Flying with a "regular"
captain was something quite unknown to me. It was only several days after the
fact that I looked back and realized an interesting fact about my career in
flying thus far. Until now, the person in the seat beside me (whether the right
or left) has fallen into one of only four categories: teacher, student,
examiner, or passenger. Even at Airborne Sensing, where my coworker flew with
me, that person always worked from the back seats and up front, I was in
command.
Now, a fifth type of person: crew.
That guy with 4 bars on his shoulder instead of 3 is just like me, hired to do
a job and going where he's told. He makes mistakes just like me (and I've seen
a few in the months since). He doesn't criticize me for making mistakes (for
the most part). Up til now, I've been scrutinized and graded. Now, I'm just
there to get from Point A to the ever-more-desirable Point B.
As this first captain said to me
one sunny day heading into Calgary: "I'm going to put this," [indicates the entire airplane by gesturing in an wide
circle] "down there."
[points at the ground below]. Okay. Understood. Thumbs-up, dude.
It's amazing how loose and relaxed
everyone is once the pressure is off.
The weather was amazing all summer
long. There was a period of at least three straight weeks where I didn't see a
cloud for 100 miles in any direction. At first, ironically, all this clear sky
was disconcerting. Keep in mind, I'd just come from nonstop briefings and IFR
approach preparation, a definite pattern of behaviour. Now, my approach
briefings were so short, I felt like I kept forgetting something. I even had to
write down a cheat sheet for it, even though it was really only about ten
words.
Then there were the approaches
themselves. I won't get into the long details about how my initial landings
went, except to say they weren't that
bad; but, I was still more comfortable with intercepting an ILS the way I'd
done in training, not "keeping it in close", or even flying a
"left downwind" in a 40,000-lb aircraft.
So the best accomplishment I had
all summer was turning out of a mountain valley, mere meters from the rocks on
either side (so it seemed), to roll out on a final approach perfectly on the
visual glidepath, touched down softly, and having my captain say, "Nice
landing. Really good. Well done."
It's fun beyond words handling a
Dash-8 like it's a Cessna 172. It's even more rewarding finally having the
ability to pull it off.
A word about landing a Dash-8:
it's not easy. Well, I should give it more credit than that. It's an amazingly
forgiving aircraft, with tough landing gear and a slow enough approach speed
that makes it ideal for the short runways it was originally designed for. The difficulty
is landing it softly. That stiff,
forward facing landing gear strut also makes it almost impossible to . It's a
bit like throwing a shopping cart over a speed bump. It just sort of
"clunks" down, even on the best of days. And the lighter the airplane,
the more "shopping-cart"-ish it behaves.
The exception to this rule is the
wet runway. A thin layer of water between the runway and the tires is just
enough gloss to allow us to touch down so softly, you could barely feel it. I
consider it the height of compliment if my flight attendant says, "Wow,
that was a really amazing landing! Who was flying that?" It was also nice
when an Air Canada captain riding in our jumpseat called me a "show-off"
after a particularly nice touchdown in Kelowna. I consider it the best of
landings if I can call it smooth and not have to play the "wet-runway"
card for extra points.
So if you're a passenger in a
Dash-8 on a dry day, cut the pilots a bit of slack.
And more importantly, if the
landing is really superb, don't assume it's to the captain's credit. While he
is responsible for the aircraft as a whole, it might be surprising to the
general travelling public that the First Officer actually flies the airplane as
much as the Captain does. We split the legs 50/50. So it's just as likely that
the beautifully soft landing you just experienced was actually executed by the F/O. I often remember hearing
passengers thanking the Captain and telling him what a great job he did, despite
the fact that it was my turn to fly. Well, there's no "I" in team, as
they say. But don't forget about your lowly copilot up there in Row 0 when you thank
the Captain for the nice trip.
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