A Passage to India Part 2
A Passage to India Part 2:
Cleared for Takeoff!
"I want to see the real India."
A Passage to India Part 2:
Cleared for Takeoff!
Ladies and gents, once again, Welcome Aboard our JFK-DEL flight!
As mentioned in Part 1, this trip has a 6-day footprint. The flight each way is so long, we mere mortals needed to deadhead (reposition) to JFK, take a long layover, and rest up for our JFK-DEL leg.
Base Camp JFK
On the flight over to JFK, I chatted with my seat mate, 1-yo Harrison, and Daddy John, who’s a podcaster. We may be doing a show together in the near future!
FO Mark and I cabbed it to our hotel, and I had time for a run in Central Park.
Lovely day!
It's a Small World After All
To my delight, upon checkin at the Manhattan layover hotel, I happen to see a familiar name on our crew sign in sheet. Fellow 777 Cap’n, Brian T, a buddy from my airline new-hire class (from back in the Paleolithic Era!)
Brian and his crew were doing a couple LHR trips out of JFK.
It’s fair to say that Brian was my original inspiration for going for the Gold and transitioning to 777 Cap’n!
My 2 FOs and I met up w/him and his friends for a little dinner and socializing.
Yep, if you’re in the airline industry long enough, just like most businesses, “it’s a small world after all!”
A Passage to India Part 2
Preflight
The next evening…
As you can imagine, a flight this long takes a LOT of planning, and all 4 of our flight deck crew were busy prepping.
As the “Relief Captain,” my main duties are to be the Captain inflight, while the Primary Captain and First Officer take their rest breaks. So, I actually had a pretty cushy job: sit in the back corner of the flight deck and look pretty, while the other pilots did their jobs!
Since I didn’t have much in the way of preflight duties (other than backing up the others in verifying routes, dispatch release info, etc.), I volunteered to do the “walk around” inspection. This is normally the FO’s job (or the FB’s on a 3-crew), so I was happy to stretch my legs and get the practice in.
Above: Do you remember our post about ETOPS? Remember what it stands for? We needed it for the first leg of our journey, to cross over the Atlantic “Pond” to Europe.
Cleared for Takeoff!
Despite being about Number 10 for takeoff (par for the course in JFK), we launched on time. This is critically important on these marathon flights. There’s not much “fudge factor” on your required takeoff time. Too much of a delay, and you turn into pumpkins!
You must be cleared for takeoff, or to “Line up and Wait” for takeoff, before your MOT—Max Off Time—is reached, which calculates max duty time based on realistic estimates of flight time and taxi-in time. Miss it by even 1 minute, and you’re sunk. You have no choice but to taxi back to the gate and call it quits!
Note: This became even more critical on our longer return leg!
A Passage to India Part 2
Himalaya Dancing
“If one doesn’t worry, how does one understand?”
For this flight, each team—Captain and FO, and Relief Captain (me) and FB—took 3.5 hour shifts.
Within a half hour after takeoff, FB Mike and I took the first break. When we came back for our shift, we were most of the way across the Atlantic (see my posts about ETOPS and NATracks), and flew through much of Europe.
Next shift, Captain Dave and FO Mark flew from Eastern Europe through Turkey and much of the Middle East. This set Mike and I up to do the final stretch over the Himalayas.
I was happy it worked out this way, as I was excited to see it from the air!
As you’ll recall from Part 1, however, we have to be very conscious about possible engine failure drift-down, or worse, possible decompression scenarios, when atop the Himalayas. So, Mike and I were very diligent about dong our Depressurization route planning and calculations!
Above Left: Himilaya “escape bubbles”—174nm rings around waypoints, to discern routes and altitudes. Right: Escape bubbles drawn on the ND, along with the escape routes we preprogrammed into Route 2, our backup Route, in case of need.
This becomes even more critical on the return leg, when we find ourselves climbing out über-heavy, at night, with sometimes only about 2,000 feet between us and “cumulogranite!”
Threading the Needle
Just before we hit the highest section of the Himalayas, we hang a hard right turn, and track southbound along a very narrow corridor of airspace.
To the left, crazy-high mountains. To the right, the unfriendly territory of Afghanistan!
As mentioned in Part 1, on this route, we still have to cross a 12nm sliver of eastern Afghanistan. It seems a little dicey, but the airspace is actually under control of Friendlies!
Made it!! 😅
The approach to Delhi comes with its own challenges, the least of which is trying to understand the heavy accents of the Air Traffic Controllers.
We also have strict airspeeds to abide by, as well as make a “continuous descent” for noise abatement. These conditions are similar to our arrival into LHR (London Heathrow)—including trying to understand the thick accents!
I was astounded to find that we pulled into the gate within 3 minutes of our originally-estimated arrival time!
Welcome to Delhi, my friend.
Namaste!
Full Passage to India Series:
A Passage to India Part 2
Hemisphere Dancing Report—Bonus!
Since this entire post is a “Hemisphere Dancing Report,” I’ll give you one simple Bonus pic…
On our DFW-EZE (Buenos Aires) trip a few weeks ago, we got another great snap of what’s commonly called, “St. Elmo’s Fire”—(actually simply “Static Discharge!”)
Blog Buddy Shoutout!
A special shout out to our newest Blog Buddy, Brady F!
Brady was on Bunny’s flight, and excitedly chatted with her about his enrollment in Embry Riddle for Aeronautical Science, Class of 2026! This go-getter even already has his Instrument Rating!
His dream job? 777-300 Cap’n!
Well, Brady, from one 777-300 Cap’n to an aspiring one, WELCOME ABOARD!
And, always remember:
From the moment you step into that old Cessna to take your first introductory flight…You’re already…
LIVING THE DREAM!!!
Fair skies and Tailwinds, Brady!!
A Passage to India Part 2
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Till the next post,
This is Cap'n Aux
Signing Off!
Cleared to Land
Touching Down Next
A Passage to India Part 3
The Return Flight
With the even longer flight home, takeoff time becomes even more critical—but a minor glitch threatens to cancel the flight!
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Full Passage to India Series:
