Sharing A Flying Experience

[oldman]

I wasn't sure where to put this, so I decided under "Travel" was a s good as any. I flew for Air Wisconsin and United Airlines combined for almost 34 years. After I retired on an "early out" program in 2009, a few months later, I hooked up with a leasing company. I have been flying a few really nice small jets, at least they were small compared to the Boeing jets that I flew at United.

Last Wednesday, my main client wanted to fly from Harrisburg, PA to Dallas, TX. My supervisor at the leasing company told me that he was sending along a novice pilot that had just graduated from flight school four months earlier and had only about 700 hours of flying experience. He asked if I would mind if he took the plane down to Dallas and I would fly back. Hey, no problem. He did a nice job on takeoff and once airborn and on autopilot, everything went well, until we crossed over the jet stream when he turned off the AP. I asked him why he did that and he told me that he was taught to do that because sometimes the plane may start to yaw (slightly turning left then right), if the stream is turning hard to the north. I told him that I never heard of such a thing and to turn the AP back on, which then he asked if he could just hand fly the plane for just a few minutes, so I told him to go ahead.

He had the plane's controls for only a few minutes when the plane started climbing and I asked him what he was doing and he told me that he was just testing the strength of the plane, whatever the heck that means. (First of all, I never heard him ask ATC if he could climb, which really got my heart racing.) Then, all of a sudden, the plane started to pitch up and was going into a stall at which time I told him, "My plane" and I took back the controls. When we got to Dallas, he called the supervisor back in Nashville and told him that I had taken the controls from him. My supervisor, to his credit, told him that if Will took the plane from you, I am sure that he had a very good reason.

The supervisor called me later that evening in my hotel room and asked me what happened. I told him and he didn't say much, except that I did the right thing and thanked me. I did not want to, nor did I make a big deal out of it, but I haven't seen him around since we got back on Saturday and I am not asking. I saw his name on the log that he was supposed to fly to Chicago yesterday, but he didn't go, so I have no clue what happened to him. I am sure that sooner or later someone will tell me what happened to him. I will say this, he had me very nervous, which I hadn't felt in many years. We were at 39,000 ft. and that is no time to be "practicing" your skills, especially with a VIP on-board. Thank goodness for TCAS.

 

[SeaBreeze]

Sounds like you did the right thing Oldman, no time for experiments in those conditions. Wonder why someone told him to turn off the auto pilot when you crossed over the jet stream. Does that make any real sense to you?

 

[Don M.]

Good for you! "Experimenting", by the pilot, is NOT something to be taken lightly. If there was a malfunction in the Autopilot, then the pilot should take control, but if things are proceeding properly, the pilot should just be monitoring the controls, and be ready to act, if necessary. Far too many air crashes have been the result of "pilot error". Air travel is far and away the safest form of transportation, and hopefully it will remain so.

 

[oldman]

Over the many years that I have flown, I have heard many pilots talk about their different ways of flying, but I never heard of turning off the AP when crossing over the jet stream, unless the winds are very significant and then the pilot may wish to hand fly the plane until they are clear of the JS. Sometimes, more likely in the summer, the pilot may experience some light chop as the plane crosses through or over the JS. Normally, when I would cross the JS, I would throttle up a bit, but leave the AP on just as the plane entered and exited the JS. It's weird sometimes how the plane reacts. Sometimes there is little notice while other times the turbulence can shake the plane pretty good. Jet streams can contain some pretty strong winds. I try to listen to what other pilots are reporting over the radio when they have crossed the JS and then I make my decision as to how I will fly over or through it.

 

[Don M.]

Perhaps my most notable Flying experience occurred years ago, when I was stationed in Germany, in the USAF. The base initiated a program where the Airman of the Month was rewarded with a flight in the back seat of a F-105F. I polished up my act, and saluted everything that moved, and finally won the award. What a Hoot!! I had a physical to make sure I could withstand the flight, put on a G-suit, and hopped aboard. I drew a pilot named Capt. Cushenberry, whose primary duty was to take a plane up after an engine change to make sure it was still operational....he was quite a pilot. He took off, held it low until he hit the proper airspeed, then put it in a steep climb with full afterburner, until we hit about 20,000 ft. Then he commenced a series of maneuvers that had me clutching the "barf bag" tightly. When we got back on the ground, I was a bit wobbly, but that was certainly one of the highlights of my life.

 

[oldman]

I did not fly in the military. I learned to fly at ATP Flight School, first in Phoenix and then I took advanced training in Jacksonville, also at ATP. I put in for flight school when I joined the Marines, but I was told that at 6'4" I was too tall to fit into an F-4. Heck, I would have flown anything, but I ended up being assigned to a combat reconnaissance group, or as I call it, "Fourteen months of Hell."

I still enjoy going to the airshows, especially those that highlight planes from prior wars. My favorite plane is still the F-4, only because they saved my butt on several occasions.