Welcome back for our final instalment of “EuroCargo In Focus”! This week we move on to the giant of the fleet – the Boeing 747-400F. The 747 “Jumbo Jet” is probably the best known aircraft in the world and has served the aviation world with distinction since 1970! There are some excellent articles on Wikipedia from which you can learn all about the history and specifications of the
Jumbo in general and the
747-400 model in particular.
Our Cargo version, the 747-400F is capable of transporting a massive 113 tonnes of freight over a distance of 4400nm and with its huge nose door can take oversize loads with ease...
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In this article I'd like to show you a few tools to help you plan and fly these long trips authentically and this will also require you to perform some tasks during the long hours of cruise flight, just in case you thought you might get bored!
The first thing to do is decide how you will plan your route and fuel needs – you can use the FS2004/FSX built-in Flight Planner but as this is a little basic many of us use other tools, payware or freeware to make things a little more authentic. The one I've used for a long time is
FSCommander which I like because it includes tools for fuel planning, airport charts and printable route map as well as the usual routing selections.
You can download a free trial version
here that allows you to plan your flight and save/print all the relevant documents as long as you don't take over 35 minutes to do it (more recent trial versions don't let you save anything).
Once you've planned the flight, it's time to load cargo and fuel and get into the cockpit! If you prefer to jump in and take off then the panel that comes with the fleet 744F will do you fine. However, if you'd like a more complex experience you have 2 options:
- use the payware PMDG 747-400 which I believe is fantastically detailed (as yet I haven't bought it so I'm afraid you'll have to look
here for more details)
- or you can merge the fleet aircraft with the panel from the freeware iFly 747-400 which you can download
here. This aircraft has recently been greatly improved with
Service Pack 3 and there other addon files at Avsim to add lots of Western airports to the FMC database.
If you haven't tried this freeware gem, you really should – the download is worth grabbing even if only for the 332 page manual which explains all the systems and instrumentation of the 747-400 in great detail.
Some other reference materials you may find useful to download and use before and during your flights are:-
1. Boeing 747-400 checklist 2. 747-400 Procedures guide by Arthur Smith 3. Matt Zagoren's superb 747 performance and procedures guides 4. FMC programming tutorial (using PMDG 737 but the principles are the same)
5. Capt Mike Ray's introduction tutorials to flying glass cockpit aeroplanes.
There are also German, Spanish and French tutorials as well as many other interesting files available on Avsim, just search on “tutorial”, “FMC” or “747*” in the library. If you're still with me, it must be time to shut the doors, start the engines and earn our pay!
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To illustrate this article, I've decided to fly EuroCargo route C660 from
Tokyo Haneda (RJTT) to
Atlanta (KATL), a little over 6000nm. This means we cannot carry a full load of cargo as our range at max load is less than this distance (max fuel range is about 7500nm). So we need to increase our fuel load and reduce our payload so that we are under Maximum Take-Off Weight (MTOW). You will need to enter these details into the FMC as part of the pre-flight preparations. Then follow your checklist and begin the engine start sequence...
...before entering the final details into the FMC as you push back & prepare to taxi to the active...
You can get a good overview of the airport from the top down view to compare to your airport charts...
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Once the runway is clear and you have been cleared to take-off, open the throttles and take her airborne! You can zoom any of the main displays by clicking on them – a larger PFD makes judging your V speeds much easier...
Clean her up (gear and flaps up on schedule) and run through the after take-off checklist then enjoy the view...
Once you are established in the climb, you can start monitoring systems status & your progress against your flight plan and fuel predictions – these are the tasks that will keep you busy during the flight and ensure that nothing catches you by surprise!
The overhead systems panel looks complex at first but is divided into logical sections to cover electrics, hydraulics, pneumatics, fuel & lights...
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...and the EICAS and synoptic displays are designed to make normal and abnormal system conditions obvious. The lower EICAS (which can display the current status of different aircraft systems) is viewed from the pedestal panel...
...or as a pop up if you click on the section that shows at the bottom of the main panel view. You can choose which system is displayed on the lower EICAS via a selection panel on the Co-pilot's side of the cockpit (or via a page on the FMC). It is very useful for fuel management on the 747 – an important task as it greatly affects your aircraft's centre of gravity.
With all this going on you'll probably reach cruise altitude before you know it and as we're flying eastwards from Japan, the sun is racing round the globe to meet us fairly soon...
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If you've been monitoring your systems and fuel carefully, you can spare a few minutes to eat breakfast and enjoy the views over icy Alaska...
...then check for your nearest suitable diversion airfield (in case of a problem, always worth knowing!) and scroll through a few of the very detailed FMC pages to be sure the flight is following your carefully worked out plan...
Quite soon we're approaching top of descent and due to the length of this flight we experience our second sunset of the day!
Now the fun really starts! KATL is a very busy airport so keep your wits about you in the approach phase as you may find out (as I did) exactly what
TCAS does...
Assuming you manage to maintain separation from other traffic (and don't get deafened by the computer shouting “Traffic! Traffic! at you) you'll need to set yourself up on the ILS. Of course, bad weather can really spoil a simple procedure like this and some American airports have real problems with
windshear – a sudden and very powerful change in wind speed and/or direction which can overpower even our wonderful 747.
On my approach to a very stormy KATL, I was buffeted by huge winds which died away then returned and this made a stabilized approach very difficult to maintain...
At the last minute the aircraft's
GPWS shouted at me: “Windshear! Windshear!” but it was too late to go around so I had to slam her onto the ground nice and firmly...
All that remained was to taxi to the Cargo apron and watch the ground crew unload all the pallets of games consoles, sushi and silk kimonos that are so popular in the USA, illuminated by a skyful of lightning!
I hope you've enjoyed this exploration of our Class 7 Cargo heavylifter and indeed the whole series about EuroCargo operations. Our Cargo fleet contains 5 really enjoyable aircraft that travel to a wide range of challenging locations, no matter the weather, the terrain or political unrest. If you've got what it takes, join us and deliver some EuroCargo today...
