flight

Started by 94touring, February 05, 2016, 09:56:29 AM

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94touring

In 2015 I barely worked.  After I upgraded to Captain I bid what's called ready reserve, where I basically sleep in an office all day and if they call I fly.  I flew a whopping 320 hours for the year, 175 of those during the first 3 months when I was a first officer actually working.  This year decided to actually work and make extra $$.  Last month and this month even picking up trips on my vacation, which I strategically bid about 9 months in advance solely for the purpose of having a big first quarter as I planned on buying a shop and needing the money.  I love it when a plan comes together.  It's been nice actually getting out of bed and traveling around and, well, flying.  We get what's called line checks periodically.  This is where a check airmen (boss pilot sorta speak) sits on the jumpseat and observes my work.  Picture you at your desk while some guy with a clipboard nit picks you.  For the regular aviator folks it's essentially a checkride where the examiner passes or fails you, albeit easier in my case, however more detrimental if in the rare event I actually failed.  That all being said to tell a story, which likely will go largely misunderstood, about a line check I had this week.  Flew to Bradley Connecticut.  Gate agent comes down to ask about delays going into Washington DC due to bad weather, I inform him of the 2 hour wheels up time atc has given us and formulate a game plan for boarding.  Then the agent goes..oh and there's a check airmen here to give you a check ride.  Lovely!  Just who I want to hang with for 2 hours.  He comes down pops his head in the cockpit and I see a guy whom has a reputation for being an absolute tool bag.  In fact every time I see him in passing I think what a jerk he is based off of stories I've heard.  Now my stress levels are increasing but remind myself as well as my first officer what to expect in terms of douchbaggery and to be on our A game.  After much heckling from the gate agent, some weight and balance discrepancies, this guy going through our paperwork and chatting us up for 2 hours, we finally push off the gate.  Blast off.  Hit some moderate turbulence for a fairly lengthy portion of the climb out, prompting me to have the flight attendant to take her seat.  No biggie but nothing like getting tossed around for 15 minutes.  Get closer to DC and the weather is going to crap.  Atc gives us a hold at an intersection that's not on our planned arrival, which has us digging through charts trying to scramble to get setup.  Exit the hold and are given the LDA zulu into runway 19.  Now to everyone here that means nothing to you, but I think I've shot the lda z about twice in 5 years.  We just never do it, it sucks, it causes major delays  (2 hours and a hold), and is very labor intensive.  It makes us extremely busy and then it dumps you out over the Potomac river between the white house and pentagon facing 30 degrees off where the runway is, typically in bad visibility, high, and a couple miles away.  Did I mention it's night time and the visibility is crap?  See attached pic.  So down the lda we go and at 800 ft where it drops us out at, I can't see crap.  Literally nothing.  When I finally do see the runway we're basically passing over it.  This is while I'm hauling ass, making sure I don't fly directly past a specific point that will send me into p-56 (white house missile launch bad day type scenario) all while in the blind visually looking for runway lights.  Initiate the go around.  Now realize aside from recurrent training in the simulator where you're prepped and expecting the worst, in real life we probably do 1 or 2 go arounds a year and haven't discussed and rehearsed our call outs and flows the night before religiously.  In real life they are kinda sloppy and it's assholes and elbows in the cockpit.  It hadn't occurred to me I'd be doing one till about 15 seconds before I did one.  At any rate I manage to say the right things, hit the right buttons, hand fly the right direction, level off, regroup, and continue to the next massive list of items in the aftermath of a go around event.  Auto pilot back on and breathing again.  They clear us for the lda a 2nd time.  As we're flying down the thing tower issues us to go around cause they're switching runways due to the visibility going below minimums for the lda...ya don't say.  Repeat go around scenario again.  Now we're setup for the ils 1.  Excellent as we can go down to 200 ft, it's straight in, the autopilot takes us right on down smoothly, disconnect and land.  Except we have 30 knots of tailwind on final and 11 knots on the ground, exceeding our landing limits.  Somewhat go around/climb/kinda reconfigure/debate diverting/look at fuel/contact dispatch/winds go down to 10 and I land this sumbitch and park.  I will say that the 2 hour flight was probably more work than I did all last year.  The check airmen said he felt sorry for us and we get to keep our jobs.  Then we took back off and went to Huntsville for the night. 

MiniDave

#1
Yep, that's when the good pilots shine and the not so good ones get a code brown moment! (I find it fascinating that during all this you still had time to take photos!  ;D )

When my brother was first getting his lic and building his hours he'd come get me in Sandy Eggo from his home base in Long Beach and we'd go fly around - one winter day we decided to go to Fresno to see the folks - this was in a Cessna 172. That cockpit is so small I almost had to sit sideways, and the plane is so slow that in a headwind the trucks on the highway below were going faster than we were!
We get to Fresno and they have their typical low level clouds - which means from 2500 ft on down it's like flying into a cotton ball, till you break out below and can see the ground again -  no autopilots here!

We were in the soup for what seemed like forever to me as a non-pilot and I thought sure we were going to kiss the ground as I watched the altimeter drop on our approach, then what seemed like 20 feet off the deck we could see the ground and we landed without incident. NOT fun.......

Well done on your check ride, Cap'n Dan!
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

94touring

Well the pics came on the flight out.  Had to sit a few at the end waiting for guys to land.

MiniDave

That makes more sense!  :-[
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

Jims5543

I just read that and feel like I need a drink now.

Your tough day in the office is a hell of a lot worse than mine.

Good job keeping your composition and getting the job done. Not like you had a choice.

Surely you must be relieved.

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride! -Hunter S. Thompson

94touring

This is from a couple years ago.  I believe it was 300 overcast.  I shot a cat 2 approach into Cleveland a few weeks ago down to 100 feet. 


Tim

Well Done!  So engaging actually that my wife wants to read it!  Maybe we'll have a new member here soon 4.gif

Tim.

John Gervais

I was a passenger a few years back and we had to do an ambi-turner (ref. Zoolander) 'fly-by'.  Seeing the guys with binoculars and all of the fire and rescue vehicles lined up along the runway was pretty different.  If I were on your plane today, older, fatter...   this'd be me:  :-\

Turned out that our KLM aircraft had a hole the size of a basketball blown through a bit of the upper-rear-most portion of the left wing.  Got upgraded for the return flight and enjoyed a whole lot of free cognac.   77.gif
- Pave the Bay -

MtyMous

That's the sort of stuff that's awesome to talk about after it's done, but lasts forever while you're in it. I definitely wouldn't choose to land in that kind of crap.

I got diverted 3 times (as a passenger) when there was a huge system blowing through Dallas last year. We went St. Louis for a divert, then they said the weather was clearing up so we turned and shot for Dallas. Got TO DALLAS and they realized the rain drops were the size of small woodland creatures, and so they diverted us back up to Tulsa. Which would have been fine earlier that day, but the storm system was starting to roll into the airport by then. We were to land at TUL and wait until it cleared. Poor pilot was shooting it perfectly and I swear we were no more than 100 off the ground right over the threshold when the biggest gust I've ever felt while airborne punched straight into the side of the jet. By the time we reached the TDZ, we had gone from center line to grass. I puckered a little bit then began laughing out loud as more than a few people were literally screaming. haha. I have to give it to the flight deck though. They held their shit together, went around, and stuck the second try. By this time the storm had JUST hit full strength as we taxi'd to a random holding area with the other poor souls and no one else was allowed to land.

I was in uniform coming back from.. an event.. and perfectly content just camping there while many of the passengers were FREAKING out about the landing, not being in Dallas, or trying to get off the jet about 1/4mile from the nearest terminal. I'm convinced this is why God invented Bose Noise Cancelling headphones.

Good on ya, Dan and congrats on keeping a level head. I'd fly with ya.

Jims5543

I think I was on your flight last week.

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride! -Hunter S. Thompson

94touring

Lol.  Can't say that hasn't happened.

MtyMous

So, do all the male flight attendants shave their legs then? Must be a dress code thing. :D

jeff10049