The little things.
Its the little things in life that really matter. This goes for aviation as well. Sometimes the fine print can affect the outcome of a flight. Last night was just such an occasion. It all started out with the captain and I airlinin from a broken plane to a working plane at our base in the south. We were then to take the working plane to MMCU or "Chi-wah-wah" Mexico to pick up a load of the usual auto parts and from there proceed back to civilization to clear customs inbound and then we had 2 drops, one in Jackson, MS the other in Montgomery, AL. The weather was clear in Mexico, really nasty windy in our base in the west (28kts gusting to 40 with low level wind shear and blowing dust), crappy in Jackson and marginal in MGM.
On the leg to Hawkins/Jackson/Armpit of the south, the fine print will decide the outcome of the flight. The weather forecast for one hour prior to our arrival thru 1 hour after our arrival was calling for 500ft overcast ceilings and 3 miles visibility. Based on this weather, we are legal to launch because Hawkins has an ILS which requires 1/2 mile visibility to land. Since visibility is controlling, meaning the forested visibility is what we use to decide if the flight can go or not, we launch. Here is where we run into the fine print. if you take a look at the remarks section of the ILS approach in to HKS, you'll see the little words "glide slope is unusuable when control tower not in operation, only localizer minimums allowed during this period." Somehow this had slipped my mind as we were looking at the flight plan before we launched. It wasn't until we were in cruise that I noticed the fine print and brought it to the attention of the captain. This now brings the outcome of the flight into question. HKS was our original destination, JAN (Jackson) was our alternate. The weather at both destination and alternate were the same (they are only about 8 miles apart). But the ceiling for the Localizer approach into HKS was sitting right at minimums. This means that our flight went from being a sure thing to get into HKS, to not quite as easy as we'd thought.
Its a pretty long flight from our base in the west to HKS. Its 881nm or little over 2 hours normal flight time. Thankfully for us we had a monster tailwind that pushed us along at 550kts ground speed. That's about 80kts faster than normal and is the highest cruise ground speed I've ever seen in a Falcon. I kept the power in on the descent and hit my all time fastest speed in a big pig of 591kts or 681.9 miles per hour. As we got closer to HKS we picked up the asos or automated weather. The forecast was holding true at 500 ft ceilings and 3 miles vis. So we briefed the approach as if we were going to fly the Localizer (magical beam that guides us to the centerline of the runway) approach, but if we happen to receive the glide slope (magical beam that guides us to the ground) we would follow that down to the minimum descent altitude (the closest to the ground we can go without having the runway environment in sight) and hang out there(mda) until we see the runway or hit our missed approach point. At which time we would go missed and proceed over to JAN for an ILS approach.
The approach was textbook good. I'm pretty proud that I nailed everything despite it being 4am and I was dead tired. Center gave us vectors the put us about 5 miles outside the outer marker. I feel like I cheated because I used the autopilot until we were established on the localizer. But when he cleared us for the approach, I clicked off "Otto" and hand flew the rest of the way. As we arrived over the outer marker, the glide slope indicator was functioning normally so I flew the approach as if it were a normal ILS, following both the LOC and GS needles until I hit our MDA of 500ft above ground level. At which point I leveled off and we started to look outside the cockpit for the runway. We were in a ragged cloud base, so we were in and out of the bases for a few seconds, but we saw the runway and I managed to plop it down in the first 1/3 of the runway.
Had we not read the fine print, I'm sure the outcome would have been just the same. It just would not have been legal. Technically we were not supposed to use the glide slope at all, but I wasn't about to make my job harder by not using it. Had the ceilings been a few hundred feet lower, we never would have made it in, but missed approaches are for another story.
More important little things are spending time at home. Friday is Jack's 2nd birthday. I feel bad because I missed his first birthday last year because I was in Texas going to training, but I'm going to be there this year!!!!! I took Friday off so I can be home with the little guy on his big day. Next week is vacation for me, so there wont be any posts for a while, but I'll be back.
On the leg to Hawkins/Jackson/Armpit of the south, the fine print will decide the outcome of the flight. The weather forecast for one hour prior to our arrival thru 1 hour after our arrival was calling for 500ft overcast ceilings and 3 miles visibility. Based on this weather, we are legal to launch because Hawkins has an ILS which requires 1/2 mile visibility to land. Since visibility is controlling, meaning the forested visibility is what we use to decide if the flight can go or not, we launch. Here is where we run into the fine print. if you take a look at the remarks section of the ILS approach in to HKS, you'll see the little words "glide slope is unusuable when control tower not in operation, only localizer minimums allowed during this period." Somehow this had slipped my mind as we were looking at the flight plan before we launched. It wasn't until we were in cruise that I noticed the fine print and brought it to the attention of the captain. This now brings the outcome of the flight into question. HKS was our original destination, JAN (Jackson) was our alternate. The weather at both destination and alternate were the same (they are only about 8 miles apart). But the ceiling for the Localizer approach into HKS was sitting right at minimums. This means that our flight went from being a sure thing to get into HKS, to not quite as easy as we'd thought.
Its a pretty long flight from our base in the west to HKS. Its 881nm or little over 2 hours normal flight time. Thankfully for us we had a monster tailwind that pushed us along at 550kts ground speed. That's about 80kts faster than normal and is the highest cruise ground speed I've ever seen in a Falcon. I kept the power in on the descent and hit my all time fastest speed in a big pig of 591kts or 681.9 miles per hour. As we got closer to HKS we picked up the asos or automated weather. The forecast was holding true at 500 ft ceilings and 3 miles vis. So we briefed the approach as if we were going to fly the Localizer (magical beam that guides us to the centerline of the runway) approach, but if we happen to receive the glide slope (magical beam that guides us to the ground) we would follow that down to the minimum descent altitude (the closest to the ground we can go without having the runway environment in sight) and hang out there(mda) until we see the runway or hit our missed approach point. At which time we would go missed and proceed over to JAN for an ILS approach.
The approach was textbook good. I'm pretty proud that I nailed everything despite it being 4am and I was dead tired. Center gave us vectors the put us about 5 miles outside the outer marker. I feel like I cheated because I used the autopilot until we were established on the localizer. But when he cleared us for the approach, I clicked off "Otto" and hand flew the rest of the way. As we arrived over the outer marker, the glide slope indicator was functioning normally so I flew the approach as if it were a normal ILS, following both the LOC and GS needles until I hit our MDA of 500ft above ground level. At which point I leveled off and we started to look outside the cockpit for the runway. We were in a ragged cloud base, so we were in and out of the bases for a few seconds, but we saw the runway and I managed to plop it down in the first 1/3 of the runway.
Had we not read the fine print, I'm sure the outcome would have been just the same. It just would not have been legal. Technically we were not supposed to use the glide slope at all, but I wasn't about to make my job harder by not using it. Had the ceilings been a few hundred feet lower, we never would have made it in, but missed approaches are for another story.
More important little things are spending time at home. Friday is Jack's 2nd birthday. I feel bad because I missed his first birthday last year because I was in Texas going to training, but I'm going to be there this year!!!!! I took Friday off so I can be home with the little guy on his big day. Next week is vacation for me, so there wont be any posts for a while, but I'll be back.
posted by Windsor at 12:48 AM
2 Comments:
I enjoy your blog. I'm an inactive instrument pilot, airplanes and helicopter rated. Happy Birthday to Jack.
Thanks, he had a great B-Day, made out like a bandit with all the toys and stuff he got. I was very glad to be able to be home for his big day.
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