Flight Time

[Farrell]

Please mods, view this as a technical question and not an anorak one!

I'm off to Florida to EFT at the end of Feb to do my PPL.
I'm travelling to Miami on an Air France A340 and the flight time is 10hrs 15 mins

I'm coming back on a 747-400 and the flight time is......8hrs 35 mins.

I heard that the A340 uses the curvature of the earth to climb, but is that the reason for the almost 2 HOURS of difference?

Thanks folks!

Wayne :eek:

[Empty Cruise]

Naaah - the 342 is slow, but not that slow. My guess is that the companies in question have taken the prevailing winds into account, so an E-W passage at mid-northern lattitudes will take longer than the W-E passage.

If you do not want the sun in your eyes during the long flight, make sure you book a seat on the right-hand side of the aircraft for the outbound trip and the lefthand side for the return trip. When going east, the opposite applies - POSH (port out - starboard home) :p

Brgds
Empty

[Kilo-club SNA]

Eh...No, that's not the reason at all. As you will later learn in the ATPL theory it always (no, not ALWAYS but you know what I mean) goes faster going from west to east (flying eastbound) due to jetstreams etc.

[catchup]

The difference of flight-time A340 (Mach 0.80 or so) to 744 (0.86) on a 12 hour trip is roundabout 30 min.

regards

[Farrell]

Empty - thanks for the advice about the sun mate!

I picked my seats in the travel agents yesterday "right -out" and "left-back'" ..... pure stroke of luck!

[Empty Cruise]

Eeeehhhh - Kilo-club...

an E-W passage at mid-northern lattitudes will take longer than the W-E passage

differs exacly how from

it always goes faster going from west to east :confused:

:D :p :D

[Farrell]

The Swedes love to be technical....... :E

I know this cos I get to teach some of them to speak English here in Lyon. They come from the Volvo HQ and they're in Lyon cos they own a big chunk of Renault Trucks now.....

Great lads though! Love to talk about "syntax" and "present continuous" heheh!

[Empty Cruise]

V. close, Wayne - v. close indeed! :)

Just had me wondering for a sec. if I had missed out something in either logics classes - or in navigation :O

Brgds,
Empty

[Sky Wave]

BTW

When people say that scare buses use the curvature of the earth to climb, they are taking the mickey because buses don't climb all that fast. It's not actually true!

[Jerricho]

Skywave, I know quite a few controllers who would debate that it is true ;)