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Primary Flight Display, containing all the information previously provided by AS/, machmeter; attitude indicator; VORIILS OBS, VS/ altimeter; radio altimeter; horizontal situation indicator; autopilot flight mode anunciator; DMEplus speed trend vector; decision height, max and min speed indicators, groundspeed, speed height and heading targets and pitch attitude target for max coefficient of lift in event of windshear. (Bob Grimstead)
Flight Impressions – Boeing 747-400
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Boeing 747-400
With my left hand I advance four stubby thrust levers while my right holds the control column forward to give good traction to the nosewheel I am steering with my feet. Quietly, thirty yards behind, the low background whistle rises as our big fans spool up.
“Engines stable” calls the captain so my middle finger pushes down the TOGA button. The autothrottle engages, there is the briefest of pauses, and the thrust levers are swept smartly forward,quickly increasing the whine to a scream,itself immediately engulfed in a soft, strong roar of wind as the great wide paddle blades of our four Rolls-Royce engines thrash the sultry air. Smoothly delivering a mighty total of 232,000 pounds thrust they inexorably push the backs of the 400 occupants of this four hundred tonne aeroplane as it fairly surges forward along the sea surrounded promontory of Hong Kong’s three kilometre runway. With increasing speed the long wings, laden with 160 tonnes of fuel, start to generate lift and slowly rise from sagging anhedral towards the horizontal.
Meanwhile up here, cocooned in our quiet, air conditioned, two tone brown flight deck, the pair of us watch the waterfall of white airspeed digits silently stream down the left sides of our Primary FlightDisplays, signalling thestart ofafourteen hour, 6,300nautical mile journey that will take us over China, Burma, Bangladesh, India, Pakisan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Latvia,Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlandsto our eventual destination, London Heathrow
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