Stuff happens

I thought it might be interesting to review the month’s flying from the standpoint of all the things that I’d call eventful. Eventful is the kind of day I prefer not to have when going flying. Boring and unmemorable is best. This month has been more eventful than boring. I’ve already reported some of the events, and I’ve probably forgotten others, but here goes.

On the first round trip, we went to Adana, Turkey and then to Ramstein. On the way into Adana, they decided to switch runways.  That should be an easy task as there’s only one runway and it’s just a matter of changing directions.  Nevertheless, we were asked to hold.  At first, we were cleared to a fix that we had no way of navigating to.  It wasn’t defined by a navaid, nor was it in our database (though it was depicted on a chart we had).  After trying to figure out how to make that work, we finally gave up.  ATC then issued us different holding instructions.  The new instructions wound up being rather complicated due to the fact they were given for a location we were basically already over and based on a navigational aid we couldn’t use (a military radio that we don’t have a receiver for).  We made a couple of turns around, finally got ourselves in the pattern they wanted, and then they cleared us in.  By that time, we were pretty close to our minimum fuel.

On the way back, we were all ready to depart early. When we tried to get our clearance, we were informed that they had the flight plan but not the diplomatic overflight permit. We delayed for 10 or 20 minutes while we called the company passed messages back and forth with ATC and finally got approval to go.

Then, not in the actual flying category, but still work related, we decided to take the train from Kaiserslautern back to Leipzig. The company had booked us a limo to Frankfurt and then flight to Leipzig. We thought saving a few bucks and avoiding airport security would be nicer. We didn’t have any problems getting to the train station or getting the tickets, but then the train delayed half an hour. That resulted in us missing our connection in Frankfurt, having to add a 3rd leg (to the Frankfurt South station) and arriving about an hour late in all.

The next trip went to Qatar and then Bahrain. The leg to Bahrain was the one featuring the rejected takeoff I wrote about earlier. Of course, that resulted in paperwork at the hotel in Bahrain.

The very next leg was eventful, too. When we arrived at the airplane in Bahrain to come back to Leipzig, the mechanic was working on one of the packs. The airplane is pressurized and temperature controlled by three air conditioning packs powered by the three pneumatic systems on the airplane. One of the three packs was already inoperative and deferred (meaning we could operate with it off and they can defer repairing it until later… that’s a normal and approved procedure). The problem was that he was working on another one of the packs. If two packs are inoperative, then we’re altitude limited to 25,000 ft. I called to ask dispatch how much more fuel that would require, in the event it turned out that way.

Eventually, the mechanic thought he had it to the point it would work in flight. We tested it briefly and departed. I had put on the extra fuel (~25,000 lbs worth) just in case. That turned out to be a good thing. The pack wound up not working. So we called dispatch, got a new flight plan and pressed on at 24,000 ft.

As if that wasn’t enough, about halfway into the flight, our flight planning information suddenly and dramatically diverged from our actual performance. Up until that point, we were tracking fairly close on time and fuel figures based on the updated (24,000 ft.) flight plan. After a certain point, we were suddenly gaining lots of time and losing lots of fuel. The time situation wasn’t alarming but the fuel was. After scratching our heads for a while, we figured out two important things. First, the flight plan speed had suddenly (and for no apparent reason) reduced to a long range cruise speed that was almost 100 knots slower than our planned cruise speed. Second, if we kept up our current speed, we wouldn’t have a comfortable amount of fuel. So we called dispatch again. After quite a lot of tinkering on their end, we wound up with a third flight plan featuring a speed reduction, though not as dramatic as the second one. We wound up making it to Leipzig with a suitable amount of fuel, but that was all way too much work.

And then, there’s the Bishkek trip. That one actually went reasonably well. I don’t recall the details now, but there was some minor issue prior to departure that delayed us just a few minutes, but otherwise it worked out alright. It was, though, quite a long day.

The next trip, to Adana and back was looking like it was going to be the best one yet. When we arrived in Adana, there was initially some indication that we might delay just a bit, but it all worked out. But then, while they were unloading, our APU (auxiliar power unit) started compressor stalling. The APU supplies electrical power and air (to the pneumatic systems) for air conditioning and starting the engines. We turned the air off which made the APU happy but made us hot (it was about 95F there). When it came time to start engines, we managed to get two of them started before the APU started acting up again. During the third start, the Engineer skillfully reconfigured us for a cross bleed start (using engine bleed air from the running engines instead of the APU) and we managed to depart without further complication. Maintenance couldn’t find anything wrong with the APU after arrival.

Then there was the trip to Aqaba, Jordan. None of us had ever been there before. I spent a considerable amount of time reviewing all of the available information before departure. My usual ~30 minutes of reasonably paced work wound up being over an hour of, well, less reasonably paced work.

The airplane had several things wrong with it (all of them deferred according to our maintenance procedures). We carried a mechanic with us for the round trip. It turned out to be one of our very best, arguably one of the best airline mechanics anywhere in the world. I was very glad we had him on board.

Before departure, we delayed a little bit while maintenance worked on the airplane. The flight to Aqaba was fairly uneventful. Landing there was relatively straight forward, but the airport is in a bit of a challenging spot. Israel’s airspace is just to the west of the airport and mountains rise to nearly 6,000 ft just to the east. We had to fly south and make a U-turn over the Red Sea to set up for the arrival. On departure, we flew straight until we had enough altitude to make the (right) turn back to the south, over the mounts, over the Red Sea, and then right back to the north again over Egypt. On the bright side, the ground crew in Aqaba was outstanding.

During the whole round trip, the flight attendants were complaining about the lavs. They generally do that on this particular airplane but it seemed worse than usual. So, after conferring with the mechanic, I wrote up all of them (!). There was obviously something wrong. This was confirmed by the rather unpleasant scene I witnessed as I left the airplane and got on the crew bus. There was a guy servicing the forward lav as I got to the bottom of the stairs. I first became aware of this when I heard what must have been a colorful display of curse words yelled out in German. As I looked around the air stairs towards the lav truck, I saw him underneath the front of the airplane, with the hose disconnected and … well… let’s just call it “stuff” .. ahh.. departing the aircraft, some of it in intimate proximity to various of his body parts. I watched as he yelled, jumped off the truck, shook his various appendages off, and briskly walked away, presumably towards someplace with a fire hose or something similar. I’m not sure how much money he makes, but it’s not enough. Hopefully they figured out what was wrong with the plane and fixed it.

All that to say, it’s been an eventful month. Hopefully, the last leg will be uneventful. I could use an uneventful leg right about now…

V-

edit: added Adana bogus clearance story