Gate return

[Roger Roger]

Seen yesterday at the Home Drome:
We've all been sitting on our butts all day because of weather, when it finally breaks at 3PM, just in time for everybody to get one round of flights out. I'm loading up my airplane and a plane from the competition fires up, taxis out to the hold short line, then returns to the ramp and unloads his pax. I figure he's had a mechanical or forgotten a passenger, until the fuel truck pulls up and puts gas in both sides.

FAIL.

 

[dasleben]

Seen yesterday at the Home Drome:
We've all been sitting on our butts all day because of weather, when it finally breaks at 3PM, just in time for everybody to get one round of flights out. I'm loading up my airplane and a plane from the competition fires up, taxis out to the hold short line, then returns to the ramp and unloads his pax. I figure he's had a mechanical or forgotten a passenger, until the fuel truck pulls up and puts gas in both sides.

FAIL.

Done it...

 

[Roger Roger]

Done it...

I haven't, yet, *knocks on wood*, though I can see how it could happen on leg 10 or so of the day. But after sitting all day just waiting for a break so you can launch? C'mon man!

 

[dustoff17]

My FAIL was the opposite, put on too much fuel. 800 pounds OVER so I had to de-fuel....

 

[ppragman]

You laugh, I've come so close to doing just that. I remember one particular summer afternoon - where I was exhausted I might add - I went out to the airplane, loaded everyone up, gave my brief turned the master on and (thankfully) due to force of habit, I looked at the fuel gauges noticed that my "tips and six" was simply "whatever was left over" and at that very second the Coastal Fuel truck rolled up and asked me my load again. In my defense, it'd been almost an hour and the guy should have fueled me - but in my rush to get my last flight of the day done I hadn't adequately checked to insure that I had been fueled, and I should have checked the tips before I got into the airplane. A rookie mistake, but add in "get-home-itis" a strong bout of fatigue, and a bunch of foreign passengers that don't understand any of my directions and you start to line up the holes. These things are how you learn - especially in SE. You make mistakes - mistakes that you only thought happened to other "dumber" people. If you're an idiot, you keep making those mistakes over and over again - if you're smart you adjust the way you operate rapidly so you don't do it again.

 

[Roger Roger]

You laugh, I've come so close to doing just that. I remember one particular summer afternoon - where I was exhausted I might add - I went out to the airplane, loaded everyone up, gave my brief turned the master on and (thankfully) due to force of habit, I looked at the fuel gauges noticed that my "tips and six" was simply "whatever was left over" and at that very second the Coastal Fuel truck rolled up and asked me my load again. In my defense, it'd been almost an hour and the guy should have fueled me - but in my rush to get my last flight of the day done I hadn't adequately checked to insure that I had been fueled, and I should have checked the tips before I got into the airplane. A rookie mistake, but add in "get-home-itis" a strong bout of fatigue, and a bunch of foreign passengers that don't understand any of my directions and you start to line up the holes. These things are how you learn - especially in SE. You make mistakes - mistakes that you only thought happened to other "dumber" people. If you're an idiot, you keep making those mistakes over and over again - if you're smart you adjust the way you operate rapidly so you don't do it again.

Like I said...leg 10, 12, 15 of the day? Yeah, there but for the grace of God and such. I've definitely done the "load up the passengers, oh crap, I hope he fueled me, turn on the master, oh good, he did" trick a few times.

 

[mastermags]

Like I said...leg 10, 12, 15 of the day? Yeah, there but for the grace of God and such. I've definitely done the "load up the passengers, oh crap, I hope he fueled me, turn on the master, oh good, he did" trick a few times.

So, in essence, you've done it too

 

[dasleben]

I think I did it leg 2 into a 4 leg day at Cape. Totally awake and rested; just an idiot moment. We all make them. This is why we have checklists, and how I learned to actually read every line on the Before Start checklist.

 

[rframe]

I was responsible for the opposite problem once...

When I worked the line in KMSN ~15 years ago I was fueling a FedEx 727. No reported inoperative fuel gauges and I swung the needles before fueling to be sure too. I'm fueling away, fueling away, fueling away.... finally realize the gauge hasn't moved in minutes, start scratching my head, go outside and see I've waaaaaaay overfueled the jet. Thankfully the FedEx maintenance supervisor had been onboard and seen everything I'd done so he stuck up for me, even though their jet was pretty seriously delayed waiting for a de-fuel (goes much much slower than loading).

 

[Roger Roger]

So, in essence, you've done it too

Didn't make it to the runway, and didn't have all day to get ready it's the subtle differences that are important (at least that's what I tell myself).

 

[dasleben]

Almost making a mistake doesn't mean much. Methinks Roger Roger and ppragman will make it to the runway one of these days. I expect to see a thread on it.

 

[Roger Roger]

Almost making a mistake doesn't mean much. Methinks Roger Roger and ppragman will make it to the runway one of these days. I expect to see a thread on it.

I'm not arrogant enough to say it COULDN'T happen to me, but I will say that I've worked darn hard to build habit patterns to minimize the chance that an embarrassing event like that will occur. Just like landing with the wheels up.

One thing that has really drilled into me the before start (and many other phases of flight) checking of at least the fuel quantity gauges is the fact that most of our airplanes have a somewhat ludicrous fuel system with 4 relatively small tanks for one engine which demands frequent attention to the position of the fuel selector valve to prevent popping a tank at an inopportune (or at least embarrassing) moment.

 

[CirrusMonkey]

You sure he didn't come back to add fuel because his destination weather just went to shin diggy? It happened to us last week.

 

[Roger Roger]

You sure he didn't come back to add fuel because his destination weather just went to shin diggy? It happened to us last week.

Maybe...but the destination and departure had been garbage all day...why not put the extra fuel in while you're sitting and waiting, knowing that if you do get a chance to launch the weather is still probably going to be dicy and you're going to want options?

 

[fholbert]

You sure he didn't come back to add fuel because his destination weather just went to shin diggy? It happened to us last week.

Pretty sure that's what he told the passengers.

 

[CirrusMonkey]

True, but what if they had to add a second alternate?

 

[mad2fly]

I suppose he could have not wanted to fuel in case the flight didn't go because of weather so as not to leave too much on board for the next flight when the weather was better.

Then when the hurry was on because the weather broke the fuel state was forgotten.

No it wasn't me.

Don't forget the old saying, if you're in a hurry you're dangerous.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Roger Roger]

True, but what if they had to add a second alternate?

VFR.

 

[scooter2525]

Why did he deplane the pax?

 

[dasleben]

Why did he deplane the pax?

Some companies don't allow fueling with passengers onboard.

Anyway, the addition of a second alternate is very possible, even VFR. Nobody really knows for sure why the guy gate returned for fuel, but I'd like to think, as professionals, we give our fellow professionals the benefit of the doubt.