Oldman tell us your stories about your flying experiences.

Pilots live by the code to never become complacent. I had flown from the east coast to the west coast hundreds of times. On this flight, we were flying from Newark to San Francisco.

As we were about 80 miles from the airport and beginning our final approach, we were given our vectors to the ILS, which means that we were given instructions on where to connect to the instrument landing system, which after we connect to the ILS, it will take the plane to the starting point of the runway.

About 50 miles from the airport, we began our landing checklist. The non flying pilot performs the call outs. One pilot reads the checklist out loud and together, the pilots perform the checks and cross checks. If the Captain is flying the plane, the F/O performs the call outs. Like, he will say, “Landing lights on” and the pilot nearest to that switch will turn it on by flipping the switch. Next is, “Gear down” and again the F/O will pull the lever down and tell the Captain. “Gear down, three green.” This means that the landing gear is down and locked. And on and on it goes.

Once the landing checklist has been completed, the pilots will again receive another weather report with wind speed and in what direction it was coming from. After that, we start looking for the airport, but on this day, it was immensely foggy. A huge fog bank had settled over the airport, so a visual approach wasn’t going to happen. We were going to have to do an instrument approach. I knew this airport very well, but didn’t want to appear overly confident. San Francisco has four runways and is a difficult airport for young pilots, mainly because of the winds.

The ATC wanted us to do a straight in approach and landing, but I decided to fly out over the ocean and come back in. My F/O disagreed with my decision using CRM or “Crew Resource Management.” This allows any of the pilots to voice their concern that the Captain may make, but the Captain always has the last word. I overruled him this time. He asked why and I told him that the fog may be less dense from the other side and we will have the wind at our tail.

Sure enough. It was exactly that. We landed safely and taxied to the gate, although going out over the ocean made us 15 minutes late.

I hope that I didn’t confuse anyone. It’s difficult trying to explain aviation to someone that has never been exposed to it, but believe me, there is a whole lot more that goes on in the cockpit to land the plane.
 

Great question. When landing in SFO and flying out over the ocean, we sometimes do not have much of a choice, if we are coming back in to land. Normally, winds will flow west to east, so when we come back in from the ocean, the wind will generally be behind us giving us a tailwind, unless we fly back around the runway. In San Francisco, they also have a noise abatement in place during certain weather conditions. Out in South San Francisco, where the airport is located, the residents in that area do not appreciate aircraft flying low over their homes, so we are restricted (at times) to how low we can fly. I generally preferred coming in from the west and keep my altitude and drop my altitude a bit more slower, instead o maybe having to do a slam dunk. A slam dunk, in case you did not know, is when the pilot needs to or wishes to drop his altitude all in a matter of moments.

When landing, we don't need a lot of lift. Flying into the wind provides lift on takeoff and thrust gives the plane the power to climb. This is why pilots will use full thrust for takeoffs Generally speaking, it is best to takeoff and land with wind at your nose, but on this particular day, I preferred to go out over the ocean in hopes that the fog would be less dense, so that I could see the runway from minimums.

I found this definition of what minimums are from Google: Approaching minimums is the decision making altitude or minimum altitude (Generally 100 feet above the minimum altitude ). Captain callout ‘approaching minimums’ in order to decide that they will land on the runway or they will go around, that depends on the Captain. In their final approach if they are going for landing then the other pilot callout “ continue” or else the other pilot callout “Go around” and then the landing was aborted....the Pilot pushes the thrust levers to its maximum position in order to get the maximum thrust generated by the engines and then the landing gear was retracted in order to "go around."

Just putting in my two-cents. When the pilot does a "go around" and pushes the accelerators, or thrust levers all the way up, it will take a little time for the engines to respond and spool up to full power. This is why the sooner the pilot makes the decision to "go around" the more time he gives the engines to spool up. If the pilot decides too late to "go around" and shoves the accelerators all the way up, he was too late and the plane will continue to descend setting the pane down very fast and very hard. By doing that will normally that, the final outcome probably will not end well.

Here is a short video showing a plane landing at night during dense fog and why I wrote above that it's a good idea to be able to see the runway before touchdown. Even though we use the ILS that directs the plane to the runway, I always felt more comfortable being able to see it. The ILS is short for "Instrument Landing System," which is a key component for landing anytime, but is ideal for bad weather situations. The ILS actually controls the plane through the Autopilot and will set the plane onto the runway, but I prefer to make sure, so I need to see the runway before touchdown.

I apologize for the length of this post, but it's important to me to be as clear as I can when trying to explain flying procedures.

 

We were sitting at the gate in Boston preparing to fly to San Francisco. There was still about five minutes remaining until departure time. The Purser called the cockpit on the intercom and said everyone was accounted for and seated, so we were ready to go. I ordered her to close the main cabin door. Once that door is closed, it’s not to be opened until we arrive at our destination.

We finished our paperwork and notified the tower that we were ready for pushback from the gate. There was no immediate response, so we waited for a minute and that’s when the ATC told us that we were being purposely delayed and to standby. After another several minutes, the ATC informed us that we were going to be transporting organs to San Francisco, along with a medical chaperone. I had to tell the passengers why we were being delayed and that never makes anyone happy, no matter what the reason.

Luckily, we only had to wait another ten minutes, plus because we had to open the door, we had to redo our paperwork, which took another 15 minutes. Once underway, I informed the passengers the we would have them in San Francisco on time. Once at our destination, everyone had to remain seated until the precious cargo and chaperone had deplaned.

The nice thing about carrying transplant organs is that your plane gets priority for landing and an open gate. We were right on time.
 
@oldman I would hope people would be more tolerant of a delay because you were carrying transplant organs. I certainly would be.
I just read that planes carrying the vaccine for the virus will get priority for landing also.
I'm sure there will be some who will make a fuss.
 

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