More broken planes.

Yet again I find myself crewing a broken plane. But this time its different. Its not due to our aircrafts extreme old age or poor maintenance or any of the normal means of being broken. This time I can thank the line guys at Emory in RFD for dropping the plane on its tail while they were pulling it out of the hangar. Check out these pictures. As you can see, the tail stand didn't exactly do its job and must have slid out to the right because the top of the stand has been shoved into the fin at an angle. On the second picture you can see how the entire fin was wrinkled when it sat on the tail. Needless to say the Captain and I were pissed. We had a good trip that we were supposed to go on and with the plane being broke, we haven't done much of anything except reposition to another broken plane. Since leaving my house on Monday, I have spent only 1 hour flying, 8 hours in cars driving to airports, 3 hours on commercial flights and currently have no plane to fly. What fun.



In happier news, I got the chance to run into my brother while out flying last week. Doug has been in Little Rock, AR doing his photo flights. LIT happens to be one of our frequent fuel stops during our runs up and down the bible belt. So on a trip from OH to Mexico, we stopped in for some gas and I got the chance to spend a few minutes with Doug. Here he is goofing off in one of our planes. The next pic is one I snapped on the way down to LIT.

A really, really long trip.

So here is a quick summary of my longest trip to date. Hours awake : 30, minus 2 quick 30 min naps for a total of 29 hours. Flight hours : 10 Duty hours: 18.5 Airports : 7 Legs: 6 Approaches to minimums : 1 Holds : 1 Wx delays : 4.5 hours Trip completed and I don't have to spend a day at base: priceless.

So my very long day started out in LA. We had a maintenance issue with the door that grounded the aircraft the previous night (go figure, another broken plane). So as per my usual routine I set my alarm to wake me up in time to grab free breakfast down in the lobby of the hotel. (I'm poor and cheap so when I'm on the road I always make sure to make it to free breakfast. Depending on what the hotel has to offer, I can also snag a lunch from what they have for breakfast. I've gotten in the habit of snagging some dry cereal and yogurt for lunches. This way I only have to spend money once a day.) But I digress. So I was awake at around 8:00 am. I called in to dispatch to see what was going to be done about the plane. They told me they were sending a mechanic from base and he would be there in the afternoon. So I got some things done that I needed to get done and bummed around in my room for a few hours then decided to go to the hillbilly mall a.k.a Wall Mart. I hate shopping there, but it was close to the hotel and beggars cant be choosers. So I stroll over there in search of a book to read. I walk around store for a while looking for a book section. I couldn't find one. So I walked around again, nothing. Finally I asked an employee where the book section was and I was told, to my surprise that there was no book section. Ahhhh, the dumbing of America. So I headed back to my hotel room empty handed to eat my free lunch of yogurt and cereal. On the way I got a call for the captain saying the mechanic arrived and found the problem with the door. A micro switch was broken and they needed to send a new one from base and the plane should be fixed by 5 pm. Back in the room I rested and didn't do much of anything until my pager went off at 5:30 pm. I called in to find out about the trip and was told we were picking up in Mexico, then dropping off at 2 locations. Back at base in MI and then on to Louisville. I packed up quickly and headed to the lobby to catch a ride to the airport. I arrived at the airport at 6:30 pm and started my duty time.

The flight into Mexico was uneventful. I got the chance to take a picture of the Falcon cockpit. This particular plane is actually nicely equipped with a decent autopilot that can hold a Nav mode and has altitude preselect. The only downside is that the HSI is 99.9% blocked by the yoke. If you want to see the HSI, you need to raise the seat all the way and sit very far forward in the seat. Its actually a lot easier to just look over at the opposite HSI than it is to look at the one in front of you. Here is a pic of what I am talking about.




After a short wait for freight in Mexico, we loaded up and headed off to El Paso to clear customs inbound. When we got there a fuel truck arrived to fuel us up, but the guy was a little short handed. In an effort to speed things along, I grabbed the second fuel hose and proceeded to fill the right wing for him. Kinda brought me back to the good old days working line service in high school. We topped off the wings and blasted off for our fuel stop in Kansas. Again an uneventful flight followed by a visual approach into Salina's nice long runway. This is where things start to get interesting.

As the line guys were filling the plane, I headed inside to check the weather in Detroit, not good. The TAF was calling for low visibilities and fog. The current metar was calling for 200 Few 800 OVC 2mi vis and FZFG. The TAF for the next few hours was calling for 200 OVC and 1/2 mi vis with FG and FZFG. As far as I was concerned, we could go. There was nothing in the TAF that called for anything worse than 1/2 mi vis. But after a few min of checking the charts and weather at other airports in the great lakes area, I got a look at the big picture. Pretty much everything east of Chicago over to New York state was going to be fogged in with low ceilings and poor visibilities. Crap. We gave dispatch a call and we agreed that a stop in Chicago, Midway would be a good idea in order to see what the weather in Detroit was going to do. With everything being socked in with bad weather around Detroit, we couldn't carry enough fuel to get there, shoot an approach, go missed and head to an alternate. Our alternate had to be Chicago and we didn't have the legs to make the trip from Kansas to Detroit then back to Chicago if things didn't go well in Detroit. So at around 2:30 am we headed over to Midway. On the descent into Chicagoland we started to notice a low fog layer south of Chicago. It was a widespread layer that stopped just short of Midway. I could tell it was a thin low layer because I could see the tops of towers sticking through the layer. It was a neat sight. We landed in Midway and preceded to top off for the trip to Detroit. After checking the weather, it seemed to be holding above minimums and the TAF was calling for the weather to be above min's so we decided to blast off. I loaded up on some fresh coffee and a candy bar to pump up my system with caffeine and sugar for the quick flight to YIP. When flying on the back side of the clock, I try to load my system for peak performance when I'll need it. This way I'll be buzzing on a sugar rush during the critical part of the flight, the approach and landing.

Enroute to YIP we got some bad news. While we were over Lake Michigan we picked up the latest ATIS. 100 ft ceilings and 1/4 mi vis. Crap, we cant land. We cant even start an approach if the visibilities are below minimums. We need 1/2 mi vis to be able to get in to YIP. So since we were still a good distance away, I pulled the throttles back and decided to take my sweet time getting over there. I flew as slow as I could in order to 1. preserve fuel and 2. allow a new atis to come out with hopefully better weather. As we neared the Detroit area, the weather was not cooperating so I decided that we should hold at altitude in order to preserve fuel. I had the captain pull out the QRH and get me some holding numbers for the altitude we were at. Luckily we only ended up doing 1 turn in holding. As soon as I got established in the hold, the new weather came out and we had our 1/2 mi vis we needed to get in. We quickly dove down to start the approach. We double briefed the approach to make sure we were on the same page. The weather was going to be right at minimums so I wanted get things right the first time around. The approach was a good one. We entered the cloud layer about 2000 ft above the ground. As I flew the plane down the glideslope the captain made the appropriate call outs "1000 to DH, 500 to DH 200 to DH, 100 to DH". At this point I started to peek out the windshield to see if I could see the approach lights. Right about the time we were arriving at DH (Decision Height, the altitude we either see the runway environment and land or don't and go around) I saw through the fog the blinking strobe lights of the approach light system. I still couldn't see the runway because it was dark and foggy, but I could see enough to allow me to descend to 100 ft above the runway (technically 100 ft above the touchdown zone elevation) to get a better look at the runway. Quickly the runway end lights appeared followed by the runway itself. I brought the power to idle and made a pretty decent landing. Not too bad if I don't say so myself. Especially for an approach to mins at 5:15 am and having been awake for 21 hours. Another little freight dawg badge.

We taxied into the ramp and off loaded part of our freight. I headed into the hangar to check the weather and grab the flight plan for our hop down to Louisville. The current weather at SDF was 200 OVC and 1 mi vis. The TAF called for the weather to improve to 600 and 2 at 1200Z or in about 20 min from the current time. This is where dispatch and I had a serious problem with the captains decision. I was sitting in the cockpit ready to rock. I had our clearance, all our numbers were crunched, the cockpit was prepared and so was I. The weather at SDF was marginal, but was supposed to get better by the time we got there. This is where the captain slowly makes his way to the cockpit and tells me he wants to wait 20 min to take off so the weather will be better in SDF. I was pissed. I expressed to him that the weather is fine to go now and is only supposed to get better. I saw nothing wrong with launching and neither did our dispatcher. The weather at YIP on the other hand, was forecasted to go in the shitter and we needed to get out of there ASAP before the fog rolled in. So Waddles, (my nickname for this particular captain which I will not go into detail about, but he deserves it) strolls into the hangar to go do god know what for 20 min. I'm too pissed to leave my seat so I wait it out in the cockpit and snap this photo. Notice you can see the A-300 and hangar in the background.


As I'm sitting there waiting for him, I'm watching the tail of the A-300 parked in front of me. Slowly the fog is rolling in and piece by piece the tail is being enveloped by the fog. By the time Waddles strolls out the the plane, the tail is gone. He heaves his rotund behind into the seat next to me and declares its time to go, the weather in SDF will improve by the time we get there. Which is exactly what I said to him 20 min ago. While he was inside doing whatever he was doing, I was keeping an eye on the visibility and watching it deteriorate rapidly. I knew that by the time we got the engines started and we got moving, the visibility would be so bad, we would not be able to depart. By the time Waddles got the engines started, I couldn't see the A-300 which was less than 100 yards away. I checked atis real quick and it was calling for a vis we could depart with, but I knew that wasn't going to last because I couldn't even see the gigantic hangar to my right. So Waddles again declares "lets go" and with a smirk and smart ass reply I say "sure thing cap'n" knowing full well we weren't going anywhere. So I call for taxi clearance and he starts moving the plane towards the taxiway. I cant even see it. I'm laughing to myself because here's this captain making an ass of himself trying to depart when the visibility is below mins. Needless to say we didn't even make it off the ramp before I reminded him we needed better visibility to depart. I think it finally dawned on him how bad it was really getting. So we turned around and parked the plane. He shuts down the engines and declares "lets go get something to eat". Had Waddles listened to me and our dispatcher, we would have been half way to SDF by now and the weather down there was just fine. I snapped this photo of Waddles waddling away from the plane after we shut it down. You can barely make him out in front of the Lear.




So now we sit and wait for a very long time for the fog to lift so we can depart. By this time I'm going to miss my free breakfast in SDF and I've been up for 24 hours. I'm pretty pissy and all I want to do is get there. I manage to take a nap in the sleeping room in the hangar and grab a bite to eat. Finally after a retard induced weather delay we blast off to our final destination. We get there, drop our freight and head to the hotel. By the end of the trip, I was exhausted.

Moral Dilemma part 2..... The Aftermath

Coming to a decision about what to do with my situation took a lot of hard thinking. It also took a few calls to some of my fellow pilots to ask for advice. After thinking about it for a few days, I decided that what the captain did needed to be reported to the chief pilots office. I didn't want to see any other pilots at my company get in hot water for something they didn't do nor had any knowledge of.
So while I was at base, I stopped by the boss's office and had a chat. I told him about what happened and he immediately started looking into it. While I was in the office he managed to track down the issue, research it and come up with a solution that made sure everything would be kosher with the world. It turns out that the technicality issue I thought we had was not a problem after all so none of the crews that flew the plane after us would come under scrutiny. Based on what the captain did that night, he was wrong in what he did. He got lucky this time because technically the plane was still legal, but at the time he made his error in judgment, he was under the impression the plane wasn't going to be legal and so was I, hence all the deep thought on what to do. The chief was glad I came in and thanked me for bringing this to his attention. I hated having to go in there and do that, but it was for the best of everyone involved. In the end it was a learning experience. Not something I care to deal with again, but I'm not naive, I know this is not the last time I'm going to have to deal with ethical questions. So, you live and you learn.

So cute.

So I got home Friday night after a 12 day rotation and while I was gone Jack learned a new trick. He's trying to say "music", but it doesn't come out quite right. As soon as he realized he could have daddy rolling on the floor laughing, he would keep saying it until mommy told him to stop. Oh, it was good to be home. I wish I could spend more time there. I'll get back to finishing my moral dilemma story later.



Sorry honey, he is too cute not to share. Love you!!!!

Moral dilemma

There comes a time in every pilots career where you see something being done that is just not quite in the realm of legality. Typically airline interview questions are loaded with the "what if" scenarios. Like "what if its Christmas eve and you notice a Nav light out? There is nobody around to fix it and the plane is full of passengers. What do you do?" I'm not an interviewer, so I don't know what they are looking for, but I think they are going to see if you will bend a reg or not. Out on the line, I'm guessing that the flight would go. In the interview you tell them you wouldn't go. That leads me to my discussion of the day. Legality, morality and ethics.

Recently I have been faced with a real life "what if scenario" from interview questions. I'm not going to go into specific detail in order to C.M.A., but I will talk about some of the decisions I've had to make. What it all boils down to is that something shady was done that I didn't agree with. It had nothing to do with the safety of flight, but it did brush up against a technicality. It is something that has been done in the past and its normally not a big deal, but this time it not only effected the current crew, but any crews that flew the plane later. What the captain did was pretty egregious. Now I had a decision to make. Do I go to the chief pilot with this information that I know concerning this captain, or do I keep my mouth shut and just let it go? On one hand, I don't want to rat on a fellow pilot. On the other, I have an obligation to my fellow pilots in the company to make sure they don't get in trouble for something that this captain did. I had to think long and hard about my next move.

As pilots we tend to be task oriented. We have a flight that needs to get from point A to point B and be damned if we aren't going to make it there. Our basic mentality is to complete the flight. It is only after we take a look at all the factors involved in making the flight that we make our "go or no go" decision. In our niche of flying there are tremendous pressures to lean towards making a go decision. Some of us "Freight Dogs" want to show what bad ass pilots we are by making it to the destinations in the worst of weather and under the harshest of conditions. We see it as a little badge of honor that we made it in while others did not. It is a reputation that freight dogs have earned through the years with many lives and aircraft lost due to "get there itis". We are also financially motivated to complete the flights. If we don't fly, we don't get paid. So when making our go or no go decision, we are sometimes pressured to flirt with technicalities in order to complete a flight.

There are many regulations that pilots must adhere to. There are some pilots that are super sticklers for the regs and follow them to the letter. There are others who take a more laid back approach to interpreting the regs. It all depends on the pilots personality. I think a pilots personality will play a role in what kind of professional ethics that person will have. So given my current dilemma, I have to question my professional ethics. What do I stand for? What is the right thing to do? Not only for myself, but for the good of my fellow pilots and the company. Do I let this slide? Do I potentially get a captain in trouble? I'll let you know what happened in my next post.

Back on the road.

After enjoying some home time for a week, I'm back on the road again. For the first time in a long time I'm back flying the Falcon again. Its nice to finally be flying it again because I prefer it over the Lear. Its easier to fly and has a roomy cockpit that I can stretch out in. I'm all cramped up in the Lear. Granted flying the big pig has its drawbacks, (loading and unloading, slow climber, not as fast as the Lear) but I still like it.

These past few days I've gotten to experience more heavy and high altitude take off's. The past few nights we have been flying into Toluca, Mexico elevation 8600ft. This is the highest elevation airport that I have ever landed at. Thankfully the runway is almost 3 miles long, because we use just about all of it to get airborne. Our first trip down there we were told our freight was going to be 1500lbs. The captain asked our handler several times what the weight was going to be and he promised 1500lbs. Dispatch also promised the same thing. With the high altitude of the airport, we were limited to a max take off weight of 26,000lbs. After we crunched numbers we figured out how much fuel we could take. I don't want to sound like a smart ass F.O. but before the captain ordered the fuel, we talked about how weight critical we were and that a lot of times the freight weight is not what is advertised. We discussed how it would be a good idea to wait till the freight showed up to put our fuel order in. Somehow he changed his mind with out talking to me and put the order in early. I know that he's the captain and he is in charge, but I thought we had an understanding that it would be a good idea to wait. Guess not. So the fuel truck arrives and fuels us up before the freight arrives. They add just enough fuel so that with our planned 1500lbs of freight we'll be right at max take off. Well in typical Mexican fashion, the freight shows up and its 1200lbs heavier than what we were told. So now we were 1200lbs overweight for take off. I didn't say anything to him, but in my head I was saying "I told you so!". We had several options available to us to help remedy the situation. We could A. leave freight behind , B. defuel or C. just load everything up and go sit somewhere on the field and burn gas till we were again at 26,000lbs. We spoke with the "powers that be" (dispatch) and they decided it would be best for us to go with option C. So we loaded up everything, lit the fires and taxied over to a remote spot at the airport and woke up the neighbors for about 10min. We set the brake and ran the engines at take off power for 10 min until we burned off the 1200lbs of extra gas. I estimated we wasted about $1000 in gas with that little stunt. Glad I'm not paying the bills.

So after wasting lots of $$, time and natural resources, it was time to depart. Only instead of going to our planned original destination, we now had to stop for fuel en route. So it was off to Leon to grab gas and then finally back into the states. Another delay in what was fast becoming a very long day. The trip into Leon was uneventful as well as our hops back into the states and to our base to swap out crews with the crew that would finish the trip due to our running out of duty time. Gotta love Mexico.