The ATC delay was equally frustrating, though more for the captain than for me. He's one of the nervous types, has a need to keep pushing to get going—more about that later. Anyway, Santiago's air traffic control tower lost their communications ability. It took quite a while to figure out where the problem was, with us, with them, a combination...loss of comm is always confusing. Actually, I get an “attaboy” in that I finally started trying every other frequency I could find, finally reaching their air route traffic control facility, who in turn called the tower on the phone and arranged things.

We did a refueling stop in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Why Tower Air dispatch selected that airport was beyond comprehension to us. It has a single runway only 8005 feet long, and that's short for a 747. The ILS glideslope intersects the runway about 1000 feet from touchdown, so 8000 feet translates to 7000 for flare and roll out. It was the shortest runway I have ever landed a 747 on either as the flying or non-flying pilot. It was my leg, so it was personally challenging, especially since the captain is the nervous type. I was kind of surprised he gave me the landing. As soon as I went into the flare, he started saying, “Get it down, get it down....” When the ten foot call came (ten feet on the radar altimeter), I paused for just a moment then pushed the nose over. Touchdown was immediate and smooth to boot.

I've adopted a new policy on reversing. Previously I've been keeping my hand on the power levers (whoops, excuse me, Tower—alone among airlines—calls them thrust levers) until touchdown, then I move them to the reverse levers. Lately I've been putting my hands on the reverse levers as soon as I pull the thrust levers all the way back, usually at about the twenty foot call. The new way is working well. It speeds up my getting into reverse, and in this landing that was important. So, immediate heavy, maximum reverse. The autobrakes were on, and we were down to taxi speed with nearly 1000 feet of runway left to go. Of course, the brake overheat light came on later, but we had expected that. There was no way around it on that runway with the load we had on board.

The statement that Tower was alone among airlines insofar as using the term “thrust levers” is incorrect. While all the airlines I had worked for before Tower used “power levers”, my guess now (June 2018) is that “thrust levers” is the more often used term.

There is a downside to putting my hands on the reverse levers while still in the air. If a go around became necessary at the last minute, I'd lose a little time getting my hands back to the thrust levers. Also, moving my hands to the reverse levers detracts slightly from my focus on the touchdown. At that point I'm trying to judge the rate of sink through the last few feet of altitude, keeping runway alignment, correcting for any crosswind, and making sure the wings stay level or a slight bank into a crosswind. However, like anything else we do repetitively, I'll internalize the movement. I've always been amazed at how little things like where I've got my hands at a given moment can so greatly effect my overall performance.

The takeoff at Guayaquil was not pleasant. The captain was trying to rush things. He was afraid the temperature would rise, and we were already at the limit at 26 Celsius for being able to make it off that runway. Takeoffs at the maximum weight you can get off a runway are always a little nervous. You know that once you're past V1 you're committed, but you have to wait until the aircraft reaches rotation speed before bringing the nose up. If you bring the nose up before rotation speed, you actually delay liftoff and impair your initial climb. However, it's hard to not start the liftoff when the end of the runway is rushing toward you. In this instance the captain screwed up. I called V1 and he started the rotation. I called the early rotation, but there was little else I could do other than sympathize with him. I once rotated too early myself in the same kind of situation. Anyway, the aircraft finally lifted off, staggered a little, and then started climbing.

Then he made another mistake, also one which I have made. It's not serious but it is a little embarrassing. We had 20 degrees of flaps extended. This was necessary because of the short runway. The normal flaps setting is 10 degrees. Flaps 20 allows you to get off a shorter runway, but degrades your climb ability. The procedure then is to level enough at 800 feet to allow the airplane to accelerate to a speed high enough to bring the flaps up to 10 degrees and to then continue your climb. This he forgot to do, and neither I nor the flight engineer caught it. The problem is that the flaps 20 procedure is so rarely used that one tends to forget to bring them to flaps 10 at the appropriate time. Of course, after you get to 3000 feet above ground, you start accelerating and bring all flaps up. Then is when you discover your memory lapse. No big deal, but it does mean you take longer to get to the 3000 feet than you would have.

The next bit of excitement came during our approach into Miami. While we were extending the flaps, we heard a sharp noise and felt a thunk. There were no other abnormal indications, and we continued the approach to an uneventful landing. When the door was opened and the mechanic meeting the airplane came aboard, he informed us we had lost a canoe. The canoes are so named because that is their shape. There are three on the bottom of each wing (or is it four?). Each covers a flap extend/retract mechanism. They're about ten feet long and three feet high and a couple feet across. The inboard canoe on the right wind had left the aircraft and a broken strut was hanging down. Fortunately it had come off while we were still over the Everglades. Something that size and that heavy would easily crash through the roof of a building.

Actually, the canoe was the second thing to come off the aircraft. Earlier during that last leg, half of the captain's windshield wiper had departed the airplane. These are old airplanes, and the freighters especially are not given the care they should be given.