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.
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.
posted by Windsor at 7:15 PM
1 Comments:
Very fasinating entry. I worry that something like this might get you in trouble with your employer, hopefully that won't happen.
Keep up the good work.
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