Sometimes This Job Sucks

[+Fates 63]

Have you ever just had one of those days were ya wanna just grab your keys, and go home? Well...today was that day.

 

Got called at 0600 in bed with preflight problems, so it was rush off to work without a morning shower and prep the aircraft for its flight...typical pop-up. And guess what, the pilots from the night before left the emer-battery on, and it was down to 4 volts. Well luckily there was a spare ready to go.

 

Well...they wait for the passengers to arrive and then their off to Houston from Indy. About 45 minutes later, I get a call. It's the co-pilot from the flight phone giving me a heads-up on a problem. The co-pilots main windscreen was in-process of delaminating as we were on the phone. He described the area about 8"x12", the size of a sheet of paper. Then we talked about our options, which were continued to destination or return home. Either way, delamination of windshields are a typical aircraft occurence, and in the case of this Hawker, it was actually a deferrable item.

 

The conversation went on for 1-2 minutes, when the co-pilot told me to hold...and then..he told me that the delamination had grown about an addtional 50% within 30 seconds. From his voice, I could tell that he was a little worried, but then it all happened. As we were discussing the options, he stated "OH F**K!!, Gotta Go"...I heard a loud explosion...and the phone went dead.

 

I sat at my desk for 5 minutes very shakin over what had happened. Those were some of the longest minutes in my life. I then told myself that these aircraft are built pretty damn tough, and the crew train and train and train for just about everything.

 

I fired up our aircraft tracker that will follow our aircraft anywhere in the western hemisphere. It displays departure and destination information, as well as Speed, Altitude, and ETA. The first thing I noticed was that their Altitude was 270 and their destination was no longer Houston. As the screen refreshed, they were down to 14 thousand feet. This told me that aircraft control was no longer an issue, and I was preping our dispatch department to get a second crew rolling to launch a recover aircraft to meet the passengers business scedule.

 

Well, 15 minutes later...the phone rings from wonderful Padukah, KY. the pilot had snapped a digital pic of the screen, and used his cellphone to email it to me. Isn't technology great? I was relieved to hear that their descent went well, but part of me was still shaken up a bit.

 

Now...just when you thought you had a day to get caught up on all the paperwork, Murphy sticks his boot up your butt and lets you know he cares!

 

Fates

[+pcpilot 181]

Now...just when you thought you had a day to get caught up on all the paperwork, Murphy sticks his boot up your butt and lets you know he cares!

 

Fates

ROFLMAO! Dont you know it brother! :D Bites ya in the butt and wont let go, lol.

 

Im real glad to hear everyone made it to ground safely. Minutes like those on the way down can be stressful for the heart.

[CowboyTodd41 133]

Heh, my Dad used to work customer service for Puratain-Bennet (they make the little yellow oxygen masks) he got laid off about 7 years ago and I still get calls from people in like the UAE or Saudi Arabia with an AOG (aircraft on ground for those not down with lingo) wondering where my dad is. I'm like he doesn't work there anymore but here's the number of the place, and sorry to hear about the jet man. Oh well.

[Weasel Keeper 0]

Dam Fates! I can only imagine how you were feeling...although with the way you told the story I could imagine it pretty well...WHEW!

 

So the FO's windscreen did blow out? That glass is pretty thick, and along with the windspeed and depressurization must have made for one hell of a ride for them.

 

Glad everyone made it safe!

 

<S> :ph34r:

[zagnut 0]

Man, that's one heck of a story! My dad had a pretty close call last December when he was flying from Baltimore to Houston in his Cessna 210. When he bought it, the plane had some probs that were quickly fixed, but there were others that he didn't know about. During his flight, he was coming in on final to an airport in Georgia, and about 20 feet off the ground he lost all manifold pressure and the engine quit. He was only going about 65 or so knots, so the stall factor was serious pretty much yelling HELLO! at him. He managed to do a 3 point hard landing and come down with a bit of a bang, but he didn't crash. About a moment later, he hit the starter and the engine came right back on. He parked the aircraft, checked out, and later took off again that day to finish the last leg of the flight to Houston. When he got there he had my brother look at it (he's a flight mech), and my bro grounded him! He said that the nosewheel of the plane had been depressed about an inchor more, and the front prop had been bent. Upon further inspection, he found a whole slew of problems aside from the hard landing. During the holidays, I asked my dad if the 'pucker factor' was fierce during the episode, and he said, "Aw, not really. It's was more like an 'Aw Sh*t!' factor". I don't blame him. More to come on that after the insurance claim goes through.

Edited February 11, 2004 by zagnut

[+Fates 63]

Gotta love piston driven aircraft......well....not really...I'll take a jet engine any day.

 

I spent 7years working on recips in the GA side of things. The other 8 years have been in Bizjets. It's incredible to hear stories all the time about recips and bending props and such....got a polished Warrior prop on my fireplace Mantel:

[zagnut 0]

Dude, that is sweet. My Dad's first plane was a Warrior. He set up a booster chair so I could see over the instrument panel when I was a little kid.