break over the holidays, I started IOE with an IAH-LHR leg. During preflight on other IOEs I had felt really behind the airplane and unprepared, this time it was more like putting on a new suit. It's a suit, just like your old suit, and things are in about the same places, but your hands are about 1/2" off when they reach for something and you have to occasionally stop and think about what you're doing, throwing off your rhythm. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast, until new habits are learned and grown into.

My first impression of the aircraft is again, how much more compact (*cough* small) it is than the 77. The -8 seems more comparable in size to the 767, both inside and outside. (The -9 is slightly bigger than the 77-200.) The cockpit is about as roomy in the front seats, but there seems to be less clearance between the flying pilots and the observers seats.

Photos here: http://seareybuild.blogspot.com/2015/01/meet-sparky.html

Pushback and engine start were conventional, except for the ability to start both engines at once. The LED beacon is noticeable at night, one of the small things that make you go "What's that?" when you catch the odd reflection off a building.

Pop quiz I got right off the bat: Is the FO's HUD required equipment? Answer: No. The HUD is only really there for lo-vis approaches, and under our Ops Specs the FO cannot do any takeoffs with RVR below 1,0'. While we used it during every sim and are required to show proficiency with it during recurrent checkrides, it's not a no-go item unless there's a problem with the Captain's HUD.

Since it's still training every takeoff and landing was done with the HUD, and I found myself focusing on the glass instead of looking through it. This caused the biggest problem so far during climbout, since the HUD pitch ladder is coarser than the pitch ladder on the PFD. The entire HUD display consists of about 7 deg of pitch, whereas the PFD displays about 20.

I found myself chasing small deviations in the HUD to match the circles, but I could feel in my butt that I was not flying smoothly and I started cross checking the HUD vs the PFD, and noticed I was chasing deviations in the HUD that I would not have noticed in the PFD, or would have made small, gentle corrections to fix. I mentioned it to the IP and was told I was correct, and that I would learn to reduce my personal control gains when flying the HUD. With that confirmed I started adapting, and hand flew the aircraft to cruise at 380. The aircraft is a lot lighter on the controls, there's not a great feeling of mass or lag behind your inputs and I found it easy to overcontrol, resulting in me dialing back and undercontroling, learning as I went.

Performancewise, the airplane peeled my eyes back. The IP played with our power settings during climb out to demo various methods, and it was not uncommon to see 3-4,0 fpm climb rates even in the high 20s. Unreal. Just unreal. We later climbed to 400 to get out of some turbulence, again effortlessly.

The IP wanted to do the first landing to show me the sight picture for landing, and he took the aircraft over at the top of descent so I can't really talk about descent performance tonight. "In the sim" during training we were told speedbrakes are not an option during descent, they're mandatory, and my observation of the Captain's flying confirmed this. The airplane is so dang clean it just doesn't want to slow down, and during training it was often mentioned to fly the airplane like I would a powered glider.

Here's an example of the difference between a 777-200 and a 787-9 on similar legs. On a EWR-BOM flight we'd take about 230-240,000# of fuel, struggle up to 320 for the first half of the flight at .83, climb to 340 after about 3 hours, and 360 after about 8, burning about 13,0#/hour. The IP had a copy of a LAX-AUK flight he had done that was similar in length, they loaded 168,0# of gas and went right to 400 at .86M, burning about 10,0#/hour.

Some quick notes after my first flight:
-Yes, the airplane is as clean as they say and does not bleed energy. Full speedbrakes until 1,0' AGL to help slow down, anyone?
-It doesn't hold energy during the flare and lands flat. I thought I smashed the landing and was ready for the FAs when I opened the door, but they said it was no worse than others. (A great landing is when....)
-Can't hold the nose up after touchdown with that itty bitty stab, it seemed to come down as fast as the Shuttle's. *wham*
- .88M @ FL400, burning 11,000#/hour. Dayum...


IOE Day 2
Day 2 started with an oh-hurt (Bellingham time) wakeup, and the first thing I preflighted when I got to the airplane was the bunk area. The pilot rest area is in the overhead above the front cabin, and installation of the stairway necessitated breaking up the front galley area, to the annoyance of the flight attendants.

Climbing a narrow stairway, a rest seat is to your left, and both bunks are laid out side-side with a solid, noiseproof divider separating them and thick curtains at the foot area to block the entryway.

You can't sit fully upright, but I found with an extra pillow I was able to achieve a comfortably reclined position to read and unwind before fading off to sleep. The rest area has plugs to power computers/DVD players, etc, but no TV or entertainment system. You can receive a signal from the on-board internet video, though, and can watch a movie on your personal device. (complimentary on our long flights, thank you for flying the airline who's name I cannot mention in social media, per company policy.)

Noise level is tolerable, with some bleedover from the floor from the service below and from the airflow on the other side of the thin fuselage wall. I was able to sleep fine during my break, but tried a pair of earplugs on another trip, just for grins, and found it abnormally quiet with the earplugs.


Many of the IPs during training were also former 77 pilots/IPs, and much of the training contained the phrase "Now, on the 77 it worked like this...". One of them got off a great line when he compared transition training from the 77 to the 78 was like talking with a trusted friend about an old girlfriend vs a new one. Your love the new woman and are having a great time, but every so often you find yourself thinking "Ok, my old girlfriend worked that way, my new girlfriend works this way." That comparison, of course, brought howls of laughter into the brief and has become a standard line now with the IPs. The 77 was the bodybuilder, the woman who was big boned and hard muscled but still light on her feet. The 78 is the lean track star, the greyhound who is built for speed and just wants to run, run, run.


Waking up the new girlfriend is almost identical to the old one, with a few exceptions. The airplane is heavily dependent on ground or APU power, so even though the company is on the rag about APU usage, the first thing we do upon entering the cockpit is to turn on the APU, even if we have both front ground power units attached. (The aircraft can use 3 GPUs, two in front and one at the aft left wing root.)

The fuselage is all carbon fiber, and instead of the standard 3/3 windows there are 2/2 larger windows that don't open. This meant the crew had no means of escaping the cockpit if the door jammed, so an overhead hatch was built in. Opening the sunroof allows the plug door to swing down into the 'pit, and (in theory) the escaping pilot would grasp an inertia reel descender to lower themselves the 2 1/2 stories down. (At one time the FAA was contemplating a cockpit escape demo be part of our training, but saner heads stopped that in it's tracks.) We were cautioned not to screw around on the line and get our photos taken poking our heads out of the escape hatch, because of the slope of the fuselage it's very easy to fall out. I didn't ask how they knew....


The cockpit is dominated by 5 large screens. The outer 2 are dedicated to the PFDs and the inner 3 (two on top and one on the center console) swap duties as MFDs for EICAS, systems, comm, electronic checklists, and CDU display/entries. The CDU/FMCs are not hardwired but are virtual units that can be moved to any display in the event of display failure, and the first part of training is developing your rhythm and switchology methods and habits. Boeing's design philosophy (according to a Boeing engineer friend) was to aggressively go after every ounce of unnecessary weight on the airplane, so eliminating the FMC/CDU units and associated wiring not only provided redundancy but also weight savings.


CDU entries are made via a keypad, you can use a rotary switch or touch pad to move the cursor to the desired point. Unlike the touchpad on the OG, the touchpad either requires too much force to move or too little, so I'm trying to develop a habit of using the rotary switch. Moving between the inner and center DUs is done by dragging on the mousepad, and it works fairly decently. There is a bit of a lag between keyboard entry and display on the CDU, so early on it was back to "slow is smooth, smooth is fast.", and double checking entries before hitting ENTER.

One nice feature in the fuel system is an automatic fuel balancing function. If you're having a bad day at the office (ornery FAs, the other pilot had curry the night before, and your dog bit you that morning) and encounter a high workload scenario (on fire, bad weather, short notice divert), you can just reach up and hit the Balance pb, and the airplane will take care of the rest.

The only bleed air is used to deice the engine cowling and core. The GEnx has had a problem with core icing, but only on the 747-8, there have been no reported incidents on the 787. Since the main difference is the 78 only sucks a small amount of bleed air for engine anti-ice, but the 74 uses the standard bleed system for hot wings, pressurization, etc, it's believed this may be a factor.

With no pneumatic system there's no bleed air for cabin pressurization, instead, pressurized air is supplied by cabin air compressors, two/side, any one of which can supply the aircraft in emergency ops, supplemented by a ram air vent on the bottom of the fuselage in case of total pack/CAC failure. During boarding the FAs will enter the total passenger load and the system adjusts airflow for optimum cabin ventilation, reducing electrical demand and thus, fuel burn. Little things all add up.

In other airplanes "humidity" is controlled at approximately 7% mixture, but the new 787 air and engine systems allows a higher amount of moisture content to be dumped, approximately 15%. The higher ratio is necessary because of the higher speed and altitudes of the 78, and the higher mixture ratio has proven effective in ground measurements under the flight path of the chemtrail dispensing aircraft.

The scalloped engine nozzles were thought to be more efficient and would produce better chem mixing in the airstream, but operational testing has shown that dispersal does not require them, and they have been eliminated on the 77X design. On fact, the system is so effective the system is disabled 90 minutes before landing, and residual moisture in the system is sufficient for dispersal during the remainder of the flight in and out of the cabin at low altitudes.


A great deal of weight was saved by the electronic circuit breaker system. There are two kinds of breakers, electronic and thermal, and they are controlled via the systems menu on the MFD. Electronic, but not thermal, circuit breakers can be reset during flight if the checklist commands. With this electronic capability one common question I get is whether or not circuit breakers can be reset remotely by maintenance.

Jepps are carried as a backup and we're in a transition to iPads, but an EFB is hardwired into the aircraft with an interface into the FMS. For expediency, one pilot can load the FMS then transfer his programming to the other pilot, and when the map is scaled down to 0.25 mile scale parking gates and taxiways are shown in a moving map display.

In locations where CPDLC is available, altitudes, heading, speed, frequency and transponder codes can be uploaded directly into the MCP or TCP. In some areas (England, for example), controllers can see what is set on the MCP, so if you're assigned as speed and decide to cheat by a couple knots in order to avoid deploying flaps, they'll know and it's a bust.. A little bother when you're trying to cheat, but nice when fatigued or dealing with strange accents.

Like anything else, the tuning heads perform multiple duties, serving as control heads for the VHF, HF, SATCOM, GPWS, cabin intercom, transponder and weather radar.


While we joke about the aircraft being called "Sparky", the electrical demands and distribution system is both a work of art and the complicated heart of the aircraft. Much weight was saved by setting up remote distribution units instead of running wires throughout the aircraft. In some opinions, Boeing's goal of saving weight by eliminating the pneumatic system was offset by the complexity and additional weight of the electrical. 4 systems (28Vdc, 115Vac, 235Vac and 270Vdc) distribute power throughout the beastie, with various combinations of 6 engine or APU starter/generators, 3 permanent magnetic generators, and 2 permanent magnet alternators plus the usual RAT and batteries supplying the electrons. During testing an aircraft was flown for well over 5 hours with 5 of the 6 generators turned off.

Here's a couple ways of measuring the power demands/supplies of Sparky: with everything running the 6 generators produce roughly 1.5 megawatts of power. If you hooked up a really long set of jumper cables to the beast, you could power 3 grocery stores, or 400 houses, or 2,000,000 iPods. On the down side, "normal" airplanes can sustain total generator loss and run off battery power for 30 minutes minimum, but if you're having a really bad day on a 78 the basic electrical demands will drain the on-board batteries in 10 minutes. This was a huge factor in going with efficient, lightweight lithium battery technology.

Speaking of which, let's talk about the problems with the batteries. You might say I've been drinking the Boeing flavored kool-aid, and you might be right, but I'm not an engineer, I'm just a lousy college dropout so on some things you gotta trust the engineers. We were told that the problems with the batteries stemmed from Boeing outsourcing, and that another factor was they were using the wrong formula to charge the them. (RC people know how critical it is to use the correct formula to differentiate between LiPo, LiIon, etc, when charging their batteries, and to balance the cells and not charge too fast. Apparently that info got by the FAA and Boeing.) This problem has been fixed with modifications to the charging system, and making provisions for venting of overheated batteries, among other modifications.

Without APU power two external powers units are "recommended" while at the gate, the airplane can operate with a single one but many systems are load shed, and the airplane is a bit finicky about it's ground power, so until all the stations have reliable ground power we pretty much always run the APU at the gate. No provisions are made for pneumatic "huffer cart" starts. With a good APU both engines can be started simultaneously, it's pretty cool to display the electrical schematic during the start and watch systems load shed, then come back.

If there's no pneumatic system, then how are the wings de-iced? Glad you asked. Electric mats in the wing leading edge take care of that. Adding to the electrical load, there's no hydraulic brakes, they're carbon brakes with standard anti-skid, etc.

Preflight and walkaround is standard, but I was surprised to see a large "keel" on the belly. This is not a solid keel like on a ship, but is a structure containing electrical and hydraulic lines.

Flying
Let's see... I've got a whole 9 takeoffs and 4 landings in the airplane, making me fully qualified to talk about the flight characteristics.

Have you stopped laughing yet? Good. Sorry about the keyboard, that'll wipe off. Probably. Better go get a towel before you read any more.

The airplane handles like a.... hmm..... I'm trying to think. The ATR was a 36,000# C-182, the 777 was a 600,000# Mooney, the EMB-145 was a slick T-tailed Arrow. Right now I'm thinking the pitch and yaw forces are similar to a Citabria or Decathalon, but yaw forces are heavier, like a 737.


One reason I loved the 77 is because of a system called Thrust Asymmetry Compensation. If engine thrust differed by more than 10% before takeoff, the system would add up to 85% of the rudder necessary to zero out the yaw rate, and when airborne it would add 100%. For a guy with bad knees it was a godsend, and engine outs were a matter of literally flexing an ankle to input enough rudder for control. (The system is capable of and originally added 100% of the rudder needed, but it led to pilots either not knowing they had suffered a power loss, or confusion about which engine had failed, so it was derated a little to help.)

The 78 both improved and worsened the yaw control system. During the takeoff roll the flight control system adds enough rudder to attempt to maintain a zero yaw rate (such as from crosswinds), then above 60 knots, like the 77, it is capable of adding enough rudder to counter an engine failure. On the 787 this system/logic is called P-beta, dunno what I'm doing wrong, maybe I'm fighting it and I didn't have a problem in the sim, but it seemed like the rudder forces were heavier on the takeoff in the airplane, more along the lines of 737 levels. I'll have to keep an eye on that.

The airplane automatically changes pitch trim for configurations changes, but the pilot must manually make trim changes for airspeed changes. London has very strict noise abatement restrictions and the SID must be carefully followed, even at the end I still preferred to use the 77 autopilot to fly SIDs out of LHR. Departing Thursday I briefed that I would do the same, but we got busy after takeoff and I never engaged it. By the time I realized it we were well out of the terminal area, so I shrugged inwardly and kept on trucking. (Happened in Nartia on IOE-3, too, as we departed off 34L). I'm getting used to the FD/HUD, and I'm adapting to the lightness on the controls.

Climbout was the same, we were about about 470,0# (MGTOW 502,5#) but climbed straight to FL400 and filed .86M. (By the end of the flight when we had burned off some gas we were able to get up to .88M.) During cruise the airplane constantly analyzes conditions and will deflect the wing surfaces to achieve the most efficient camber for the given phase of flight possible. Cruise is another example of how far Boeing went to save weight, there's no built-in shades but they do provide fitted screens, and the HUD makes a nice sunblocker. It's also very quiet in the cockpit, you can converse in a normal tone of voice with no problems.

I'm reading The Martian by Andy Weir, crawling into the bunk it was easy to think I was on some kind of future spaceship. One funny thing is that Boeing put a keypad to control the bunk lighting on the sidewall by the pilot's shoulder, every one of the aircraft I've been in have the keypad covered with some kind of sticker, duct tape, etc. Seems that the keypad illumination makes it too bright for sleeping, shines right in your eyes.


Commercial airliners don't exist just for the pleasure of the pilots, they gotta earn their living so the comfort of the passengers is important. You've probably heard of the larger windows allowed by the composite construction. On one flight I was able to take my break in a window seat, it was a great view. Instead of shades they use PFEM to dim/lighten, and it works far better at dimming the cabin than shades do. (In the event of electrical failure they default to clear.) They did a nice job with the LED cabin lighting, too.

The IP quizzed me today, asking what I thought our deck angle would be if we increased our speed to .88M. I dunno, I replied, maybe 1.5 deg? Nope, you'd think that with higher speed would come lower AOA, but the airplane knows that 2.5 deg is the optimum AOA for this altitude/weight, and if speed was increased the wing would use the ailerons and flaperons to change camber for the higher speed, but maintain 2.5 deg AOA. Kewl...

Boeing included a drawer under the glareshield for checklists, clipboards, etc, but it was found that by putting the clipboard into the slot you could accidentally engage the HDG HOLD button with your thumb. (Oops.) We're drilled to check that LNAV is engaged, often. Take a sip of coffee, check LNAV. Make a radio call, check LNAV. Scratch yourself, check LNAV. Now we're taught to put the clipboard (with the flightplan, etc.) on top of the coaming. If you look toward the front of the coaming you'll see a depression for the clipboard, but it requires a long reach to get to, so most just leave it in this location.


It was emphasized repeatedly during training that the airplane is very, very slick and doesn't like to slow down and go down, and I can tell you, they're right. We've had a few crews overspeed flaps while trying to use them for drag during descent, since the flaps are also composite it's not a minor thing to have to do an overspeed inspection, the aircraft gets grounded (it rats you out with a data message to Mx) and an overspeed inspection takes 2-3 days to accomplish. Because of this the company is really, really encouraging us to use speed brakes more during descent, as long as they're stowed by 1,0' AGL, which is when you should be configured and close to speed, anyway.

The plane is so slick at flaps 20 extra drag is created via a system called "Autodrag". If the aircraft is above glideslope with thrust levers at idle and flaps at 25 or 30, ailerons and spoilers are automatically deployed to create more drag, and help increase the descent rate. There is also another system called Landing Attitude Modifier that acts to kill lift on the wing by undrooping flaperons and raising inboard spoilers when at flaps 20 or greater. On the good side, killing lift on the wing results in a higher pitch attitude/AOA, increasing the margin for nose gear contact. The bad part is that the control surface deflection results in a turbulent airflow over the stab, and a bumpy ride down final.

One thing Boeing is NOT talking about is some kind of laminar flow system over the tail of the -9, we were just told it's there, there's no preflight or anything we can do about it. http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/b....html?page=all


The Vertical Situation Display is a huge addition to SA, showing a profile view of terrain and flight path, and a white vertical flight path vector equal to half the display range extends out from the aircraft symbol. This is one of those things that can save lives in bad terrain, and I've already seen it on some versions of 73NGs.
We all remember our first time, good or bad. My first landing in the 77 was a go-around in Paris when all 3 of us heard a different handofff frequency to Tower and we were unable to establish communication for landing clearance. (The controller actually apologized for it when we went back to Approach, and the subsequent landing went fine.) Well......

With the confidence I was gaining in the airplane, I was looking forward to my first approach and landing. Not matter how good the training, no matter how prepared you feel after the sims, we all know that when checking out in a new aircraft you usually feel far, far behind it for the first few flights or so, and my first approach and landing were no exception. I kept the autopilot on for most of the descent and played with the VSD, getting a feel for the performance of the speed brakes and how much was or was not needed. About 25 miles out I went clickclick, turned George off and flew the rest of the way in without the HUD, but I tried too hard to be smooth and ended up chasing the localizer. The IP "suggested" I engage the HUD and I reluctantly complied, but it did smooth out my flying. As others have mentioned, you have to get used to flying through the HUD and looking around the clutter, I fiddled a bit with the brightness until I found a setting that worked.

The HUD displays a horizontal line that corresponds to a 3 deg glideslope, simply adjust pitch and power until the line lays across the point you want to touch down on and it does the work for you. I can see where it would help, but I can also see where it could be something that people become dependent on, letting the pilot skills we've honed over the years atrophy and making us into "HUD cripples".

After we got to the gate I crawled out of the cockpit expecting to see a rubber jungle and the FAs at the cockpit door with their girdles around their ankles, asking who the hell slammed the landing in. To my surprise, there was no rubber jungle, no hoots or hollers. I was braced and ready, but none came, and when I finally asked how the landing was I was greeted with puzzled looks and It was fine, why? comments. Last night's landing was an autoland demo in Denver and George slammed it in, too, the IP said the 78 is just a stiff landing airplane. He said most 77 pilots were spoiled by the ease of landing it, but most 73NG pilots adapted right away to the 78 and the flatter approach attitude.


It's the small things that are learned as the airplane matures. On one flight the crew at door 4L called up, saying the floor was warm, and was everything ok, was there a battery problem or cargo fire? Nothing showed on the EICAS or systems pages, a worried call to Ops showed nothing on the telemetry, either. A call was placed to Boeing who directed the crew to check the floor at all the doors. Yes, they were all warm. Was the floor away from the doors warm? No. Ok, a gentle reminder was sent that the 78 has embedded warmers in the floor by the doors for comfort. Oh....

Another thing learned the hard way: the cabin has some beautifully molded ceiling panels that give a spacious, airy feel to the cabin. One crew found out they are also acoustically active, and anything said in the forward galley would also be heard all the way back to row 3.

I've got about 65 hours in the airplane, and to be honest, Yeah, I still miss the 777. But I'm not commuting transcon every week anymore, and the 78 is growing on me. Coming to the Bay Area flying the 787 is not a bad way to come home again. 		     Attachments:  

Welcome
Welcome

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New ride
New ride

    
  
Chuck Cavanaugh - Feb 12,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    5 pages and not one complaint about the SLI! You're going to get kicked out of the union.     
  
Dave Edward - Feb 18,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    What a great synopsis Steve. I have sent a link to a bunch of my retired airline friends. The comments are great.
Thanks for the post. 		    
  
Steve Kessinger - Feb 12,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    Like I told one guy: I'm based in Newark and live in Bellingham because I can't get any further away from it on my days off.


I'll be working in Air Ops at Sun n Fun again this year, Chuck, if you make the show look me up and I'll buy the first Coke. :cheers: 		    
  
Chuck Cavanaugh - Feb 12,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    Will do, Steve. Thanks. Enjoy SFO.

I only wish I could hold EWR. Different strokes......... 		    
  
Don Maxwell - Feb 12,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    Wow! Thanks, Steve. I knew it was complex, but had no idea it's THAT complex. Whew!

But I'll bet you're really going to love flying your SeaRey. 		    
  
Steve Kessinger - Feb 13,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    The full course for someone coming from the 737/757/767 is 7 weeks long with very little down time, Don. And Yup, can't wait to get back to building and finishing her.     
  
Nickens, Dan - Feb 12,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    What a great peak into the cockpit of your new girlfriend, Steve! It's a revelation to those of us stuck in the back. Even with automation continuing to separate people from their contrivances, it is reassuring to see that the beauty, art, science and technology of flight still connects the plane with the pilot.     
  
Steve Kessinger - May 31,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    Science, freedom, beauty, adventure: what more could you ask of life? Aviation combined all the elements I loved. There was science in each curve of an airfoil, in each angle between strut and wire, in the gap of a spark plug or the color of the exhaust flame. There was freedom in the unlimited horizon, on the open fields where one landed. A pilot was surrounded by beauty of earth and sky. He brushed treetops with the birds, leapt valleys and rivers, explored the cloud canyons he had gazed at as a child. Adventure lay in each puff of wind.


— Charles A. Lindbergh, 'The Spirit of St. Louis.' 		    
  
Wayne Nagy - Feb 12,2015   Viewers  | Reply
    Thank you, Steve, for sharing. That was an enlightening read! I spent 2 hours today idly circling
islands at low speed, completely relaxed. The complexity
that you deal with on a daily basis is overwhelming! The little white dot below is my neighbor in his
Maxum. He was taking his dog, Buster, to shore in a
small blow up (I found out later... to go to the bathroom :-) 		     Attachments:  

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IMG 3479

    


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