"There may be a short delay......."

[Adam Nams]

I see from my vantage point that there are 23 aircraft (that I can see) waiting for gates due to the earlier Black Rainstorm warning. As I write the queue goes up Hotel to HAECO and then over to Bravo.

It sounds like the guys and girls in the tower are doing a grand job :ok:

How do you cope with a 2 hour delay after you have landed?????

[Ex Cathedra]

Well, if it's raining frogs and snakes and the aircrafts aren't departing from the gates, the ones arriving won't have anywhere to park...

Or is did they just not let anybody work the gates because of the lightning warning?

[bigjames]

sq 872 was advised that the wait was 30 aircraft at about 17:50LT. they were considering diverting to macau. looks like aircraft arriving on time had a 60 min or so wait for a gate. there were no departures from roughly 14:30LT to 17:30LT so backlog was understandable. most cx flights left with several hour delay except flights to japan (missed curfew) and 826 to YYZ. not sure why 826 did not go... FTL for crew? lax and jfk flights went ok, albeit late... glad to have been on the sidelines today...

[Mouwaa]

Red lightning warning on the ramp means no personnel allowed on the ramp equals no push backs or marshalling in. I suspect 826 cancelled would be FTLs.

[bigjames]

Red lightning warning on the ramp means no personnel allowed on the ramp equals no push backs or marshalling in. I suspect 826 cancelled would be FTLs. Today 22:22

agree mouwaa but 840 to jfk left (5hrs late) and 882 to lax left 3 hrs late so maybe other issues than FTLs for 826...

[bigjames]

to give another idea of how crazy it is out there, lh to muc, sa to jo'berg, and cx 251 to lhr (among other widebody long haul) all leaving from that north satellite terminal that requires getting bussed to! did not realize that terminal could handle the big aircraft...

[freightdog188]

5 h delay to JFK? plus 15:15 flight? plus 90 min pre/postflt?
doesn't sum up, unless they can make 45 min or divert.
Even if they can make the 45 mins - this feeds right into that other 777 thread - 21h in a bloody aeroplane. Seriously, you'd get arrested if you tried to drive a car on a public road in that mental state ...

[jonathon68]

The delays started getting better. Only 40 minutes for me.. :)

But at my current level of EFP that was only a 2160 windfall. :*

[bigjames]

maybe they got some new crew for some flights but not all? dunno. a lot of begging by management to help out in a bind. today was most clearly a bind!!

[Mouwaa]

agreed with above, perhaps able to get new crew for 840, but not for 826.

[arse]

It would seem that Crew Control have been putting out fires for quite some time now, so last nights little down pour and back log would have severely tested them. I would expect lots of calls to those on G days today to help "right the ship".

The Friday update should be interesting.

Regarding 840; they did run out of FTL. Some crew were utilised for other flights and a new crew was found for the original flight.

Love the Mayhem!

[broadband circuit]

maybe they got some new crew for some flights but not all? dunno. a lot of begging by management to help out in a bind. today was most clearly a bind!!

agreed with above, perhaps able to get new crew for 840, but not for 826.

with a 3 or 5 hr delay, each of those US/Canada flights would have needed a new crew (cockpit & cabin). It is no secret that they are short of crew, especially on the 777, so no doubt the phones would have been ringing nonstop calling G-dayers for help. I also hope that no one used discretion. :*

Shame on any of you that agreed to help them out. That is what reserve is for. If they don't have enough reserve coverage, then we don't have enough crew. This was a perfect opportunity to send that message to the 10th floor (I think that's where the boardroom is, please correct me if I'm wrong)

[crwjerk]

Would be interesting to see how many perfectly promotable ( and have been for a long time )S/O's are sitting around on G days............

[Neptunus Rex]

Broadband Circuit
Discretion cannot be exercised before departure, nor used in planning.

[Dragon69]

Not meant to be the AFTL police, but there is a lot of incorrect info being spread around. Discretion most certainly CAN be used before departure. "..will apply only once the crew member has commenced a FDP..". FDP commences once you sign on.There is nothing that states that you have to be airborne, or away from Hong Kong, as someone said in a previous thread, to use discretion. Having said that I personally don't use discretion especially ex HKG. :ok:

[fire wall]

Rex, bullsh1t.
Tho the use of discretion out of your home port, with the plethora of reserve (in any normal company, joke for the kids !) should never need to be entertained.

[hongkongfooey]

What about the 30 minute delays the other day with ATIS reading " light rain, vis 10Ks " :confused:
No storms to speak of once airborne either ( oh, and that was 30 mins on gate and 25 min to get airborne )

Would like to know what is going on with HKATC, they have been absolutely pathetic lately.

[bigjames]

sorry mate, i thought ATC were heroic yesterday. it was nuts...

[100% Ng]

100% agree with bigjames, we arrived in the middle of it and they did an outstanding job in very testing conditions.

[broadband circuit]

Rex,

Dragon69 is absolutely correct, and firewall's comments are along the same line as my comment: Discretion from home port should not be entertained.