Greetings from Kauai!

[Cheechako]

Hello from the Garden Island! First ETOPS flight for me from SEA-LIH blocked at a whopping 6 hours 50 minutes! Nasty headwinds during the first half of the trip.

Take a look at the wind in the upper left corner:


After sunset somewhere over the Pacific:


Views from the Lanai of my hotel room:




Hotel pool just steps from the beach:




Yummm. . . breakfast:


Hawaiian "Do Not Disturb" sign:


Bids just came out today. . . looks like I'll be roughing it here every Wednesday in December!

[ASpilot2be]

Lucky!!!

Kauai is a beautiful island. My family spent about a week there last year. It was one of my favorite vacations ever, to me it was far superior to Europe. Watch out for the roosters

[Doug Taylor]

Nice! 6:50... Wow! That's like going JFK to CDG sometimes!

[OldTownPilot]

Cool stuff. I want to go back to Hawaii now.

Just one quick question. How is your TAS minus your ground speed more than the wind velocity calculated by the FMS?

[aloft]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Bids just came out today. . . looks like I'll be roughing it here every Wednesday in December!

Ah man, you suck!!!! Lucky dog!!

[Doug Taylor]

No luck man!

Preparation, attitude and opportunity!

He's not doing a single thing that all of you can't do with the three magic words above.

[Cessnaflyer]

Seattle to Hoquim. I've flown that many times but it is usually only about 100 knots not your 300 with a monster headwind!

[Stone Cold]

Originally Posted by OldTownPilot

Just one quick question. How is your TAS minus your ground speed more than the wind velocity calculated by the FMS?

I've had a few drinks, but...winds seem to be within 1 kt of TAS-GS. 169 Kts on the winds, and TAS -GS is 472-302=170.

[Doug Taylor]

I've had one myself and it seems right.

On the 76 (FMS Pegasus) All three IRUs will detect three different ground speeds and the GPS will sense something else.

[Velocipede]

OK, you talked me into bidding ANC!

[darrenf]

Originally Posted by Stone Cold

I've had a few drinks, but...winds seem to be within 1 kt of TAS-GS. 169 Kts on the winds, and TAS -GS is 472-302=170.

That and it might not be a direct headwind. That display doesn't show heading, does it??

[JEP]

SEA to Kauai in a 737......yowza......

Wish I was back there. In my 3 years at Pearl Harbor, I made it to all the islands except Molokai......Fun times and a beautiful place....

What kind of turn do you get? 24, 48 ????

[Stone Cold]

Originally Posted by darrenf

That and it might not be a direct headwind. That display doesn't show heading, does it??

Upper left corner, the 233/169 is direction and wind speed. If it wasn't a direct headwind, you'd expect the winds to be stronger than the difference between TAS-GS. It's physically impossible to have more difference between TAS and GS than winds, and that was the question. As Dough mentioned, it depends on how the avionics are set up. For us, if the headings differ (2 GPS units), then the winds are different between what the Capt and myself show. Usually, I am having to fight more of a headwind (it's right there on the displays!), so I always work harder on my side of the airplane.

Oh yeah, and the airplane is tracking 230 degrees on his side.

[SkyCougar]

Originally Posted by Velocipede

OK, you talked me into bidding ANC!

Velo, are you feeling well? ANC over LIH???

[darrenf]

Originally Posted by Stone Cold

Upper left corner, the 233/169 is direction and wind speed. If it wasn't a direct headwind, you'd expect the winds to be stronger than the difference between TAS-GS. It's physically impossible to have more difference between TAS and GS than winds, and that was the question. As Dough mentioned, it depends on how the avionics are set up. For us, if the headings differ (2 GPS units), then the winds are different between what the Capt and myself show. Usually, I am having to fight more of a headwind (it's right there on the displays!), so I always work harder on my side of the airplane.

Oh yeah, and the airplane is tracking 230 degrees on his side.

For some reason I read the question wrong. I assumed the winds displayed were more than the difference between TAS and groundspeed. A safe assumption since the opposite is impossible. And, I could see the plane is tracking 230, but that is not necessarily the heading, a relevant piece of missing information as I originally understood (Or misunderstood) the question.

[Stone Cold]

Originally Posted by SkyCougar

Velo, are you feeling well? ANC over LIH???

I think to get this flight you need to be ANC based...just a guess...

[Stone Cold]

Originally Posted by darrenf

For some reason I read the question wrong. I assumed the winds displayed were more than the difference between TAS and groundspeed. A safe assumption since the opposite is impossible.

Yeah, it took me a second to figure out what he was asking, and where the info was on this display that he was looking at.

[Velocipede]

Originally Posted by SkyCougar

Velo, are you feeling well? ANC over LIH???

Only ANC pilots get LIH and HNL layovers. Aloha!

[Cheechako]

TAS vs. GS, wind direction, uh. . .mmm. . . I'm going back to the pool!

What kind of turn do you get? 24, 48 ????

We get 25 hours here. Arrive at 9pm, leave the next night at 10pm.

6:50... Wow!

We talked to the Alaska flight on their way HNL-SEA, their flight time was planned at 4:45.
An American jet, I'm guessing a 777, passed under us east-bound, said he was heading to DFW, flight time of 7:05.

Only ANC pilots get LIH and HNL layovers. Aloha!

Don't give up hope. . . I hear rumours of an ETOPS base in SEA??

[SkyCougar]

Originally Posted by Velocipede

Only ANC pilots get LIH and HNL layovers. Aloha!

Aloha! You'll need those LIH and HNL layovers to thaw out from ANC!

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Don't give up hope. . . I hear rumours of an ETOPS base in SEA??

Now that would be sweet!

[JaceTheAce]

Whoa! Crazy winds!!! Nice pictures too.

[FlyingSig]

Sometimes the job just doesn't suck. Great pics!

[Cheechako]

5:33 was the block time coming home last night. While not screaming like the night before, we still had a pretty good tailwind the last couple hours. Not a real smooth ride. It gets tough out there. . . at the start we were at our max altitude with a rough ride, couldn't climb, couldn't really descend for fear of burning too much gas. Just gotta stick it out!

I took a picture of the plot. With 2 inertial units, 2 GPSs, all constantly checking on each other, I'm amazed we still have to draw the lines. Although, there was sure good peace of mind when the plot fell right on the track line!

[TallFlyer]

And here I am sitting in the pilot house in DLG for ten days doing nothing except waiting for medevac flights.

It's official Chris, you suck!

[FlyChicaga]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

I took a picture of the plot. With 2 inertial units, 2 GPSs, all constantly checking on each other, I'm amazed we still have to draw the lines. Although, there was sure good peace of mind when the plot fell right on the track line!

I always thought it was cool how they name the fixes on the tracks. Alpha tracks, bravo tracks, charlie tracks. They all start with the same character.