bkreager
Pre-takeoff checklist
So in my first month as an airline pilot, among the holidays and blizzards, I got the opportunity to declare an emergency and a week later, abort a takeoff at 100 kts.
The "emergency" occurred one morning in Tennessee just after 6am when after takeoff, I called for gear up...and instead of the gear retracting, we got a hydraulic look-down light with a master caution. The captain immediately performed the memory items for the hydraulic look-down light, which included turning off the hydraulic pump and looking at the various hydraulic accumulator pressures. We had good pressure in the two brake accumulators and the emergency accumulator, but not in the main accumulator. We continued to climb out en route to Detroit and started working through the emergency checklist for this problem. We let departure know that we had a problem and that we may potentially be returning to the airport, but we would continue on course for the time being. Upon completion of the checklist it was clear that the hydraulic pump had completely failed on us, which meant that I had the pleasure of pumping up the system pressure manually. I couldn't have been happier to be working up a sweat at 6am pumping up the pressure on this stupid airplane.
Without hydraulic pressure, we lose nosewheel steering, flaps, gear, and braking ability. Thankfully, the gear came back down immediately and locked without issue, and we weren't losing hydraulic fluid. The checklist says that at some point during the landing, depending on how much hydraulic pressure you use up, you will abruptly lose the ability to steer and use brakes. Wonderful.
The captain had contacted our dispatcher and agreed that a return to our departure airport would be the best option with the gear hanging out and some snowy weather around Detroit. Upon making the 180 back to Tennessee, we decided that declaring an emergency would be the safest option given an unknown amount of controllability once on the ground.
We decided that a flaps-zero landing would be the best option since we had a very limited amount of hydraulic pressure in reserve. Should we need to go-around and by chance have an engine failure, having the flaps down while I'm furiously pumping away to try and get them back up might not turn out very good.
We received vectors back to a visual pattern to the airport and I made one of the smoothest landings I've ever made in the Saab. I think the captain barely had to use, if at all, any braking to get us slowed down and cleared the runway onto the parallel taxiway. The fire trucks met us and verified that everything was good, with the exception of one guy that thought he smelled some sort of burning. I think they just wanted to shoot some water/foam out of the truck to be "prepared" in case anything burst into flames.
The checklist mandates that we not taxi into the gate area with our limited braking effectiveness, so we shut down the engines and got a looooong tow back to the gate. Contract maintenance starting looking over everything immediately while we headed back to the hotel. From what I hear, mechanics had to be flown in from Memphis to get everything fixed. By the time that it was ready to go, we had run out of duty time so some other crew had to take it back to Detroit. I couldn't have been happier to NOT see a/c #410 on the ramp the next morning.
The only paperwork I had to fill out was for the company, it would have been the exact same stuff whether we had declared the emergency or not. I had to fill out the same paperwork when we aborted a takeoff a week or so later too.
This wasn't nearly as exciting, but as I was taking off from Muskegon, accelerating through 100 knots or so, we got a configuration warning along with a master warning. The captain called for the abort, took control of the airplane, and got us slowed relatively quickly without having to use much braking. We suspected that one of the condition levers had shaken ever-so-slightly out of the "Max" position, which would trigger a config warning. Apparently this has happened more than a few times before at this airline. The captain contacted our dispatch and maintenance while everyone de-planed back into the terminal. The mechanics came out and did a config warning test to verify that everything was working properly, which it was, and signed off the airplane. We took off successfully an hour or two later without incident and never had another issue.
So far this month I haven't had anything major happen with the exception of some troubles starting at -25F one morning. Thats just waaay to cold for anything to be working right...including me. When is spring again?
The "emergency" occurred one morning in Tennessee just after 6am when after takeoff, I called for gear up...and instead of the gear retracting, we got a hydraulic look-down light with a master caution. The captain immediately performed the memory items for the hydraulic look-down light, which included turning off the hydraulic pump and looking at the various hydraulic accumulator pressures. We had good pressure in the two brake accumulators and the emergency accumulator, but not in the main accumulator. We continued to climb out en route to Detroit and started working through the emergency checklist for this problem. We let departure know that we had a problem and that we may potentially be returning to the airport, but we would continue on course for the time being. Upon completion of the checklist it was clear that the hydraulic pump had completely failed on us, which meant that I had the pleasure of pumping up the system pressure manually. I couldn't have been happier to be working up a sweat at 6am pumping up the pressure on this stupid airplane.
Without hydraulic pressure, we lose nosewheel steering, flaps, gear, and braking ability. Thankfully, the gear came back down immediately and locked without issue, and we weren't losing hydraulic fluid. The checklist says that at some point during the landing, depending on how much hydraulic pressure you use up, you will abruptly lose the ability to steer and use brakes. Wonderful.
The captain had contacted our dispatcher and agreed that a return to our departure airport would be the best option with the gear hanging out and some snowy weather around Detroit. Upon making the 180 back to Tennessee, we decided that declaring an emergency would be the safest option given an unknown amount of controllability once on the ground.
We decided that a flaps-zero landing would be the best option since we had a very limited amount of hydraulic pressure in reserve. Should we need to go-around and by chance have an engine failure, having the flaps down while I'm furiously pumping away to try and get them back up might not turn out very good.
We received vectors back to a visual pattern to the airport and I made one of the smoothest landings I've ever made in the Saab. I think the captain barely had to use, if at all, any braking to get us slowed down and cleared the runway onto the parallel taxiway. The fire trucks met us and verified that everything was good, with the exception of one guy that thought he smelled some sort of burning. I think they just wanted to shoot some water/foam out of the truck to be "prepared" in case anything burst into flames.
The checklist mandates that we not taxi into the gate area with our limited braking effectiveness, so we shut down the engines and got a looooong tow back to the gate. Contract maintenance starting looking over everything immediately while we headed back to the hotel. From what I hear, mechanics had to be flown in from Memphis to get everything fixed. By the time that it was ready to go, we had run out of duty time so some other crew had to take it back to Detroit. I couldn't have been happier to NOT see a/c #410 on the ramp the next morning.
The only paperwork I had to fill out was for the company, it would have been the exact same stuff whether we had declared the emergency or not. I had to fill out the same paperwork when we aborted a takeoff a week or so later too.
This wasn't nearly as exciting, but as I was taking off from Muskegon, accelerating through 100 knots or so, we got a configuration warning along with a master warning. The captain called for the abort, took control of the airplane, and got us slowed relatively quickly without having to use much braking. We suspected that one of the condition levers had shaken ever-so-slightly out of the "Max" position, which would trigger a config warning. Apparently this has happened more than a few times before at this airline. The captain contacted our dispatch and maintenance while everyone de-planed back into the terminal. The mechanics came out and did a config warning test to verify that everything was working properly, which it was, and signed off the airplane. We took off successfully an hour or two later without incident and never had another issue.
So far this month I haven't had anything major happen with the exception of some troubles starting at -25F one morning. Thats just waaay to cold for anything to be working right...including me. When is spring again?
