Hi its been a while!
I flew to ool-mel on Friday April 20 on one of Virgin Australia's old girls, VH-VON a 737-800.
Take off was normal but I was surprised when we leveled off at FL24 and continued at that level to mel, a 2 hour 20 minute flight.
I thought the low level was because of weather as we were dodging a few storms but once they cleared, I presumed we would climb again.
Once landed I checked FR24 and all other flights around the same time were around FL38.
I did some history checking on VON and for the last 8 sectors al lthe flights were at FL24.
The sector after my flight was mel-adl where VON stayed overnight and was fixed as the next flight was at FL34.
Does anyone have any ideas what the issue was?
Cheers,
N88KB
Moderators: richierich, ua900, PanAm_DC10, hOMSaR
Re: VA's VH-VON low flight levels.
Not having flown the 737, but have flown other Boeings, sounds like a pack or A/C problem and the aircraft was dispatched in accordance with the MEL. The lower altitude would have been part of the procedure which allowed the aircraft to continue for a set period of time at which time repair would have been mandatory.
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- Adispatcher
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Re: VA's VH-VON low flight levels.
Perhaps one inop pack. On the 737, the MEL will generally restrict the aircraft to FL250 or below.
Re: VA's VH-VON low flight levels.
Adispatcher wrote:Perhaps one inop pack. On the 737, the MEL will generally restrict the aircraft to FL250 or below.
That's it. Single pack operations require a max of FL250 as it allows a faster descent to 10,000ft should the other pack fail plus it can be difficult for one pack to maintain pressurization at higher levels where both packs normally would be doing it.
Re: VA's VH-VON low flight levels.
Thanks guys for the explanation! It’s definitely a better view from FL24 than in the 3s!
Cheers,
N88KB
Cheers,
N88KB
Re: VA's VH-VON low flight levels.
While it doesn't look like the case with your flight. If there are strong headwinds It's common to see lower FLs at least in one direction. I was tracking a JQ A320 last night flying ADL-DRW that filed FL320 then stepping FL340 overhead ASP. But ended up cruising at FL260 the whole way. I checked the winds they would have had a 100kt headwind at FL340
A couple of years ago I was flying BNE-ADL we cruised at FL260 due to strong headwinds. I had an uncle PER-ADL earlier that day and his flight was shorter in duration than mine!
A couple of years ago I was flying BNE-ADL we cruised at FL260 due to strong headwinds. I had an uncle PER-ADL earlier that day and his flight was shorter in duration than mine!
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