KMLB -> KBOS
It’s Sunday March 17th, 2010 in Melbourne Florida. The 7 year old (going on 8 year old) co-pilot is with me again, and we are spooling up a Mooney we’ve rented for the day to do some sightseeing before we have to take a CRJ back to Boston later tonight. My schedule has allowed us both to spend some time staying with a friend down here who owns a condo right on the beach. Her place is not just a few miles over the bridge from the airport and we all spent last night on her balcony admiring the sea and eating crab legs we made on the grill. “Not quite a clambake” the 7 year old (going on 8 year old) copilot remarks , “but it’ll do”.
Today though we’re off to see some rockets. Once I found my schedule would allow me to be here I ran to the NASA web page to see if there was a shuttle launch, and as fortune would have there was one scheduled for March 18th. But then the Gods of scheduling had the audacity to reschedule the launch to April 5. Damn. As I understand it there’s only 3 or 4 shuttle flights left before the shuttle is retired for good so, if we don’t get down there to see it now we won’t get to see it ever. I feel somewhat personally negligent here. The shuttle has been flying since the mid 1980’s but it’s taken me two decades to get down here to see it, and now there are only 3 or 4 chances left? I screwed the pooch big time on that one. Now with one more opportunity missed we might never get to see this thing launch.
So here we are doing the next best thing. A Mooney, a beautiful Sunday afternoon, and tons of sky. If we can’t go to the shuttle, we’ll bring the shuttle to us. The 7 year old copilot is becoming quite the copilot these days too. He’s taken quite an interest in flying and can tell you what a VOR is, how it works, and then tune your nav radios to locate the nearest radial. He’s not too bad on com either although he sometimes stumbles over the difference between Victor and Vector. Sometimes he even taxies, operates throttle, flaps, gear, and even rotates. I know, I know… if Mother finds out I will be sooooo fired.
Which is why I have to stop and take note of the recent incident of the air ..traffic .. controller who let his son come to work one day. I know many folks have weighed in on this issue already, and I won’t belabor the point. All I’m saying is that I will be watching my back should Mother find out we have a 7 year old copilot on board. But I can also pretty much guarantee you I’m not going to stop teaching my son how to fly.
Since there were no launches scheduled for today we were able to get fairly close to Kennedy Space center, and the shuttle was even out on the launch pad. “Sooo cool” says the 7 year old copilot. We made several passes around the space center so we could see as much as we possibly could. But about an hour of flying seemed to be enough rocket watching for the day so we headed back to Melbourne for some dinner.
Later on the tarmac at Melbourne we are prepping the CRJ for the return to Boston. The 7 year old copilot and I are on the flight deck going through the preflight checklist together when I notice another United CRJ sitting a few gates over. A quick check of flightdesk confirms that it’s Ian’s ship - UAL74.
Splendid. Company. Flightdesk chimes:
UAL74 : meet me on UNICOM?
Copilot Logan switches over to 122.95 for me. “United 74, United 35 calling. How do you read?”
“5 by 5” comes the reply. “Looks like we’re headed back to Boston as well tonight. Want some company? “
“Sure! I’ll send you our route if you like. We’re loading it in now and we should be ready to depart in about 10 minutes. “
KMLB -> KBOS | MCO MLB LENDS AR16 ILM KEMPR SBY J79 JFK ORW3 BOS | FLT310
“Looks good. By the way, can this count as my Flight Officers checkride?”
Hmmm… . let me think…
Normally I would do the checkride in the cockpit with the candidate. However, I’ve been watching Ian’s flights on radar and listening on com for several weeks now and I’m satisfied that with only some minor question marks mostly relating to taxiing he can operate the aircraft safely. I’ve also noticed that he’s transitioned down from the MD-11 to the CRJ. I’m actually quite pleased by that. The MD11 is certainly a nice aircraft, but in my opinion it’s too much computer and too easy to get lost in the computer. Sometimes I think these big iron pilots have to fight to remember to actually fly the airplane. I know for a fact the CRJ he’s flying doesn’t have an FMC on board, so if he flies this route to Boston he will be forced to do it the old fashioned way - with VOR’s, nav radios, and Jetway navigation. And THAT is in essence what the Flight Officers checkride is all about. This is also a fairly complex route with a flight time of over 2 hours. Plus, as usual I’ll be monitoring his flight on radar, listening on com, and trailing only about 15 miles behind him. He will be in sight and monitored at all times. So…
“Yes, I think this can qualify as your checkride. Let me know when you’re ready for engine start and we’ll depart together.”
A few minutes later and both ships are spooled up and lit up. We are first to pushback and Copilot Logan handles the radios. A squeaky high pitched 7 year old voice breaks onto the radio to announce… “Melbourne ..traffic .. United 35 is pushback Alpha Tango to two seven right for departure”
UAL74’s inquisition is immediate… “United 35 was that you?!”
Copilot Logan is momentarily promoted to “Captain (Big C) Logan” and handles the swift rebuke. “Ah, yes… that’s United 35. Captain Logan here.”
“Well, OK sir! Very good” comes the reply. I’m pretty sure he won’t report us. After all I’m pretty sure he would want to actually pass his checkride tonight. We taxi out nice and pretty and as we turn to hold short at 27R I can see United 74 pushing back as well out the left cockpit window. We decide to wait and hold so that we can maintain tight formation on the way out. Soon UAL74 is sitting right beside us on Tango ready to go.
Captain Logan announces “ Melbourne ..traffic .. United 35 is ready to go from the holdshort on 27R. Any ..traffic .. in the pattern please identify.” A brief pause while we listen for any response. None comes. Throttles forward just a touch and Captain Logan calls out “United35 rolling on 27R no delay” as we make the 90 degree turn onto the runway. Throttles forward to 80% now and we are off. Liftoff is smooth, and as soon as we announce clear of 27R we hear UAL74 announce his roll right behind us.
A few minutes after departure airborne radar detects that he closing on us fast, at about 5000 feet below. Looks like Ian is bent on getting to KBOS first. That’s fine. I can keep a better eye on him if he’s out in front anyways. UAL74 accelerates out ahead of us and once we get about 20 miles separation we also accelerate to match forward speed. Captain Logan handles the radios on transition to cruise, but it’s soon getting to be bedtime and Captain Logan gives up his temporary commission and retires from the flight deck in favor of some shuteye.
The flight is smooth, the sunset is lovely, and all is well. Somewhere over South Carolina I get the yen to pull out a laptop and work on my blog. I know I know.. no laptops on the flight deck. To me though, the problem isn’t laptops, the problem is losing situational awareness. As long as we are cognicent of what’s going on with the ship and route, and until mother puts cameras in the cockpit (which probably isn’t too far away) I think we’ll be OK.
Throughout the flight so far UAL74 is at my 12 o’clock and 15, and each time we approach a waypoint I watch carefully on radar and visually to see if there is any unusual wavering of his course. There is none. Somewhere shy of Philadelphia I call with a pop quiz..
“UAL74, United 35 do you copy?”
“Go ahead sir”
“UAL74, pop quiz. I’d like to have you take a few bearings and have you describe for me what you find. I’m going to ask you do some triangulation, but first can you please describe for me your current exact position and your intentions?”
“Ah, roger that… ah, we are currently at flight level 310 and just passing 30 DME from Salsbury VOR on J37. Our next move is to intercept point VILLS at 60 DME from Salsbury and then turn right to track the 230 radial inbound to JFK.”
“OK, would you please take a quick reading for me off the Nottingham VOR and give me a fix please?”
“ahh, ok roger that. Wait one.”
Good. This is good. I can almost see the number crunching going on in Ian’s head. At the moment he is busily scrambling for his Skyvector charts to figure out where Nottingham is and what the frequency is. That will take about 30 seconds. Next he will find that the frequency for OTT is 113.7 and he will load that into NAV2 since I know he’s using NAV1 to track J37 as per the United SOP I taught him. Shortly the blue NAV2 indicator will swing to the left to point at OTT and he will read the reciprocal bearing off the fat end of the blue NAV2 needle and will call that figure back to me in about three sec….
“UAL35 we are currently reading a bearing of 085 degrees off Nottingham.”
“Ah, ok good. We are coming up right behind you. We’re currently reading about 15DME off Salsbury and 110 degrees off Nottingham at this time. Looks like we are well on course. The Norwich 3 arrival is calling for us to cross NEWES at 24,000 and contact Boston approach enroute to RAALF.”
“OK Roger that.”
Good news. Candidate Ian “gets it”. That kid makes me proud. I have one other special test of his taxiing skills planned for later in Boston tonight, but assuming he passes that I’ll have the privilege to hand out my second set of Flight Officers wings tonight. This is just a fine flight tonight. The sunset was marvelous, weather is gorgeous, ..traffic .. is light, Ian is executing precision navigation in a United CRJ, and soon we’ll be hearing the coms of home.
Life on the line is good and just keeps getting better.
It’s Sunday March 17th, 2010 in Melbourne Florida. The 7 year old (going on 8 year old) co-pilot is with me again, and we are spooling up a Mooney we’ve rented for the day to do some sightseeing before we have to take a CRJ back to Boston later tonight. My schedule has allowed us both to spend some time staying with a friend down here who owns a condo right on the beach. Her place is not just a few miles over the bridge from the airport and we all spent last night on her balcony admiring the sea and eating crab legs we made on the grill. “Not quite a clambake” the 7 year old (going on 8 year old) copilot remarks , “but it’ll do”.
Today though we’re off to see some rockets. Once I found my schedule would allow me to be here I ran to the NASA web page to see if there was a shuttle launch, and as fortune would have there was one scheduled for March 18th. But then the Gods of scheduling had the audacity to reschedule the launch to April 5. Damn. As I understand it there’s only 3 or 4 shuttle flights left before the shuttle is retired for good so, if we don’t get down there to see it now we won’t get to see it ever. I feel somewhat personally negligent here. The shuttle has been flying since the mid 1980’s but it’s taken me two decades to get down here to see it, and now there are only 3 or 4 chances left? I screwed the pooch big time on that one. Now with one more opportunity missed we might never get to see this thing launch.
So here we are doing the next best thing. A Mooney, a beautiful Sunday afternoon, and tons of sky. If we can’t go to the shuttle, we’ll bring the shuttle to us. The 7 year old copilot is becoming quite the copilot these days too. He’s taken quite an interest in flying and can tell you what a VOR is, how it works, and then tune your nav radios to locate the nearest radial. He’s not too bad on com either although he sometimes stumbles over the difference between Victor and Vector. Sometimes he even taxies, operates throttle, flaps, gear, and even rotates. I know, I know… if Mother finds out I will be sooooo fired.
Which is why I have to stop and take note of the recent incident of the air ..
Since there were no launches scheduled for today we were able to get fairly close to Kennedy Space center, and the shuttle was even out on the launch pad. “Sooo cool” says the 7 year old copilot. We made several passes around the space center so we could see as much as we possibly could. But about an hour of flying seemed to be enough rocket watching for the day so we headed back to Melbourne for some dinner.
Later on the tarmac at Melbourne we are prepping the CRJ for the return to Boston. The 7 year old copilot and I are on the flight deck going through the preflight checklist together when I notice another United CRJ sitting a few gates over. A quick check of flightdesk confirms that it’s Ian’s ship - UAL74.
Splendid. Company. Flightdesk chimes:
UAL74 : meet me on UNICOM?
Copilot Logan switches over to 122.95 for me. “United 74, United 35 calling. How do you read?”
“5 by 5” comes the reply. “Looks like we’re headed back to Boston as well tonight. Want some company? “
“Sure! I’ll send you our route if you like. We’re loading it in now and we should be ready to depart in about 10 minutes. “
KMLB -> KBOS | MCO MLB LENDS AR16 ILM KEMPR SBY J79 JFK ORW3 BOS | FLT310
“Looks good. By the way, can this count as my Flight Officers checkride?”
Hmmm… . let me think…
Normally I would do the checkride in the cockpit with the candidate. However, I’ve been watching Ian’s flights on radar and listening on com for several weeks now and I’m satisfied that with only some minor question marks mostly relating to taxiing he can operate the aircraft safely. I’ve also noticed that he’s transitioned down from the MD-11 to the CRJ. I’m actually quite pleased by that. The MD11 is certainly a nice aircraft, but in my opinion it’s too much computer and too easy to get lost in the computer. Sometimes I think these big iron pilots have to fight to remember to actually fly the airplane. I know for a fact the CRJ he’s flying doesn’t have an FMC on board, so if he flies this route to Boston he will be forced to do it the old fashioned way - with VOR’s, nav radios, and Jetway navigation. And THAT is in essence what the Flight Officers checkride is all about. This is also a fairly complex route with a flight time of over 2 hours. Plus, as usual I’ll be monitoring his flight on radar, listening on com, and trailing only about 15 miles behind him. He will be in sight and monitored at all times. So…
“Yes, I think this can qualify as your checkride. Let me know when you’re ready for engine start and we’ll depart together.”
A few minutes later and both ships are spooled up and lit up. We are first to pushback and Copilot Logan handles the radios. A squeaky high pitched 7 year old voice breaks onto the radio to announce… “Melbourne ..
UAL74’s inquisition is immediate… “United 35 was that you?!”
Copilot Logan is momentarily promoted to “Captain (Big C) Logan” and handles the swift rebuke. “Ah, yes… that’s United 35. Captain Logan here.”
“Well, OK sir! Very good” comes the reply. I’m pretty sure he won’t report us. After all I’m pretty sure he would want to actually pass his checkride tonight. We taxi out nice and pretty and as we turn to hold short at 27R I can see United 74 pushing back as well out the left cockpit window. We decide to wait and hold so that we can maintain tight formation on the way out. Soon UAL74 is sitting right beside us on Tango ready to go.
Captain Logan announces “ Melbourne ..
A few minutes after departure airborne radar detects that he closing on us fast, at about 5000 feet below. Looks like Ian is bent on getting to KBOS first. That’s fine. I can keep a better eye on him if he’s out in front anyways. UAL74 accelerates out ahead of us and once we get about 20 miles separation we also accelerate to match forward speed. Captain Logan handles the radios on transition to cruise, but it’s soon getting to be bedtime and Captain Logan gives up his temporary commission and retires from the flight deck in favor of some shuteye.
The flight is smooth, the sunset is lovely, and all is well. Somewhere over South Carolina I get the yen to pull out a laptop and work on my blog. I know I know.. no laptops on the flight deck. To me though, the problem isn’t laptops, the problem is losing situational awareness. As long as we are cognicent of what’s going on with the ship and route, and until mother puts cameras in the cockpit (which probably isn’t too far away) I think we’ll be OK.
Throughout the flight so far UAL74 is at my 12 o’clock and 15, and each time we approach a waypoint I watch carefully on radar and visually to see if there is any unusual wavering of his course. There is none. Somewhere shy of Philadelphia I call with a pop quiz..
“UAL74, United 35 do you copy?”
“Go ahead sir”
“UAL74, pop quiz. I’d like to have you take a few bearings and have you describe for me what you find. I’m going to ask you do some triangulation, but first can you please describe for me your current exact position and your intentions?”
“Ah, roger that… ah, we are currently at flight level 310 and just passing 30 DME from Salsbury VOR on J37. Our next move is to intercept point VILLS at 60 DME from Salsbury and then turn right to track the 230 radial inbound to JFK.”
“OK, would you please take a quick reading for me off the Nottingham VOR and give me a fix please?”
“ahh, ok roger that. Wait one.”
Good. This is good. I can almost see the number crunching going on in Ian’s head. At the moment he is busily scrambling for his Skyvector charts to figure out where Nottingham is and what the frequency is. That will take about 30 seconds. Next he will find that the frequency for OTT is 113.7 and he will load that into NAV2 since I know he’s using NAV1 to track J37 as per the United SOP I taught him. Shortly the blue NAV2 indicator will swing to the left to point at OTT and he will read the reciprocal bearing off the fat end of the blue NAV2 needle and will call that figure back to me in about three sec….
“UAL35 we are currently reading a bearing of 085 degrees off Nottingham.”
“Ah, ok good. We are coming up right behind you. We’re currently reading about 15DME off Salsbury and 110 degrees off Nottingham at this time. Looks like we are well on course. The Norwich 3 arrival is calling for us to cross NEWES at 24,000 and contact Boston approach enroute to RAALF.”
“OK Roger that.”
Good news. Candidate Ian “gets it”. That kid makes me proud. I have one other special test of his taxiing skills planned for later in Boston tonight, but assuming he passes that I’ll have the privilege to hand out my second set of Flight Officers wings tonight. This is just a fine flight tonight. The sunset was marvelous, weather is gorgeous, ..
Life on the line is good and just keeps getting better.
No comments:
Post a Comment