Check Those Fuel Gauges Carefully

I'm still flying the Caribbean skies and enjoying the weather immensely. I haven't had to fly an instrument approach in months. My recurrent training is coming up in a couple of months and I'm sure to be a little rusty.
A recent trip took me down to San Jose, Costa Rica. I hadn't been there in almost 20 years. It sure has grown. AA operates four flights a day in and out of there and they usually are full.

The return leg took us right over Cuba. Years ago we would fly around Cuba so as not to enter their airspace but nowadays we pass right on through it provided we contact Havana Center and receive the appropriate clearance.

The Florida Keys would be up next as the sun was setting. If you look closely you can see the bridges on US #1 connecting some of the keys.The next leg was to be from Miami down to San Juan, Puerto Rico. A one hour delay for maintenance passed by and we finally took off from runway 26L. Passing through 5000 ft I glanced at the fuel panel and noticed that our right wing tank fuel gauge and the fuel totalizer where both blank! The left and center tank gauges were still showing the correct amount but that wasn't good enough. It was the first officer's leg so I had him take over ATC duties and then I pulled out our procedures manual to see what could be done. Well, it turns out that nothing could be done since the specific problem that we were having wasn't even listed.

A night flight over the Caribbean without operable fuel gauges didn't seem like anything we wanted to do nor was I interested in any further troubleshooting or a radio call to our maintenance folks in Tulsa, so I quickly made the decision to return to Miami ASAP. A call to the Purser, a quick PA to the passengers, a call to the company, and then my attention was back to the cockpit as we switched from climb mode over to approach and landing mode.

I told Miami Approach about our situation and they were very helpful and offered any assistance we might need. I asked for the nearest available runway but that was all. It wasn't exactly an emergency so I didn't ask for the rescue equipment but even so, we were given priority handling and our clearance to land came right away. Those guys at ATC are great!

Our Miami approach charts were still out as we had not even had time to put them away yet so we did a quick approach briefing, ran through the landing checklist and before we knew it the FO was clearing the runway and the flight was over. Total time in the air was only 17 minutes.

Approaching the gate I could see a couple of mechanics waiting on the jetbridge for us. And as luck would have it, as soon as we parked at the gate the fuel gauges came back to life. It never fails! But they ended up taking the plane out of service anyhow.

To end the story for now, they finally found us a new plane. We were re-catered, luggage transferred, fueling completed, pre-flight done, angry passengers boarded again and away we went only three hours late. I finally hit the sack in my hotel room at 3:30 AM only to be awakened in just a couple of hours.




Details in my next post.....








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Fire Down Below

Cruising high above the earth provides for some interesting sightseeing at times.

Much of my flying recently has been at night, so the photo opportunities have been limited. But a recent daytime leg from San Juan to DFW, along with clear skies, allowed for a few good shots of the landscape below.

Due to some major cutbacks in service from AA, the congestion at the San Juan airport has decreased dramatically. The airport is a virtual ghost town as compared to recent years when it was booming. The lines at security used to be endless.....nowadays you can get through in a matter of minutes.

Taxi times are short as well. We were airborne only five minutes after pusback.

Workloads in the cockpit are relatively easy on this leg. Radio communications are all VHF. The ATC controllers at San Juan Center speak impeccable English, and there is radar coverage along the entire route so no position reporting is required. And the sights along the way are pretty good too. It doesn't get much easier.

Weather permitting, routings from San Juan are almost always direct to Miami and then across the Gulf of Mexico to Louisiana and then on to DFW.
We climbed unrestricted up to 36,000 ft and settled in for the five hour leg to Texas. The island of Hispaniola with the neighboring countries of the Dominican Republic and Haiti were first in view. Then along came Turks and Caicos. After that came the Bahamas with it's countless islands and clear water.A few hours later we had burned off enough fuel to climb up to 40,000 ft and were passing over the city of New Orleans and the Mississippi River.Shortly after passing New Orleans we could see a multitude of smoke plumes coming from the fields down below. Having seen this many times over the years I knew that it was harvest time in the sugar cane fields.

Apparently part of the process of harvesting the sugar cane involves burning the fields of all the unwanted leaves and unusable parts but it leaves the stalks and roots unharmed. I hear that it smells pretty bad!Not long after that, one of the cabin crew called up and reported that many of the passengers were wanting to know what was on fire down below and would I please make a PA to that effect.

I prefer not to make unnecessary PA's inflight since it interrupts the movie that is playing (and also wakes up many people) and some folks don't like that, so I just told her what was burning and asked her to relay that information directly. Shortly after, I heard her make a PA anyhow!
Not much to see after that. The sightseeing was over for the day and all that was left was the descent and landing at DFW.

Another good trip in the logbook.....




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Where's My Suitcase?

For those of you who have been on a cruise, you know that the night before disembarkation you have to put your checked luggage outside your cabin door and it is hauled off only to appear again at customs the next morning. The bags are marked by colored tags according to your disembarkation group. Sounds easy enough. I put both our well marked and tagged suitcases outside our door and I even saw them being hauled off almost immediately. I was expecting no problems.


So we awoke back in San Juan to some scattered showers but a nice looking sunrise. We made one last trip to the buffet for a final shipboard breakfast. I hope I don't see another buffet for a long time! I may have possibly gained some weight on this cruise....or else my shirts have shrunk a little.

Then it was time to disembark. We were called by our group number and we went right next door to the disembarkation terminal to claim our suitcases and clear customs. And guess what?...no suitcase. I looked and looked all over but no luck. Somehow Princess managed to lose it in the 200 feet between the ship and the terminal. That's worse than some airlines I know! (AA comes to mind for one). I was pretty fed up with Princess by now. This was definitely strike three. So I filed a claim form and we headed out for our last excursion.....a tour of Ft San Cristobal and then a tour of the Bacardi Rum Distillery.

The fort tour went well since it was self guided. It's right on the coast and afforded some nice photos. The fort was built in the 1700's and is still kept in great condition thanks to the National Parks Service.


Then it was off to the Bacardi Distillery. After visiting the Malibu Rum distillery in Barbados,we were expecting another less than stellar tour. But it actually was very nice. We were impressed. The place was spotless, the tour was well done, the drink samples were good and we left there with a good impression of Bacardi rum. We even bought a bottle.....for medicinal purposes after my knee surgery!





Did they water this palm tree with rum?










After this it was off to the airport and then on to Orlando on a full A-300 and then a connecting 757 to DFW. The vacation was over.

Would I recommend Princess Cruises? Nope.....They still had a chance until the last day but then they lost my suitcase. They ultimately found it and shipped it to my home several days later but most of the contents were missing! It had been pilfered. I'm still going back and forth with them about this issue.....somehow and someday they will pay for this!

Thanks again to everyone for enduring my vacation stories. I'll be back on the line in a month or so with airplane stuff again. You might see some unrelated stuff between now and then. Another vacation is coming in April. Stay tuned.



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