Murphy's Law
Murphy's Law : If something can go wrong, it will. That was the case the other day on our last leg of the day. And of course that happens to be the last leg of the 4 day trip and the most crucial leg of the day because it is the one that will make or break my ability to make my commute home. The most underblocked flights you will ever find are the one's that are the last flight of the crew's trip. This would have been the case for this trip, but due to severe incompetence on the part of our out station personnel, we ended up being late.
Earlier in the day we had been delayed for about an hour waiting on an inbound aircraft. This compressed the rest of the day and caused the rest of our flights to turn into quick turns. As a crew we did the best we could to make the turns go as quick as possible. This included helping the flight attendant clean the cabin between flights and flying as quickly and safely as possible. By the time we got to our last turn, we had made up for the hour delay and then some. We were enroute to our last out station and were discussing our options for getting back to DTW early. Our scheduled arrival back into DTW was going to leave me about 30 min to catch my flight. Thats not a lot of time, but its managable if I really hustle. So in order to hedge my bets, while enroute to our last out station, we got approval from dispatch to leave 10 minutes early if all pax were at the gate and ready to go. We called the station when we were in-range and let them know, 1. we were going to be early and 2. we would like to leave 10 early if possible.
You would think with enough heads up and prior planning, the station would be prepared. Nothing could be farther from the truth. When we arrived, we parked at the gate right away. We were early, so the gate had plenty of time to off load the pax and bags and load everything back up. An efficient out station can get us turned in less than 20 min. Not the case this day. We spent 55 minutes blocked in at the gate. Not only did we arrive early, but we left late!!!! Things got so bungled, we ended up blocking out 5 minutes late. When stuff like that happens, it makes you want to pull your hair out and scream at the world, but that would accomplish nothing. Especially when theres more to come.
Murphy's Law not only applied to the turn at the out station, but for the rest of the flight. The next delay came in the form of de-icing. There was some light snow falling and its always better to de-ice than to not, so we headed over to the de-ice pad for a spraying. Thanks to an error by the de-icing crew, they needed to re-spray an area of the aircraft they missed on the first pass and added an additional 5 min to our already delayed flight and my ever evaporating chances of getting home. The next delay came from ATC. I was planning on flying fast on our way back to base, but ATC had other ideas. As soon as I leveled off at our cruising altitude and inched the airspeed up to 320kts, we got the bad news from the controller that he need us to slow to 250kts for flow control into base. Great. The next delay came from the company. When we sent in our in-range message, we found out our gate was C-36, the most distant gate we have in terms of distance from our ops/bag room and from the gate my flight was leaving out of, A-3. The next kink in the chain came from ATC again. We had planned on landing on the runway that was close to the gate. It was normal for us to land on this runway when approaching from the south west, yet this night, ATC had other plans. Instead of landing on the runway close to the gate, they wanted us to land on the farthest runway possible. Not only was it far on the ground, but we now had to fly over the airport, get in the pattern for the approach on the far side of the field and get dumped in on a 25 mile final. Arrrgh. As I'm sitting there looking at our arrival time on the FMS, every change we make to the flight plan eats away at my ability to make my flight home.
So, to complete the flight of delays, it would only be fitting that we have to sit and wait for rampers at the gate. We pull up to the gate....and wait....and wait....and wait. 9 minutes we waited for rampers to come park the plane. Wonderful. Needless to say by the time the pax got off loaded, I did my walk around, dropped my flight bag in ops and headed to the gate, the flight was loooong gone. Oh well, these thing happen.
Earlier in the day we had been delayed for about an hour waiting on an inbound aircraft. This compressed the rest of the day and caused the rest of our flights to turn into quick turns. As a crew we did the best we could to make the turns go as quick as possible. This included helping the flight attendant clean the cabin between flights and flying as quickly and safely as possible. By the time we got to our last turn, we had made up for the hour delay and then some. We were enroute to our last out station and were discussing our options for getting back to DTW early. Our scheduled arrival back into DTW was going to leave me about 30 min to catch my flight. Thats not a lot of time, but its managable if I really hustle. So in order to hedge my bets, while enroute to our last out station, we got approval from dispatch to leave 10 minutes early if all pax were at the gate and ready to go. We called the station when we were in-range and let them know, 1. we were going to be early and 2. we would like to leave 10 early if possible.
You would think with enough heads up and prior planning, the station would be prepared. Nothing could be farther from the truth. When we arrived, we parked at the gate right away. We were early, so the gate had plenty of time to off load the pax and bags and load everything back up. An efficient out station can get us turned in less than 20 min. Not the case this day. We spent 55 minutes blocked in at the gate. Not only did we arrive early, but we left late!!!! Things got so bungled, we ended up blocking out 5 minutes late. When stuff like that happens, it makes you want to pull your hair out and scream at the world, but that would accomplish nothing. Especially when theres more to come.
Murphy's Law not only applied to the turn at the out station, but for the rest of the flight. The next delay came in the form of de-icing. There was some light snow falling and its always better to de-ice than to not, so we headed over to the de-ice pad for a spraying. Thanks to an error by the de-icing crew, they needed to re-spray an area of the aircraft they missed on the first pass and added an additional 5 min to our already delayed flight and my ever evaporating chances of getting home. The next delay came from ATC. I was planning on flying fast on our way back to base, but ATC had other ideas. As soon as I leveled off at our cruising altitude and inched the airspeed up to 320kts, we got the bad news from the controller that he need us to slow to 250kts for flow control into base. Great. The next delay came from the company. When we sent in our in-range message, we found out our gate was C-36, the most distant gate we have in terms of distance from our ops/bag room and from the gate my flight was leaving out of, A-3. The next kink in the chain came from ATC again. We had planned on landing on the runway that was close to the gate. It was normal for us to land on this runway when approaching from the south west, yet this night, ATC had other plans. Instead of landing on the runway close to the gate, they wanted us to land on the farthest runway possible. Not only was it far on the ground, but we now had to fly over the airport, get in the pattern for the approach on the far side of the field and get dumped in on a 25 mile final. Arrrgh. As I'm sitting there looking at our arrival time on the FMS, every change we make to the flight plan eats away at my ability to make my flight home.
So, to complete the flight of delays, it would only be fitting that we have to sit and wait for rampers at the gate. We pull up to the gate....and wait....and wait....and wait. 9 minutes we waited for rampers to come park the plane. Wonderful. Needless to say by the time the pax got off loaded, I did my walk around, dropped my flight bag in ops and headed to the gate, the flight was loooong gone. Oh well, these thing happen.
posted by Windsor at 9:07 AM
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