Who the Hell Renamed FAJS?

What's up world. I'm very sorry for not blogging in like a month. I've been busy and for the first time in years I haven't have the drive to put out any posts. But a lot of shit is going on currently, Karen and I are quitting the RA gig and moving in together in a month or so, I'm rocking the POC shit with Air Force, and college is still hard. I've been simming pretty hard in the past month or two. I mean I spent like 90 bucks on that PMDG 777 I am going to get the most out of it.

Currently, Karen and I are a few hours enroute from J-burg to Atlanta, the new longest nonstop flight in existence since Singapore 18 was canceled. I decided to attempt a blog post since I spent a majority of the day studying.

This blog post is difficult, I can't think of anything good to write about. Instead of trying and potentially failing at writing something inspirational, I'd rather just write about planes.

Someone recently changed the ICAO code for Johannesburg's Int'l airport. And nobody fucking told me so I ended up spending more time than I wanted blankly staring at the computer screen wondering why my route for FAJS won't load. You think I'd get some sort of memo from SOMEONE in the industry, or hell, even the virtual industry that the most major African gateway was undergoing some nomenclature changes.

Anyway, I learned some interesting facts about the routing in and out of OR Tambo International. I did not formerly know that J-burg sits at like 5,500ft above sea level. When you're that high up and that far away from like every single high-density airport in the world, long hauls are selected quite a bit more strategically. Perhaps the most prevalent example is that Atlanta and Miami are like the only Class Bravo airports in the United States that are within range of Tambo.

But it's not the range that makes it impossible, it's that they have 7800nm to fly with a typical headwind component 40kts (which you fight for every second of those 17 hours). But even then, in most extended range long-haulers you could make that plus a few hundred extra miles at full fuel capacity. It's that 5,500ft elevation that gets ya, because even with a 14 thousand foot runway your v-speeds are going to be supersonic; and with the reduced thrust your engines are going to be putting out in the lighter air it's going to be a hell of a long roll.

Mix all factors together, and the result is one flight a day from South Africa to North America, and it's the longest in the world. So there's your little "Did You Know?" factoid on longhaul airline operations for the day.

Changing gears here, for Air Force I gave a big briefing for an upcoming Airpower Exercise. That was stressful but rewarding. I'm getting pretty good at timing. I had to finish my presentation at exactly 1635, and I was able to pull it off to the second. That's precision engagement, a good skill for a pilot to have.

Anyway I think I've written enough for now. I'll try to blog later and get back into it. Have a good weekend everyone! Until next time...