What the windshield wiper revealed after external power brought the airplane alive.
Taxiing to the CDF but waiting our turn.
On days like this...I don't envy these guy's at all.
The Vestergaard Elephant Beta aiming to attack.
What a day. (Note: airplanes do not have "brake lights" on their tails so one must be
veeeerrrrry careful. )
I don't know if it was me spilling some coffee on my pant leg while trying to open my "Timmies" coffee lid driving in a snowstorm or the 20 to 25 pilots/flight attendants lined up in the American Customs that foreshadowed a "bad hair" day.
We pushed back only about 8 minutes late with nearly a full load. But a flight deck door fault prompted us calling maintenance to find a remedy. Done.
Of course, I had to make an announcement telling passengers destined for cruise ships out of Miami we will be needing a spray at the "world's largest deice center."
Taxing was in near white out conditions especially when the guy ahead poured the coals to the engines. We crawled to the deice facility in 45 minutes.
CDF
I decided to woo my passengers with facts and trivia about deicing. (I said good bye to everyone in Florida and not one mentioned my "above and beyond" P.A.) I won't do that again especially after I told them I wrote the "aviation" page and enRoute is always looking for questions. Tough crowd. :)
The deice supervisor noticed we had snow in the #2 engine (first officer's side) intake and asked whether we wanted to shut down #2 to spray the intake. We did. It was the first for me. In fact, the checklists didn't handle it well either.
But it caused a power bump knocking the entertainment system off line. Another announcement by Captain Doug explaining what happened. Losing one's entertainment system is close to declaring a "mayday" nowadays. Passengers expect it and it better work!
Because the snow was deemed heavy in the weather report the holdover deice charts did not apply. It required a PCI (Post Contamination Inspection) meaning the F/O had to go back in the cabin and take a look at the wings.
I make yet another announcement explaining what F/O "John" would be doing.
Visibility got down to 1/8 mile in heavy snow so Captain Doug had to do the take off however the RVRs (Runway Visual Range) improved allowing my F/O to continue with the leg. Conditions had us sit on the runway and spool up the engines to 70% N1 for thirty seconds to rid of any ice in the intakes.
We launch 90 minutes late and the rest of the day was playing catch up.
Dumbo the Elephant
Captain Doug had a perfect attendance in 2010 and received a letter the year before that and the year before that for next to perfect attendance.
Well, I was planned to fly tomorrow but an ear infection is clipping my wings for the day. My right ear is not looking like the other so in best interest not to scare my F/O and passengers Captain Doug is staying home. My wife said I looked like "Dumbo the Elephant." She's called me lots of things over the years so I knew to take her seriously when she called me that. :)
9 comments:
Captain Doug,
Hope you're back in the air soon, thanks for another great post!
YYC Dispatcher
Carlton (I answered your comment in this post instead)
Yes, I guess jet-lag is something the body will never get used to.
Enjoy your MIA turn, wishing you a smooth flight and hopefully the CDF will not cause any delay's.
Hi Carlton. As far as jet lag I really notice the difference since not flying overseas.
But I'm looking forward to going back... for the adventure.
For some reason the CDF took much longer than usual. In fact we queried "Iceman" twice.
One truck had a very young driver, I did a second take twice thinking it was my daughter. :)
There were many on the flight with tight connections to various cruises. I'm not sure why they would
leave things so tight especially when dealing with Canadian winter.
Captain Doug
YYC Dispatcher. Yeah, it's just a bit of a glitch.
My AC doctor was shocked I didn't have a family doctor. Now I have to go and find one. My wife said her doctor is young and pretty so guess where I'm going. :)
The other glitch is...I don't work until next Sunday so my wife will have to contend with me even longer. :)
Sickie pooh Doug
Hi Doug,
Sorry to hear about your ear problem - still, if you are not now flying for a week that should provide plenty of time for it to clear up.
Question - if your wife's doc is young and pretty, why is she letting you go see her? I had an experience with a quite attractive RAF doc during one of my flying med renewals but the detail is very much in the "TMI" folder;) Be careful out there!!
Re the "thunder bumpers" in January mentioned on you Tampa Turn post, I'm not surprised especially considering how the weather has been generally in our patch of the northern hemisphere these past weeks and those pesky "Omega blocks" moving about all over the place. Our BBC/Met Office had some warnings out before Christmas for "thunder snow" but it didn't happen this time around - it did on several occasions last winter. Still, the local weather was ok to allow me to get to York on Wednesday - rain was very heavy in places - but coming back yesterday required sun visors down and shades on all the way! I must clean the inside of the windscreen!!
Kind regards / IanH
IanH.
I too had an experience with a very pretty young doctor in the military. I was about 21 and she was fresh out of "med" school.
She had me stripped down to my birthday suit and then took my blood pressure. Back then I was very shy. I did make it to aircrew selection but the label of "white coat hypertension" stuck with my application.
Now...it's whatever it takes as far as medicals. :)
Yes, people are shocked to hear thunder with snow. All it takes to make a thunderstorm is moisture, a lifting agent and unstable air.
Glad your road trip went well!
F.Y.I I emailed the "other Ian" a couple of weeks ago and no reply. I guess we will never know.
Do you have any inside info on your side?
Doug
Hi Doug, I'll send you an e-mail tomorrow PM UTC.
White coat hypertension - like it! I also suffered from that when I spent a couple of weeks in the RAF hospital at Ely - being treated for hypertension!!!!
Kind regards / IanH
IanH
Yeah that's what the doctors over here call it. I think it's all the pharmaceutical companies drumming up business. :)
I decided to go "au natural" as far as pills. My six month medical says everything is fine.
Here in Canada we have the highest salt intake on the planet. Wonder if that has to do with anything? :)
I'm losing the "Dumbo" look. I better book myself back on.
Captain Doug
Hi Cpt. Doug. Wow, what a full post. Love it. That "Up North" winter flying is difficult as best and I know that everyone works much harder to get the folks to their destinations. I hear you on those tight connections that some folks make; just not smart. And if the weather intervenes, it is ALWAYS the airline's fault! Haha and NUTS!
I read in the next post that the 'Dumbo' ear is improving; gald to hear it and O.M. is not something to screw around with, esp. for a pilot. Not flying until next Sun will allow plenty of time.
As for the White Coat Hypertension, the term has been in common use in medicine for ages; is even a recognized diagnosis. Best treatment: the doc removed the white coat - and everything else...
Glad that you are feeling better.
-Craig
Hi Craig.
Yes, my right ear is looking like the other ear. Luckily it was more on the outer part, but I still think pressurization caused it to go "dumbo" size. :)
As far as "white coat" syndrome most doctors know to take the B/P reading well into the medical. Let things settle down.
I'm back in the gym and pushing things hard thanking my lucky stars for my health.
Although my 13 year old son downloaded music onto my ipod mini as per my request. But I couldn't believe some of the lyrics! Lots of the "f" word and I don't mean FMGC, FCUs, FMSs, etc. :)
And the radio lyrics certainly don't match the original.
Thanks for the comments Craig!
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