I just got back from my first long-haul flight. It was a trip from Hong Kong to Frankfurt and then back to Hong Kong. The flight was almost 13 hours to Germany and about 11 coming back. It’s all pretty amazing when I think about how my longest flight at my last job as a regional pilot was around three hours.

On long flights like these, we have four pilots, where two are always at the controls at any one time. The captain and I were at the controls for takeoff and climb up to cruise and then we went to bed in the bunks. The other two guys flew us for about five hours, and then we got up and took over while they went to bed. Then, all four of us were up for the landing into Frankfurt.

The cockpit of the 747 is great because inside we also have a room with two bunks and a bathroom. The toilet is on the right and the bunk room is on the left, and we can go the whole flight without having to leave the cockpit. The flight attendants are really great and bring us food or coffee and we get on with the business of flying.

The bed that I was in was pretty nice — it was quiet and dark in there. It is hard to get sleep when your body clock says it’s daytime, or the turbulence keeps waking you up. After a few hours of bouncing and sleeping, one of the other pilots came in to wake me up for my shift.

Four pilots you ask? There is a captain, who is in charge, a relief commander, who is in charge when the captain is asleep, a first officer (copilot), and a second officer. The relief commander can be a captain, but is usually a senior first officer. The second officer doesn’t fly, but helps with paperwork and watches over the autopilot.

This flight to Germany took us over the mountains of China. When the captain and I woke up, we were already past the high ground, but we’d have our chance to deal with flying over the mountains on the way back to Hong Kong. Flying over mountains is much more challenging than over flat lands, because we have to be prepared for a depressurization or engine failure. If we depressurize, we need to get down to a lower altitude for breathable air. Sure, oxygen masks will drop, but they won’t provide pressurized oxygen to passengers at high altitudes. Consciousness with those little masks is about 15 minutes above 20,000 feet. The trouble comes in when the highest mountain peaks are over 25,000 feet! What to do if we need to descend for air?

There are published escape routes through the mountains that allow us to descend to a lower level depending on where we are and where we are headed. Sometimes, even the escape routes keep us up around 20,000 feet. The passengers just have to suck on that oxygen mask until we can get lower, but all the routes guarantee that we can get down in enough time. If they didn’t, we wouldn’t be able to use that route. With an engine failure, or two, we also have to descend, because the remaining engines don’t have enough power to maintain altitude. That descent isn’t as bad because we come down slowly, and have time to think about where to go. Rapid depressurization is more critical, because we have to descend to a lower altitude (for breathable air) and thus the critical need of escape routes.

It’s all technical and very critical, with constant planning on the current escape route, and asking ourselves how low can we go now if we had a problem, but it gives us something to do with the hours we spend up front.

On our way to Frankfurt, after the captain and I got up, we had a low hydraulic quantity message in the number one hydraulic system. There are four systems, one pressurized from each engine. With just a little bit of fluid remaining, we turned off the hydraulic pump to save the last bit we had with the plan to bring it back up online just prior to landing. In flight, there is enough redundancy to not have any problems with one system turned off. However, that system runs our nosewheel steering and once on the ground, we’d need that to get to the gate.

We advised air traffic control when approaching Frankfurt that we would be able to turn off the runway, but we might not be able to taxi to the gate. We put a lot of emphasis on the fact that we would not block the runway, however! But, once we were on final approach, we could see hundreds of flashing lights from fire trucks and rescue equipment. They followed us down the runway and all the way to the gate. When we landed, there was enough hydraulic fluid to allow for steering, but that didn’t stop all the rescue people.

Since we knew it wasn’t a big deal, we never mentioned it to the passengers, but once we landed, we were upset that the airport had caused such a scene for so little, especially as the passengers could look out their windows and wonder what was going on. All in the name of safety I guess (or overtime for the crash and rescue workers!)

The captain made the landing because there could have been some trouble and with my experience level, it would have been best if he were flying. Normally, the flying pilot does both the takeoff and the landing, but in this case, I was happy to sit and watch.

Once in Frankfurt, we took a bus to Mainz, Germany, where we stayed in a very nice Hyatt Regency right on the Rhine river. Mainz is where Johann Gutenberg is from, the inventor of the printing press and the “Gutenberg Bible.” I took several hours to walk around Mainz, a beautiful little town, and took a tour of the Gutenberg museum. The museum held four original Gutenberg Bibles inside a huge walk-in vault.

Coming back to Hong Kong the next day was good and uneventful. This time, the job of navigating and planning the route over the mountains fell to the captain and me. Luckily, there was no trouble. Coming back to Hong Kong, a few hours out from landing, we could watch the sun come up, from 39,000 feet.

All in all, it was fun trip. I get stressed out during these training flights, as I am always learning and messing up, and then learning again. But, flying to Europe and back from Hong Kong, through mountains, beautiful overnights and nice hotels, I think I’ll enjoy it, training or not.