Yes. I understood that this is what is called dry motoring, correct?
Pretty much. From the PIM…
MOTORING
MAN OVRD: Backward
Fuel Tank Selector: L or R
AUX BP Switch: ON
IGNITION Switch: OFF
STARTER Switch: ON, motor for max 15 seconds
STARTER Switch : ABORT
To cool engine following shut-down in high temperature environment:
STARTER Switch: ON, motor for max 30 seconds
STARTER Switch: ABORT
AUX BP: OFF
2 Likes
Great Livery! 
Yes…well…um…when this whole thing startedI somehow got it into my head that it would be shorter that way…if I had used a little thing called “math” I probably would have discovered that heading west would be shorter…but by that time I had this whole “High Road to China” vibe going so…Lets just call it a “Reverse Columbus”. 
3 Likes
Maintenance report
I just received an e-mail from the maintenance crew from Skopje, those guys who replaced my turbine blade. They extracted some engine data and provided me with an analysis which shows that I did few strange things. Thanks god nobody though about doing an alcohol test…I would be out of the Christmas flight challenge now waiting to get sober…This is how I must have looked like then the maintenance crew found me…
Lets see what we have…
The chart shows fuel flow and pressure, NG, NP, Torque and NP for the primary axis and ITT (red) for the secondary axis. No clue why NP is below zero.
I interpret the chart as follows:
- Turned on the fuel pump at 21:22:40
- Fuel flow started to rise at before 21:22:55, looks like moved the throttle into low-idle?!?
- Selected the starter switch 21:22:55
- NG stabilized at 21:23:19 at about 19%
- Turned on the ignition at 21:23:43
- And then ITT almost exploded to 2800 degrees
- In contrast to my initial claim, I most probably did not move the throttle into cut-off…
Cool stuff, at least the TBM900 allows me to learn and study…
5 Likes
Second entry for the Christmas Challenge.
Click to reveal AAR
Since I’ll be using the old Delco Carousel IV-A of the Boeing 727-100, I scribbled my waypoint coordinates on a sheet of paper, so I just need to plug in my coordinates in the CIVA while it’s aligning.
I start prepping the aircraft around 4:30 AM. It’s pitch black in Atlanta.
As I plug in external ground power, the cockpit comes alive.
Adjusting lighting knobs
I finish aligning the CIVA and promptly fire up the APU, the engines and off I go.
Finding Runway 9 Left is a bit difficult at night.
Looking for indications towards 9L
Ready for takeoff. Setting flaps to 20 degrees, throttling up to 1.9 EPR. Liftoff is easy and the good old 727 skyrockets to 32,000 ft.
Climbing into the night.
Takeoff and climb are relatively uneventful.
Over Corinth, Mississipi
Rear view of the tri-jet
Changing lighting to something more feng shui.
The CIVA brings me to Wichita without any major issue. However, as I start my approach and deploy my flaps at the recommended speed, I notice a sudden induced roll I need to correct. I immediately disconnect the autopilot and grab the yoke, trying to stabilize the aircraft. As I catch the yoke before the aircraft veers into the ground, I start wondering where this sudden roll is coming from.
Strange… The ATIS announced little to no wind; what could it be? What the hell is going on?
Did you see it? Now THAT is a catastrophic flaps failure. It seems like I unknowingly lost part of my right flaps during the flight. That explains the difficult approach. I yank the aircraft as best I can, using both the yoke and rudder to keep an adequate attitude to get on the runway in one piece.
Clenching my buttocks during touchdown. I come in with a pretty high alpha while flaring, but the landing gears hold.
(Heavy Breathing)
Time to send that 727 back to the maintenance hangar.
Good morning Wichita
Arriving at the gate
Everyone out… I need a word with the mechanic.
10 Likes
Nice save! Had me clenching my butox reading. Did not want to lose such a magnificent aircraft.
1 Like
Two things:
-
How do you do the click to reveal AAR - I assume adding some HTML code?
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Re failed flaps - Nice flying to recover.
That’s basically what happened to AA-191, a DC-10 out of KORD in 1979. When the left engine ripped off and over the wing, it tore out the hydraulics for the left wing LE Flaps, which then retracted due to the air pressure. That increased the stall speed of the left wing. The aircrew handled the emergency by the book, setting the correct air speed for an engine out take off. Unfortunately that speed was below the stall speed for the left engine. The left stalled; the right didn’t…and that was that. Tragic.
When you edit/create a message, check in the menu bar that allows you to do formatting. Under the ‘cog’ (far right), select ‘Hide Details’.
Catchy Summary
Put your text in there and change the summary to something catchy 
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When you type something, you just click on “Options” (the gear wheel) and then click on “Hide Details”. You will have something like:
[details="Summary"]
This text will be hidden
[/details]
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That might be a better explanation because you can copy/paste the code.
Like this?
Summary
This text will be hidden
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Yep!
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That had to be a terrifying experience. I remember the shock I had when I felt the aircraft roll uncontrollably. I had to compensate with both rudder and ailerons, which wasn’t easy since the aircraft kept wanting to kill me. In retrospect, I think I could have tried to raise the flaps to minimize the lift assymetry. They were at a full 30 degrees… maybe a flaps 5 long landing could have worked and decreased the workload. I guess my first reflex was to concentrate on flying the plane instead of trying to troubleshoot what went wrong… not an ideal situation.
2 Likes
That also reminded me of United Airlines flight 232 in 1989. The crew lost all three Hydraulic lines when the center engine exploded. They steered in corkscrew right turns using thrusters to land at Sioux City in a barely controlled crash with loss of life.
There was also a really good (well, 1992 me thought it was really good when I saw it) TV movie that has a great cast, including Charlton Heston as the LLWS Umpire and Pilot.
Call me tangent man. Go ahead.
Back in the 80s, it seemed that a lot of DC-10s were coming to grief. One of my brothers was a flight attendant for Air Florida flying the London trip with a bunch of hotties. I was leaving MIA on an A-300 one day, and we had to hold on takeoff because the AF DC-10 ahead of us had spilled the guts of and engine down the runway. Brother Bill was working the flight of course. He was good at dodging big bullets like that. Two other close calls, one was that he was booked on Pan Am 103 which originated out of Frankfurt. He was held up on the way to the airport, but got to the gate about 20 minutes before departure. The gate agent wouldn’t let him board. In Germany, rules are rules. Saved his life and he still has his boarding pass. The other was the Air Florida 90 which was on his line. He worked it the night before it went into the Potomac. I enjoy flying with him.
4 Likes
Aviate, navigate, communicate. In that order.
Good job getting her down, that must have been a heck of a ride.
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If I remember correctly, the 727 has a lighted Flaps/Slats display above the pilot’ Head…or is it on a FE panel.
Regardless, I seem to recall that testing it is on the start up checklist…and that’s the last time I ever looked at it. Probably meant for situations just as you experienced.
Still, when I was putting down the 707’s flaps for landing tonight, remembering your emergency, I took an extra moment to check the flap indicators moving to their correct position. 
Anyway…bring up the flaps or not? I’ve got both an Eastern and American Airlines 727 Flight Manual…I wonder what they have to say.
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Great to see you powering on with the TBM, I’m waiting for V-tail bonanza’s to show up before I continue on! I haven’t made the mistake of low fuel, but I have been making mistakes on introducing it in the TBM causing the engine temps to briefly exceed 800 ITT. Leaves me with some questions on how long this engine will last!
Great report. I love the ANS. 
I was looking at balance sheet wondering how the numbers added up, before you said the flight made a net loss. The CFO of MAD will be sending furious emails to the operations director.
1 Like