Robert Pearson, who earned a place in aviation history 18 years ago as the Captain of the "Gimli Glider", laments that airline pilots are still left without the training and data they need if they have to try to land with all engines dead.
"I certainly didn't have any training, so I had to improvise, and what a hell of a time to improvise," he said, recalling the sunny summer Saturday in 1983 when fuel-warning lights started to flash in the cockpit of his Air canada B767 over northwestern Ontario. He landed on an abandoned airstrip in Gimli, Manitoba, hence the plane's nickname.
Speaking last night,he said pilots such as those who glided an Air Transat A330 to safety in the Azores last week still have to fly by the seat of their pants. "What they need to know is the best speed to extend the glide."
"It would have been nice if somebody had provided a chart that they could have looked up and said, Okay, we weigh 350,000 pounds, we're at 30,000 feet, so our optimum glide speed is 275 knots, because you're just guessing."
"These guys were guesiing. I was guessing and the next time it happens, I guess pilots will still be guessing, because the manufacturer's are reluctant to come out with it and the airlines are reluctant to have it in their manuals - that's my guess - charts that show what happens when all engines fail."
"But with a second one happening with a Canadian airline, maybe it'll jog somebody."
He got fuel warnings as he passed Red Lake, Ontario at 41,000 feet. He decided to land at Winnipeg and was beginning descent when one engine quit, out of fuel. Then the other engine quit.
"So at 28-five we were a glider."
Fearing he would not reach YWG, he headed for a former military strip at Gimli, the scene of a drag racing meet that weekend.
He saw the runway from six miles out at 5,000 feet and slowed the aircraft by sideslipping crabwise to lose speed and altitude. He touched down almost perfectly, but the nose wheel, lacking hydraulic pressure, had not locked and the aircraft slid 3,000 feet on its nose. He saw two boys on bicycles on the runway ahead.
"I can still see their faces, that's one of the images I still have pretty clearly after 18 years. They made it off anyway. We stayed in the middle of the runway."
from the Globe and Mail.