I just flew a recent trip to Sydney, Australia.  Many people call Australia the land down under.  Some of you may know why, but for those who don't, the reason is because Australia is the only continent with it's entire permanent population beneath the equator.... thus the land down under.

Being that Australia is in the southern hemisphere, their seasons are opposite those countries that are in the northern hemisphere.  So, they are currently nearing the end of their summer.  The weather upon my arrival was beautiful.  It was clear skies, and the temp was around 80 degrees.  But, by the time I to0k off the following afternoon the temp was a balmy 107 degrees!

Some details about our flight.  We took off weighing 865,000 lbs.  The max take off weight for the Boeing 747 is 875,000 lbs, so one can see that we were very heavy.  A bit of trivia... we weighed approx 433 tons, as 1 ton equals 2,000 lbs.  Our flight time was 14 hours and 10 mins.  We had 340 passengers on board and 20 crewmembers.  We departed San Francisco around 11 pm on a Wednesday night and arrive in Sydney on Friday morning at 8 am Australia time (Thurs afternoon around 2pm PST in the States) .

If you ever get the opportunity to go "down under", I encourage you to do it.  I've often told my wife I think that's the only country that I MIGHT consider moving to from the U. S.  The people in Australia are extremely friendly!  Me and some of my crew members have often been invited to dinner at the homes of people whom we've just met.  I personally have found all Australians to be this way.  To me, Sydney is a mix between San Francisco and Seattle as far as  sightseeing, the arts, and the architecture throughout the city.  The weather is a mix between San Francisco and Sacramento.  But, with the beautiful beaches they have in Australia, a 107 degree day is still a day in paradise :-)

So, there's a glimpse of Sydney, Australia for you.  Please feel free to ask any questions that you may have and I'll try to get back to you within a few days.  As they say down under...good day mate!

Dwan

Just flew an all nighter from San Francisco to Chicago.  Weather conditions at takeoff from San Fran were light rain showers and calm winds.  We departed to the east over Oakland and climb to 37,000 feet.  There were 322 passengers on board.  I flew the leg to Chicago, performing both the takeoff and landing in Chicago.  The flight took only 3 1/2 hours, as we had strong tailwinds.  The flight was smooth and we landed in Chicago around 5:15 AM local time.

10 January 2010.

I took off from San Francisco, California headed to Hong Kong in a Boeing 747-400. With about 400 people, full of food and fuel, our total weight at lift off was about 870,000 pounds (lbs), (about 394.6 kilograms (kilos)).

As I pulled back on the control-wheel of this jumbo jet, I remember thinking to myself how this small self contained city will suspend itself in the air for approximately 15 hours non-stop to another city, another culture, another country.

I remember thinking to myself..... Wow, we are very heavy and we are full or fuel. In fact we had enough fuel on that one flight to:....... If you started driving around 16 years old, we had enough fuel on the airplane to refuel your car every week of every month of every year for the rest of your life.

There are 5 major lines of latitude that circle the earth:

·       The Equator

·       The Arctic Circle

·       The Antarctic Circle

·       The Tropic of Caner

·       The Tropic or Capricorn

On a flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong the flight plan had us going on a more northerly route to go around strong headwinds. At a moment in time, the route of flight reached an unusually high latitude of 66º30’00” north, only a few seconds flight time from the Arctic Circle (66º33’44”).

For Epoch 2010, the Arctic Circle is the parallel of latitude in the Northern Hemisphere that runs 66º33’44” north of the Equator. The reason I say for 2010 is because the position of the Arctic Circle is not fixed, but directly depends on the Earth's axial tilt which fluctuates within a margin of 2° over a 40,000 year period due to tidal forces resulting from the orbit of the Moon. The Arctic Circle is currently drifting northwards at a speed of about 49 feet (15 meters) per year.

The region north of this circle is known as the Arctic, the equivalent polar circle in the Southern Hemisphere is called the Antarctic Circle.