Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2011 18:58:43 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Murphy's Law - was : Remote Starter Switch Wire-up for '88GL
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can't say too much as it's not fridae yet..
there's this old saying about flying too ..
'It's hours and hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.'
you lucked out there.
Similar has happend with planes orbiting a low speed with flaps down in icing condtions..
In one case the plane got permission to land ....retracted flaps, and fell out of the sky. Ice buildup during that slow flying on flaps. The crew got let themselves get into a deadly corner on that one .... one that they couldn't get out of.
the essence of it ....
btw ..
this is about safety and crash avoiadance in vanagons..
the 'esential problem' is that often there isn't enough time for the correction you need to do, to take place.
Say you fly into a 40 mph corner at 65mph ..
if you could get slowed down to 40 in 1 /10th of a second ...you'd be fine, but it takes longer than that.
By the time the first half second has gone by it could be too late ..you need that correction ..'back there.'
Useless things in aviation ...( famous saying also )
altitude above you,
Fuel capacity remaing in the tanks,
and runway behind you.
something like that.
Really appreciated your close call flying story !
----- Original Message -----
From: John Rodgers
To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans
Cc: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 6:30 PM
Subject: Re: Murphy's Law - was : Remote Starter Switch Wire-up for '88GL
Boy have you ever got that right. Airplanes are the worst!! I've seen many a near miss because of some flukey thing, some failure to follow procedure, failure to follow the check list, reversal of two steps in a check list. Or even failure to do the rational.
I've probably told this before. In 1981 in winter I was co-pilot on a flight in a Skyvan out to a place called Cape Romanzof on the western coast of Alaska. That is the delta that is formed by the coming together of the Yukon and Kusokwim Rivers. Out on the delta there were 3 or four mud volcanoes, and on the coast there were a couple of extinct volcanoes. The Air Force had a radar site inside the top of the cone on the one on the cape. The cone at some point had collapsed or blown out, and it left a relative clear area that the military developed for the site because (1) it faced Russian Siberia and (2) it was high enough to make a good pace for a radar site. The approach to the runway was from over the water and the touch down point was at the end of the runway about 600 feet above the water and going up hill. There was no such thing as a missed approach. There was wreckage beyond the uphill end of the runway, perched on the top edge of the cone of the mountain, to attest to the fact of "No Missed Approach" with a go-around. You either made or you didn't. If the approach was made in bad weather, the acual missed approach point was 6 miles out over the water, as measure by DME or distance measuring equipment. The pilot and I got there ok, taxied on up the hill, and pulled off the runway. It took a bit to get unloaded, and while doing so, it was snowing. When we were ready to go, visibility was below minimums for takeoff so we sat and waited for the snow to lift. When we could see the far side of the rundway, we cranked (spooled) up the turboprop engines and taxied onto the runway. WE were pointed down hill for the departure, which would take up straight out over that 600 foot drop to the water. Departure had to be right. Then another storm came. The pilot shut down and we just sat there waiting. Slowly the visibility improved. We counted the markers which were 200 feet apart. When the vis was at 800 feet the engines were started, the check list run through. Then the vis reached 1200 feet and we were ready. I moved the RPM levers up and the Captain for the day reached over and snapped both "Smile Heat" deicing switches on wit one flick as he pushed the pwoer levers forward. We rolled 10 feet and both fans quit simultaneously!! Brakes were instantly applied, and with a suprised look on both our faces, analysis began. Then it dawned. While sitting wating for the snow to quit, enough snow had accumulated in the engine air intake, that when the "smile heat" - air intake heaters - were turned on both at the same time - enough snow was melted at once sufficient to snuff the flame out in the turbines. Flameout of both engines while sitting on the ground. How lucky we were - that could have happened after we were committed to the take of and we could have gone over that 600 foot drop into that cold black water. it was a screw-up. It was not written into the manual not to turn on both heaters simultaneously, and the last ditch safety of cold logic didn't kick in either . It could have been very bad.
I've seen a lot of that in my long life - but more in airplanes than anywhere else.
John
John Rodgers
Clayartist and Moldmaker
88'GL VW Bus Driver
Chelsea, AL
Http://www.moldhaus.com
On 6/22/2011 4:35 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans wrote:
A saying in flying is there are old pilots, and bolt pilots, but no old bold
pilots.
Anything that you can imagine going wrong ..can and will eventually
happen. )
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