UPS MD-11 crash at SDF

Guppy VNAV is trash. Every time it says “drag required” it’s a fat lie. Quick way to see if your colleague is paying attention, prompt comes up and they go for a fist full of speed brake instead of doing 3-1 mental math.

Every time DRAG REQUIRED pops up I curse at the plane that it doesn’t have the right to tell me how to dress. Occasionally I go full Carol Crystal Cheryl on it and proclaim that the Guppy is not my supervisor!

But I also admit to being a little ham fisted with the speed brake because I've been told to stop taking my shoes off to do math in flight.
 
Every time DRAG REQUIRED pops up I curse at the plane that it doesn’t have the right to tell me how to dress. Occasionally I go full Carol Crystal Cheryl on it and proclaim that the Guppy is not my supervisor!

But I also admit to being a little ham fisted with the speed brake because I've been told to stop taking my shoes off to do math in flight.
Banned in the State of Tennessee.
 
Real punishment is folding yourself up on to the second jumpseat. The horror on the United guys face when I told him there was already another cockpit rider, “but don’t worry this one has two jumpseats” was priceless. AUS-SMF would have been hellish for all of us though and luckily there were just enough seats for them in the back.

"Two JS riders and no open seats in the back on a guppy? Thanks for the offer but no thanks, I'll go pay last minute cruise ship season hotel rates and go home tomorrow morning."

Me to an Eskimo gate agent one evening on the last flight home.

I barely fit on the JS when it's just me, let alone 3 hours up there in the second JS because the guy nearly a foot shorter than me insisted I ride behind the CA...
 
I agree it is twitchy and mostly garbage, but I feel like I've been in scenarios where it wasn't going to make a crossing speed restriction (coincident with hard altitude restriction) without boards. Maybe I just suck though.
Eh, it’s always gotten me close enough. Maybe my standards are too low since it’s the only airliner VNAV I’ve flown but it seems like a lot of the bellyaching is overblown. Definitely better than the VNAV in the Lear. Though it does have its idiosyncrasies like when you put in the altimeter and it STILL has to dive for the path going through 18 and the whole waiting until 15 knots slow to abruptly wake up the auto throttles. The only time I’ve seen it grossly wrong was when a captain got smart on his leg and tried to put in his own ISA deviation based on cruise altitude. That didn’t work well.
 
It’s just +10 knots trigger.


What is up with those people who grab the speed brake handle and just yank them out like it owes em money? You literally feel a physical drop when they’re yanked out fast. 5-7 seconds to full inflight detent is smooth and barely feel anything.
 
“Boeing Problems”

I chuckle every time I get a recent B to A convert who’s afraid to speed brake.

“Slap those bitches out and keep ‘em out ‘till you don’t need ‘em anymore!”

And if that ain’t enough?

“BRRRP, BRRRP, BRRRP”
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“Boeing Problems”

I chuckle every time I get a recent B to A convert who’s afraid to speed brake.

“Slap those bitches out and keep ‘em out ‘till you don’t need ‘em anymore!”

And if that ain’t enough?

“BRRRP, BRRRP, BRRRP”

Le Bus even tells you when it assumes you’ll at least have 1/2 brakes out during a descent, yet, some people still try to make it work without.

My favorite lesson about speed and flight path control is spending time briefing the OE pilot about the “delicate nature” of arriving from the west, on path, on speed, airport called in sight and vectored dog-leg to final and watching the aircraft parallel the glidepath, ALT * and then “It didn’t capture. IT DIDN’T CAPTURE!” :)
 
Le Bus even tells you when it assumes you’ll at least have 1/2 brakes out during a descent, yet, some people still try to make it work without.

My favorite lesson about speed and flight path control is spending time briefing the OE pilot about the “delicate nature” of arriving from the west, on path, on speed, airport called in sight and vectored dog-leg to final and watching the aircraft parallel the glidepath, ALT * and then “It didn’t capture. IT DIDN’T CAPTURE!” :)

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“Never was going to…”
 
haha this is probably blasphemy, but for as much as I enjoy cars, classic Americana has never done it for me. They just seem bloated, with weird lines that aren't flattering. I can appreciate them for what they are, but I would never buy one. And another blasphemous statement along similar lines......piston engined warbirds don't really excite me either, with perhaps the only exception being the P-51 and maybe the B-29. I guess my real interest began with the jet engine. Much like my real interest in cars doesn't date to much before the early 1970s (and also generally excludes anything ever built in the USA, save a couple sports cars and trucks). Go ahead and roast me, I know its coming :)

If it makes anyone feel better, I also can only think of maybe single digits of cars built by any manufacturer since 2000 that really interest me. And only American trucks are cool. That is my main exception to the rule above.
See... this whole ass time I've been thinking "No, Alaska is a fine old airline with the cool Eskimo on the tail. Captain Beefheart and CC are just two examples and AMG seems cool and American Hero™ and such" but now you come out against American classic automobiles and piston powered warbirds! Now I'm going to have to rethink my entire belief system - something about Alaska is just off. You probably don't even like Wacos.
 
Le Bus even tells you when it assumes you’ll at least have 1/2 brakes out during a descent, yet, some people still try to make it work without.

My favorite lesson about speed and flight path control is spending time briefing the OE pilot about the “delicate nature” of arriving from the west, on path, on speed, airport called in sight and vectored dog-leg to final and watching the aircraft parallel the glidepath, ALT * and then “It didn’t capture. IT DIDN’T CAPTURE!” :)
See I think you could have written this post in mandarin and it would have made as much sense
 
My favorite lesson about speed and flight path control is spending time briefing the OE pilot about the “delicate nature” of arriving from the west, on path, on speed, airport called in sight and vectored dog-leg to final and watching the aircraft parallel the glidepath, ALT * and then “It didn’t capture. IT DIDN’T CAPTURE!” :)

The field is in sight. Fly the plane. Who cares what captures or not at that point.
 
Le Bus even tells you when it assumes you’ll at least have 1/2 brakes out during a descent, yet, some people still try to make it work without.

My favorite lesson about speed and flight path control is spending time briefing the OE pilot about the “delicate nature” of arriving from the west, on path, on speed, airport called in sight and vectored dog-leg to final and watching the aircraft parallel the glidepath, ALT * and then “It didn’t capture. IT DIDN’T CAPTURE!” :)

In fairness I sit and watch them do the same in the Jurassic Jet. Had an FO recently who’s MCP-jitsu managed to nearly get us violated and/or grossly unstable all four days. He was in disbelief I could get it to do what I wanted with so few button pushes and no frantic intervention to keep it on speed and path all the time.
 
“Why’d it do that,.”

“Cuz you told it to…”
Much of the difficulties I’ve observed people having in the bus, regardless of the level of automation, have come from 1) them not understanding what they asked the jet to do, or 2) them not understanding what the jet is attempting to tell them via the silent scream of the FMA.
 
In fairness I sit and watch them do the same in the Jurassic Jet. Had an FO recently who’s MCP-jitsu managed to nearly get us violated and/or grossly unstable all four days. He was in disbelief I could get it to do what I wanted with so few button pushes and no frantic intervention to keep it on speed and path all the time.
Less is more.

You can saturate our old FMC by giving it too many changes to the vertical path close-in and it’ll just sit there going “whelp, VNAV speed, what’re you gonna do about it” while it recalculates.

Orrrrrr you can select a mode that gives you the desired flight path. Or no modes.
 
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