Full flight BOEING 737 MAX - From Ireland to France

Video from the channel Matpilote about Boeing, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 48:49. Language: English. Video type: Onboard.

A full Boeing 737 MAX flight between Dublin and Biarritz, filmed from the cockpit. It is narrated by the first officer, who is at the controls en route and for landing while the captain handles communications. The video follows every phase: flight computer set-up, departure briefing, clearance, taxi, take-off, cruise, descent, approach and arrival at the stand.

On the ground, the route is entered into the FMC: departure from Dublin's runway 28 left and an ILS Z approach to Biarritz's runway 27, with a cost index of 6 and a cruise altitude of FL350. The Boeing OPT app on the iPad is used to calculate take-off weight and thrust (86.8%), the centre of gravity (19%) and the trim setting. There are 184 passengers on board. Each engine takes about two and a half minutes to start, compared with around one minute on the 737 NG. Because of congestion, about 40 minutes pass between pushback and take-off: runway 16 is used as a queuing area to take off from runway 28 left, the only one in use.

After taking off with TOGA thrust, the aircraft climbs with the autopilot in LNAV up to FL350, around 10,600 m. It passes through the London, Brest and Bordeaux control centres, partly using CPDLC messages. In cruise it burns about 2 tonnes per hour; the flight uses 4,080 kg of fuel, around 22 kg per passenger. Through the window you can see the Breton coast, the bay of La Baule, the Pilat dune and the bay of Arcachon.

During the descent, limited to 250 knots below FL100, the speedbrakes are used to recover the profile and the QNH is set to 1021 hPa. After calculating the landing distance, autobrake 3 and flaps 30 are selected. The first officer disconnects the autopilot and autothrottle to land manually, and the gear is lowered 4 nautical miles from the runway.

The narrator explains basic airline operation concepts: ATIS, SIDs and STARs, the ILS with its localizer and glide path, the division of roles between the pilot flying and the pilot monitoring, the V1, VR and V2 speeds, and the criteria for a stabilised approach at 500 feet. A marshaller guides the aircraft to stand Charlie 5 at Biarritz.