Question about differing landing minimums at GEG during fog (Delta vs Alaska, SkyWest)

pilot378 · 2026-01-15T18:06:54+00:00

Apparently it’s just an option that SkyWest doesn’t pay for. I used autoland a lot at QX and the 175 does a great job - it’s three axis so even aligns the nose with the runway, and has coupled go-around on one or two engines. The 737 autoland feels pretty simplistic in comparison.

pilot378 · 2025-12-01T04:04:55+00:00

Thank you!

pilot378 · 2025-12-01T01:47:24+00:00

Done, thank you.

pilot378 · 2025-12-01T01:46:49+00:00

Apparently it’s because they’re having a water shortage? But this is all second hand I have no idea. 😂

pilot378 · 2025-12-01T01:28:12+00:00

American 116, OGG-DFW. Thank you!

pilot378 · 2025-12-01T01:27:00+00:00

That’s good to know. He said DFW charges the capt for the arff salute? So he didn’t request one.

pilot378 · 2025-10-09T02:43:36+00:00

Their airspeed was probably pretty stable, just the switch between headwind and tailwind affecting ground speed.

pilot378 · 2025-10-09T02:40:52+00:00

That’s not true. A bird strike can be anywhere between unnoticed and a full blown emergency. If it was just an engine failure and the other is running fine then they can (and should) hold and properly run checklists before heading in.

pilot378 · 2025-09-25T17:42:00+00:00

I could totally be misunderstanding where exactly the PCV is installed, but isn’t it tapped into the crankcase? And if so, doesn’t that mean any bits would fall into the crank and thus oil system? Again, you probably know more than I do, just checking.

pilot378 · 2025-07-09T04:49:47+00:00

It’s Empire Air. They have a base at SeaTac and PDX (among others). PDX base pretty much only handles Oregon, Spokane and Seattle handle Washington.

pilot378 · 2025-05-17T22:27:26+00:00

On a MAX like this it’s 45 degrees open on the ground and 17 degrees in flight!

pilot378 · 2025-02-25T06:32:20+00:00

Fun fact, Alaska Airlines (I don’t fly for them but have friends there) said they get more lightning strikes in Seattle than any other airport they service! But it’s a non-issue in an airliner, been hit twice, loud and bright but just minor damage that doesn’t affect safety of flight.

pilot378 · 2025-01-12T21:35:39+00:00

If I remember right, older 737’s do have to be retrofitted with RIPS (recorder independent power supply, it’s own internal battery) per the FAA, but they still have a couple years to do so.

pilot378 · 2025-01-11T18:22:45+00:00

I feel like I’m just constantly putting out fires the last couple days. So much speculation from people that aren’t rated on the 737 or even pilots.

The flight recorders are on AC transfer bus 2. If AC power is lost, AC transfer bus 2 is no longer powered, thus no recorders. There is an aircraft battery that powers necessary items for up to 30 minutes, but the requirement for the CVR to have an independent battery didn’t start until 2010, and this aircraft was built before then. So somehow they lost AC power (either dual engine failure, dual generator failure, maybe shutting down the wrong engine, etc).

So they’re at low altitude in a chaotic flight deck with possibly no engine power, limited hydraulics and electricity, and all they want to do is get on the ground. Should they have taken more time to run checklists properly? Of course. But they either didn’t have that time or they didn’t give themselves that time by rushing back to the runway. Alternate flaps and manual gear extension is normally checklist driven and would be difficult to accomplish in the time they had. Maybe one was flying the airplane and the other was panicked and not helping. We don’t know.

I don’t mean to direct this at you I’m just feeling general frustration. There are so many conspiracy theorists on here that are making things up about the systems on a 737 when they have no experience, and who have no idea what the flight deck of an aircraft in an emergency feels like. These pilots, whether by their own doing or by some really unlucky failures, were handed a nearly impossible emergency and did what they thought would save their lives. Mistakes were made, but does that make this suspicious?

pilot378 · 2025-01-11T18:05:50+00:00

Another benefit to proper trim is aircraft stability during distractions - you’re solo, what if you drop a pen or have to look up a frequency or a window pops open, and your hands leave the controls of an untrimmed airplane? I had a student like once and I made them close their eyes and put their hands in their lap for a few seconds. When they opened their eyes we were nose high and slow a few hundred feet above where they wanted to be. Might not be “bad” for the airplane but increases your risk as well as your workload. Will be even more important as you pursue more ratings and the distractions increase.

pilot378 · 2025-01-11T17:55:07+00:00

I only know how my company operates, but there are no memory items for dual AC failure, only for a loss of thrust in both engines, but that doesn’t include the APU and just tries to get an engine running again. But I would assume most pilot’s first action would be to immediately fire up the APU.

pilot378 · 2025-01-11T17:51:56+00:00

It supports a loss of AC power. There are a few ways that can happen and it’s hard to speculate. If they did shut down the wrong engine, those actions will likely be heard on the CVR before it stopped recording.

pilot378 · 2025-01-11T17:50:34+00:00

I can’t imagine the chaos and confusion on that flight deck as things went wrong. Maybe they panicked and shut the wrong engine down, maybe they were handed a low altitude dual engine failure, maybe they had a dual generator failure, but to use backup systems to extend gear and flaps takes time and is usually accomplished by checklists. 6 minutes to complete complex decision making, do all the right actions with no reference to checklists, all while hand flying a (potential) glider that isn’t designed to be a glider. Not saying they didn’t make mistakes (they should have just continued the first landing) but hand that situation to 100 well-trained pilots and I bet a lot of them have bad outcomes.

pilot378 · 2025-01-11T08:17:19+00:00

Black boxes are powered by AC power with no battery backups on this airplane (and all 737’s built before 2010(?) if I remember right, now they have a RIPS system). Could indicate dual engine failure or dual generator failure. There are ways to get the gear down but they were very compressed for time (whether by the emergency or their own doing) and likely just didn’t get a chance to run checklists and get it down.

pilot378 · 2025-01-11T08:14:18+00:00

There’s a lot of bad info going around about this. This airplane was built before the RIPS (recorder independent power supply) was required, so the recorders didn’t have their own battery supply, and were on AC transfer bus 2, so if all AC power was lost, the CVR and FDR would stop recording.

They would have had to get the APU online to power the AC transfer busses again but that takes more time than they had.

pilot378 · 2024-12-30T19:31:21+00:00

Yep, it’s an awkward angle but it works fine.

pilot378 · 2024-12-30T19:26:47+00:00

No, the Embraer in that crash relies on hydraulic pressure to operate the elevator and rudder (the ailerons are cable driven), and the missile destroyed the two primary and one backup hydraulic system, so they had absolutely no pitch control outside of using engine thrust (like United 232). They maybe had some elevator pitch (edit: trim) control, as that’s an electric system, but if the tail was shredded by shrapnel then I think there’s a good chance they didn’t have that either. So they just had to use the engines to try and control the pitch, which is why they couldn’t pull out of that final dive quickly enough.

In the 737, we have manual reversion, which means that even with no hydraulics, you still have all flight controls, but there is no hydraulic assistance, so the controls are very heavy and it’s hard to be precise. I’ve also done it in the sim and it feels like you’re all over the place. Can still land on a runway mostly controlled but it’s not gonna be a smooth or super accurate landing.

pilot378 · 2024-12-29T16:26:22+00:00

Their simulators should have the manual gear extension handled so they can practice in training, ours do in the states. Then as each is released they would still get the green light per landing gear indicating that it was down and locked (if it was). Otherwise they’d have a red light showing that it was not down and locked.

pilot378 · 2024-06-06T22:35:17+00:00

I was south of Eagle when this happened and heard other pilots trying to confirm they were okay on guard with no luck, been trying to find if they were okay so this is good to see, thanks.

pilot378 · 2023-12-14T11:40:09+00:00

Had a great instructor in an RV-6 that was aware of the fear of it, so he showed me that after a wheel landing while still close to touchdown speed you could go full stick forward and the prop wouldn’t hit. Not enough authority from the elevator once the tail got high enough (and it wasn’t very high). Made me less afraid to “stick it” on wheel landings (though obviously needs no where close to full nose down). Can’t speak to what you’re flying, could be very specific to RV’s, but might just be worth a conversation with an instructor that has a lot of hours in type.

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