Flying The Sabreliner

Flying the Burn Team from Brooks required pilots to be on call for 24 hours.  The other guys at my computer job were jealous of me sleeping in and resting while waiting for a call to go fly.  I think I only flew the Burn Team twice in three years, but I was on call one day every month.  The Burn Team was a quick response team of at least one doctor and two nurses with large equipment bags.  We would fly them to where  the burn patient was and they would meet a special Medivac aircraft.  Our airplane wasn't big enough to hold a patient on a stretcher. 

I can remember three interesting stories from my Sabreliner days.

I was flying up to Washington DC and Andrews AFB on a cold day right after a snow storm.  Right away I was thinking icy slippery runway and being one of those pilots that went off the runway.  I landed and was really easy on the brakes and just gradually slowing down.  The runway was cleared of snow and all was well.  I elected to go to the end of the runway and not really touch the brakes.  There was a little high spot in the runway and I really couldn't see the end of the runway and when I cleared the high spot I could plainly see the rest of the runway hadn't been cleared of snow and ice.  I got on the brakes and tried to stop before I got into the slippery area but I wasn't able to.  I had to turn off the runway and I was just holding my breath and hoping I didn't start sliding sideways as I made the 90 degree left turn...  I didn't slide... but I took that lesson with me for the rest of my career.

On another trip we were flying into Memphis and there were thunderstorms everywhere.  Since we had no radar we had to ask air traffic control to steer us around the storms.  They would always respond to that request by saying; "well... our radar doesn't really show storms but we will try to help you!"  That always gave us a warm fuzzy.  On this particular trip that is exactly what happened.  We were on final approach into Memphis and had been through some pretty rough weather when the final approach controller said; "we are kind of surprised to see you here..."  "Why", I said.  The controller said;  "Because you just flew through a thunderstorm that had just produced a tornado and there was a tornado following you down final approach!"  We really wanted to strangle some general about that time.  A jet without radar is like a family car without windows, doors and seat belts.

My last story in the Sabreliner involved weather again.  We were coming back from Washington DC and we were flying into Austin's Bergstrom AFB.  We had delayed our departure so we would hopefully arrive Austin after the thunderstorms passed through.  We did good.  It was beautiful and the storms had just passed over the airport and were about 10 miles away.  It was crystal clear and the green vegetation below was sparkling with rain.  The air was smooth and the ride was good.  About 1000 feet in the air and on final approach the airplane rolled hard and fast to the left.  I applied full aileron control to counter act the roll and we just kept rolling to the left and I couldn't stop it.  I cautiously started applying right rudder knowing it would help the roll but also start the airplane skidding sideways through the air.  We were approaching inverted flight when the airplane started responding rapidly and I rolled back wings level and still on course.  I continued on and managed a very soft landing, not knowing what had just happened.

We parked and I jumped up and opened the cabin door and went down to the ramp to salute the USAF's only lady general.  As she got off the airplane she gave me a big smile and said; "Nice job" as she returned my salute.

Years later, after Delta Flight 191 crashed at DFW I finally learned what had happened that day... wind shear... or a micro burst. 

What had happened with us was a downburst of wind from the storm that had just passed had come straight down and hit the ground with nowhere to go.  It swirled into basically an invisible horizontal tornado...  Kind of like a 1960's girls hair do that was straight hair coming down to a girls shoulder and then flipping up into a curl... what was the name of that hair do? 

The photo on the left below shows a mico burst with rain. The one on the right shows a dry micro burst... can't see it.

In our case we didn't fly through the curl, we just flew parallel to it and inside it.  We just finally flew out of it.  

Not a lot was known about wind shear until that Delta accident.  Experience taught pilots that gusty winds can give and take airspeed quickly.  In the Delta accident they encountered the windshear as a plus 20-30 knots of headwind and they were suddenly going 20-30 knots too fast.  To correct their airspeed they reduced power to idle.  Then they exited the curl they lost 30 knots of wind after being hit by the downdraft wind.  They increased the power to max and it took about 10 seconds for the jet engines to "spool up".  This all happened so low to the ground they didn't have time to recover and they crashed.

Early jet engines took up to 15 seconds to spool up to full power and with Delta the delay was about 10 seconds.  Today's jet engines respond even faster.  Pilots also learned not to go to idle power in this case, but instead execute a missed approach.

In my career I encountered strong windshear about 4 more times.  

Today's aircraft has radar that is so sophisticated it will detect the small water particles in rain and clouds and can determine if windshear is present.  It will actually depict the windshear area so you can avoid it.  If the computer calls out; "WINDSHEAR, WINDSHEAR!" pilots are trained to increase to maximum power and execute a missed approach without hesitation.  Pilots are constantly trained for it.