Airnet Question

[Princedietrich]

Hey, how are things going at Rickenbacker these days? Reason I ask is that the stock price seems to have shot up about 60 cents a share this week, which is nothing short of a lunar launch for that particular stock. If one of you Starcheckers could PM me with some intel I'd appreciate it.

 

[HAZ-MAT]

Nevermind about the stock price, I heard they make you fly thru thunderstorms. Is that true?? :beer:

 

[Sgt. Hartman]

Nevermind about the stock price, I heard they make you fly thru thunderstorms. Is that true?? :beer:

Thunderstorms and ice and rain...OH MY!!!! Thunderstorms and ice and rain....OH MY!!!!

BTW prince....I thought you were always around Cbus???

 

[mikecweb]

Investor's heard that I'm longer getting paid to do nothing and getting free housing at the amerihost for two months while waiting on caravan training.

 

[JJET44]

Nevermind about the stock price, I heard they make you fly thru thunderstorms. Is that true?? :beer:

YUP!!

But what most don't know is that Airnet has painted a special coating on it's airplanes that makes them immune to all adverse effects of thunderstorms.

IT WORKS!!

They haven't lost an airplane do to bad weather, EVER!!!

 

[wings421]

YUP!!

But what most don't know is that Airnet has painted a special coating on it's airplanes that makes them immune to all adverse effects of thunderstorms.

IT WORKS!!

They haven't lost an airplane do to bad weather, EVER!!!

T-Storms maybe not. But the last line, that could be debated.

 

[Mason]

Any info on the original question...I'm curious as well.

 

[OUPilot]

if i can't avoid thunderstorms by at least 20 miles, i turn around. if it is calling for ice, i call in sick. nobody should fly in that weather.

on a serious note, it may have something to do with all the jetride talk.

 

[AirplanesSuck]

Jetride was sold for $41M. Got Airnet outta a majority of their debt. Stock prices went up.

 

[Flysher]

T-Storms maybe not. But the last line, that could be debated.

really? was there an incident they didnt tell us about in training?

 

[Princedietrich]

Jetride was sold for $41M. Got Airnet outta a majority of their debt. Stock prices went up.

Did the finalization go through? Last I'd heard there was a delay in the final signing of the agreement.

And Sarge, I used to be around Cbus all the time but not anymore. The red headed ACP took some offense to that wedgie I gave him in dispatch one morning during city meet and had me escorted out of the building.

 

[MNR]

There was a hang up with one of the bank doing the financeing. Apparently Tuesday the 26th is the day.

 

[USC328]

really? was there an incident they didnt tell us about in training?

Yep, they lost a Learjet N800AW in a crash in New York. UCA I believe. It was a 200ft overcast. Apparently, from what I've heard, they were unstabalized when they broke out. They attempted a go around. Engines didn't spool up in time (typical jet engines) and they impacted the runway pretty hard, and slid off into a snow bank. Both pilots were okay. The aircraft was totalled. Please correct any details that I may have gotten wrong. I believe it happened between Dec 2003 and July 2005. (my tenure at AirNet). If not, it was when I was a ramper for AirNet Jan 2001- Dec 2003. I don't know the exact dates. NTSB should have the reports.

Another incident was due to hail damage at cruise altitude. That same Learjet was involved in the MDW incident where the wing was bent 45 degrees up on landing due to a wingtip strike. Not sure of the dates on that either. However, MDW accident may not have been wx related, but I believe the PF (copilot) mentioned he encountered a gust of wind or something causing the last second strike on the landing flare. I've spoken to both the Captain and copilot of that flight and I'm just glad they were safe.

 

[Flysher]

ah alright, i beleive i know about the first incident, and from waht they told us during training is that the lear came in wayyy to fast ( and yes the weather was really low) and went off the runway and took out several airplanes before stopping just shy of a hanger or something to that effect. I do think they said the reason was the pilots coming in to fast though and not the weather, although im sure it was a contributing factor.

as far as weather FATALITIES, i dont think there are any ?

 

[JJET44]

Holly crap, You can't blame that on weather. Any pilot that has flown jets knows that you have to have engines spooled up. If anything it was the pilots fault for not meeting the criteria of a stabilized approach.

Configured, on speed and spooled up at 500agl VFR
Configured, on speed at 1000agl, spooled up at 500agl IFR
This is a good rule of thumb that I personally use.

Now if you discredit Airnet for making pilots fly when the weather is low IFR than it might be time for you to move on to a nice FAA job like others who are afraid to fly in hard IMC.

 

[USC328]

JJet44,

I'm not saying that the UCA accident was wx caused. It is a contributing factor in situational awareness. I don't discredit AirNet for anything. If you read my entire post, you can see I was a Starchecker for almost 2 years including the Learjet. Just curious, do you fly there, or have you flown there before? If so, you may know who I am. Anyways, if you hit the marker at 250kts in the Lear as they usually do, you will be at idle thrust most of the way, if not the entire way down to slow the aircraft. On clear days, that is the way the aircraft is flown. If it's low IMC, then I personally took it in a little slower and was "stabalized."

I am in no way afraid to fly low IMC as you hinted to in your post. I've done my share of 800RVR departures in a Caravan (Part 91 legs, no SIC) and approaches to minimums in blowing snow at night anywhere East of the Mississippi. I was a floater in the BE58, PA31, C208 and the jet, which if you ask any Starchecker, is probably the most challenging flying any AirNet pilot does, especially on the props by yourself. After flying at AirNet, the regionals is a vacation. Everything is automated and you lose your stick flying skills very fast. I just did my one year recurrent at my regional and chased the hand flown single engine ILS all the way down. I give props to ALL Starcheckers, cause I know they can fly circles around any regional pilot anyday. If I had to do a "fly off" with Guillotine007, I know he'd fly circles around me, once he made it past the taxi stage of course (Inside AirNet joke)

Keep up the good work Starcheckers. It's always fun to hear you guys on the radios. Enjoy your AirNet days, I miss them. It is the best flying you will ever do. Anyone who discredits your flying capabilities has probably never flown night freight and is used to getting all their flight plans handed to them with their coffee. Stay warm out there this winter and be sure to triple check the BE58 doors before departure. It can be a cold miserable night when your flying BDL to Farmington New York with a pax door popped open in IMC and freezing temps. I'll never forget that night. Door popped open 3 of 6 legs. It was nice of MX to show me the next morning the little trick with that specific aircraft. Aww, the life of a floater.

 

[Flysher]

haha funny you should mention that, I ferried a baron back from BKL last night and my door opened... now I gotta go talk to Triston about replacing my Ohio chart

Hey Im a floater also and I love the job! How hard was it for you to get a jet floater spot, and was it out of LCK? Thats where Id like to be.

 

[OUPilot]

I know of a few guys and a gal that want a lck floater sic spot. They are on the top of the prop list, and one will be a senior lateral. Just a heads up.

 

[Flysher]

thanks for the info. I guess it always just depends who wants what at the time. I wont even have 2000 for another 12-14 months at the rate im flying now anyway.

 

[OUPilot]

no prob. yeah, when nothing is going on, reserve can be tough. but hey, at least you get your 6 days off!

 

[USC328]

I went from cmh prop floater to cmh jet floater (back when we were at CMH). Then, they cut the floater lines to create CMH runs. In the past, the CMH runs were always flown by the floaters, but they decided to make them permanent runs with permanent pilots. So, I got forced into flying 101, based on seniority, with Keith. Great guy and loved flying with him. Someone say hi to him for me if you get a chance. Just tell him Purvis says hi. Hopefully he remembers me Anyways, then, I transferred back to "home" in Denver (APA) as a jet floater where I stayed until I left for SkyWest.

It's all about timing. You have to wait till the run you want comes open and you have the seniority to hold it. I was always tracking who was interested in APA so I knew how much longer it would be. Jason took my APA floater spot when I thought I would have held it a few months prior to me getting it. Thankfully, he decided to leave for Comair and opened up the run. It worked out well though during Christmas time. I was CMH and he was APA. I wanted to be in Denver and he wanted to be in Cincinnati, so we swapped places.

Anyways, one of my favorite memories of AirNet is my engine start to engine stop flight of 6 minutes. It was the morning we repositioned all the airplanes from CMH to our new home in LCK. Flew with Sean in N8040A. I think the prop instructors flew over in formation. Wish I could have seen that. I was too busy pulling the gear up and then putting it right back down. Yep, short flight, but we even retracted the gear. All the airplanes had to take max fuel with them to get the Jet A over to LCK. Guess the fuel trucks had to drive from CMH-LCK empty. We can fly unlimited amounts of TI around the country, but we can't drive fuel trucks with fuel in them. Beats me

 

[Princedietrich]

Nah, we didn't go over in formation unfortunately. We all just threw on our Hawaiian shirts and blasted off. Funniest thing was that we hadn't even moved in to LCK yet and McGovern was already making learjets go around because he was too slow getting off the runway.

How's life Purvurtis?

 

[osy007]

That was USC160 and my bud...Dam good pilot too..I just dont know what he was doing when the SIC rammed the plane into the ground.
The LR35 was designed to have the engines drop off during a crash landing. Thats exactly what happened. The both walked away to later sit in the CP
s office. The co-pilot decided that he didnt want to continue flying that night, so was canned.

ah alright, i beleive i know about the first incident, and from waht they told us during training is that the lear came in wayyy to fast ( and yes the weather was really low) and went off the runway and took out several airplanes before stopping just shy of a hanger or something to that effect. I do think they said the reason was the pilots coming in to fast though and not the weather, although im sure it was a contributing factor.

as far as weather FATALITIES, i dont think there are any ?

 

[JJET44]

JJet44,

I'm not saying that the UCA accident was wx caused. It is a contributing factor in situational awareness. I don't discredit AirNet for anything. If you read my entire post, you can see I was a Starchecker for almost 2 years including the Learjet. Just curious, do you fly there, or have you flown there before? If so, you may know who I am. Anyways, if you hit the marker at 250kts in the Lear as they usually do, you will be at idle thrust most of the way, if not the entire way down to slow the aircraft. On clear days, that is the way the aircraft is flown. If it's low IMC, then I personally took it in a little slower and was "stabalized."

I am in no way afraid to fly low IMC as you hinted to in your post. I've done my share of 800RVR departures in a Caravan (Part 91 legs, no SIC) and approaches to minimums in blowing snow at night anywhere East of the Mississippi. I was a floater in the BE58, PA31, C208 and the jet, which if you ask any Starchecker, is probably the most challenging flying any AirNet pilot does, especially on the props by yourself. After flying at AirNet, the regionals is a vacation. Everything is automated and you lose your stick flying skills very fast. I just did my one year recurrent at my regional and chased the hand flown single engine ILS all the way down. I give props to ALL Starcheckers, cause I know they can fly circles around any regional pilot anyday. If I had to do a "fly off" with Guillotine007, I know he'd fly circles around me, once he made it past the taxi stage of course (Inside AirNet joke)

Yeah, I understand where your coming from. I was just stating that I feel that the incident was not caused by bad weather.
The original post that made me chime in was the comment that management makes the pilots fly in T-storms. I was simply defending the company.

I sorta work (or as of last week worked) for Airnet's alter-ego, JR.
I used to fly RJ's for close to five years and know where your coming from in the raw data department.

 

[rubicon789]

Now if you discredit Airnet for making pilots fly when the weather is low IFR than it might be time for you to move on to a nice FAA job like others who are afraid to fly in hard IMC.

OUCH!!! LOL

Guillotine007, I know he'd fly circles around me, once he made it past the taxi stage of course (Inside AirNet joke)

Did you hear Cessna is coming out with All Terrain Tires for their vans soon LOLOLOL

 

[Princedietrich]

Any idea when those new KleinProof jet pumps are going to hit the market?

 

[Guillotine007]

to a nice FAA job like others who are afraid to fly in hard IMC

now those are fighting words. i'm not even going to get involved in this discussion.

 

[starchkr]

PURVIS!!!!!!!........WHAT'S UP!!!!!!!!

How's it going Skywest dude...

they actually made you hand fly an approach...SINGLE ENGINE...$hit dude, i don't think i could do that anymore. You get so lazy when you fly modern equipment, and i have definately lost my scan and the ability to actually FLY an approach. I do have one nice advantage though, it's called CAT III...i just put in "NO" DH and she flies herself down to the runway and will stop right on centerline a couple thousand feet down...ahhhh, nice...one crazy feeling that first time though, never seeing the runway lights until you have already felt the tires contact the pavement...i was freakin' shakin' inside putting that much trust in a darn computer...but it did a wonderful job.

As far as accidents "due" to weather...absolutely NONE at Airnet. Some that weather may have been a contributing link in the chain, maybe a couple. Someone mentioned too fast and over-running into other a/c...yep, but that was Kansas City, plus you forgot the running into the hangar part after hitting the other a/c...too fast and too far down the runway...ahhh, reminds me of another very popular airline that likes to over-run runways...ahem, BUR MDW...you get it. The UCA incident as i was told after the investigation was from being too high on the app. and trying to perform a go-around as the aircraft ran out of elevator control as it tried to rotate to a nose up attitude which resulted in a very high sink rate and subsequent extreme contact with the runway...and snow bank, which is said to have been their saving grace in this incident...as witnessed by the lack of after incident fire...think Thunderbirds when you picture what i am talking about here...remember that one that went in not too long ago from a loop, he ran out of altitude and elevator effectiveness and planted the bird in the dirt, that's what they say happened in UCA, well except for the whole loop thing. Lastly, the wonderful 130F incidents Purvis brought up are actually pretty funny. Same pilot, both incidents, although he had moved from the right to the left seat between them. First incident going into MDW, left wing contacted the ground bending the outer third up to a 45 degree angle...flying pilot says there was a gust of wind from an a/c doing a run-up on the airline terminal ramp, captain says that the flying pilot (f/o by the way) extended spoilers before ground contact and one happened to come up faster than the other (all lear guys know what that is like, pretty cool feeling when they do that, nice WING DIP as well) which caused wing to drop and contact the ground...second incident f/o now capt, again flying pilot, flew through a thunderstorm which just happened to have hail, and boom incident number two in the same a/c, said radar was not working correctly and accidentally enterred the storm...which in reality, on a dark night you sometimes can't tell that a storm is a storm until it is too late, and DAMN those things build quick don't they Purvis!!! We got lucky, that's all i can say.

OK, so there's my Airnet input for the quarter...i don't want to get jumped on for "still posting on the cargo board now that i am flying for an airline" as has been said to me a couple times now.