Originally Posted by
Airbubba
YMML3-Feb-08-2020-1200Z.mp3
Could anyone still have the ATC recording file in their downloads folder? I've been on the flight and only just discovered this fascinating discussion. Totally intrigued to hear, but it's already gone from the server.
This was my first ever flight on an A380, something I had been looking forward to ever since I was a teen. I remember, as the airplane was speeding down the runway, I kept thinking, would I ever return to Australia? Ironically, that's just what happened. As the plane got airborne, all the vibration and shaking ceased -- it was so heavy that not even turbulence disturbed the flight, and the lights of the city were calmly scrolling across the window. Entertainment screen reported an altitude of 1800 m. Five minutes later we were over the ocean, but still at only 1800 m. We turned, and flew over the city. 10 minutes into the flight the altitude was unchanged. I was suspecting something was going wrong, but there was no indication of any problem. While in other discussions online some passenger reported that at row 72 one could hear a rattling sound of some open bay door, I couldn't hear or feel anything unusual at my seat somewhere around the wing centerline. The passengers were calm, most were watching the movies or falling asleep. At 15 minutes we were still at low altitude and then the captain announced that we "could not retract the landing gear", "the options are dumping fuel and returning to the airport", and that "there's no risk, it's just the gear". "We may not continue the flight since fuel consumption is too high". He sounded calm, comforting, if not annoyed by this unfortunate issue. At this point I was not at all scared, but astonished to realize that it's such a rare event to happen, and now I was a paticipant. We started circling over the sea and dumping fuel. The passengers weren't very concerned, but of course everyone were agitated to certain extent, and stuck to the map on entertainment screens. After the fuel dump completed, the captain announced again, that we were to land in 50 minutes, and that "it will be just a normal landing". He concluded, "and good night to all of you" in a vaguely sarcastic tone. This resolved the tension aboard and everybody broke laughing. There was no emergency landing drill, like customary on some other airlines, we just landed. In the line to immigration back in the terminal a senior lady asked me: "What happened? I fell asleep and now we're back". That sums it up -- nothing spectacular really happened aboard, but left curious memories and I did return to Melbourne for an extra day.
And I have a picture to share, the view of tons of fuel trickling down in moonlight.
Alas, as a new member I can't attach images or post links until I have 10 posts. Hack the link below by replacing '|'s with '/'s to see it:
https :|| yadi.sk | i | E2ifnueV2iPabQ
(or could a moderator attach the image?)