Your Worst Flight And Why
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July '86 Calgary-LHR by Air Canada TriStar 500. Checked-in. Flight delayed 1 hour - "technical fault". Delayed further hour. Then another hour. Then another hour. Then cancelled - crew out of hours. Now past midnight. Arrange special 727 flight to Toronto - no guarantee of onward connection. Then no crew available for 727! Calgary Stampede on - no hotel rooms left in town. Bussed to Edmonton. Bus has faulty gearbox and cannot go over 35 mph - 180 miles to Edmonton! Finally arrive Edmonton 8.00 am and collapse into bed. Arrive Edmonton airport and check-in 2.00 pm. TriStar departs Calgary for Edmonton. Returns Calgary - fault recurred! Flight now completely and forever cancelled. Some pax put on flight to Vancouver (500 miles in wrong direction) for connection to London. Rest of pax (me included) booked on evening flight to LHR. Not offered any accommodation - 6 hrs to flight. Kick-up fuss - offered day room in hotel. Next to swimming pool with lots of screaming kids. Finally arrive LHR 26.5 hours late. Air Canada - never again!!!!
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As a QFI in the back of a Lead in Fighter upwind with a 'simulated' EFATO [single engine aircraft]- I reduced the throttle to test my stud in the EFATO [read Ejection Drill].
The engine did not respond to me when I took over after Bloggs dutifully simulated abandonment.
Actually was the last one I ever pulled. Wonder why?
Bloody QFIs think they are God - Well I'm not god, but bejeeeezzzz - I thought I would see her soon.
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A full Brittania 767 gatwick to New Zealand in a seat 4 inches narrower than I am, next to the toilets. 3 stops and about 30 hours elapsed time. No sleep. Never did work out the real reason for having to take the hand baggage each time we left the Aircraft. Crew and Aircraft OK, just no room. Would go on a one sector flight with them but unless you are small or get the few big seats at the front of the cabin-no further. Took about a week to recover.
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Trapped in an Argentinian 747 (nice leather!) on a connecting flight to Paris with a full aircraft with screaming, restless Latin American kids charging around and fighting and shouting something accompanied with spanish type gestures.
I thought I was going insane and nearly killed them all. Thankfully we weren't going the whole way to South America.
Dont cry for me ....
I thought I was going insane and nearly killed them all. Thankfully we weren't going the whole way to South America.
Dont cry for me ....
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How about working an ORD-LHR 777, hitting severe turbulence 1 hour out and having ankle broken and protruding from leg? After waiting 8 hours to be seen in a glorious NHS hospital, told I need surgery. Got to spend Xmas and New Years 2000 in hospital.........
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Sorry to hear that GalleyWench. But your plight made me think. The cockpit crew fly with their seat belts loosely fastened. The passengers are strongly advised to do the same even when the sign is not illuminated. I reckon you F/As should be paid "danger" money for the job you do!
A few weeks ago my wife and another lady (in adjacent aisle seats) were quick enough to stop a runaway trolley from crashing into the back of an unsuspecting F/A. It was a close call and would for sure have caused her serious injury.
So get on to your unions to negotiate a "danger" allowance!
This is going to make me popular with airline managers
A few weeks ago my wife and another lady (in adjacent aisle seats) were quick enough to stop a runaway trolley from crashing into the back of an unsuspecting F/A. It was a close call and would for sure have caused her serious injury.
So get on to your unions to negotiate a "danger" allowance!
This is going to make me popular with airline managers
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It just wasn't our day. First we had an engine failure on a MAUW take off just before CDP. Put the aircraft down and stopped just short of the fence.
Having changed to a different aircraft we got a FIRE 2 caption just as we entered cloud. Having initially dealt with that and closed down number 2, FIRE 1 illuminated. We asked for an immediate radar to land but the number 1 engine failed downwind. I carried out a downwind 180 degree IMC autorotation. Just as I was about to pop the floats the co-pilot got the Number 1 started again and we climbed back up to safety altitude, still in cloud. Unfortunately the compass had de-synchronised and the radios had failed. We dead-reckoned back to the overhead on the standby instruments and got one radio working. ATC told us that the cloud had just reached the ground and the ILS was now off line. At that stage the cockpit lighting failed. I reached down and found the emergency torch which had almost flat batteries. Holding it under my chin I allowed myself a quick look at the fuel gauges. It was now obvious we had a major fuel leak. Mental arithmetic calculations told me I would get one attempt at a straight in approach via the NDB to Rig Delta 7. ATC were unworkable again due to the radio interference caused by the approaching CB clouds. From memory I carried out a timed turn onto the required heading and attempted to tune the beacon but the needle was oscillating wildly as St. Elmo's fire danced along the wiper arms. The co-pilot began to complain of chest pains and collapsed in his seat. He had obviously had a major heart attack. I rapidly unstrapped, administered CPR and put him into the recovery position. The passengers, realising something was wrong as I laid him on the floor between the seats, began screaming. I quickly reassured them and having got back to my seat, I noticed the main gearbox oil pressure reducing below the minimum. Not to worry, the manufacturer had once test run a similar gearbox for 45 minutes with nil oil pressure. Heartened by this, I suddenly realised by checking my DR calculations against the clock that it was now time to complete the pre-landing checklist and begin the descent. Struggling across to the co-pilots vacant seat I rapidly pumped down the undercarriage which had failed to lower. I climbed back into my own seat and completed the approach on the stopwatch. My relief was possibly apparent as the rig came into view at 200 feet. I steeled myself for the single engine landing to the helipad. Setting up the perfect approach angle, there was a sudden yaw to the left and I realised the tail rotor drive shaft had failed. Bother. We wouldn't make the helideck after all. Still, shutting down the remaining engine was quite straight forward and again my spirits soared as the co-pilot began moaning loudly. He was alive! I deftly deployed the floats and flared to a perfect zero speed engine-off landing along the swell. Shortly after the rotor rpm slowed to a gentle standstill one of the passengers came forward to ask what time we would be on the rig. Smiling kindly, I took him by the arm and directed him to the waiting rescue launch pulling alongside. Lunch was smoked salmon. The co-pilot made a full recovery.
Later that day, just before my next departure the chief engineer advised me what had caused the minor challenges on the flight. The aircraft warranty had expired some hours before departure.
I hate sim rides with other instructors.
Having changed to a different aircraft we got a FIRE 2 caption just as we entered cloud. Having initially dealt with that and closed down number 2, FIRE 1 illuminated. We asked for an immediate radar to land but the number 1 engine failed downwind. I carried out a downwind 180 degree IMC autorotation. Just as I was about to pop the floats the co-pilot got the Number 1 started again and we climbed back up to safety altitude, still in cloud. Unfortunately the compass had de-synchronised and the radios had failed. We dead-reckoned back to the overhead on the standby instruments and got one radio working. ATC told us that the cloud had just reached the ground and the ILS was now off line. At that stage the cockpit lighting failed. I reached down and found the emergency torch which had almost flat batteries. Holding it under my chin I allowed myself a quick look at the fuel gauges. It was now obvious we had a major fuel leak. Mental arithmetic calculations told me I would get one attempt at a straight in approach via the NDB to Rig Delta 7. ATC were unworkable again due to the radio interference caused by the approaching CB clouds. From memory I carried out a timed turn onto the required heading and attempted to tune the beacon but the needle was oscillating wildly as St. Elmo's fire danced along the wiper arms. The co-pilot began to complain of chest pains and collapsed in his seat. He had obviously had a major heart attack. I rapidly unstrapped, administered CPR and put him into the recovery position. The passengers, realising something was wrong as I laid him on the floor between the seats, began screaming. I quickly reassured them and having got back to my seat, I noticed the main gearbox oil pressure reducing below the minimum. Not to worry, the manufacturer had once test run a similar gearbox for 45 minutes with nil oil pressure. Heartened by this, I suddenly realised by checking my DR calculations against the clock that it was now time to complete the pre-landing checklist and begin the descent. Struggling across to the co-pilots vacant seat I rapidly pumped down the undercarriage which had failed to lower. I climbed back into my own seat and completed the approach on the stopwatch. My relief was possibly apparent as the rig came into view at 200 feet. I steeled myself for the single engine landing to the helipad. Setting up the perfect approach angle, there was a sudden yaw to the left and I realised the tail rotor drive shaft had failed. Bother. We wouldn't make the helideck after all. Still, shutting down the remaining engine was quite straight forward and again my spirits soared as the co-pilot began moaning loudly. He was alive! I deftly deployed the floats and flared to a perfect zero speed engine-off landing along the swell. Shortly after the rotor rpm slowed to a gentle standstill one of the passengers came forward to ask what time we would be on the rig. Smiling kindly, I took him by the arm and directed him to the waiting rescue launch pulling alongside. Lunch was smoked salmon. The co-pilot made a full recovery.
Later that day, just before my next departure the chief engineer advised me what had caused the minor challenges on the flight. The aircraft warranty had expired some hours before departure.
I hate sim rides with other instructors.
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Many moons ago, on my first ATC flight at (gawp) Cambridge Airport in a Bulldog. Did the usual naive ar cadet thing and ate the entire contents of a very large lunch bag in under three minutes. Got into an a/c. Then I made my first mistake.
I said I knew what I was doing.
"Fair Enough" said the nice chap next to me, "we'll do some aerobatics..."
...needless to say the ham sandwich experienced negative G's pretty quickly and decorated HM's air farce horror bag pretty quickly...
(almost as bad as spin awareness & avoidance in a C152 aerobat with a dented leading edge that caused it to rotate about twice as fast as normal...not pleasant
I said I knew what I was doing.
"Fair Enough" said the nice chap next to me, "we'll do some aerobatics..."
...needless to say the ham sandwich experienced negative G's pretty quickly and decorated HM's air farce horror bag pretty quickly...
(almost as bad as spin awareness & avoidance in a C152 aerobat with a dented leading edge that caused it to rotate about twice as fast as normal...not pleasant
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As a PAX it had to be Iberia flight about 2 years ago from Miami to Madrid in a beat up 747-200 last row middle seat and noisy smoking people ( No smoking flight) around me.
No drink service for the first 3 hours. Meal was so bad I could not tell if it was bird or fish
Ability of the crew to speak English left lot to be desired.
I had a pleasure to fly with Iberia again about 2 weeks ago from ORD to MAD and I can tell you that this was a totally different Iberia. Crew was nice and polite. Airplane was new, food was good and service Excellent.
JJ
No drink service for the first 3 hours. Meal was so bad I could not tell if it was bird or fish
Ability of the crew to speak English left lot to be desired.
I had a pleasure to fly with Iberia again about 2 weeks ago from ORD to MAD and I can tell you that this was a totally different Iberia. Crew was nice and polite. Airplane was new, food was good and service Excellent.
JJ
