Line training is finally complete after 4 months of training. It took some serious dedication to work and studying, but it sure has paid off sa far. I've been 'flying the line' now for just about a month now, and it has been fantastic!
In the 3 weeks of my line training, I have seen a lot, (or so I think); however others tell me that I have truly seen nothing yet, which i sure do believe. I've had the opportunity to fly into almost every island in the caribbean (with the exception of Martinique and The Dominican Republic) which lies between Puerto Rico in the north and Guyana in the south. Our flights range from very short sectors of St Kitts to Nevis at approximately 6 minutes from takeoff to landing to long sectors between Barbados and Guyana and Trinidad and Curacao which are both each over 2 hours long. It's a good mix and keeps things interesting and never 'routine'. To add to that, Flight Operations likes to keep us on our toes by changing flights, routes, times, schedules, stops and everything else in between.
In my time at LIAT so far, I've flown around different heads of state, met many different types of people, skirted around hurricanes and tropical storms and have flown instrument approaches down to minimum altitudes with the minimal visibility with Tropical waves and depressions passing overhead. My time here has also provided me with many 'only in the tropics...' type moments where you can stand back and chuckle to yourself. Some can be quite funny, but others quite frustrating.
In the 3 weeks of my line training, I have seen a lot, (or so I think); however others tell me that I have truly seen nothing yet, which i sure do believe. I've had the opportunity to fly into almost every island in the caribbean (with the exception of Martinique and The Dominican Republic) which lies between Puerto Rico in the north and Guyana in the south. Our flights range from very short sectors of St Kitts to Nevis at approximately 6 minutes from takeoff to landing to long sectors between Barbados and Guyana and Trinidad and Curacao which are both each over 2 hours long. It's a good mix and keeps things interesting and never 'routine'. To add to that, Flight Operations likes to keep us on our toes by changing flights, routes, times, schedules, stops and everything else in between.
In my time at LIAT so far, I've flown around different heads of state, met many different types of people, skirted around hurricanes and tropical storms and have flown instrument approaches down to minimum altitudes with the minimal visibility with Tropical waves and depressions passing overhead. My time here has also provided me with many 'only in the tropics...' type moments where you can stand back and chuckle to yourself. Some can be quite funny, but others quite frustrating.
Another thing that comes to mind is the Malibu rum commercials, this seems ridiculous, but I actually find a lot of similarities down here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCdX8kLv4JI
Anyways, I figured I'd post a view from 'the office' as I land at George Charles airport in Castries, St. Lucia. The Sandals resort is just to the north of the airport (left) and the harbor is on the right. This video was taken a few weeks back on a nice clear evening. As you can see, at the end of the runway there are hills right at the end of it. This makes it even more important to always know exactly where you are, especially in instrument meteorological conditions (clouds AKA IMC).
Anyways, I figured I'd post a view from 'the office' as I land at George Charles airport in Castries, St. Lucia. The Sandals resort is just to the north of the airport (left) and the harbor is on the right. This video was taken a few weeks back on a nice clear evening. As you can see, at the end of the runway there are hills right at the end of it. This makes it even more important to always know exactly where you are, especially in instrument meteorological conditions (clouds AKA IMC).
This past Monday, we had a day which started in Georgetown, Guyana, took us to Barbados, St. Lucia, Dominica, St. Lucia, Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua. (no other airline pilots can say they are doing more takeoffs and landings than us, but that's another story!) Leaving Barbados for the last time that night, the captain went on the PA and was telling the passengers how the weather is beautiful there and we should be in 5 min ahead of schedule, as we had just arrived from there minutes before. On approach into St Lucia, the controllers put us into a holding pattern over the NDB (the navigation beacon at the airfield) as there was an American registered aircraft executing an instrument approach, the captain figured he probably wasn't familiar with the area and instead of calling the field in sight and executing a visual approach, like most do in fair conditions to save time and fuel he was going to do the full approach. While holding overhead the field, we had the airport in sight below a few scattered clouds. The aircraft ahead didnt have the field in sight at the missed approach point and had to execute a missed approach, he climbed back up, tried it again, and finally made it in the second time.
The captain was the one flying so he figured he would do the instrument approach as well, even though we had the field right ahead below us. Sure enough on final, with the runway lights in sight we do the final set up, extending the landing flaps and the gear, then all of a sudden bam! Complete blackness... we hit a rain shower, and lost all visibility, we continue to the last point we can before we have to go around, but nothing.. Captain calls "go-around, set power", I call the "positive climb" and he responds with "gear up, flaps 15" as he is making the turn just over where the runway would be, if we were able to see it. We climb back up and hold at the safe altitude above the terrain, waiting for it to clear up. We get back up and find that we can see the airport perfectly from up there. We decide to call a visual approach and orbit down staying off the coast and away from dangerous mountains that we cloud barely see from e blackness of the night. From the way we approached we could see that there was just one little line shower which was exactly in line with e final approach course of the instrument approach. Finally, the second time we make it in. Phew! As we taxi in, there is a wall of rain chasing us in. No light little sprinkle, some torrential downpour! The poor people probably had high hopes of returning to some fair weather after the Captain gave his briefing. I had to joke with him on the final sector about how it came to bite him in the ass!
Flying in and out isn't particularly challenging, but our aircrafts do not have the climb gradient to safely clear the hills at the end of the runway should we lose an engine right after takeoff when it is fully loaded. For safety precautions, at certain airports we have to do something called a 'performance turn' which is a climbing turn at 50 feet above the ground to a specific heading which would bring us into a safe heading and altitude should we lose an engine any time after the go-no go (rotation point). The performance turns are quite fun, and differ with airports depending in where the terrain is or not. I will try and get some videos at some of the different airports.
St Vincent is another funny airport we fly into. It's nestled into a bit of a valley on the south-eastern coast of the island. The runway is so short and the hills at the end of it are high enough and surround it in a way that after a certain point, you are committed to landing, regardless if a cow strolls across the runway or not (and it does happen! We ran over two wild dogs landing in Antigua on Monday). The terrain is just too great that a go around might be able to be executed, but in the unlikely event of an engine failure, it might not be able to out climb the hills. You land into the valley one way (into the tradewinds) and then takeoff out to the sea on the down sloping runway with the wind up your tail.
The airport has a red flashing light on a rock about a quarter mile back from the runway threshold called 'Cane Garden' and that tells us when we are committed. There are a few other lights on top of the hills to show where the top of the terrain outlining where the highest points are. Any time any of these lights aren't visible or aren't working, you can't legally and safely takeoff or land, so any operations get put on hold pretty quickly if any can't be seen!
On the subject with lighting in St. Vincent, on a sector during the first week of line training we were holding above the NDB at the airport waiting for a few aircrafts to takeoff (to give us some space to park on their tiny ramp) when all the airport lights went off. Runway lights, red terrain light and all! There were a few good chirps from different pilots, provided some solid entertainment while we waited for the lights to be fixed. On our way to the hotel, we found out a centipede was crawling around and shorted the circuits.
Below is a picture of Georgetown, Guyana, with the sea-wall and the mighty Atlantic. The river that you can see is the Demerra river which is actually quite large. The land you see on the left is not actually the other side, ratherIt hosts on of the largest floating bridges in the world. The taxi driver was telling us that it's quite a process to actually open and close it to let boat traffic pass, that it actually takes a couple hours to open and close it. In the picture if you look carefully, you can see a little airstrip to the east of the city (Oglie, I believe it's called), they are expanding it, and putting in an instrument approach so we can start doing schedules service there, giving us an advantage as it is almost in town, as opposed to the current airport which is about an hour away. Our Dash 8s would be able to get in without a problem, but Redjet and Caribbean Airlines jets wouldn't have the required runway needed to land.
I haven't done much exploring in Guyana yet, we get in quite late at night and leave at lunch the next day, and the airport is literally in the middle of nowhere. Here are some pictures of the Guyana countryside
I will start updating this on a more weekly basis with the islands I explore and the things which take place at 25,000ft. If there are any questions about flying, airports, airplanes or aviation in general, I surely will do a post about it, or find an answer to your question.
Signing off at an altitude which could be deemed sweater weather!
Signing off at an altitude which could be deemed sweater weather!
