March 27, 2011
It’s leg two of a two leg night. Flight officer candidate Max and I had departed St. Thomas an hour ago for a short run to San Juan primarily for some additional nav and procedure training. Max is busily integrating the wonders of charts, NAVs, and waypoint navigation into his already proficient skill set. It has all the indications tonight of being a slow night. Max handles the landing at TJSJ – not bad, but I think I’d like to do the next one. We quickly reset the ship and soon are departing again into the night for Princess Juliana Airport at St. Maartin.
Outbound on the JETSS1 departure from San Juan is smooth and we take the initial part of the flight at a leisurely 220 knots at Max’s request. He wants things to come at him a bit more slowly for awhile so he can absorb the nav information at a more reasonable pace. We are up to cruise at 23,000 and Max seems to be doing just fine. After JETSS it’s a quiet 98 mile cruising leg to SLUGO so we pick up the pace and accelerate to 300 knots. I ask Max if he minds if I handle the landing. “I’d like to show you what a nice floater looks like” I say half in jest, but also to show him what the landing standard for United Regional flight officers looks like. Little did either of us know what we were in for.
Inbound to TNCM from ULUBA and approach requests that we enter the standard holding pattern at 11,000 due to heavy inboundtraffic . Since it’s my leg to fly I am quickly reviewing the holding pattern on the ULUBA chart with one eye and resetting the flight director with the other eye. “Good” Max says. “I want to see if I can follow along with this.” Approach instructs us to hold on the outbound 308 radial with left hand turns, so OK here we go. It’s starting to get a little busy on the flight deck.
Reset NAV1 headings and watch the needles for range and course as we flip back around for the return leg of the holding pattern loop. I’m beginning to wonder how many loops we will end up making tonight when approach breaks in and clears us to descend to 3500 and begin the VOR approach procedure for runway 10.
Right. Fortunately the VOR approach is on the same chart. It shows that we should set outbound course of 318 once over the TNCM VOR and then descend to 2500 feet. Fly outbound 7 miles then turn left and back around to an inbound course of 096 while keeping our turn within a 9 mile arc. It’s getting busier still around here.
Ok. 7 DME now from TNCM, time to start the turn to base. Getting even busier, plus sprinkle in some tension as well. A quick recheck of the final landing checklist confirms flaps, landing lights, seatbelt light are all in the correct position. 20 seconds later and a quick sharp left again to turn onto final and then gear DOWN, flaps FULL. We are 7 miles inbound now and approach hands us off to tower. I have the runway in sight. Flight director switched OFF and the ship is in my hands for the landing. Tension builds as we slip down to 1500 feet over the ocean and 5 miles inbound.
We are on final with less than 3 miles to go when tower calls with a warning of an aircraft on the runway who is unresponsive to communication. Uh oh. Seconds after that tower is instructing us to immediately abort the landing and sharp turn right to depart the area southbound.
Yep ok, tension UP - here we go. At less than 1 mile and 750 feet of altitude and I am pulling gear UP, flaps UP, throttle FULL forward and standing the ship on its tail in a sharp right bank to the right and southbound. I have mountains in front of me, aircraft behind me, and ocean all around. The trusty CRJ roars out of the area in a turning climb and readily makes 2000 feet before we re-engage flight director and set for 2500. We haven’t even straightened out from the exiting turn when tower calls again and instructs us to make an immediate no-delay cloverleaf turn back to the runway. Thetraffic has cleared, but there is a 747 heavy inbound to the same runway and tower wants us on the ground before he comes in. Tension!
Ah, right again. Immediately reset and start the process of killing 2000 feet of altitude, making the sharp turn to the right to finish out the cloverleaf, and magically appearing on a 3 mile final at 1000 feet or less and 180 knots of airspeed or less. Here we go… Flight director OFF again, dump the gear, dump the flaps, dump the throttle, stand the ship on its wing and bend ‘er over.
Altitude is falling off quickly and for a moment it looks like we are going to nosedive sideways right into the ocean. “Woaaaahhh” max says. A quick glance out the right window confirms that we are in position, but will have to keep the turn going around sharply in order to line up with the runway. And if we don’t, there is a real danger of overshooting the turn and coming out too far to the left of the runway to land. A little pull back on the stick pulls the turn in even tighter and we can feel the G-forces increase and push us all down in our seats.
Tower calls. “United 35 can you make taxiway echo or will you need the full runway length?”
“I don’t know. Let you know in a minute.”
Little busy right now… I still have at 500 feet of altitude and 20 knots of speed to kill, a turn to finish out, and less than 2 miles to do it. We’ll worry about taxiway echo in just a second.
Tension!!
Runway in sight but at an unsettling and unusual angle as we continue the turn to line up. I can see this landing is going to be fast and hot, and I’ll need to make it stick. The inbound heavy behind me is bigger, faster, and likely low on fuel. A go-around is definitely not the preferred option right now. “Ohhh man!” Max says as the runway comes into view. I’m pretty sure this is an approach angle that he isn’t used to seeing. But this isn’t a normal approach either. This is a cloverleaf, 3 mile, no-delay, high speed, high performance, military assault landing.
“You gonna make it?” Max asks.
“Yep.”
At literally the last second SNAP the stick back over to arrest the turn and bring the ship back to level. The runway appears right in front of us, level, and right on the money. In 5 seconds we are over the threshold and a quick kick of the rudder dissipates any remaining turning energy from the approach. 3 seconds after that and WHAM the ship slams down on the runway straight and smack on the centerline. Not a floater. More like an aircraft carrier landing minus the arresting cable. I don’t even let the ship recover from the bounce before I am standing on the spoilers, brakes, and thrust reversers to immediately eliminate all incentive to keep flying. Brakes full ON, thrust reversers full ON and I’m quickly running out of taxiway options. But speed is pouring off and I can see that echo is just ahead. It’s going to be close, but that heavy is right on my ass and if I don’t make this turn, he’s going to have to go around.
Echo comes up quickly and we start the turn with the thrust reversers still on. The last of the speed dissipates off as the turn straightens out and thrust reversers go OFF, brakes OFF, and voila we are clear of the runway and safe on taxiway echo. It’s over. Tower hands us off to ground with a big “thanks for that, guys”.
BOOYAA! “That’s how we get it done back on the farm” I say to Max as we roll to the gate. I’m glad he had a chance to see that. That’s a good example of the standard around here for Jet Captains. I’m sure he’ll do just fine.
Over to the gate and start the shutdown when flight desk pings. It’s DAL704. He says he’s got a movie he just made of that landing. Whaa?? That’s sick!!
How he gets all this kick ass film I have no idea.
Outbound on the JETSS1 departure from San Juan is smooth and we take the initial part of the flight at a leisurely 220 knots at Max’s request. He wants things to come at him a bit more slowly for awhile so he can absorb the nav information at a more reasonable pace. We are up to cruise at 23,000 and Max seems to be doing just fine. After JETSS it’s a quiet 98 mile cruising leg to SLUGO so we pick up the pace and accelerate to 300 knots. I ask Max if he minds if I handle the landing. “I’d like to show you what a nice floater looks like” I say half in jest, but also to show him what the landing standard for United Regional flight officers looks like. Little did either of us know what we were in for.
Inbound to TNCM from ULUBA and approach requests that we enter the standard holding pattern at 11,000 due to heavy inbound
Reset NAV1 headings and watch the needles for range and course as we flip back around for the return leg of the holding pattern loop. I’m beginning to wonder how many loops we will end up making tonight when approach breaks in and clears us to descend to 3500 and begin the VOR approach procedure for runway 10.
Right. Fortunately the VOR approach is on the same chart. It shows that we should set outbound course of 318 once over the TNCM VOR and then descend to 2500 feet. Fly outbound 7 miles then turn left and back around to an inbound course of 096 while keeping our turn within a 9 mile arc. It’s getting busier still around here.
Ok. 7 DME now from TNCM, time to start the turn to base. Getting even busier, plus sprinkle in some tension as well. A quick recheck of the final landing checklist confirms flaps, landing lights, seatbelt light are all in the correct position. 20 seconds later and a quick sharp left again to turn onto final and then gear DOWN, flaps FULL. We are 7 miles inbound now and approach hands us off to tower. I have the runway in sight. Flight director switched OFF and the ship is in my hands for the landing. Tension builds as we slip down to 1500 feet over the ocean and 5 miles inbound.
We are on final with less than 3 miles to go when tower calls with a warning of an aircraft on the runway who is unresponsive to communication. Uh oh. Seconds after that tower is instructing us to immediately abort the landing and sharp turn right to depart the area southbound.
Yep ok, tension UP - here we go. At less than 1 mile and 750 feet of altitude and I am pulling gear UP, flaps UP, throttle FULL forward and standing the ship on its tail in a sharp right bank to the right and southbound. I have mountains in front of me, aircraft behind me, and ocean all around. The trusty CRJ roars out of the area in a turning climb and readily makes 2000 feet before we re-engage flight director and set for 2500. We haven’t even straightened out from the exiting turn when tower calls again and instructs us to make an immediate no-delay cloverleaf turn back to the runway. The
Ah, right again. Immediately reset and start the process of killing 2000 feet of altitude, making the sharp turn to the right to finish out the cloverleaf, and magically appearing on a 3 mile final at 1000 feet or less and 180 knots of airspeed or less. Here we go… Flight director OFF again, dump the gear, dump the flaps, dump the throttle, stand the ship on its wing and bend ‘er over.
Altitude is falling off quickly and for a moment it looks like we are going to nosedive sideways right into the ocean. “Woaaaahhh” max says. A quick glance out the right window confirms that we are in position, but will have to keep the turn going around sharply in order to line up with the runway. And if we don’t, there is a real danger of overshooting the turn and coming out too far to the left of the runway to land. A little pull back on the stick pulls the turn in even tighter and we can feel the G-forces increase and push us all down in our seats.
Tower calls. “United 35 can you make taxiway echo or will you need the full runway length?”
“I don’t know. Let you know in a minute.”
Little busy right now… I still have at 500 feet of altitude and 20 knots of speed to kill, a turn to finish out, and less than 2 miles to do it. We’ll worry about taxiway echo in just a second.
Tension!!
Runway in sight but at an unsettling and unusual angle as we continue the turn to line up. I can see this landing is going to be fast and hot, and I’ll need to make it stick. The inbound heavy behind me is bigger, faster, and likely low on fuel. A go-around is definitely not the preferred option right now. “Ohhh man!” Max says as the runway comes into view. I’m pretty sure this is an approach angle that he isn’t used to seeing. But this isn’t a normal approach either. This is a cloverleaf, 3 mile, no-delay, high speed, high performance, military assault landing.
“You gonna make it?” Max asks.
“Yep.”
At literally the last second SNAP the stick back over to arrest the turn and bring the ship back to level. The runway appears right in front of us, level, and right on the money. In 5 seconds we are over the threshold and a quick kick of the rudder dissipates any remaining turning energy from the approach. 3 seconds after that and WHAM the ship slams down on the runway straight and smack on the centerline. Not a floater. More like an aircraft carrier landing minus the arresting cable. I don’t even let the ship recover from the bounce before I am standing on the spoilers, brakes, and thrust reversers to immediately eliminate all incentive to keep flying. Brakes full ON, thrust reversers full ON and I’m quickly running out of taxiway options. But speed is pouring off and I can see that echo is just ahead. It’s going to be close, but that heavy is right on my ass and if I don’t make this turn, he’s going to have to go around.
Echo comes up quickly and we start the turn with the thrust reversers still on. The last of the speed dissipates off as the turn straightens out and thrust reversers go OFF, brakes OFF, and voila we are clear of the runway and safe on taxiway echo. It’s over. Tower hands us off to ground with a big “thanks for that, guys”.
BOOYAA! “That’s how we get it done back on the farm” I say to Max as we roll to the gate. I’m glad he had a chance to see that. That’s a good example of the standard around here for Jet Captains. I’m sure he’ll do just fine.
Over to the gate and start the shutdown when flight desk pings. It’s DAL704. He says he’s got a movie he just made of that landing. Whaa?? That’s sick!!
How he gets all this kick ass film I have no idea.
landing at princess juliana st. maarten
Charles | Myspace Video
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