Piedmont Flight 81

[Dutch Owen]

It's amazing how FSX, with FSCaptain and a great airplane can occasionally put you in positions that are so real it's stunning.

I should explain what I mean by "real". For those of us that aren't and never were real airline captains, we have to rely on external sources for what's realistic. One of the best, for me, is the NASA ASRS - Aviation Safety Reporting System. They collect anonymous reports of incidents from pilots and you can search their database and read the accounts. There are the things that seldom make it into an accident report, but they give an amazing window into the real-life abnormalities of modern aviation. asrs.arc.nasa.gov/

I'm current cruising at FL260 on Piedmont flight 81, Newark (EWR) to Roanoke (ROA) in the standard Piedmont 737-200. There's no significant weather -- the East Coast is beautiful this afternoon. A routine flight in every way.

Except for the...issues. First, following what seemed like a normal engine startup, the engine #2 "Start valve open" light didn't extinguish. I'd never seen this before, and didn't notice it until we were headed for 4L to depart. I pulled aside into what looked like a safe area to work the problem.

The engine seemed to be operating normally, but I couldn't be sure. To try and get rid of the light I shut down #2 and re-started it. The start again was normal but the value open light wouldn't go out. I ran up the throttle a bit and all indications were normal. I decided it was probably an indicator problem but decided to monitor the takeoff roll and abort at any sign of trouble.

Normal takeoff at EPR 2.18, ready to abort but everything worked fine even with the yellow start value open light still on. Climbed out and started in on the Newark 8 Departure procedure.

At 3,000 feet, Trav remarked that our cabin rate of climb was high. That's not abnormal on the -200 in a steep climb out, so I paid little attention.

At about 4,000 feet - MASTER CAUTION. What? Engines running smooth. A look at the overhead revealed the problem - AUTO FAIL on the pressurization. Cabin rate 1,200 FPM. This is where you really, really need a human FO to fly the airplane. But the RC FO would have to do...CTRL-SHIFT-M and he started flying the airplane as well as handling comms while I tried to figure out what was wrong.

Tried switching auto to standby - no joy. Switched to manual and closed the outflow valve completely ... still 1,200 FPM climb. PAX couldn't be happy about their ears popping...points deducted if I couldn't get this under control soon. Actually, emergency return to EWR if I couldn't get it under control.

Grabbed the QRH (Should have done this first.) I use the real B737-200 QRH, so good is the Tinmouse systems implementation. Section 2.4 Pressure AUTO FAIL. Step 3 - verify PACK switches are on.

Bingo!

When I had been re-starting Engine 2 to get rid of the valve light, I'd had to switch off the packs. Forgot to turn them back on. Packs turned on, climb back down to normal range, PAX happy, flight continues.

I had a funny feeling this was familiar --- Many times in those ASRS reports pressure problems were caused by flight crews forgetting to set pack switches and getting AUTO FAIL due to high rate of climb in cabin. But I had to get out the QRH to remember it!

Starting descent soon.

Dutch

[Travis]

Checklists anyone?...

I've committed myself to some longer haul domestic work in the CS 767 for the past few weeks and I've been building quite a lot of different checklists for non-standard procedures. (I don't know if FS Captain can properly fail CS aircraft, so I've got it set to 100 reliable... for now.)

I built a set of simple checklists for even my default aircraft step by step - I began by listing how I should operate my add-ons in the proper order. I start cold and dark and usually begin by adjusting my seats, checking that weather has loaded, starting ATC, and making sure my MCE FO can hear me. Then I can tell them to spool up the APU and APU Generator while I do my initial pre-flight.

And my pre-load checklist notes that I need to have my battery master on before FS Captain will auto-load. When the auto-load is running I can ask my MCE FO to check the flight controls while I finish setting up the autopilot and prepare for pushback and start. An efficient little process... and if the FCOM decides to fail some of the controls I should know about it.

Eventually I wove in other add-on requirements that needed to occur at a certain time. (As I enter the runway, I'm promped to switch on strobes, shut off taxi lights, and switch on landing lights, etc.) My FS Captain penalties fell off quickly after making them part of my lists.

The stock 737 is ok to use while waiting for the PMDG to come out. I've thought of trying the Tinmouse but it appears there'll not be a VC for it and I'm spoiled. ;D But now I read that the iFly may be out for FSX very soon, so I might see what the feedback looks like there.

[Travis]

Of course I no sooner open my gob about iFly, than PMDG posts a great 737 night takeoff video. Talk about generating a Murphy Field....

[Travis]

... and then you reverse the polarity of the neutron flow and the Murphy Field inverts.... Helloooo iFly!

So getting back on forum topic of "Flight Stories..." for the past few weeks I've been flying "Your World Series Champion San Francisco Giants" to their road games and taking charter flights to and from the hub where I would find myself temporarily based.

At the end of last week I was in and out of the really Windy (and Cloudy) City. Day after day the weather was deteriorating, but nothing serious. (Yet.) So I was overjoyed when yesterday, I was tasked to take a B739 to KFLL and back. Sweet - Sand and Sun.

The ceilings were low, but visibility was good when I departed ORD early in the day and after an uneventful trip over lots of photoscenery, we touched down for another on-time performance. I anticipated a 90 minute turnaround, so I left my trusty FO in charge to man the cleanup crew in order for the missus and I to enjoy some pizza and The Doctor's Wife (Not in that order... and shut up, not like that....).

When settling in for the flight north, I did a wx check and (as I do in all my domestic flights) I then checked the FAA's National Airspace System Status board - www.fly.faa.gov/ois/ - and my jaw dropped. Ground Delay for KORD. I went to look up the advisory details and got the very very not good news that you'll see in the attached screenshot.

For those who don't know a Ground Delay is, the term used when (for whatever reason - bad weather, security, too much traffic) incoming flights to an airport are ordered to delay their departure. There are a lot of subtleties that can be factored into a Ground Delay- some delays only apply to certain other airports or ATC sectors, or even to certain airlines. But when you see the folks on the Weather Channel talk about "airport delays" this is what's behind it all. And as bad and as schedule-busting as they are, Ground Delays aren't the worst thing that can happen to a healthy on-time-focused airline. A Ground Stop is much much worse - when a Ground Stop is declared for an airport, nothing's coming in for quite a while. Think Heathrow for a patch of time last winter. Look elsewhere.

So I'm looking at an average 153 minute delay for inbound flights into KORD. It was about 1530 local time and with the local TAF in hand, I knew thunderstorms would be making their presence felt soon, but I played it square and had Dispatch keep the 134 pax in the boarding area while I did chores and checked the Lauderdale radar and weather from time to time. Strong gusts and building clouds.

As the EDT clock hit 1730 I settled back in to the flight deck and did another weather check. A line of thunderstormyness was building and moving towards the area - more and more local airports began to report windshifts. I worked through my (new) long preflight checklist, loaded everyone, closed the door and committed the flight with Dispatch. After a moderate queue for takeoff, I received clearance and took the runway. I had been listening to tower call out a steady non gusty wind to previous flights, and I received the same assurance. Although the earlier gusts at KFLL had died, the general funkiness of the winds in the area had spooked me so I had planned for a minimum flaps takeoff. Good planning on my part as you're about to find out.

So it was V1, Rotate, wheels off the ground, and positive rate. All was looking good and I gave the command for gear up when suddenly the cockpit filled with the call WINDSHEAR WINDSHEAR.

Being the first time I had heard such, I took it to be less of a prediction and more of a warning. I'd read several different procedures to take when hitting windshear on takeoff which I had condensed into - keep wings level, don't mess with the flaps or gear, maintain a slow and steady climb at as slow a speed if possible - even slower than reference if needed. And don't crash. So I commanded the autothrottle and my flight director to be disconnected, lowered our climb, and flew straight. By that point Tower gave us over to Departure who I knew would be soon asking me to maintain my SID. So I called "over to departure" but didn't introduce myself. All seemed fine, and after a really long sixty... or one hundred and sixty... seconds with no mister scary voice, I switched the auto pilot systems on, began LNAV, and started our flap retraction schedule.

By that time Departure began to wonder where we were going, so after a few minutes of playing "ignore those vectors" we were on track and chasing the sun to Chi-town. That was a race we'd lose, but thanks to flying a charter we were on-time again. ;D Into misty rain and gusty winds and pretty lights. And the WINDSHEAR guy popped by to say WINDSHEAR WINDSHEAR again. I really wanted to fly another autoland but I stuck by the same general rules for takeoff and hand flew us in with incredible slowness. Now I'm wanting to buying one of those throttle sets with a TO/GA button and reverser levers. Okay... maybe not....

Moral of the story? Weather changes and so do the "rules" and it's up to you to keep on top of things. Don't depend on any of your robot co-pilots to check Ground Delay programs for you. They never learn.

Attachments:

[0artur0]

Is this "Windshear" message part of FSCaptain? I never heard that.

[Travis]

Sorry no, that's a system in the just now released iFly 737 NGX aircraft.