Page 16 - TNT Jan 17

Second leg of day two from Colorado Springs, CO, to Palwaukee, IL outside Chicago.
This flying gig is great. After a leisurely breakfast, I take an Uber to the airport. The execs arrive at 1300 in a good mood. They must have made a big deal. We head to KCOS for a fuel stop. Long Beach is a busy airport with crossing runways and airline traffic. “N921XT is cleared to Colorado Springs via runway heading to one-thousand-five hundred feet, then left turn heading one-eight-zero, radar vectors Seal Beach, Pomona, Hector, direct Blue Mesa and the Deberry Three
KPHX — KLGB (Long Beach, CA)
Cruising Altitude Temp Leg Time TAS Fuel used
FL320 ISA+2 1+06 395 kts 1,182 lbs
We depart in great weather all the way to Long Beach. We are cleared into both airports with “descend via” RNAV SIDS. The Garmin G3000 is great for complicated arrivals if you closely monitor its performance and stay ahead of the airplane. Cutter Aviation in Phoenix provides us quick, great service as usual. In Long Beach, the FBO Airflite has lots of leather in the lobby and friendly smiles. With the “big wigs” in meetings, my work was finished and I goofed off the rest of the day, err I mean I spent several hours planning Day Two.
Arrival.” Within two minutes of departure the clearance is changed. It’s great to have two pilots today.
Larry and I monitor the deteriorating weather in KCOS. Afternoon TRWs cover much of Colorado. On top at FL410 all is calm, but below, the options are decreasing. The Nexrad METAR for KCOS reports a 90-degree crosswind gusting to 55 knots in a thunderstorm. Hum, what’s our option? Pueblo? What about fuel? What’s the Pueblo surface temperature? Can we depart out of there with enough fuel to get to Chicago?
Denver Center agrees to our request to deviate south on the arrival over Alamosa, and we dodge building cells while being vectored for the RNAV GPS 35L approach. “Colorado Springs Information Whiskey, low level wind shear alerts in affect. Virga all quadrants.”
We break out with good visibility and an 18-knot left crosswind. I realize that we are not far from where a 737 rolled inverted years ago. We are high and Larry reduces power to idle with little effect on our descent in moderate turbulence. Finally things settle down and he makes a great landing to the applause of the passengers. I remind them that we accept gratuities.
I am beat but we are only halfway there. On departure, we are slightly below maximum gross weight, but our performance calculator shows we need every bit of the 11,022 feet available on runway 35L. After departure, we muse that we should have used 35R with 13,501 feet. Our accelerate-stop distance is the issue today. Flying Citations you don’t often think about needing more than 11,000 feet of runway.
Thankfully, the leg to Chicago is routine and we land at 2030, find the rental car, get the executives on their way, and call it a day. I collapse in my hotel bed. Maybe this corporate flying job is not quite as cushy as I thought.
Day Two
KLGB — KCOS (Colorado Springs, CO)
Cruising Altitude Temp Leg Time TAS Fuel used: KCOS — KPWK (Chicago, IL) Cruising Altitude Temp Leg Time TAS Fuel used
FL 410 ISA+2 2+24 390 kts 1900 lbs
FL410 ISA+2 2+14 395 kts 1,790 lbs
14 • TWIN & TURBINE
January 2017