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San Francisco Intnl Airport, Thursday, 1996-04-11 17:25 local (Z-7)
I'm sitting, waiting for a try for at jumpseat on United's next portland flight and return to Oregon's rain. <g>
I never did finish the previous message insofar as giving my impression of Lima. I got back from running there and found the message light lit on the phone. The captain had been trying to get ahold of me. We were wanted at the airplane as soon as possible. So, a quick shower, throw on the uniform, mad ride to the airport, dash through immigration...and then we were asked by the mechanic, “What are you doing here. We're hours away from being ready.” In true Tower Air fashion, operations had responded to management's pressure to get things moving by calling out the crew. The fact that the airplane wasn't yet flyable was a minor detail obviously.
We spent 6 hours waiting in the airplane before they had done everything necessary to 3-engine ferry it. Oh, yes, did I mention that the APU (auxiliary power unit) that supplies the air conditioning was inoperative...and Lima is in the tropics. Actually, it wasn't too bad, we still had a gasper fan to get air movement, and the airport at Lima is right on the beach with a very nice breeze. Actually, Lima is known (favorably) for its climate.
Having landed at Lima a number of times but never having been off the airport, I welcomed the opportunity to see a bit of the city. We didn't get to the city center. They put us up in a rather well off beach area that was very pleasant. However, I noticed a lot of unpleasant areas on the way there.
Peru drives on the same side of the road as we, but you see a number of cars with right side steering wheels. It seems that they can be cheaply (relatively, I am sure) imported from Japan that way (Japan drives on the left side of the road). They are then converted to a left side drive usually. However, if a person wants to really save money, they just don't convert them. The ground handler's car there that he used to deliver us to and take us from the hotel was one of these.
Apparently it never really rains in Lima. The wettest it gets is a sort of mist or light drizzle. It is very arid, although there are trees, but if you see anything green, you know it has to be irrigated. Reminds me of Saudi Arabia in that respect. I started looking at the rooves, and they're all flat. Looking down on them from the hotel's upper stories made me believe that rain there is virtually unknown. Exposed electrical wiring appeared to be common.
On my run I ran along an avenue on a high bluff above the beach. It was an expensive section of town, but I noticed that all residences had either walls or high, spiked iron fences around them. Many of the walls had the precaution of embedded broken glass along the top, and a few of them had the additional protection of electrified fencing. All first floor windows were barred, as well as about half of the second floor windows. I noticed some arroyos running from the bluff side of the road down toward the beach, and wandered a short ways down one of them. It was filled with hovels, which could not be seen from the avenue above. So, what you have is the well off in close proximity to the desperately poor—a ready-made situation for revolution, and they do have something of a revolution in progress in that the “shining path” guerrillas (communist in outlook) control parts of the more remote countryside.
The hotel was guarded by security people in military style uniforms and flak jackets. There was a notice in the hotel room not to take valuables with you when you leave the hotel and to specifically avoid going with or talking to those who may accost you, even if they represent themselves as police and are in uniform. So, how are you supposed to know who the real police are? Interesting.
During the times during my run that I was walking (yeah, I know, I'm not supposed to walk, but I get lazy), I was accosted by three different people wanting to sell me their currency for dollars. I didn't have any money on me, so I didn't enquire as to the exchange rate, but I'm sure it would have been much more favorable than the official rate. Interestingly, while I was running, I saw no one with other than black hair. Apparently the indigenous influence is much more predominant than the European.
Our engine failure was reported on Peruvian television news. They reported that we had suffered an explosion in flight. Things do get out of hand. Tower's New York headquarters was notified of the problem before we even made it back to the airport. Unfortunately for their nerves, the telex the ground handler sent started out with “Emergency Emergency Emergency” on the first line. This caused an immediate gathering of Morris Nachtomi, his son, and the chief pilot in dispatch. Nachtomi's son (his name is Guy) wanted to selcal us, but the chief pilot said to leave us alone. That would have been an incredibly dumb thing to do, to increase a crew's workload by requiring them to respond to a selcal while working an emergency (I would have had to answer it since I was running the radios).
Hmmm, I should explain a selcal. It stands for selective call. Basically a radio signal is sent to the airplane that causes a light and a tone to go off. You then know that they want to contact you on the radio over which the selcal came. The selcal would have been over an HF (high frequency) radio, which would have allowed us to talk by a phone patch directly with New York.
We finally left Lima on a 3-engine ferry. They strapped the #1 engine's fan to keep the engine from windmilling, and we were off. The maximum altitude we could make was in the 20 thousands, and we were limited to mach .70 (mach .84, 84% of the speed of sound, is normal). Even so, the airplane shook all the way to Miami, and then on to New York.
Tower's dispatch showed their ineptitude by first sending us an initial flight plan that required flight over the Andes in an area where the peaks are above 20,000. Initially we were incapable of climbing above about 19,000. When this was pointed out to them, they redid the flight plan for 14,000 but still sent us over a route where there was a segment that required an MEA (minimum enroute altitude) of 18,000. Tower hires inexperienced dispatchers. They get a little experience and then leave for greener pastures.
We got to Miami only to find that we would also have to operate to JFK. This really didn't make any sense. On a 3-engine ferry they do all sorts of mechanical things to reduce the risk. For example, they change the oil filters on all the other engines. To do all the other things and then use an exhausted crew just doesn't make sense. We did it, but the captain went in and read the riot act to those who failed to have a crew standing by at Miami to relieve us. Later he had a meeting with the chief pilot and Guy Nachtomi, and they agreed that that had been foolish. Had anything further gone wrong on the Miami to JFK leg, the lawyers would have had a field day with the fact that the crew was not fresh.
I'm off probation...I think. At least it's past my anniversary date of the 9th. However, the flight engineer I've been with says to not count my chickens until I have the paperwork in hand.
Some good and bad news for me about their last captain upgrade class. It was a class of 10, but only 5 made it. This means I'm possibly 5 closer to being upgraded, but it also means that upgrade can be a problem. Two of the guys were busted by the FAA; three were busted by Tower check airmen.
One of the FAA busts was a no-win situation for the pilot being checked. The FAA inspector was in the jumpseat, and the check airman was in the right seat. The check airman kept asking the prospective captain questions. You of course, have to respond to your check airman, but the FAA accused the captain-to-be of not paying enough attention to the aircraft because he was responding to the check airman's questions. Oh, boy!
One of the Tower busts was also a no-win situation. The final line-check was given on a Tel Aviv to New York leg. That flight is always fuel critical. Tower company policy is that you must not land at JFK with less than 15,000 pounds of fuel (30,000 is what we aim for on all other flights). They were coming up short of fuel and were planning on making a fuel stop short of JFK. However, Tower's Director of Operations selcaled them and gave them special dispensation to land with 12,000 pounds. So what do you do, go with the manual and tell the Director of Operations to go to hell, or please the company and save the 10,000 plus dollars the extra stop would cost. The captain-to-be decided to save the company money. The check airman busted him for not standing up to the Director of Operations. Tower is a very political place.
They're calling the flight, and I've got the jumpseat unless a United pilot shows up at the last minute.
Terry
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