Friday, December 23, 2011

My Horrifying Dream - Part 1/5 Gear Up

"Mayday Mayday Mayday, Learjet Charlie Golf Zulu Hotel Alpha, We've lost both engines, We're turning back toward Toronto. Now out of FL230"

A Learjet 85
I was about to earn my flight license. This plane was a brand-new Learjet 85.I was on my last test flight, out of Buttonville Airport to Ottawa MacDonald Cartier Int'l Airport. "Learjet Golf Zulu, cleared for takeoff runway 15". I pushed the throttles forward. My engines instruments read full power and accelerating through 30 knots. I looked out of my window excited about finally getting to fly. "80 Knots" my co-pilot yelled out. "Confirmed". We were now about 800 metres from the end of the runway. "V1". "Rotate". We were at 136 knots. I pulled back on to my control column. I was looking at my altimeter. Ground level was 576 feet. We started climbing. 580. 590. 600. 610. 630. 655. 680. We were 100 feet in the air. "Positive rate, gear up". My co-pilot retracted the landing gear. "V2" He yelled out. He then reduced thrust to idle on the number 2 engine. "Engine failure number 2". It was a simple process to fix and I was up for it. I was not allowed to increase thrust from the number 2 engine. I changed the pitch trim and tail trim to keep the plane level and climbing. "Learjet Charlie Golf Zulu, contact Toronto Departure on 121.75. Good Day". "Going to 121.75, Learjet Golf Zulu". I switched our transpnder to the setting. "Toronto Departure, Learjet Golf Zulu 900 climbing one zero thousand (10 000)."Roger, Learjet Golf Zulu, turn left heading 080". I rolled the plane into a left turn. "Turning left 080, Learjet Golf Zulu". I showed my co-pilot that I succesfully passed the engine failure test. I set thrust for both engines at 80 N1 (Climb thrust). We were now at 10 000 feet about 30 miles from Buttonville. "Learjet Golf Zulu, resume own navigation, contact Toronto Center on 121.9". I responded with the usual responses and we got to
22 000 feet (FL220). 30 seconds later... Boom. Alerts going on in the cockpit. I look at my engine instruments. 70 N1. 60 N1. 50 N1. 20 N1. -2 N1. No thrust. This was not at all suppose to happen. The co-pilot was surprised and decided not to take control of the aircraft from me. I was already handling the engine failure and the shaking control column and he knew I was flying the aircraft well. We were 95 miles from our nearest major airport with full emergency support. And that was Toronto Pearson International Airport. From only 22 000 feet, it would be very hard to glide that such distance, if we could. I shouted:
"Mayday Mayday Mayday, Toronto Center, Learjet Golf Zulu is 19 miles of CYGK, we've lost both engines, now out of FL220.

To be continued...

No comments:

Post a Comment