I'm presently on a three day pairing in YOW (Ottawa). Two aviation acquaintances sent me these photos. Apparently, a hunter/pilot left some smelly fish in his airplane in some remote area of Alaska. The third picture shows what a hungry bear will do. No big deal, after rolls of duck tape and cellophane the airplane is as good as new.
Even airlines use a form of duct tape called "speed tape."It's used to secure latches, flanges, etc. We pilots chuckle to see "speed tape" is holding the plane together.
Speaking of maintenance this three day pairing started with a one hour maintenance delay. We had a SDCU
(Smoke Detector Control Unit) fault. We did several circuit breaker resets. We even tried a full power down of the airplane with a fully loaded airbus 321 (174 pax) and one commuter to YYC (Calgary) in the jump seat. No joy. Finally, we departed under MEL (Minimum Equipment List).
Off to YYZ and then a YHZ (Halifax turn today). I get to relax tomorrow by installing hardwood in three bedrooms. One would think a rich Air Canada captain would get someone in to do the laborious task.
But remember, pilots are known for their thriftiness, which reminds me of the joke I included in my book.
How does a pilot know when he has too far in the thrifty scale? When another pilot notices.
Gone flying.
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4 comments:
Hi Captain Doug,
Keep up the great work. I am really enjoying your blog, hearing about your adventures from a Canadian perspective.
Anon. Thanks for the kind words. I'm in YHZ (Halifax) with one more flight to go to finish my three day pairing.
Capt. Doug
But is there an STC for the special coating they applied to that aircraft? ;)
If you were down in the bush of Alaska, a bear wrecked your plane and you had the choice of doing that, and flying out, or leaving it and hiking out. Would you go? I doubt it's legal but it looks well done. I'd get in it. If it was a matter of that or freezing to death!
Viennatech: I neglected to mention the pilot had "2 new tires, 3 cases of Duct Tape and several rolls of cellophane delivered. Then went about repairing the plane so he could fly it home."
I guess he wouldn't have had that much duct tape on board. But like you said, "whatever it takes to get out of Dodge."
This would make for a great episode on the Red Green show (the king of duct tape).
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