Page 20 - February 2016

18 • TWIN & TURBINE FEBRUARY 2016From the Flight DeckWintertime Bluesby Kevin R. DingmanEven though one of the fixes on the 10R ILS is KVENN, we couldn’t fly that approach because the runway is too short. Our landing assessment calculation indicated that, by using full flaps and maximum manual brakes (as opposed to auto-brakes), the available runway length on either 10C or 10L would be sufficient. More than sufficient with a headwind and by using maximum autobrakes. We asked Chicago Center to pass along our requirement to approach control. As it turned out, 10L was the only runway open on the field. The runway condition was reported as braking action poor with ice pellets,snow, slush and water. Six to nine inches of these contaminants also covered all ramps and taxiways. At 1,500 AGL, the winds aloft showed a 50 knot direct headwind. At the threshold it had dropped to 25 knots. The landing was uneventful with smooth deceleration – even using maximum autobrakes which is normally an attention-getting event. The touchdown was smooth, according to passenger comments as they deplaned. Deplaned after Officer “Stay-In-The-Area” finished with me, that is. But just the facts please. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.Room to PassMost taxiway painted lines were not visible. During the taxi from the 28R holding pad to the gate alleyway, I noted a significant amount of ground contamination with ruts, slippery surfaces, the need for slightly above- average power to taxi, accompanied by reduced steering effectiveness. The conditions warranted an extremely slow taxi speed. I was assigned the North line of the alley, and told to use caution for an exiting S-80 on the South line. Only small lengths of taxiway and ramp painted lines were occasionally visible. The other S-80 and I communicated to each other on ramp-control frequency andThere was no drug test, strip search or detention. This story was not penned from the City jail or an interrogation room. And I was grateful that they didn’t install a parking boot on my jet, or an ankle bracelet on my leg, right then and there. But, when an angry, bulletproof vest-wearing Chicago Police Officer boards your airliner after a flight, entersthe cockpit with his pistol drawn, and with a quiveringlip insists that you “not leavethe area” until he says so,your day is not going well. Especially if the officer’sname isn’t Joe Friday. Thestory you are about to readis true (except for the drawnpistol part). Only the nameshave been changed to protectthe innocent. My name is Dingman and I work here.I’m a pilot. (Cue the Dragnettheme song).Weather EventThis is the city. Chicago, Illinois. Third largest in the country; the airport is part of it. O’Hare International airport, and these are the facts. It was a Monday. Monday, December 28th . It was windy, dark and snowing in Chicago–snowing ice pellets. My partner John and I were working bunko, I mean a flight from Dallas to Chicago, a flight in the weather, a long flight. After an hour delay on the gate, and another hour off-the-gate due to an EDCT, the flight from DFW to ORD would consume another five hours. Seven hours in the jet that would make the passengers wish they’d stayed home. EDCT is an acronym for Expect Departure Clearance Time; pilots call it a wheels-up time. Administered by ATC to managearrival rates, it’s the last piece of data pilots read-back in an IFR clearance. Sometimes issued for the security of a politician, a runway closure due to an accident, or snow removal, EDCT’s are more commonly used during a weather event at the destination airport. And, yes ma’am, the windy city was having a weather event, a big one.Our entire four-day trip had been peppered with EDCT’s. Peppered like the choppy, Joe Friday dialog in this story. Eventually, the winter event would pepper most airports east of the Mississippi. Pepper them with high winds and low visibility. Two alternates were listed on our flight plan and we left passengers stranded in DFW to accommodate the fuel load. Our planned enroute fuel burn, plus reserve and alternate fuel, would require us to arrive in Chicago at our maximum landing weight of 130,000 pounds. The trip went smoothly during cruise and, except for some vectors and speed reductions, the descend-via arrival into O’Hare was normal. We couldn’t use just any runway, however. At 130,000 pounds, with reports of poor braking, we would need one at least 8,700 feet long.