Wedding Bells

It's starting to happen, friends are marrying off!

This weekend I'm in Toronto to attend Bonnie's marriage to Jim Saturday in Richmond Hill. Weather looks like it will hold for a nice outdoor ceremony and then later it's off to the Metropolitan Hotel in downtown Toronto for the reception.

I just so happened to cash in some of my Hilton Honor points and am staying for free for 2 nights in the Hilton downtown Toronto. I priced it out, this should be costing me $250/nt. Not a bad deal for free! The Metropolitan hotel is an easy 10 min walk away so that's all good too. Also, Westjet footed most of the bill for this flight after having lost my bags prior to my Puerto Rico trip. So all in all, I'm coming out pretty good for this trip so far!

Rain, Snow, Hail, all in a holiday weekend

Well, May long weekend has brought all sorts of weather here to Calgary. We've seen bits of everything. Seems about right, first long weekend during actual spring time in Calgary and weather goes to shit.

Oh well. It didn't stop my roommates and I from going out during some of the dry times to crank up the mini bike. You may recall from last year having some fun on this miniature sport bike. It is just way too much fun, and I'm sure we've pissed off all the neighbours, but you can see that they can't help but laugh. My cheeks are sore just from that very simple fact, that you can't help but laugh.

Here are a couple pics from the weekend fun. I feel more confident on this thing than from last year, frequently taking it up to it's top speed of 45 km/hr - which is damn fast when you're only a couple inches off the ground!

Let the mayhem begin
Full speed coming up the hill by our house
My roommate Jeff taking his first turn on the bike, he opted for some protective hockey goalie headgear :)

Flying.. woo hoo!

So I finally get to do some flying out of Kitchener, I won't return back to Calgary having not flown anything. Except it's kind of funny that we fly empty all the way over to Las Vegas and then do a quick little hop over to Palm Springs. That's about 5 hours of empty flying just to do a quick little 35 min flight! Oh well. I fly where they tell me to fly.

I'll spend 2 nights in the nice Hotel Zoso in Palm Springs (the one with the 42" plasma tvs). Temps look very warm over there, I won't make the same mistake I did last time and not put on any sunscreen. Thursday we will end up flying over to Santa Ana California to take some folks from there up to Edmonton. Then I'll drive home that night and be in Calgary by around 10pm most likely.

I end up losing one of my "guaranteed" days off as a result. I'll be compensated, and it's not like I've got much on the go, so it's ok. I've got some days booked off to go to Bonnie's wedding coming up in a couple of weeks so there better not be any trying to take those days, they'll have to work something else out then! It's a very rare occurrence that they get stuck and need people to work a day off. Especially considering we have so many pilots right now.

Oh, a funny thing just happened. I bumped into another Calgary Jet First Officer who has also been out east for a long time. We're on the same hotel floor and everything. Our rooms are 8 ft apart and neither of us knew the other was here! We have been eating alone and hanging out by ourselves and on the last day that either of us are here, we bump into each other... yeesh, you'd think someone in our company would have mentioned we were both here. Oh well. We'll be heading out to dinner shortly.

Off to Ontario for a few days

Not much blogging lately, that's because not much is happening. I haven't been getting any flights as we have too many pilots in my position right now with some new guys who need their initial training. So they generally get a bit of priority so they can be fully signed off to fly with all the crews.

There is a plane in Kitchner, ON and my room mate Mike had been out there with it, but he goes on his days off tomorrow, so he's flying back on Westjet right now, and I will fly out tomorrow morning to take over hanging out.

So, no flights actually planned, just hanging out with the plane if any flights do come up. That means that instead of sitting on my ass not flying in Calgary, now I'll be doing the same out in Ontario. I'll be flown back on Wednesday if no flights come up that can bring back earlier than that. Thursday begin my actual days off, so if the plane is still out there I imagine they'll fly out another guy to cover.

Other news, I finally got my new tires mounted. I've kept the old rubber as I found a buyer who'll take them off me for $20 each, which helps pay for the mounting and balancing costs. I'm glad I had won 2 of the tires already because it was a hefty bill even if just for 2 tires and the mounting. The Yokohama AVSES100's do look mighty sexy and handle great though.

Well, off to Toronto bright and early tomorrow. So maybe I'll post from out there.

Mazatlan no more

Oh well, I couldn't really count on it, and the schedule changed around a bunch so I didn't get to go on the trip today to Mazatlan MX.

There is also nothing else on the schedule for me. In the near future I see some Las Vegas trips and a Chicago trip, so maybe I'll get one of those.

Did I wake up in Vancouver???

You think I'd be living in Vancouver with a forecast like this:

Nope, just a weird day in Calgary. Our annual rainfall here in Calgary is around 300mm (Vancouver is 1120mm!) so when it starts to rain this hard, it's quite unusual. We're essentially getting 10% of our annual rainfall over the next 24hrs!

As I'm typing this out our power just went out. Hmmm, something to do with all this water perhaps!? More likely somebody just drove into a power transformer after panicking from having to use their windshield wipers. Much the same way a Vancouver driver panics when the snow starts flying and they start driving into ditches all over town. Oh, it only last 10 minutes, the power just came back to life. Fewph, not much to do on a rainy day in Calgary, I needed the power!

One good thing that will come out of this nice heavy rainfall will be a bit of a road clean. Most of the neighborhoods have now had the street sweepers come through and clear away most of the left over winter gravel, but it is still pretty dusty and dirty around places. So hopefully this will help clean up some of these streets. That's one thing I miss about Vancouver, the nice clean streets, no gravel, no road salt etc.

Mexico, Mazatlan MX to be exact...

I'm off to Mexico for a week! A very nice upcoming trip to Mazatlan Mexico from May 6th to the 12th. I hope this trip sticks, as my last nice layover didn't quite happen.


Mazatlan isn't quite a resorty town like Cabo, Cancun or Puerto Vallarta, but it still is a rather nice piece of real estate. I imagine we'll be put up in a decent hotel and or all inclusive resort. I'm not working much, so if I'm not going to be working, I may as well not be working in Mexico! :)

WWII Aircraft Carrier Operations

Somebody had posted this movie link in one of the Aviation forums that I frequent.

It's an amazing little video spliced together of some of the first carrier operations, back in the hay day when it was still very new. Even today it's still very dangerous, but take a look at how it used to be done. A different world.

Facebook

Well, I've joined the facebook craze.

You can search me out there if you have it too. I've only been on it for a week and the amount of people that keep messaging me continues to amaze me. People from back in high school, college, old friends, cousins, even my sister found me.

It's a fun little tool, I'll have to post some pictures up there because I have other photos that aren't that great that other people have in their albums of me and then tagged me into that album so they show up on my account.. I need some better ones. Haha.

Well, back to facebook, I just had another email pop up that somebody has likely added me as a friend as I was typing out this post.

Sun burnt

Well, I return from Palm Springs, after getting a longer layover than I had anticipated, and I'm sun burnt!

We had a good time, as we met up with another jet crew who had brought a plane in the day before. So we partied it up with them a little bit and we had a rental car so we could all get around pretty easily. The first day was actually windy, cold and rainy, but the next 2 days proved to be perfect - 25 degrees and sunny. Great poolside weather, which is where I obtained a wee bit too much sun.

Our trip ended up changing, so we stayed in Palm Springs until today (Sunday) and then flew over to another little airport in Bermuda Dunes which is right next to Palm Springs and picked up a group of 7 guys and a massive amount of bags. We had to get creative, but we fit them all on board.

I managed to catch both the Flames game and Canucks game last night. What a disappointment, those damn Canucks need to pull it together!

Well, looks like I'm in Calgary for a few days at least, time to go back to nursing my sunburn.

Palm Springs until Sunday

Well, finally I get a trip to Palm Springs and actually get to stay more than 12 hours. Unfortunately, the weather isn't that great! It's cold, windy, cloudy and even a bit of rain. I'm here until Sunday though so I think tomorrow and Sunday should be much nicer days. I'm looking forward to baking in the sun a bit.

Got a call out yesterday kind of last minute. So I stay in Palm Springs until Sunday, and then we head up to Edmonton to drop some folks off and then back to Calgary.

Flying on the jet, but not flying

My days off start today and I was lucky enough to spot that one of our jets is flying to Vancouver empty this afternoon to do a pickup. So I am hoping on the flight in the back to live it up for the hour flight to Vancouver. I'll be sticking around until Wednesday and will catch both of the Vancouver games while back (on TV of course as they're playing in Dallas now).

wednesday I'll Westjet back to Calgary. It's a shame we don't have any travel perks set up with any of the airlines as I could then travel for a fraction of the cost, but every once and a while I can hop on these empty flights within our own fleet and that's not too shabby either.

Go Canucks Go!

Holy Quadruple OT Batman!

That was quite the game there last night when the Canucks and Stars went into quadruple overtime before finally Henrik Sedin finished her off to make the game winner.

The first 3 periods were pretty good with the back and forth, but man, you could tell they were very tired as the OT periods just kept going and going. It was really up to the goalies at that point. Luongo made some amazing saves.

I was hooting and hollering from my house here in Calgary with my Canucks jersey on, but eventually ended up watching the game end in bed because the game went so damn long!

Go Canucks Go!

When do pilot's decide to reject a takeoff?

I thought I'd get into a few topics surrounding my occupation. There is a lot of misinformation surrounding the aviation industry and I'd like to help clarify some of it and hope to make people more aware of what's going on behind the scenes as they travel aboard aircraft for holidays or business meetings.

In this case I'm going to talk a little bit about the takeoff roll in your standard commercial operation. Right up from the little guys, all the way up to the major airlines, these procedures are nearly identical. This procedure in particular is practiced many many times within flight simulators, and is a required item to pass successfully before you will be granted your endorsement on a new type of aircraft.

The procedure in question is the rejected takeoff, or continued takeoff after a major malfunction.

The idea is simply this, before the flight there are a lot of calculations made which are directly formed from the weight of the aircraft, temperature, density, length of runway, elevation of airport, wet, dry or snow/slush/ice covered runways etc. The main numbers that result from these calculations are what are called "V speeds". For the type of aircraft that I fly, we have a "V1" speed, a "VR" speed and a "V2" speed.

V1 Speed = go or no go speed. This is a very, very important speed which means that if any major malfunction occurs prior to this speed it is safe to abort the takeoff. The biggest example of this would be an engine failure, fire or other major catastrophic event. If any of these events occur AFTER this speed, then the aircraft (even with a failed engine) will be able to safely takeoff and you can deal with the problem in the air.

VR Speed = rotate speed. This is simple enough and is the speed at which the aircraft is rotated off the runway and very shortly thereafter becomes airborne.

V2 Speed = flight safety speed. This is a speed at which you must maintain to have absolute control over the aircraft and will allow for a safe climb out.

These are the most common numbers derived, there are some variations with different aircraft, but for the most part, this is what is calculated prior to the flight.

So for an example, I will use some numbers based on our aircraft for takeoff speeds. A typical set of speeds would be around V1=100 knots, VR=110 knots and V2=120 knots. So before each takeoff we brief to each other what we will do for our emergencies. As an example I will publish our company's standard takeoff briefing:

Pilot flying says "This will be a standard left seat, flap 15 takeoff, any emergencies prior to V1 I will call either reject or continue, if the decision is to reject I will retard the thrust levers, and apply maximum braking and reverse thrust, bringing the aircraft to a stop on the runway"
Pilot not flying then says "I will deploy the speed brakes, call 70 knots, monitor braking and reverse deployment and advise air traffic control"
Pilot flying continues with "If the malfunction occurs after V1, the only actions to be taken below 400 ft will be to raise the landing gear and reset any master/warning caution lights as applicable. Emergency return will be vectors back around to runway 34, with the minimum safety altitude of 6,700 ft. We are on the 'Stampede 3 Departure' from Calgary which is to maintain runway heading until 7,000 ft. Our speeds are V1=100 knots, VR=110 knots and V2=120 knots, do you have any questions?"

Some of that may be quite a lot of gibberish to you, but it happens before each flight so that each pilot knows what the other is doing. So if traveling down the runway on the takeoff roll and there is an engine fire in one of the engines prior to the "V1 speed" then the takeoff will be rejected. If it occurs after the speed, then it is safer to takeoff with the engine on fire, and deal with the situation in the air.

You'll be happy to know that all the major commercial airlines are able to fly very happily with only one engine, even during the takeoff. The engines can even be on fire for quite some time before a real danger presents itself.

During my training for the jet I currently fly, the instructors would tell us "if that engine fire light illuminates, take a sip of your coffee, take a deep breath, and then go through your emergency checklists." The reason being, that you don't want to rush the situation and handle it appropriately, rather than hastily doing something that could further aggravate the ordeal.

So rest assured that your flight crew is perfectly trained and capable of handling even the most dire of situations regarding your aircraft. The training is extensive and routine. Airlines do have engine failures, birds get sucked into engines, mechanical malfunctions have occured, but the airplanes and crew are well up to the challange of bringing you back to the ground safely.

I've found a couple of videos on youtube to help in my blog post. The first video is of an Airbus A330 shortly after takeoff, they encounter engine problems and have to return back to the airport. It is a quick clip but just goes to show you that the plane will not fall out of the sky.


The other video is of a Boeing 747 which has a major malfunction and rejects it's takeoff. However, they had been going very fast and possibly even past their "V1 speed" when they decided to reject the takeoff. The result was they were not able to safely stop the airplane and it skidded of the end of the runway as captured by an aiport security camera. Nobody was injured, just a banged up cargo airplane and luckily everyone walked away. It is too easy to be an "armchair quarterback" and say what these guys should have done, I would have hated to have been in their position. If they rejected the takeoff that late in the takeoff roll there was likely a damn good reason for it.


So in summary, the decisions regarding your safe takeoff and subsequent flight are figured and factored out long before you are sitting at the end of the runway ready to fly. Your crew is expertly trained and retrained to handle even the worst disaster at the worst possible time. In the simulator training the exercise is called "V1 cuts" because they will give you the malfunction immediatly before or immediatly after that V1 speed so that you can be trained to handle the emergency right at the worst possible time.

If anybody has any further questions I'd be happy to answer. Enjoy your next flight!

Airline pilot gets flight cancelled for swearing up a storm

Some folks had to spend a little more time in Las Vegas after their flight was cancelled due to one of the pilots who couldn't control his f-bombs.

(CNN) -- Northwest Airlines canceled a flight with 180 passengers aboard after the pilot began cursing at passengers while the plane was being prepared for takeoff in Las Vegas on Friday, airline officials and witnesses said.

The cancellation disrupted Easter travel plans for many of the passengers.

From the moment the captain stepped aboard Flight 1190 to Detroit, passengers reported hearing him use "animated" language while talking on his cell phone, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor told CNN.

"He was having a fit, swearing up a storm," a passenger on the flight said. "He was saying 'F this' and 'F that.'"

When confronted about it by passengers, the pilot became "obscene" and began cursing at the customers, she said. "He made a big disturbance."

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police and the local FAA flight standards office were notified, Gregor said. Police arrived on the scene, pulled the pilot aside and interviewed him.

He was not administered a field sobriety test. CNN was unable to immediately contact the police officers involved.

The FAA officials called Northwest Airlines headquarters. The airline decided to remove the pilot from the aircraft and fly him to Detroit for further questioning.

Northwest Airlines then canceled the flight, apologized for the delay and offered hotel accommodations and penalty-free re-booking on the next available flight out of Las Vegas, a spokesman for the airline said.

The airline said "a review of the matter" was being conducted and the decision to cancel the flight was made "due to reports of inappropriate language by a crew member."

Mike Fergus, an FAA spokesman, said the FAA's flight standards investigation unit was looking into the incident. According to Fergus, the FAA has the authority to send a "letter of admonition" to the pilot or, in the most extreme cases, revoke a pilot's FAA certificate, which would ground the pilot.

"I had to call and cancel two family dinners and we're stuck here an extra night," a passenger said. "We've been at the airport for six hours waiting -- it's chaos. It's Easter weekend...we want to be home."

Article from CNN here.