A little United History
Centennial of Flight Celebrations
is an interesting site featuring early United Airlines, check it out. |
December 27 2008  A retired UAL pilot, a neighbor of mine, gave me the last issue of Rupanews to read. Very informative.
I am a retired Boeing Quality Assurance Manager and had the privilege to work on the 767 UAL three man/two man cockpit conversion, help restore the Boeing 247D in UAL colors to flying condition and I am presently the volunteer crew chief on the restoration of the first 727 built by Boeing, UAL 7301, S/N 18293, N7001U, at the Museum of Flight Restoration Center at Paine Field, Everett, WA.
Several retired UAL pilots and other UAL employees have stopped to see the progress on the restoration. So far since 2004, we have re-installed the majority of the parts that UAL cannibalized in 1991 when the airplane was retired and donated to The Museum of Flight in Seattle. The only items not installed are the engines, one thrust reverser (which we have), 2 bladder fuel cells which we have, stabilizer jackscrew which we have, rudder actuators which we have and a few other parts like fuel pumps, fuel probes, black boxes. At the present time we are in a maintenance mode working corrosion related issues. The interior cabin and cockpit remain as it was delivered to the museum and many of your initials are still visible through the cockpit. We have applied electrical power from a power cart several times and turned on the cabin and cockpits lights and exterior lights, tested a few other items. We still have some hydraulic problems that we are working on. We do have a spare horizontal stabilizer with actuators
The web sites for this restoration are:
http://www.rbogash.com/crew.html & http://www.rbogash.com/727work2004.html
Submitted by
TC Howard
Museum of Flight Restoration Center
2909 100th St. SW, Hanger C72
Paine Field, Everett, WA 98204
.
email: tch727@aol.com |
From: "Addison Pemberton" <apemberton@scanivalve.com>
To: "Michael Lombardi" <michael.j.lombardi@boeing.com>
Subject: Boeing 40C finished roll out
Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2008 09:41:59 -0800
To all feel free to delete this e-mail or forward it interested friends.
After 8 years and 18,000 hours of toil the Boeing 40C rolled out last week end as a finished airplane. We now have to wait a few weeks for the snow to melt to fly this baby.
We received our Standard Airworthiness cert form the FAA last week and completed the engine pre oil and fuel flow tests for the 1st of the taxi tests to start when the snow melts bit. This is the snowiest winter in Spokane since1968 !! Great timing ??
Factoids for the Boeing 40 project
1) Project required my wife Wendy to prepare 416 hanger meals with and average of 9 place settings. This required 7400 paper plates, 104 gallons of tomato souse and 1000 bead rolls.
2) 221 gallons of dope/reducer and 120 yards of 102 ceconite fabric. 12 gallons of poly urethane paint for the sheet metal.
3) The wings have 33,000 individual parts in them.
4) The airplane weights 4080 lbs empty and has a gross weight of 6075 lbs. It's 34 ft long and 13 feet tall with a wing span of 44 1/2 feet. Wing loading 10 lbs per sq ft and power loading 10 Pounds per HP ( same as our super cub). Should cruise at 115 mph at 28 GAH. And 32 GPH at 120 mph. It carries 120 gallons of fuel in three tanks.
5) We used 350 2" brushes and 6 gallons of West Systems epoxy. 181 rolls of paper towels.
6) There were a total of 62 volunteers who worked on the project to somedegree and 21 volunteers who did a significant amount of work and 9 that worked continentally over many years.
The next e-mail you should get should be a short video clip of the 1st engine start and then pictures of the aircraft in the air. Thank you all for the interest in this dream and I will enjoy flying the airplane and sharing it will all of you. Look for the Boeing 40 to come to an airport near you
!!!! We will take the airplane to Oshkosh, Blakesburg,Broadhead and then to New York and then to San Francisco on the original transcontinental airmail route this summer.
A grateful and humble Addison Pemberton family and friends Spokane Washington. Visit www.pembertonandsons.com |
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Are there any RUPA members who might remember the days flying this beauty? |
 from Dick Russell - May 24, 2009
Gentlemen:
I found this article and the associated photos of great interest. In 1995, I moved from the Los Angeles area to the Spruce Creek
Fly-in near Daytona Beach. I had been a member of the Confederate Air Force (CAF) now the Commemorative Air Force at Camarillo, CA flying the C-46, China Doll. Evidently, the CAF learned of my move and called to ask me to be a sponsor for the visit of the B-29 and B-24 to Daytona Beach. All they asked was that I find them a place to display the two aircraft plus 2,000 gallons of avgas, 5 barrels of oil, 6 vans and 12 hotel rooms and some publicity!
Here I am in a strange location having difficulty in finding my way home. It was soon obvious that I was a fish out of water and was making no progress. All at once, I got a call from a fellow with a very friendly voice who said this is Bob Robbins and I believe that you could use some help. We met the next day, found the hotel rooms, vehicles, a large ramp for the planes, did a couple of radio interviews and got our picture on the front page of the local newspaper but never did get the fuel and oil donated.
Bob Robbins became a very close friend and together, we and two other pilots formed the Florida Wing of the CAF which is based in DeLand, Florida. Our first meeting was at my home and I was called away to the phone, and when I returned, found that I had been elected Wing Leader, a position I held for the next 5 years. Bob and I found ourselves attending a number of events together including QB and CAF. He also proposed and saw to it that I became a member of the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Board of Visitors.
We lost Bob and his wife Anne in May 2005. His son, Robert Robbins, jr and his daughter Patti Frohlich donated all of their father's books, notes, film of the original B-47 test flight, model planes and other memorabilia and even the helmet that he wore on that first flight. Bob was a man's man and while he had not flown in many years, I took him up in my T-34 and this was his last flight. I asked him if he wanted me to give him any airspeed numbers and he replied, "No," but I'll give you the numbers after we land. He missed one speed by 1 knot!
Bob Robbins graduated from MIT in 1938 with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering. He had learned to fly as a teen-ager and had a private pilot license and 150 hours. Pan American hired him as a Flight Engineer and he made 28 North Atlantic crossings on the Boeing 314 Flying Boat.
When the war broke out, Boeing test pilot Eddie Allen wanted to hire Bob as a Flight Test Engineer. He declined that position and told Eddie that he thought he wanted to be a test pilot. Eddie hired him and put him to flying the B-17 where he quickly built up 500 hours. He was also assigned to demonstrate the XPBB flying boat which Boeing was attempting to sell to the US Army Air Corps.
Eddie Allen was testing the B-29 and attempting to find a solution to chronic engine fires. He was unable to extinguish a fire and was killed in a crash just 3 miles from Boeing Field. Bob Robbins was, then, assigned the test program and found that the it was a magnesium impeller fire. His tests and recommendations solved the problem and the plane was released to the military.
In 1947 not much was happening except for the B-47 and as the time approached for its first flight. Bob told his boss that he had no jet time. He was told not to worry that they would send him to Edwards and get him jet qualified. He decided to pay a courtesy call on the base commander and told him that he had never flown anything more than 450 hp single-engine and that perhaps they would want to, first, check him out in a reciprocating engine plane. He was told just to report the next morning, they would give him a cockpit check and he would fly his first flight in a P-80. He said that they only wanted to give him 5 hours but he talked them out of 7 hours. Then he went back to Seattle, strapped on a 6 engine, swept-wing, 200,000# bomber and flew the first 39 hours in that plane.
Bob told of a test flight where Chuck Yeager was flying chase. When he was unable to find Chuck, he called on the radio and asked Chuck where he was! He had to admit that he was a good 5 miles behind the B-47......he was unable to keep up in the F-86!
In 1997, Bob was inducted into the "Gathering of Eagles" a prestigious organization of test pilots who are almost all military. He was extremely proud as one of the few civilian test pilots to be accorded this honor along with Joe Foss and Chuck Yeager.
He told me that he had lived 88 wonderful years but the last year was full of pain because of prostate and bone cancer first noted in 1993. He said the pain was unbearable and just a few days later, both Bob and his wife took their lives. It was a real love story as she said that she could not and did not want to live without him.
We dedicated our CAF hangar and Bob Robbins Memorial Library in 2006 and have made all the material available to anyone wishing to do research. The reference material is catalogued by a professional librarian and anyone wishing to find particular information may look at our website as the entire collection is listed. www.caffl.org
Dick Russell
Birth of the B-47
http://www.b- 47.com/How-it-started. htm |
The old hangar at Cicero Field , later known as Midway. Taken in 1924. (Thanks to Art Mount whose father is in the picture) |
THE BENJAMIN FRANKLIN and MR. BEST
submitted by Bill Powell:
====================
While this is not really a "flying" experience, it is a United experience ... having to do with the Ben Franklin Hotel in San Mateo
California.
I was based at ORD and had never been west of Denver in my first two years with UAL. I was F/O on the 737 and was sent TDY to SFO for two weeks. The year was early 1968.
I checked into the Hotel on Saturday evening, ate in the hotel dining room. The service was quite good as was the food. However, I was
almost the only one there.
I got up early Sunday morning (after all), it was two hours later back at ORD. I got to the lobby just after 6 am. As I walked off the
elevator, I noticed both the glass swinging door choked open, and a well groomed older white haired man polishing an aged Jag nosed into
the curb right there in front of the hotel.
I wandered out, looked up and down the near deserted street, and stood there for 5 minutes just taking in the cool morning air ... and
watching the old guy polish the Jag. He would open the poop open can of paste wax, smear it on over a two square foot area, place the top
back on the can, and then buff the polish in taking about three or four minutes to do that small area.
Then he would carefully fold his buff cloth, Place it on an unbuffed area of the car, pick up the Poop top can of wax, and do another two
foot area. He never spoke, nor did I.
After about ten minutes, for lack of anything better to do, I picked up the buff cloth and began to buff..... as he slowly added new wax.
This went on 'til about 7 am, when he quit adding polish and went inside the hotel. He came out just as I finished buffing the last
waxed area. He reached out for the cloth, I handed it to him. He nodded an approval sort of nod, and sort of waved a hand and strolled
down the street. I a little over an hour, I don't remember either of us speaking a single word.
After strolling around the downtown area for about a two hours, I noticed the lobby area begin to fill with lots of "blue hair" ladies,
and equally old men. I went up to my room and read the SF paper.
Later, I went down to the Dining Room for the afternoon meal. I took my time eating, watching people, and an occasional Crew check in. I
kept getting my coffee cut refilled, and waiting for my check.
After an untold number of coffee refills, I got the waitress' attention. "May I have my check please?", I asked. She replied,
"Your check as been paid." I told her I did not understand. She just replied, "It's already paid."
And this is not the end of the story. I stayed there for two weeks.... and I never got a check for my meals.
Seems the old guy polishing the car..... that was one of the owners of the hotel... Mr. Best.
And I believe the man at the desk was .... "Bill."
One of my fondest memories of layovers in SFO, that a layover at the Ben Franklin Hotel.
================================================
Bill Powell
Many of us would agree. Thanks . ed AvN |
July 12, 2006
Very interesting web site on TWA 800 with some great interviews -- especially Capt. Ray Lahr.
Good animations also Bob B.
http://raylahr.entryhost.com/
Subject: The Clinton Iran Desert One Debacle
Ten pages of insight as to what went on during Desert One. May not be the complete story and certainly not a pretty
picture but well worth the read. God bless them all! S/F beaver
http://iran.theatlantic.com/interactive_article_page_1.html> |
Headquarters Staff of 1935. "MDWHQ" ?
Pictures courtesy of Milt Reel. Thanks.
Or how about this one? Anyone know when or were? Had to be sometime between 1950 and 1954 and probably in SFO.
Nice historical event. United getting " Good Housekeeping" recognition.
A collection of good memories from 30+ years of flying the line we all share.
(original order edited some. ed AvN)
Memories from 30 Years of Flying the Linewith Flying Tigers and FedEx
By Capt. Bill Austin
Flying Tigers/FedEx, Retired
A large handful of thrust levers, each one connected to 60,000+ pounds of thrust.
Rotating at VR and feeling 800,000 plus pounds of airplane come alive as she lifts off.
Hearing the nosewheel spin down against the snubber in the well after takeoff.
A delightful sound signaling that you were on your way!
Punching out the top of a low overcast while climbing 6,000 feet per minute.
Cruising mere feet above a billiard-table-flat cloud deck at mach .86, with your chin on the glare shield
and your face as close as you can get to the windshield.
· The majesty and grandeur of towering cumulus. And maneuvering the airplane through day lit canyons between them.
· Cloud formations that are beautiful beyond description.
· The delicate threads of St. Elmo’s Fire dancing on the windshield at night.
· The twinkle of lights on the Japanese fishing fleet far below, and miles from any land,
on a night crossing of the North Pacific.
· Ice fog in Anchorage on a cold winter morning.
The patchwork quilt of the great plains from FL 370 on a day when you can see forever.
· Seeing geologic formations that no ground-pounder will ever see.
The chaotic, non-stop babble of radio transmissions at O’Hare or Kennedy during the afternoon rush.
· The quietness of center frequency at night during a transcontinental flight.
Dodging colored splotches of red and yellow light on the radar screen at night.
Lightning storms at night over the Midwest.
· The welcome view of approach lights appearing out of the mist just as you reach minimums.
· The soft, comforting glow of the instrument panel in a dark cockpit.
· The dancing curtains of colored light of the aurora on a winter-night Atlantic crossing.
· The taxiway names at O’Hare… before they were renamed: The Bridge, Lakeshore Drive, Old Scenic, New Scenic,
the Bypass, Cargo, Outer, North-South… Anything to drive newcomers and especially foreigners crazy.
· The majestic panorama of an entire mountain range stretched out beneath you from horizon to horizon.
· Lenticular clouds over the Sierras.
Mono Lake and the steep wall of the Sierra Nevada range when approached from the east.
Yosemite Valley from above.
Sunsets of every color imaginable.
Seventy-thousand-foot-high thunderstorm clouds in the tropics.
· The deep blue-gray of the sky at FL 430.
· The Alps in winter.
· The lights of London at night from FL350.
· Squall lines that run as far as you can see.
Watching the lightning show while crossing the ITCZ at night
· Exotic lands with exotic food.
· Old Chinatown in Singapore… before it was torn down, modernized, and sterilized.
· Long-tail boats speeding along the klongs in Thailand.
· The quietly turning paddle fans in the lobby of the Raffles Hotel in Singapore.
A cold San Miguel in Hong Kong after a long day’s flying.
· Ocean crossings.
The sound of foreign accents on the radio.
· Luxury hotels.
· To paraphrase the eloquent aviation writer, Ernie Gann, “The allure of the slit in a China girl's skirt.”
· The taxiway sentry (with his flag & machine gun) at the old Taipei downtown airport.
· Sipping Pina Coladas in a luxury hotel bar, while a typhoon rages outside.
· Chinese Junks bobbing in Aberdeen harbor.
· Watching the latitude count down to zero on the INS, and seeing it switch from "N" to "S" as you cross the equator.
· Wake Island at sunrise.
· Oslo Harbor at dusk.
· Icebergs in the North Atlantic.
· Contrails.
· Pago Harbor, framed by puffy cumulus clouds in the late afternoon.
· The camaraderie of a good crew.
· Ferryboat races in Sydney Harbour.
· Experiencing all the lines from the old Jo Stafford tune…
See the pyramids along the Nile.
See the sunrise on a tropic isle.
See the market place in old Algiers.
Send home photographs and souvenirs.
Fly the ocean in a silver plane.
See the jungle when it’s wet with rain.
· White picket fences in Auckland.
· Trade winds.
· White sandy beaches lined with swaying palms.
· The endless expanse of white on a polar crossing.
·
· The hustle and bustle of Hong Kong Harbor.
The bus ride to Stanley... on the upper deck front seat of the double-decker bus.
The Star Ferry in Hong Kong.
The Peak tram in Hong Kong.
The bustle of Nathan Road on a summer day.
Bangkok after a tropical rain.
The Long Bar at the Raffles.
· Heavy takeoffs from the reef runway at HNL.
· Landings in the B-747 when the only way you knew you had touched down was the movement of the spoiler handle.
· Jimmy’s Kitchen.
· The deafening sound of tropical raindrops slamming angrily against the windshield, accompanied by the hurried
slap, slap, slap of the windshield wipers while landing in a torrential downpour in Manila.
· Endless ripples of sand dunes across the trackless miles of the Sahara desert.
· Miller’s Pub in Chicago.
· German beer. Even in the Bitburg Garden in HKG.
· The white cliffs of Dover.
· Oom-pa-pa music at the "Gemaltes Haus" in Frankfurt.
Double-decker buses in London.
The “Gas Station” in Frankfurt.
· The Eiffel Tower.
Fjords in Norway.
· The aimless compass, not knowing where to point as you near the top of the world on a polar crossing.
Breaking out of the clouds on the IGS approach to runway 13 at Kai Tak, and seeing a windshield full of
"checkerboard" and as you approach into Kai Tak in a B-747 with your wingtip skimming the rooftops of
Yau Yat Chen as you make the steep turn to final.
The old Charlie-Charlie NDB approach into Kai Tak.
The Burma Road.
· Flight bags crammed with charts to exotic places.
· An empty weight takeoff in a B-747.
· The rush of a full-speed-brakes descent at barber pole in a B-727.
· Sliding in over Crystal Springs reservoir for a visual approach and landing on 1R in SFO.
· The smell of tropical blooms when you step off the plane in Fiji.
· The quietness of a DC-10 cockpit.
· Main gear touching down while the 747 cockpit is still 70 feet in the air.
· The coziness of a B-747 cockpit.
· Good co-pilots.
· Good flight engineers.
· Deadheading in First Class.
· The Canarsie approach into JFK.
· Max gross weight takeoffs.
· Cross-wind landings.
The brief, yet tempting, glimpse of runway lights…. after you’ve already committed to the missed approach.
The tantalizing glow of the flashing strobe lights just before you break out of the clouds on approach.
CAT IIIb autolands in the DC-10 on a foggy day, when you feel the wheels touch before you ever see the ground.
· “Leak-checking” your eyelids on a long night flight but then.....
Sunrises seen from the high flight levels that make the heart soar.
· And, as one friend so perceptively pointed out, payday
So where and when was this interesting event .
Who is the Captain? Does it say Jack or Jerry Land? Looks like his retirement cake. Neither!
March 2008. from Michael P. Dooley:
The Captain with the chef by the cake is Hamilton "Ham" Lee - UAL Sen #1. His son, Bob Lee, arranged for Ham to fly OMC, LAX-SFO, in the mid-70's in a DC-8, near Bob's retirement. Ham was in his 80's and still fit and sharp, sporting the same mustache. I noticed the deck angle of the DC-8 on departure startled Ham, so I said to him, "The ol' girl climbs pretty good, doesn't she?" Still gripping the bottom of his seat he said, "Yeah - I'm afraid she's going to stall!" I told him that she was capable of much more. He relaxed a bit as we flattened out. One of the Captains that I flew with said the biggest airplane that Ham ever flew was the DC-3.
Airline Pilots Still Flying, but No Longer Quite So High
By MATTHEW L. WALD
New York Times
March 10, 2006
WASHINGTON, March 9 ? Within the world of aviation, airline pilots used to be one step down from astronauts.
Now they feel one step up from bus drivers.
With half the seats in the nation's airliners run by companies either in bankruptcy or limping out of it, even the pilots at the top ? the ones who are within a few years of mandatory retirement at 60, flying the big planes and earning top dollar ? are facing a new world.
Their pay and pensions have been cut, and they work more hours to earn them. In another concession to the airlines, their days are interrupted more than ever by long hours of unpaid idleness.
They say they try hard not to let these things break their concentration or interfere with their work, flying passengers by the scores or hundreds, flawlessly, around the country and the world. They have piloted their planes to a record 40 million safe takeoffs and landings across the country in the last five years, whether the airline was solvent, bankrupt or just squeaking by.
Still, the boardroom blues are working their way into the cockpit.
"My philosophy right now is, I just go to work," said an American Airlines captain who, before his company's troubles, loved to fly. On one recent trip, he flew a 6 a.m. flight from Newark to Miami, then piloted a plane from Miami to Los Angeles the next evening, then a flight back to Newark, accumulating 15 paid hours for three days on the road.
The Federal Aviation Administration limits commercial pilots on domestic flights to eight hours a day, measured from pushback until arrival at the gate. The limits are 30 hours in seven days, 100 hours a month and 1,000 hours a year. The airlines do not exceed those limits but many now schedule much closer to them.
The F.A.A. rules do not address the amount of time between flights, so a pilot could be in uniform 12 hours or more to accumulate the day's hours. Eight hours of rest time every 24 hours is required, however. And pilots feel acutely the difference between getting a month's work in 14 days versus 18 days.
"They kind of bleed us out," the American Airlines captain said, on condition he not be identified for fear of losing his job. Pilots for major airlines said they expected to be fired if they were publicly candid on the new challenges of their jobs.
One veteran United Airlines captain, who laments that when he retires in a few years his pension will be about one-fourth what he expected, said he had to shut it out of his mind to prevent the distraction from affecting his work.
After a recent takeoff from California for the long flight across the Pacific, that was all his first officer wanted to talk about. The captain said he snapped back: "You know what, can we not talk about United Airlines? All it does is cause me frustration and anger and there's nothing I can do about it. It churns my stomach."
So the two, flying in one of the world's most automated, advanced airplanes, talked about a hobby they had in common: flying single-engine planes on their days off.
The dissatisfaction at the top has not changed some basics of the field: young people still dream of flying, and people who fly small planes still aspire to fly bigger ones. Legions of laid-off pilots hope to be hired back, even at reduced pay levels.
"They must love it," said Arnold I. Barnett, a professor of management science at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He said airline pilots were reacting with more fortitude than other professionals might in the same circumstances.
"I cannot fathom how faculty would react if M.I.T. abolished tenure, increased teaching loads and cut salaries by 35 percent because market conditions had changed," he said.
But senior airline pilots, in dozens of interviews, spoke about feeling depressed and struggling not to let it affect their performance.
Academics have noticed a change. "The pilots are not a happy group right now," said Paul S. Fischbeck, a professor of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Dr. Fischbeck, who flew in the Navy and has colleagues who went on to fly for the airlines, said that the change in financial circumstances and job security were good reasons to be unhappy.
But Dr. Fischbeck and others pointed out that the industry culture is such that pilots must face the hardship on their own. Other workers with health plans might seek professional counseling. With pilots licensed by the F.A.A., however, "as soon as you sign up for it, it's on your record, and you're toast."
A US Airways pilot echoed that sentiment: "If it gets reported to the F.A.A., you can forget it, you're not coming back to work, until you go through a lot. The system requires us to deal with it ourselves. That makes it very difficult to go through what we just went through."
Maxine E. Lubner, director of the Aviation Institute of York College, at the City University of New York, said that eroding morale, along with problems like "the distraction of not knowing where your pension is," could not help safety.
Neither could working longer hours, which pilots for many major airlines are now doing because of contract concessions both in the number of hours flown and the number of hours they can be made to wait on the ground between flights. Some are also flying more hours to offset their pay losses.
"I would say morale and attitude are all in that mix," Dr. Lubner said. The morale effect is probably small, she said, but "we know fatigue in itself will create poor attitude and lack of motivation and irritability."
"And there's no question that something that's a distraction is a safety threat," she said.
But she agreed there was no empirical evidence supporting that theory. Statistically, the airlines are in one of their safest periods ever, with about one fatal accident for every 15 million flights.
"With the economic turbulence that's being experienced by U.S. carriers, bankruptcy, the price of oil on every page, it's a testament to the aviation industry stakeholders and the U.S. government that we are reaching those safety levels despite enormous challenges," said Marion C. Blakey, the F.A.A. administrator, in a speech to an aviation safety conference that her agency organized last fall.
There are some warning signs, however. NASA recently told the F.A.A. of numerous reports of errors by ground personnel, a category of worker that has had heavy turnover. It also warned of reports of planes loading too little fuel.
A Northwest pilot described his own forgetfulness. "There are certain things I'm supposed to do to set up my part of the cockpit," he said. "We do the stuff first, then go back with the checklist and double-check it," he said. And in double-checking, he once found a set of switches he was certain he had set, but had not. "I thought I had turned those on," he recalled thinking. "I hadn't; I just wasn't as sharp. I'd lost my edge."
Airline executives say they do not know how to measure the effect of morale. At US Airways, Carlo Bertolini, a spokesman, said, "No one's going to deny that US Airways employees have been through a tough time, with layoffs, changes in work rules and steps lowering costs. A lot of these sacrifices came from employees."
But "we all have a stake in the safety of the airline," he added. "We're definitely confident that all employees always have safety at the top of their mind."
Pilots say the same but add that the change in schedules often means more fatigue. "You can feel yourself getting to a point where you're beginning to make more little mistakes," a senior captain at US Airways said.
"Most of the mistakes are caught very quickly, and most are very minor errors," he said. But "at that level of fatigue, after weeks or months of this without a break, it's easy to make major mistake."
Not everyone agrees that the longer working schedule is a problem.
"It's hard for me to feel sorry for them," said Capt. Jeffrey R. Hefner, the safety chairman of the union that represents pilots at Southwest Airlines, who have always flown longer hours than pilots at older airlines.
?"They're a bunch of spoiled brats," he said. "Historically, this has been a really cushy job once you get to the majors. You make a lot of money and you don't have to fly a lot. But there had to be a market balancing at some point."
RJ200 Crash — A little CRM?
For three and a half minutes on the night of Oct. 14, 2004, Capt.
Jesse Rhodes and First Officer Peter Cesarz were on top of the world.
The two Pinnacle Airlines pilots had pushed their twin-engine, 50-
seat regional jet to its maximum altitude and were now proud members
of the "410 club," an unofficial society of Pinnacle airmen who've
attained 41,000 ft. in a Bombardier CRJ200.
Rhodes went to the galley to grab cold Pepsis to celebrate. He was
barely settled back in the cockpit when the plane's radio crackled.
"Are you a RJ [regional jet] 200?" inquired an air traffic controller
in Olathe, Kan. "I've never seen you guys up at forty-one there."
"Yeah ... we don't have any passengers on board so we decided to have
a little fun and come on up here," Rhodes replied. The fun was short-
lived.
Moments later, both engines flamed out. The fate of Flight 3701 is
the subject of an intensive investigation by the National
Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is expected to issue a
final report on the accident in the next few months. Until then,
neither Pinnacle Airlines, which operates connecting flights for
Northwest Airlines, nor Bombardier and General Electric--the airplane
and engine manufacturers--can comment on the cause of the accident.
However, the pilots' taped cockpit conversations and preliminary
hearings last June suggest a scenario involving poor judgment,
insufficient training and the complications that can occur when a
plane is pushed beyond its capabilities.
TO THE LIMIT
Rhodes, 31, and Cesarz, 23, were on what pilots call a deadhead,
transferring an empty plane overnight from Little Rock, Ark., to
Minneapolis so it could be ready for a morning flight. The Canadian-
built CRJ200 is Pinnacle's workhorse, making short and midrange hops
mostly in the Midwest.
From wheels-up, it was clear that Rhodes and Cesarz intended to see
what the CRJ200 could do. Four seconds after takeoff at 9:21 pm, the
two pilots did a "pitch up" maneuver that pinned them in their seats
with 1.8 g's of force and momentarily triggered an alert from the
airplane's stall warning system. Minutes later, Rhodes and Cesarz
again yanked back on the control column, rocketing the plane upward
and generating over 2.3 g's of force before they eased off the flight
controls.
After briefly leveling off at 37,000 ft., the crew set the
autopilot to climb at 500 ft. per minute--more than twice the fastest
recommended rate--to the airplane's maximum altitude of 41,000 ft. As
the plane rose, it succumbed to the physics of high-altitude flight:
Thin atmosphere offers less lift and robs the engine of air.
Stuck in an aggressive climbing mode, Flight 3701's speed began to
drop. To maintain the rate of climb, the autopilot angled the nose of
the aircraft up, slowing it further. By the time the aircraft reached
41,000 ft. and leveled off, it was flying slowly, at 150 knots
indicated airspeed, and was perilously close to losing aerodynamic
lift--or stalling. "This thing ain't gonna [expletive] hold
altitude," Cesarz said. "It can't man," Rhodes replied. "We [cruised/
greased] up here but it won't stay."
The combination of high altitude and low speed once again triggered
the Bombardier's stall warning system. First, "stick shakers" rattled
the control columns and disengaged the autopilot to alert the crew of
an imminent stall. When the crew didn't lower the plane's nose to
gain speed, "stick pushers" forced the control columns forward. The
flight data recorder shows that Rhodes and Cesarz overrode the stick
pushers three times and forced the plane's nose back up. At 9:55 pm,
as they pulled up for the last time, both engines flamed out. "We
don't have any engines," one of the pilots said.
FAILED EFFORTS
While the altimeter spun downward, the crew hurriedly reviewed
their options for restarting the engines. At that altitude, there
were six suitable airports within reach for a forced landing. Despite
the serious nature of their predicament, the pilots did not notify
air traffic control (ATC) of their situation or request emergency
landing clearance.
First, they tried a "windmill restart" by diving to increase
airspeed. The maneuver is intended to force air into the engine
housing, spinning the rotors and creating enough compression for
ignition. The procedure requires at least 300 knots of airspeed. But
at 20,000 ft. and only 236 knots, the crew pulled up, and decided
instead to try a second option: Drop to 13,000 ft. and attempt to
relight the engines using the plane's auxiliary power unit (APU),
which generates pneumatic pressure to spin the engine's core.
Rhodes and Cesarz tried at least four times to jumpstart the
engines using the APU. On each attempt the engine cores recorded no
rotation. At 10:03 pm, the crew radioed ATC that they had a single
engine failure. Five minutes later, at an altitude of 10,000 ft., and
descending at 1500 ft. per minute, Rhodes and Cesarz were running out
of options for restarting the engines. Finally, 12 minutes after the
twin flameout, they revealed to ATC that they had a double engine
failure.
The plane's landing choices were now limited to two airports. With
the runway lights of Jefferson City airport in sight, but altitude
slipping away, Rhodes and Cesarz realized they were in big trouble.
"Dude, we're not going to make this," Rhodes said. "We're gonna hit
houses, dude." They crashed 2-1/2 miles shy of the runway--behind a
row of houses. On impact, the plane split apart, flipped over and
caught fire. Rhodes and Cesarz were killed. Miraculously, no one on
the ground was injured.
THE INVESTIGATION
An area of contention during the NTSB hearings about Flight 3701
has been whether a condition called "core lock" contributed to the
fatal crash. Under normal conditions, the rotating parts inside a
General Electric CF34-3B1 turbofan engine slip by each other in a
finely tuned choreography. However, when an engine is shut down
suddenly at high torque, high altitude, and it isn't restarted
immediately, metal parts inside the engine begin to cool and contract
at different rates. In rare cases, metal can contact metal and
prevent the core from rotating freely — core lock.
The Air Line Pilots Association suggests that core lock, rather
than pilot error, might have been the primary cause of the accident.
But, a review of the flight data recorder makes clear that the pilots
made a series of poor, and potentially fatal, decisions irrespective
of whether the engines experienced core lock.
The Bombardier has a 41,000-ft. service ceiling. However, according
to the climb profiles in the crew's flight manual, the maximum
altitude for the 500-ft.-per-minute climb the pilots set was only
38,700 ft., based on the atmospheric conditions and the aircraft's
weight that night. By operating outside the airplane's performance
envelope, Rhodes and Cesarz subjected the engines to tremendous
stress. The flight data recorder shows that soon after the crew
ignored the fourth stall warning, the core temperature of the right
engine reached 2200 degrees--almost 600 degrees above redline.
When investigators pulled apart the right engine, they found that
the ends of the high-pressure turbine blades had liquefied,
resolidifying on the low-pressure blades behind them. This leads some
industry experts to question if the right engine ever could have
restarted. Whether the left engine locked up is still being
investigated. GE helped the NTSB disassemble Flight 3701's engines.
Edward Orear, GE's former program manager for the CF34-3B1 engine,
testified to the NTSB that neither engine showed evidence of core lock.
THE OBJECT LESSON
The data recorder shows that the pilots failed to follow proper
procedures for restarting a flamed-out engine when they pulled out of
their dive before reaching the necessary speed to spin the core.
Whether the apparently undamaged left engine could have restarted if
they had windmilled correctly may never be known. It's also
unresolved why the left engine didn't restart when the pilots used
the APU. Since the crash, Pinnacle has set a ceiling of 37,000 ft.
for all CRJ200 flights. It has also added detailed climb profiles to
the pilots' quick reference guides. And the airline has modified its
simulator training program, incorporating dual engine failure and
stall recovery scenarios.
Although Flight 3701 ended tragically, it illustrates how many safety
features protect commercial passengers. The crew misused the auto-
pilot, took the plane outside its envelope and repeatedly overrode
the safety system. As one pilot told PM: "It's an object lesson in
how many things you have to get wrong in order to crash your plane."
Cleve,
Received a thank you letter from Ted Bochniarz for our $1,000 donation to the Foundation. I think a small item in the RUPA News would be appropriate.
Regards,
Jim Olson
Subject: Home Computer
Or maybe it was a Statocruiser Flight Engineer Station. AvN
Picture from 1954 Popular Mechanics Magazine.... read the caption and marvel.
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Anyone out there who might help? ... AvN
Subject: NASM America by Air exhibition
Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2006 13:43:16 -0500
From: "London, Joanne" <LondonJ@si.edu> Add to Address BookAdd to Address Book Add Mobile Alert
To: rupaweb63@yahoo.com
I am a curator in the Aeronautics Division at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. We are currently working on a new exhibition about the history of air transportation, due to open in 2007. (Please see link for more information about the exhibition: (http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/gal102/americabyair/) I hoping that RUPA’s corporate memory may yield us some information about the cartoon image that I have attached.
In one part of the exhibition we are planning to discuss how the airlines used the increasing patronage by celebrities (in the 1930s) to “prove” that their aircraft and services were safe. Apparently sometime in the early 1930s, studios took out clauses in celebrity contracts that forbade them from using airlines for travel.
We found this cartoon (see attached) by Dick Shaw in the book, The Age of Flight: a history of America's pioneering airline / / by William Garvey & David Fisher ; Randy Johnson, editoral director/contributing author. Greensboro, N.C. : Pace Communications, c2002.
Joanne
Joanne Gernstein London
Curator, Aeronautics Division
202-633-2643 (office)
202-786-2447 (fax)
londonj@si.edu
Independence Avenue at Sixth Street SW
MRC 312 PO Box 37012
Washington DC 20013-7012
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BTW, Being a member of the F-86 Pilots Association, I have contacted the editor of its magazine; the "Sabre Jet Classics" (where this article appeared) & received permission to forward same. Bob Burns
THE MINUTE MEN
The Air Guard's only official jet acrobatic team
by Gobel James
How it began: In 1953, Lt.Col. Walt Williams, Commander of the Colorado Air Guard's 120th Fighter Squadron, and three squadron pilots, put together an informal acrobatic team, flying the F-80C that had recently replaced the unit's F-51's.
The unofficial team consisted of Lt.Col. Williams - Lead; Maj. Ranger Curran - Right Wing, A.F. Advisor to the 120th, had previously flown with the Alaskan Air Command acrobatic team, the Arctic Gladiators; Maj. Warren Harvey - Left Wing, a full time Air Guard technician; and Lt. Dick Hueholt - Slot. All had flown combat in Korea. No additional funding was available, so all expenses came out of the 140th Fighter Wing's budget. Lacking any funding for special uniforms, the team members dyed their flight suits black and bought matching black baseball caps.
The Minute Men began putting on shows locally and later, as their fame spread, began performing outside of Colorado. In the fall of 1956, Air Force Secretary Donald Quarles was in the audience when the team performed at an air show in Spokane, Washington. It may have been a coincidence, but, a few days later the Minute Men team was declared the official "Jet Precision Demonstration Team for the Air National Guard of the United States". By then, the team of `weekend warriors' had added a Solo aircraft flown by Wynn Coomer, a United Airlines Pilot. Capt. Bob Cherry, a Guard technician had replaced Major Harvey at left Wing, and Capt. John Ferrier, also a United Airlines pilot, had replaced Lt. Hueholt in the Slot.
After the Minute Men became the official team for the Air Guard, scheduling was handled by Air National Guard Headquarters in Washington D. C. The workload immediately increased and the team performed at more than 38 official airshows the following year (1957). In mid-1957, Maj. Curran, the only active duty officer to ever fly with the Minute Men, was transferred and replaced at Right Wing by Lt. Bo Odle, a full time Air Guard technician.
In early 1958, the team received 7 F-86F's. And not just any F-86F Sabres. These were the remaining F-86F-2 Sabres that had flown the GUNVAL combat tests in Korea. They were experimentally fitted with four T-160 20mm cannons (M39 operational designation) that would equip the F-86H. As with most other jet acrobatic teams, the armament was removed and the aircraft were rebalanced with ballast in the nose. The fire control system was removed and smoke tanks and piping were added within the rear fuselage. But otherwise they were standard F-86F Sabres.
After a brief transition period, the team put on its first show in the Sabre at Jacksonville, Florida. During that year, the Minute Men performed at approximately 40 airshows throughout the United States. They were often joined by the inimitable acrobatic pilot, Bob Hoover, who would perform his solo act using one of the team's aircraft.
On June 7, 1958, the team suffered its only accident while performing at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, before a group of West Point cadets. The team had just completed the rollout from the bomb-burst maneuver when the Slot man's aircraft, flown by Capt. John Ferrier, began a rolling high angle descent toward the small town of Fairborn, Ohio, on the edge of Patterson Field. The aircraft impacted in a small clearing in the midst of 4 houses. A woman and several children were knocked to the ground but no one was injured, with the exception of Capt. Ferrier. He was killed upon impact. It was determined that a flight control malfunction caused the crash. Based on eye witness accounts, although he had ample altitude to eject, Capt. Ferrier stayed with the aircraft and used his limited control to guide it into the open area. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for that courageous act.
Captain Ferrier was replaced in the slot position by Lt. Gobel James, an aeronautical engineering student at the University of Colorado,who'd been flying one of the Solo positions. Capt. Ron Jankovsky, a United Airlines pilot, also joined the team as a solo pilot.
In early 1959, Lt.Col. Williams left the team to become Wing Commander of the Colorado ANG. He was replaced as team leader by the Left Wingman, Capt. Cherry. Lt. John France, a law student at Denver University, who had joined as a Solo pilot a month before, moved to the Left Wing.
In May of 1959, the Minute Men were informed that, for budgetary reasons, the team would be disbanded. However, the team was very nearly disbanded earlier than planned. They were scheduled to put on a show at Kelly AFB. The distance from Denver to Kelly was within a clean Sabre's range. Thus, they elected to make the trip without external tanks. The weather at Kelly was not forecast to be great, but was expected to be reasonable. When they arrived over San Antonio, the weather was lower than expected and Randolph AFB was worse. Fuel soon became an issue. Maj. Cherry was leading and Col. Williams had gone along as the Solo because the regular Solo pilot, Wynn Coomer, was scheduled to fly a trip for United Airlines.
Cherry started a 5 ship VOR approach and had no sooner entered the tops of the clouds when his VOR failed. He called Col. Williams and told him that he would have to take over the letdown. Williams didn't have VOR in his aircraft and there ensued a flurry of activity of aircraft changing positions and letdown books flying around Williams cockpit, as he looked for the ADF letdown sheet. As the formation was making the turn to GCA final approach, the controller called and said, "Redeye, be advised that we have lost you." Col Williams replied, "Roger, if you don't pick us up, give me a bailout heading for 5 aircraft!"
The Slot man had declared emergency fuel during descent and all the other aircraft were nervously low. The weather was now 100 feet and 1/4 mile visibility, with rain. Happily, a few seconds later, GCA picked up the aircraft and guided them in for a 5 ship landing. All fighter pilots have experienced the feeling of relief that came over each of us as we touched down and great plumes of water spewed up from all 5 aircraft. The Slot man flamed out on engine runup before shutdown and each of the other aircraft had less than two minutes fuel remaining. Just another routine day in the life of a fighter pilot.
The team's last performance was at Grand Junction, Colorado, on July 10, 1959. The following month, sadly, the Sabres were ferried to the boneyard at Davis Monthan AFB, thus ending the last official U.S. demonstration team to fly the F-86 Sabre.
No discussion of the Minute Men would be complete without mentioning Ed Mack Miller, a United Airlines Instructor Pilot who was the team's narrator and publicity officer; Bill Koger, a Denver attorney who was the team's intrepid support pilot and alternate narrator who flew the team's aging C-47 from Alaska to Panama and throughout the continental U.S. without a single incident; and, the expert and totally dedicated crewchiefs who worked many 18 hour days to insure that enough Sabres were always available for every show.
And here is some more chuckles.
Subject: Fwd: Lutran Airlines
VE ARE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE LUTRAN AIR IS NOW OPERATING IN MINNYSOTA.
ALSO SERVING VISCONSIN, NORT AND SOUT DAKOTA.
If yew are travelin? soon, consider Lutran Air, da no-frills airline.
Yer all in da same boat on Lutran Air, where flyin is a upliftin experience.
Dere i! s no first class on any Lutran Air flight.
Meals are potluck. Rows 1-6, bring rolls; 7-15, bring a salad; 16-21, a main dish, and 22-30, a dessert.
Basses and tenors please sit in da rear of da aircraft.
Evryvon is responsible for his or her own baggage. All fares are by free will offering and da plane will not land 'til da budget is met.
! Pay attention to yer flight attendant, who vill acquaint yew vit da safety system aboard dis Lutran Air 599.
Okay den, listen up. I'm only gonna say dis vonce.
In da event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, I am frankly going to be real surprised and so vill Captain Jimmy Olson, because ve fly right around two tousund feet, so loss of cabin pressure vould probably mean da Second Coming or sometin? of dat nature, and I vouldn't bodder vit doze liddle masks on da rubber tubes. Yer gonna have bigger tings to vorry about den dat. Yust stuff doze back up in dair little holes. Probly da masks fell out because of turbulence vhich, to be honest vit yew, ve're gonna have qvite a bit of at two tousund feet, sorta like drivin? across a plowed field, but after a vhile yew get used to it.
In da event of a vater landing, I'd say ferget it. Start saying da Lord's Prayer and just hope yew get to da part about fergive us our sins as ve fergive doze who sin against us, vhich some people say "trespass against us," vhich isn't right, but vhat can yew do?
Da use of cell phones on da plane is strictly ferbidden, not because day may confuse da plane's navigation system, vhich is s! eat of da pants all da vay. No, it's because cell phones are a pain in da vazoo, and if God meant yew to use a cell phone, He vould have put yer mout on da side of yer head.
Ve start lunch right about noon and it's buffet style vit da coffee pot up front. Den ve'll have da hymn sing; hymnals are in da seat pocket in front of yew. Don't take yers vit yew vhen yew go or I am goin? to be real upset and I am not kiddin!
Right now I'll say Grace: "Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest and let deze gifts to us be blessed. Fadder, Son, and Holy Ghost, may ve land in Dulut or perty close."
Amen.
.