My FO and I agreed both that the safety of flying seven flights and seven hours in a day is questionable, and it definitely isn't doable on a day like this. DC to PIT to Philly to Toronto to Philly to Allentown to Philly to Binghamton was our itinerary. Regardless, off we went.
Very gusty winds got my attention taking off on the short runway from DC. Our CRJ juked and jived in the gusts as I turned away from the Pentagon to follow the Potomac river to the northwest, climbing out steeply while wondering how long the constant turbulence would last. It wasn't long; we cruised over to Pittsburgh at 20,000 feet above the clouds, enjoying the sunshine with the familiar blue backdrop.
In about a mile of visibility because of snow falling, I landed on an all white runway, one with a thin snow cover, highlighted by wavily shaped snow drifts. After deploying the thrust reversers to full, I applied the wheelbrakes smoothly but surely, increasing the pressure as I stowed our thrust reversers below 80 knots indicated airspeed. The 'braking action' was there, somewhat more than barely, you could say. The anti-skid was now cycling constantly, but we were slowing down, slowly, on this 11,500 foot runway in Pittsburgh. The control tower told us other pilots had reported the braking action as fair, but I though it was closer to poor, and my FO told them so. Braking action is subjective, and in my opinion this same braking action in DC on the 6,870 foot runway there would definitely been called 'poor'. I used about 6,000 feet of runway in landing and slowing down. After waiting for and watching an efficient bulldozer driven snow scooper plow our ramp area, we parked and boarded up quickly for Philadelphia.
Out EDCT (pronounced 'edict') time (Expect Departure Clearance Time) for PHL was 12:15 PM, but on our taxi out we learned they had extended it to 1:15 PM. Our Dispatcher hadn't sent us an ACARS message to 'hold our push' for some reason. We taxied to a spot on a taxiway between the snow drifts, and I elected to shut down the engines to conserve fuel. We actually didn't have much left before we would burn down to our takeoff fuel, and then we would have to either reduce our takeoff fuel by decreasing our holding fuel or go back to the gate to get more gas. We had an hour to wait as it turned out; they decreased our takeoff delay a little. I briefed the pax, and after a short wait we started up and got deiced quickly by PIT's excellent deice crew. Their setup looks like this, using enclosed control cabs on the end of booms connected to ground structures, instead of trucks.
In the clear again cruising over to Philadelphia, valleys of smooth and fluffy clouds below us hid the reality of a serious winter storm giving it's best blows on the ground. Much of the time when the weather gets rotten in winter, with high, gusty winds and snow, the wind blows straight down the runway, and that's what it was doing on the ground in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. When a pilot has to deal with a low visibility approach with snow, reduced braking action on the runway, and then a healthy crosswind on top of it, that tends to up the ante and the heartrate. The weather report for Philadelphia was considerably better than the delays imposed on us indicated earlier. The snow was gone, the runways were dry, and they even offered us a short runway, after clearing us for a visual approach to the long 27 Right. 'No thanks'. Gold star time! By the time we parked at the gate in Philly, we were about an hour behind schedule. Cause I'm a team player (and because I packed my lunch), I offered to our Flight Attendant that I would say goodbye to the passengers and clean the cabin for her. She'd already asked for a food run in Philly, and she took me up on this time saving offer too. I'd never actually done this before, and I'll try to make it a habit when I can. (Passengers, at the regionals don't get our cabins cleaned by cleaners like at the majors; our flight attendants (and pilots sometimes) do it ourselves.)
PHL-YYZ, our third out of seven flights was next. Toronto's ATIS was interesting. Toronto was only landing on one of it's five runways, and wasn't using the runways which faced into the wind at all. For my FO, the pilot flying, it was going to be a 10-15 knot crosswind landing on a snow covered runway with fair or worse braking action, in falling light snow. What more can you ask for? How about not having to divert to our alternate airport. After just passing Buffalo, NY, we heard Toronto Center (ATC) give a holding clearance to two aircraft in front of us. Holding at a fix name 'Linng' southeast of Toronto, soon became our fate as well. We had a lot on our plate to think about, in quick order.
Here's the rundown: After conferring with out dispatcher with messages sent and recieved using our ACARS unit in the flight deck, our bingo fuel was 3,200 lbs. Entering the hold we had 4,200 lbs, and each engine was burning about 1,000 lbs per hour of jet fuel. Pilot mental math converts that to 30 minutes holding time. If we weren't released from the holding pattern to continue to YYZ before we our fuel remaining reached 3,200 lbs, we were diverting to Buffalo. And the weather at Buffalo, called up on ACARS, sucked, frankly. Any pilot would agree that 1/2 mile visibility in moderate snowfall, freezing fog, and a healthy crosswind is not the best weather to have at your alternate airport that you could very possibly divert to.
Toronto ATC never offered a clear reason why we were holding, I think the one runway they were landing planes on was full of traffic. My FO offered that we should consider other options than Buffalo, and we did call up weather from other suitable airports. None were as close as Buffalo, and if we were to divert, I preferred to land in the US, at an airport which was served by the airline we fly for, to make handling our pasengers of various nationalities easier. Elmira and Syracuse were bad, and too far away by this time, because of our fuel. Hamilton, in Canada, was ok, and Erie, PA, was not too great, but doable, fuel wise. Fortunately, with the next hour's weather report, at 4 PM, Buffalo reported much improved weather, two miles visibility in light snow with better winds.
By this time we had been holding for about fifteen minutes, had a solid plan to divert to Buffalo if we bingoed on our fuel, and were hoping Toronto would open the additional runway soon. Two other airliners holding in front of us were having fuel issues too. One gave up and proceeded to their alternate. Our fuel situation by now: together with the two engines we were using 2,000 lbs an hour, or 200 lbs each tenth of an hour, or 200 lbs every six minutes. We now had 3,600 lbs, or twelve minutes left. I asked Toronto how long till the runway is open, notifying them also that we have ten minutes of fuel left before diverting. 'Oh about fifteen minutes they say' in a polite canadian accent came the reply.
I had briefed the passengers three times, the first being routine, the second being a little concerned and sharing the possibilityof diverting, and the third with the likelyhood of diverting. I don't like diverting, but I'll do it if I have to. Tick, tock, tick, tock. "___ ____ you are now cleared out of the hold, fly heading 180 after Linng"", he told us. They were clearing us out of the hold with a turn to the south, before having us continue on the arrival northbound. Good news. We had about 3,500 lbs, about nine minutes more of holding fuel left. It looked like the other airliner bugging our had worked in our favor.
On approach the changing weather had gotten a bit better, the cloud ceiling was higher, about 3,500 feet above the ground, and the crosswind was about half of what it had been before, about seven knots now.
The control tower reported that the braking action reported by pilots was fair on the runway, and poor on the runway turnoff. But like I experienced in Pittsburgh, my FO rated it as poor, and told the tower so. We took the slippery turnoff about two-thirds down the 11,200 foot runway, and taxied in slowly on one inch of fresh snow. Then we saw and appreciated this:
This behemoth, seen through the falling snow, is the new largest airliner in the world, the Airbus A380. Those are two passenger decks you see, the entire length of the fuselage. It flys all the way from Dubai, UAE to Toronto, a world away in culture, geography, religion, government, and weather."Hast thou seen the white whale?" Captain Ahab asks. Well, I have now. As an aside, I just finished reading, for the first time, Moby-Dick. It was hard, took me six months. It's about much more than an egomaniacal Captain seeking vengeance on a whale. I could wax on about it, but I can't do it justice. Maybe just a little. I highly recommend it.
I will say a couple things. I identify with Starbuck, the first mate of Captain Ahab, a man of true Christian faith, and one with his head on straight; he tries valiantly to talk Ahab out of attacking Moby-Dick. A little background on the white whale: Ishmael, the narrator of Moby-Dick, teaches us that all sperm whales are dangerous, but Moby-Dick is a giant who has a fearsome, evil reputation for killing whalers. Ahab is demented, hell bent on killing Moby-Dick, because of his vengeful pride (Moby-Dick took off half of one of his legs previously), but moreso because he's wrapped up in the 'white whale' his personal bias against the existence of evil and 'fate', (i.e. the unfairness and unapolagetic circumstances of life) in the world. In demented and megalomanical character, he believes he will rid the world of the problem of evil if he kills the white whale. It ordinarily sounds strange and implausible for a human to leap to this level of egoism, but in the backdrop of such a grand and mystifying vocation as hunting on the world's oceans (with sailboats and hand thrown harpoons and lances) these huge, majestic, and spiritually associated (by humans) whales, the subject matter and symbolism is easily pulled off by author Herman Mellville, over 150 years ago. It is an epic and timeless book.
In this picture you can see how big the 'white whale' is compared to the 737 next to it. We taxiied in and with typical canadian efficiency we boarded up a new batch of passengers for Philadelphia. I had a message on my phone from crew scheduling, but because I don't get minutes in Canada and it's pretty expensive if I do make a call, I didn't check it. It was good news (for us), however; we found out after landing in Philly that our Allentown, PA round trip and our Binghampton, NY overnight had been canceled. We were overnighting in Philly after flying four of seven legs.
I haven't written too much on spiritual stuff lately, but God is still calling me, and I'm still answering. Even when I don't answer, he still calls. What a commitment God has made to all humans through the work of his son, Jesus Christ! The problem Ahab had with Moby-Dick and evil has been solved by Jesus. We can fret and philosophize over it, but we're better off examining the life and nature of God's son, who died on the cross for all of our sins, and, well, evil. The answers to the questions of life and the true life, personal relationship with God, are found in Jesus.
What is your white whale? What is your frustration in life, that has got you in a bind, a bias, against God? What has been unfair to you in life that has influenced you to think God doesn't care? God does care. BTW I'm just assuming these things, my dear reader, I know that not everyone has a grudge against God. I have had a grudge againtst God before, myself, a few times. I likely will again in the future, but that won't invalidate my faith. Recently I flew with a good guy with a poor attitude. He appeared to have a Christian, but cynical, faith. His cynicism extended to his personal life and our airline. To you, my friend, and others, I submit one of my favorite and simple verses: the word of Jesus from Matthew 11:28-30: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
Until next time, thanks for reading my blog.
1 comment:
Good post honey - and I read it all : ) Sorry you have had such yucky weather this trip! I'll be glad when you are home!
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