Of course we met at the airport, part 2.


I was flying cargo in a Beech 58 Baron out of Goderich when Lisa and I met 8 years ago. I got up the courage to ask her if she wanted to go for a plane ride, and she accepted...

I picked up the cargo boxes from the factory, then drove to the airport and loaded them into the nose of my beloved Baron. I saw Lisa in the main terminal, so after I was done loading the boxes, I casually and nonchalantly walked over to her. I had my lines all picked out, and the world was about to witness how smooth and suave I could be.

"Sooo, I see you are hanging around the airport. I guess you couldn't stay away from me eh? Well, the weather is perfect so if you still want to come with me to Hamilton, we can go whenever you are ready."

"First of all, I work at the airport, remember? That's why I'm here - I'm not just waiting around for you. In fact, I'm not actually off for another half-hour. But if you want to wait for me, I would like to go for a flight."

My face burned as hot as a thousand suns, but I kept it together.

"Umm, sure. A half-hour won't hurt. I umm have to do some flight planning anyway and stuff and other things that will take precisely a half-hour also, so umm yeah, I will get back to finishing off those things and then meet you at the plane in half an hour. 'Cause I have lots of important flying things to get ready. Righty-o, see you in 30 minutes. Then we'll go flying. To Hamilton. In 30 minutes. Half an hour."

She raised an eyebrow and smiled a little. I bit my tongue so I'd stop talking, then slowly walked away like I had something to do. Like I said, smooth and suave.

Time passed, up to and including the 30 minutes I had so eloquently discussed.

Lisa walked over to the plane.

"Hi Sully, I'm ready to go now. Hey, don't you wear a uniform?"

I looked at her, looking at my sandals and shorts and Skinny Puppy t-shirt.

"Umm, I fly cargo mostly. The uniform isn't important. I hate wearing a tie anyway."

"Pilot uniforms are hot."

"I will wear one from now on, even when I'm not flying"

She laughed, and I fell further in love.

Now a couple of minor things to note: This was May 2000, and things at small airports were considerably more relaxed than they are now. The main runway in Goderich is runway 13/31, and normally we use runway 31 for takeoff and landing. At the end of runway 31 is a steep cliff, followed by Lake Huron. My boss worked in a building right on the shoreline, and frequently on departure I would keep the plane low, then skim out over the water and parallel the shoreline until I streaked past the boss's office at a great rate of speed. Then I would pull up, hang a left and head toward Hamilton. It took maybe 20 extra seconds, my boss enjoyed it, and it was hella fun.

I gave Lisa the safety briefing, including the part "If the door pops open right as we take off, that's pretty much normal in a Baron. There's no danger, and we'll just come back around and land." Now that I think about it, maybe that's not as confidence-inspiring as I meant it to be.

I told Lisa that the Baron is fairly overpowered for a light piston twin, and that the plane handled like a sports car. I did a static runup on the runway, then let go of the brakes and pulled the trigger. PAA launched forward like a greyhound (the dog, not the bus) and we were airborne in a few seconds, skimming out over Lake Huron, then hanging a left and flying across from the main beach in Goderich, out over the water enough to make it legal. I looked over at Lisa. She was waving at the people on the beach, and seemed to be enjoying herself.

The plane was light and we accelerated to 180 knots very quickly, so I decided to show off a little more. Once we were done the tour of the beach, I pulled back to maybe a 30-degree climb, and we hauled ass skyward. We climbed a thousand feet in a few seconds, and then I decided to show Lisa the zero-G trick, so I pushed forward on the controls. As the nose fell below the horizon, we were weightless for a few seconds. Lisa laughed as my lucky clearance-writing pen floated in midair between us. I heard a muffled clunk up in the nose, or maybe it was just a random airplane noise. After a few seconds of weightlessness I had to pull the nose up again, and I started to fly toward Hamilton like a normal pilot might.

On the way there I showed Lisa the controls and instruments, and pointed out Stratford and Kitchener and Toronto in the distance as we got closer and closer to Hamilton.

"So when we land, we go to the UPS ramp. We are by far the smallest airplane that hauls cargo there, which is kind of cool because when it rains I can actually park under the wings of the 757's at the UPS ramp and stay dry."

"Hmm. Most of the pilots I have met say bigger is better. And here you are, saying that small can be good too. What am I going to do with you, Mr. Sully."

I tried not to lose control of the airplane, and actually had a decent landing. We taxiied over to UPS and hopped out. I introduced her to the glassy-eyed ramp rats, and went to the nose of the plane to get the boxes out.

"Okay, Lisa, I'll just be a few seconds unloading, then we can taxi over to the Tim Horton's at the other end of the field, grab a couple of iced cappucinos and blast off for home. Just as soon as I get the nose door open. Hmm, it's sticking a little."

In fact, the nose cargo door was completely jammed. When I had shown off to Lisa after takeoff and done the zero-g trick, the cargo in the nose had also become weightless, which enabled it shift inside the nose in such a way as to settle on top of the inner latches, preventing them from snapping open.

Our nightly cargo was stuck inside the plane and we had no way to get it out.

The ramp rats tried to slide thin metal strips between the latches to pop them open, but nothing would work. They even called over a 757 mechanic to come take a look. He fiddled with it for a long while, then said "It's screwed. Go home." and walked away.

Shame-faced, I told the ramp rats that we would head back to Goderich to get the nose compartment fixed "The locks must be stuck or something. The mechanic at our home base should have told me they were sticking!" I faked outrage.

Of course by then it would be too late for my plane's cargo to get on the 757's that would take it all across the world, meaning the boxes would sit at the Goderich airport overnight and come on the following night's cargo run. Not a desirable outcome for the customers who paid extra to have their boxes flown to Hamilton to make tonight's 757 flights.

Anyway, Lisa and I loaded back up into the plane and departed back to Goderich, with our precious cargo still in G-PAA's nose It was almost dusk and the skies were clear, so we watched the sunset turn the sky red and gold.

I waited a few minutes before I confessed to her "When I did the weightless thing the cargo shifted and..." She had a good laugh, which then turned to worry.

"Are you going to get fired?"
"I don't think so. I'm probably going to get yelled at for showing off though"
"Awwww...you were showing off for me?"
"Yes. Yes I was. I wanted you to think I was dazzling and amazing and now I feel like a complete tool"
"Well I thought the zero-g thing was pretty cool. But you don't have to try to impress me, I already like you"

As we flew home in silence we watched the moon and stars move in the heavens, then a brief flash of a meteor as it burned across the horizon, winking out as the ball of flame became a cinder.

"Quick! Make a wish!"
"I already did"

Her hand reached over to mine.

The next day, I got a phone call from our mechanic. It took him 6 hours to remove the main nosecone and then de-rivet one of the latches so he could pop the nose cargo compartment open. "Did you bring a girl with you last night? That's the only thing I can think of that would cause you to do something that stupid." Yes, he actually said that. He then continued to chew my ass for quite a while.

And I would do it all over again in a millisecond.

This King Air has a particularly nasty gear failure, with only the nosegear being available. The story goes that the wheels came off the King Air when it went to land the first time, but I have no details. If you watch the video to the end, there is a quick shot of a piece of landing gear laying on the runway, but no back-story.

I thought the guy was gonna lose it, but it turns out pretty well.




"Raw video,May 06/08:The wheels came off the plane when the pilot tried to land at Dunn Airpark in Titusville,Florida. He was able to land the plane on a grassy landing strip on a second attempt.

One other person was on board. They were both reportedly okay."

One more post then I'll stop.

It made me happy and I wanted to share.

We have gone carbon-neutral. From now on, every hour we fly, we pay TerraPass to offset our carbon emissions. Even in our light jet, 2 hours of operation generates the same amount of C02 as a year's worth of running my Honda Civic Hybrid, so I wanted to do something about that.

Our parent company is in the business of alternate power generation, and it made sense to keep in line with that corporate culture, as well as making me feel a little less ashamed of the state I'll be leaving the planet in for my children and grandchildren.

This system isn't perfect, and I understand that. In a perfect world we would be able to use non-polluting fuel, and our carbon emissions would be zero. That option is not available to us currently, and until it is, this is one of the things we can do.

I would be interested in listening to what you think we could do in addition to our carbon offsets - I am always on the lookout for ways to minimize our environmental impact.

I am not forgetting about what we are doing to the environment, which is why we initiated carbon offsets. I am still conscious that it is a bit of a shell game - it's not like the carbon is being captured or anything, but we are paying for others to reduce their CO2 emissions while we wait for the technology to become available to actually reduce ours.

We hope to do more in the future, but I think this is a decent start. If you fly, I encourage you to research carbon offsets. The cost is a lot lower than you might think - through TerraPass, our cost works out to about $17/hour for 160 gallons/hour of Jet-A. A small price to pay, really.

Aight, this is my third post for today.

A few weeks ago, I slept under a Vampire's wing. And it was awesome!

I did a trip from Toronto to Hamilton (distance maybe 40 miles), taking some cub scouts and their parents to the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum at the Hamilton airport. For a sleepover!

The museum has a great program called "Night Operations" where they allow various groups to bring sleeping bags and sleep under the wings of warbirds.

On the way to Hamilton, Toronto ATC let us circle the CN Tower at only a few thousand feet, and the kids in the back loved it. Except for the one kid who barfed during the 12 minute flight, but what can you do - kids barf over just about everything.

Anyhoo, we landed in Hamilton and headed over to the museum. The client offered a hotel room for me, but there was no way I was going to pass up the opportunity to watch 200 kids run amok all night in the museum, so I packed my sleeping bag and joined the group.

The staff at the museum were absolutely excellent - they did a presentation on the basics of flight, then gave the kids little foam gliders to toss about the main museum hangar.

Picture a couple of hundred little kids and parents running around with foam gliders, flinging them with glee. Absolutely hilarious.

After what seemed like just a few minutes it was time for pizza, then bed.

Notice how I didn't say "sleep", as that was impossible after the kids were so wired up, but it was worth it.

One thing that I did find amusing was that at 3:14 am I heard the unmistakable sound of an MU-2 medevac plane landing and watched it taxi by to drop off their patient. I don't miss those all-nighters at all.

We flew home the next day morning, bleary-eyed but happy knowing that a new generation of people just got bit by the flying bug. I wonder what form aviation will take in the next 30 years - I think the industry is going to be profoundly different from the way it was just a couple of years ago, but I have no idea what form it will take.

Now my second post for today is a completely different topic, and I'm curious as to what you think.

Suppose we had a client in the past that used our aircraft on a semi-regular basis. Suppose they decided to go elsewhere for their aviation needs. Suppose I contacted them later on to remind them we would be delighted to have them rejoin us, and asking them to consider us for future business.

Suppose I got a phone call from an angry manager of the other flying service, telling me I was unprofessional in contacting our old clients now that they were dealing primarily with the other flying service.

Am I being unprofessional? My take on it is that we had a prior business relationship with the client, and anyway it's just straight-up competition.

It is kind of a grey area to me - the aviation community is pretty small in Toronto, and we all have to work together even though we all sort of have love-hate relationships with each other. Our lives would be easier if we were the only operation in town, but it's also nice to have other operators to help us out of our plane goes mechanical, or if we need to borrow a pilot etc.

So I'm not sure what the rules are. Is it acceptable to approach past clients who currently use another operator? Is it acceptable to approach clients who are new to us, but who are already being serviced by another charter operator? What if we don't know they are being serviced by another operator and we happen to cold-call them? What if we do know they are being serviced by another operator?

Right now my rule of thumb is that we don't approach clients who are sub-chartered to us from another operator (maybe the other operator's plane is broken, or they are busy that day or whatever, so they have to farm the business out to us), but everything else is fair game.

What do you think? What are the proper ethics? I want to run an ethical operation, but I also want to expand our business.

Lots of random thoughts today:


A few weekends ago Kitsch and I went into Augusta, taking some folks to the Masters Golf Tournament. I just don't get golf, but maybe I'm not in the proper tax bracket to fully appreciate it. On a side note, it's funny how many sports are variations of "hit the ball with the stick". Baseball, golf, hockey, bowling (hit the sticks with the ball), lacrosse, cricket, billiards (fancy name for 'pool'), tennis (bigger stick).

I must say, the operation at KAGS Bush Field in Augusta was incredibly well-run. The folks who work at the FBO there did an amazing job of organizing a few hundred pilots and airplanes, and it was entirely painless. Fuel was fast and efficient, parking was effortless, and they got us a GPU when we asked for one. Whoever designed the airport plan for the Masters tourney should be recognized and awarded a gold star or two. My only remark is that it would be nice to have customs on the field there, at least for the Masters week.

Anyway, after making sure our passengers were taken care of, we rented a car and drove the 90 minutes to Columbia, South Carolina. In Augusta, we could stay at the 1-star Super 8 motel for $450/night each, or we could drive to Columbia and stay at the Marriott for $129/night each. And to be honest, the city of Augusta is kind of a dump so we weren't too upset about the drive.

Why do we even care about a few hundred bucks when a flight like this will run into the tens of thousands of dollars? Well, our boss is a genius - our latest contract includes profit-sharing, which means about 10% of my income is based on whether or not we make money. It's calculated so that things like maintenance / training / aircraft supplies etc. aren't included, which is good as it would make for a pretty big conflict of interest if my compensation was affected by aircraft repairs etc.

Now our operation is structured to basically break even on all the flights we do for our parent company, so that essentially means our opportunity for profit is based on the charters we do. With the price of fuel approaching $8/gallon at the major centers, we now tanker fuel from home base and plan to land at max landing weight at all our destinations so we don't have to uplift any more expensive gas than is necessary.

That being said, we certainly don't skimp on fuel either. My personal comfort zone is to take about an hour's more fuel on top of our legal requirements for all our flights, and I'm not going to change that no matter what it costs.

But if I see an opportunity for an easy cost saving like driving 90 mins to save $700 on hotels, that's a no-brainer. I don't mind exploring the local countryside, and both Kitsch and I will squeal with delight when we get some of that money back on next year's bonus cheque.

Anyway, we arrive in Columbia, South Carolina. We check into the local Marriott and head out for a meal. We come upon a mom n' pop restaurant and decide to roll the dice. I should have known better after reading the sign on the front door. "In the interest of friendliness, we will serve all people who come through these doors, regardless of race, color or creed." You know you're in the south when....

//Shameless promotion coming up...

I got a bunny hug in the mail the other day. You know, a fleecy pullover with a hood - the folks here in Ontario call it a hoodie, but the correct term is Bunny Hug, now and forever. Anyhoo, I wasn't expecting this gift, so I was a little puzzled. Within the package was a little note...

"I saw your blood-drenched photo on your blog. You have the perfect psycho smile, so I used your photo in a poster for our new play. Here's a bunny hug for your troubles"

Here's the original pic I posted, from when Lisa took me to see Evil Dead: The Musical




Here's a small pic of the poster. I'm immortal now!





The theatre company is Spectral Theatre, based in Vancouver BC.

Check 'em out if you happen to be in the area, and let me know how the play is. It looks spooky, which is right up my alley.


The only thing I wonder about is, if I had the perfect psycho smile, why did he remove my head? I'm not just a sexy, blood-drenched piece of meat, I have a sexy-blood drenched brain too :)

A friend of mine, who we will call First Officer X (She's in the left seat now), wrote a story about a flying incident that happened to her a few years back. I thought it was pretty gripping, and I bet you do too. I'm posting this with her permission.


--------------------

The night of ice.

It was late winter in 2002. I was a first officer on a piston twin engine aircraft. Working medevacs.

We had a nice long day planned. The weather was fairly decent, but there was icing in cloud forecast. In the type of airplane we were flying you had to be on the ball about that, as piston engines are less powerful than the turbine engines, and they generally fly at lower altitudes, which is where the ice is.

There had been issues with the de ice equipment recently, but when it was checked on the ground prior to the flight it seemed to be functioning properly.

The first leg was to Ottawa. En route we start picking up some ice, and the wing boots seemed to be doing their job. (there are also boots on the tail, but you cannot see then from the cockpit, that will come into play later). The ice is not that bad, and in about an hour we arrive at our destination.

Once we get out of the plane we can see there might be a bit of a problem. The wing ice boots were working fine. But the tail boots....they were not working. The tail was covered in ice, which is not good. We call for the deice truck and go into the FBO to discuss the situation. And the situation is this. We can continue, as long as we remain clear of icing conditions. So, as long as the ceiling stays high enough for us to stay clear, we are good to continue for the day. The decision is made to continue.

Next leg it to 'some town somewhere' (STSW). We manage to stay clear of cloud on this leg, so things are looking up.

Then back to Ottawa. Manage to stay clear of cloud again. Everything looks to be going swimmingly. Or so it would seem.

Back to STSW. This time, as we are approaching the airport we are unable to stay clear of cloud, and pick up a bit of ice, but not much. This causes the Captain to come down with a case of the 'stupids'. Even though we cannot stay clear of cloud, he has decided that there 'really isn't much ice in there', so we will keep going. We have two more legs to complete for the day. I am starting to get a bad feeling, but since he is far more experienced than me, I stupidly follow.

As we taxi out for the next leg to 'Another town somewhere'(ATSW) I happen to hear a friend of mine flying another plane into the area we are, from the place we are going. He hears where we are going on the radio, and makes a call to me to warn us of freezing rain he encountered at 3500'. I express concern to my captain, who tells me that my friend is obviously not nearly as intelligent as he is, and that it is too cold for there to be freezing rain. AT this point the little man in my head is starting to complain rather loudly to me that this might be a stupid idea.

We blast off for ATSW.

It is only a short flight, maybe 30 min. Shortly after take off we start picking up ice. A lot of ice. I comment about the fact that our airspeed is getting quite low (because we are dragging our asses, covered in ice). The captain looks out the window and states that 'it doens't look too bad to him'. We continue.

Once we arrive at our destination I can see there are serious problems. The entire plane is caked in ice. The tail being the worst since it's deice equipment is not working. But the rest was pretty bad too. I head out with a broom handle to bash the ice off the tail, while I think about what I would like to do. The airport manager comes out and comments that he has never seen this much ice on an airplane before, ever. I agree that it is pretty bad. When I am done removing the ice I head inside to see what the plans are. I am hoping that he will say that we are staying the night and that we can fly back tomorrow when there is no cloud.

Wrong.

He has spoken to the boss, and they have decided that we will continue on and get back to our base. That means at least 1.5 hours in the ice, instead of the 30 min we have just completed. I am not happy about this, and we get into a screaming match in front of everyone. Classy. Eventually I give in and get into the plane. Though I am NOT happy about it. It is my leg to fly, but I refuse, stating that since my input was not required while making the decision to do this leg, I will not fly. I am a passenger. What else can I do, besides stay there, alone, cold, with no where to go.

We take off.

We start picking up ice.

Lots of ice.

We change altitude.

Still more ice.

We are now unable to maintain altitude.

Descend.

The captain comments that it 'doesnt' look as bad as the last leg'. I point out that we have an ever lower airspeed that before, and are using a higher power setting on the engines. In fact, we are at max power.

We are now drifting down towards the ground, the windshield caked in ice so bad we can barely see out. The ice on the wings extends back a foot and a half back from the boots. I feel ill imagining what the tail is looking like. We are inching closer and closer to a tail stall, I can just feel it.

The tail surfaces of an airplane will normally ice much sooner than the wing; this is particularly important to pilots. If the tail stalls due to ice and the airflow disruption it causes, the down force is suddenly removed and the aircraft will pitch down rapidly! At low altitudes, recovery is unlikely

And we are low. Now we are under 2000'.

My hands are starting to sweat.

I tell the captain that STSW is just a few miles off our nose, and that I feel we should land. He argues with me for a bit, then finally relenting. I request direct STSW from the controllers.

As we continue our decent we start briefing the landing. Fortunately STSW is a former military airport, so the runway is 11 000 ft long.

As we slow on final the plane is shuddering. I am sure that we are moments from meeting the ground in a way I am not really looking forward to.

The captain calls for flaps. It is now that I should mention that if you have an airplane covered in ice, and it is STILL flying, AND you have a 11000' runway, there is NO WAY you should change the configuration of the aircraft. The only purpose flaps have is to shorten the landing distance of the aircraft. We do not need a short roll out. The captain is a moron. I realize this completely now.

I don't answer. He calls for flaps again. I tell him that there is no way in hell I am putting down the flaps (for the reasons explained above). He tells me that we ARE using flaps, and there is nothing I can do about it.

I inform him that if he goes near the flap switch I will break his arm. He understands that I am not kidding. The approach is continued without the use of flaps.

On very short final the plane gives one final shudder and decides it is done flying. We arrive very firmly on the runway. We cannot see out the windows. Slowly we taxi our way to the ramp. In the dark.

Once we get out of the airplane we see the truth. There is really no way we should have still been able to stay in the air. The plane looks like a fire hose has been sprayed on it in a deep freeze. There is a foot and half on the nose. It goes all the way up, covering the entire plane. The wings are covered with 2 inch ridges that extend back a few feet. The tail is covered with 5-6 inches of ice.

I feel sick.

The captain turns green.

We go to the bar and get drunk and I am glad to be alive.

And I didn't fly with that captain again.

------------------------

Someone had a bad day yesterday...

See, it was pretty wild and wooly as far as the weather went. Moderate turbulence, moderate mixed icing, and when we landed, the wind was 30 degrees off the runway, at 29 gusting to 42 knots.

See how angry the clouds were?





I happened to be taking a little video of an inbound WestJet 737 doing a landing. On landing you can see a little puff of smoke from the tires, which is a relatively normal sight for a large aircraft. It was a little unusual to see a puff of smoke on a wet runway, but I thought nothing of it.




A few minutes later, we see fire trucks go screaming down the field after the same 737. They had blown most of their tires on landing and were disabled on a taxiway.

Here's a link to LiveATC.net's recording of Toronto Tower during that time. You can hear the WJ plane drama at around 8:30 into the recording.



The runway was closed for at least an hour while support vehicles gathered up pieces of the airplane.

I felt sorry for the aircraft that had to go-around and hold in all the bumps and jumps while ATC figured out the new plan of attack re: runways. They ended up changing to the 33's, which would only enhance the crosswind component of the prevailing winds.


---------------

Now about my previous post. Some spirited discussion about the first part, for sure. I have the second part mostly ready to go, but I'm waiting a few more days until I get it all organized - Lisa wants to add a few words, and I'll have that up as soon as it gets done.

Next up: I spent Friday night sleeping under the wing of a Vampire. Yes, Vampires exist in real life...

Of course we met at the airport.

This was back in May, 2000.

Lisa was interested in getting her pilot's license and had taken a summer job at the Goderich airport as the meeter/greeter/fueller/ to earn some money toward that goal.

I had been flying a Beech Baron, hauling cargo under contract to UPS from Goderich to Hamilton every night. It was a pretty cool job, but I had actually given my notice and was about to move to Toronto to fly a turboprop for a corporate operator. I was scheduled to start work at my new job shortly, and was excited about it, even though I was a little apprehensive about the operator I was going to work for (they had a bit of a shady rep at the time, though they have since improved).

Lisa started work on the Monday, one week before I was going to move to Toronto and start my new job. I met her on Tuesday.

"Hello, my name is Sully. I fly airplanes, so I'm kind of a big deal."

Would my shock-and-awe campaign work?

"Hi, I'm Lisa. You're not a big deal at all, you're just a damn pilot. No, I don't have any money you can borrow."

Curses, she was a smart one.

She was smart, quick-witted, and had a great sense of humor. Lisa is an old soul; she has had her act together from a very, very early age, which is great because that makes her the mature one.

We hit it off instantly, and during that first conversation, the little man in my head who tells me what to do whispered a single word to me.

"Her."

I whispered back to him "You do realize that this is going to be trouble, right?"

"Her. She's the one." said my psyche, again.

And it just clicked in my head, like flipping on a switch. She's the one.

I was single, having just come out of a rather casual relationship with a rich divorced woman, so I wasn't encumbered.

"Lisa, would you like to go for an airplane ride sometime?" My face felt hot and my voice sounded croaky as I tried to act all casual.

"Yes!" She seemed pretty happy at my offer.

We made a date for Friday, and I canceled my move to Toronto, calling my old boss and telling him I'd like to stay in Goderich a while longer. He said sure, so that part worked out just fine.

Now before I get any further, I want to point out that all the best love stories have some sort of conflict or difficulty inherent in the situation. Ours is a particularly fine story, and it comes with a particularly high level of difficulty.

I'm also saying this because I know that after reading this post to the end, some of you will delete my blog from your bookmarks and never return. You will not be alone in your disapproval, trust me.

I'll cut to the chase. That was in 2000. Currently it's 2008. I am now 36. Lisa is now 23.

More tomorrow, should you choose to continue...

Alcohol or Drugs - Passengers

602.04(3) No operator of an aircraft shall provide or serve any intoxicating liquor to a person on board the aircraft, where there are reasonable grounds to believe that the person's faculties are impaired by alcohol or a drug to an extent that may present a hazard to the aircraft or to persons on board the aircraft.



That's the boring stuff. It says that we can't let passengers drink on board if they get loaded enough to be a hazard to themselves or other people on board. That's just common sense.

But what about this - what if a passenger gets loaded on our bar stock and then we arrive at our destination and the passenger has a car? I'm pretty sure I can be held liable, so what are some techniques I can use to defuse this situation?

The layout of our jet is such that our passengers can access food and drinks without any supervision, so we really have no idea who drank what.

Why am I asking this? Well, a couple of weeks ago we did a charter somewhere, taking some banking-type people for a meeting in the morning. A guy on board asked for some Crown Royal whiskey, so we picked up some during the day for the return leg. On the return leg, the flight was about 90 minutes. There were a half-dozen people on board, and after about an hour the volume of conversation and laughter in the back increased significantly.

When we landed, we were greeted by 2 female customs officers. I stood outside the plane while they went in to talk to the pax. I don't know what the passengers were saying to the ladies, but one of the customs officers said "Wow, good thing I grew up with 4 brothers", so I'm sure it was rowdy.

Customs departed, and the passengers stepped out, heading for the FBO. I knew that there was transportation arranged, so I didn't sweat their drunken state. We went back to the plane to clean up, and discovered that between the 6 of them, they had drank an entire 26oz (750ml) bottle of whiskey, 6 beers and about 15 small 'airline'-style liquor bottles. No big deal there either; we factor booze into the cost of our charters, and we have a flushing potty in the back (which they used enthusiastically).

Kitsch and I were discussing the devastation of the interior of our beloved jet, and I said "Yeah, well at least they had limosines to take them home. Right?" Kitsch looked at me in a way that suggested further investigation might be necessary, so I checked the tripsheet.

1 car had been arranged. I can only assume they all took it, but I'd rather not go through that situation again, nor have to make that assumption.

Am I liable if a drunk pax decides to drive home after we land? (likely)
Does this happen to other charter operators? (likely)
What do they do about it? I don't want to get sued and end up having my wages garnished to pay some huge judgement because I let a millionaire drink himself over 0.08 and then wrap his BMW around a lamppost on the way home.

Somewhere in that crowd is Barack Obama, on the ground for 3 1/2 hours before heading off somewhere else and giving a speech there, too. Encircling the airport were three bazillion security people; police dogs, people with earpieces, the whole nine yards. A guy came over and checked me out when he noticed I was taking a few pics, but I escaped a tasing and was allowed to continue about my business.



This next video is the most boring video in the world, you have been warned. I took it last night, when we landed back at Pearson and were taxiing to our home base. The weather was foggy and misty, with 1 3/4 statute miles visibility and a ceiling of 400 feet reported on the approach. It got rapidly worse, and as I was driving home 20 minutes later, the vis was maybe 1/8th of a mile and the clouds were in the trees. I like how the fog plays with the light and colors the sky around the airport. It was at 7:30pm last night, but you really can't tell what time it is in the video 'cause it's all ghostly and spooky and stuff.

Hell, it actually looks a whole lot like the simulators we train on down at FlightSafety every year. It's cool when your job resembles a video game :)

Infinite apologies for the crappy quality of the sound; a HD camcorder is at the top of my list of yearned-for possessions and if/when that ever happens I'll be sure to get one with good sound.



Oh yeah, about how Lisa and I met...I'm working on it now and I'll get to it right away - I just want to make sure I have my words correctly arranged before I open up this area of my life. When you read the story, you'll see what I mean.

Five hundred feet to go before landing on a nice day at Pearson.

Yeah, I have a cool job.

Thanks to Kitsch for the pic, and thanks to me for the awesome landing :D

Ahh, winter on the Great Lakes.




Nothing a few thousand bucks worth of Type I and Type IV de-ice fluid won't clean off.




We headed east for an hour. The weather sucked, and Kitsch flew the ILS down to 100 above minimums before we caught the runway lights.

Check out the video I took this morning: It's pretty boring for the first minute while we are in solid cloud / fog, but I think it's pretty cool how the runway eventually comes into view. All praise to Kitsch for posting the video, I'm just linking to it.



When we departed for home this afternoon Kitsch took a video of the wing as I was taking off. I thought it was cool and he was kind enough to let me link to this one too.



Oh, we hired a new person on Monday. More on that soon.

But next up, how Lisa and I met...

Check out this rather intense video of an Airbus A320 dragging a wingtip while attempting to land.




From FlightGlobal.com :

"This Lufthansa Airbus A320 suffered a wing-tip strike before executing a go-around during an attempt to land at Hamburg International Airport during high winds on 1 March.

Germany is among the countries battered by hurricane "Emma" as the storm swept across Central Europe.

The country’s weather service, Deutscher Wetterdienst, warned of widespread strong winds, and meteorological equipment at several German airports recorded gusts exceeding 30-40kt.

Weather data from Hamburg Airport showed winds gusting up to 49kt. The A320, identified as D-AIQP, was apparently arriving on runway 23 after a domestic service from Munich.

Its left wing-tip contacted the runway and the aircraft drifted far to the left of the centreline before the crew aborted the landing. Local reports, citing maintenance sources, indicate that the jet escaped with only superficial damage."

Here's a pic from Airliners.net.