We're Out Of Fuel!!

A few weeks back I had just returned from my morning pool duty at the hotel in San Jose, Costa Rica and was online checking to see if we would be running on time for that afternoon's departure to Miami. Well, the inbound flight was showing on time into SJO but when I checked a little deeper, it showed that our flight would be departing SJO on time but arriving into MIA over 90 minutes late.

What was up with that? Didn't know and didn't really care....these things always work out in the end.

So a little later I'm sitting in my room when my phone rang. It was the station manager at the airport calling to tell me that we were going to have to make an unexpected fuel stop on the way to Miami. It seems that the local jet fuel supply in San Jose was very limited due to a delay in the weekly shipment. Apparently all the airlines were having to either cancel some flights or as in our case, plan a fuel stop enroute.

I asked the manager if we could stop at Havana for fuel.....she wasn't amused.

"So where would we be going" I asked?
"Managua, Nicaragua" was her answer.

A little later on when the entire crew met for the ride out to the airport, I gave them the news. Groans from the flight attendants, but the first officer was pleased as was I. You see, we get paid only when the plane is away from the gate....and any more flight time than scheduled during a given trip means more pay for us! Also, Managua would be a new destination for both of us and that is always fun.

All our passengers had been informed about the fuel stop and they all seemed to be accepting of it. There wasn't much they could do about it anyhow but I still made an onboard announcement about the extra leg and that there would be no extra charge for it! They weren't amused either. We pushed back just as this Iberia A-340 was arriving.


Then off we went for the 35 minute flight to Managua.

We climbed up to 24,000 ft and enjoyed the view.




Managua's radar was out of service that day so we had to fly a full instrument approach until we spotted the runway and were able to proceed visually.


The terrain here was pretty impressive. Very green and lush. Notice the crater in the foreground and the distant volcano.

Final approach was right over the city. The runway is in the top left area of the photo. Kind of hard to see.

The ground crew at MGA was outstanding. We parked at the gate, the fuelers immediately hooked up, the first officer did his walkaround, the agent came on board to deliver some paperwork, and in less than 20 minutes we were airborne for Miami.

Cruising over central Cuba at 40,000 ft we passed around this monster cell. It was topping out at well over 50,000 ft. Havana ATC was nice enough to let us go around it.
Bad press about Cuba notwithstanding, their air traffic controllers are quite good. They are always accommodating and very easy to work with. Their English is also easily understood.

So on to Miami and then back home to DFW. What an interesting day.

I still think that Havana would have been a good fuel stop!




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The Midnight Sun

Once again the opportunity came along to trade a Caribbean trip for something different. That something different happened to be a 757 trip up to Anchorage, Alaska.

Never having been that far north I was looking forward to a new destination and setting foot in a new state. I had asked around among the pilot group about the trip and all the reports were positive. There's plenty to do up there. Great fishing, hiking, biking, sightseeing, camping, etc. The only negative to the trip was that it involved a dreaded all-nighter on the way home. And that all-nighter was with a two man crew, not three!

Nevertheless, I made the trade and away we went.

DFW - ANC is a seasonal 757 flight that AA operates from June until September. I don't know why they don't use a larger plane on it because they could easily fill it up all summer long. But that's a question for the bean counters.

We were fully loaded with a butt in every seat for a 4 PM launch from DFW.

A short delay for wake turbulence from the heavy Singapore 747 taking off and then we were airborne. Today our 757 was close to maximim gross weight but you would never know it. It climbed like it always does...beautifully. I wish I had my own personal 757!!

We were flight planned for a 6 hour 35 minute flight. On any flights over 8 hours duration we have to have a third pilot, but today it was just the two of us.


For the first three hours it was non-stop deviating around thunderstorms along the eastern slopes of the Rockies. There was plenty of turbulence to go with that also. But by the time we reached the Canadian border just south of Calgary it started to clear up and smooth out.

Just about then we started receiving the first of the phone calls from the flight attendants: "How much longer? Are we there yet? When will we be there?"
My standard answer is, "We're almost there...just a little bit longer."

After passing Calgary and turning slightly northwest, the scenery starts to get interesting. We crossed over the border from Alberta into British Columbia and started seeing some glaciers down below.

As we progressed, the glaciers became more prevalent. By the time we reached the Alaskan border, the glaciers were commonplace. They were everywhere.

On and on we went. You would expect the sun to be setting before long but at these northern latitudes in the summer, that just doesn't happen.

Off to our right in the Yukon Territory we could see Mt Logan. This is the highest point in Canada at 19,550 ft.


Finally Anchorage Center gave us our clearance to descend to the mid twenties. They kept us up pretty high until clearing the mountains east of the city and then out came the speedbrakes as we reported the runway in sight and were then cleared for a visual approach. A pretty steep descent ensued but I doubt that any of the passengers minded. They were probably ready to be there many hours ago. We landed and made the short taxi in and I noted that it was 10:30 PM in Texas. It didn't feel like it though with the sun still up and not about to set anytime soon.

To top it off, on the ride in to the hotel we saw a large moose just off the side of the road having some dinner. You don't see that in Dallas!

So that was it. Six and a half more hours in the logbook with some truly great memories of my first trip to the 49th state. I'll be headed back there again at least once more this summer. It should be a good time!




For a look at some more of my photos, please aviate over to Plane & Simple.