Flying the Boeing 737 MAX with Oman Air (Cockpit)

Do you know what kind of cockpit video we haven't done yet? 737, especially 737 MAX. And that's what we're bringing you today. Flying from Muscat to Phuket with Oman Air. Should be super interesting. That's right, it's time to jump seat on a brand new flight deck for the channel, the Boeing 737 MAX 8. And on this very interesting nearly 6-hour flight crossing India and the Bay of Bengal, not to mention working with Oman Air for the first time. We've got an Emirates Super just above us to avoid. We've got radio issues over India. We've got St. Elmo's Fire in weather off the coast of Thailand as we approach, and we'll be returning with the same crew for a beautiful landing into Muscat the following day as well. Plus, it's the second officer's first commercial rotation straight off of line training. How cool is that? Much more to come in this latest episode. Let's fly to Phuket. the 737 MAX has LEAP-1B engines that happen to take quite a while to start Oman Air has 18 Boeing 737 MAX 8s and they serve a wide range of destinations both around the Gulf and further afield to Europe, Africa and Asia they also still fly two 737-900ERs as of today alongside their larger 787 Dreamliners of course I'm Oman Air 298 stand four zero one Lima, copy four zero one Lima Oman Air two liners Hotel, Mike to 9 Right side is clear First flight, cleared 927 taxi on Romeo, hold short, Hotel Back on 1, cabin is secure, go for a view of MCOP Runway 26L, take the section, Echo 9 N1 is 88.8, cross checked V1 155, VR 155, the 160 is set, and cross checked Flaps, stabilised 1-7-0 Before take off check Tower, One Air 831 is ready for departure, on rating, Echo 9 One Air 831, Echo 9, line up and wait Echo 9, line up and wait, One Air 831 One contact, radar 121.2, wind is 270 7 knots, runway 26L cleared for takeoff Runway 26L cleared for takeoff, 927 ready behind departing aircraft 927, confirm, Echo 7? Affirm, Echo 7 Roger, Echo 7, behind the departing traffic, line up and wait Behind me, departing aircraft at Echo 7, measuring 927 Takeoff dust at knots, as shared 18266, 8N, contact ground 127.875 127.875, F266M, roger that Roger Identifying runway track, climb level 150 Roger that Flight level 1831 That's checked 1831 Speed is checked Climb 5000, runway track MZ, 927 927, climb 6000, right turn direct to VUSET Roger, landing gear is up Climb up, top no lights After takeoff checks complete Ground radar contact, contact level 190, initial the captain has seen that an Emirates A380 is crossing just overhead us and he'd like to give wide berth just in case the wake turbulence from the so-called super can have a strong effect on smaller aircraft especially so he's going to end up flying an offset just to make sure we're well clear of it we were avoiding the 380 yeah because of the uh vortices this is a small aircraft it can be quite a lot from the it can be really bad but this was just a precaution for us to try but usually in HF you don't have anyone uh HF is an oceanic area where you don't have radar you're not under radar. So you kind of have to watch out who's coming, what kind of aircraft. Usually we do a two mile to be on the right or the left of the track just to avoid these especially 380s because a lot of a lot of people experienced a little bit of it but it wasn't good. Okay, so it's an offset, you're on an ETOPS? It's an offset, yeah. Because of the Bay of Bengal crossing, this flight is operated under ETOPS rules, covering extended range operations with twin-engine aircraft. What matters is how far we are from an airport where we could divert. That means additional requirements for aircraft systems, maintenance, and fuel planning, as well as having a clear picture of diversion airports. ETOPS entry and exit points are key pieces of info in the route planning as well. So over here, it will be just before arriving in Thailand, we'll have two points, or three points. The EEP is once we enter the ETOPS, then you have the ETP, and you have the exit point, which is the EXP. So the whole point of this is, usually when we have an engine failure, any failure, we have a 60 minute time to arrive at the destination. but for the ETOPS we need 120 minutes so here we will go to this is another airport in Sri Lanka and Colombo so from the entry to the ETP one this is our plan if anything happens we're going to go to this airport and then after that there's Phuket so we're going to continue if any any failure occurs in this section this is our plan so we already planned ahead but yes it's a Fine aircraft, it's just that maybe the flight deck is a bit tiny. I flew 320s, A320, 330 as well, so the flight deck is totally different. And the philosophy of Boeing and Airbus, again, both different philosophies. Both have their pros and cons, but at the end of the day, I've got to say a 7-3 is a good aircraft. And the guys, they say a joke, it's a factory man aircraft, it's all hands-on. We have a brief period during this flight over the Indian Ocean where we're no longer in radar coverage and we'll be communicating over HF radio, which is always a special experience. So this is where there's no radar, oceanic, maybe another, I would say, until a point, maybe Karaku, which will be AT. So another half an hour and then we'll be with radar, usually Mumbai and then Chennai. We were doing here is we were talking to the HF frequency Mumbai and we were giving them our points, as you said, Ahmad Raspi, Ancox and Garfu at our level, and then we gave them this cell phone over here, Charlie Echo, Fox Quebec. It's like our phone number, basically. So if anything, we're going to hear a chime here, either an HF1 or HF2, that means they They want us to contact them. Very challenging to comprehend what they're saying on HF. Very challenging, it is. That's why we use our headsets when we talk to them. We try to give them as much as we can. Started to get cold. So usually this is the gauge we look at to indicate the temperature at the back. You can see now it's indicating around 28. I can't tell exactly how much you're setting here, but it's an approximate. Like you set something, you wait until something changes, and then you adjust immediately. Yeah. This is Karachi, this is Mumbai, and this is Moscow. So we know where the airports are basically. Just in aviation, we plan ahead. Because we plan for the worst. Anything happens, we know Karachi is here on our left and Mumbai is straight ahead. We know where we are exactly. The circle indicates the distance from the... Yeah, it's a 200-mile... There is also a published procedure in the event they're unable to reach anyone over HF radio and need to change flight level. It involves flying an offset, and if there's weather ahead, there are special rules for that too. So this is in the Jibson. These are like airway rules. So if you can't contact them, this is the strategy used. If you're unable to contact them on an HF, because sometimes it gets crowded. This is a special procedure in flight contingency. in the oceanic which is you need to be five miles and For weather or traffic and then if you couldn't get clearance because of weather ahead of you You're gonna have to climb on to some five hundred feet five hundred feet Until ATC clearances received mostly weather or even if you have an emergency and you couldn't contact them you want to cross the airway because if you see in the in the Jeppesen you see all these are airways so for example uh we're here we needed to cross even to mumbai or uh this one let me just get it karachi you're gonna cross an airway these are all airways and and if you're not in contact with them you need to uh prepare a separation of other aircrafts like i mentioned earlier this is second officer's first rotation after line training it was definitely definitely a journey like to finish uh training and to be part of the line it's uh it's an exciting time and Oman Air holds a very high standard in training so it's kind of a demanding course but it's a course worth like going through for the end goal like achieving uh the type rating and joining the line is It's an interesting course and like to get to fly every day and it's a good job. The simulator is usually training you for failures and emergencies. Once you get to the line it's where you get to know like day-to-day flying basically. Once you finish training you're basically as ready as you can be for the line because no pilot gets released to the line without being completely ready and as being a safe pilot to operate because in aviation safety is the highest thing you have to hold anything that compromises safety basically compromises everything else but it's an exciting time to join the line and see for a while while other aircraft could transfer to me Report to our position. Position, we've passed position Ancox. Heading position Karpu. Time 0818. Try again, sir. Try again. 13575. Copy. We'll contact 13575. Copy. Radio Oman Air A31. Oman Air A31, Mumbai radar. It feels very old school with the radios over there. It is old school. No, it isn't. Especially at night time when you come on the oceanic it becomes really crowded so it's a fight to talk to them imagine when it's traffic, weather, everyone wants to deviate and you need to deviate. It's not stressful but it becomes you know annoying and you're trying to contact everyone's talking and everyone wants to do the same thing and yeah but we we get used to it we adjust yeah you fit in yeah it's like it's like in a roundabout you fit your car in getting out i like it time for a little break and we find Sofia in a winter survival scenario in seat 2 alpha Oman Air has a dine on demand concept in business class and the food is very tasty indeed and after a little rest it's time to rejoin the cockpit just as the last light is starting to fade we're not too far from Thailand now and it looks like there'll be some weather we need to navigate around up ahead just about when we'll be starting our descent so we can avoid the weather you can the yellow and the red is the ones we want to avoid overall i prefer to just avoid all weather together because they build up this red can start to increase suddenly so would you be looking for a different uh so right now once we contact we're gonna our next frequency is Lampung so we're gonna contact them and then we're gonna request a direct point to uh we agreed already maps up so it would take us kind of between and then from here we can uh start going We've been pressing heading, we'll just use heading to go around whatever's ahead of us. As I can see there's another cloud here, so once we turn here we'll see what we can do. We'll have a little light, natural light outside, so it helps to go up. When you don't have the moon, it's pitch black. Good morning, I am 831 Eureka. Approaching position Imran. If traffic permitting, post direct Mapso to avoid it. So right now we are probably out of range of the frequency, so we are going to have to wait a few miles maybe to get into contact with them. Not perfect, can I go Victor Romeo Romeo? Victor Romeo Romeo, go Only last time, we want to go to the further left Say again, MS396? MS396, make any flight level 330, report in, go It's good thanks, Emirates level 396 What? Anything above that? Lamport Control, 18831 18831, go 18831, first position Imran, make any flight level 370, request up to 70 miles to the left to avoid weather G1, maintain level 370, 70 nautical miles to the left, please approve 70 nautical miles to the left is approved, Damani 831 70 So we'll see if we can connect Loop for Arabia Who's that? Arabia 715 Arabia 715, just connect it higher to 2.3 Sabamo or Oblin Sabamo So what we were doing here, we were connecting, we did like a road Yes, there's a road around the weather Because when we don't do that, what happens is, let me just delete this. Right now, we'll get a note here, using reserve fuel, which is below what we're required to land. Using reserve fuel. This is the extra fuel for our alternate. So to avoid that, we just want to know how much fuel we have if we're going to turn after the weather. Arabia 715, we take the deviation up to 60 and now we come out to the left of Poinsettia-Ribravo And you can hear through the frequency, like everyone is deviating to the left Everyone who's coming to this side is deviating away from the weather Yeah I can see it's... So Udnin, it'll be below 11,000 And then SP102, 7,000 SP101, 7,000 Ryder, max 230 knots, 5,000 above. And Barron, 200 max knots, 3,000 above. RMP Zulu, runway 27. Our now final approach course is 265, which I said. And airport elevation 84, we have 100 feet. Highest MSA is 4,500. At Barron, we already said max 200 knots, 3,000. And then Hotel Kilo Tango, Echo Fox, 1,900. will be fully configured before i did three miles 1900 is a 3.2 degree glide path which with this speed 140 knots it's exactly 793 feet all right uh minimus 870 plus the 50 is 920. so after landing uh runway 27 we already did the uh performance now we're going to use the autobrake three land in touch reverse idle and uh once we stop we'll vacate to the left by a bravo pressurization land altitude 100 set recon check check auto break three landing data veera flops veeraflap 3140 minimums nine two zero 5GDM, weather deviation requires 2-0 miles, right of track Deviation right approved, Emirates 5GDM Emirates, Leeds, Narnia, clear to report So, beam 7-0, 70 miles, yes Airport patrol, Manurek 31 Manurek 31, go Manurek 31, our deviation will be a beam up, so 70 nautical miles, 7-0 70 nautical miles, copy, sir Your plan is to kind of push through this system to the best possible place The best possible place The dark area indicates there's nothing there, so we can just go through this. We'll see from here which direction it will take, once we arrive at that point, because we're going to start descending. As we fly through the edges of this electrically charged cloud, watch the windshield for little flashes of what look like mini lightning bolts. This is known as St. Elmo's fire, an electrical phenomenon that can produce an eerie blue or violet glow and or flickering streaks of light around the aircraft. It happens when the electric field becomes strong enough to ionize the surrounding air. Despite the name, it is an actual fire, and it's generally harmless itself. Although the weather producing it could be hazardous, and that's why the crew is paying close attention as we fly through this front. And now that we're through that, it's time to come in for a landing at Phuket. We told him to be sweet and let him know. 998, do direct to 5A. Temperature's good. Direct to 5A. OK, and set it up. Oman Air A3, one distance. 9,000 feet. 2,000 feet, 1,000 feet. Freightway, 1,000 feet. Freightway, 27. We'll get a first. 35,000 feet, 5,000 feet, 1,000 feet. Oman Air A3, one contact tower. 1, 1, 8, 6, 4, 1, 30, go. of course you can't go to Phuket and not go to the beach just at the edge of the runway here. Although the aircraft weren't landing in this direction, this was still a lot of fun. From the sponsor of this video. Could it be a VPN? Could it be an eSIM? No. It is Flightradar24. All right, it looks a bit like the weather is going to get a bit worse, but luckily we have a Flightradar24 premium subscription so we can actually see the weather layers. Obviously we can select the weather. Intense precipitation. Yeah, precipitation. The price of less than 18 or so Thai iced teas at a 7-Eleven here in Phuket, you can get a gold subscription. And that means you'll know exactly when that thing is taken off behind you while you're trying to do your shot without any of the annoying ads. You also get up to a year of flight history, additional filters, you name it, lots of nice features. Go on and check it out if you haven't already. It's worth it. If that wasn't enough 737 MAX action for you, here is the last bit of our return flight the next day with the same crew landing into Muscat. 6-6-1 good evening, on normal. 1000. 24-25 sir, Yankee 6-6-1, Yankee 6-6-1, runway 26-6-1. 10-4-5, runway 26-6-1, runway 26-6-1. 30, 20, 5. 10-4-5, runway 27-0-7, Yankee 7, ready and decant. Runway 27-0-7, Roger 5, runway 26-6-1, Yankee 6-6-1. Speed back up. 10-4-5, runway 27-0-7, not ready yet, standby. Machari 1 Lima 10-30-3 pushback and start approved on tango facing east. Hope you enjoyed this one. Be sure to let us know what you thought in the comments. In Muscat, for Flightradar24, I'm Gabriel Lee.