Position: Over KMCI (Kansas City)Altitude: 39,000 feet
Groundspeed: 632 mph (550 kts)
Destination: CYYZ (Toronto)
One of my favorite quips: We are smokin' baby... One hundred knots of high altitude wind on the tail. Major cool stuff! We started our day in Canada (CYEG-Edmonton) and we are going to end our day in Canada... As one of my favorite bloggers (Anne) occasionally says, " How cool is that?"
Two of my flight attendants bid Canada exclusively because they believe Canadians are a friendly bunch and have manners. There may be something to that....
ATC has been routing traffic thru a hole over Kansas City. We are one of those flights. The storms are huge, some punching through the tropopause. A few minutes ago I told the flight attendants to batten the hatches for turbulence ahead. Before we crossed the line, I called the lead FA and asked her if everyone was strapped in tight and carts stowed. The gap is 50 miles across and should be nothing worse than light bumps.
As we cross the convective line, the sun is setting in our six o'clock. The monoliths are casting shadows that extend eastward into eternity. What a sight! Quick, grab the flight bag camera... Point and shoot before it is gone and hope it turns out. That is how it goes with 99% of my in-flight photos. My little Nikon Coolpix 8700 rarely fails to deliver. It has withstood the rigors of the Line for six years.
Fi-Fi is shaking in light turbulence as we fly downwind of the storms. I can see the left winglet wiggling in the bumps. Smooth air should greet us in another 100 miles.
Number one is burning a lot more fuel than number two and is 50 degrees hotter. It is tired and will be re-engined soon. Where has it been and what has it seen? I would like to know. When the fuel tank imbalance reaches 1,000 lbs., either the co-pilot or myself will open the crossfeed valve, switch appropriate fuel pumps OFF and feed the engines from one wing tank only.
This is day three of a four day... The Toronto hotel is a Hilton. They have the best beds in the system. Eight hundred miles before we sleep....
Life on the Line continues....
12 comments:
Hi, Dave! I've been enjoying your blog immensely after discovering it several weeks ago, and like many others, have gone back and read all of your posts from the beginning. I'm a "self-furloughed" CFII in the Twin Cities, thanks to having a new daughter and three stepsons.
I've noticed on several occasions you've mentioned the need to cross-feed fuel to correct for the imbalance caused by a high-time engine. Do airlines make the effort to put similar engines (i.e., zero-time or overhauled engines) on an airframe, or is it not really that big a deal to have one malcontent hanging out there?
Keep up the good work! I was hoping for a career like yours, but at age 42 and with four kids running around, family trumps flying right now. I'll have to live vicariously through you and others! Keep the dirty side down!
Best regards,
Rich (minnflyer)
Dave, nice to see another post. It seems it has been a long time, but maybe that's because I check at least once daily! Always an interesting read. I have a few hours left to finish up my private pilot. ATP was an old dream before medical school, and I enjoy living it with you. I, too, am worried about the industry. I was flying US Air last weekend and they said get some pretzels now, as they are not going to offer them anymore. What is it coming to, when an airline can't give away a free dime size bag of pretzels? They also only had 4 sandwiches for the whole flight!
Dave, I'm wondering if you can explain how the little winglets improve fuel efficiency? Curious...
I love your comment on the "engine's life"..where has it been and what has it seen. I often think that when I see the silver birds flying over head (as I've mentioned I live on final approach and sometimes departure - PHL). Who is on that plane, where are they going, where have they come from. Still amazing that you can be in Canada in the morning, perhaps Florida mid day and back to Canada to rest your weary head that same evening.
Orville and Wilbur be praised.
welcome to toronto! :)
hope you enjoy your stay...
love your blog, i always wanted to be a pilot but opted to be a stay at home mom instead. reading your blog keeps me in touch with the flying world... thanks!
I also welcome you to Toronto.. I fly in and out of Pearson many times a year on business/vacation. We stayed at the Hilton airport on our wedding night :) it is lovely and a quick shuttle bus ride.
What is a winglet? Can I see them from the cabin?
Welcome to my neck of the woods :) Hope you got in last night before things got hairy.
The monoliths you are voyaging through look monumental!
Thanks once more fore carrying us along.
minnflyer- generally speaking, the operating parameters for #1 & #2 are very close until one of them reaches the end of it's service life, then the fuel burn and temps diverge from the good engine. That engine will be changed very soon after that happens. By the way, thanks for the compliments.
doctor s- the wing produces a little tornadoe at the tip, aka, a vortice. This vortice creates drag which requires more fuel to overcome. A winglet relieves some of that drag by making the vortice less severe.
As far as the bag of pretzels; I expect the airline business to basically collapse within the next two years from the cost of fuel and the blow back of internet pricing. After that, either the government will step in and provide some sort of Soviet Aeroflot type service, or the new airline business model will be only for the wealthy, as in $2.00 or more per mile.
anoymous 845- a winglet helps the tip of the wing slice through the air mass with less drag. They look like a shark fin (sort of) on the wing tip. Yes, you can see them from the cabin.
Dave: interesting idea. I wonder why they only were installed recently, whether because this phenomenon was unknown (unlikely) or because they didn't care that much about fuel. Have you had a chance to check out my blog? mdoncall.blogspot.com
Airlines Dip Into Hot Water to Save Fuel
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121313631087762243.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace
As airlines search for new ways to combat rising fuel costs, a growing number are finding that a nice hot bath can save millions of dollars.
In recent months, 50 airlines have hired United Technologies Corp.'s Pratt & Whitney unit to wash their engines with a new machine that can deep clean while simultaneously collecting and purifying the hazardous runoff.
Pratt says scouring caked-on grime from the inside of an engine can reduce fuel consumption by roughly 1.2%. That may not sound like much, but it adds up quickly. Pratt contends that if every airline in the world washed its engines, the industry could save about $1 billion a year in fuel costs and cut carbon-dioxide emissions by 3.2 billion pounds. Clean engines also run cooler, allowing airlines to avoid costly overhauls for as long as 18 additional months. Washing takes about 90 minutes and uses power from the plane's auxiliary-power unit and the wash truck. Washing pays for itself in a matter of weeks.
...I wonder if all that washing will catch up.
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