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.
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.