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Confessions of a New Corporate Pilot
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In the Citation III Confessions of a New Corporate Pilot
Life would be sweet, I thought, now that I’d successfully passed my Cessna Citation III (CE-650) type rating check ride (this was a few years back). It meant I’d be flying my first swept-wing jet. Surprisingly, my first day at the new job at Chicago Executive Airport (PWK) would also be the first time I’d been up close to a real Citation III since all the training and even my check ride happened in FlightSafety’s full-motion simulator.
From my research, though, I knew the 650’s cabin was roomy enough for eight, and its rocket-like performance was nothing short of spectacular with a VMO (maximum operating Mach) of Mach 0.85 and 39,000 feet on a standard day. In its day, M.83 was pretty fast. That meant we could make the West Coast out of PWK with four people in the back. I learned quickly, too, that the 650’s awesome performance meant I needed to stay much farther ahead of the airplane than I’d had to in the much slower Citation II (CE-550) I’d been flying in a 12-pilot charter department.
A privately held corporation owned this Citation III and I was the junior of three pilots. The chief pilot, my new boss, brought experience from several other flight departments, while the other pilot, I’ll call him Tom well, I was never really too sure where Tom had come from because the guy kept to himself as much as possible and wasn’t the chatty type. That made three-hour flights long when the entire conversation at FL390 ended with an occasional shrug of the shoulders.
But who cared what one guy acted like, I thought. I was there to learn how to fit into a flight department that needed another pilot on their team. Just like in charter flying, my job was to keep the people in the back happy. I came to know these passengers much better than we ever did in the charter world. These folks sometimes invited the flight crew to their home on Nantucket when we overnighted there.
The Interview
Looking back on this job now though, I guess the 10-minute interview the chief pilot and I engaged in before he offered me the job should have been a tip-off that maybe something was a little odd. But with a four-year-old daughter growing up at home, the chance to dump my charter department pager that always seemed to ring at 2 a.m. beckoned hypnotically.
Cessna Citation CE-650 Corporate line training began right away with me flying in all kinds of weather, where I regularly rotated flying left seat with the chief pilot and Tom. Having flown left seat on the Citation II, I wasn’t brand new to jets, just speedy ones.
After a few months, however, I began to notice a few operational oddities that started making me a little uncomfortable. Some sketchy flight planning and questions I asked were sometimes answered with annoyed expressions. If I appeared not to agree, someone might ask if I’d finished all the Jepp revisions (In those days there were no electronic subscriptions. Updates were handled by hand). I found the best solution for getting along seemed to be to just shut up and fly the airplane. Ignoring those distractions did help me pay closer attention to the little things that made my flying the jet smoother.
Then again … On one flight back from Cincinnati (CVG), I was flying left-seat with the chief pilot in the right. I wanted to add fuel before we left since the Chicago weather was questionable, but the boss overruled me explaining, “We’re fat on fuel.”I didn’t say anything. As we approached PWK, the ATIS reported the weather had worsened, considerably. The Swiss cheese holes began to align when Chicago Approach dumped us early. We ended up burning more fuel than planned. I flew the ILS right down to minimums, but my scan uncomfortably included the fuel gauges every few seconds. After a safe landing, we taxied in with 700 pounds of Jet-A, not much for an airplane that burns 1,800 pounds an hour down low. What if we’d missed at Chicago Executive Airport and needed to run for Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport I wondered? We’d have arrived on fumes. The boss looked at me after we shut down. “Don’t tell me that whole thing bothered you. It all turned out fine, didn’t it?” (more…)
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Remembering Gordon Baxter: Bax Seat was a Flying Magazine Reader Favorite
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(Reposted by request)
Each time I stand near my desk, my eyes naturally focus on the framed cover of the August 1983 Flying magazine. Below it is page 100, the “I Learned About Flying from That” (ILAFFT), where my first column appeared. On it, the author of Bax Seat, scrawled in brown ink, “To my friend Rob Mark. His story, my push. Gordon Baxter, August 5, 1983.”
Many months before, Gordon Baxter had given me the Flying editor’s phone number. When I rang with my brief pitch, all I heard was “yes.” I suddenly had an assignment for my first column. That 1983 issue was the first, but not the last, time my name and stories appeared in the aviation industry’s iconic magazine. That same issue also ran a pilot report about the then-new Cessna Citation III, an aircraft I later added to my list of type ratings. Looking back, there were so many aspects of my aviation career that came to life around Bax and that August 1983 issue, not the least of which was that we became friends.
Gordon Baxter, Bax as he preferred folks call him, helped shape my career as an aviation journalist like no one before him and only a few people since. The author of 13 books, Bax’s own magazine writing career at Flying spanned 25 years. His monthly column, Bax Seat, focused on vivid descriptions of his adventures. It was known simply as “Bax Seat.” Did I mention he was also a long-time radio personality in Beaumont, Texas, another interest we shared.
A Bit of Bax’s Background
I first met Bax in the mid-1970s. He brought his show, his act, or whatever the heck he called his evening of storytelling, to the Stick and Rudder Flying Club at Waukegan Airport. I was a tower controller not far away at Palwaukee Airport. Having been an avid Flying reader since high school, I switched shifts with another controller so I wouldn’t miss the event. Bax captured the audience for over an hour with stories from his flying career and his columns that often alternately “em rollin’ in the aisles” with gut-wrenching laughter and an emotional Texas-guy style that also brought tears to many an eye. Another way to think of Bax’s storytelling night was like an evening of improv but all about flying and airplanes.
Born in Port Arthur, Texas, he learned to fly after World War II following his stint as a B-17 turret gunner. Bax was no professional pilot—just a guy with a private certificate, an instrument rating, and eventually his beloved Mooney. On the back cover of one of his books, appropriately titled Bax Seat, Flying’s Stephan Wilkinson said “Bax tries to pass himself off as a pilot, but don’t believe him. He never could fly worth a damn. But Gordon feels airplanes, loves and honors them in ways that the rest of us are ashamed to admit. And he’s certainly one of the few romantics who can express what he feels so perfectly.” I couldn’t have written that myself, but I, too, felt it.
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Making the Brazilian ATR-72 Spin
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Note: This story was corrected on August 10th at 10:23 am, thanks to the help of a sharp-eyed reader.
Making an ATR-72 Spin
I wasn’t in Brazil on Friday afternoon, but I saw the post on Twitter or X (or whatever you call it) showing a Brazil ATR-72, Voepass Airlines flight 2283, rotating in a spin as it plunged to the ground near Sao Paulo from its 17,000-foot cruising altitude. All 61 people aboard perished in the ensuing crash and fire. A timeline from FlightRadar 24 indicates that the fall only lasted about a minute, so the aircraft was clearly out of control. Industry research shows Loss of Control in Flight (LOCI) continues to be responsible for more fatalities worldwide than any other kind of aircraft accident.
The big question is why the crew lost control of this airplane. The ADS-B data from FlightRadar 24 does offer a couple of possible clues. The ATR’s speed declined during the descent rather than increased, which means the aircraft’s wing was probably stalled. The ATR’s airfoil had exceeded its critical angle of attack and lacked sufficient lift to remain airborne. Add to this the rotation observed, and the only answer is a spin.
Can a Large Airplane Spin?
The simple answer is yes. If you induce rotation to almost any aircraft while the wing is stalled, it can spin, even an aircraft as large as the ATR-72. By the way, the largest of the ATR models, the 600, weighs nearly 51,000 pounds.
Of course, investigators will ask why the ATR’s wing was stalled. It could have been related to a failed engine or ice on the wings or tailplane. (more…)
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How the FAA Let Remote Tower Technology Slip Right Through Its Fingers
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In June 2023, the FAA published a 167-page document outlining the agency’s desire to replace dozens of 40-year-old airport control towers with new environmentally friendly brick-and-mortar structures. These towers are, of course, where hundreds of air traffic controllers ply their trade … ensuring the aircraft within their local airspace are safely separated from each other during landing and takeoff.
The FAA’s report was part of President Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act enacted on November 15, 2021. That bill set aside a whopping $25 billion spread across five years to cover the cost of replacing those aging towers. The agency said it considered a number of alternatives about how to spend that $5 billion each year, rather than on brick and mortar buildings.
One alternative addressed only briefly before rejecting it was a relatively new concept called a Remote Tower, originally created by Saab in Europe in partnership with the Virginia-based VSATSLab Inc. The European technology giant has been successfully running Remote Towers in place of the traditional buildings in Europe for almost 10 years. One of Saab’s more well-known Remote Tower sites is at London City Airport. London also plans to create a virtual backup ATC facility at London Heathrow, the busiest airport in Europe.
A remote tower and its associated technology replace the traditional 60-70 foot glass domed control tower building you might see at your local airport, but it doesn’t eliminate any human air traffic controllers or their roles in keeping aircraft separated.
Max Trescott photo Inside a Remote Tower Operation
In place of a normal control tower building, the airport erects a small steel tower or even an 8-inch diameter pole perhaps 20-40 feet high, similar to a radio or cell phone tower. Dozens of high-definition cameras are attached to the new Remote Tower’s structure, each aimed at an arrival or departure path, as well as various ramps around the airport.
Using HD cameras, controllers can zoom in on any given point within the camera’s range, say an aircraft on final approach. The only way to accomplish that in a control tower today is if the controller picks up a pair of binoculars. The HD cameras also offer infrared capabilities to allow for better-than-human visuals, especially during bad weather or at night.
The next step in constructing a remote tower is locating the control room where the video feeds will terminate. Instead of the round glass room perched atop a standard control tower, imagine a semi-circular room located at ground level. Inside that room, the walls are lined with 14, 55-inch high-definition video screens hung next to each other with the wider portion of the screen running top to bottom.
After connecting the video feeds, the compression technology manages to consolidate 360 degrees of viewing area into a 220-degree spread across the video screens. That creates essentially the same view of the entire airport that a controller would normally see out the windows of the tower cab without the need to move their head more than 220 degrees. Another Remote Tower benefit is that each aircraft within visual range can be tagged with that aircraft’s tail number, just as it might if the controller were looking at a radar screen. (more…)
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Oklahoma Small-town Promotes Aviation
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The last thing I expected to find on the historic route of US 66 at the edge of the small town of Weatherford, population 10,833 (according to the 2010 census), in western Oklahoma was not only a first-rate air and space museum, but one affiliated with the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. But there it was. And who could miss the F-4 Phantom that is part of the General Thomas P. Stafford Air & Space Museum and Airport.What’s really interesting about this 40,000-square-foot museum is that it is incorporated with the terminal of the Weatherford Airport (OJA), a city-owned nontower airport with a single 5,100-by-75-foot concrete runway. Guessing that the eponymous airport and museum were named for hometown boy who went to the moon with the Apollo program didn’t demand a degree in rocket science.
Stafford increased the population of Weatherford in 1930, but what was really interesting is that his mother arrived in the state in a covered wagon, most likely with Oklahoma Land Rush into the “Unassigned Lands” in 1889. She lived to see her only child fly into space on Gemini 6 and 9, and to the moon as commander of Apollo X. And I was surprised to learn that his command of the Apollo-Soyuz mission garnered him a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.Named a Smithsonian Affiliate in 2011, the museum started as a simple display case in the Weatherford Airport Terminal. It now displays more than 3,500 artifacts, many of them having logged real time in the atmosphere and beyond it. A number of them are on loan from the Smithsonian, including the pressure suit Stafford wore on Apollo X. Another surprise is that exhibits cover the spectrum of aviation, from the replica Wright Flyer and Spirit of St. Louis to the expected aerospace artifacts such as an F-86, Mig-21, F-16, and a Titan II rocket, and an Apollo Command and Service Module.
Time spent examining the museum’s Smithsonian-quality exhibits is well worth the $7 admission ($5 for 55 & older, AAA members, and military, $2 for students 18 and younger; active duty military and children 5 and younger are free). It presents not only a concise and comprehensive look at aviation; it is an unspoken statement of Weatherford’s appreciation and support of it. In doing a bit more research when I returned home, I learned that the museum is a nonprofit organization owned and operated by the City of Weatherford, Oklahoma. Ever evolving, it is worth a visit just to see the unique display of its most recent addition, an F-104 Starfighter mounted in a zoom-climb outside the museum’s entrance, with its pointy nose aimed skyward. — Scott Spangler, Editor -
US 66 Surprises: Heritage In Flight Museum
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On a journey from Chicago, Illinois, to Santa Monica, California, that followed the historic route of what was US Route 66, I kept my promise to heed the little green signs I passed that pointed toward small town airports. Riding down the curving driveway in Lincoln, Illinois, at first the Logan County Airport (AAA) didn’t offer much hope, but when I rounded the curve, there, at the far side of the parking lot, was an A-7 and C-45.It was one of the aircraft exhibited by the Heritage in Flight Museum. Dismounting to explore, the trim mustard yellow museum building was locked and unattended. The gate in the chain link fence was not locked, and there was no sign telling me to keep out, so I wandered among the other aircraft on display.
Parked in the well-trimmed grass on the far side of the narrow ramp were an F-4 Phantom, T-33, and UH-1 Huey. Given the weathered paint, they’d been there for awhile, and I wondered how the the military delivered them for display. Given the 4,000-by-70-foot measurements of Runway 3/21, certainly the Huey could have arrived with no problem. Conceivably the the C-45 Twin Beech could have done the same, and maybe the T-33. But A-7 and F-4 must have arrived on several trucks.
Hoping for a look inside I tried each of the building’s doors. All were locked, and I found no sign for the museum’s hours of operation. Perhaps it was like many small town museums, open only on weekends and staffed by volunteers, and I was exploring on Monday.Finding the museum’s website, the Heritage in Flight Museum is dedicated to the preservation of aviation history from all military conflicts back to World War I, fought a century ago. “These mementos have been donated by both veterans and their families.”
The website offered this small town take on gaining access to the museum’s inside exhibits: “We currently don’t have a set hours of operation but most generally there is someone here on Saturdays between 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. If no one answers the phone or no one is there please call 1(217)953-4118 and when they answer let them know you are wanting to see the museum and then they should tell you if they will be able to come right away or give you a time frame as to when they will be there to show you around and answer questions. We greatly appreciate your visit and apologize if no one was available to show you the Museum. The static displays outside are always available for your viewing.”
It was nice to learn (after the fact) that in poking into the corners around the adjacent hangar and light tower, I was not trespassing. Where the chain link fence met the hangar I found an extraordinary artifact; it was the right size and shape for a 16-inch naval round for the big guns on US battleships like the Missouri, Iowa, and New Jersey. On the other side of the fence were four more rounds strapped to pallet . If a veteran donated them, he was a world class collector of military mementos during his service.The working 800 million candle power World War II searchlight, which is available “For Hire,” the website said, much have been inside. I wonder what other treasures lay hidden on the other side of those locked doors. This discovery will have to wait until the next time I pass this way. Route 66 beckons and holds the promise of more small town airport surprises to the west. — Scott Spangler, Editor
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Back Corners: EAA AirVenture Encore
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The EAA AirVenture grounds on the Wittman Regional Airport cover a vast area. It is a hike and a half to reach its back corners, but it is worth it because it is where the interesting airplanes seems to be. Take this skeletal Cub-like airplane made of aluminum, steel tube, and carbon fiber, which was among the other Valdez STOL aircraft at the south end in the Ultralight area.It is called Lil’ Cub, and it was designed and built for one reason, to take off and land in the shortest possible distance. Light weight helps its achieve this goal. The wings have no end plates and, if you’re tall enough, you can look down them to the wing roots. The leading edge slats and Fowler flaps are made of carbon fiber.
Unlike other Cub-like airplanes, this one has but one seat. To keep the center of gravity in place, it wears a carbon fiber fuel tank like a backpack behind what passes for a cockpit. Bare tubes connect the tail feathers to the rest of the airplane. Maybe this airplane’s Momma was a Cub and its Daddy was a Bell 47 helicopter. That may be why it gets off and on the round in 50 feet, give or take a few depending on the wind. I didn’t get to see it fly, at least not in real time. EAA did a nice video on it, so that will have to suffice.
Way up north, in homebuilt camping, I came across this Breezy, an iconic Oshkosh airplane you don’t see very often. And this model is new construction! According to the prop card, it made its first flight in 2015, and the builder flew it to Oshkosh from New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Mentioning the airplane to a friend who also like to explore Oshkosh’s back corners, he met the pilot, who told him that it took some 20 hours and three or four days to make the trip in the no-cockpit airplane.
The theme here, it seems, is minimalism in aviation. And this GlaStar builder lived it for his week in Oshkosh. No fancy tent for him. Just a tarp over the wing, a short-legged cot to keep his sleeping bag off the grass, and a small fold-up table for his one-burner stove, lantern, and blue 2.5 gallon water jug. According to the prop card, he’d logged more than 1,000 hours in his homebuilt, and from the tautness of his tarp, it was clear this wasn’t his first campout. Curious to see how he fared with all the rain that greened up the Oshkosh grass at week’s end, I leaned in and then withdrew dry fingertips from his sleeping bag.The good news is that a dome of high pressure is pegged to Oshkosh this Saturday morning, and pilots are taking advantage of it and heading for home. It’s about time for me to do the same. — Scott Spangler, Editor
