So I am planning to do a flight from Anchorage to Amsterdam  which I think takes you very close to the North Pole. I plan to fly the 747-8F which I think is capable, but  I had a couple of questions.

 

Is there anything special you have to do when planning a polar flight and what fuel rules would you use? I want to try to do it as realistically as possible.

From what i understand the 8F switches heading mode automatically when reach the correct longitude. Is this correct?

 

Thanks

 

  

Not really an expert of the matter but I know some unusual alerts can occur when doing polar flights. Not saying you will have them, but they are rare on other types of routes.

1. The FMC  - depending on add-on - might throw a SPLIT IRS OPERATION message around 85 degree Latitude. This is normal and means that each both FMC's  locks in to single IRU position (747 has three IRU's:  L, C, R) in order to prevent sudden position jumps. 
2. You will probably see a "GRID XXX" indicator on the Navigation Display, where XXX is Grid Heading. This is to assist when referencing North Polar stereographic charts, which has a grid north datum.

   On 4/17/2021 at 8:35 AM, jt233 said:

   From what i understand the 8F switches heading mode automatically when reach the correct longitude. Is this correct?

   Indeed. MAG-reference is completely useless in these areas. (and it is dictated by LAT, not LON 🙂  )

3. Fuel Freezing. Not likely to happen, but obviously the OAT/TAT is rather cold. Keep an eye on the fuel temps and know your fuel type freezing point. One type of escape is to drop at least 3.000ft in order to have a warmer TAT should you get FUEL TEMP LOW warning on the EICAS. Does your fuel plan accomodate such a maneuver, in other words a long cruise at sub-optimal flight level?. You can even speed up in order to get a higher TAT, But that would also burn more fuel that calculated, obviously.