BLEED VALVE FAILURE: I GET THE DAY OFF

All was going according to plan for our trip to HOG when, after consulting the aircraft log book, we noticed our maintenance people did not sign off a bleed valve failure snag that the previous inbound crew wrote up. Let me explain what a bleed valve is first of all. Some compressed air is "bled" off the compressor section of our engines and is used to pressurize the aircraft, anti-ice our engine inlets as well as other uses. We then consulted our MEL (Minimum Equipment List which let's us know if we can safely complete a flight with a particular piece of equipment broken our a system which may not be working properly). Since we need BOTH valves to be functioning if flying in KNOWN icing conditions (according to what the MEL says) and there were reports of icing in cloud over Toronto, we legally could not take off. Our engines would not have been safely anti-iced. After an hour of himming and hawing, maintenance decided that the airplane could not be fixed due to lack of parts and we would have to take another aircraft. That would add another 2 hours delay to unload passengers and their bags, tow the replacement aircraft from the other side of the airport then re board everyone and everything again. That would now mean a departure time of 2100 putting us into YYZ at 0630 as well as exceeding our duty day. Crew scheduling, faced with this dilemma began calling for a replacement crew. One was quickly found and soon I was in the car driving home for another week off.
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

HOG (HOLGUIN) CUBA: MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

Here are the flight details for my flight to HOG today NOV 27 2009:

DEPT YYZ: 1625 FLT NO. 5032
ARRV YYZ: 0115 FLT NO. 5033

I've posted a new flight tracker on the left side of this page. As always, enter the flight number and follow along. Keep in mind, the web page has to be refreshed or revisited from time to time to see aircraft movement. The ATC (Air Traffic Control) tracker is also on the left side of the page. Remember to listen in approx. 10-15 before scheduled arrival time or, if using the flight tracker, when we're over Buffalo NY, to hear our communications (Call sign is "SKYTOUR 5033").


Above is a typical satellite shot of what could be any airport in the world. It is in fact HOG used for both civilians and the military. Granted, every country has it's armed forces and it's military bases, but this airport is a little more unique. Even though tensions have been relaxed somewhat between the U.S and Cuba, Cuba is still somewhat of an isolationist state and is paranoid of invasion from the states. Due to it's northern location and thus close proximity to the U.S., it makes for a perfect base for interceptors and ground attack helicopters. It is upon landing in HOG that one can see fully armed HIND helicopters and MiG's parked in their fortified concrete shelters, ready to be "scrambled" for the American "onslaught". You can see in the very top right of the picture a good example of the taxi-way leading to the runway from the MiG/HIND pens. Below is a close up view of the heavily camouflaged half cylindrical concrete shelters protecting the valuable "assets" (some HIND's are clearly visible out in the open)

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PRIMARY FLIGHT INSTRUMENTS

Above is a picture of the Primary Flight Instruments onboard the 757 which was taken southbound on my flight to MBJ at FL380 (Flight Level 380 or 38,000ft). They consist of older "round dial" instruments and modern digital displays which show vital information to both pilots (the exact set of instruments is in front of the Captain as well). I've labelled some of the more interesting things yet there is so much more that I simply cannot highlight because of lmited space.

C-130 HERCULES

Here's an interesting video of a c-130 Hercules taking-off and landing on an aircraft carrier!! Thats a big plane to be doing that!!

CLICK HERE

MBJ (MONTEGO BAY) NOV 22

Here is the flight info for tomorrow's MBJ flight. Use the flight tracker and/or ATC (Air Traffic Control) tracker located on the left side of the Blog, about half way down the page. Remember to select Skyservice Airlines and the flight number. If using the ATC tracker as well, listen in about 10-15 minutes before our scheduled landing time to hear our communications with arrival ATC. Our callsign is "SKYTOUR _____(flight no)"

DEPT YYZ: 06:20 FLT NO 2044
ARRV YYZ: 15:25 FLT NO 2045

If anyone actually does this, let me know by commenting below this post, how it works. Meanwhile here is a video of me landing in MBJ last spring.....CLICK HERE for video!!

BABE MAGNET

Ok, this looks too cool!

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

INERTIA: FRIEND OR FOE

I had a bit of free time on my hands and I found this video from the internet quite interesting. Why? Because after viewing this short movie you may or may not realize there is a lot of unseen things happening to this airplane which could easily spell disaster! You have to read the post first then watch the video at the bottom. Anyways, "inertia" plays a HUGE part in the way airplanes fly. Before I begin here is the definiton of inertia:

"The tendency of a body to resist acceleration; the tendency of a body at rest to remain at rest or of a body in straight line motion to stay in motion in a straight line unless acted on by an outside force".

When you throw thousands of pounds into the equation, the part that reads "...or of a body in straight line motion to stay in motion in a straight line unless acted on by an outside force" is pretty significant. As weight of the body increases, the force necessary to alter its path increases. An airplane that is very heavy and is flying in a straight line takes a LOT of force to make it turn and, requires a lot of distance to do it (dependent on its speed too). Likewise when an airplane descends, inertia and gravity are acting on it and it will take a SIGNIFICANT amount of force to change it's flight path...WHY? Because a "body" traveling in a straight line (an airplane descending for instance) "wants' to stay along that straight line. Another thing to consider is stopping that body...that body that is tens of thousands of pounds and just wants to keep going!! All these things act on an airplane all the time, unbeknownst to the average passenger yet carefully and meticulously calculated thousands of times a second by either the auto pilot or the guy who is actually doing the flying. In this video, just look at the mountains surrounding this 757 on approach and look how close they are. With inertia wanting to keep this airplane flying in a straight line, the pilot has NO room for error in his turn. It is a manually flown approach, over a steep incline to the approach end of the runway. You can clearly see the landing gear is only a "few" feet from contacting brush and/or the ground itself while he's still a few hundred feet from the runway. If mismanagement of this inertia occurs and he overshoots the landing zone, he would be very hard pressed to bring all this moving mass to a complete stop in the short landing run available to him. AMAZING LANDING!!

NICE VIEWS

Just after take off from CUN we turn left to intercept the on-course to the north. We are lucky to see some good views of the beach.

"EXTINCTION LEVEL EVENT"

The routing we take down to CUN (Cancun) and back tomorrow is shown on the left. As you can see it cuts the western section of Cuban airspace. Since we have no overflight authority on this particular flight, we must be navigationaly vigilant so as not to stray into Cuban airspace or we will be intercepted by Cuban MIGS as per the warning on our navigation charts. On this flight there won't be much sight seeing since I will have my yearly "line check". I do like this flight since it's a relativey short duty day of 10:50 HRS. and the sights are pretty good as well. Crossing the Appalachian mountains is nice in the moring especially when the valley's are fogged in. Not so nice is the wicked thunderstorms over the Florida pan-handle and Gulf of Mexico during the summer months, let me tell ya. During our descent into CUN, we're lucky enough to be afforded an excellent view of some nice beaches on the northern shore of the Yucatan Peninsula.

In the above picture you can see a typical approach view as we make our way to the runway in the bottom right corner on the picture. During this time, we can see very flat jungle as far as the eye can see as well as hundreds of sinkholes many miles into the jungle. Most are inter-connected caves that offer the best scuba diving in the world. The Chixulub crater is the most facinating feature of the Yucatan. Although barely discernible, one must think that it was here, the very spot we are flying over, that a meteorite, more than 180 km in diameter, slammed into the peninsula, hurtling millions of tons of debris into the atmosphere thus blocking out the sunlight for years and eventually snuffing out the age of the dinosaurs. I've been lucky to fly over the Barringer Crater in Arizona, and the Manicouagan crater and Clearwater Lakes in northern Quebec.
Here is the flight info for Nov 14th's flight:
SSV 3072 YYZ-CUN
SSV 3073 CUN-YYZ Landing at 15:25.
If interested you can follow along with both the flight tracker and Air Traffic Control (ATC)functions on the left side of the page. If following along with ATC, our call sign and flight number (SKYTOUR 3073) won't be heard until about 10 minutes before our scheduled arrival time (eg 15:15). Please leave a comment and let me know how these "trackers" work! I will now leave you with a video of a typical approach into CUN (I'm flying)...(click here)

NEW QUIZ TIME

Without reference to the internet, take an educated guess as to how many hydraulic systems are on the B757. The quiz is at the bottom of the page. Only 3 votes were submitted in the last quiz which begged the question: "How much fuel does the B757 hold"? The B757 holds 34,000KG of fuel in 3 tanks. One in each wing and the other in the center tank (located in the lower fuselage). That translates to approximatly 43,000 litres or to compare, just over 700 fill-ups in your car. Come on people...ANSWER THE QUIZ!!

COCKPIT RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Above is the dreaded "box" or "stim-ulator". Note the large powerful hydraulic jacks. Inside are the next batch of pilots flying around the "killing fields". So now that another successful PPC is done and my licence signed off for another 6 months, it's time to start looking ahead to next week for my first "Line Check" flight scheduled for the 14th of November. During this flight, a check captain and myself will fly to Cancun and back to Toronto with a normal load of sun-seeking Canadians. He will hopefully sign me off after this flight indicating that I'm "good-to-go" after a 6 month abscence and I can continue flying "the line". Even though this captain (and all captains) are know as the "pilot-in-command" or (PIC), both the PIC and First Officer (FO)(formally co-pilot) must work together well in this unusual enviroment that can be boring as hell one moment then heart-thumpingly stressful the next. This is where CRM or Cockpit Resource Management comes into play. There was a time not too long ago where the captain was the ultimate decision maker and what he decided was the "end of story". These days it's different. Although the buck stops in his lap, he HAS to consult with not only the company dispatchers but also his first officer and in some cases the flight attendants when certain decisions have to be made. There has been many an accident over the decades where people have been killed over very poor decisions made by the captain and the captain alone. In most of these cases, the first officer was too scared to speak up when he knew that there was something amiss. And understanding the human condition, one must understand that in some cases it's understandable to feel lowly when theres a very experienced person sitting next to you with thousands of hours and you have only hundreds. Things are changing though. Every year we are required by Transport Canada to attend a ground school where we analyze a certain crash and try to see what WE could have done differently to avoid the crash. It's a very interesing to think that back in the day he was Boss, the Big Kahoona and he knew it. With this CRM now in place, it's now just one of hundreds of preventative links in the chain to prevent an accident. Here's a good example of very poor CRM in REVERSE! (click here). In my day I've been lucky enough to work with some pretty good guys but just like everywhere else theres always someone who rubs you the wrong way or you might think theres something wrong with him. Now this guy (click here) is an interesting study. I don't think I could have NOT said anything like his first officer did. Putting aside good CRM, I would have been tempted to say..."What the F___'s wrong with you"?

WHAT IS "THE BOX" OR TO OTHERS, "THE STIMULATOR"

Transport Canada stipulates that pilots of Transport Catagory aircraft have to undergo training with a subsequent "test" every 6 months. This test is known as the "PPC" or Pilot Proficiency Check. Now, since Transport Canada can't be everywhere all the time monitoring and testing pilots everywhere, airlines are able to designate their own "in house" training pilots who "self monitor" their own pilot base. So, two Skyservice training Captains will be training and testing myself and the other pilot I'm paired with this week. Day one consists of a training day. On this day we brief for 1 1/2 hours on changes that have occured in the flying "biz" that effect safety. Also, emergencies such as flight control problems, fires, electrical anomolies and a multitude of other nasty things are discussed and reviewed. Today's training consisted of engine fires on take-off, anti-ice problems, a cargo compartment fire and some challenging navigation problems. There was a day when most of this training was simulated on the aircraft itself but these days simulators are the norm because its safer to carry out emergencies and far cheaper to operate. Simulators are very sophisticated state-of-the-art "cockpits" set high on powerful hydraulic jacks that simulate acceleration, deceleration, turns and so on. They even have views outside the aircraft. These views are computer generated and projected on screens that wrap around the cockpit, simulating an amazingly realistic outside world. Here is a good view of an approach to landing in a simulator. Also, we have to practice landings in very poor weather. One type of approach and landing is known as a CAT III ILS. CAT III stands for Catagory three. In lay-men's terms...it means that we don't need to see the runway to land the airplane. ILS stands for Instrument Landing System (more on that in a later Blog). Here are two CAT III landing video's (one) and (two). Below is an old video of the boy's and I flying a Canadaian Forces C130 Hercules simulator back in 2005. Well tomorrow is the PPC with more emergencies to deal with!!

OFF TO VANCOUVER FOR SIMULATOR

I will be heading out to CYVR (Vancouver) for my re-current simulator (which expired Oct 1st). This time of year is always stressful and there's always the doom and gloom hanging over my head of screwing up. One has to remain focused and stay focused always remembering that a cool head will always prevail. One of the required exercises that must be demonstrated is either an engine failure and/or engine fire right at what is known as V1 (a speed that is determined prior to every take off, based on weight, temperature runway conditions etc, where the aircraft accelerates to that speed and in the event of an engine failure, or some other unsafe flying condition, it is still safe to stop on the remaining runway). Imagine if you will, an aircraft that is full of fuel, full of passengers and is still certified to safely take off ON ONE ENGINE! I will be returning home (hopefully) on Wednesday night and will update you further on all the happenings. Meanwhile here is a good video of a Thomas Cook 757 in Manchester England caught on video ingesting a bird into one of its engines soon after Vr (rotation speed). You can clearly see the engine has been damaged as it surges and "backfires"".