Air Canada 781

[Colonel]

My homeboys making me look good in the Bay Area

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/air-canad ... -1.4372135

Of course, that was right after Air Canada tried to land on a taxiway at SFO and kill hundreds of people

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Canada_Flight_759

instead of lining up with the runway, the aircraft had lined up with the parallel taxiway, on which four fully loaded and fueled passenger airplanes were stopped awaiting takeoff clearance.

The subsequent investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the Air Canada airplane descended to 59 feet above the ground before it began its climb, and that it missed colliding with one of the aircraft on the taxiway by 14 feet

I took a lot of ribbing for that. Oh Canada.

[Slick Goodlin]

SFO isn’t a very good place to be without discipline. Trouble is the bay area is kind of scenic from the air and the weather is often nice, both of which can get your guard down.

I wonder if AC781 ever even switched to tower in the first place. If they did, there’s a couple ways you can misuse the comms on the 320 that have been weeded out since.

[Nark]

My favorite trap is answering the FA’s; acknowledging a freq switch, checking on and go on about my next adventure with the FO.
Only a minute later to hear on Guard “Narkflight 123, contact Indy center on 123.45.”

I’m thinking dumbass, I already did, as I look down at the ACP and see CAB is still selected.


I’ve done that more than once.

[Slick Goodlin]

I look down at the ACP and see CAB is still selected.


I’ve done that more than once.

Ugh, tell me about it. I feel like 781 tuned tower on a radio that wasn’t being listened to, though. If it was, I can say we’re a lot more disciplined now on which comm and which tuning head gets used for what.

[Colonel]

Being on the correct frequency is not optional here.

We move a lot of tin. To do that, we do stuff you will see nowhere else, like “You’re #7, cleared to land 25L” which you will never, ever hear in the People’s Republic of Canada.

ATC feels free to revoke (any) your landing clearance at any time, and with all due respect to the four bar gods from Canada, you had better be paying attention.

Reminds me. Where are the Canadian Aviation Gods that liked to sneer at and shit on me here, that I never flew anywhere but Smiths Falls?

[Slick Goodlin]

Being on the correct frequency is not optional here.

You’re not going to find a professional who would say otherwise.

We move a lot of tin. To do that, we do stuff you will see nowhere else, like “You’re #7, cleared to land 25L” which you will never, ever hear in the People’s Republic of Canada.

High traffic density while lying to yourself about your system being good enough to handle it is what flew a Blackhawk into an RJ. Probably not a point of pride but you do you.

They’re slowly starting to do multiple simultaneous clearances up here but I’ve only ever seen it on final with an ILS and good spacing; ie. it can’t possibly be screwed up, or at least someone would have to go waaay off script. Multiple landing clearances to GA planes in VMC has just been nutty every time I’ve encountered it and if I get #7 it just lets me know I’ll be re-sequenced probably six times before landing.

[Nark]

When I do line checks I’ll get nit-picky on standard terminology and callouts.

We have one at 1,000’ for the PM: “1,000’, stable, cleared to land.”
That is the callout 99/100 times.

It’s really meant to remind the PF that he/she is stable. We don’t really give a poop whether they have landing clearance. It doesn’t mean abandon the approach.


It’s that 1 time, 7-8,000 hour inexperienced PM’s don’t know our book enough to say, “1,000’, stable, not cleared to land.”
You can continue all the way to X AFE, before going around for no landing clearance.

I’ve had to speak up from the jumpseat more times than I care too, and debrief it on the ground.

Cancun comes to mind. It’s such a benign airport, in terms of procedures, but it happens all the time. We don’t get landing clearance until 1-2 mile final.



But yes, Airbus is better than Boeing all day everyday.


Slick:
Does AC have the fancy new DRAIMS radio package? (With any new 320’s you are getting, are you getting any new deliveries?)

I love it. You punch in the freq on the key pad and boom: VHF 1 softkey it’s now active.
#2 most common error: not remembering the freq 1/2 second after receiving the instruction. (I’d always write it in the scratchpad). Now it’s less of a step and directly entered.

Also, you can control xpndr and a few other things from the same head.
Much, much gooder.

[Slick Goodlin]

Does AC have the fancy new DRAIMS radio package? (With any new 320’s you are getting, are you getting any new deliveries?)

Certainly not on any current fins. By and large everything on property is old. The lower numbered 320s are fine, but it’s clear operating them that they’re old. They’ve notably aged in the five years I’ve been flying them and they were already twenty five years old when I started.

I haven’t seen anything yet regarding the specs on the XLRs due later this year other than our newest sim has HUDs we’re not supposed to touch yet. Come to think of it, that sim has the traditional radio tuners so I’m thinking we didn’t tick that box on the option sheet.