Great Lakes Airlines shuts down

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It’s because kids that know how to run a game console from the age they were 3 can fly a jet - no experience necessary!! Isn’t that what autopilot is for?

JUST KIDDING - ITS A JOKE!!

(But every good joke has an element of truth in it)
 
Way too much truth! To them its a video game as is evidenced by numerous crashes (shall we say Asiana in KSFO or Air France mid-Atlantic?). All the training in the world can't make up for experience.
Planes ain't video games. They can kill people.
 
Cliff's correct.
Mandatory log book entry before consideration:
"3 Lunar Landings".

Ah yes, sidesaddle on the 727 (10 years).
Nothing like drip sticking the 727 fuel tanks in Fairbanks...when the gauges didn't work.
With ice cold jet fuel running down your elbow...
Using a plumb bob hanging in the wheel well...
And a large 3 inch thick manual of tables...
All to tell how far from level the airplane was.
In the winter...
In the dark...
-70 degrees...
 
weeds said:
Cliff's correct.
Mandatory log book entry before consideration:
"3 Lunar Landings".

Ah yes, sidesaddle on the 727 (10 years).
Nothing like drip sticking the 727 fuel tanks in Fairbanks...when the gauges didn't work.
With ice cold jet fuel running down your elbow...
Using a plumb bob hanging in the wheel well...
And a large 3 inch thick manual of tables...
All to tell how far from level the airplane was.
In the winter...
In the dark...
-70 degrees...
Click to expand...

There’s an app for that, right? 😀
 
There still is no pilot shortage at the top. As long as the majors have 10-15 thousand apps on file (even if some are the same people) there is no shortage. I do look forward to the day they have to get desperate and interview you if your qualified. There is absolutely demand right now at the regional level though and that gives hope. By the way I give thanks every day I put on the uniform and go to work to those early aviators who fought and payed the heavy price to make the industry what it is today. Thank you weeds
 
woodhead said:
There still is no pilot shortage at the top. As long as the majors have 10-15 thousand apps on file (even if some are the same people) there is no shortage. I do look forward to the day they have to get desperate and interview you if your qualified. There is absolutely demand right now at the regional level though and that gives hope. By the way I give thanks every day I put on the uniform and go to work to those early aviators who fought and payed the heavy price to make the industry what it is today. Thank you weeds
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In all seriousness, and as a person who makes his living as one of those 200-500 people riding behind the guy in the front left seat, I am so thankful for all the pilots who have flown me safely around the world!! It’s nice to rub shoulders with so many of you here on this board and I am in no way making fun of you or your profession. I hope no one took offense - I certainly didn’t mean any offense. Just cracking bad jokes (obviously).

I’ll get my 2,000,000 mile pin from Delta later this year - not sure what that means? Maybe free wi-fi on a domestic flight someday? 😀
 
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woodhead said:
There still is no pilot shortage at the top. As long as the majors have 10-15 thousand apps on file (even if some are the same people) there is no shortage. I do look forward to the day they have to get desperate and interview you if your qualified. There is absolutely demand right now at the regional level though and that gives hope. By the way I give thanks every day I put on the uniform and go to work to those early aviators who fought and payed the heavy price to make the industry what it is today. Thank you weeds
Click to expand...
My pleasure woodhead....but "early aviators"??
Suddenly I don't feel so good.
It's not like the Wright Brothers or anything....

Did have to carry tools in my brain bag, but that was for manual engine starts at non-maintenance stations. Do they still do that?
Kinda fun except for the oil blowing in your face as the turbine spins up (oil that's been accumulating in the bottom of the cowling).
 
Weeds- YOU'VE REALLY BEEN THERE LIKE SOME OF US OTHERS!!! How about the DB Cooper vane on 727s? We had to know every temp and press switch in the airplane and what they were set for. IIRC 310 degrees TIT for the ACM. Coffee cup on the flap handle with 1 gen out flights. Checking
hydraulics in the aft stair well. Rotating beacon goes off when the manual start valve can be let go of. "Silence the Bell" I can still hear it. 9 light trips. How it all comes back. Max .89 Mach @ 12,000 pounds/hr. Flaps 40 power off descents were breath taking. Checking the cracked windshield with a pencil to see which layer was cracked (different pressurization limits). You could actually approach and land power off, flaps 30, Ref +30 and make very nice landing with it from 7000-8000 feet above the runway. Ref +30 had just the right amount of energy to make a good flare and touchdown, power off. 737 does it too but don't even consider it in a 757 (tail strike).
 
Speaking of early aviators, I used to fly Harry Combs around. He was the president of Learjet long ago, and one of the founders of the Combs-Gates FBO chain.
Harry's first pilot's license was signed by Orville and Wilbur Wright. I always thought that was cool.
 
I actually flew in a Lear 24 with old man Lear flying and Clay Lacy right seat. Went to Reno to see Lear's Learium powered bus that never came to fruition.
 
Cliff said:
Weeds- YOU'VE REALLY BEEN THERE LIKE SOME OF US OTHERS!!! How about the DB Cooper vane on 727s? We had to know every temp and press switch in the airplane and what they were set for. IIRC 310 degrees TIT for the ACM. Coffee cup on the flap handle with 1 gen out flights. Checking
hydraulics in the aft stair well. Rotating beacon goes off when the manual start valve can be let go of. "Silence the Bell" I can still hear it. 9 light trips. How it all comes back. Max .89 Mach @ 12,000 pounds/hr. Flaps 40 power off descents were breath taking. Checking the cracked windshield with a pencil to see which layer was cracked (different pressurization limits). You could actually approach and land power off, flaps 30, Ref +30 and make very nice landing with it from 7000-8000 feet above the runway. Ref +30 had just the right amount of energy to make a good flare and touchdown, power off. 737 does it too but don't even consider it in a 757 (tail strike).
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Holy Moly....you are a fossil.
Was that at Delta? I was in from 77 to 2003, so assume you were hired in the late 1960's.
Can safely say I didn't have those numbers memorized...or if I did it was auto-dumped 3 minutes after the sim check.

Yes....the 27-200 came down like a love-sick piano.
And if you were a mile out and a mile high...full slip.
Not authorized, but the check pilot let it go.
Cross winds were nearly a guarantee to a good landing.
What would we do without those coffee cups....or the empty tic-tac box under the horn silencing bell.

And my AT-6 could burn more gas than you guys...and go twice as slow.
 
If you could see the runway over the nose you could make it straight in from 30,000' in a 72. No joke!
The only thing I flew that had speed boards that actually worked like speed boards, Downwind abeam the numbers in ATL at 10,000, start a 180 turn, pull the boards and gear and stag the flaps on speed and you were on G/S , on speed at 1,000 and 2 1/2 miles or so out by the time the 180 was completed.
GREAT airplane to fly!
BTW, always impressed the new stewardesses (yes that's what they were called then) by floating a light bulb on the wemac air vent by my elbow.

I started at CAL in 67 as a line A&P until 1972 then went corporate as CAL wouldn't hire me from within. Then flew both airline and corporate for the next 35 years. 767, 757, 737, 727, A320, LRJet, CE 500, MU2 type ratings. Used to do Europe from KVNY in a privately owned 72- 200 We had almost 8 hrs fuel. Usually with only 2-4 PAX on board. Even repo'd a 727 once. Love the airplane.

YES, but your AT6 can go upside down.
 
Leardriver- a clean 23 without buckets was an awesome airplane. All the 20 series made enough noise to really announce your departure. And you'd make 410 in about 8 or 9 mins if unrestricted I think it held a record at 7+40 to 410 at 1 time. Had sh&*Y autopilots though. Hardest airplane I ever hand flew at 410. And we hand flew most of the time back then.
 
I started at CAL in 67 as a line A&P until 1972 then went corporate as CAL wouldn't hire me from within. Then flew both airline and corporate for the next 35 years. 767 said:
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Boy, you have done it all....don't think I'd like the repo thing. Did everything work?

We did one of those max descents from 350 one morning. Full flaps, speed brakes, gear down. Ripped off most of the right inboard flap. The station guy/mechanic used several rolls of aluminum duct tape so we weren't too ugly...and off we went. (That tape stayed right where he put it too.) The passengers (144 Canadians...God love em) were happy as clams to arrive on time.

Getting the A&P opened up a ton of doors for me...
One type...757/767.

The Lear25B had the center tank you could "pack" with an extra 13 or so gallons of fuel. Seemed like we were always out of fuel before we took off. From Phoenix, the usual destination was Palwaukee, Boca Raton or JFK. Nearly always had to make a fuel stop.
IT did climb like the proverbial stripped ape.

Sold the T-6 after 9-11...airline bankruptcies will do that.

"Clear right...I'll take the chicken."
Click to expand...
 
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