So for an airport at which all runways are parallel, a crosswind could actually close down the airport? I assume that this is considered when designing airports.

You got it right.

Never flown into Keflavik (BIKF), though we use it as a planned divert field quite often for our ocean crossings (as you mention). For a long stretch it's the closest field we've got.

On my return from Moscow two weeks ago, we actually flew north of Keflavik, up at about 69° North latitude.

My dad spent 6 months there in the late 50s flying P2Vs for the Navy.

I doubt anybody with less than 10 hours of rotary wing flight time could control a helicopter well enough to get it flying. I went through helicopter flight school with guys who had former fixed wing time and they were ahead of the game when it came to airspace rules and procedures and stuff, but their experience was a detriment when it came to controlling the aircraft. There aren't very many similarities in the controls. Also a helicopter goes through some very unique aerodynamic events on takeoff, if you're not ready for them and know how to maneuver through them you'll get tossed around and lose control for sure.

I had this happen to me not too long ago. It was my ride home from Afghanistan on a C-17 which made things a little bit scarier because (1) we couldn't see out any windows to find out what was going on and (2) there were 150 or so armed soldiers who were going to be very upset if that plane did not take off. My friend snagged a seat in the cockpit for that flight so he was able to fill me in on what happened later. Something about a stabilizer not working correctly, a minor issue because we taxied around to take off again and took off the second time with it still not working.

I was working at Lajes the year after this happened. The Portuguese officials there were super pissed. The plane put huge wheel divits through the concrete in their runway upon landing. Cost a ton to fix. Nice they made it though, lucky.

I've been in a few emergency situations. The first when I was little they made us land with our heads between our legs. They didn't know if the landing gear was locked down or not. Do they still do the tuck maneuver in emergencies?

The second was flying into Detroit we hit a huge gust of wind that tipped the plane very sideways upon landing and the pilot had to pull up and try again. Very scary.

I have also had what the pilot called a fire start. Something about the engine catching fire upon starting. Flight delayed, I think they switched planes. Are these very common? Ever have any?

When a member of the crew inspects the plane prior to take off what exactly are they looking for? Wouldn't it be better if the mechanics walked down the plane?

Also since you fly for Delta. Do you know what happened to the NWA mechanics. I know they went on strike a while ago. Are they just out now?

Thanks, enjoying the thread.

I see what you're saying, but since V1 is defined as the point at which you're committed to takeoff, it doesn't make much sense to talk about a V1 that's greater than Vr. Once you've rotated for takeoff, I say you're pretty well committed to flying.

Well, you have an airport diagram (Jeppesen page 10-9 for every airport) which shows the designation for every taxiway and runway on the field. They also paint big numbers on the departure ends of the runways, so we look at that too.

Good characterization of those forums. I agree, OOT is much more adult.

No, I didn't and I'll have to do it tomorrow. I actually have two I think I'll post tomorrow, both occurred in single engine four seaters. One was engine failure in heavy rain over mountains, the other was severe icing and landing in 40 knot winds.

That's very flattering, especially since one of the things I have the greatest admiration for is really good writing. When I read Ernest K. Gann's "Fate is the Hunter" I marveled at how he could tell a story that was so compelling.

It would probably be fun to try, but I'm sure I would need a really good editor. In any case, thanks very much for the kind words.

Not as long as we remain in the atmosphere. We are moving in an air mass which tends to rotate with the earth.

I have never been north of 70 North latitude, or south of Sao Paulo, Brazil (which is where I'll be going on the 28th, right after I get back from Vegas).

No, it's no legend. In the early days of instrument flying, it was hard to get pilots to trust what their eyes were telling them (on the instruments) and ignore what their inner ear was telling them. It's still one of the hurdles in basic instrument flying today and an instructor will spend time demonstrating to the student just how his inner ear can be fooled.

In the real early days in open cockpits, pilots even depended on the sound the airplane bracing wires made in the slipstream and some resisted the move to an enclosed cockpit for that reason.

When some of the early pilots first flew into clouds (without proper instruments such as an artificial horizon) they had a fallback technique to use if they started getting disoriented: put the plane in a spin. It's very easy on the airframe because the plane falls at stall speed. When they came out of the clouds they would simply recover. Not a good technique if the clouds went all the way to the ground.

You're right and I shouldn't be so critical; I don't really have a better solution. After all, they had to do something didn't they? And even though it's not going to thwart determined action (imo), its kind of like locks on your car doors: it makes sure honest people aren't tempted. With security, it might stop the spur-of-the-moment crazy guy.

I really marvel at the good, insightful questions I get here.

This actually happens and, if necessary, we will land at a weight greater than max landing weight. In this case, we record the fact in the logbook and try to put the descent rate at touchdown in the report. An inspection of the airframe has to be done by a mechanic before the airplane is returned to service. Damage will only occur with a hard touchdown (high descent rate), but conceivably it could be major since the engineers didn't plan on that weight.

In the 767 (and all jumbo aircraft I think, but not the MD-88 for example) we have the capability to dump fuel and we will brief this if our takeoff weight greatly exceeds our max landing weight. If I remember the numbers correctly, the 767 will dump at 2800 lbs of fuel per minute (about 420 gallons per minute), so we can get our landing weight down significantly in the time it takes to run checklists and vector back for approach. Of course, if we're on fire and need to get down immediately, we dispense with this maneuver.

But if we've got the time (say it's something like the flaps wouldn't retract after takeoff. In this case, we're not going to proceed with the flight, but there's no immediate need to land), the FAA wants us to dump the fuel and land under max allowable landing weight.

Back in the days my father flew off of aircraft carriers, fuel dumping was extremely common in order to get down to max trap weight. Of course fuel was 15 cents a gallon then too.

This one is it for the night...my wife wants some "quality time".

The planes look like they're standing still, but if they're 20 miles from the airport they wouldn't be going slower than 180 kts and probably are doing at least 200 kts.

[BTW, to convert knots to mph, just add 15%...like figuring a tip. So 200 kts is 230 mph. We use knots exclusively in air travel.]

The stall speed of a 767, as with any airplane, will vary with the airplane weight and its configuration (i.e. flaps down or up, gear down or up).

With full flaps, we might stall at 115 kts (note that's just a guess as I sit here on my couch). In the clean configuration, it will be much higher...perhaps 150 knots. I'm guessing at these numbers because we don't even discuss them in training and we never practice stalls in a transport category airplane.

If we even approach stall, we will get a stickshaker at least 10 kts prior to stall onset (this is the plane's way of saying "Hey dummy, you're screwing up") and if we continue further into the stall, the stickpusher will activate which actually pushes the control column forward and forces the plane's nose down in an attempt to fly out of the incipient stall (the plane's way of saying "All right moron, can't take a hint? I'll take over then").

On light airplanes, knowing the stall speed is crucial information and we actually practice stalls in various configurations. And we land at or near a full stall to achieve lowest possible touchdown speed. In large aircraft, we do not land in a stall.

Also, in light airplanes the airspeed indicator indicates normal operating range with a green arc; the low end of the green arc is stall speed in the clean (flaps up) configuration. A white arc continues below the green arc and the bottom of the white arc is stall speed with flaps down.

Sitting here, I can't honestly picture in my mind if we have the green and white arcs on the airspeed indicator in the 767. Kind of embarrassing to admit that and I hope I'm not losing your confidence in me.

No, not standard at all and I can't even think of anyone I've ever heard say they've done this. In fact we've got to be careful about anything we take because a lot of OTC stuff is prohibited for use by flight crews (although the No Doz type stuff is really just like taking caffeine, so maybe it's ok). The only cold medicine that I know of that we allowed to use and still fly is Sudafed.

Sure we do and there's no problem with this at all. It's only below 10,000' that everything has to be pertaining to the operation of the flight. This is called "sterile cockpit" and is supposed to exist from engine start to passing 10,000' on the way up and then again from 10,000' to engine shut down on the way down.

Do pilots break sterile cockpit? Sure, it happens but not to the extent of prolonged conversations about non-flight related stuff. Someone might say, "Wow, look at that view of Manhattan!", but we save the political debates for cruise altitude.

Here in OOT, we try not to metnion tipping -- especially in good threads. We might seem a good, rationale, mature bunch. But all bets are off if you get us started on tipping.

What do you think was more difficult to pull off?

The Gimli Glider landing - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider (767 had to glide in from 41000 feet) or Sullenberger landing in the Hudson?

I remember that one, that pilot was one hell of a glider pilot.

W0X0F, this thread is awesome. Makes me want to play with my X-Plane flight simulator again. I love airplanes and love watching them. I live 3/4 mile east of the runway at KADS.

How many 3 digit airport codes do you think you know by heart?

How many frequencies do you know by heart? (Communication or navaids)

I am about 1/5th done with getting my privates license, it's been taking me almost 2 years to get it. I'm just way too lazy to actually go to the regional airport and fly. Plus it's like $150 every time I do it.

Anyways, do you recommend getting a privates + instrument rating to be able to go with friends for a small day trip once in a while?

Having been an air traffic control trainee I can assure you that canadian controllers make garbage money until they "check out" and get their license which is a colossal pain in the ass. Even after they check out the money is decent if you work what you're supposed to but the majority of controllers here abuse the overtime/day off in lieu system to make substantially more money.

Having worked in both the Toronto and Edmonton area control centers I can assure you that on a daily basis an ATC will encounter far more stress and complex decision making than your average pilot.

And before the question gets asked, yes I was working in Toronto for 9/11

Up.
Can't sleep.

And what better way to kill some time than visit 2p2? I wanted to post at least one story and also maybe a picture or two before I answer any more questions.

I have two good time lapse movies I took during my time at ACA and I tried posting those here but I've first got to figure out how to upload them to my gallery on my mac .me account. I tried, but apparently they got uploaded as .jpg instead of .mov and so when I tried to post here, you could only see the first pic of the time lapse sequence.

If anyone out there thinks they can tell me how to do this, please send me a private message. Thx.

Thanks for a great thread, been lots of fun reading it.

Ever had to follow a TCAS conflict avoidance resolution? Ever had a controller issue a clearance or command that made you wonder if the guy/girl was an idiot? Ever get issued a command that made you think the **** was about to hit the fan?