United Flight 7244 Skids Off of Runway in DSM

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Earlier today, a United Express Flight operated by fellow regional carrier, Mesa Airlines skid off a runway in Des Moines, Iowa due to extreme rain showers icing over the runway.

The plane was taxiing toward one of the airport's two runways at 7:40 a.m. when the pilot made a turn onto the runway. The plane's right wheel slid on some ice and then sunk into the adjacent grass, according to Craig Smith, the airport's aviation director.

Here are some pictures below of the accident.   I mean, take a look at that runway!  It's blanketed!

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It's definitely sad that perhaps the pilots thought that they had to go or didn't know any better, but I have to say that the airline industry and the airport authority should know better than this than to even let the plane depart the gate.  I hope that I don't have to face any of these conditions in the upcoming winter months.  I'm going to Louisville, Kentucky tomorrow and their forecast isn't looking too bright! 

News Article (desmoinesregister.com)

Happy Dec. 1st!!

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Christmas is almost here so if you haven't started your shopping then you better get going! The malls are going to be crazy for the net 24 days as we Americans charge up and max out our credit cards. I don't really want or need anything except maybe a voucher for 1 month's credit towards my loan payment! =) Just kidding. Here's an awesome video of some pwned-age of a child getting wrecked on a slide not once, but he goes back and tries for a second time. Enjoy and Happy Christmas!!!

Slide Owns Kid Twice - Watch more free videos

Bird Guts

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awacThere is an interesting photo slide show posted on Airline Pilot Central.  You should definitely check it out and see what a bird can actually do to an aircraft on takeoff or landing.  For that matter, it can happen anytime an aircraft is cruising at the birds flight level.  It's pretty ridiculous!  Now serving hot meals on today's flight, fresh flock of geese.  Served as is. 

Waking Up to a Broken Aircraft

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After getting to bed around 12:00AM an then waking up around 5:30AM for a relaxing start to my day, I got dressed, dily-dalied a little bit and then ended up strolling downstairs for some early breakfast.  A really relaxing way to start out in the morning, but when we arrived at the aircraft to begin some first flight of the day tests, the captain noticed that the Cargo Firex Standby Light was not illuminating during the bottle test.  So, what does that mean?  It means that we cannot continue on this flight with baggage in the cargo bay.  This stems from a ValueJet "AirTran" accident that had  a cargo fire and ended up blowing up in the sky.  What are we forced to do now?  I have no idea, but I do know that I'm not really getting paid for the time that I'm spending just sitting here in the aircraft blogging.  I'm not connected to any internet service either so this is one of those post later type deals. 

Maybe all these maintenance issues comes from the fact that my captain will be leaving for Northwest ina couple of days.  I don't know how many pilots I have flown with that have ends up leaving the company but its like everyone that flies with me gets some goo karma and moves on or maybe its just that i scare them away!  :-)

Fuel Leak? / Pilot Hiring

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Well, after being late in the morning due to boarding, late out of the Bahamas due to a malfunctioning left pack, and late in Atlanta due to maintenance on a tire repair, what else could have went wrong?  Well, as it turns out, after I competed my walk around 40 minutes prior to departure, right before we closed the door, a ramp agent came up the stairs and said that I should inspect some liquid that was leaking from the aft fuselage body.  I approached the area, touched the fluid, smelled it and knew that we were going to be a while.  I called the captain outside to inspect the issue and from there on, it was only a matter of time before we were require to deplane, and re-board another aircraft, get it ready to fly, fuel it up and preflight it. 

The issue that I had was that we were being told that the APU could be deferred because it had its own separate fuel line and therefore if we did not operate it, we should be fine.  Now, let me just ask, would you be fine if you knew your plane had a leak and they still wanted you to ride in it.  I mean, yeah, we wouldn't use the APU, but maintenance wasn't even sure, at the time, exactly what the problem was.  Kind of sketchy eh?  The maintenance guy told me that their policy had a loophole in it and it was 1) They were not allowed to defer anything on the aircraft if it was leaking any type of fluid but 2) If the item was leaking and stopped leaking being tagged inoperable, then the aircraft was okay to go. 

That's that really besides that we got to the overnight (White Plains, NY) 2 hours later than scheduled and the captain and I went to an awesome Italian Restaurant in downtown Armonk call La Scala where I had some Veal alla Scala.  It was tremendous!!!  So fresh and so good!  It cost a pretty penny but as I've always said, good food has no price.  You can't eat your money either so at least enjoy it!

I read an interesting article tonight on Star-Telegram.com about the state of the the airline industry in reference to hiring pilots.  I think that you might find it disconcerning, but I don't blame you.  I want to assure you that I got some of the best training, but I did pay heavily for it. 

Early Morning TV

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I woke up at 6:30AM PDT, got ready to head down to San Diego, but first I checked my e-mail and then got sidetracked with some morning television.  It consisted of catching up on all the shows that I missed last night while trotting along at 40 mph on the 15N in the Turbo.  It's been really hampered lately on climbing hills and I'm not sure what the problem is.  So, I'm sitting here doing nothing but watching some tv.  I've already lost 1.5 hours of my life and am ready to head out and help out my grandma buy a new / used car.  Any suggestions for her?

Two and Half Men was hilarious and so what How I Met Your Mother.  It's just been too good.  I hope that the Writer's Guild Strike ends soon because its going to get ridiculous in the next few weeks without new tv.

Chargers of Old

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BALSDG

I can finally be at peace with my team and smile tonight.  Although I wasn't able to watch the game live, the highlights and reading all about it were enough to give me some good thoughts of the Chargers.  I was constantly asking for updates from the pilots while sitting in the jumpseat on the way home tonight and they gladly obliged.  We weren't really playing like last year's team, but at least Rivers was able to utilize his throwing abilities and prove once again that he's the QB of our future.  Gates had a big game and that alone is a good sign.  I really hope that LT gets more rushing TDs and more chances for bigger runs.  With Nick Hardwick back, it shouldn't be that hard to get more space down the center!  Merriman had his sack today and it just seemed like things got back together.  Thanks for winning guys.  I really think that the underlying conspiracy is to hide our awesomeness from the New England Patriots.  San Diego has a plan and the next few teams won't know what hit them!  I'm just really excited for the next game now.  Let's go CHARGERS!!!

Prestigious Careers

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Well, after being on duty since 6:30AM (that's excluding the fact that I woke up at 5:15AM, and headed downstairs for the shuttle van ride at 6:15AM), and having to fight through some of the air traffic congestion due to all the inclement weather surrounding the greater southwest, I arrived 30 minutes late on my last flight, ran to the gate that had the San Diego departure only to find out that they closed it 15 minutes prior to departure.  Now, I've been commuting for almost 1 year now and I've never once heard that they close it 15 minutes prior.  Usually its 10 but I just asked another gate agent and he told me 9 minutes.  This is crap.  Now, because of the stupidity of not only statistics of leaving on time, I'm forced to jump seat on a full flight or not get home at all because all remaining flights are booked solid!  Um, of course there were also 20 people that missed the flight because of the weather and their plane arriving later than scheduled.  Now, we're all stuck together hoping that we can get home tonight!  Thanks!  Oh yeah, and I'll have to start paying to "non-revenue" about 1.8 cents a mile + $5.00 a leg.  So, if I want to list for a flight, its going to cost me about $80 a week on top of my miserable salary.  I'm turning into the bitter pilot that I never wanted to be, but this industry in the United States does not take care of their own at all.  No wonder that a bunch of us rather go abroad where we are still part of those that people respect. On the same note, CNN just published an article about the Most Prestigious Jobs in the US.  They list that 50% of all Americans consider nurses as a prestigious career!  Way to chose babe!

Online TV Viewing

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Well, since flying, I've been missing quite a few of my shows broadcast on live TV, so I am reduced to watching them on my friend's Tivo / DVR, or via online at their perspective website.  Due to the Writer's Guild Strike, I've noticed that most of the shows I watch are slowly going into replay status.  It's definitely a good thing for me so that I don't waste more time being a human wasteland but back to the subject at hand.  I can't watch a single episode without commercials now.  I know that's how they are paid with ad revenue, but its starting to get annoying that you have to stream that crap.  It only adds a minute or three, but on the DVR, its all good.  Better yet, you can probably grab them off some torrent sites and watch a show thoroughly without interruption.  I really don't mind an opening commercial and maybe ending one, but have two in the middle of one break, its just as bad now.  I've gotten so use to fast forwarding them that when one is on, I end up browsing a website, researching some article or finding something to eat.  There are so many now whether on live TV or online, you just can't get away from them.  You got them on YouTube / Google Video, every page you view, its just all over the place.  I was just rather surprised that I ran into more than just one while catching up the latest episode of The Office. 

Oh yeah, I don't think that I posted the links to the World of Warcraft Commercials so head over there now and watch Mr. T and William Shatner share their characters with you!

[Warcraft Commercials via Gizmodo via Blizzard]

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