Post by Dutch Owen on Oct 5, 2012 10:09:50 GMT -5
It's about time to make a serious flight to see if any of the changes to 1.3.2 have busted anything, so I showed up at my present base, KPDX, to see what delights Acme had for us this morning.
The sun was just peeking up over the mountains and the coffee was warm and good, but I nearly spit it out when I saw the dispatch release. Up at the top were four dreaded letters: PAJN. Juneau Alaska. An adventure to land there on a clear day -- and what do we have waiting for us this morning?
Overcast, 1 mile visibility in rain with a 500 foot ceiling. Typical. Right at company minimums of course. We'll be driving a full load of cargo in the old reliable N3788P, an MD-82, which hasn't killed us yet. There's a hill in front of the only end of the runway with an approach course, and a 4,000 foot mountain at the other end. No glideslope. "LDA X" is the official designation for this type of approach. You can't fly straight in, the localizer is offset by about 20 degrees and you have to make it over that hill and sharp turn to the right to line up on a short runway with about 10 seconds to get lined up or it's go-around time.
Oh, and the load? Near max take-off weight, of course. So the approach speed will be even higher than usual. Well, that's what I get paid the virtual bucks for isn't it? I always said I like challenges. So, load up and off we go. Time to prove I can really fly this beast.
At 34,000 feet just crossing into Canada and I'm sipping more coffee and staring dejectedly at the PAJN plate contemplating the exact size of the big black crater I'm going to make in that hill, or maybe in the mountain on the other side, when what do I see but MASTER WARNING in bright red letters. My first thought was "Oh No" (not precisely the term I used) but then immediately I thought: saved! Better an emergency glide into Vancouver than a funeral where they can't even find a scrap of you to put in the coffin.
Above me, a bright red light saying "TAIL COMPT TEMP HIGH". This is why I keep the MD-82 QRH within easy reach. Both engines running fine, I started working the checklist. Along about the middle it had me turn off the left A/C pack. Sure enough, that got the light out after about 2 minutes. Dang...and I was hoping for an emergency.
Left the left pack off, but started scanning the overhead for weirdness. And there was something: just over the Cabin Rate Select knob there was a little red light glowing. This drew my attention to the cabin rate needle: it was over 900FPM and climbing. Cabin altitude approaching 9,000 feet and rising. At 10,000 we'll have another master warning.
So, to the QRH again...but first, requested a descent to 24,000 from ATC just in case. Started down and was reading "Cabin Differential Pressure Uncontrollable." Following that checklist had me resetting switches and pushing buttons, but the end result was a stable pressure. So levelled at 30,000 and we're still heading towards a meeting with fate at PAJN. I can hope for a ceiling low enough to justify an abort, can't I?
I'm about one hour out and feeling doomed. I'll update this with the result. At least the timing looks good. If only Acme would give me time credit for go-arounds...
Update 1:
Getting ready to start descent now...the plan is to let VNAV fly me down to MDA while I control the speed, and if I can't see the runway at MDA, abort and divert. I'll take the point hit from the company if they wanna be that way. They say it's above minimums right now and have cleared me for the approach. Time to turn on terrain mode on the NAV display and rehearse threading my way thru unseen mountains...I've done this approach once before near minimums...in an Islander approaching at 80 knots. Let's see, Vref today for 28 flaps is 145 knots. Hmmmm. Quick steady hands.
Update 2:
I'm alive! So is Trav! Sitting on the ground here at CYXY ... some place in Canada is all I know ... recovering.
Okay, so here's how it went down.
Flew the approach starting at Sister Island (SSR) as well as I possibly could. Let the FMS keep me on track while I manually handled the throttles to come in over the hill at 145KT down to MDA. The screen was full of red and the GPWS was screaming "TERRAIN PULL UP!! PULL UP!!". But that's normal here. Under me I could just make out the tops of the pines in the gloom. Airport should be right there...where is it? Nothing but gray...then suddenly, the VASIs appear, two white. Heavy rain beating on the wind-shield. I'm high and fast, but I start to turn and drop, then, I'm in another low cloud with visibility zero. I'M OUTTA HERE!
Full power, hard right turn. A massive block of yellow on the nav display looming up in front. Frantically banked around at 45 degrees. Trav comments he wants to pretend he doesn't know me when we get on the ground. If we get on the ground. He'd have better spent his idle time praying but I didn't have a second to make any comments.
Made the necessary insane 180 (the plate uses the phrase "immediate turn") and headed back up to BARLO sweating bullets. Forgot to reduce power and blew past 250 knots, which Trav was kind enough to let me know. But made it back to BARLO and switched in the FMS to take us up to the MAP HOLD at SSR.
Up there, I told Acme we'd be diverting. They weren't happy but accepted it. Nice to have a desk job and judging pilots in clouds surrounded by mountains isn't it? Told ATC and set up the FMC as we exited the hold for the planned alternate CYXY. Weather reports there show visibility 15 miles with scattered clouds. I've never been to this airport and don't have any plates! (BAD pilot leaving without plates for the alternate!)
That's when I noticed the MASTER CAUTION. Look up..."Fuel Level Low". We have 2500 pounds of fuel to land at our alternate.
Now I have to decide the cruise altitude. A balance between too high and running out of fuel, and too low and running into a granite cumulus. After a glance at the terrain map I decide on 16,000 as a compromise. No comment from Trav.
We exit the hold and are off direct to CYXY - 168 miles. Nothing much along the way to see except mountain peaks between the few breaks in the clouds.
And the fuel readout counting down...2400...2300...2200...2000...1900...1800. When will start the descent? And I still can't see anything through these clouds. If this were real life it'd be hard not to panic!
Finally ATC clears us down to 9,000. There's an ILS here and I tune it. Visibility still reported at 15 miles. I decide on a visual approach and fortunately the active is 31L and our course is 340 so we're straight in. Fuel count 1500...1400...1300...1200.
I can't see much but clouds at 9,000 feet. Decide to go lower. ATC tells me to stay where I am. I lie and say I can see the field. What are they gonna do, write me up at my funeral?
I try and figure where to intercept the ILS course. Switch off autopilots and autothrottles. It's just me and the airplane, the sky and the ground now. Lots of clouds, gray landscape under me, no airport but I can see on the NAV display where it should be and I have the ILS ... if I can get on the beam from here.
The fuel readout is showing three digits now.
We fly over a hill and finally I see the airport. Line up for the visual with ILS backup. Concentrate on speed. I've never been so glad to see a strip of asphalt in my life.
Fuel under 500 pounds as we descend. Contact...no pax to reward me for a nice landing but it was -- a bit far down the runway though as we're heavy. I had to lean on the brakes a bit hard and Trav noted we had high brake temps as a result.
We rolled up to the cargo ramp ON TIME with brakes smoking and 200 pounds of fuel in our tanks. That's 100 pounds in each tank, to be exact.
Just another day at the office.
Oh, and what did Acme think about all this? Score for flight is 60. 5 points off for exceeding the speed limit and 25 points for UNAUTHORIZED DIVERT!
They'll probably send me a bill for the extra fuel we used.
I'm just happy to still be around to check the mail. N3788P still hasn't killed me.
-----
All this craziness brought to you by...
Microsoft FSX SP2 running under Windows 7.
FSCaptain 1.3.2 BETA 1
GSX Version 1.7.
Active Sky Evolution
Radar Contact 4.3
Leonardo SH Mad Dog MD-82.
The sun was just peeking up over the mountains and the coffee was warm and good, but I nearly spit it out when I saw the dispatch release. Up at the top were four dreaded letters: PAJN. Juneau Alaska. An adventure to land there on a clear day -- and what do we have waiting for us this morning?
Overcast, 1 mile visibility in rain with a 500 foot ceiling. Typical. Right at company minimums of course. We'll be driving a full load of cargo in the old reliable N3788P, an MD-82, which hasn't killed us yet. There's a hill in front of the only end of the runway with an approach course, and a 4,000 foot mountain at the other end. No glideslope. "LDA X" is the official designation for this type of approach. You can't fly straight in, the localizer is offset by about 20 degrees and you have to make it over that hill and sharp turn to the right to line up on a short runway with about 10 seconds to get lined up or it's go-around time.
Oh, and the load? Near max take-off weight, of course. So the approach speed will be even higher than usual. Well, that's what I get paid the virtual bucks for isn't it? I always said I like challenges. So, load up and off we go. Time to prove I can really fly this beast.
At 34,000 feet just crossing into Canada and I'm sipping more coffee and staring dejectedly at the PAJN plate contemplating the exact size of the big black crater I'm going to make in that hill, or maybe in the mountain on the other side, when what do I see but MASTER WARNING in bright red letters. My first thought was "Oh No" (not precisely the term I used) but then immediately I thought: saved! Better an emergency glide into Vancouver than a funeral where they can't even find a scrap of you to put in the coffin.
Above me, a bright red light saying "TAIL COMPT TEMP HIGH". This is why I keep the MD-82 QRH within easy reach. Both engines running fine, I started working the checklist. Along about the middle it had me turn off the left A/C pack. Sure enough, that got the light out after about 2 minutes. Dang...and I was hoping for an emergency.
Left the left pack off, but started scanning the overhead for weirdness. And there was something: just over the Cabin Rate Select knob there was a little red light glowing. This drew my attention to the cabin rate needle: it was over 900FPM and climbing. Cabin altitude approaching 9,000 feet and rising. At 10,000 we'll have another master warning.
So, to the QRH again...but first, requested a descent to 24,000 from ATC just in case. Started down and was reading "Cabin Differential Pressure Uncontrollable." Following that checklist had me resetting switches and pushing buttons, but the end result was a stable pressure. So levelled at 30,000 and we're still heading towards a meeting with fate at PAJN. I can hope for a ceiling low enough to justify an abort, can't I?
I'm about one hour out and feeling doomed. I'll update this with the result. At least the timing looks good. If only Acme would give me time credit for go-arounds...
Update 1:
Getting ready to start descent now...the plan is to let VNAV fly me down to MDA while I control the speed, and if I can't see the runway at MDA, abort and divert. I'll take the point hit from the company if they wanna be that way. They say it's above minimums right now and have cleared me for the approach. Time to turn on terrain mode on the NAV display and rehearse threading my way thru unseen mountains...I've done this approach once before near minimums...in an Islander approaching at 80 knots. Let's see, Vref today for 28 flaps is 145 knots. Hmmmm. Quick steady hands.
Update 2:
I'm alive! So is Trav! Sitting on the ground here at CYXY ... some place in Canada is all I know ... recovering.
Okay, so here's how it went down.
Flew the approach starting at Sister Island (SSR) as well as I possibly could. Let the FMS keep me on track while I manually handled the throttles to come in over the hill at 145KT down to MDA. The screen was full of red and the GPWS was screaming "TERRAIN PULL UP!! PULL UP!!". But that's normal here. Under me I could just make out the tops of the pines in the gloom. Airport should be right there...where is it? Nothing but gray...then suddenly, the VASIs appear, two white. Heavy rain beating on the wind-shield. I'm high and fast, but I start to turn and drop, then, I'm in another low cloud with visibility zero. I'M OUTTA HERE!
Full power, hard right turn. A massive block of yellow on the nav display looming up in front. Frantically banked around at 45 degrees. Trav comments he wants to pretend he doesn't know me when we get on the ground. If we get on the ground. He'd have better spent his idle time praying but I didn't have a second to make any comments.
Made the necessary insane 180 (the plate uses the phrase "immediate turn") and headed back up to BARLO sweating bullets. Forgot to reduce power and blew past 250 knots, which Trav was kind enough to let me know. But made it back to BARLO and switched in the FMS to take us up to the MAP HOLD at SSR.
Up there, I told Acme we'd be diverting. They weren't happy but accepted it. Nice to have a desk job and judging pilots in clouds surrounded by mountains isn't it? Told ATC and set up the FMC as we exited the hold for the planned alternate CYXY. Weather reports there show visibility 15 miles with scattered clouds. I've never been to this airport and don't have any plates! (BAD pilot leaving without plates for the alternate!)
That's when I noticed the MASTER CAUTION. Look up..."Fuel Level Low". We have 2500 pounds of fuel to land at our alternate.
Now I have to decide the cruise altitude. A balance between too high and running out of fuel, and too low and running into a granite cumulus. After a glance at the terrain map I decide on 16,000 as a compromise. No comment from Trav.
We exit the hold and are off direct to CYXY - 168 miles. Nothing much along the way to see except mountain peaks between the few breaks in the clouds.
And the fuel readout counting down...2400...2300...2200...2000...1900...1800. When will start the descent? And I still can't see anything through these clouds. If this were real life it'd be hard not to panic!
Finally ATC clears us down to 9,000. There's an ILS here and I tune it. Visibility still reported at 15 miles. I decide on a visual approach and fortunately the active is 31L and our course is 340 so we're straight in. Fuel count 1500...1400...1300...1200.
I can't see much but clouds at 9,000 feet. Decide to go lower. ATC tells me to stay where I am. I lie and say I can see the field. What are they gonna do, write me up at my funeral?
I try and figure where to intercept the ILS course. Switch off autopilots and autothrottles. It's just me and the airplane, the sky and the ground now. Lots of clouds, gray landscape under me, no airport but I can see on the NAV display where it should be and I have the ILS ... if I can get on the beam from here.
The fuel readout is showing three digits now.
We fly over a hill and finally I see the airport. Line up for the visual with ILS backup. Concentrate on speed. I've never been so glad to see a strip of asphalt in my life.
Fuel under 500 pounds as we descend. Contact...no pax to reward me for a nice landing but it was -- a bit far down the runway though as we're heavy. I had to lean on the brakes a bit hard and Trav noted we had high brake temps as a result.
We rolled up to the cargo ramp ON TIME with brakes smoking and 200 pounds of fuel in our tanks. That's 100 pounds in each tank, to be exact.
Just another day at the office.
Oh, and what did Acme think about all this? Score for flight is 60. 5 points off for exceeding the speed limit and 25 points for UNAUTHORIZED DIVERT!
They'll probably send me a bill for the extra fuel we used.
I'm just happy to still be around to check the mail. N3788P still hasn't killed me.
-----
All this craziness brought to you by...
Microsoft FSX SP2 running under Windows 7.
FSCaptain 1.3.2 BETA 1
GSX Version 1.7.
Active Sky Evolution
Radar Contact 4.3
Leonardo SH Mad Dog MD-82.
