Longest flight experiences

[Trogdor]

AKL-ORD at 16h45 a few years ago for me.

 

[Ryan]

All of these flights are a drop in the bucket compared to spending nearly 65 DAYS aloft in a Cessna 172.

 

[Rover]

All of these flights are a drop in the bucket compared to spending nearly 65 DAYS aloft in a Cessna 172.

Yeah, okay.... I've got this then.... when people fly from earth to the ISS, they are on a bigger "ship" in flight, around the earth, and those "flights" can lat almost a year...

 

[TWA904]

Looking to the future of long-haul flights, beginning in 2025 Qantas will begin a non-stop flight from Sydney to London Heathrow. The flight is scheduled to be 19 hours and will be the world's longest scheduled commercial airline flight in the world.

 

[WWW]

What about that Trans Siberian Express train - 5772 miles some 8 days 8 time zones - Moscow to Vladivostok ###

My longest flight American airlines Boeing 707 JFK - HNL 11:40 this years ago

Current contestants:
JFK - South Africa
LAX - SYD
ATL - Asia
DFW - Asia
Australia is just beginning to move the goal posts even further - - -
Others

Those that are the longest - over the Pacific Ocean
Those going over the north pole or near it cheat the great circle

 

[Trogdor]

Those that are the longest - over the Pacific Ocean
Those going over the north pole or near it cheat the great circle

How do you “cheat” the great circle? By digging through the ground?

 

[jiml]

Trans-polar is not cheating.

 

[Steve4031]

My longest flight was from LAX to Sydney in United business class when they still had the recliners. That was a long flight. I remember being uncomfortable even in business class.

Another long one was from ORD to BKK with a stopover in Hong Kong. This was in economy on United. Then we flew on Thai Airlines for another several hours to BKK. My girlfriend and I arrive late at night and we were exhausted. We had ordered a limo pick-up from the Marriot Executive Stay apartments for about 55 dollars. Best money I ever spent on traveling. As soon as we collected our luggage and left baggage claim the guy holding the sign for our hotel was there. He had an assistant who grabbed our suitcases and moments later we were sitting in an air-conditioned Mercedes Benz with the steering wheel on the right. We rode and rode and rode, and finally arrived at the hotel 90 minutes later. The landscape was surreal and we had no clue where we were. At the hotel, we were met and checked in. We were upgraded to a 2-bedroom suite. The check-in lady escorted us to our room and the bellman followed with our luggage. After the check-in clerk left, I turned to my GF and said, "The name is Bond, James Bond and I like my Martinis shaken, not stirred."

 

[jis]

Trans-polar is not cheating.

It seems possible that the OP does not know what "Great Circle Route" means. It sometimes happens to the best of us.

One interesting thing though, is because of stratospheric wind conditions and other considerations, political and ATC, it is quite often the case that the actual Great Circle Route is not flown. I frequented the Newark - Singapore nonstop for a while. It actually flew the Great Circle Route only about a third of the time, or actually a best approximation of it since they did have to avoid the Tibetan Plateau and deviate a bit for that.

 

[jiml]

It seems possible that the OP does not know what "Great Circle Route" means. It sometimes happens to the best of us.

One interesting thing though, is because of stratospheric wind conditions and other considerations, political and ATC, it is quite often the case that the actual Great Circle Route is not flown. I frequented the Newark - Singapore nonstop for a while. It actually flew the Great Circle Route only about a third of the time, or actually a best approximation of it since they did have to avoid the Tibetan Plateau and deviate a bit for that.

Of course with the latest hurdle being avoidance of Russian airspace, many routes are no longer simple.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

It seems possible that the OP does not know what "Great Circle Route" means. It sometimes happens to the best of us. One interesting thing though, is because of stratospheric wind conditions and other considerations, political and ATC, it is quite often the case that the actual Great Circle Route is not flown. I frequented the Newark - Singapore nonstop for a while. It actually flew the Great Circle Route only about a third of the time, or actually a best approximation of it since they did have to avoid the Tibetan Plateau and deviate a bit for that.

This may be a stupid question but here goes... Back when early airshows featured a flat Mercator projection map (744, 772, etc.) the vast majority of TPAC flights looked like an arc that skirted Alaska and Siberia, but once in a blue moon it would look like a straight line right across the Pacific. Since you can't really see anything flying over an ocean at cruise altitude (and half the time these were night flights anyway) I was never sure what exactly was going on. Was this most likely an error/failure of the airshow or is there a reasonable chance we were curving South and then North in such a way that looked straight on a flat map?

 

[jis]

Of course with the latest hurdle being avoidance of Russian airspace, many routes are no longer simple.

Yes. Nonstops from the US to India, many routes are impossible or uneconomic for airlines that cannot fly over Russia. US to Delhi and with a stretch Mumbai is still possible though Mumbai is sufficiently uneconomic that no one flies it, except Air India who can overfly Russia.

Beneficiaries of this are the Middle East Airlines who are well placed to pick up the slack, to the extent that US airlines that until a couple of years back were not on speaking terms with the ME3 now suddenly have prtnerships and extensive code share agreements with them (AA - QR and UA - EK), and of course Air India and PIA which overfly Russia. So far Biman Bangladesh does not, but they have no routes that require such overflight either.

This may be a stupid question but here goes... Back when early airshows featured a flat Mercator projection map (744, 772, etc.) the vast majority of TPAC flights looked like an arc that skirted Alaska and Siberia, but once in a blue moon it would look like a straight line right across the Pacific. Since you can't really see anything flying over an ocean at cruise altitude (and half the time these were night flights anyway) I was never sure what exactly was going on. Was this most likely an error/failure of the airshow or is there a reasonable chance we were curving South and then North in such a way that looked straight on a flat map?

Hard to tell, since each flight charts its own course. When I flew SAS back then they actually posted a printed map of the route being followed that day on a bulletin board on the plane. This was before GPS and moving maps came into vogue.

 

[MarkInAustin]

My longest: Austin to Maui on American through DFW 11 hrs.
The return was fewer than 10 hrs because the DFW connection was quick.

My daughter and granddaughters flew R/T to 'Nam on a school trip. When they were in the Taipei airport awaiting the last leg to 'Nam one of my granddaughters called me in a panic and said "come get me and take me home".

Summitt Elementary School [an Austin public school] has an exchange relationship with a school in 'Nam and one in Cologne, Germany. If she had been in Cologne I would have flown out and brought her home.

 

[jis]

If you include transit stops, then my longest routinely is 24+ hours each year on my trip from Orlando (MCO) to Kolkata (CCU). The longest single leg is US (EWR) to India (DEL) or US (MCO) to Dubai (DXB) at close to 16 or so hours non stop.

As mentioned earlier, in the past I have done the EWR SIN non stop, which would be my longest nonstop at 18hrs and 45mins or something like that. That was when they could fly the Polar Route. Now it takes a little longer in order to avoid Russian air space, and I think the block time is 19h and 10min.

 

[WWW]

If you include transit stops, then my longest routinely is 24+ hours each year on my trip from Orlando (MCO) to Kolkata (CCU). The longest single leg is US (EWR) to India (DEL) or US (MCO) to Dubai (DXB) at close to 16 or so hours non stop.

What is interesting is that 4 engine airplanes unless with extra (center) fuel tanks couldn't fly some of these routes non-stop.
Now the huge 2 engine flights make it without effort.



With some airlines the TV in the seat back (or where-ever-it-pops-up-from) there is feature showing the route of the flight and stats i.e. speed.
Also on the internet some airlines make available the almost same picture of the route of the flight with ETA at the destination airport.

Weather plays a great deal about the planned routing of a flight i.e. eastbound flights generally have a tailwind component while westbound have the
penalty of headwinds - this if the flight is in the upper edge of the atmosphere 30k to 40k

Some flights dip below this range to cruise out of that penalty zone but may encounter turbulence.
Flights into the headwinds take a beating on the fuel miles per gallon and take longer or routed if possible around this.
And conversely flights with tailwinds often take advantage going out of their way for the fuel and time savings - often arriving early


About that American flight I had from JFK to HNL - was planned routed across the northern continental USA think parallel with the Canadian
border - but the headwinds were so forceful that our route trekked southward over the top edge of the Baja of California - flight was planned
for 10 hours and half - wound up being 11 hours 40 minutes - the headwinds would not allow a smooth straight direct flight - we kept
slipping further south until free of these headwinds.

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

My longest flight was from LAX to Sydney in United business class when they still had the recliners. That was a long flight. I remember being uncomfortable even in business class.

Another long one was from ORD to BKK with a stopover in Hong Kong. This was in economy on United. Then we flew on Thai Airlines for another several hours to BKK. My girlfriend and I arrive late at night and we were exhausted. We had ordered a limo pick-up from the Marriot Executive Stay apartments for about 55 dollars. Best money I ever spent on traveling. As soon as we collected our luggage and left baggage claim the guy holding the sign for our hotel was there. He had an assistant who grabbed our suitcases and moments later we were sitting in an air-conditioned Mercedes Benz with the steering wheel on the right. We rode and rode and rode, and finally arrived at the hotel 90 minutes later. The landscape was surreal and we had no clue where we were. At the hotel, we were met and checked in. We were upgraded to a 2-bedroom suite. The check-in lady escorted us to our room and the bellman followed with our luggage. After the check-in clerk left, I turned to my GF and said, "The name is Bond, James Bond and I like my Martinis shaken, not stirred."

I hope you tried the Phu Yuck champagne!!!

 

[jis]

What is interesting is that 4 engine airplanes unless with extra (center) fuel tanks couldn't fly some of these routes non-stop.
Now the huge 2 engine flights make it without effort.

Well, the 4 Engine A380s's range is nothing to sneeze at though. The ultra long range twins do have additional fuel tanks too.

With some airlines the TV in the seat back (or where-ever-it-pops-up-from) there is feature showing the route of the flight and stats i.e. speed.
Also on the internet some airlines make available the almost same picture of the route of the flight with ETA at the destination airport.

If you have inflight access to the internet one can always watch ones flight on Flightware24 or some such with exquisite amount of detail, much more than most in cabin moving maps provide. Additionally you can see what else is flying around you too.

Weather plays a great deal about the planned routing of a flight i.e. eastbound flights generally have a tailwind component while westbound have the
penalty of headwinds - this if the flight is in the upper edge of the atmosphere 30k to 40k

That is why some of the half way around the world flights fly the eastbound and the westbound, flying eastbound for both. Prime example these days is the Newark - Singapore flight.

 

[jiml]

This may be a stupid question but here goes... Back when early airshows featured a flat Mercator projection map (744, 772, etc.) the vast majority of TPAC flights looked like an arc that skirted Alaska and Siberia, but once in a blue moon it would look like a straight line right across the Pacific. Since you can't really see anything flying over an ocean at cruise altitude (and half the time these were night flights anyway) I was never sure what exactly was going on. Was this most likely an error/failure of the airshow or is there a reasonable chance we were curving South and then North in such a way that looked straight on a flat map?

Not stupid at all - have noticed the same thing on my few trans-Pacific flights. Since they were spread over several years I wondered if the evolving ETOPS rules at the time played a role with different aircraft, with some unable to stray as far from land.

 

[WWW]

That ETOPS is the answer:
ETOPS
Special part of flight rules
ETOPS is an acronym for Extended-range Twin-engine Operations Performance Standards—a special part of flight rules for one-engine-inoperative flight conditions. The International Civil Aviation Organi…
https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=a707...Ly9lbi53aWtpcGVkaWEub3JnL3dpa2kvRVRPUFM&ntb=1





Boeing twinjets complete about 600 ETOPS flights a day around the world (figure 1), for a total of more than 18,000 such flights each month and almost 1.25 million flights since 1985.



ETOPS allows airlines to operate efficient twinjets on even the longest routes passing through the world’s remotest regions.




According to wikipedia, ETOPS 120 became the standard but this gave way to ETOPS 180. Achieving this increased rating was only possible after a year of trouble-free 120-minute ETOPS experience.
https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=ecbd...kaWElMkMlMjBFVE9QUyUyMDEyMCUyMGJlY2FtZQ&ntb=1
With improvements the former 2 hour rule was extended 3 -
Flights across the Atlantic ocean are not so much affected as those in the Pacific and Indian oceans.
But I still don't feel comfortable with operating on one engine trying to find some place to land within 3 hours.
And that landing needs to be survivable - at some remote air strips it is a one-way trip requiring smaller
aircraft or ocean going ships for the rescue - the aircraft maybe stripped to empty condition and jato bottles
attach to retrieve it. This doesn't happen often and rarely makes the newsprint/media. Pilots who land
their huge aircraft on short air strips/runways find out what it takes to salvage and fly again another day.

 

[UserNameRequired]

I see discussion of not knowing where one is on a commercial flight. I can usually get a moving map gps (Google Maps or Foreflight) on smartphones to work in the window seat on national flights. I assume one can get it to lock on internationally too? I read gps may not work well over the poles though.

 

[jis]

I see discussion of not knowing where one is on a commercial flight. I can usually get a moving map gps (Google Maps or Foreflight) on smartphones to work in the window seat on national flights. I assume one can get it to lock on internationally too? I read gps may not work well over the poles though.

As long as your route does not take you too far north, Also generally you stand a better chance to get a lock on enough satellites easier if you are sitting in a south side window seat.

These days, with continuous inflight internet connectivity via satellite links I have not found the need to fire up my own GPS. I can just see my flight and all other flights around it using Flightradar24 or some App like that on my Smartphone. That is much more informative since ADS-B carries a lot of information about the flight.

I remember the first time I used GPS on a flight. It was, pretty early days of GPS. I had a Garmin unit which could be linked to a moving map App on my laptop using NMEA over a Serial link. I was traveling in First Class TPAC (JFK-NRT on a 747-400) using FF miles. United back then was one of the few airlines that allowed the operation of a GPS in flight. So I hooked up the GPS with my laptop and fired up the map on it to watch my flight on it. The seat next to me was vacant, and lo and behold soon enough the off duty First Officer came and sat down and started playing with the App with me. At first I thought he might ask me to shut it down. But no! He thought it was neat.

I had an App on my laptop in which you could load up any map that used one of the standard projections, and do a three point calibration on it and then use it with data stream from any GPS unit that provided it in the standard form (NMEA over serial link). In those days it was the wild west, and I had a lot of fun.

 

[basketmaker]

I flew by myself from MIA-IDL then IDL-MUC when I was 11 years old. Don't remember how long it was just remember the stewardesses taking care of this little kid. Now a days 2.5 hours is miserable. I'll take a week on train versus flying. And I grew up (on the MIA airport) and made my career in aviation.

 

[railiner]

As long as your route does not take you too far north, Also generally you stand a better chance to get a lock on enough satellites easier if you are sitting in a south side window seat.

These days, with continuous inflight internet connectivity via satellite links I have not found the need to fire up my own GPS. I can just see my flight and all other flights around it using Flightradar24 or some App like that on my Smartphone. That is much more informative since ADS-B carries a lot of information about the flight.

I remember the first time I used GPS on a flight. It was, pretty early days of GPS. I had a Garmin unit which could be linked to a moving map App on my laptop using NMEA over a Serial link. I was traveling in First Class TPAC (JFK-NRT on a 747-400) using FF miles. United back then was one of the few airlines that allowed the operation of a GPS in flight. So I hooked up the GPS with my laptop and fired up the map on it to watch my flight on it. The seat next to me was vacant, and lo and behold soon enough the off duty First Officer came and sat down and started playing with the App with me. At first I thought he might ask me to shut it down. But no! He thought it was neat.

I had an App on my laptop in which you could load up any map that used one of the standard projections, and do a three point calibration on it and then use it with data stream from any GPS unit that provided it in the standard form (NMEA over serial link). In those days it was the wild west, and I had a lot of fun.

What is the current status of airlines on allowing GPS use in flight?
I can’t see them not allowing it, as even if your phone is in “Airplane Mode”, its GPS receiver will work (if placed near a window).

 

[WWW]

If the airline has Wi-Fi maybe able to pick-up a signal off of that function.
But really a cell phone in airplane mode is a receiver and does not transmit errant signals.
Just like scanners these too just receive a signal but don't transmit.
Now change that to a trans-ceiver and now you have a different mode of compromise.

I wonder how many people board a flight and don't turn off the cell phone to airplane mode ?
Then too with the speed of the airplane the cell phone must be receiving multiple towers moving
rapidly from one to the next

 

[jis]

What is the current status of airlines on allowing GPS use in flight?
I can’t see them not allowing it, as even if your phone is in “Airplane Mode”, its GPS receiver will work (if placed near a window).

Everyone allows a GPS receiver since there is no way to selectively turn those off in Smartphones and Watches.

It was back in the days when the GPS receiver was a relatively large piece of equipment that this was even an issue. They also had very rudimentary maps if at all, and to get a real moving map experience you had to fire up a moving map App on your laptop and hook up the receiver using a serial link to the laptop. In many case you even had to load up a map of an area that you picked up from somewhere, hopefully with a standard projection, and then calibrate it by providing the Lat-Long of three known points on the map. That is how I had my first moving map of Kolkata for example. As I said those were the days of the Wild West of GPS.