Jetgala - FALL-WINTER 2022

J 12 M artin Schroder, 52, is an American-Austrian pilot for Cargolux. He lives close to Innsbruck with his partner and two children. Captain Schroder is passionate about flying, skiing, mountain biking and a healthy lifestyle. Share with us your journey from taking your first flying lesson to flying the Boeing 747, one of the world’s largest planes? For my 16th birthday, my parents gave me an introductory flight lesson in a little Cessna 152. From that day on, I was hooked and knew that I wanted to be a pilot. I got a degree in Aviation Science from Oklahoma State University and started my professional career as a flight instructor in LA, where I worked for two years. My first airline job was with Lufthansa Cityline flying passengers.Three years later, I switched to Cargolux, one of the world’s leading cargo airlines and have been with them for 22 years, to this day WHAT’S FLYING A LIVEWHALE LIKE? passionately flying the 747 – the Queen of the Skies. Tell us about the Boeing 747? The Boeing 747-8, the largest version of the 747, is 76.3 m long, 68.4 m wide and 19.4 m high – which means that a 747-8 would nicely fit on the field of the Singapore National Stadium and pretty much fill it out.The plane itself weighs just under 200 tons and has a maximum take-off weight of 447 tons, which equals the weight of about 300 supercars. Staying with supercars, even if it is hard to compare, the 747-8 roughly produces the same amount of horsepower as 180 Lamborghinis combined. It would take about an hour to fully fuel up the plane and we could theoretically uplift a maximum of 181 tons of kerosine in the 747-8. Depending on our load, this would give us a range of up to 15,000 km, which is approximately from Singapore all the way to Chicago. For most flights, we do not fill the tanks completely as we rather fly a full load of cargo to a closer destination.