Dead Dawg Tired
Yesterday was a loooooong day! 3,538 miles flown, 9.9 flight hours, 15 hours of duty, 6 legs, 5 states, 2 country's and 1 circling approach at minimums, I'm tired.
We started our day up in Maine. Our first leg took us to that foreign exotic neighbor to our north where we picked up a load of the usual stuff. We headed across the lake to our base in the motor city for leg 2. Leg 3 was the most interesting as far as I was concerned. It was my leg to fly and the weather at our destination was calling for thunderstorms, rain and strong winds out of the north. Once in range of the ATIS, the forecast was confirmed as true as the field was calling for 600 overcast with a ragged ceiling at 600 to 800 feet, light rain and stiff winds from the north. Taking a look at our approach plates we noticed that there was an ILS at the field, but the winds were not favoring that runway. So the straight in approach is going to be out of the question, but the circling approach would be the perfect fit. Just happens that the minimums for the approach are a 600 ft ceiling and 1 mile visibility. This would be my first circling approach in a Lear and my first in real life in quite a while. On the descent, my captain and I fully briefed the approach including what we were going to do in case we had to go missed. We agreed that in case we didn't break out, we'd head to our alternate instead of trying another approach. At around 18,000 ft we entered the clouds and proceeded to get vectors for the ILS approach. We hooked up with the localizer about 15 miles north of the field and began tracking it inbound. We picked up the glideslope a few miles later and began flying the approach. The captain was on top of things calling my airspeeds and altitudes and letting me know how much further we had to go. He called 200 till DH (Decision height - the height above the ground where we either see the field and land or go missed) , then 100 and just as I was about to light the fires and go around, he called "runway in sight". Now for the fun part! While flying 600 feet off the ground with a groundspeed in the 160kt range, I get to circle the aircraft around the airport and get lined up for a landing on the opposite direction runway. Fun stuff.
Brutal headwinds slowed our progress for most of the day. Our groundspeeds were consistently under 400kts and sometimes as low as 350. The last 2 legs were retribution. Those winds that has punished us west and southbound were going to give us a big push home. Our groundspeed on the last two legs from Texas back up to the motor city averaged over 550kts or more than 600 miles per hour.
I think the Lear is growing on me. For the last few weeks, I've been flying around in the little rocket. Its fast, loud and extremely tight up front. For the first week or so, all I could do was think about how cramped the cockpit is and how uncomfortable it is to fly long legs in. Now, I think I'm getting used to it and don't seem to mind as much. The fact that I can get 1/3 of the way to my monthly mileage quota in one day really helps. Plus I'm finally starting to feel comfortable flying the aircraft which helps my attitude towards it. Now, its time to sleep until the demon pager wakes me again.
We started our day up in Maine. Our first leg took us to that foreign exotic neighbor to our north where we picked up a load of the usual stuff. We headed across the lake to our base in the motor city for leg 2. Leg 3 was the most interesting as far as I was concerned. It was my leg to fly and the weather at our destination was calling for thunderstorms, rain and strong winds out of the north. Once in range of the ATIS, the forecast was confirmed as true as the field was calling for 600 overcast with a ragged ceiling at 600 to 800 feet, light rain and stiff winds from the north. Taking a look at our approach plates we noticed that there was an ILS at the field, but the winds were not favoring that runway. So the straight in approach is going to be out of the question, but the circling approach would be the perfect fit. Just happens that the minimums for the approach are a 600 ft ceiling and 1 mile visibility. This would be my first circling approach in a Lear and my first in real life in quite a while. On the descent, my captain and I fully briefed the approach including what we were going to do in case we had to go missed. We agreed that in case we didn't break out, we'd head to our alternate instead of trying another approach. At around 18,000 ft we entered the clouds and proceeded to get vectors for the ILS approach. We hooked up with the localizer about 15 miles north of the field and began tracking it inbound. We picked up the glideslope a few miles later and began flying the approach. The captain was on top of things calling my airspeeds and altitudes and letting me know how much further we had to go. He called 200 till DH (Decision height - the height above the ground where we either see the field and land or go missed) , then 100 and just as I was about to light the fires and go around, he called "runway in sight". Now for the fun part! While flying 600 feet off the ground with a groundspeed in the 160kt range, I get to circle the aircraft around the airport and get lined up for a landing on the opposite direction runway. Fun stuff.
Brutal headwinds slowed our progress for most of the day. Our groundspeeds were consistently under 400kts and sometimes as low as 350. The last 2 legs were retribution. Those winds that has punished us west and southbound were going to give us a big push home. Our groundspeed on the last two legs from Texas back up to the motor city averaged over 550kts or more than 600 miles per hour.
I think the Lear is growing on me. For the last few weeks, I've been flying around in the little rocket. Its fast, loud and extremely tight up front. For the first week or so, all I could do was think about how cramped the cockpit is and how uncomfortable it is to fly long legs in. Now, I think I'm getting used to it and don't seem to mind as much. The fact that I can get 1/3 of the way to my monthly mileage quota in one day really helps. Plus I'm finally starting to feel comfortable flying the aircraft which helps my attitude towards it. Now, its time to sleep until the demon pager wakes me again.
posted by Windsor at 9:05 PM
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