QF32
Page 27
The A380 flight controls.
The A380 fuel tanks. Three of eleven were useable.
The pilots’ seats on QF32.
My mother, Judith Patricia ‘Patti’ Champion de Crespigny 4 August 1930–22 May 1974).
My family at Lorne, Victoria, in 1968. Back: Me, Michael and Simon. Front: Dad, Chris and Mum.
My brother Simon’s Ariel Red Hunter (with the clutch intact).
Burning off testosterone at ‘The Ponderosa’ in 1974.
Wings Parade, 1979. Air Chief Marshal Sir Wallace ‘Digger’ KYLE, former Vice Chief of the Air Staff (RAF), Governor of Western Australia (1975 to 1980). He served in the RAF Flying Training Command in May 1940 under my great uncle, Air Vice Marshal H.V. ‘Vivian’ Champion de Crespigny (see Chapter 2).
Graduating pilots of the RAAF 107 Pilots' Course, Pearce Air Force Base, Western Australia, December 1979. I am second row down, fourth from the right.
RAAF 107 Pilots’ Course, 1979 (Macchi jet).
On the wing of a refuelling Caribou, 1980.
Government House, Yarralumla, Canberra, 1982. From left: James Goldrick (Navy ADC), Brent Espeland (Comptroller), Sir Ninian Stephen, me, Rick Brine (Army ADC).
From left: Lady Stephen, the butler, me, a Federal policeman and Sir Ninian on board the BAC 1-11, 1982.
Governor-General Sir Zelman Cowen and me after a hit of tennis at Government House, Yarralumla, Canberra, 1982.
Helicopter submersion training at East Sale, 1983.
Me and my Iroquois helicopter, Tasmania, 1983.
Me in the Sinai Desert, 1984.
Coral in the Sinai Desert while visiting me at the Multi National Force and Observers base at El Gorah in December 1984.
Coral and me in Trysil, Norway, in March 1985.
77 Squadron – Fleet Support, 1985. I am to the left of the three white shirts in the third row.
‘I do’: 16 May 1987, St Mark’s Church, Darling Point, Sydney.
Yikes! Sophia, Alexander and Coral, Whistler, Canada, 1993.
From left: Alexander, Coral, Sophia and me on a skiing holiday in Aspen, Colorado, in January 2010.
From left: Me, Coral, Dad, Mariea and two of my brothers, Michael and Christopher, in Alta, Utah, in February 2011.
Three generations in the cockpit of a Gulfstream V at Avalon Airshow in 2009. Alexander, Dad and me.
From left: Me, Coral, Alexander, Sophia, Neil Armstrong and Dad on board the Lady Hopetoun on Sydney Harbour, August 2011.
Coral: the wind beneath my wings.
Rolls-Royce presented Coral and me with the most extraordinary achievement in engineering – a Trent 900 High Pressure Turbine blade.
Sophia raising lion cubs at Inkwenkwezi Game Reserve, South Africa, 2009.
From left: Coral, Sophia, Alexander and me at Tembe Elephant Park, South Africa, in December 2009.
Coral and me on Sydney Harbour in our family fun boat in March 2012.
Mariea – my wonderful (wicked) stepmother and me.
Alex returning with empty tanks after a F/A-18 Hornet supersonic flight to heaven and back, RAAF Base, Williamtown, 2011.
Alex and Randy Neville, Boeing’s 787 Chief Pilot in the 787 simulator in Seattle in January 2012.
The team: Captain Harry Wubben, First Officer Matt Hicks, me, Captain Dave Evans and Second Officer Mark Johnson.
Me and the indefatigable Matt Hicks in the A380 cockpit, March 2011.
Most of the QF32 crew. From bottom left, clockwise: Sandy Lam, Paul Weson, Freddie Monte, Annie Jostsons, Julie Hart, Vahid Jasaragig, Aldo Calleja, Jordan Lee, Jaay Hayward, Craig Bax, Simone de Mario Henry, Nicolle Sirelles, Trentan Jurkans, Mark Hyland, me, Michael von Reth, Simon Murray, Deborah Berghofer, Ian Madison, Sarah Zemek, Luca Morton, Harry Wubben, David Evans, Matt Hicks and Mark Johnson.
‘The Manager’: Customer Service Manager Klaus (Michael) von Reth and me at the Qantas eXcel Awards 2011.
Unlike many big jets, the A380 has two openable cockpit windows that were a great asset during our event. They provided the only access to view the engines from the cockpit, and were also used to enable contact with the engineer and firefighters on the ground. Bubbles would be relieved to know that these windows may be opened at up to 250 knots in-flight.
Nancy-Bird Walton at her 90th birthday party, with the model of the A380 that was named after her.
Airbus Experimental Test Flight Engineer Pascal Verneau and me in MSN004, Toulouse, 2008.
Nancy-Bird Walton taking off after dust storms in Sydney on 26 September 2009.
The mighty 6.4 tonne Rolls-Royce RB211 Trent-900 engine (US$18.5 million).
The tips on these Trent-900 fan blades travel faster than the speed of sound. Every eight seconds, the four engines suck in the same amount of air a human breathes in 100 years!
‘Fly the nipple’ – the A380 sidestick. The red button disengages the autopilot or takes control away from the other sidestick.
Coral in the A380’s cockpit in 2010.
Automation: being one of the new big jets, the A380 has a fully integrated and coordinated flight deck. Its human-machine interface permits the machine (which is 6900 times more powerful, 1700 times heavier, flies 1400 times higher and carries 853 more passengers than the 1903 Wright Flyer) to be operated with only two times the number of pilots!
This night flying eastwards over northern France reminded me of ‘High Flight’ by John Gillespie Magee, Jr: ‘Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth, And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings ...’
Passenger Ulf Waschbusch’s photo of the upper wing damage, fuel leaks, Engine 1 damage, two floating (uplifted ailerons) and one uplifted spoiler (middle left).
Everyone thought we were dumping fuel, unaware that our jettison system had failed and that we were leaking fuel from at least ten holes.
Qantas Crisis Centre ‘think tank’.
Within minutes of the explosion, tweets from Batam about our demise spread around the world: @jezzaround: ‘Airplane crash/xplode at batam, Indonesia~!!’ and @foxheadlines: ‘WORLD: Plane Crash Reported in Western Indonesia’.
Diagrams from Neil Armstrong’s (and G Matranga’s) 1959 NASA research memo of the 270-degree glide spiral descent. NASA’s Space Shuttle flew a Heading Alignment Cone (HAC) which was derived from Armstrong’s research. I submitted details of this ‘Armstrong Spiral’ to Airbus in 2008 with my suggestion for an engine out profile for Airbus’s new A350. I positioned Nancy-Bird Walton to be able to intercept this spiral on 4 November 2010.
For the more technically minded, this diagram shows the pressure along the chord of an aft loaded supercritical wing tip such as the A380. The yellow and green areas represent the lift for the normal wing tip. In Nancy’s case, 65% of her ailerons floated up, resulting in a significant loss of lift (green area) over that portion of the wing. Only the yellow lift remained. Even worse, this loss of lift creates a rolling moment, that must be countered by equally damaging aileron or spoiler deployment on the opposite wing, and perhaps even rudder (with its secondary effects). Safety margins that prevent the wing stalling are lost if the approach speed is not increased to mitigate this loss of lift.
Photo showing the normal engine ...
Photo showing the scale of the turbine disk (yellow line) ...
Photo showing that the nacelle has been cleaved from the engine, and the exhaust is held on by only the low pressure shaft.
This is Harry’s in-flight photo of the engine display. Most people who see this photo think we only had one engine operating normally – in fact we had none. Engine 2 failed, Engines 1 and 4 were operating in the unrateddegraded mode, and Engine 3, which appeared normal, was operating in an alternate mode with a reduced maximum thrust.
Foam and water surround four deflated left body tyres.
Trent-900 engines are certified to ingest three tonnes of water per minute and not fail. This attempt to snuff the engine (with water) failed.
Three hours and 39 minutes after we landed, Engin
e 1 was finally stopped after water-foam was sprayed down its throat.
An engine that ingests foam requires 100 per cent disassembly and a total rebuild.
Damage to the top and bottom of the wing, Engine 2 and Ram Air Turbine (lower left).
All passengers and crew safely disembarked QF32.
Debriefing the passengers after the flight in the boarding lounge; closing off four hours of extensive passenger addresses with full and open disclosure and my personal guarantee.
From left: Harry Wubben, Dave Evans, me, Matt Hicks and Mark Johnson after receiving IFALPA’s Polaris Award in Chiang Mai, Thailand, April 2011.
From left: Matt Hicks, Nicole and Mark Johnson, me and Coral, Liz, Natalie and Harry Wubben and Kate and Dave Evans at the IFALPA dinner in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in April 2011.
Old habits die hard: ‘Kick the tyres … light the fires …’
Breaking out of cloud just before touchdown.