Spirit Flight 696 now arriving gate 8, gate 9, gate 10, gate 13, 14, 15...

Cheap company was behind in gate rent so they parked there instead.

Cheers
 
Boy, there but for the grace of God. . .

Icy day, runway cleared to 100 feet just to get the airport flowing again. Land just fine, slow to what one thinks is a safe speed for the conditions and then. . .

Oh CRAP! (Or words to that effect.) I can’t steer and I can’t stop. And off to the weeds we go.

I had a similar situation in Philadelphia one winter day a few years ago. We landed and got safely on the taxiway but then I couldn’t stop the jet. Too much residual thrust, even at idle, for the icy taxiway. Shut down the engines and sat, IIRC, for about an hour and a half until the sand truck could come out and clear a path for us to the gate.

So, pilot error for taxiing too fast for the conditions, but extenuating circumstances that led up to it.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
Boy, there but for the grace of God. . .

Icy day, runway cleared to 100 feet just to get the airport flowing again. Land just fine, slow to what one thinks is a safe speed for the conditions and then. . .

Oh CRAP! (Or words to that effect.) I can’t steer and I can’t stop. And off to the weeds we go.

I had a similar situation in Philadelphia one winter day a few years ago. We landed and got safely on the taxiway but then I couldn’t stop the jet. Too much residual thrust, even at idle, for the icy taxiway. Shut down the engines and sat, IIRC, for about an hour and a half until the sand truck could come out and clear a path for us to the gate.

So, pilot error for taxiing too fast for the conditions, but extenuating circumstances that led up to it.
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I had to shut down and wait for a tow once upon at time as well. I will not be throwing any rocks at the Spirit crew.
 
Fun ice story. Good self aggrandization. Was driving Mrs. Steingar and Big Sister North to see Mama Steingar. Got up to a bridge where I saw a big white Caddy in front of me start to spin. He hit the guy next to him and kept spinning. Guy in front of me hits the brakes. I hit the brakes. Nothing. I mean nothing. Mrs. Steingar starts screaming "no No NO!" at the top of her lungs.

Me, I shift into a lower gear and hit the gas. If I can't stop I might as well go. Get around the guy in front of me, and I thread the needle between the still spinning Caddy and the other guy, and off I go. Mrs. Steingar is gobsmacked that I pulled that off. Big Sister looks up and says "what happened".

No aviation stories, I don't fly when there's ice about.
 
Turboprops are much safer on the ice. I had taxi problems with piston aircraft and ice but never with a turboprop, beta/reverse is always there.
 
steingar said:
Fun ice story. Good self aggrandization. Was driving Mrs. Steingar and Big Sister North to see Mama Steingar. Got up to a bridge where I saw a big white Caddy in front of me start to spin. He hit the guy next to him and kept spinning. Guy in front of me hits the brakes. I hit the brakes. Nothing. I mean nothing. Mrs. Steingar starts screaming "no No NO!" at the top of her lungs.

Me, I shift into a lower gear and hit the gas. If I can't stop I might as well go. Get around the guy in front of me, and I thread the needle between the still spinning Caddy and the other guy, and off I go. Mrs. Steingar is gobsmacked that I pulled that off. Big Sister looks up and says "what happened".

No aviation stories, I don't fly when there's ice about.
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Just a few years ago I was driving a rented BMW/Mini which of course had a useless auto transmission, and realized as I was going down a hill that I wasn't going to stop at the bottom which was a 90 degree turn to the left. Put all my hours of doing donuts in snowy Boston area parking lots as a teenager to good use. Cranked the wheel to left, pulled the parking brake and stopped sliding sideways just as I reached the curb at the bottom of the hill. Simply drove away with no injury to car or curb. I just knew all that "training" would payoff someday.
 
Arnold said:
Just a few years ago I was driving a rented BMW/Mini which of course had a useless auto transmission, and realized as I was going down a hill that I wasn't going to stop at the bottom which was a 90 degree turn to the left. Put all my hours of doing donuts in snowy Boston area parking lots as a teenager to good use. Cranked the wheel to left, pulled the parking brake and stopped sliding sideways just as I reached the curb at the bottom of the hill. Simply drove away with no injury to car or curb. I just knew all that "training" would payoff someday.
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Mine was motorcycle skills.
 
Exactly what Greg said. " There but for the grace of God go I " Been there a few times. I would guess the anti skid doesn't arm until 60kts, and disarms when the brakes are released after touch down. So the anti skid wasn't going to do anything. Big airplane tires are very hard rubber, they don't grip well in snow/wet slick etc.. I think the MD-80 was probably the worst on slick pavement. But anyway, it happens. If that's as bad as it gets, I'll count my blessings. Recoverable "oh ****" moment. Embarrassment, but no permanent damage. Was that the 4th day of the trip of 16 hr days ?
 
steingar said:
Fun ice story. Good self aggrandization. Was driving Mrs. Steingar and Big Sister North to see Mama Steingar. Got up to a bridge where I saw a big white Caddy in front of me start to spin. He hit the guy next to him and kept spinning. Guy in front of me hits the brakes. I hit the brakes. Nothing. I mean nothing. Mrs. Steingar starts screaming "no No NO!" at the top of her lungs.

Me, I shift into a lower gear and hit the gas. If I can't stop I might as well go. Get around the guy in front of me, and I thread the needle between the still spinning Caddy and the other guy, and off I go. Mrs. Steingar is gobsmacked that I pulled that off. Big Sister looks up and says "what happened".

No aviation stories, I don't fly when there's ice about.
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I recall seeing a truck spinning its wheels on a slight hill coated with ice. The name on the side of the truck was G. O. D.
 
Clearing the runway in CLE years ago as a new Captain on the A300. Start the turn just fine then hit the less plowed taxiway. Thought I was going plenty slow. Suddenly start sliding towards the edge. Fortunately didn’t go off the taxiway.
That will certainly get your attention quickly.
There but for the grace of God...
 
A couple of winters ago I landed a 737 in a snowstorm in Denver with winds gusting above 40kts about 30 degrees off the runway heading. It wasn't me who had the hard job, though. That was the Captain who had to taxi up and down the hills (there are many) at DEN in those gusty winds on the slick pavement!
 
A few years ago in MCI we almost slammed into the terminal getting marshaled into the gate. Braking action was pretty bad to say the least. That was...interesting.
 
Maybe Greg and I got caught in the same weather at PHL - it was winter of 2015, and we were one of the last ones to land after some freezing rain rolled in and blew up the braking action. Ended up taking us 1.5 hours to get to the gate. After they treated the taxiways we crossed 9L at Echo (very slowly!), and I attempted to make the left turn onto Kilo. Plane kept going straight, and the brakes had no effect. Fortunately nobody was in front of us on echo, but we slid perhaps 50 feet before the brakes or tiller had any effect again.

*Not* a good feeling, that’s for sure!
 
Not a good feeling is right! I wouldn’t even call it taxiing, I was “inching in” to the gate with idle thrust when my jet started skating. I shut down the engines, then had it towed.
 
I can relate. The runup pad at the entrance to RWY 35 at the home field is currently an ice rink, and is slightly downhill. When I turned to enter the runup pad, the plane neither turned nor stopped as expected. I did manage to stay on the pavement, however. That's one disadvantage of a castering nosewheel and differential braking for steering.
 
Plano Pilot said:
At my last job we were on snow and ice a lot, I do not miss those days. Nothing like having to use the TR's to make a turn and or stop. Pictures are from an airport in Montana, at least this place was only snow.
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The mighty SII!
 
Plano Pilot said:
At my last job we were on snow and ice a lot, I do not miss those days. Nothing like having to use the TR's to make a turn and or stop. Pictures are from an airport in Montana, at least this place was only snow.
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Flying to the Midwest next week for Christmas and I’m flying a jet with no TRs. Hopefully we don’t get any nasty weather while I’m there (arrival day looks fine but departure is a ways out) because I’m a pretty good driver on snow/Ice in a car, but I don’t have any desire to try it out in the airplane.
 
RudyP said:
Flying to the Midwest next week for Christmas and I’m flying a jet with no TRs. Hopefully we don’t get any nasty weather while I’m there (arrival day looks fine but departure is a ways out) because I’m a pretty good driver on snow/Ice in a car, but I don’t have any desire to try it out in the airplane.
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Luckily I have never needed to land an airplane without reversing propellers or TR's on a slick runway. Snow is not bad but ice is, hard to tell if the snow has ice under it. Will you have a hangar? If it snows while you are there and it does not stick you can just broom off the snow. Back in my Falcon 20 days we would have the fuel truck behind the airplane and broom off the tail from the top of the truck.

Watch the crosswinds, nothing like looking sideways out the windshield while going down the runway. Luckily I only did that once and it was standing water not ice.

Twice I needed a TR to make a turn. First time was on the ramp at ASE, Falcon 20, slicker than snot where they wanted us to park. It was from the APU's running and melting the ice. Then the airplane would leave and the water would refreeze. Second time was in a Citation at LVS. We were told the runway had been plowed and clear, it was not! Landed with a strong wind right down the runway. With the wind we stopped easily enough but the runway was very slick and the tail keep catching the wind not letting us turn. We had to turn around because the only clear exit off the runway was at the approach end. All the other exits had over a foot of snow on them. When we departed later in the day the temps were around freezing and everything was slushy. We waited to put the flaps out until we were on the runway. After takeoff the left main would not stay up. Cycled the gear a few time and all 3 finally stayed up. Then the hyd light started coming on and off. By pulling circuit breakers we found out it was the flaps. Figured out we had ice contaminating the flaps, they looked like they were up, pulled the flap CB and came home. It was about 85 degrees back home, put the gear down about 10 miles out to get the ice out of the brakes. All was good!.

Forgot to add, if it is slushy, leave the gear out for a while after takeoff to blow the moisture out of the brakes. I have a friend that landed with all 4 mains locked because of ice, it was very slushy where he departed.
 
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I have two driving on ice stories. I was headed to the Wichita State University on cold, snowy, and icy road. When I got to the entrance I put on the brakes to turn. The car rotated 90 degrees to point where I wanted to go, but it kept sliding in its original direction. I released the brakes and it headed toward the parking lot that was just past the entrance. I hit the curb, went up and over the curb, sidewalk, and into the parking lot, with no apparent issues, ever.

Many years later, back in Wichita, I’m driving from the ranch to my job at Cessna. I get close to a traffic light for a main drag, apply the brakes and just slide straight ahead. I figured I would stop in the middle of the road, so I just gave the SUV gas and kept on going.

Another time the KS wind blew me off the road when I was driving on glazed ice. Needed a tow truck to get me out.
 
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