Captain
Final Approach
As requested from another thread in this category...
So I changed the format of this thread title a tad as A: It's a true story that happened to me, and B: I'm not asking...I'm quite sure he's...well, maybe not a jerk, but a bad pilot at the least. Here goes, enjoy.
So, I'm right seat of a B-727 hauling the rubber dog crap up and down the Island chain to S. America and back to Miami. It's late at night and we're in Haiti at Port Au Prince. I'm flying with Captain Alverez, a guy a few years from retirement (retired now) and an Eastern Scab. I point that out because, well...it's relavant to me to point out any scab when I see them.
Anyway, we're in Port Au Prince at night and have loaded up and are heading back to MIA. We taxi out uneventfully. It's his leg and we're cleared for takeoff. Normal procedure is for the Flying Pilot to stand up the power levers and let the FE set takeoff power. Well, this night Captain Alverez (EA scab) stands the power levers up and there is an immediate loud rattle coming from the pedestal where the power levers are.
It's obvious to me we're not going flying tonight unless something obvious is discovered. He pulls the power levers back and I assume we're going back to the gate. Imagine my surprise when the power levers go back up! The rattle is still there and Captain Alverez (EA scab) ponders over the engine instruments as we start rolling. I give him a second while he appears to be troubleshooting, pulling the levers back and pushing them back up...all the while we're going faster and faster.
Well, Captain Alverez (EA scab) is clearly out of his depths here. Unable to make a call. Around 80 kts I say sternly, 'That's NOT normal!" to which he relents and pulls the levers back. By now we're pushing over 100 kts.
So, let's set this up. We had an issue at ZERO knots yet we now are doing a fricking high speed abort. Great job Captain.
I tell tower we're aborting our takeoff and Captain scab scolds me for not saying 'discontinue our takeoff roll'. Whatever. I said it on the 'other thread' and it's true. It's Haiti. You could roll a joint, go to the tower and smoke it and then takeoff without a clearance and what would happen? Nothing is the correct answer.
Anyway, I digress...
We get off the runway and Captain Alverez (EA scab) decides to do some trouble shooting. Okay...I can go along with that. He stands each power lever up one at a time. No. 1 goes up and the rattle is there. It comes back. No. 2 and 3 go up one at a time and neither have any abnormal sound. Great, it's No. 1 engine, let's go back now. Nope.
Captain Alverez (EA scab) now wants to do more trouble shooting. He runs the No. 1 engine up! He wants to find the exact EPR that causes the worst noise. Why? I have no fricken idea. He retarded maybe? Finally after 3 or 4 minutes of running up an engine that is obviously not working properly he's satisfied and tells me to get clearance to the gate. I get the clearance.
Now, the next part needs a little background. A B-727 has 2 hydraulic systems that are run off the No. 1 and No. 2 engines. There is no hydraulic power provided from the No. 3 engine. You don't really need hydraulics to fly (well flaps and gear but you can crank the gear and land w/o flaps) but there sort of necessary to taxi.
So, we taxi back with a bad No. 1 engine. On the way I hear an engine spool down and assume it's the bad one, right? Doesn't that make sense? Not to Captain Alverez (EA scab). He just shut down number 2. Great, I think, now we HAVE to leave the bad engine running so we have hydraulics. Fricken idiot....well too late now, I continue to think, not enough time to start it again anyway by the time we get to the gate.
So I bite my tounge and we continue to taxi. As I'm rolling all this around in my head I hear ANOTHER engine spool down! Yup, the retard just shut down number 3!!!
We have 3 fricken engines and only one of them have a problem and THAT'S the engine Captain Alverez (EA scab) decides to use during a single engine taxi in a fully loaded, over landing weight Boeing 727. Super great.
We get to the gate and shut down. We inspect the No. 1 engine and its thrown 2 or 3 N1 blades. Those are the big ones you see when you look into the front of a jet btw. I saw the engine on a stand a week or so later in MIA and of the 14 compressor stages every one of them had damage. The first 5 or 6 stages were just destroyed and I can't believe the engine got us to the gate.
There's more to the story but it all involves our overnight in Haiti and ducking down in the back seat of cars and hand guns and the most desperate people I've ever seen on earth (and I've been around the Pacific rim too...lot's of poverty there but nothing like Haiti).
It got long and sorry for that. Hope you enjoyed the story. All true too. I say Captain Alverez (EA scab) is in fact a jerk....well, at least a terrible pilot.
So I changed the format of this thread title a tad as A: It's a true story that happened to me, and B: I'm not asking...I'm quite sure he's...well, maybe not a jerk, but a bad pilot at the least. Here goes, enjoy.
So, I'm right seat of a B-727 hauling the rubber dog crap up and down the Island chain to S. America and back to Miami. It's late at night and we're in Haiti at Port Au Prince. I'm flying with Captain Alverez, a guy a few years from retirement (retired now) and an Eastern Scab. I point that out because, well...it's relavant to me to point out any scab when I see them.
Anyway, we're in Port Au Prince at night and have loaded up and are heading back to MIA. We taxi out uneventfully. It's his leg and we're cleared for takeoff. Normal procedure is for the Flying Pilot to stand up the power levers and let the FE set takeoff power. Well, this night Captain Alverez (EA scab) stands the power levers up and there is an immediate loud rattle coming from the pedestal where the power levers are.
It's obvious to me we're not going flying tonight unless something obvious is discovered. He pulls the power levers back and I assume we're going back to the gate. Imagine my surprise when the power levers go back up! The rattle is still there and Captain Alverez (EA scab) ponders over the engine instruments as we start rolling. I give him a second while he appears to be troubleshooting, pulling the levers back and pushing them back up...all the while we're going faster and faster.
Well, Captain Alverez (EA scab) is clearly out of his depths here. Unable to make a call. Around 80 kts I say sternly, 'That's NOT normal!" to which he relents and pulls the levers back. By now we're pushing over 100 kts.
So, let's set this up. We had an issue at ZERO knots yet we now are doing a fricking high speed abort. Great job Captain.
I tell tower we're aborting our takeoff and Captain scab scolds me for not saying 'discontinue our takeoff roll'. Whatever. I said it on the 'other thread' and it's true. It's Haiti. You could roll a joint, go to the tower and smoke it and then takeoff without a clearance and what would happen? Nothing is the correct answer.
Anyway, I digress...
We get off the runway and Captain Alverez (EA scab) decides to do some trouble shooting. Okay...I can go along with that. He stands each power lever up one at a time. No. 1 goes up and the rattle is there. It comes back. No. 2 and 3 go up one at a time and neither have any abnormal sound. Great, it's No. 1 engine, let's go back now. Nope.
Captain Alverez (EA scab) now wants to do more trouble shooting. He runs the No. 1 engine up! He wants to find the exact EPR that causes the worst noise. Why? I have no fricken idea. He retarded maybe? Finally after 3 or 4 minutes of running up an engine that is obviously not working properly he's satisfied and tells me to get clearance to the gate. I get the clearance.
Now, the next part needs a little background. A B-727 has 2 hydraulic systems that are run off the No. 1 and No. 2 engines. There is no hydraulic power provided from the No. 3 engine. You don't really need hydraulics to fly (well flaps and gear but you can crank the gear and land w/o flaps) but there sort of necessary to taxi.
So, we taxi back with a bad No. 1 engine. On the way I hear an engine spool down and assume it's the bad one, right? Doesn't that make sense? Not to Captain Alverez (EA scab). He just shut down number 2. Great, I think, now we HAVE to leave the bad engine running so we have hydraulics. Fricken idiot....well too late now, I continue to think, not enough time to start it again anyway by the time we get to the gate.
So I bite my tounge and we continue to taxi. As I'm rolling all this around in my head I hear ANOTHER engine spool down! Yup, the retard just shut down number 3!!!
We have 3 fricken engines and only one of them have a problem and THAT'S the engine Captain Alverez (EA scab) decides to use during a single engine taxi in a fully loaded, over landing weight Boeing 727. Super great.
We get to the gate and shut down. We inspect the No. 1 engine and its thrown 2 or 3 N1 blades. Those are the big ones you see when you look into the front of a jet btw. I saw the engine on a stand a week or so later in MIA and of the 14 compressor stages every one of them had damage. The first 5 or 6 stages were just destroyed and I can't believe the engine got us to the gate.
There's more to the story but it all involves our overnight in Haiti and ducking down in the back seat of cars and hand guns and the most desperate people I've ever seen on earth (and I've been around the Pacific rim too...lot's of poverty there but nothing like Haiti).
It got long and sorry for that. Hope you enjoyed the story. All true too. I say Captain Alverez (EA scab) is in fact a jerk....well, at least a terrible pilot.