The Wings Stayed On!: April 2010

Apr 19, 2010

Random Touch and Goes at Zurich...

An aquaintance sent photos today and this note about his VFR flight at Zurich airport where all the jet-liner traffic is grounded. Making the best of a bad situation:

The Zürich Airport LSZH is closed for IFR traffic due to the vulcan ashes from Iceland.

We have now unlimited operation for VFR General Aviation traffic on the international airport, not even landing tax!

I made 3 touch and go on 3 different long runways.

Apr 8, 2010

Creative Flight?

"Aviation isn't a profession where you're supposed to be creative."

This statement in a recent conversation got me thinking. Largely I agree except when we pilots have a chance to creatively solve problems. Which is why I enjoy flying into smaller centers rather than the big cities. When the traffic volume is saturated like it is all the time at New York, Chicago, Toronto, etc.. there's little room for pilot creativity. Either the system has been configured to handle the situation and the controllers apply it as required - or not. There is little for the pilot to do except ensure the proper amount of fuel is on hand to deal with the new plan.

So when thunderstorms are sweeping across Chicago from the west, it's not unusual for traffic from Toronto and Montreal to be re-routed north around a line of storms then south to approach the airport.

But at a smaller center, the pilot has room to create his or her own solution.

Case in point: Toronto to Winnipeg - arriving in the afternoon of a scorching day just as a line of severe thunderstorms are roaring towards the city from the west. The airport will be completely engulfed at our arrival.

We remain at cruising altitude, pick our way across the top of the line to the west side, then enter a holding pattern and spiral down the back side. By the time we reach ten thousand feet the worst of the storms have swept over the airport and we land straight in from the northwest. It's a smooth ride all the way and we use much less fuel compared to deviating around the storms.

Getting a little creative sometimes adds a deeper sense of job satisfaction.

What"s this about?

An eclectic series of articles based on my experiences as a commercial pilot. Sometimes behind-the-scenes tales; sometimes more technical descriptions of Jet Transport Aircraft - and the people who fly them. While the stories are based upon actual experiences and real people, I use composite characters and made-up names*. If they seem familiar, they are. They're the people you live and work with every day. The world is full of interesting people - if we only knew!

The title of this blog comes from my first observation after test-flying my home-built aircraft: "The wings stayed on!" And later I realized that life is often like that. We are continually faced with new adventures. And though we study and train and prepare as much as we can, finally we have to launch and put all this preparation to the test. And unexpected things still happen. As the bumper sticker says, Life Happens. And we deal with it - hopefully with a good dose of humour and hope. And if the "wings stayed on!" well at least that's the main thing. And everything else is just details.

My stories are usually drawn from looking back over my career, which thankfully has been pretty dull. Trust me. When flying a commercial airliner, boring is good. You wouldn't like exciting... So don't expect many stories about engines exploding, and wheels falling off, and cabins catching fire. Though that kind of stuff goes on, thankfully, it hasn't been my experience. My stories are the more mundane things, the little things that inhabit real life.

And while mundane is the reality of modern airline flying, still it's an amazing feat, a dramatic and dynamic accomplishment that we shouldn't take for granted. Perhaps day-in, day-out our world-wide airline industry represents our civilizations' most complex achievement. And though it has become mundane we should never forget that the real drama lies in the times when these bigger disasters are too close for comfort. The times when some small factors could produce seriously different outcomes.

Sometimes all the calm around you is an illusion -- a little like the movie Jurassic Park where the investors are touring the not-quite-ready-for-opening facility, while the technicians thrash away at command central, trying to keep everything together - trying to keep up the facade that it's all under control. But if it is, it's not by much.

Oh yeah, one more thing. Like everyone in the airline industry who's blogging, I'm hoping to write a book, and I'm practicing on you folks. I'm always trying to hone my story-telling skills so if you have any comments please leave them. Also, please respect the copyright thing.

Thanks.

Aluwings