I just watched the movie of the "Gimli Glider" on C5 UKTV earlier today. For those that dont know, its basically the story of a Boeing 767 that runs out of fuel in Canada, the Captain, FO and a passenger who is also a pilot have to try and land it at a disused airfield. Stirring stuff, and it is based on a true story. Now my questions are thus:
At one stage the captain turns and says "Good job the cabin pressurisation is working, we dont want the oxygen masks to drop and panic the passengers"-why is the pressurisation working? from my (admittedly limited) knowledge, the pressurisation comes from the engines. The engines stop, so does the pressurisation. Does it run off the little drop-down turbine they use?
When the engines fail, so do the electrics (and therefore the transponder) , untill the drop-down generator thingie comes into action, and ATC naturally get a little upset that the aircraft drops off their screen. Fair enough, i understan why. ATC then switch to primary radar which sends out the radar beam and sweeps the sky looking for the aircraft, like a lighthouse, however it takes several minutes for the aircrafts blip to come up-why? is this just Hollywood suspense or did this really happen? if so why?
Thirdly, did the Captain really say "God bless you...and the boeing aircraft company of Seattle" when the Generator came into play at the nick of time? sounds a bit melodramatic to me.
Finally, Has anyone ever tried the "Run out of fuel" scenario on the 767 sim? Would be interested to know if you like "every one of the original pilots to try it" crashed. Honest answers please
Sorry for going on for so long, no doubt i could condense what ive said, but ive tried to place some of the questions in a context for those that havnt seen the film. quite whether ive done a good job is up to you.
Thankyou for your patience and i look forward to your replies
Matty