After indulging in nostalgia of the old Austrian Airlines Flights from Vienna to Sydney (with a stop Singapore or Kuala lumpur) I have decided to try the (nearly) impossible myself.
I will try to fly a SWISS B777-300ER with 42 Pax, minimal cargo and all the fuel I can take from Sydney to Zurich. My calculations show that all the B777-200LR, B777-200ER and B777-300ER should be able to make that distance without load (fingers crossed).
Cruising altitude will be 36k going up to 43.1k with Mach 0.84. (Suggestions and reasons why I should change either are always welcome with proper reasoning)
I have taken off just a few minutes ago and you will be able to follow me on LiveFlight for the next approximately 19 hours of flight time. Call sign is the usual G-NICK.
Iām now already more than halfway into the route and climbed to 43.1k feet, currently facing strong winds with 110kts, if they donāt drop to 80-90 knots soon I wonāt be able to make it :P
I have climbed to 45k feet stretching the max altitude for the 77W of 43.1k so I can save some fuel. And it seems I can make it now :P I expect to land in about 9 hours.
Typically for commercial flights on 77Ws with a heavy load (including fuel uplifted) and flying westerly routes, pilots would step climb as follows: FL320, FL340, FL360 and top off at FL380. It is quite uncommon to see 77Ws flying FL400 and above. Based on this, I think you shouldnāt try to reach the maximum operating altitude of the 77W if youāre targeting fuel efficiency.
To back this up, there are literally no 77Ws tracked on FR24 flying at altitudes of FL400 and above at this moment (281339Z).
Not sure if IF simulates the decrease in efficiency when flying at the extremes of the aircraftās flight envelope.
Yes, thatās what I kinda did, but ānormalā B77Ws are to heavy to climb to 43k and compared to 39k this is a huge improvment in fuel consumption even when only rising 2k feet and I mean Iām pretty empty already so hence I did it. And I think I wouldnāt have done it if I stayed at 39k feet ;)
Iām still in the air and am now passing above Baku and Tibilisi where I just encountered a beautiful sunset. ;) I will land at about 1900 Zurich local time.
I have touched down at LSZH Rwy 14 at approximately 19:08 local time with 6% fuel remaining (8257kg). After having taken off at 0858 local time in Sydney (2258CET+1) with a load of 2025 kg of cargo and 42 passengers (3234kg) and flying a distance of over 9000NM and with a flight time of 20 hours and 10 minutes I safely landed in ZRH at 1908 local time.
Photos and documentation of the flight will follow soon.
As of now I can proudly say this is probably the longest documented flight with the B777-300ER on this forum.
