hot airplanes

[XJohXJ]

You can't be serious. I'm not saying we have nothing to complain about, this industry has lots of room for improvement, but seriously... hot airplanes? Does the sweat make your panties bunch up too easily or something?

You know there are cars out there with no a/c right? You know some people dig ditches in the sun all day? Did you never flight instruct through the summer or fly freight in an airplane without ac? Sure there are improvements to be made in this industry, but in general, being a regional airline pilot is the easiest job I've ever had.

I hope your post was just a lame joke or something that went over my head because of all the things we have to bitch about that is about the most pathetic one I've heard. I mean, really?

Every summer, passengers die on overheated airplanes. Maybe not many, maybe just one or two, but it happens. Last summer, we had a pax leave on an ambulance from one of our Saabs when the cabin temp got somewhere above the 115F range.

When a pax dies or goes to the hospital, that is a death or accident that happened on your airplane, and could wind up following you, via your faa file (not to mention your conscience) for life.

Of course, you're probably above such concerns. Happy flying.

 

[greyskyracer]

Every summer, passengers die on overheated airplanes. Maybe not many, maybe just one or two, but it happens. Last summer, we had a pax leave on an ambulance from one of our Saabs when the cabin temp got somewhere above the 115F range.

When a pax dies or goes to the hospital, that is a death or accident that happened on your airplane, and could wind up following you, via your faa file (not to mention your conscience) for life.

Of course, you're probably above such concerns. Happy flying.

Thank you

 

[FreightPup]

Any of you ever fly a Metro in the summer? In the desert?

:crying:


AF

Ha Ha,
That line sounds like it should have come from the movie, "Airplane"!

 

[CA1900]

thats 20+ years other people have been flying that old t-prop without whining....

Speak for yourself. I've repeatedly grounded 1900s for inoperative vapor cycle air conditioning systems. All the ACM-supplied air goes to the floor, which does nothing for cooling the airplane down.

Had one a few summers ago, with a nice dark blue top, sit in the hot sun on a 93-degree day for 3 hours before I got to it. I'd estimate the interior was about 150 degrees, and I'm not exaggerating. The cockpit was even hotter. (You know it's hot when you're cooled by the 93-degree air rushing in.)

Talked to the ground crew, said I'd need to run the right engine (which has the air conditioner) for at least 15 minutes to cool down the cabin, which was fine. Fired it up, and the air conditioning wasn't working. The air vents (which recirculate the air, routed over the [inoperative] evaporator coils), were blowing jets of super-hot air, like little hair dryers. I shut it down, went inside, told the gate we had a mechanical and I'd elaborate once I got maintenance on the way.

For the two hours it took to fix it, the gate agents and the company were both badgering me to MEL it and go. "It'll cool off at altitude," they said.

"Half of the passengers will be dead before takeoff, and it's too hot for the pilots to operate this machine safely. This is a question of safety, not comfort, and I'm not doing it. If you can find someone who will, be my guest; I'll take his plane."

The problem turned out to be a tripped blower motor circuit breaker in the engine nacelle, which was reset and worked properly for the rest of the day. I had the passengers out after 10 minutes of running the air, and as soon as they got on, several of them thanked me for getting the air working before we left.


The company's job is to move the airplane. The crew's job is to stop it, if necessary, in the interests of safety.

 

[Jmoney]

Too hot...

Think of it this way-if a 95 yr old lady in the back dies of heat stroke, who is getting sued? You are! Gongrats! If you are stupid enough to expose yourself to this kind of civil liability, you deserve to have all your stuff taken.
This is not supposed to be an endurance contest, we are supposed to consider the Safety & comfort of the passengers. If they tell me I have to fly a broke-ass APU plane around and jeopardize safety, I will glady call the POI and ask his opinion on the matter.
ASA had to evacuate a few years ago because of a gear collapse. The crew did everything right, and every single one of them was sued. Nothing came of it in that case, but if granny kicks it because it is 105 in the cabin, the lawyers will get to sue your happy butt off-and they WILL win because you were stupid enough to let yourself get painted into that corner!

 

[Steve]

Speak for yourself. I've repeatedly grounded 1900s for inoperative vapor cycle air conditioning systems. All the ACM-supplied air goes to the floor, which does nothing for cooling the airplane down.

Had one a few summers ago, with a nice dark blue top, sit in the hot sun on a 93-degree day for 3 hours before I got to it. I'd estimate the interior was about 150 degrees, and I'm not exaggerating. The cockpit was even hotter. (You know it's hot when you're cooled by the 93-degree air rushing in.)

Talked to the ground crew, said I'd need to run the right engine (which has the air conditioner) for at least 15 minutes to cool down the cabin, which was fine. Fired it up, and the air conditioning wasn't working. The air vents (which recirculate the air, routed over the [inoperative] evaporator coils), were blowing jets of super-hot air, like little hair dryers. I shut it down, went inside, told the gate we had a mechanical and I'd elaborate once I got maintenance on the way.

For the two hours it took to fix it, the gate agents and the company were both badgering me to MEL it and go. "It'll cool off at altitude," they said.

"Half of the passengers will be dead before takeoff, and it's too hot for the pilots to operate this machine safely. This is a question of safety, not comfort, and I'm not doing it. If you can find someone who will, be my guest; I'll take his plane."

The problem turned out to be a tripped blower motor circuit breaker in the engine nacelle, which was reset and worked properly for the rest of the day. I had the passengers out after 10 minutes of running the air, and as soon as they got on, several of them thanked me for getting the air working before we left.


The company's job is to move the airplane. The crew's job is to stop it, if necessary, in the interests of safety.

Well done. Thank you

 

[Thedude]

Any of you ever fly a Metro in the summer? In the desert?

Yup, sure have......we put a thermometer in the cockpit once and it read over 140 F.


But then again I wasn't worried that my hair gel would melt either.

 

[COOPERVANE]

I don't know what all you younguns are whining about. Hell son, back when we were on the super connie it used to regularly get over 200F in the cabin. We had a passenger die about every third leg. The flight attendant would strip down to bra and panties, and the passengers wore double breasted suits.

The only logical attitude is since we had hot airplanes in the 50's it shoud be O.K. now right?

 

[PCL_128]

i don't think you'll get too far with OSHA. we had a captain try to refuse an airplane because the APU was inop on a hot day, (at a previous airline, he'd had a passenger die of heatstroke) but it didn't work. in the company's view, it's uncomfortable, not unsafe. and the MEL says it's fine. Still, I've heard ASA pilots can refuse an aircraft with no APU if the cabin temp is too high, but Comair will tell you to go flying.

I suppose if you felt really strongly about it, you could call in sick - say the heat was making you feel faint or something. but at the end of the day, you're just going to have to deal with it.

Yes, OSHA will be of no help to you, but you don't need OSHA. All you need is a pair of something called "balls." Amazing things. They give you the ability to tell CMR management to go f&$k themselves, just like I told PCL management and MX several times when they told me to fly airplanes that shouldn't have been flown. My personal limit on APU-inop airplanes was an OAT of 80 degrees if no air was hooked up to the airplane at the gate, or 85 degrees if air was hooked up until right before leaving. Anything warmer than that, and the airplane wasn't moving until either the APU was fixed or until the temp cooled down. You don't need any fancy OSHA regulation or anything else. You're the PIC. Act like it.

 

[DrewBlows]

At ASA if the cabin temp is above 30c then we can't fly the CRJ due to efis heating problems. Should be the same at all CRJ carriers as I believe this comes from bombardier.

The maximum ambient temperature for takeoff and landing is ISA+35C at OH, I suspect that's a Bombardier number. In ATL that would be 43C which is 110F. You're not going to see that number very often which is probably why it's not a memory item.