The World's First 20-Hour Airline Flight

Re:The World's First 20-Hour Airline Flight by cmroanirgo on Friday October 18, 2019 @06:36AM (#21290170)

I'm surprised that this ever became a thing. I've done lots of Sydney to X long haul flights. When the A380 first came out I mentioned the fact of Sydney to London non stop to a stewardess, and she said that it'll probably not happen because of staffing issues: That is, a long haul involves a stop, generally 9 to 12hrs in. At that point the whole crew changes over. However, you can't keep the same crew on call for 20hrs without paying them, even if not actually on duty. That is, the staff requirement doubles for the long haul flights. It must've been worked out tho, to allow this one.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The World's First 20-Hour Airline Flight by robjan on Friday October 18, 2019 @07:00AM (#21290272)

Even on a 12 hour flight the staff are required to rest in the crew rest area. I guess they will either rotate resting staff back on or block out some of business class for crew rest. The real issue is that the staff will have to rest downroute for a long time and be grounded more due to cosmic radiation limits.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The World's First 20-Hour Airline Flight by tallanvor on Friday October 18, 2019 @08:05AM (#21290607)

Airplanes for such long distance flights already have crew rest areas. Here's an article that talks about the ones for the 787:

https://www.executivetraveller.com/here-s-where-qantas-pilot...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The World's First 20-Hour Airline Flight by robjan on Friday October 18, 2019 @12:16PM (#21292635)

All long haul jets have crew rest areas but, having stayed in then myself, I'm not sure if they have sufficient space for multiple crews e.g you would probably need three sets of people on the flight deck unless they rotate the first set back in.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The World's First 20-Hour Airline Flight by cyberferret on Friday October 18, 2019 @07:55PM (#21295947)

Most long haul flights have 2 complete 2-person flight crews. Generally comprised of Captain, first officer, and 2 second officers. Rotation is such, that at any one time, either the Captain or the First officer is on the flight deck with one of the two second officers.

Critical parts of the flight (such as take off and landing) will have the two most senior pilots in command, but less demanding parts in cruise, one of the second officers will be backing up one of the senior crew while the other 2 crew members have mandated rest.

Because these are 'hot bunks', you only need 2 available for the flight crew at any time. I assume the cabin crew have a similar rotation system.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The World's First 20-Hour Airline Flight by bluGill on Friday October 18, 2019 @08:20AM (#21290706)

London to Sydney has good stopover points, since you are over land about half way through the trip. North American to Sydney doesn't have a good stopping place in the middle, if you only have a few more hours to you may as well just get there instead of stopping.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The World's First 20-Hour Airline Flight by bluesquared on Friday October 18, 2019 @08:35AM (#21290823)

Pardon my ignorance, but what about Honolulu?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The World's First 20-Hour Airline Flight by bluGill on Friday October 18, 2019 @11:04AM (#21291974)

The detour it too far. Remember the earth not flat: the shortest line is curved not straight. The most direct route typically goes too far north. A stop in Russia or China would make more sense, but even than the detour is a bit too much.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The World's First 20-Hour Airline Flight by mastazi on Monday October 21, 2019 @12:56AM (#21309446)

> The most direct route typically goes too far north.

This only happens when departure and arrival are both in the Northern Hemisphere, if that's the case, great circle routes appear as curved towards the North when plotted on a 2D map.

But here we are going from Northern to Southern hemisphere, so the great circle route will appear S-shaped, and the middle section will not be very far away from a straight line drawn on a 2D map.

This is the great circle route SFO-SYD, Honolulu is pretty close as you can see http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=sfo-syd

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The World's First 20-Hour Airline Flight by ryanlol on Friday October 18, 2019 @12:39PM (#21292810)

I'm just a lowly PPL so I have zero practical experience with this kind of route planning, what am I missing here? https://i.succ.in/6mEsINqD.png

I just don't see how you could reasonably stop in Russia or China while flying from the US to Sydney.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The World's First 20-Hour Airline Flight by bluGill on Friday October 18, 2019 @01:35PM (#21293368)

Different routes go different directions. Try flying from farther north. Also try flying to the western shore of Australia.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The World's First 20-Hour Airline Flight by ryanlol on Friday October 18, 2019 @02:49PM (#21294053)

I don't think there's much demand for direct flights to Western Australia, there's not much there. Surprisingly Qantas does fly a PER-LHR route.

But yeah, I don't think there exists a NA<->AU route with practical stops in China or Russia https://i.succ.in/6myR8ZFQ.png

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The World's First 20-Hour Airline Flight by ryanlol on Friday October 18, 2019 @08:43AM (#21290879)

Looking at the great circles Honolulu is probably fine, however there may be other issues than the location.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The World's First 20-Hour Airline Flight by mastazi on Monday October 21, 2019 @12:56AM (#21309450)

You are right, this is the great circle route SFO-SYD http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=sfo-syd

[ Parent | on HN ]