A moral dilemma
Our DC10's were destined to fly the Far East network but Sabena had scheduled a virtual "round the world" trip for it's DC 10 crews. Starting from Brussels you would fly to Alaska, over the North Pole, slip (the term used to describe the getting off an aircraft, handing it over to a waiting crew, then after taking your rest, continue the flight by taking over the next aircraft to come in) and then carry on to Tokyo, slip again, then take the next flight westwards, this time slipping at Manila or Bombay. Sometimes you would go through Dubai or Abu Dhabi but it was a really sapping flight due to the many time zones that you would cross. Alaska was minus ten but you would cross the date line en route to Tokyo and land there the day after you had taken off from Alaska. Also the waiting time at slip destinations was governed by the frequency of the schedules and Sabena did not have daily flights to each destination. One tip that I learned from the locals whilst slipping at Bombay , which was six and a half hours ahead of GMT, was to turn the watchface upside down when the hands would be at , more or less, the right time for the time in Bombay, if you had kept the watch on GMT.
As Sabena did not have any experienced DC10 Pilots, Douglas insisted upon the initial line checks for new Captains would have to be carried out with a Douglas Pilot. It was because of this ruling that my line check, in 1974, on the DC10 nearly became the last flight that I would ever make. Pause for break....Just kidding ! One of Douglas's Chief Pilots was the checking Pilot. He had held one of the most prestigious jobs possible before joining Douglas and was well known and liked in the Aviation World. He apologised for rhe regulations that made it mandatory that he occupied the First Officer's seat for all take offs and landings. I had already passed out as a Pilot for flying the aircraft and had it on my licence but this was a check on the routes that I would actually be flying.
We were Tokyo bound but flying the long route Eastwards. The first leg was from Brussels to Athens and all went smoothly. The next leg was from Athens to Bombay and I took off, with a heavy aircraft, from Athens . We were using the sole runway that headed out over the sea.
As was my normal practice, I called for undercarriage up as soon as I saw my climb and descent indicator showing "positive climb", the command was followed and the wheels retracted. The next thing that I knew was the control column was juddering like mad and the "Stall Warning" was working. In much less time than it takes me to write this, I saw that the leading edge slats were retracted. I opened up the engines, dived for the sea (we were at no more than three hundred feet ) and yelled for the slats to be put out. This had already been done. I was able to regain speed and control no more than sixty or seventy feet above the surface of the sea.
We climbed away in complete and utter silence. Eventually I was able to speak " I did'nt ask for "slats retract" I said. My Checking Pilot seemed to be in a state of complete shock and just sat there saying nothing. What seemed to be hours later the only words that he spoke for a long, long time were..... "You sure got them ".
The leading edge slats are a device that increases the airflow over the wings at low speeds and are absolutely vital for takeoff where the aircraft is at it's most vulnerable with it's highest weight and lowest speed. Not all types of aircraft need them but the DC!10 certainly did. There is always a minimum speed for the retraction of those slats and we were well below that speed. We were very fortunate that we were over the sea and had maximum space to recover our flying speed but it had been a very near thing. Eventually the Check Pilot spoke to me "I don't know what came over me" he said " I have never done such a thing like that in all my life." There was very little I could say. It only goes to show that we are all human and mistakes are inevitable but the retraction of those slats below flying speed should have been made physically impossible. I never reported it and I am sure that he never mentioned it. The anonymous delivery of a case of whisky to my house , some time later, did little to change my opinion. I am sure that he has lived with it ever since. What would you have done ? Regle
Last edited by regle; 13th Jun 2010 at 18:03.