Skywest Story Time

meyers9163

Well-Known Member
So I am positive we have this happen all the time and I would be the 1st to admit probably at my company as well. Today we were in Charleston WV (CRW) and about to take off. We knew there were thunderstorms in the area. We right away got hit with a departure time from CLT of 9 minutes after the hour. So while waiting Skywest taxis out infront of us and we follow them to runway 23 in CRW. Well the thunderstorms start to come over the airport and winds start to gust. Skywest is cleared into position and we were told to pull up we were next. So its my leg and I notice the rain start to fall and wind sock start to kick fully. So before Skywest takes off I asked the CA to ask what they winds are and tower responds, "Winds 360 at 36 G 46." Needless to say Skywest without a bat of the eyes accepts the take off and goes. Now ASA is right behind us. The Captain asked before Skywest departs to say the winds again and informs tower, "Yeah we cant accept that I dont know how they are." Right after that my Captain says the same thing. Well even with the two of them saying that there goes Skywest.

Anyways after all that they ask if we want runway 5 and we all say not at the time we wanted to wait. We wait about 15 minutes and things are still kind of wild there. ASA Captain ask for a report from Skywest as to what they experienced. Skywest reports back Severe to extremem turbulence. ARGH! No kidding. Winds gusting like that and on the atis squall lines being reported...... Just made me wonder how common this stuff is? I am new to the 121 world and the CA and I were discussing this. I simply was asking what he would do if he were in that situation with a CA etc.... Basically both agreed since it was my leg you'd tell them you werent comfortable with that and discuss why we should wait it out. So it just really got me wondering why two pilots accepted those conditions and how often this kind of stuff happens.

Anyone not familiar to the RJ the max crosswind is 27kts..... Discuss I'm curious about stories and anyone placed into a situation like that.
 
Well, let's be clear: there's no such thing as a "max crosswind" in the CRJ, unless your company has established their own. Bombardier only establishes a "max demonstrated crosswind component," which is not limiting.

Now, with that said, you should still use best judgement. Unfortunately, many regional Captains are still relatively new and don't really fully understand their own limits or the limits of their airplane. The smart ones will err on the side of safety, but many let their ego get in the way. I've seen tons of guys take off in conditions that were downright dangerous while I sat alongside the runway and waited for things to improve. Never let your ego get in the way of making a right decision, and never let an overbearing Captain pressure you into doing something you feel is unsafe.
 
Probably would be nice if you left the airline names out of it.

True but I dont know what their FOM says about xwnd.... I did mean Demonstrated and was unsure what theirs would be. As pointed out its different for various airlines... But good point. Didnt think much about it when posting... if mods think they should be taken out feel free to take them out please.
 
Well, let's be clear: there's no such thing as a "max crosswind" in the CRJ, unless your company has established their own.

My POH is pretty clear.

Maximum crosswind for takeoff and landing: 27 knots

It's even in bold. Now of course, the question arises, does that include the gust factor? The company maintains it doesn't, but you can be damn sure that if you land with it 90 degrees off the nose and the wind is 25 gusting to 35 and you get blown off the side of the runway, the fact that the steady state wind was within limits isn't going to help you any.

As far as taking off in that, even if it was right down the runway I would probably sit it out for a bit. With it being 90 degrees off? No way in hell.
 
CFM at Pinnacle says it's max "demonstrated." It even says in there it's not limiting. Guess they wanna make sure those flights go. Dispatch is really quick to say they don't factor in the gusts, either. So, the wind could be 10 G 37, and it's a 10 kt wind to them.
 
From the information presented, perhaps not the brightest idea from some of my fellow co-workers, but let's keep it in context - pilots from all companies make less-than-stellar decisions from time to time.

I could only imagine how bad the mechanical turbulence was in that valley on departure. Ouch.
 
We have a max limitation in our OM for the CR2.

Do not attempt to takeoff or land with wind speeds in excess of 60kts or a head-wind component that exceeds 55kts.

That's on the SkyEast side.

Otherwise we DO have the word "Demonstrated" in our OM for crosswinds. . .
 
From the information presented, perhaps not the brightest idea from some of my fellow co-workers, but let's keep it in context - pilots from all companies make less-than-stellar decisions from time to time.


At leasts these guys didn't wind up on the news. We still catch hell over here for the FL410 thing.....
 
At leasts these guys didn't wind up on the news. We still catch hell over here for the FL410 thing.....

That's because it ranks up there with one of the most unprofessional acts of stupidness committed by an airline crew, EVER.

Having said that, I'm sure everyone who has read/heard about the accident report has learned something from it. Hopefully stuff like that won't happen at any airline again.
 
At leasts these guys didn't wind up on the news. We still catch hell over here for the FL410 thing.....

Well. . .I wonder why?

Severe lack of maturity by two pilots who end up playing lawn dart with an airplane.

Sad, don't get me wrong. . .but we need to hear (repeated) about that incident over and over again.

It's one thing to make a honest mistake and it end up killing people, but to just be totally stupid.
 
I know. . I appologize for my part.

Of the 6 accidents/incidents we watch during our two days worth of CRM training, the PNCL 410 one was the very last one.

For a very good reason.
 
I agree that it's a very important thing to study and learn from, but saying things like "totally stupid" and "unprofessional acts of stupidness" does nothing but smear the names of two dead pilots.
 
Nevermind. I had a question about the tailwind component but I think I calculated it to be around 8 knots with the gust factor.
 
I'll agree that it wasn't smart what they were doing. But it doesn't mean that every PCL pilot out there is some crazy yahoo. Just like not every Comair pilot takes off on the wrong runway.

Study accidents, learn from them, move on. A lot of people like to down other airlines b/c of past issues. It's honestly the reason I never even go to FI. Mention I'm at Pinnacle, and they've already decided my parents bought my job, I'm unprofessional and I like to take chances.
 
From the information presented, perhaps not the brightest idea from some of my fellow co-workers, but let's keep it in context - pilots from all companies make less-than-stellar decisions from time to time.

I could only imagine how bad the mechanical turbulence was in that valley on departure. Ouch.

I'd agree... I wasnt pointing out a certain company and saying they are the only ones. I really did mean the preface by saying I'm sure we have them at my company as well. With saying that I am wondering if anyone has been placed into a situation like that and how they went about telling the Captain there's no way in HELL they are going....... I know it probably was not the smartest thing, some may say damn stupid, but they did it and were alright. So it made me just wonder how you could tell the Captain, who made it through this, that you dont want to go if he were your CA in the future?
 
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