Interesting Ignition O/R,
By chance I met Hoot's roommate while J/S-ing to SAN, and asked him about the old slat C/B rumour to trim the aircraft (then selecting flps 2 in high speed cruise; which was a popular story told in 727 training circles on what not to do.) He was adamant that Hoot never did any such thing, that it was "a story invented by people who wanted to protect Boeing's precious airplane." For my fellow armchair aviators, Whoot (sp?) was the Captain on a B727 jet upset that lost control in cruise due to an asymmetrical leading edge device deploying (by itself?) in cruise. A lot of people didn't believe the crew's story: that the slat just popped out, and none of those guys ever flew again.
But I didn't know the log book pages had been found vindicating Gibson. The longer you've been in Aviation, the more you learn what a grand old game it really is!
That starter is more serious than it might appear. What if it opens without lube one time, gets you started and then you need it to restart the engine below 250 kts? (and you need the engine to stay in the air.) Birds? Volcanic Ash? Heavy rain? MCT overtemp on the other side?
You're hatin it, mate.
Ask the L-1011 guys at Eastern how important it is to restart one you've just shut down. "40X Glider" it used to be marked on the S/O's panel in heavy black pen. I asked what's that mean? The s/o says "this was the one."
Meaning "the one" that almost ditched short of MIA because they could only get one out of three running again as they glided down dead stick (the one, incidentally, they had just precautionary shut down due to high oil temp/low oil pressure.)
So yeah, crappy mtc can make you loose faith in the brand-new airplane book way to fly it. Only the PIC knows for sure at Brussels, and as "Benthere" so vividly puts it you find yourself at the end of a long mahogany table with no ashtrays in front of all the Monday Morning Quarterbacks smug in the knowledge that at least you're still alive.
The Air France-Concord and Valuejet in Florida were on fire aloft and didn't fare so well. Neither did the Air Canada MD-80 that had a lav fire. Neither did the Halifax SwissAir MD-11. Neither did the South African or Indian 747's. Reports of flame or fire are things I never want to hear from the tower or cabin crew. How do you know they aren't understating or misinterpreting what they are seeing? In my opinion, you frequently should consider the possibility that it's bad. How do you know that the "engine flame" report from ATC is not from a fuel tank leak or a fire hose of fuel coming from a ruptured fitting on the pylon engine fuel valve? You don't. It's probably just fire from compressor stalls but I can't fault the captain in this situation for deciding otherwise.
If you suspect you're on fire, play it safe and get on the ground asap. The 10 page smoke and fire checklists we used to have were a joke. If you weren't on your way to Hawaii, who's going to spend over a half hour reintroducing power to buses that have already cooked themselves in order to isolate the guilty components?
Some of the horechit training we had to endure.....
