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Buenos Aires, Sheraton Hotel, Thursday, 1996-04-04 22:00 local (Z-3)
Where to start. So many things are happening, really all trivial except possibly one, but unfortunately in my obsessive mind, I often have difficulty separating the important from the trivial.
The one non-trivial item is that I'm 5 days away from completing one year at Tower. So, if they don't terminate me in 5 days, they will have to have cause other than just a “we don't think he fits.” Actually, on the 9th (my date of hire) I'll still be on this trip barring changes, so I'm feeling fairly safe at the moment. However, there is a Tower horror story about an f.o. who was on a trip as his anniversary date approached. It seems they had decided they didn't want him, so the day before his anniversary they commercialled in a replacement and ordered him back to JFK to fire him. However, when he got back there, they found themselves badly in need of an f.o. They went ahead and told him he was terminated, but asked him to fly one last short trip, for which he would of course be paid. He flew the trip, left the company, and sued. It seems that in the termination papers they stated that he was being let go because his performance was unsatisfactory. He sued on the basis that if his performance was unsatisfactory, why did they assign him a trip after making the decision. Obviously he had them by the short hairs in that they had flown a trip with a crew member they had declared to be incompetent. He won a large settlement. However, Tower appealed, and I'm told the appeal is still in the court system.
Now for the trivia. I'm continuing to have technical problems with the combination of long messages through Compuserve, my laptop, and Windows 95. I'm now down to trying various combinations of e-mail software, Windows 95 settings, laptop settings, etc. It's driving me to distraction. The worst part is that the laptop keeps freezing. It always happens when I'm using the mouse. So my current strategy is to disable the mouse driver in DOS and also free up some memory by eliminating loading an encryption tsr. We'll see what happens. I'm saving this message at the end of every paragraph to keep from losing what I've written.
I'm using Eudora (as I did last message) for the email software. The bad thing there is that I have to establish an internet connection through Compuserve to reach EFN (Eugene Free Net) to actually send the message. Compuserve's internet capability is horribly slow and unreliable. If you connect to Compuserve without the internet connection (i.e. without a winsock connection), that's much faster. Using the internet connection, I'm constantly timing out; when not using it CIS tends to choke on long messages. In the long run, I'll learn something from all this fussing around, but the question is: will what I learn be useful?
I'm on a freighter run. Tower has only one freighter left. I may have mentioned that they did have three, but the FAA issued a modification order for cargo doors of the type that were in the other two. The modification is prohibitively expensive, so Tower returned one freighter that was on a lease from a bank, and they're scrapping the other one. Anyway, I'm down here for two days waiting for the lone freighter to get from here to Miami and then return.
We're due to leave here tomorrow afternoon. Our plan is to stay up late tonight and then attempt to sleep until afternoon tomorrow. In about half an hour I'm meeting the captain and the flight engineer for dinner. Restaurants here don't starting filling up until about 22:00, so we'll actually be eating at a typical time for Argentina. Of course, my weight will go up. The captain and flight engineer will insist on a full dinner, and then I'll go to bed on that full stomach. I just don't have the will power to resist when others are eating well.
It's definitely Fall here, the equivalent of October in our hemisphere, and it's noticeable, though it isn't cold yet. It's not hot outside, but you don't need long sleeves, and if you're running you still work up a heavy sweat, especially since it's humid. I had a good run today. There's an “ecological park” a couple of miles from the hotel. It lays along the mouth of the Rio de La Plata (Plate River—where the Germans scuttled the Graf Spree [I think I've got the right battleship there] during WW2).
Speaking of Germans, this morning at breakfast the flight engineer asked me if I was “going to the party meeting today.” Not knowing what the hell he was talking about, I returned a blank stare. He then explained. The “party” he was talking about is the Nazi party. He was, of course, kidding, but he explained that every Thursday there's a gathering of old ex-Nazis at a restaurant near the hotel and that with my German last name, I would fit right in. <g> He was aware of the weekly meeting through knowing the son of one of these types who, seeing the approaching end of the Third Reich, gathered his loot and made off for Argentina, where he bought a “station” (a ranch) and lived a comfortable retirement. Who says that crime doesn't pay, even monumental crimes against humanity. I didn't ask how the engineer got to know the son. It is amazing really, the experiences and acquaintances these crew members have who have been flying internationally all their lives, as this engineer has.
Time to put some clothes on and go eat. So far the laptop hasn't frozen since I eliminated those two tsr's. I'll restore the DOS mouse tsr when I resume this, and we'll see what happens.
Back from supper and it's a little past midnight. An interesting time. I shall attempt to relate the flavor of the moment. First a few necessary words about the captain I'm flying with. He was the first pilot hired when Morris Nachtomi started the company 13 years ago. In fact, he did the original FAA certification work. Now, however, he maintains a low profile, lives in an expensive lake front community an hour and fifteen minutes drive north of Miami, is twice divorced, and is dripping with gold (necklace, rings, bracelets)...definitely a playboy. He's number one on the seniority list, so he gets his pick of any line he wants. He's two years younger than I.
The flight engineer didn't show for dinner, so the captain and I go to this little bar/restaurant he knows. The first thing I noticed going in the door was that there were four hookers at the bar—young, well dressed, but still obviously hookers. One of them in particular kept looking our way as we ate. I commented idly that they were probably very expensive here. The captain said, “Let's find out,” and he motioned this gal over to the table. For the next 45 minutes the three of us had an interesting time trying to communicate. Between myself and the captain we could come up with basic Spanish. The gal knew basic English, but there was a lot of confusion. For example, when she finally turned to me and, in Spanish, asked me if I wanted a friend for the evening, I thought she was asking me if I wanted another coke. It made sense to her when I answered “no”, but when I started explaining that I didn't need any more calories, that I didn't want to get fat, that really confused her. <g>
When she asked the captain the same question, he said to me in English, “Well, if she comes recommended by Mike Buero, I can't really turn her down.” Mike Buero is one of our engineers (in fact, until recently was our Chief Engineer). During the course of our conversation, this gal came up with his name as a satisfied client when we told her we worked for Tower Air. Small world!
Her price was $150 for two hours, and she wanted to go to a motel a short distance away. The captain said no to the motel, but said they'd go to the Sheraton. She said they wouldn't let her in there, that security would stop her. He said there would be no problem. I tagged along to see who was right and to provide moral (immoral?) support to the effort to get her into the hotel. The gal put on a full raincoat that completely covered her very provocative dress.
When we got to the hotel, I watched the security man, wanting to see how he would react. As soon as we were in the door, he started watching her in spite of her conservative raincoat. However, I thought they were going to make it to the elevator, but he finally discretely indicated that the captain would have to register her into his room. Other than that there was no problem. As I left them at the desk registering her, I politely said goodbye to her, that it had been a pleasure meeting her, and extended my hand. She ignored the hand, but insisted on kissing me on the cheek as they do down here. So, to add to my worldly experiences, I have now been kissed by an Argentine hooker in Buenos Aires. <g>
Back to more mundane things. It was an interesting trip down here. The captain flew the first leg from Miami to Lima. Lima was a refueling stop only. I had never flown with this captain before, and he elected to do something I had not seen done in a 747 before. The 747 has two landing flap positions, 25 degrees of flaps and 30 degrees of flaps. Evergreen had a strict policy against using 30 degrees; it was even written into their procedures, and some of their airplanes had the 30 degree position blocked. Tower also has a policy against using 30 degrees, but it's not written. Like Evergreen, some of the Tower airplanes have the 30 degree position blocked. Until recently the FAA required a flap track inspection after every landing in which 30 degrees was used. The problem is that using 30 degrees causes the flap tracks to crack. This captain feels that if you have a reasonable need to use 30 degrees, you should go ahead and use it and let maintenance worry about maintaining the flap tracks.
He used flaps 30 for the landing at Lima. The advantage over flaps 25 is that your touchdown speed is 5 knots slower, and after you're down the additional drag helps you slow down considerably quicker. At Lima that was an advantage. We were landing a heavy airplane, almost at maximum landing weight, and it was hot (it's inside the tropics). The use of flaps 30 avoided the hot brake problem. Of course, many would argue that hot brakes are better than cracked flap tracks. Personally, I really don't know what is best.
I mentioned to the captain that I had never done a flaps 30 landing before, and he said I should do one at Buenos Aires if I liked. I told him I'd take him up on that offer, and asked him for details on how the airplane felt as opposed to using flaps 25. He said, as I had noticed, that your approach is flatter—the nose isn't up as far—and that less flare is required. He also warned that when you remove the power, the airplane tends to sink abruptly.
The approach into Buenos Aires turned out to be a challenge. The weather was bad: ceiling about 400 feet, rain and turbulence, visibility less than half a mile. Ezeiza (that's the name of the airport) approach held us too high too long and then threw us into a holding pattern with no warning. I had elected to start hand flying a few minutes before they threw us into the hold. The last time that happened was just after I joined Tower, and I wore myself out hand flying the hold to my detriment during the actual approach. However, hand flying doesn't wear me out as much now, so I elected to fly the hold by hand. It was a good workout.
They released us from the hold, but then gave us a bad vector toward the ILS (instrument landing system). We managed to get lined up, get on profile, and get configured (gear and flaps down) in spite of the bad vector, but then they canceled our approach clearance and gave us a vector away from the airport. Not knowing what they would do next, I called for the gear to be raised. If you motor around with the gear down, you burn up a lot of fuel. A few minutes later they brought us around and gave us a worse vector toward the ILS than they had before. They now had us headed toward the localizer (the radio signal that provides horizontal guidance—enables you to align yourself with the runway) well inside the outer marker. The outer marker is a point about 5 miles from the end of the runway at which you normally intercept the glideslope (the radio signal that provides vertical guidance down to a point 1000 feet from the end of the runway). Normally you are vectored to a point outside the outer marker. If you intercept the localizer inside the outer marker, you've got two problems. One, you won't have much warning of when to turn. The instrument that tells you where you are in relationship to the localizer starts reacting when you close to within 2.5 degrees of the signal radiating out from the end of the runway. If you're around 7 to 10 miles away, that 2.5 degrees give you enough space to conveniently turn on to the localizer if you're on an intercept heading about 30 degrees off the localizer heading. If you're inside the outer marker, there's very little time to turn, especially if, as they had done, you're on a 90 degree intercept heading. The other problem is that you can't start your descent until you intercept the localizer. Outside the outer marker you'll be intercepting from below the glideslope. Inside the outer marker, you're intercepting from above, which means you have to set up a steeper than normal glidepath.
At this point the captain screwed up. He tried to use the fact that the VOR was on the field to give us warning of when to start the turn to the localizer course. He reasoned that he could set the localizer course in the VOR, and when it came alive we could start our turn. A VOR signal affects the course needle when you close to within 10 degrees rather than the 2.5 of the localizer. This put me in a difficult position. I had already planned on compensating for the situation by using a very steep turn (for a 747) when the localizer needle came alive and had slowed way down to minimize the turn radius. We were in the clouds so no one would notice a 45 degree (or more) bank, and we had no passengers on board to complain even if it was noticeable. I felt that though the VOR was on the field, it wasn't sufficiently close to the runway to have his plan work when we were this close in. However, what a captain suggests, you do. I turned...and it became obvious in a few seconds that that was the wrong thing to do. I said something like, “We're not closing. I'm turning back toward the localizer.” He agreed.
We finally intercepted. I got lined up by racking the airplane around in about a 50 to 55 degree bank—normal max is 30 degrees. This got us lined up, but still left us the problem of being high. The 30 degrees of flaps came in handy at this point. I set up a 2000 foot per minute rate of descent, which of course set off all kinds of bells and whistles including the ground proximity warning system. The rule is that if you're in the clouds and the ground prox goes off, you're supposed to execute a missed approach—pull up and go around. However, the rule assumes the ground prox going off is a surprise, not deliberately induced. We kept descending, and stabilized on the glideslope just as we broke out.
The airplane is considerably “flatter” at flaps 30 than flaps 25. You get used to what the runway looks like at a given altitude and attitude. Change the attitude and things look differently. In this case the 200 foot call (200 feet altitude above touchdown) came sooner than I expected it, as did the 100 foot call. I was carrying more power than normal to compensate for the extra flaps. In a normal approach with flaps 25 and a heavy airplane, a fuel flow of 5500 to 6000 pounds per hour per engine will get you what you want. At flaps 30 I was having to use 6500 to 7000. I decided to leave the power in until touchdown, and I started a reduced flare at 30 feet. I probably should have brought the power off just before touchdown. Touchdown was smooth, but there was just a little skip, a consequence of a tad too much flare and the power still being in. Next time I'll know. When we were down, the captain said “nicely done” and apologized profusely for having screwed me up on the localizer intercept.
The whole thing was exhilarating really—almost a natural high, one of those things that makes all those hours of sitting in the cockpit on your butt worthwhile. It's hard to explain, but it's one of those moments when you're glad you're doing what you're doing. Like all pilots, I have my strengths and my weaknesses, maybe even more weaknesses than most, but I do know how to maneuver the aircraft.
Friday afternoon now. I managed to sleep 10 hours. I'm covered with small welts, compliments of numerous mosquito bites while I was running yesterday.
Argentina is one of the countries where it's not convenient to connect to Compuserve. You have to make (and pay for) special arrangements with their government Postal Telephone & Telegraph (PTT) organization. When will governments all learn that when you inhibit communications all you do is suppress initiative and business. About 2 hours from now we'll head for the airplane and back to Miami.
Terry
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