Working for my money

The last few months have been relatively quiet on the flying front. Last month we received a new CFM (company flight manual) and checklist (that took several trips to get used to). Other than that, most of the trips I've flown have been pretty cut and dry easy trips, until recently. My last 3 day trip was the longest 3 day I've ever flown. Funny thing is, it was basically a 2 day trip because we only flew 1 leg on day 1.

Day 2 was anything but fun. We were scheduled for 4 legs and 6:33 of flying time, by the time the day was over, we blocked over 8 hours. How might we block over an hour of extra time whilst not having any atc delays or diversions? By doing 3 aborted takeoffs and 2 gate returns of course!!

The day started out a good one. We had an 11:30am show, which allowed us to sleep in and catch a few extra zzzz's. The plane was supposed to be a good one. Nothing MEL'd (broken) and no major write ups in the past week or so. Looking back through the logbooks, the plane looked like a good one. So we loaded up the passengers and headed off on our merry way to our base in the south. The taxi out was normal, all checklists were completed prior to our crossing the hold short line of the runway. There was nothing out of the ordinary that gave us any clue that we would not make it to our base in the south for a very long time.

We were cleared for take off and I proceeded to taxi the plane on to the runway. As it was the FO's leg, after lining up the aircraft with the centerline, I transferred control to him and he asked if I was ready to go. I said "yup, let's roll" and with that, he started to bring up the thrust levers and released the brakes. We started rolling down the runway as the FO continued to advance the levers, he then called for me to "set thrust", it was right about this time that things started to unravel. As I reached over to grab the thrust levers, we first heard the single chime of a master caution followed by a caution message for IDG 1 DISC. I knew we had not reached the magical 80kts yet, therefore I aborted the takeoff. I said "Abort, I have the controls!" and preceded to abort the takeoff by bringing the thrust levers to idle, applying a little bit of reverse thrust and toe brakes. We were not going more than 50-60 kts when the process was started and we had a lot of runway in front of us, so I didn't slam on the brakes. As we were slowing down, the caution message changed from IDG 1 DISC to GEN 1 Off. While I was slowing the aircraft, the FO was on the radio telling tower that we were aborting takeoff. Tower told us to take any left turn and asked what the problem was and if we were going to try again. The FO looked over at me with the deer in the headlights look, so I got on the radio and told tower there was an indication problem and we would be stopping on the taxiway to run some checklists and to stand by. (In the FO's defense, he was a newbie with only a few hundred hours of flying time. I had flown with him in august on his second trip off OE and he has improved a lot since then, but is still very green) We ran the QRH procedure for rejected take off and I made a quick PA to the passengers that we had an indication problem, we were going to contact company mechanics and I would get back to them in a few minutes. I called the company and informed our dispatcher what had happened and asked to talk to maintenance. A gruff sounding mechanic came on the line and I explained to him what happened. I made sure he knew the the IDG DISC came on before the GEN 1 Off and that I ran the QRH for GEN 1 Off and that it called for me to reset the generator. As I reset GEN 1, the caution message disappeared. He then said the plane should be fine and we could try again. (At this point, the little man in my head was telling me that this did not solve the problem and I should have listened to him.) So after a quick PA to the pax that the indication problem was solved and we were going to try again, we proceeded to head back to the end of the runway for departure.

After completing our checklists again, we took the runway for attempt number 2. This time, I had a sneaking suspicion that we were going to get the message so I was prepared for it when it came. And just as expected, right about the time the engine reached take off thrust, DING!, GEN 1 Off caution message. "Abort, I have the controls" I said. This time as we taxied off the runway, I had the FO tell tower we were returning to the gate. This time I knew the plane was broke broke and needed to have a mechanic come take a look. As we pulled in to the gate, a slightly rattled gate agent came on board and headed my way with a barrage of questions. We decided the best course of action would be to have the pax deplane because the fix was not going to be a quick one. It was at this point that I pulled out the MEL book and took a close look at the procedures for MEL'ing the Generator and the IDG. Turns out that there were 2 separate MEL procedures. One for the generator and one for the IDG. As the mechanic finally made his way to the plane, I explained to him was the problem was. I explicitly told him we had the IDG caution message first, then the GEN 1 off. He took a look at the books, the plane and called the company mechanics on the phone. When he came back to the cockpit, he informed me that the company mechanics thought it was a generator problem and he was going to do the procedure to MEL just the generator. Those guys are the experts, so I went along with what they were telling me even though the little man in my head was telling me this wasn't going to fix the problem. The mechanic had a 50/50 shot at picking the correct MEL to use and I was guessing the opposite of what he was picking.

So the mechanic did his thing, and we loaded up the passengers and pro ceded to gather the mountain of paperwork that we needed to get back out again. Our flight plan with ATC had expired, so we needed to get our dispatcher to send us a new release as well as re-file our flight plan. After checking the paperwork and making sure that we were going to be in compliance with all the requirements of the MEL, we headed back out the the runway for attempt number 3 at leaving.

All I really need to say about aborted take off number 3 is that is was almost routine at this point. I'm sure if anyone ever listened to the CVR for the 3rd abort, they would have heard some "choice" words aimed at the airplane that would have looked a lot like this on a NTSB transcript $%&#!! #### plane!! Piece of @#$%*. &&##$$@!!! Needless to say, I was pissed. I can only imagine what the 50 people sitting behind me were thinking. As we pulled into the gate, again, I could see the mechanic standing on the jetbridge. I really wanted to say, I told you so, but kept my mouth shut. As he came on board the first words out of his mouth was "I supposed I should have deferred the IDG huh?" That statement pretty much summed up my thoughts at the moment.

So finally, after 3 aborted takeoffs, 2 gate returns and several hours behind schedule, we finally lifted off the runway and continued on our trip.

Odd behavior

One of the nice things about being based in a place that I like is that Erin and Jack can come visit when I'm working. Thanks to an old rugby teammate, I have a sweet deal worked out for a crash pad and there is plenty of room for the whole family to come for a visit. It makes being gone for 5 days at a time much more tolerable. We have done several of these "weekends" since being based here and they are fun for all. It was on the return trip that I noticed the reason for this blog.

Erin and Jack had to catch a 5:00 flight back home. I had to fly that night, so I brought them to the airport and hung out with them until they had to get on the plane. Turns out that the 5:00 flight was delayed for an hour, so to kill the time with our restless 3 year old, we went to the playground that is on the concourse. This particular playground has a large mock up of an airplane. It has stairs that lead up to a cockpit area that the kids can play in, a cargo area and stubby wings with little engines on them. Jack loves the thing. It keeps his active little mind going crazy with all sorts of fantasy's. What is remarkable about this, it that he normally pretends to be daddy and fly the plane. He likes to start the engines, pretend to take off, play ATC, fly the plane and have little kid fun. Thats what I'd expect from normal kids playing. What Erin pointed out to me while we were watching Jack play was anything but normal.

While Jack was up in the "atc" tower, Erin leaned over and asked if I was paying attention to several of the other kids at the playground. Normally I'm pretty oblivious to things so it was not out of the norm to have her point something out. What I noticed was confusing, disturbing and odd. There were 2 brothers, probably about 8 and 5 that were pretending to blow up the airplane and parachute out. As I watched these kids play, numerous bells and whistles were going off in my head. In this day and age, you would think that parents would tell their kids that pretending to blow up airplanes while you are in an airport is a bad thing. I for sure would have had words with Jack if I had saw him behaving that way. I know kids will be kids, but that sort of behavior is not something that they come up with on their own. They had to learn it from somewhere.

I found myself in a moral dilemma. Here I am, in full uniform, watching some grossly inappropriate behavior by some little kids. Do I say something to their parents? Do I possibly say something to the authorities? What was making this decision especially difficult was the fact that these kids were of middle eastern descent. Would I have been having these thoughts if they were white? Are these just kids being kids or is there something more sinister going on here? In the end, I did nothing. But I'm sure I wouldn't be the only person to raise an eyebrow at some kids pretending to blow up a plane in an airport.