Flying at an airline can be pretty boring unless there are weather issues, mechanical issues or passenger issues. When all is right with the world, everything works like a well oiled machine. After a few trips where nothing goes wrong, can get a little repetitious. That's why when I received a call from crew scheduling the other day to do a functional flight, I was more than happy to accept. What my company calls a functional flight, is more commonly called a test flight by the rest of the world.
The plane I was to be taking for the flight had been written up by another Captain for rolling slightly to the left when the flaps were selected to 45 degrees. When the flaps were in the transition between 30 - 45 degrees, it would require 1/4 deflection in the yoke to counteract the roll. The aircraft had supposedly been fixed, twice. A few days earlier, the plane had been on its first test flight to see if the problem was corrected, it wasn't. In big bold letters in the aircraft logbook. TEST FLIGHT UNSAT Aircraft still rolls to the left.
Personally I did not see any problem doing the flight, my FO on the other hand, wasn't so thrilled. He was a low timer and had never done any flying outside of the airlines. I had to explain to him that if he was uncomfortable with the flight, don't do it. Nobody is going to force you to do the flight. Nowhere in our company training did we ever get trained as test pilots. But seeing as how he was sitting ready reserve at the airport, it was either do the flight and get done with work at 1400 or sit there till 2000. I think it was a reluctant decision on his part, but he called screw scheduling and told them he would like to do the flight.
Par for the course at my company is the right hand has no idea what the left hand is doing. This flight was a typical snafu. It took about an hour to coordinate with crew scheduling, dispatch and the mechanics before we could get a ride to the plane. We hitched a ride over to the hangar from the terminal with a couple of mechanics in their pimped out van. By pimped out I mean run down, busted windows, filthy torn seats with springs sticking out and a lovely stench that only a mechanic can appreciate. After we showed up to the aircraft, I asked where the flight release was. That was the wrong question to ask, because nobody knew. I was told it was already at the aircraft before we left the terminal. The mechanic at the hanger looked at me like I had two heads. The dispatcher swore up and down he sent it to the hangar. We went round and round about where the release was. Finally, after an hours delay, it finally showed up. I took a look at the release and quickly deduced we really did not want to fly all the way to KRST which is how we were filed. After talking with the mechanic and finding out exactly what he needed from me for the flight, I decided to make my own amendments to the flight plan. I know, I know, heaven forbid a pilot use a little common sense and judgement and make a change. So I got on the phone and talked to the controllers running the show at the airport we were at. We discussed that this was a test flight and what we needed to do. It was decided that the best course of action was to depart, head about 10 miles north of the airfield and get put in line to land again. This would give us ample time to exercise the flaps to see if they were indeed fixed.
After a full briefing with the mechanic that would be riding with us and the FO, we kicked the tires and lit the fires. Seeing as how we did not have any pax on board, it was cold out (-16C) and we didn't have a lot of fuel on board, the aircraft would finally perform like a real jet should. I told the FO that rotation and initial pitch attitude would be radically different than what he was used to. When we were cleared for take off, I poured on the coals and good ole Barbie shed her much deserved nickname if only for a few minutes. Upon hearing "Rotate" Barbie launched herself away from terra firma like she grew a pair. Nearly reminded me of my LearJet days. While I had a wide grin on my face, I took a quick look over at the FO and his eyes were as wide as saucers. Don't think he thought Princess was capable of climbing out at a sustained 20 degrees nose up, but sure nuf, she did. I pitched it for V2+10 and she clawed for altitude like two fat guys fighting over the last twinkie on Earth. 400ft agl passed quickly and I called for "Heading Mode", took the FO until we were nearly at 800ft agl to get the button pushed. Before he knew what hit him I was speeding up and calling for "Flaps Up". As we climbed out ATC vectored us north so we could run our tests. We slowed the aircraft and started putting the flaps back down. Sure enough, when we selected flaps 45, in the transition the aircraft started rolling left. We received a turn from ATC to put us on a downwind leg and repeated the test. Same result, rolled to the left. I looked over my right shoulder at the mechanic and asked if he wanted to try anything else. He couldn't think of anything else we could do so we headed back to the field. The landing was uneventful. Princess has a tendency to float down the runway when she's light, but seeing as how I was not going for any style points on the landing, lets just say I made it a "functional" landing.
After snuffing the fires, I wrote up the aircraft. Test Flight UNSAT!
