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Authors: John O'Brien
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way home, no big deal . I received the weather brief for my flight. Another pilot was the designated lead for this leg back to Amarillo . The weather wasn’t great with moderate to severe icing conditions enroute. We were flying trainers at the time so we didn’t have any de-icing or anti-ice capabilities. Oh, and icing sucks if you can’t get rid of it in some form or another. I thought about cancelling the flight but the weather reports for the next couple of days were even worse and the DO wanted to get home. I at least talked him into breaking the flights into 2-ship formations. That provides a little more flexibility.
I was with the original flight lead and the other two formed their own flight. I was not all that fond of our lead and remember him telling me in the crew bus, “Now, I’ll show you the way to truly lead a flight,” making me even fonder of him.
Well, off we went. We were the third 2-ship off the ground and were separated by 15 minute departure times. He asked for clearance and leveled us off at 11,000 feet which was below the cloud deck. Okay, that makes good sense but we burned fuel at a higher rate down that low. Plus, after leveling off, he kept the throttles up. I was snugged up into fingertip but glanced at my rpm to find we were still around 95%; burning fuel like crazy for no reason I could fathom.
The clouds and icing forced us to ask for and receive clearance down to 9,000 feet a short time later. I had the approach charts for Amarillo out and dialed in a secondary frequency for Amarillo approach. The weather was not forecast to be the greatest there either. Normally, we would have fuel to destination, to an alternate, and 45 minutes after reaching the alternate. We had this on leaving but our current fuel burn and altitude took our reserve down considerably. I would switch between our enroute center freq and the approach freq to determine what was going on there. We still had enough fuel to get to our destination, but it was even odds getting anywhere else. I heard a buddy in another flight flying into Amarillo notify approach that he was initial approach fix inbound. A short time later he called final approach fix. Approach came on asking him if he saw the airfield. Apparently the ceiling was pretty low there. The final approach fix is close to the missed approach point – the last point at which you either see the airfield and land or put the throttles up and go around for another try or head somewhere else. “Negative,” he replied back to them.
Oh, this sucks , I thought. I then heard him say, “Missed approach.” Approach came back asking him if he would like another approach. “Negative approach, Cider 34 is diverting.”
I missed his clearance switching back to our freq but knew where he was heading. Then that wonderful radio call, “ Amarillo approach on guard, Amarillo is now closed.” Yay for us , I thought. And here Mr. “I’ll show you how to lead a flight” has brought us way low on fuel .
I could see scrambling in the aircraft next to me. After a moment of this, he looked over at me and gave me the hand signal to take the lead. “You have got to be fucking kidding me!!!” I said into my mask without transmitting. Not only had he gotten us into a mess but now expected me to get us out of it. My disgust meter pegged against the upper stop into the red zone.
I took and verified the lead, focusing on where we were. This led to a scrambling on my part. Part of me wanted to separate him off to get his own clearance and fend for himself but that was only a thought. Breaking him off would save fuel on both of our parts but it was obvious his clue bag was empty. I looked at the fuel gauge and damn near had a heart attack. Holy shit! We were damn low. I pulled the throttles back to a more moderate cruise setting after signaling the
I was with the original flight lead and the other two formed their own flight. I was not all that fond of our lead and remember him telling me in the crew bus, “Now, I’ll show you the way to truly lead a flight,” making me even fonder of him.
Well, off we went. We were the third 2-ship off the ground and were separated by 15 minute departure times. He asked for clearance and leveled us off at 11,000 feet which was below the cloud deck. Okay, that makes good sense but we burned fuel at a higher rate down that low. Plus, after leveling off, he kept the throttles up. I was snugged up into fingertip but glanced at my rpm to find we were still around 95%; burning fuel like crazy for no reason I could fathom.
The clouds and icing forced us to ask for and receive clearance down to 9,000 feet a short time later. I had the approach charts for Amarillo out and dialed in a secondary frequency for Amarillo approach. The weather was not forecast to be the greatest there either. Normally, we would have fuel to destination, to an alternate, and 45 minutes after reaching the alternate. We had this on leaving but our current fuel burn and altitude took our reserve down considerably. I would switch between our enroute center freq and the approach freq to determine what was going on there. We still had enough fuel to get to our destination, but it was even odds getting anywhere else. I heard a buddy in another flight flying into Amarillo notify approach that he was initial approach fix inbound. A short time later he called final approach fix. Approach came on asking him if he saw the airfield. Apparently the ceiling was pretty low there. The final approach fix is close to the missed approach point – the last point at which you either see the airfield and land or put the throttles up and go around for another try or head somewhere else. “Negative,” he replied back to them.
Oh, this sucks , I thought. I then heard him say, “Missed approach.” Approach came back asking him if he would like another approach. “Negative approach, Cider 34 is diverting.”
I missed his clearance switching back to our freq but knew where he was heading. Then that wonderful radio call, “ Amarillo approach on guard, Amarillo is now closed.” Yay for us , I thought. And here Mr. “I’ll show you how to lead a flight” has brought us way low on fuel .
I could see scrambling in the aircraft next to me. After a moment of this, he looked over at me and gave me the hand signal to take the lead. “You have got to be fucking kidding me!!!” I said into my mask without transmitting. Not only had he gotten us into a mess but now expected me to get us out of it. My disgust meter pegged against the upper stop into the red zone.
I took and verified the lead, focusing on where we were. This led to a scrambling on my part. Part of me wanted to separate him off to get his own clearance and fend for himself but that was only a thought. Breaking him off would save fuel on both of our parts but it was obvious his clue bag was empty. I looked at the fuel gauge and damn near had a heart attack. Holy shit! We were damn low. I pulled the throttles back to a more moderate cruise setting after signaling the
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