Category Archives: Aviation

Back to Dallas

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I finally made it back around lunchtime on Tuesday, a little late but intact! I took tons of pictures, but I want to find a more convenient way to display them on here, so check back later. Alaska is BEAUTIFUL in ways that pictures can’t entirely convey. The Juneau area sits along the shore and surrounded by tree-covered mountains, islands, and glaciers. On Friday Dad and I visited Mendenhall Glacier, a big river of ice that literally flows down from the nearby snow fields and terminates in the silt-tinted Mendenhall Lake. Saturday and Sunday we fished for halibut and salmon. I’m not a huge fisherman, but I did have some success and even won the Big Fish of the Day contest for Saturday with a king salmon. We actually had better luck with the halibut than with the salmon. On Monday morning Dad and I went bear-watching on Admiralty Island, seeing a few bald eagles, a lone bear fishing and a skittish mama bear and cub walking along a creek. Then we flew out to the snow fields near Juneau where glaciers are born. I’ll add some more detail when I post the pics.

The flights to Juneau and back were memorable. Although we departed late on both Alaska Airlines flights outbound, I was very impressed with the aircraft (Boeing 737-400s and 737-800s) and the inflight service (two drink services on each flight with free light snacks and a breakfast available for purchase on one leg). I got stuck in SEA coming home since my cockpit access for other airlines was temporarily broken. I had no idea that red-eye flights would be so popular at this time of year! I slept a few hours on a padded bench in the airport and rode home on American in the cockpit of a 757, which was great fun.

In a Pickle on a Missouri Farm

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Yesterday morning, my dad and two of his retired pilot friends were enroute to Oshkosh (a big aviation festival in Wisconsin) in one of the friend’s Cessna. Suddenly the gas cap came off (?!), and the pressure differential quickly siphoned off the fuel. The captain made an emergency landing on a farm in Missouri. My dad described the “runway” as a recently planted cucumber patch. Both aircraft and passengers were fine. Local farmers brought over cans of 100-LL to get the aircraft back in the air as a host of local law enforcement officials, reporters, and an ambulance came out to investigate. Ironically, the state police actually caused more damage to the crops with their cars than the landing did. We’re already working on jokes about cucumbers and the Age 60 rule.

May Rants and Raves

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Rant: It really hacks me off when the captain has the “Fasten Seat Belt” sign turned on and passengers get up anyway. It seems to happen on most flights I take. Sometimes the sign might be on to make the food/drink service easier for the flight attendants, but often it’s on because there’s a chance of turbulence. It’s uncommon, but people do get injured by turbulence. We’ve had flight attendants get legs broken. The pilots get info on turbulence from their dispatcher, air traffic control, forecasts, and other pilots. Sometimes they can change their route or altitude to avoid/decrease the turbulence (get a “better ride”), but other times the only good option is to seat everyone and go through it. Obey the sign and stay out of the hospital.

Rave: Target’s Archer Farms brand of decaf hazelnut creme coffee is OUTSTANDING. Normally I doctor up my coffee, but this stuff is so mild and smooth that I drink it black and love it. It also smells great.

Rant: I finally fired Blue Wireless yesterday! After two weeks of very little internet access, lots of promises, and little explanation, I got fed up and called the billing department. The billing rep was the first one to actually tell me what was wrong. A technician came out this morning and fixed the connection, but I’ve already given my 30 days’ notice. If they’d only told me sooner about the plan, I would have kept them longer. Oh well. I wrote them a nasty email explaining why I was leaving. It was fun.

Rave: Elvira still rocks! I got over 35 mpg on my second tank of gas!

Rave: Ebby offers a Find House by Map feature that, well, lets you search for houses on a map. You select the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, property type, and price, and it shows you all the matching homes at whatever zoom level you want. You can overlay schools, restaurants, day cares, and DART stations as well. Try it out!

Rave: Our house looks great! =) I just mowed the yard (FINALLY! It’s hard to mow when it rains everyday, but it’s great to have so much free water for the yard!), and we manage to keep it looking nice by spending lots of time away. We’re having an OPEN HOUSE on Sunday, June 3, from 2-5 PM if you’d like to stop by.

EMERGENCY LANDING!!?!?!?

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I never want to hear that phrase again. Why? Because it’s a sensationalist phrase that the press loves to use to sell papers and boost ratings. Everybody loves to gather around the TV to hear about emergency landings, right? This week a commercial flight made an EMERGENCY LANDING!!! in Louisville due to smoke and an electrical smell on board. It made the Dallas Morning News. Another flight made an EMERGENCY LANDING!!! in DFW due to a pressurization problem. It made the news. If an aircraft develops a gear problem and circles a bit to burn off fuel, the news stations scramble the choppers to provide live coverage (see jetBlue last year). By emphasizing the unusual flights, the media’s obsession makes aviation seem quite dangerous when it truly is the safest form of transportation you can use. Imagine what TV would be like if the news media ran a story about every car that broke down or got in a wreck in a given day. You could have a 24/7 channel on car problems that wouldn’t cover half of the day’s tally!

The truth is, most EMERGENCY LANDINGS!!!, while interesting due to their rarity, are just not that big of a deal. In 2 years of dispatching, touching perhaps 20,000 flights or more, I’ve had only a handful of flights make an “emergency landing,” as the press would call it. On a given weekday, Southwest Airlines alone operates over 3000 flights. Combined, the US airlines probably operate 15,000 or more. But if the press hears about just one of those flights diverting, especially for a mechanical problem, you can bet it’ll end up on the news, generally with inaccurate information because the reporter doesn’t understand aviation. Pilots train extensively for a huge variety of unusual and difficult situations, facing problems in the simulator that many of them never see in an entire career. They have detailed checklists to follow for in-flight failures and problems. For most situations, if X happens, the checklist says to do Y, which sometimes means diverting. They also have radio links to mechanics and dispatchers for an outside opinion. So in the unlikely event that a serious problem does arise, they can handle it successfully.

Forgive my rant, but I want people to keep these stories in perspective. I also promise something fun and fluffy for my next entry. =)

PHX, OAK, and SFO

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We’re back! It was a stressful and draining trip, but also tons of fun and memorable in many ways. First, I put in my cockpit observation time requirement for the year by riding up front from Dallas to El Paso to Phoenix and then from Phoenix to Oakland. I always like riding up front because it helps me understand the pilots’ duties, pressures, and perspective better. I talked with both sets of pilots about fuel, one area of occasional disagreement between pilots and dispatchers. At Southwest, and probably all other passenger airlines, the dispatcher plans the fuel load and alternate airports well in advance of departure time after analyzing the weather, aircraft, airports, traffic, and other factors involved. The FAA requires a minimum of 45 minutes’ worth of extra fuel for domestic flights, and we always add varying amounts of extra fuel to account for possible reroutes, ATC issues, weather, or other issues that might increase the fuel burn. On the majority of our flights, the Captain accepts the planned fuel load. On occasion, he/she adds more shortly before departure, which gives the flight more time to deviate or hold before diverting but also increases the fuel burn and operating cost (extra fuel = extra weight to carry). Some pilots like to say, “the only time a plane has too much fuel is when it’s on fire.” Although we might quibble over the “right” amount of fuel, I was very impressed (but not surprised) at how seriously our pilots take their responsibility for the safe operation of each Southwest flight. The Dallas-Phoenix trip was boring weather-wise, but the nighttime Phoenix-Oakland flight was more interesting. We experienced turbulence for much of the flight, and the pilots worked hard with ATC trying to find a smooth altitude. Then on approach to OAK, we descended through thick layers of clouds and landed in rain and 3 miles of visibility. It wasn’t anywhere near the minimums for OAK, but there’s nothing quite like seeing lit-up clouds fly straight toward you at 250 knots.

The rest of the trip was busy but fun. We had a good turnout at both “LUV at First Bite” new-hire luncheons, both from new-hires and from our senior leaders. President Colleen Barrett was there along with several directors and vice presidents. They all had a great time and enjoyed the puppet show. Thursday night we attended the Oakland Message to the Field, where Gary announced SWA’s impending return to San Francisco after a 6-year hiatus. I think SFO will be a good airport for us, but its opening will increase our staffing shortage in Oakland. If you know anyone who might be interested in working for us in OAK, please refer them to southwest.com/careers. =) We visited the People Department’s field offices in each city and sold lots of goodies before each Message. It was great to get out in the field and see my coworkers from so many different airports, to feel the excitement of the new-hires, and to remind myself once again how many different people and roles it takes to run our company.

Whew, What a Week!

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This week I worked 6 day shifts, filling in for more senior people who took vacation. Working Christmas didn’t bother me that much except that I couldn’t see my dad’s side of the family Christmas Eve in Wichita Falls. It was a very busy workweek! One day Sacramento was fogged in, and two or three planes landing in SMF had mechanical problems. The next day San Jose was fogged in. Tuesday Reno was extremely windy, and one of my flights reported severe turbulence just before landing and diverted to Oakland. Thursday I tried to referee a battle between a Captain who wanted an aircraft inspected and the mechanics who didn’t think it was necessary based on the circumstances. Yesterday I had flights into Denver, a double-diversion at Albuquerque due to snow and fog, a charter to plan, and thunderstorms all over Texas. This is on top of our Christmas celebrations. Now I finally get a day off, and we’re having an 80th birthday party for my grandfather in Rowlett.

BREAKING NEWS! AN ANDYBOX.COM EXCLUSIVE!!! Thursday brought the birth of Paige Noel Cerney, the first daughter of my cousin Joe and his wife Erin. You won’t find this anywhere else, not even BabyCerney.com!