Position: 32 nautical miles southeast of Iowa City
Groundspeed: 507 mph
Altitude: 36,000 feet
There is a monster on the co-pilot's side, less than 40 miles away. We cannot see it with our eyes because we are flying through it's cold breath, but our excellent airborne radar is giving us a nice view of the beast. The Electric Jet is shaking in light to moderate turbulence as we tip-toe past the massive thunderstorm. Outside, a dark instrument meteorological blanket has covered Fi-Fi. Every few seconds, it turns a brilliant white from the storm's lightning bolts. This blanket is part of the storm being blown toward us by the winds aloft and conducts the light like a 40 mile long fiber optic tube. It is surrealistic...
The storm's core is about 18 miles in diameter and the top is about 55,000 feet, more than 10 miles. There is an icy wind coming from up there somewhere. We can hear it hissing on the nose cone and Plexiglas. My right eyeball is watching the engine gauges like a dog watching a bone. Super fine ice crystals can cause engines surges or even flame outs.
In ten minutes or so, we will be back underneath the Milky Way... And so it goes on the Line tonight.
There is a monster on the co-pilot's side, less than 40 miles away. We cannot see it with our eyes because we are flying through it's cold breath, but our excellent airborne radar is giving us a nice view of the beast. The Electric Jet is shaking in light to moderate turbulence as we tip-toe past the massive thunderstorm. Outside, a dark instrument meteorological blanket has covered Fi-Fi. Every few seconds, it turns a brilliant white from the storm's lightning bolts. This blanket is part of the storm being blown toward us by the winds aloft and conducts the light like a 40 mile long fiber optic tube. It is surrealistic...
The storm's core is about 18 miles in diameter and the top is about 55,000 feet, more than 10 miles. There is an icy wind coming from up there somewhere. We can hear it hissing on the nose cone and Plexiglas. My right eyeball is watching the engine gauges like a dog watching a bone. Super fine ice crystals can cause engines surges or even flame outs.
In ten minutes or so, we will be back underneath the Milky Way... And so it goes on the Line tonight.
17 comments:
you make it sound downright terrifying, in a romantic way
Dave- I love reading your blog. I am a crew scheduler and I love reading your Captains POV, You have a natural talent for writing. Keep writing, I'll keep reading!
If only the storms in the industry would be past in 10 minutes... I see more service "modifications" have been announced. Chin up, and keep the blog posts coming. I eagerly await each one!
Is that the engine equivalent of when you eat an icecream too fast and get a bad case of brain freeze?
In a few hours I will be flying across our Nation (Australia) on the midnight special. Melbourne is known for its ability to have several seasons in one day, so we could have an interesting winter flight.
It's wonderful to know how highly-trained and conscientious the pilots are, but when I fly I still pray, "Lord, please put someone like Dave up front!"
Happy landings, Dave!
"Flying along in a 40 mile long stroboscopic lighted fibre optic tube" - almost Science Fiction from fi fi. Another grand view you share with us, Dave.
Hi Dave, I'm surprised to hear that the tiniest of particles could flame out an engine. How is it possible that this enormous heated blender could be brought to it's knees by a small piece of ice?
Dave, noticed your tilt on the WX radar at -.5 is that automatically set or did you fiddle w/ it to check out the cell at the lower altitudes?
cargo kitty- thanks
boy on a bike- yes, the same principle.
noella- you are too kind. One of my favorite sayings is "Oh, Lord, please don't let me mess this up."
dan- excellent observation! Yes, super fine ice crystals can flame an engine out. The theory is that they accumulate on the (reading from the pilot ops manual here) relatively warm surfaces deep in the engine. It then sheds into the compressor causing stalls, surges, rotor speed decay and flame outs. There have been several infamous incidents known inside the air carrier community of flame outs around thunderstorms.
anonymous 415- manually; I like to look at slices of the storm as we go by, so yes, as you said "fiddle with it to check out the cell at the lower altitudes."
Thanks for the response on manual tilt Dave. Could you possibly expand on your technique for using the wx radar inflight i.e. what do you use for T/O in the bus (auto tilt or +7 up)? max gain at cruise? do you have a specific technique for "analyzing" a cell ie. tilt down to start to pick up ground clutter then up etc.? I fly the Herk w/ a real nice low power color radar and am always curious to hear different techniques.
I was on an AR track right in that same area last night - pretty bad icing and almost severe turbulence when in the contact position. I know what you mean!
anonymous 535- absolutley... I am an Archie Trammel student. His methods are considered the gold standard of airborne weather radar. On take-off, I use an 8 degree up tilt until airborne, then slowly start decreasing as we climb. I use calibrated gain in cruise unless I am suspicious of what is ahead, i.e., ATC tells me they are painting something and we are not geting returns at all; this calls for max gain. I always use the radar to get an idea of storm height. We use NAP (normal antenna position) during cruise flight. I'm sure you have a basic understanding of NAP.
As far as cell analyzing, I am looking for steep gradients versus winds aloft. I always try to fly upwind of a steep gradient at least 20 miles.
Oh Dave! I think you should own up that you were frying an egg on the radar screen!
Heres a good article on ice crystal flameout/stall stuff. http://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/articles/qtr_4_07/article_03_1.html Just finished reading all your blogs Dave, great writing and makes for great reading! Gabe.
Dave, I know I'm WAY off topic, but I just don't know where to post this comment, and I'm hoping you can help;
Have you had any reports of BED BUGS at the David Intercontinental Hotel in Tel Aviv, Israel?
My husband is a 777 FO Continental Airlines traveling frequently to TLV. In fact, as I'm writing this, he's boarding his commute flight in Newark headed home to Phoenix ... and he's sporting dozens of very itchy little red bites which we strongly suspect are Bed Bug bites.
When he mentioned the bites to the front desk at checkout yesterday, he was pretty much poo-poo'd, but I take the matter very seriously. As a former corporate travel manager, I had many occasions to deal with travelers returning from hotel stays (some in 5-star hotels) with Bed Bug bites. Many who brought the little biters home to their families in suitcases unknowingly.
I'd be very interested to know if you or any of your readers have had recent problems at the David. Any information you can share will be appreciated.
Lori (skyblupink04@aol.com)
Peoria, AZ
Dave,
Any opinion on Mother sending pilots for 'training' for loading extra fuel on board TATL flights?
Could the pilots collectively tell Mother to 'get bent' on this particular subject?
Monster storm! I would have had a big set of eyes too.
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