Airliner World — September 2017

42 AIRLINER WORLD SEPTEMBER 2017

doesn’t appear to hold any surprises
today, but if necessary the RJ100 is
certified to land in CAT III conditions
with visibility down to 492ft (150m) and
a minimum cloud base of just 50ft. The
only notable item on the NOTAM list
is a warning for Bromma highlighting
the ongoing construction work on the
apron and partially faded daylight
markings on certain taxiways. These
are of little consequence to the crew,
who are regular visitors to the airport.
The final element of the pre-flight
preparation is to plot the planned
routing on to Lufthansa Systems’
Lido e-charts loaded on to the crews’
electronic flight bags (EFB). Once this is
completed, we make our way out to the
waiting aircraft.

Pre-Flight
In the cockpit, preparations continue
with the weight data. Fuel on board is
17,394.5lb (7,890kg) which, when
combined with the payload, gives us an

all-up weight of 42 tonnes  just short of

the RJ100’s maximum take-off weight

(MTOW) of 94,578lb (42,900kg).

This information is then fed into the

take-off calculation, along with the

aircraft configuration, runway and

prevailing weather conditions.

With flaps set to 18°, the crew confirm

V1 (decision speed) as 132kts, Vr (rotate)

as 136kts and V2 (take-off safety speed)

as 141kts.

Unusually, our radio callsign for today

• BEL2305 (pronounced as Beeline

2305. outbound and BEL2306 for the
      return leg – are a direct lift from our
      flight numbers, SN2305 and SN2306
      respectively. More commonly, the
      alpha-numeric callsigns generally
      employed by Brussels Airlines and
      many other carriers (used to de-conflict
      from other flights during radio
      exchanges between aircrews and
      air traffic controllers) bear no
      resemblance to what is shown on
      departure screens in the airport and

printed on boarding cards.

With take-off calculations completed,

we’re ready to depart but are forced

to wait for 17

incoming

passengers who

are connecting to our flight from the

late-running Manchester service.

In the meantime, the crew works

through the flight-deck safety checklist,

one of many to be read over the course

of the coming flights. De Ridder then

addresses the cabin via the public

address system, welcoming the

customers on board and providing a

brief overview of the planned route

and expected weather conditions.

The connecting travellers soon arrive,

increasing our total complement to

88 passengers (from a maximum of 97)

and four crew including flight

attendants Charlotte Vandenberghe

and Amy Hofmans.

The doors are quickly closed before

Brussels Airport’s ground

ABOVE LEFT • Brussels

National airfield chart.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY

LUFTHANSA SYSTEMS. THE

CHARTS ARE A PART OF

THE LIDO/ROUTEMANUAL

PRODUCT, AVAILABLE TO

THE FLIGHT SIMULATION

COMMUNITY VIA

NAVIGRAPH CHARTS,

WWW.NAVIGRAPH.COM

ABOVE • The Brussels

Ring motorway, seen

shortly after departure

from Runway 25R.

BOTTOM LEFT • The Avro

RJ family has served

Brussels Airlines and

its predecessors for

two decades.

AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM/

BRAM BOTTERMAN