My heart was racing - Pilot didn't get the memo!

Chief Captain said:
I can easily see a situation where the crew may miss that one line in the 10+ feet of paperwork that is the dispatch release.
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Or that number "1" by the runway lighting info on the 10-9 chart...

2ciimbc.jpg
 
BobDDuck said:
I've had the lights not turn on there before. Tower closes at 11 I think and I don't know if it's the location of the PCL transmitter or something with the system, but we had to fly directly over the top of the field before we could get the lights to turn on.

Other times I've been able to power them up all the way to the west of the Elizabeth River, so who knows.
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I have had the same thing happen to me flying into ITH twice now. Fortunately both times it was 50+ vis and clear skies and after going into ITH at night a number of times and using the ILS as a back up we were good to go so long as I got them on before we touched down. I usually try to start getting the lights on between 20 and 25 miles out. Both of these occasions we were inside of 3 miles before they would come on.
 
The PCL either failed or was slow to wake up in Yuma the other night as well. Fortunately, we got back on the horn with approach (which is 24 hours) and they gave it a love tap for us.
 
rframe said:
Notam or no notam, who the hell circles staring at a blacked out airport and takes 30 minutes before thinking, "click click click click click"?
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Exactly, who the hell does such a thing?

Wouldn't a reasonable inference be that this article isn't getting all the facts straight and that the pilots DIDN'T do this?
 
jtrain609 said:
Exactly, who the hell does such a thing?

Wouldn't a reasonable inference be that this article isn't getting all the facts straight and that the pilots DIDN'T do this?
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Come on now. The news, not getting facts straight... that's ridiculous! ;)
 
I like bagging on RJ pilots as much as the next guy. Maybe a bit more than the next guy. But they fly in to and out of uncontrolled airports fairly often, I think. It would be pretty weird if the C/A, at least, didn't know how to use the lighting, or even just somehow didn't read the Jepp page after the first couple of minutes of trying.
 
TFaudree_ERAU said:
Or that number "1" by the runway lighting info on the 10-9 chart...

2ciimbc.jpg
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I don't have my 10-9 handy but isn't that the same as the CTAF? AWAC has been flying into PHF for over 7 years under US Airways no way they didn't try to activate the lights. There is one airport in our system that has a different freq to activate the lights on but it is somewhere in the NE like NY or PA or something.

You have to remember the flying public is very scared to even get on aircraft. I'm all about keeping people in the loop but I've found you really need to downplay the problem in order to keep people calm (most important over telling them what is really going on IMO). The FA's job is severely hindered by people getting freaked out over nothing. When dealing with a large group of people (as opposed to a small say 2-6 group), there is a heard mentality and it can quickly get out of control.

20 minute delay due to flow? "Folks, we've got some good news! ATC has released us to CLT! We'll be airborne in xx mins!".
Thunderstorms? Those are "rain showers".
Popped an engine? You have an "indication problem" and are merely doing a "precautionary landing".
 
Possibly but most likely Flightaware lost track when they got handed off to CTAF from approach. They could have been flying for 30 mins after that and it'd never be reflected on flightaware.
 
mikecweb said:
Possibly but most likely Flightaware lost track when they got handed off to CTAF from approach. They could have been flying for 30 mins after that and it'd never be reflected on flightaware.
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Block or better...wait, that means more block is more better. :D
 
mikecweb said:
Possibly but most likely Flightaware lost track when they got handed off to CTAF from approach. They could have been flying for 30 mins after that and it'd never be reflected on flightaware.
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Do you really think they'd fly for 30 minutes on CTAF? At like 2000'? C'mon now...
 
Bandit_Driver said:
I don't get why some pilots are so reluctant to make a PA and keep the pax calm and in the loop.
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What's the upside for the pilots? Best case: Cattle in the back are less freaked out, which doesn't really matter for your job. Worst case: Someone finds out that you, like every other human being who's ever lived, made a boo-boo, and you're Made An Example Of to keep the other pilots scared. The Culture is the Problem, and it's not going to get fixed any time soon.
 
Has anybody considered reading the last paragraph of the article?

A spokesperson with U. S Airways said when the pilot tried to land, only some of the runway lights came on, and the pilot was uncomfortable landing. Wharton said airport administrators plans to follow up with U. S. Airways to learn more about what happened.
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