A big bird at Toronto's deice facility. It was enroute to Vancouver and then Sydney, Australia. We had to wait until it got out of the way. Even at idle thrust the fluid was whisking back along the ground from the jet blast. Actually, one truck got a little close to the aft right engine and you could see it wobbling in the wind.
Captain Doug...still waiting for "BIG BIRD" to move so I got creative with this shot.
I notice my camera is now causing a streak in the pics. These shots were taken on day one, after doing a West Palm beach turn and with us running late due to the inbound flight. Our long duty day went past by an hour.
Last night just passing over Montreal enroute to St. John's Newfoundland.
Note the wind read out (top left corner) of 201 knots. It got as high as 210 knots. The strongest I've seen it over land. I even mentioned it during our pre descent announcement.
While others partied on Crescent street in Montreal, Captain Doug flew overhead at FL 330 in stronger than hurricane "strength five" winds. But it was smooooooth!
Nadia, we flew by you last night at 615 knots actually top speed got up to 630 knots.
We were FLYING! :)
Day Two:
Our inbound flight from Toronto was running 30 minutes. A good way to start the day. NOT!
Light snow fell on yet another cold Canadian city so it meant we would be getting even more proficient with the deice checklist. Actually, I am getting really tired of it.
But what a minute, while getting a clearance ATC mentions there is flow control into Toronto. Expect a 45 minute delay. We decide to go for the deice and get type four anti-icing fluid to give us breathing room in case they stick to their guns with the "wheels up" time.
When at the deice center, "Iceman" informs us there is only one truck. We check our deice flow chart. It said, "if thou gets deiced with type IV with only one truck... then thou must do it with engines off." We shut down. :( During the spray I query Iceman, why only one truck thinking the other one is broken. Reason..."the others are having lunch, so we are only operating one truck." WTF? What happens if Captain Doug decides to pull off and have lunch? Our dispatchers don't leave their desk during their shift and I'm told the guys at Toronto's CDF stay in the trucks as well. Hmmmmm? Funny, this was the same excuse I heard two years ago during the same operation. I'll stop there.
Because we deiced with one truck, the flowchart also states, "thou shall do a PDI (Post Deice Inspection). The F/O gets up and I wait until he gets into "J" class to make a P.A something to the effect... "the good looking first officer will be inspecting the wings as per our procedure." He said he heard one snicker from a female passenger in "J." He came back and said, "you got me good," with a big smile.
As we taxi out ground queries our runway choice. "You might want to use runway 32 after I tell what 25 is like." We departed off 32.
Now we are running big time late. The flight we were to take from Toronto is a continuation from Fort McMurray, Alberta. These passengers were scheduled to sit for an hour. Noticed I said, scheduled? They had to wait for us.
We get our flight plan from the gate. Glitch number one...the printer is DOT matrix so our regular weather charts are missing. Luckily ex-Metman Morris had a good look at things on the previous flight...ahem. The datalink rattles off a PIREP (pilot report) from a Halifax flight stating they encountered moderate plus...almost severe turbulence at FL250 to FL 280. I check out our flight plan altitude, tropopause height, shear forecast and aver we will be above it. But you should have seen the shear of wind speed as we climbed through the screaming jet stream.
I did the walk around while the F/O readied the flight. This was after I greeted most of the passengers with a loud welcome aboard as I entered a loaded airplane and with everyone staring at us. One business class passengers demanded when the bar will open because of the delay. Tough crowd.
I declared the aircraft free of ice. But the deice co-ordinator had different views. I ask him back for a second opinion. "There is some residual fluid freezing and the light snow is sticking to it." Guess where we had to go? Did I tell you I'm getting tired of the deice checklist?
Here I sit in St. John's, Newfoundland and my meteorological senses are tingling. This place is going to get hit by a big one. And guess who will be departing in the thick of things?
Did I tell you I'm getting tired of that deice checklist?
I'm looking forward to visiting Mickey Mouse late tonight. I sure hope I don't have to pull out that checklist. :)