Kiwee, hang in there old buddy, here's a little story to cheer you up!
THAI TUN. .------------------------------------------------
Phew, that was a busy 29 hours.
We set off from Stansted at 0635 on Thursday morning, positioning to Farnborough to fly BAe employees between Farnborough and Warton. The plan. .was to operate two live sectors, have about six hours rest at Farnborough, another two sectors, and drive back to Stansted in the company Previa that the next crew would be driving down in. The rest period would permit an. .extended 'split duty'.
I was PF for the first leg to Farnborough and flew a Compton SID followed by vectors from London control. As we turned SW towards Farnborough the sunrise on our left was very pretty and I managed to get a nice picture about 30 seconds before the sun peeped above the stratus layer below. The usual routine of obtaining weather, arrival briefing, speaking to handling on box 2, descent checks and approach checks, and we are being vectored by Farnborough Approach for the ILS Rwy24. We are on a wide downwind leg, Approach taking us just outside a danger area where the army practice shooting and blowing things up. Once past the danger area we request a visual approach and turn in towards the airfield. I fly a continuous descending turn, deccelerating, configuring, and calling for the Landing checks as we roll out onto a short steep final. The GPWS, like a nagging aunt, winges about the descent rate, but finally shuts up as I commence a gentle flare, slightly higher than usual, for a gentle transition from steep. .approach to hold off. I let the mains touch early and immediately lower the nosewheel. The FO calls 'two low pitch' and I select a handfull of reverse - it's early morning but the ATR is very quiet - and moderate wheel braking to get us off at an early turnoff, straight into the North Gate for the South apron. Yessss! I'd normally prefer to save the wheel brakes but we're. .running a few minutes behind schedule.
The dispatcher comes on board and gives us our figures, a full load, which presents us with a minor problem. One of the hosties has brought her sister, Carmen, visiting from Italy along for the ride. I explain to Carmen that we will have to leave her behind, but promise to pick her up later on. She looks nervous at the prospect of being left on her own, but fortunately a. .short while later a passenger changes his plans and she gets a reprieve. I am PF again and enjoy hand flying the departure and most of the climb to. .FL180. The weather at Warton is breezy, with good viz below broken cloud at 3,000ft or so. I spot the airfield while still around seven miles to the. .South, it's position away from the coast and just North of the river means I'm looking at Warton and not Blackpool, the GPS and DME indications look good, and Ivan, the FO, agrees. We are cleared for a visual approach, and as. .we get closer to the field I can positively identify the runway and recognise the general airfield layout. From a base leg join I fly another continuous descending turn, deccelerating, configuring, nicely into the. .groove for a short, steep, final and another smooth touchdown. It can be very satisfying, this job.
Ivan flies us back to Farnborough in his usual professional, thoughtful manner. While in the descent NW of the field, under vectors for Rwy 24, we identify Farnborough visualy. We agree that we're not looking at Blackbushe or Odiham, and Approach agree to hold a departure and let us straight in on 06, if we can get the height off without orbiting. Losing height and speed is no problem in an ATR as there is no limiting speed for selecting the prop RPM to max, and you can use them to create an enormous amount of drag. We. .easily get the height off and save several minutes airborne time by going straight in - and several minutes airborne time represents a significant amount of money.
There doesn't seem to be a great deal to do, in or near Farnborough airport, but after whiling away a couple of hours reading a newspaper, and going for a walk, we all head off to the local Holiday Inn for lunch. It's the standard sort of business hotel fare, I go for the seafood starter, and a steak Bearnnaise which isn't bad although not a patch on one I had in Le Touquet last summer.
We head back to Warton again, and find the weather has deteriorated considerably. They now have strong winds, rain and a cloudbase of a few. .hundred feet. Unfortunately their ILS glideslope has been playing up so we fly a localiser DME approach. I make full use of the autopilot, Nav mode tracks the localiser for me, and using VS mode I select a descent rate that should approximate a three degree approach path (RoD = five times groundspeed). The headwind is very strong so I start the approach at high speed, and elect to slow down and configure once we get closer to the field. The decelerating approach means I have to reduce our VS as we slow down and. .keep a particularly careful eye on our distance versus altitude. For the last few miles I have the aeroplane configured and the speed stabilised at around 130 IAS. With a groundspeed of only 80 kts I use a final RoD of around 400 fpm, adjusting slightly to correct the approach slope as Ivan calls out the desired altitude every NM as the DME counts down . The autopilot has trouble coping with the turbulence, and for a period it allows large bank angles to develop. I keep an eye on it and follow through on the. .controls but I'm reluctant to disengage it as without an accurate approach to minimums we might not get in, and I really don't need any increase in workload. We are about a couple of hundred feet above MDA and about 0.4NM before the MAP when the approach lights start to appear out of the ragged cloudbase and driving rain, a very welcome sight.
Our next lot of passengers file out from the small terminal, heads bowed in the heavy rain and gusting wind. Once they are on Ivan starts No.2 with the prop brake on, and when they are counted and the door closed he starts No.1, signals for the GPU and chox away, gets the all clear, releases the prop brake on No.2, and pushes the condition leavers to max. 'DING! DING! DING!. .DING! DING!', red master warning 'OIL', No.2 local oil pressure zero. We shut down No.2 in a hurry, and then No.1. The marshaller stops waving his arms furiously above his head, and Tower inform us there had been a cloud of. .smoke from No.2. We have no fire warnings, and I make a quick PA to the passengers, now sitting in darkness except for the emergency lights,. .informing them of an oil pressure problem, and to remain seated for the moment. We signal for the GPU to be plugged back in, and give handling the. .bad news, and ask for the passengers to be escorted back to the terminal.. .******.
Back at Stansted our operations started a frenzy of scheming and plotting,the final result of which was launching our Kingair (brand new, gorgeous, and available for charter!) with engineers, likely bits, and lots of tins of. .oil. The girls were going to be flown home in the Kingair, and ops booked rooms for Ivan and me in a pub just down the road from the airfield. Ivan. .was dissapointed that Carmen wasn't nightstopping with us but was cheered up by the surprisingly excellent food in the Birley Arms. I had a seafood. .starter again, took a chance on the roast pork stuffed with black pudding and lentils, and shared a bottle of house red with Ivan. The chef had apparently travelled a lot and obviously enjoyed creating varied dishes. Marvellous. Ops called to say the aeroplane was fixed - it was something to do with a scavenge filter that I didn't understand - and could we fly it to. .Exeter in the morning for scheduled maintenance, then bring our other ATR which would be coming out of maintenance, back to Stansted.
We made an early start from Warton, delayed only by a GPU tug that wouldn't tug - we powered back the aeroplane instead. No.2 worked as advertised and we soon arrived at Exeter. The engineer marshalling us onto the hardstanding outside the hangar gave us the 'move ahead' signal when he really wanted us to turn towards him (quite a common mistake), and then had the cheek to make. .rude comments about Ivan's slightly untidy landing in the gusty and variable wind. Honour was restored with some good natured p*ss taking out of his marshalling abilities :-) We went of to the canteen until our other ATR was ready. It had had a lot of work done and the engineers wanted a visual cct, approach and go-around, to check all was well, before we. .departed for Stansted. We could do that :-)
After checking the aircraft thoroughly we taxied out, backtracked and lined up on Rwy26. ATC agreed to a left hand circuit at 1100ft altitude (elev 102ft) and cleared us for takeoff. I stood up the power leavers and called for takeoff power, holding her on the toe brakes, and checking the engine instruments as the props howled. Releasing the brakes resulted in a. .satisfying push in the back, 'V1 rotate', 'V2', 'positive climb' - 'gear. .up', 'acceleration alt' - 'climb sequence please'. I climb ahead to 1100ft,level off and simultaneously roll into a left turn, reducing power a few seconds later to keep the speed at around 140 kts IAS. 'After take-off checks please'. 'Call downwind'. 'Descent and Approach checks please'. From late downwind I start descent and a final turn, 'fifteen and the gear. .please'. The final turn is nothing special, I plan a graceful constant turn onto a short final but get it wrong, and have to adjust by rolling off the bank and waiting before rolling back into the turn. You can't take things for granted in this game. 'Flap 30, CLs max, and the checks please'. I roll out onto a short final and continue the approach to low level before. .standing up the power levers and lazily pitching up into the climb. 'Going around, set go-around power, flap 15'. 'Positive climb, gear up'. 'HDG, LO bank, IAS'. 'Climb sequence please'. Ivan as PNF is working like a one armed paper hanger.
We are cleared to turn left towards SAM and climb to a flight level, we set 1013, do the After Take-off checks, climb through the broken cloud, and can start to relax at last.
Marvelous!
Regards Mark Hewett
ATR42 Stansted <a href="http://www.veewun.freeserve.co.uk/index.htm" target="_blank">http://www.veewun.freeserve.co.uk/index.htm</a>