Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2011 20:30:24 -0500
Reply-To: John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
Subject: Re: Murphy's Law - was : Remote Starter Switch Wire-up for '88GL
In-Reply-To: <103501cc3124$626e20f0$6401a8c0@PROSPERITY>
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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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