Any ‘Normal’ NAT crossings?

Cessnaflyer

Cessnaflyer

Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Is it normal for most NAT crossings to have some kind of oddity to it? I’ve only been doing crossings for two years and usually 6-7 a year. I feel like nearly every leg something happens like failed RCL, VHF and HF frequencies not working and others I have in my notes. From our location we spend 95% of our time in VHF for crossings and I have yet to touch the OTS yet so far which makes crossings easier.

I’ve read the 007, GOLD manual, FAA and Canadian NAT documents several times and I still feel like a muppet on some crossings. Is this just the nature of this flying or am I doing something wrong?
 
Cessnaflyer said:
Is it normal for most NAT crossings to have some kind of oddity to it? I’ve only been doing crossings for two years and usually 6-7 a year. I feel like nearly every leg something happens like failed RCL, VHF and HF frequencies not working and others I have in my notes. From our location we spend 95% of our time in VHF for crossings and I have yet to touch the OTS yet so far which makes crossings easier.

I’ve read the 007, GOLD manual, FAA and Canadian NAT documents several times and I still feel like a muppet on some crossings. Is this just the nature of this flying or am I doing something wrong?
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All of my time is either OTS or random routes and I haven't experiences any of these issues.
 
It was all disturbingly textbook for me. I did have CPDLC quit without any explanation about a quarter of the way across once, but other than that the actual ATC work was as printed in the Airway Manual.
 
The only interesting thing that's ever happened to me was a reroute after coast out.
 
Not NATS... but across the other ocean stuff is normally pretty chill... normally.

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That’s great it’s only me! 🤣 . Also, I reread the post and I would advise against writing in between sets at the gym.

I went back to one of my busier flight logs while I was in the right seat. We had an RCL failed message from Shanwick, then a CPDLC message to contact them on 123.95. That didn’t work the local controller gave us the other 127.65 that did work. They then sent us the the clearance to load. We load it and then had the confirm route message. We respond to the route message. 30 seconds later the local controller said Shanwick said our loaded flight plan was not what they sent and to read back the routing we loaded. It was all correct when I gave them the Lat and Long but our FMS sent LL01, LL02 in place of the actual Lat/Long. Crossing was uneventful until the other side and Edmonton said our CPDLC was on the blocked list. Week later the Edmonton supervisor contacted us to let us know our FMS didn’t receive a couple messages and we were blocked.

At least I haven’t climbed without a clearance!
 
Cessnaflyer said:
Is it normal for most NAT crossings to have some kind of oddity to it? I’ve only been doing crossings for two years and usually 6-7 a year. I feel like nearly every leg something happens like failed RCL, VHF and HF frequencies not working and others I have in my notes. From our location we spend 95% of our time in VHF for crossings and I have yet to touch the OTS yet so far which makes crossings easier.

I’ve read the 007, GOLD manual, FAA and Canadian NAT documents several times and I still feel like a muppet on some crossings. Is this just the nature of this flying or am I doing something wrong?
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I don’t know what any of those manuals are, but it’s generally pretty hassle free. What *specific* problems are you encountering?
 
Haven't done an Atlantic crossing in a while. But one of my last Pacific crossings was annoying. Lost all CPDLC, SATCOM, and Datalink at the Tokyo FIR. Had to scramble to get the HF frequency, then ask for WX deviations and give my first position reports.

Then the other FO, who was flying, wanted me to ask for a direct when we weren't radar contact.
 
derg said:
I don’t know what any of those manuals are, but it’s generally pretty hassle free. What *specific* problems are you encountering?
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CPDLC issues seem to be my most annoying ones. Failed messages, route confirmations sent from the FMS are giving the controllers abbreviated fix names instead of the Lat/Long. This is over 3 different airframes with a Honeywell, Collins Proline 21 and Collins Proline 4.
 
ASpilot2be said:
Haven't done an Atlantic crossing in a while. But one of my last Pacific crossings was annoying. Lost all CPDLC, SATCOM, and Datalink at the Tokyo FIR. Had to scramble to get the HF frequency, then ask for WX deviations and give my first position reports.

Then the other FO, who was flying, wanted me to ask for a direct when we weren't radar contact.
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That’s the trick THEY HATE! When you lose comms, you go direct……duh
 
annoying that the pushed routing loads as LLXX waypoints- not familiar with that system but is there some sort of configuration change in the software load that could enable the lat long waypoints? id say otherwise youd just have to make pilot defined waypoints in the appropriate naming convention for lat longs, but if youre adsc and they get the route from your fmc back immediately you wont have time to verify and validate pilot defined waypoints.
the 73 software will load lat longs like that during initial flight plan downlink, some people leave them in but that always generates a message from atc about the routing once youre logged on so the fix is to manually load the lat longs so they see what they want to see.

edit: how long after the route loading did you get the “confirm route” message?
 
BobDDuck said:
You have to... otherwise CPDLC starts yelling at you for not giving it the love and care it feels it deserves.

SET MAX UPLINK DELAY TO 300s BITCH!!!
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Same! LOL!

But never automatically! Why? I don’t know. CSC boss-man tells me to bitch at you when you do it without being prompted first.

Hamburger Method: “So this went well… [bring down furious anger]…and these other things went well”
 
bp said:
annoying that the pushed routing loads as LLXX waypoints- not familiar with that system but is there some sort of configuration change in the software load that could enable the lat long waypoints? id say otherwise youd just have to make pilot defined waypoints in the appropriate naming convention for lat longs, but if youre adsc and they get the route from your fmc back immediately you wont have time to verify and validate pilot defined waypoints.
the 73 software will load lat longs like that during initial flight plan downlink, some people leave them in but that always generates a message from atc about the routing once youre logged on so the fix is to manually load the lat longs so they see what they want to see.

edit: how long after the route loading did you get the “confirm route” message?
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From my notes it’s 30 seconds to a minute after accepting the reroute. Almost like it’s an automatic response to inputting the reroute.
 
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