Questions for a real pilot

[TheSimPilot96]

Hello everyone!

I've recently had the pleasure of getting into contact with an ex BA Concorde captain through work. He was a route check captain in the final years of the aircraft and has shared some incredible (and downright scary!) stories of his time on the line.

If anyone has some questions for him then please let me know, and I will endeavour to have them answered for you!

Best regards,

Jason

[pierre]

Great Jason! Thanks.

As may be said, same here with a real Air-France Concorde pilot who is a good friend of me Béatrice Vialle.
She made her first flight as pilot on Concorde the saddest day 2001/09/11 and landed the bird facing the smoking twin tower at KJFK.
As Jason, you can send questions to her and I will ask her for you. 

[TheSimPilot96]

Great Jason! Thanks.

As may be said, same here with a real Air-France Concorde pilot who is a good friend of me Béatrice Vialle.
She made her first flight as pilot on Concorde the saddest day 2001/09/11 and landed the bird facing the smoking twin tower at KJFK.
As Jason, you can send questions to her and I will ask her for you. 

Wow! What a weird experience that must have been for her. I do need to expand my Air France Concorde route repertoire so expect a few Qs from me

[gastonreif]

Question from me about number of reheats to use. See takeoff log from JFK, they used only 3 reheats. Can anyone explain why would they do this? And if so, which engine to choose? If you look to the primary engine instruments on the left side is small flip metal part labeled 3 or 4 for that purpose as a reminder - no other function.

http://lesvolsdeconcorde.com/Concorde/VOLCOLLEC_POP_UP/gAUAALqrDed2bFhJRVhlY1RMAAA?A5

[TheSimPilot96]

Question from me about number of reheats to use. See takeoff log from JFK, they used only 3 reheats. Can anyone explain why would they do this? And if so, which engine to choose? If you look to the primary engine instruments on the left side is small flip metal part labeled 3 or 4 for that purpose as a reminder - no other function.

http://lesvolsdeconcorde.com/Concorde/VOLCOLLEC_POP_UP/gAUAALqrDed2bFhJRVhlY1RMAAA?A5

Hello Gaston,

The link no longer works for me, but I have asked the question and will get back to you with an answer. But I speculate that this could be related to the fact that take offs were planned for a single reheat failure below 100kts. At least that's what the CPS-NG form appears to consider. Nevertheless I'll get an answer for you very soon!

[TheSimPilot96]

Question from me about number of reheats to use. See takeoff log from JFK, they used only 3 reheats. Can anyone explain why would they do this? And if so, which engine to choose? If you look to the primary engine instruments on the left side is small flip metal part labeled 3 or 4 for that purpose as a reminder - no other function.

http://lesvolsdeconcorde.com/Concorde/VOLCOLLEC_POP_UP/gAUAALqrDed2bFhJRVhlY1RMAAA?A5

Hello Gaston,

The link no longer works for me, but I have asked the question and will get back to you with an answer. But I speculate that this could be related to the fact that take offs were planned for a single reheat failure below 100kts. At least that's what the CPS-NG form appears to consider. Nevertheless I'll get an answer for you very soon!

Answer:

"Always planned 4 reheats on every take off. Performance calculations would provide a weight below which continued take off on 3 reheats was possible"

So the take off performance (at British Airways) should provide the pilots a weight below which, a single reheat failure would not make takeoff impossible.

He did not recall the flipper instrument, and in the BA manuals I could not find the flipper. But in some aircraft it may have been included as a memo like you say. This picture from the BA manuals, You can see no Flipper memo instrument. It can be seen on other models however.

[gastonreif]

Very good, thanks

[pierre]

Question from me about number of reheats to use. See takeoff log from JFK, they used only 3 reheats. Can anyone explain why would they do this? And if so, which engine to choose? If you look to the primary engine instruments on the left side is small flip metal part labeled 3 or 4 for that purpose as a reminder - no other function.

http://lesvolsdeconcorde.com/Concorde/VOLCOLLEC_POP_UP/gAUAALqrDed2bFhJRVhlY1RMAAA?A5

On Air-France, same answer as for BA. The flip part is a reminder for possible TO with 3 Reheats.

some short subsonic flights could be made by taking off without reheating.
CPS-NG calculates the mass at which this is possible.

[TheSimPilot96]

Question from me about number of reheats to use. See takeoff log from JFK, they used only 3 reheats. Can anyone explain why would they do this? And if so, which engine to choose? If you look to the primary engine instruments on the left side is small flip metal part labeled 3 or 4 for that purpose as a reminder - no other function.

http://lesvolsdeconcorde.com/Concorde/VOLCOLLEC_POP_UP/gAUAALqrDed2bFhJRVhlY1RMAAA?A5

On Air-France, same answer as for BA. The flip part is a reminder for possible TO with 3 Reheats.

some short subsonic flights could be made by taking off without reheating.
CPS-NG calculates the mass at which this is possible.

Yes! Apparently it was used by the engineer wether or not to call the engine failure so as to reject the takeoff. 3 meaning it is safe to take off.

The reheat failure was normally due to something he calls the 'reheat amplifier'. It got to the point that they had these parts stationed across the Concorde route network so as to facilitate easy changeover downroute.

[gastonreif]

Hi everyone, new question for the pilots. From the flight manuals is not clear what will happen if you switch off all 3 fuel pumps for engine feed tank for example tank 1. Will this result of engine shutdown or the fuel will use gravity to feed the engine with low pressure which will indicate the low press yellow warnings under respected pumps?

[Ray Proudfoot]

If anyone has some questions for him then please let me know, and I will endeavour to have them answered for you!

Best regards,

Jason

Hi Jason. I would appreciate you asking him about the descent profile. After decelerating to 350Kts IAS the descent started with further engine reductions at Mach 1.5.

Did that increase the descent rate? If so, by how much?

And at Mach 1 the throttles were retarded to idle presumably further increasing the descent rate.

What descent rate was normal below Mach 1?

Many thanks.