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Jet Makes Emergency Landing at Palm Springs Airport[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]A Cessna Citation business jet headed to Canada with six people aboard landed safely at Palm Springs International Airport after some smoke was detected in the cabin, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said Tuesday.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]The plane, registered in Canada, departed from Palm Springs International Airport for Winnipeg, Manitoba, at 10:55 a.m., but the pilot radioed back to report smoke in the cockpit, FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]The plane circled around the Thermal area to burn off some fuel before the emergency landing.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]"Generally when the plane is lighter it puts less strain on the landing gear," Gregor said.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]He said it was later learned that the smoke was only in the cabin, but the cause of the smoke was under investigation

There has to be more to this story. Circle to burn off fuel with smoke in the ... oh, wait..it was just the cabin. Never mind....
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There has to be more to this story. Circle to burn off fuel with smoke in the ... oh, wait..it was just the cabin. Never mind....
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:yeahthat: There's gotta be more to the story. Otherwise you'd better believe I'd be landing that aircraft ASAP. PSP has a 10,000' runway; you could practically land the space shuttle on that. An overweight citation with a nice landing flare should be noooooo problem.
 
:yeahthat: There's gotta be more to the story. Otherwise you'd better believe I'd be landing that aircraft ASAP. PSP has a 10,000' runway; you could practically land the space shuttle on that. An overweight citation with a nice landing flare should be noooooo problem.


Old quote from a Vietnam buddy.. "Only three things really scare me.. big thunderstorms, fires on airplanes and crazy drunk women. "

(oink oink.. I know.. different time, different place)

FWIW, we had a LOFT scenario on the 'bus a few years back where there was smoke/fire in the cabin. We had taken off from 27 at KPHL with winds 90deg to runway at 5kts. The best solution was to turn around immediately, declare an emergency and do an autoland on 9 w/ max braking. Doing it that way took about 12-15min.

We had some guys go all the way around to land on 27. We had a few actually hold to complete checklists. DEBRIEF ITEM!

Check around and you will find that from the time of first discovery to loss of control can be as little as 5min or less.

Overweight landing?
 
On our three engine missed, to a 2 engine approach, they want us to keep it within 14.2 miles (Boeing pilots know) of the runway. It's encouraged by a 2 bottle fire that doesn't go out. ;)

Take it out, do a quick tear drop, and have the PNF read checklists till the flare +/-.
 
On our three engine missed, to a 2 engine approach, they want us to keep it within 14.2 miles (Boeing pilots know) of the runway. It's encouraged by a 2 bottle fire that doesn't go out. ;)

Take it out, do a quick tear drop, and have the PNF read checklists till the flare +/-.

I've got to ask... 14.2 miles? Why such a specific number?
 
Old quote from a Vietnam buddy.. "Only three things really scare me.. big thunderstorms, fires on airplanes and crazy drunk women. "

(oink oink.. I know.. different time, different place)

FWIW, we had a LOFT scenario on the 'bus a few years back where there was smoke/fire in the cabin. We had taken off from 27 at KPHL with winds 90deg to runway at 5kts. The best solution was to turn around immediately, declare an emergency and do an autoland on 9 w/ max braking. Doing it that way took about 12-15min.

We had some guys go all the way around to land on 27. We had a few actually hold to complete checklists. DEBRIEF ITEM!

Check around and you will find that from the time of first discovery to loss of control can be as little as 5min or less.

Overweight landing?

I'll never forget flying the Caravan one summer day last year. We leave GNV full of Jet A every evening; this particular evening I was flying PIC with one of our instructors in the right seat and 1,200lbs of blood and plasma in the back. We leveled at 8,000 and were in cruise for a little while, I don't recall the exact time. I began to smell smoke, very faintly at first. It reminded me of the smoke you smell when you are soldering electrical components. After a short time my copilot noticed the same smell while I was looking for any signs of trouble, feeling around and checking circuit breakers. Then I saw it! A wisp of smoke was coming from a small hole above the switch panel on the left side of the cockpit, right above the circuit breakers.

The smoke was increasing in intensity as I immediately checked our nearest airport options, declared an emergency with Jax center, turned the autopilot off and turn due west. Looking back it all felt like one motion. I told Jax we were landing at Valdosta and we were turning everything off. Thank god we were VMC I thought.

With a little guidance from a separate battery operated Garmin 396, we made our way through the hazy late afternoon/evening to Valdosta in short order. It was 20 miles away when I first saw the smoke. We ran the very short smoke/fire checklist, and I had my copilot/friend put on the Oxygen mask so if it got really bad, at least he would be breathing slightly better air (it's not a quick donning O2 mask like the jets).

Fortunately it was tolerable. I clicked on the one of the radios for just a second, told Jax we were going to tower, got a landing clearance from Valdosta tower, turned the power back off and then managed a decent landing on 35 at VLD. The fire trucks were patiently waiting and fortunately weren't needed.

The kicker? It wasn't electrical. I could have sworn it was. Instead it was a failure of the engine bleed air regulator that supplies air to the vacuum operated instruments and the service air for the boots. The only way to tell that the regulator had failed was a slightly higher than normal suction indication. I hadn't flown the aircraft in two weeks and never got to see the progression of what eventually happened.

Eventually we traced the cause of the smoke to the insulation and the labels on and around the service air tube that goes through the "A" pillar to the boots. It was melting and burning the labels and insulation. Later I found an NTSB incident report that was nearly identical to what happened in my case. Fortunately, in the end it wasn't that big of a deal. It could have been a lot worse. It was probably the longest 7 minutes of my life.
 
I've had 3 or 4 incidents of smoke in the cockpit, the most dense in an O2 in Vietnam, a Bellanca Viking over CAE. In both cases, an airport was nearby and I immediately went up about 3 octaves in my best John Wayne voice, declared an emergency, and landed.

Confusing normal procedures with emergency events is not smart.
 
I could be wrong here but I think during certification Transport Category Aircraft actually are required to demonstrate safe landing capability at the maximum structural takeoff weight at sink rates that are considered "harder than normal" (like when I land).
 
I could be wrong here but I think during certification Transport Category Aircraft actually are required to demonstrate safe landing capability at the maximum structural takeoff weight at sink rates that are considered "harder than normal" (like when I land).

My point was that sometimes normal limits get blended into emergency thinking. The Air Florida 90 was the classic. They were taught in the stall series not to 'overboost' the engines and when they started shakin', neither pilot thought to push the thrust levers through the radar. Oddly enough, some still teach to not overboost the jet engines in the stalls series. ??? Unless one considers stalls a normal event, normal limits do not apply. IMHO...
 
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