Standby For Clearance

Traveling to different countries always give you a good perspective on the lives of others and how they perform their respective jobs.This was evident on a recent trip I worked to Caracas, Venezuela. Normally we call for our clearance from Air Traffic Control about 10-20 minutes before departure when we are departing a foreign country. But our flight manual has a special page for the city of Caracas. It says that we should call for our clearance up to one hour prior to departure because of anticipated delays with ATC. What does that mean? Who knows?

This day we called about 30 minutes prior and were told to "standby for clearance". OK...No problem, we'll standby.

So there we were at the gate completing our checklists while our passengers were still boarding. Sure enough, departure time came and our gate agent came up to say goodbye and then shut the entry door and there we sat awaiting our clearance.

While we sat there at the gate, we had a good view of the ramp area below the terminal. We could see what was going on, or in this case, what was not going on down below.

Just look at all of these people doing absolutely nothing!



How does any work ever get done?







All this took place over the course of the 58 minutes we waited for our clearance!

So we finally pushed back and made our way to the runway. Not a single other flight was departing or arriving! So what was the delay all about? We never did find out.


I haven't noticed this apparent apathy in any other country. Maybe it's just a Venezuelan thing. But it now makes sense why we need to call for our clearance up to one hour early....because it takes every minute of that hour to get it!

The rest of the day was was an easy one. Two legs back to base...first stop Miami. The Bahamas were looking nice this day as we neared Miami.A run through Customs, a change of planes and then on to DFW. A nice shot of a contrail over Louisiana and then a great sunset at DFW and the trip was over.Another one in the logbook.





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Puppy Breath

In keeping with the animal theme from my last post, a recent flight from Tulsa, Oklahoma to DFW provided some interesting passenger comments and a few unique photos.


Before takeoff on every single leg, we are provided with what we call a "closeout". That is simply a record of what we are carrying on that particular flight. It includes total fuel, passengers, cargo weight, trim settings, flap settings, takeoff weight, any restricted articles, and live animals. This "closeout" comes to us via our onboard printer after the crew chief, gate agents, and load agents have closed out the flight after we push off the gate. We cannot takeoff without a closeout.

With that being said, we were in the process of being pushed back from the gate at Tulsa when our closeout came over. It said we were carrying 47 live animals!! It's not uncommon for us to carry live animals, in fact it's an everyday thing. But 47 seemed odd. So I asked our tug driver over the interphone what was up. She nonchalantly said we had 47 puppies onboard! She went on to tell us that this is a regular occurrence on the weekends. Apparently there is a puppy mill somewhere near Tulsa that ships out puppies all over the country on a regular basis. Very interesting we thought.

I made a quick call to our crew to advise them about the dogs just in case any passengers were to complain about the barking, and then off we went to DFW. 188 passengers, 5 flight attendants, 2 pilots, and 47 dogs.

Almost all the newer planes these days have automated pressurized cargo compartments so there is no need to worry about carrying live animals in the belly. But that wasn't always the case with older jets. I remember that the 727's had a switch for shutting off pressurization to one of the cargo compartments. It was normally left in the "on" position. But in case there was a pressurization problem with the airplane, the first thing to do was to turn off that switch so as to maintain sufficient pressurization for the main cabin. Unfortunately that would suffocate and freeze any live animals that had the bad luck that day to be in the cargo compartment. We sometimes called that switch the "freeze the dog" switch, or the "pupsicle" switch. Fortunately I never had to use it!Upon arrival at DFW we taxied up to our gate and a rather large crowd of rampers were waiting for us and the dogs. Several small pickup trucks and baggage carts were standing by for the transfer.These dogs weren't just going to Texas, they were being transferred all over the country.

I had to go outside and take a look. I had my earplugs ready!







All these guys seemed pretty well behaved. In fact they were probably better behaved than some of our passengers at times.

Their first airplane ride was a success!
I sure hope they all went to good homes....




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