Position: Fifty feet over the runway threshold; KLAS (Sin City)
Passengers on board: 150It is day number one of a four day trip. I made it to the airport without spilling a single drop of Starbucks on my clean pilot shirt. Later, (before sunrise) walking underneath the right wing of The Electric Jet, a fuel leak dripped Jet-A on my coffee-free pilot shirt. The wife of my youth will roll her eyes back when I try to explain this one. The leak was coming from a magnetic drip stick o-ring. That is not good... Maintenance shows up in force, one chief and two techs, arriving in their golf carts. The chief is looking at the dripping kerosene and shaking his head. He says,"We can't fix it here. She's goin' to the hanger. It'll take about three hours. I'll tell ops you guys need another plane." Roger that!
When I re-enter the aircraft, the lead flight attendant backs up into the corner of the forward galley, waving her hand in front of her nose. She coughs and asks, "Whew wee...What is that smell?"
Within a few minutes, I emerge from the forward lav with a new pilot shirt on, now into a one shirt deficit for the trip. I cannot wait to tell my wife that I will have to wear a shirt for two days in a row. She will say something like, "The flight attendants will think I don't love you."
0900 hrs.
We are one hour late; Fi-Fi is fifty feet over the fence as we get ready for our first landing of the day, mine. Our replacement jet is performing marvelously. She's got new engines and can bury the vertical speed indicator needle in a climb. Very few things in life compare to new jet engines. The main gear tires settle smoothly onto the runway in a cloud of rubber smoke. It is a beautiful morning in Vegas. Three minutes later we are approaching the gate; the waiting Seattle passengers are looking intently at their ride finally arriving. A few moms are leaning over and speaking to their children, pointing at Fi-Fi as I bring her to a stop... Chocks in, fuel cut-off switches to OFF.
The engines are still spooling down; no matter, the rampers are throwing bags and the fueler is moving his stand underneath the right wing. We are, uh, were supposed to push five minutes ago.
1010 hrs.
ATC cleared us to climb to 19,000 feet at 1,000 feet above the ground. That deletes all the altitude restrictions leaving Vegas. Go, baby, go... The co-pilot is letting her climb like a home sick angel. I am looking back across the left wing tip at the airport falling away, already 7,000 feet beneath us and that is with 150 passengers, a few pocket dogs, 12 tons of kerosene, 3 tons of bags, and 2 tons of mail/cargo.
We cross the Red Rocks west of Vegas at 16,000 feet and switch over to Los Angeles ATC center. Nothing but blue sky ahead; in the flight deck, though, there is an odor of kerosene wafting from my overnight bag. The co-pilot asks, "What about wrapping it in a plastic bag?"
Yeah, that might work. Life on the Line continues...
29 comments:
I live this life (even if on the other side of the locked door and on long haul flights) and every of your post simply makes me giggle.
I love them!
Greatly entertaining, interesting, witty and... is that shirt you were wearing yesterday?
Don't you have a wife that loves you? :PPPPP
(thanks for this blog!)
I have read most of your posts now, and I keep checking back every day just to see if you have posted again...I enjoy reding about your day, it's so much more interesting than teaching! Thanks!
After years of dealing with rental GA aircraft that are primarily flown by students, the smell of fuel in the cockpit is the normal for me, not the exception. :-)
What is the difference in feel between two new jet engines and two old ones?
Hey I like that pic!
Love the blog!
I once "accidentally" dripped jet-a on the fuel ticket before delivering it to the 747 Pan Am cockpit of an "especially" nice FO. His crime? Pan Am Ops preemptively scolded me to upload EXACTLY what they requested and to avoid the couple of hundred pounds per tank extra re-fuelers often loaded. So I was extra careful to load exactly the load requested in the tanks as the fuel dispatch indicated.
Just as I was closing the last fuel tank switch, the FO apporached me and indicated to get the fuel load just right, he was flying with a Check Airman. I told him what the fuel dispatch indicated and verified the fuel distribution, and both liked that plan. I verified the exact fuel load on the fuel panel and started disconnecting the hoses and buttoning up the fuel panel when the FO quickly approaches and starts yelling I've shorted him 100 pounds of fuel. (100 pounds of fuel is a tiny fraction of the "extra" fuel I would have normally overshot the fuel dispatch in one tank).
Recognizing the FO is doing his job, on a check ride and that 100 pounds is easily within normal discrepancy between cockpit and fuel panel, I keep my cool and reconnect to add 100-200 pounds of fuel. I fuel, and climb down from the fuel panel and walk to the cockpit to verify their fuel qty is showing what I see outside, it does. Inside fuel qty for each tank is showing exactly what the fuel dispatch called for, but the totalizer is showing 100 pounds less than the total qty on the dispatch. I bring this up to the FO and ask if he wants more fuel so the Total is OK or if he accepts the tank totals being OK and totalizer being 100 pounds short. He gets very angry and begins berating me for not doing what he asked earlier. He won't shut up long enough to hear about the discrepancy between tank qty indicators and totalizer. Pan Am guys were almost always jerks, unless they were in a bad mood and then they were worse.
I leave the cockpit, climb back to the fuel panel, add 500 pounds of fuel so I don't have to talk to Mr Personalilty about shorting his fuel, and then accidentally soak half the fuel ticket in Jet A before dropping it off in the cockpit. (hope that smells real nice by the time to get back to JFK, jerk).
If Pan Am Ops had given me some guidance about the maximum amount of "fueler's cushion" I was not to exceed everythign would have been fine. Had Ops and the FO not been yelling for me to do what one wanted while ignoring what the other told me I could have at least made one of them happy.
"already 7,000 feet beneath us and that is with 150 passengers, a few pocket dogs, 12 tons of kerosene, 3 tons of bags, and 2 tons of mail/cargo".
Didn't Willie Nelson write a song with that line? No, that was "City of New Orleans".
Great photo and angle of the magnificent bird.
Dave, if you pick up one problem in a thousand walk arounds, it's been worth your diligence! You could say your pristine pilot's shirt became the 'yellow canary' of the airline.
I, too, had some good chuckles. Are "pocket dogs" what I think they are – miniature barkers? Are they allowed on board? Do they yap with the changing air pressure? Do they poop?
noella- yep, pocket dogs are little, expensive yappers. Most of the time they are in little collapsable cages underneath the seat. Others will try to sneak them on in their purses. Usually, they are drugged so they will be quiet. Yes, they do poop sometimes. Yikes!
"A lttle Jet-A goes a long long way......"
Mogg
love the blog!!!! Write MORE OFTEN!!
Pocket dogs: My wife calls them "steppable dogs". I call them yappy annoyances which double as an amusement centre for a cat.
I enjoy the posts... and circulated the link for 'Hanna" to many of my co-workers.
Only one question... it was pre-dawn. The right wing was dripping fuel. And the Captain was out there with the flashlight? You're a good man.
Dave,
Thanks for the great blog. I was reading through some archives today, and in the middle of browsing, the format of the archive dates changed. I didn't know if that was intentional, of if you even knew about it. Whereas they used to be listed by month and year, they are now listed in 1 week increments.
Thanks again for the great blog!
I once met a C-141 at the military terminal in Bahrain. As it coasted in it had jet fuel sleeting off the port and starboard wings. Not small amounts; I'm talking sheets 20 feet across flowing off each wing. All the aviation dudes just accepted that as normal and we offloaded my pax and cargo and it took off for Riyahd. I've always thought that was a strange moment.
My Jet-A Story
I used to work at a FBO in upstate NY. On my way to work one afternoon I saw a turbine powered Beaver in the pattern when I was about ten minutes from the airport. I love to watch planes, and this one was a beauty, but this time I slapped the steering wheel and said "OH SH##"! The problem with this plane is that it is a turbine conversion, so all the fuel pipes are small because they are made for petro.
When I showed up to work my boss yelled for me to clock in, and fuel the plane that just pulled in. GREAT:) As I squeezed the fuel nozzle and fuel started to flow, it was only a matter of SECONDS till the thing burped and spilled literally from head to toe. I got to finish the rest of my shift covered with the scent of Perfume du Jet-A (pronounced with a French accent).
oshawapilot - The smell of 100LL has nothing on JET-A.
Being an English teacher in a former life, what exactly did that post mean?
@ amulbunny
I don't get it either. Here's my very personal opinion (with the disclaimer that it really is, again, just my personal opinion and therefore not of great meaning):
Beneath a lot of confusing words and grammar that read a bit like someone typing under the influence of alcohol, all I can see is envy for the encouraging words that some of us readers posted and, also, worries that readers might do something risky because the post is not labeled with a big warning/disclaimer sign. Oh well. Despite the fact that these days, you can't even sell a sheet of paper without a warning sticker on it telling people that you can cut your skin with the edges of the paper, I still believe that every pilot, public or airline, should be able to decide whether her/his actions are safe. So I think no post in a blog really is a safety issue as far as other pilots' decisions. Pilots have minds and are educated to make their decisions.
As far as the envy I find between the comment's lines, I can say that I certain repeating words and images are not keeping me from enjoying the blog. They are a part of the blog and this is fine with me.
I don't even want to get to the pros and cons of books, printed newspapers and blogs. Each have their nice things about them and some blogs are great because no publisher and no other person except the author messes with the texts.
USNA 92'- what?
Dave, I've been thoroughly enjoying your posts for a few years now. Your writing reminds me of the work of Reinhold Messner--somebody who wrote about a passion of mine from a previous life. You offer the unabashed, unceremonious, mere "thing at it is." I too wish the posts came more often, but all the sweeter when they do. Thanks.
anonymous 258- thank you for the compliment. Reinhold Messner is a stud, even if he is short a few fingers.
Dave-
u write a fun & enthusiastic blog. it is also a " welcome relief" considering the dour reality & perception of the present airline industry...you're positive & passionate re: the industry!
my point was that (in simple "english") the "copyright" issue should have been ignored by you, & you shouldn't grant permission to others for reposting anything/anywhere. unfortunately, anybody who does anything stupid wants to blame "everybody" but themselves. it would be amazingly dumb to take any of your blog entries as anything more then "a look at life on the line...or in the 'cloud mines'". unfortunately somebody might...which is the reason why car owner manuals dedicate 3 pages to turn signal operations...your starbucks coffee has a disclaimer that it is "HOT"...and, although it might be a "photo shop trick" somebody sent me a picture of an airline flight deck and the pilot seats had a warning/disclaimer in red lettering that said "seats must be facing forward for takeoff and landing". Really?!?!
when the commentary topic skews off of "life on the line", for your own sake---remove those "comments"...because FL390 isn't about copyright law...and if somebody were to do something stupid as a result of what they read on FL390, blogger.com isn't going to protect you. finally, indeed other pilots write articles & blogs, but most have editorial protection and copyright protection from entities like salon.com or gannet (sic) behind them...sadly your flying solo if/when somebody does something and doesn't want to assume the blame for their stupidity, explains it to some "ambulance chaser", and the epiphany of "hey...you can blame that fl390 blog" is realized and pursued.
Take care dave.
USNA '92
Nice story, please keep on posting !
Hello Dave,
My name is Megan Peterson, and I work at an Internet map-content start-up company in Boulder, Colorado. I just perused your great blog. In general, we're trying to bring information about aeronautical locations (among other interests like RVing, art, fishing, etc.) onto the Internet (Google maps, for example) as well as onto GPS devices and in-car navigation units. Our initial focus is on the US & UK. Our site will be structured and dynamic, driven by our users who will create and edit content (like a Wikipedia page). Also, our site will be free to all users, registered or not.
I'm very interested in having you participate in our closed site review occurring in several weeks. Essentially, we'd give you login information, have you create a user profile, peruse the site (i.e. the aeronautical locations), and give us detailed feedback. Also, we will enable you to invite others who may be interested in our site.
Ideally, you enjoy and contribute to our site, and write about it on your blog. We're hoping this is something you'd be interested in.
Thanks for your time. Please feel free to email me with any questions. I look forward to your response.
Cordially,
Megan Peterson
Marketing Specialist
Yes, Jet-A and "clean pilot shirts" brings back a few laughs. Well, it's funny now, anyway.
Outstanding as always. Be safe.
I agree to all of my previous commenters: It´s just so interesting and exciting to read about the other side of the door. For some people you might have just another job, for others your job is the most exciting. One could be jealous, but I am just happy you were able to make your dream come true and admire that you share your experiences with us. Thanks!
Figured everyone would like this as it's a tribute to pilots using Shea Stadium for approach to LGA
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/sports/baseball/26pilots.html?scp=2&sq=airline&st=nyt
Great blog. I really enjoy reading how things look from inside the cockpit. It's sometimes hard to remember that there are people on those green radar returns.
Dave, truly enjoyable "blog". It is a nice read for me once a month and I appreciate your honest and insightful pontifications. I am a low level pilot (SEL/IFR 500 hours)but have 2.1 million miles on a newly merged competitor and 500,000 miles on an eskimo friendly airline. I don't fly you much, but I appreciate that you and many like you are taking such great care of me as we all slip the surely bonds.....
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