Why pilots fly

[Bruce]

http://www.chonday.com/Videos/pilotnewzdalnd1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Harry Babb]

Wow.....ya really have to believe in instruments to do that job! !

hb

[Charlie J]

Wow.....ya really have to believe in instruments to do that job! !

hb

that's for dam sure harry

[wmachovina]

Yep, mark one eyeballs.

[Kurt]

Love my IFR rating. Haven't used it in years but coming out of a cloud to see the lights is great. That looks like a real airplane though. No prop out front like the little guys I have played with.

[Dug]

So stunning it brought tears to my eyes... Thanks for sharing Bruce.

[Craig G]

Reminds me of my flight this morning, as I'm watching this in my hotel room in Milan Italy. We had a beautiful view of the Swiss Alps towards the latter part of our almost ten hour flight from Miami. Then my ass puckered in the seat when one of my co-pilots informed me of the latest weather. Fog had just rolled in and wasn't in the forecast. We entered a holding pattern, me flying our 767-300 while both my co-pilots were referencing their IPads to check to see if the weather was at or above minimums. We all agreed that we could do a CAT 3 auto landing as opposed to flying to Genoa which was clear and was our alternate. The old 767 did great, tracking us right to the runway and making a perfect landing. The fog was so bad that we had to wait for a "follow me" truck to guide us around the airport to our gate. I really trusted my instruments today, and didn't even disconnect the autopilot until we turned off the runway.

[Bruce]

Its really amazing to realize the cycles that modern aircraft go thru with little to no problems.

Like Kurt Russell said in Executive Decision, they kinda just fly themselves don't they. :-)

Here Craig, this is for you.

[Craig G]

Thanks Bruce, that pretty much sums up my view of today's flight. It is amazing how many hours and cycles these aircraft can accumulate. The plane I flew to Milan from Miami will hit 105,000 hours on the airframe before the month is over, and has over 17,000 cycles of being pressurized followed by same number of landings.

[wmachovina]

Craig , did many an approach into Malpensa, fog comes in frequently after sunrise, just about arrival time,cat 3 auto lands are sweet when you've been up all night. That unfortunately was where someone I forget who, ran into I think an Alitalia md 80 on rollout. Be careful out there. The train to Como makes for a good dinner trip.

[Craig G]

Thanks Bill, the dinner trip to Como sounds good, I'm thinking wait for warmer weather though? What type equipment do you or did you fly?

[wmachovina]

Craig, 767-300 er for DAL , left before the bk, now flying the mighty Citatian Soverign for NJ.woohoo, you at AA?

[Dug]

Craig, sounds like a puckerer... Glad you made it safe!!!!!

[Craig G]

Yes Bill, at AA for over 27 years now, cautiously optimistic about the future as we just merged with USAir today and exited BK with over 12 more years until I turn 65. And thanks Dug, I've done several of those over the years, but that one caught us by surprise in the final portion of the flight unexpectedly. I've never been to Milan before, so that is the first time I have ever flown into an airport only to depart a couple days later not recognizing a darn thing while taxing out for take off. Speaking of pucker factor, when I flew the 737-800, I would hand fly Cat 3 approaches using a heads up display and literally not seeing the runway until after we land, and that was hand flown without the autopilot. You just look through the HUD and keep the small circle inside the big circle flight director, like looking in a straw, and every thing just falls into place right up until the flare and landing. Talk about your ass puckering in the seat and trusting your instruments! I had an adrenaline rush the first time I did one of those.

[wmachovina]

Craig, Milan is often cat2/3 in the morning, also be careful about engine out miss, big mountains to the north. We had custom tailored jeps for that eng out different than normal, Zurich can also be sporty

[Charlie J]

got to give you guys credit, you do some job

hey wmachovina you flying to Hawaii in aug

[Rawleigh]

Craig: Have you ever flown with my good friend Latane Campbell. He had been stuck at FO on 767's out of La Guardia for 20+ years and just made Captain on 737-800's out of Miami.

[wmachovina]

Charlie , thanks for the complement, as the Buffet song says. "it's my job" Hawaii in August? Hell I don't know where I'll be tomorrow. But if Ido go, I'll give you a ring.

[Craig G]

Yes Bill, we have the engine out procedures too. I've been flying Central and South America for a long time with many terrain critical areas like Quito and Bogota among the mix. Thanks Charlie for your kind words. We are fortunate though to go to work which has also been one of my hobbies. Still love flying after all these years. The layovers can be fun, but they have us working so much, I'm just gone from home too much....not enough time with family and enjoying my Bertram. Rawleigh, I have never flown with Latrane. I only know of him through our pilot union sand box much the same as I know about all of the regulars on this site. Glad to hear he made captain after all those years, timing is everything. He was probably hired in the early 90s at the end of a hiring boom. I caught that hiring boom much earlier in 1986, so I was fortunate to check out as a 727 captain 6 years later at age 31.....21 years ago. Man, I'm getting old!

[Rawleigh]

Craig: That is about right. He came from flying Sherpas and then C141's for the Air Force. Got there just in time to get screwed by the TWA merger.

[Bruce]

Craig,
When I went to Spartan, I worked the grave yard shift as a janitor at Tulsa airport to help pay my living expenses. Back then the airport shut down at 8pm and when I got there it was deserted.
There was no security and the ramp doors into the terminal were unlocked and many times there was equipment parked overnight for the morning flights, much of which were 727's.

As a dumb kid in school, I spent many a night hours on end for a year playing pilot in the cockpit of 727's, reading flight procedures, emergency procedures, check lists and the such.

I look back now and realize if I could have fired the damn thing up, by God I probably would have tried to fly it.

Years later when I got my private ticket, my instructor commented that I seemed to be very comfortable behind the yoke more so than most. I turned to him and said I had quite a few hours in the 727. A couple of hours later, I let him in on the joke.

[TailhookTom]

My dad was a Naval Aviator -- I remember a comment he made at a gathering in our neighborhood when one of the neighbors said how it was so much "easier" to be a commerical pilot and why didn't he retire and fly for an airline, "that's a load of horse crap -- when I'm flying I am only responsbile for 2 souls -- commerical pilots are responsible for 100s"

Tom