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| Good-Day |
This is a short story, about one small part of a day, in the life of a Charter Pilot.
The place is Hobart Tasmania in the early 1960's.
The aircraft is a Cessna 206, a single engine, 6 seater.
Duty:
Stand-by Pilot for the weekend.
The time is 0330 am.
I'm sleeping and the phones ringing! an ringing! so I grab it "good morning, Tasair, how may I help you?"
Its the nurse on Bruny Island!
She has a wee girl of two years of age with a serious bout of whooping cough and she is not responding to treatment and needs immediate pick up, for the Hospital in Hobart! and "she" would not be held responsible! for what may happen! if she is not picked up immediately.
Of course ! I've heard this story before, many times, from this particular nurse?
She has always life or death situations, laying a guilt trip onto the pilot to get her own way, and it always seems to be in bad weather! I told her " I would call her from the airport" and I put the phone down before she could create more nagging guilt!
Well I climbed out of my cot, dressed and headed for the door, climbing into my car I started out for the airport, (about a 30 minute run) it was blowing a south westerly with rain squalls, low cloud and dark!
My mind was already going through the legal weather! to undertake this flight under Visual flight rules and at the present time it was definitely not legal.
I also had to consider the company operations manual, which also lays down the rules regarding visual flight, which I had to sign? and adhere to.
All things considered the flight under the present weather was a legal! No go.
I told myself, I would check the weather when I get to the airport and if its still bad! I will Phone the nurse and tell her"I would arrive as soon as the weather improves"
Already my mind is making up pictures of the nurses reply! " You will be two late! you're this baby girls only chance"? then there will be a long silence to let the guilt sink in, Oh yes! she was really good at this.
I have been up in front of the Chief Pilot and the Civil Aviation Authority a couple of times, for stretching the rules to suit myself and you might say, I'm close to a last warning and this bloody nurse is making me feel guilty, before I have even spoken to her?
I arrive at the airport and check that the aircraft is secure and ready for flight, its just tied down outside the office, and the weather is passing through in pulses, as they strike the aircraft, it bucks and shudders on its tie down ropes.
" Ain't no way I'm going out in that" passes through my mind, its still quite dark I would expect dawn around 0510 am, I'll wait and see what it brings?
I go into the office and put the coffee on and a phone call to the Met office, the forecast for this area is bad, with no improvement expected until later in the day, after the active front that is effecting us now, moves through and the Met boffins say" wind and rain is likely to worsen as the front passes with wind gust up to 50 mph, visibility in rain down to 200 metres"!
Well that's that, I will have to wait for an improvement regardless of what the nurse says.
I have a picture in my mind of the approach to Bruny Island under these conditions, no lights, wet grass and rain and a big wind on my port side quarter. Its only a short 15 minute flight on a good day, but in the dark, with the head wind component maybe 20 minutes.
I would expect the wind to be across the strip and a northern approach with use of the VAR aid in daylight, it could be possible, I would at least, see the runway before committing myself to a landing!
Coming in, hanging on full power and full flap, full fine prop, with the nose and aileron cocked into wind, if sighted! it's reduce the power, steep decent, and just before contact with ground straighten the aircraft up with the runway, using the rudder and reduce the power and dump the flaps and hold the nose on the ground as the speed bleeds off,
But if I do not recognise the field? it's full power and nose up,and awaiting for climbing speed to build up, then climbing away reducing the flaps slowly, go up to 500 feet and fly around for another try after getting my heading settled on the VAR aid.
But as I said "I am not going under these conditions."
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