Got a kid interested in aviation? Not sure how to help foster it? In the US, the Experimental Aviation Association (EAA) will give kids from 8-17 their first flight in a small plane! I’ve flown a few; a great opportunity for kids & pilots, too! eaa.org/eaa/youth/free-ye-fl…

Don’t panic. I don’t even know what the glitch is. WestJet apparently does & says it’s a Nothingburger. The autopilot on a 737 automatically kicks off when you press the “TOGA” button to initiate a go-around / missed approach (unless doing an “autoland”). So it’s not that…but the article says “in certain scenarios, the pilots may have to fly manually without some autopilot functions.” We’re already doing that. My guess is that the flight director (tells you where to put the nose for pitch & roll) goes away or something. Which would be inconvenient, but not a disaster. You almost never fly the “published” (depicted as part of the approach) missed approach anyway. Tower gives you a heading & altitude. It’s a really busy phase of flight, but navigation isn’t something I’m terribly concerned about. Also, the glitch seems to only appear “when flight crews alter their planned flight path *following* a missed approach”. Now, the missed approach procedure is loaded in the computer on every flight, but there is nothing after it. If you go missed, eventually ATC will have to give you a vector to go back & try again or to proceed to your alternate. As far as I know, nobody loads anything after the missed approach. There is nothing to alter. This is not a real critical phase of flight. Also, Boeing doesn’t make the software. That’s GE. Once Boeing sells the jet, the airlines change the software as they choose. None of the major U.S. carriers are flying with the software in question. As to whether the FAA will allow new jets to be sold with the older software instead of the glitch…I don’t have a crystal ball, but I’m going out on a limb here. Yes, they will, after a period of time that makes it look like this was all taken very seriously. You’ll be fine.

Some good questions came up about using Midway & Wake Islands for “alternate” airfields if you have no options in Hawaii. To begin, both are pretty far away. Midway (PMDY) is 1,139 nm from Honolulu, a little more than half the distance back to SFO. Wake (PWAK) is only around 100 nm less than going back to SFO…but at least going to SFO, you’d have a tailwind. It would probably take longer to get to Wake than to try to get back to SFO (which is closer than LAX). Wake is still in use by the military. Not very frequently, but I went a few times many years back. There is a small support group stationed there & a contingency barracks you could probably squeeze the passengers into if you diverted in. Midway is not supported by the military. The albatross population on Midway is enormous & bird strikes are almost guaranteed. There were 600,000 albatross nests on the tiny island(s) at last count. You’re going to have a bad time when up to 1.2 million large birds panic when they hear your engines coming in. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife service now owns the runway, has a small outpost there & charters a small number of flights, but they have to follow specific guidance, like coming in at night as quietly as possible, to avoid hitting birds & grounding the airplane. Both airfields serve as “Emergency Use Alternates” by any aircraft crossing the Pacific, but it’s gotta be a pretty serious emergency to land there. Crossing the Pacific requires special procedures known as “ETOPS” (Extended-range Twin-engine Operational Performance Standards). You can’t get too far away from an emergency airfield under ETOPS, and in the Pacific, WAK & MDY are very convenient. Wake has been maintained by the military for strategic purposes, but as I said they’ve mostly abandoned Midway. It’s become a problem; the U.S. DOT has said that maintaining the runway on MDY in a suitable condition (there are standards that must be met) to serve as an ETOPS emergency alternate is going to get very pricey in the next few years, as the runway is deteriorating rapidly. They have proposed just letting it deteriorate & not using it as an alternate anymore. Actual use of Midway as an emergency alternate is rare. There were only 11 commercial & military jets that diverted into MDY between 2003 & 2021, according to the best data I could find. Yes, most trans-pacific flights plan on it being available, but they don’t actually use it…so the question has become whether it’s worth it to renovate MDY. I won’t weigh in on that. I think it could change our routes some, but maybe not that dramatically. You might need to stay further South to be able to reach WAK in the allotted time, or go much further North, to be able to reach Adak (PADK) in the Aleutians. Anyway, if I leave one impression on you with this post, I hope it’s that there is a “Tyranny of Distance” in the Pacific. It’s a huge strategic concern for the military…it protects us until it doesn’t, and when it doesn’t, it makes it hard to project power in any meaningful way. Hope that helps!

Flying from Mississippi to Hawaii yesterday it was mostly clear until we got about 300 miles out from the islands. Scattered clouds became a layer at 22k feet that we skimmed across the top of. Checking satellite imagery it turned out to be an extended band from Hurricane Nolo. After crossing through that there were just smaller puffy clouds that looked interesting as we landed as the sun was setting in Kauai. Time lapse below:

Airlines are starting to issue travel waivers for the islands over the weekend. So far, I haven’t heard of anything canceling, but you should keep an eye on it. Why? The hurricane will be south, so why would they cancel? Honolulu might only get 1” of rain…why is it a problem? The problem with the islands is “Alternates”. If your primary airport closes for some reason – any reason – you need to be able to land somewhere else. There is also an option to load extra fuel to be able to hold over the airfield for a certain amount of time when there are no close options, but the airlines don’t use that much. We want another airport. So, the biggest airport is Honolulu. It’s weather should be OK this weekend, with a couple inches of rain at most & some higher than normal winds. The next biggest airports are Maui & Kona (not necessarily in that order). Both of them are likely to get a much bigger hit from the storm, so they may not be suitable as alternates. Hilo is another option, but it’s on the other side of the big island from Kona & will probably be unsuitable too. You have Lihue to the North on Kauai, but you have to consider that everyone else will be using it as an alternate, too. It has very little ramp space, will quickly become a parking lot & close if all the inbound flights to Honolulu start diverting there. Still, it’s probably the only alternate that would be technically suitable. Having an alternate is usually thought of as a weather thing (it gets too bad to land), but for the islands in this case we’re considering other factors. What would happen if someone blows a tire on landing? That would close the runway. Or what if ATC went down like it did last week on the East Coast? Now the airport is unusable, at least until they can clean it up…maybe will take a couple hours. But that’s a couple hours of fuel you may not have & there’s no way to know when such an incident will occur. You have other runways that you can land on near Honolulu. Barking Sands for example, or the Marine Corps airfield at Kaneohe Bay. They are long enough runways, but we aren’t allowed to plan to use those as alternates…we can only consider going there in an emergency. So, when going to the islands, your alternates are generally Maui, Kona or Honolulu (depending on which island you’re going to). Maui & Kona are probably not going to be suitable at some point this weekend. So even if headed to Honolulu & their weather is good, you now don’t have an alternate. You *might* be able to use Lihue, but it’s a plan with some extra concerns. Anyway, I hope that explains some of the issues the airlines are thinking of when they issue these waivers & *if* they start canceling flights. The rules for alternates are far more complex than what I’ve laid out here, but we’re keeping it simple. My advice is to check with the airline before you head to the airport.

I posted something last night that I regret. I was frustrated, but worded the post extremely poorly. I’ve since deleted it. Sorry about that. Back to airplanes, military, food & golf.

This article is just poor journalism. It left out the most important detail and intentionally injected inaccurate hyperbole. 1. It correctly states that using 2024 data (the last available) the rate of attempted suicide in the US Navy is 106 attempts per 100,000, or 0.106%. 2. The eight attempts include the full strike group, aircraft carrier, airwing, and escorts. If so, we are looking at 6,000 to 7,000 Sailors, numbers reported in the article, so we’ll use those. If you are including the escorts assigned (and it would be helpful if they would), if it were four (three Aegis ships and an SSN), then the number would be north of 7,000. 3. That means the low end expected number of attempts in that spread would be between 6.36 and 7.42. 4. In the article, they quote an unnamed ‘US military official’ who said, “Eight attempted suicides is incredibly high.” 5. The author and his editor can do math. They know that 8, while higher than 7.42, is not “incredibly high.” In essence, this article is written as if it were penned by a staffer for Sen. Gillibrand who has decided to use this as a smear attack against our Navy….and it also reminds me why in 4QCY2001 in Bahrain we turned CNN off and switched to other news sources.

Beats my usual layover view of the parking lot & HVAC system. Cruise ship departing, too. Still, plastic cups for my bourbon bring the class down. Mahalo!

What happens after an airplane crashes? How will rescuers find you? Let’s dig into the “Beeps & Squeaks” that will tell the world where you are (hopefully). To begin, the pilots will have been radioing their position for as long as they can when a crash is inevitable. If you are lucky enough to be in radar contact, ATC will know your last position when you disappear. But, not everywhere has radar coverage, pilots may not get a radio call off & that leaves a lot of ground to cover. Enter the “Emergency Locator Transmitter”. We call it an E.L.T. for short. The ELT has been around for a very long time. In its earliest form, it just emitted a continuous radio signal that sounds like an alarm & transmits continuously on a “Guard” emergency frequency. The civilian frequency is 121.5 MHz, while the military is 243.0 MHz. Commercial pilots are generally required to continuously monitor 121.5 & report any ELTs they hear. ATC can then use other pilot reports & the intensity to kind of triangulate a general position. Sometimes they will ask random jets if they can hear it. Search & Rescue teams have specialized equipment that will lead them even closer to this “beacon”. ELTs can be triggered manually by the pilot, or automatically if a certain amount of G’s were encountered, indicating a crash (it’s sometimes possible to set it off by landing really hard). The ELT mounted in the jet won’t do you much good if you land in water & the jet sinks, though – radio waves don’t travel well through water. So, portable ELTs are in brackets on the jet – usually near a door – that the flight attendants can grab & throw in the raft. They have various forms, but are usually yellow or orange & about the size of a walkie-talkie. They are operated manually & can transmit the beacon, or be used to talk on the Guard frequency, w/ a continuous use battery life of around 24 hours. This was the best we had for many years, but in the wake of MH370, new technology began to become widespread. The Global Aeronautical Distress & Safety System (GADSS) became the best choice. This system tracks the airplane’s systems & its position, transmitting every 15 minutes back to the airline. If certain systems start to fail, that’s updated to every minute. Then GADSS ELT-DT (Distress Tracking) came along. It’s similar, but has more data & controls the ELT. It can turn on the ELT well before a crash, if things look bad enough, and the ELTs are now no longer dependent on exceeding a G limit to activate. Now, another technology emerged to improve the ELTs. The COSPAS-SARSAT program, an international effort, built little modules that hitched rides on satellites (the satellites have other primary jobs) which could detect & triangulate an ELT signal…but they eventually stopped tracking the 121.5 & 243.0 beacons because of the high number of false alarms in Cessnas & such. They moved to a specific ELT frequency – 406.0 MHz – that reduced the number of false alarms. Still, in 2017, there were 8,898 ELTs in the U.S. alone on this satellite frequency, 98% of which were false alarms. It’s a problem. Anyway, both the jet’s ELT & the portable ones transmit on civilian, military & satellite frequencies simultaneously. They are pretty reliable, but they can fail…so even if I didn’t land on water, I’d try to grab an ELT when escaping, just to be sure. The ELTs are built to similar standards as the “Black Box”. Which is actually two boxes, one recording voice & sound in the cockpit, the other airplane performance. Those can withstand 3,400 G’s. While the black boxes can survive being under about 14,000’ of water or more, there’s no point for the ELT. The black boxes use a different frequency to “ping” continuously for 30 days or more, which travels better through water. In the U.S., the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center (AFRCC) is responsible for responding to ELTs. That might mean a search, but it’s usually screening false alarms. That’s all my space. Hope it helps!

Light load to the islands. Maybe a third full. Could be the storm heading that way; I come back Friday, then head back to the islands Saturday…waiting to see if that’s actually going to happen.

I came to the Country Club for dinner after golf, but I’m the only one here & they are trying to change up their cocktail menu so they keep making drinks & asking me what I think, it’s not going on my bill, I’m a bit dehydrated from golf & this really escalated quickly.

Not good advice. The money is good, and those numbers are actually a little low, but if you only go into flying for money you will hate it. Not to mention at the first downturn of the economy, you will be in a very bad place.

I’m sure there are a few, but I’ve never met any. Not my thing, but if they show up on time (which means 5 early) & behave professionally, I don’t care much.

Played 18 holes today. Would love to say I improved from my first round, but my second ever round I shot 110, and lost a not insignificant number of balls. It was fun, though, and the back 9 was much better than the front. Back to practice…

These are Ju-87 “Stuka” dive bombers. Dive bombers had some kind of drag devices to prevent getting too fast when you point the nose down. That noise, though…that’s different. Stukas mounted ram-air sirens on some models, and this has become a sound you hear in movies & such when an airplane dives. In reality, a jet will make some noise in a dive, but not like this. This is the sirens, mounted on the landing gear, doing their things. The Germans called them “Jericho’s Trumpets”. There is some debate as to why this was done. Some say it was to give the pilot audible feedback on their speed, but the most commonly accepted explanation is that it was a propaganda / psychological warfare tool. It frightened troops & civilians on the ground & became a symbol of German air power. Not all Stukas had the sirens mounted. In fact, many Stuka pilots hated the sirens & removed them. By 1943, they weren’t being used much anymore. The sirens themselves had little wooden propellors that made the sound, and the pilots could clutch / de-clutch them from the cockpit. As I said, by 1943 the sirens were out of favor, but many Stuka units had replaced them with wind-whistles they mounted to the bombs themselves. Once again, Hollywood loves to add that whistling sound to bombs in the movies, but in real life bombs don’t whistle unless they were modified to do so…and the Stukas were the last airplanes I know of that mounted the whistles. And that’s my useless fact of the day. Goodnight!

Tuesday means a Taco Bar for the kids. I’m still not good at making the tortillas come out round & wish I could have them still be warm by the time everything else is ready, but they don’t complain.

When I first start instructing, one of the things I told my students was to always be nice to ATC. One day, you are going to screw up & they will have the option to “violate” you. It might help if you were nice to them on the radio beforehand.

Picked my daughter up from dance, somehow conversation was about how it must have sucked to be a slave building the pyramids, I told her I’d climbed into the burial chamber of the great pyramid & the builders weren’t slaves, she insisted her history teacher had taught her they were slaves, so I asked Siri on CarPlay & Siri said most Egyptologists agree the builders of the pyramids weren’t slaves & then I said it’s tough to learn that your teachers are sometimes wrong & now she’s slamming doors & wont speak to me. Quality parenting of a teen girl moment right here.

Now that I have a sizable following, my plan can come to fruition. I shall woo @NancyMace away from @jarvis_best. Nothing personal, I’m just a pilot & we’ll steal your girl.

And it’s a new hire?!! The absolute gall of some people…shut the f*** up & raise the gear when I tell you.

Hadn’t budgeted for it, but pilots love watches & this was my last chance to get a KC-10 watch, so…yeah. After @Bremont verified I flew the jet, they gave me a bunch of options to customize. I was concerned, but am very pleased w/ the results! Plus a T-shirt.