Pitot-Static Problems

A little fun this morning. As it always seems to, the weather couldn't resist turning ugly our last night. We took off from Indy into some mild thunderstorms. Since the leg to Columbus is so short, we only climbed to 15,000', which will not normally get an airplane on top of any weather. Approaching level off, my pitot-static instruments all went wacko. They're called pitot-static b/c they rely on dynamic pressure info from the pitot tubes (those pointy looking probes near the nose) and/or static pressure info from the static ports, to determine, among other things, airspeed, altitude and rate of climb/descent. When any of these sensors get clogged up, it's garbage in, garbage out time for the airplane's instruments. In most cases, the likely cause is icing; and since we were in the clouds, this was my assumption (although dirt dauber nests run a close second in causality). The ports are heated, and the heaters have idiot lights to let the pilots know if they're offline, but we had no such indications. I handed off control of the airplane to my FO, as his instruments, which have a different source, were fine. I switched my air data computer (ADC) to join the FO on the right side and things returned to normal. A little excitement at 5:00 in the morning never hurt anyone, right? Of course, you have to ask, what if the FO's side iced up as well? Well, it's emergency time and let's get out of the clouds and see if we can thaw out the ice. I had this happen in the E-2 one time, and it's quite a challenge b/c you have no idea how fast you're going or what your altitude is. Fortunately, we have a table of ballpark figures for airspeed based on weight and power settings, and the inertial reference units (IRU's) will still provide altitude info. The maintenance sign-off indicated a bad ADC, so case closed.

Columbus

Scioto River

Columbus Commons

This month, my flying will be divided between Columbus-Indy and Milwaukee-Indy trips. I got in to Columbus late last night and woke up this morning to a beautiful spring day. It is my first time here, so I enjoyed walking around Columbus Commons, beside the Scioto River, and all through the Capitol district. It was nice to be deadheading on American again after the nightmare last month of United (every flight was late, and one was outright cancelled).

Famous Flyers

I recently found this book at our cabin, which had been rescued from my family's North Carolina cabin after it was sold years ago. I never realized it was actually my father's; a gift to him when he was quite young, as the inscription inside says. It's a collection of stories about the pioneering pilots of that era (copyright 1932). I enjoyed very much reading it during spring break leisure time, and again felt a connection to dreams he might have had as a boy growing up at the dawn of aviation.

Fun in Portlandia East

Runway 29 on the Harbor Visual approach

See the lighthouse?

parked for the weekend

This has been a very challenging week flying between Portland, Maine and Memphis. It started with a deadhead on United Sunday night complete with two old Chinese ladies playing Asian disco music on a portable stereo so loud the passengers had to ask the flight attendant to have them shut it off. We flew a relatively uneventful leg from Portland to Memphis Monday night, actually getting there in time for a sleep room. After a quick nap, I woke up to learn we had an FAA flight inspector on our jumpseat back to Portland, my first as a Captain. He was somewhat grumpy, so the flight was less than enjoyable. Stuff always goes wrong when a check airman or FAA inspector is onboard, and this flight was no exception. Our APU refused to provide air pressure for engine starts, and the two mechanics at that gate were brand new (read: clueless). Their clumsy attempts at troubleshooting did not impress the Inspector, and the paperwork to defer the problem was less than satisfactory. We finally left over an hour late, and lost our status as a "time critical" flight. We were typically short on gas from the start, and all these delays caused me to be about two minutes from having to taxi back to the ramp for more gas when we took the runway for takeoff. The Inspector spent the next day bringing joy to the ramp at Portland with an audit. Meanwhile, we were diverted into Fort Wayne the next evening on the way to Memphis, cutting very short our turn time, so no nap. We were late again leaving Memphis thanks to a window heat problem with the same mechanics trying to figure out what to do. By the time we got back to Portland, I was drooling on myself. The only cool thing to happen was getting to do the Harbor Visual approach to runway 29 b/c the sun was up. Fun! Last night, the Inspector rode back to Memphis with us, but was somewhat more jocular. My FO did a nice job with nasty crosswinds on the Memphis landing. When we came back to Portland this morning, our airplane's autothrottles were not working, making the approach a handful. Who knows what fun awaits us tonight to close out the week!

Late Late Late

I picked up a 2 day makeup trip with a deadhead to Indy Sunday night, one live leg to Knoxville Monday night, then deadhead home; easy trip, right? This is just to take the airplane (tail #922) to a "C" (maintenance) check. I flew this airplane most of last week, and when the mechanics on the push crew mentioned it only had one flight left before it needed to be in Knoxville, I figured there might be a trip in open time. The weather looked fine everywhere Sunday, so I took the latest flight I could get out of ABQ to spend a little more time at home. I normally give myself plenty of time for unexpected delays getting to the airport, but I did the math wrong (yes I'm getting old) and ended up leaving home much later than usual. Still, I would make it to the airport with 45 minutes to go before departure. Then I remembered the truck needed gas...oh well just have to push it, no time to stop. Coming into to town on I-40, the warning signs said the interstate was CLOSED at the second exit in the city limits. Tried to get off early to take an alternate route, but so did all the semi's. Finally broke free of the traffic and hit EVERY SINGLE RED LIGHT along the surface streets to the airport. Parked in short term parking with the fuel light flashing ominously and ran with my bags to the American ticket counter. No chance to check bags: time to get out the ziplock bag for the liquids. Hurried through security and got to the gate at 15 minutes before push and was the last one on. No more overhead space: had to gate check the bag through to Indy with a hand-written claim check (sure I would never see it again). Phew! Man I hate being late. I just hope there's enough gas in the truck to get me to a gas station Tuesday morning.

Emergency, Emergency!

MD-10 and entourage of no less than seven fire trucks

757 ON THE ROLL!!!

Eventful night in Indy last night. Just as we were ready to push, and MD-10 had to come back after takeoff with indications of a possible #2 engine fire. This shut down the entire right side of the airport complex and added 30 minutes to our day. The numerous fire trucks followed the emergency airplane all the way back to our ramp...like a Christmas parade. Also, we had some nasty heavy wet snow to deal with in Milwaukee. Always on the last work day of the week. On the positive side, I did have time to snap a picture of a 757 taking off right in front of us.

Fedex 767 Cockpit

Here's the new Fedex 767 cockpit with 15" displays by Collins based on 787 technology. Awesome!

...and the latest update (July 2012), including the HUD

Boise

I deadheaded on Southwest to Boise last night. Both flights were packed, as usual. We stay at a boutique hotel in downtown Boise that is very nice. The hotel staff recommended Goldy's for breakfast today so I walked over this morning. There was a 15 minute wait, even at 10:00, so I sat in the sun and read the paper. My meal was excellent, and I felt the need to walk off some of the calories. One of the places I walked by had four street-light looking things that were motion activated percussion music players. The video is me walking by them. Sorry it's sideways...none of the video rotator programs do the audio justice! Make sure you turn up the volume.
Tonight, I fly to Casper and then Memphis, turning to Flint Michigan. WooHoo!

Adventures in Deadheading

I just completed a week of flying Milwaukee to Indy and back. No snow in Milwaukee, which was strange compared to last year this time. In early February, both airports closed and I got to go home last year. We had a few flurries, and one deicing incident in Indy this week, but nothing horrific. The deadheads were the only newsworthy story.
This trip starts with a Monday morning deadhead to Milwaukee, which I hate. I much prefer to get there Sunday night and try to get a good night's sleep before beginning a week of flying on Monday night. No such luck with this one. I got up very early at home (2:45 am) to catch the 6:00 American flight through DFW. While in the bathroom, my cellphone rang and the polite lady from American wanted to know if I'd be willing to take a later flight through Chicago instead b/c the DFW-MKE leg was oversold. Remember, I have to check in by 8 hours prior to showtime in Milwaukee (around 9:30 pm), but there's a loophole. If you're within 100 miles of the layover city, you can legally check in. The company figures you can, in the worst case, rent a car and be there by showtime if you have 8 hours and are within 100 miles. So, even though this deadhead arrived in Milwaukee later, I could actually check in sooner when we landed in Chicago, and I waited for my connection. A quick check of the weather confirmed no delays, so I took the offered first class upgrade and things went very smoothly. I still got to the airport in ABQ in time to get back on the original flight, in case some unforeseen problem arose, which meant an extra hour of drool time wasted in an airport.
Then, last night, I woke from my hub turn nap in Indy ready to fly the last live leg back to MKE to find that they had "changed gauge" on the flight (meaning our jet was too small for the amount of freight they needed to move so they stuck an Airbus on it), and we were to go to the hotel in Indy and then deadhead home from there. Flurry of activity...get new deadhead ticket, cancel new company ticket which would take me to Memphis instead of ABQ, cancel old deadhead ticket from MKE to ABQ, cancel pre-reserved shuttle from MKE hotel to passenger terminal. Wait as sec, I made that reservation for the wrong day and time anyway! It was a good thing, I guess, that things went the way they did, b/c otherwise I'd be standing there in the MKE hotel's lobby wondering where my ride to the airport was to go home. By the time my sleep-starved brain had figured it out, I might have missed my flight home!
So now I'm cooling my heels at DFW on a 3 hour layover b/c the connections were not good from Indy. Man I hate commuting!!! Boise next week.

Fedex 757 First Flight Video

I added this youtube video to the permanent links list:  http://youtu.be/Hv2bFBdVlI8

Line Check Complete

I'm good for another year after my double-team line check to Greenville. Actually, the guys were great to fly with and the checkride went very well. Decided to bail out on the weekend layover and come home: live to fight another day.

CMV-1 Complete

Made it though my CMV-1 last night, although the sim was acting up and at one time it looked like we would not be able to complete the event. That would have sucked b/c it would have meant another day in Memphis, probably next month. Last night's event was a dusting off of old emergency procedures, and an intro to a new type of approach we're going to be doing using GPS with a tighter tolerance (called RNAV (RNP). Tonight, I have my line check to Greenville with a check airman acting as my FO while he watches a new check airman check me. What fun!

Global War on Error #3

Ground school today, my third year with Noel as instructor. I gave him the link to this blog in hopes he might be able to glean some more info on the life of a Fedex pilot. He actually does a very good job of relating to us as a group and understanding our unique concerns, but more info never hurts, right? A post of particular note might be the Confessional back in October, b/c I applied some of the concepts Noel is teaching. Tomorrow night is my CMV-1 sim, then a day off in Memphis, then my line check to Greenville. Stay tuned!

Jumpseat to Memphis for Training

Michelle got home at 8 pm last night from Seattle and California, and I had to get up at 2:30 am this morning. Since Jan 2, these 6 hours are the sum total of the time we've gotten to spend together because of her schedule and mine. I won't be home again for another 9 days. Sometimes, retirement sure looks good. I picked up breakfast burritos for the crew and my mechanic friend at Fedex Mike this morning, and then rode the jumpseat to El Paso. We loaded some freight and another jumper and got to Memphis at around 11:00. It took quite awhile for me to locate the trusty Golf in the parking lot, but it fired right up and got me to the hotel which will be my base of operations for the next 4 days. Time to study!

Low Vis Takeoff

Here's what 1400 RVR (Runway Visual Range) looked like for our takeoff from Greenville last night. Since it was below 1600 RVR, I had to make the takeoff instead of the FO. The little red sign says "22" for the hold short line at runway 22. The blue lights are taxiways and the white lights are the runway.

Union MEC Vote is in

The Fedex ALPA MEC has decided to continue our present contract for one more year instead of reentering section 6 negotiations. This means a 3% pay raise in March and continued interim discussions with the company on open contract items for 2013. So, we can all get back to work now for another year without the inevitable conflict that surrounds active negotiations.

Quantarids

We were treated to a nice meteor shower on the flight from Memphis to Greenville this morning. The Quantarids only appear in a two hour window once a year. Here's more info: http://www.space.com/14136-photos-2012-quadrantid-meteor-shower-images.html

Lost Bag

The offending bag

This happens about once every 5 years or so. I'm one of those pilots who hates to deadhead in uniform and also hates to try to carry on my bag, so I risk my uniform not showing up every time I deadhead. Last night I got into Greenville, SC at midnight and there was no bag for me at baggage claim. The next American flight was not until this afternoon. I finally got the bag at 5:00 pm, so it wasn't even close to my showtime of 9:00 pm, but it did severely limit my day.

Windshear

A Challenging night last night. One of our three IRUs (Inertial Reference Unit) was bad, so we were restricted from CAT 3 approaches, which are the most demanding of the navigation system. That was not a huge deal since the visibility was good going in to Ontario. The other failure this produces, if it's the left IRU (it was) is that the windshear warning system does not work. We were therefore restricted from going into areas of actual or forecast windshear. Now LLWS (Low Level Windshear) warnings are produced all the time, especially near mountainous areas. Usually they're just that: a warning to be vigilant, but we were legally prohibited from landing anywhere with windshear warnings. Ontario showed a forecast with windshear after we got airborne from Fort Worth. Fortunately we were late enough that the forecast expired and we landed as scheduled. Otherwise, we would have had a dicey little divert to LAX or Vegas with very little fuel to play with since no alternate was planned for in our release. Ho ho ho.

Cross-Country

I made a few errors on today's flight across the country (Ontario to Indianapolis), but my trusy seeing-eye FO pointed them out to me before I did anything really stupid. After more than 4 weeks off, it was actually remarkable I didn't forget more. Took a couple of pictures flying over Taos: how nice to be aloft during daylight hours! Lots of snow and more on the way.