"I didn't mess it up, you did" is a quick way a pilot can turn a something a controller may have let slide, into a "Possible pilot deviation, I've got a number for you to call..."
@@eannliska423 The sheer audacity of that controller to even THINK about challenging the competence of the Steely Eyed Missile men of AA for even a second is mind boggling!
I don't think being childish warrants an official slap on the wrist. I'm sure that the ground guy got his revenge some other way though. "Oh look... your gate opened up 10 minutes ago. Let's see if I can find a way to get you there within the next half hour." Never mess with the guy giving you your instructions.
Kelsey, I'm a controller and I LOVE the idea of controllers sitting in on a simulator during an emergency. It'd be great to get supervisors in there as well so they can stop telling us to ask stupid questions of the pilots when they're so busy.
Definitely a great idea. Would be great situational awareness in the pocket for ATC. And everyone could be better on the same page. Great team building training. Push it!
Good luck getting OKC to teach that. Even approaching the schoolhouse makes me shake my head. It's a good idea, and teaching it at the academy would be easy. Nonetheless, I will suggest it as if it's my idea, lol
Asking isn't necessarily the problem but there does need to be an awareness it will be provided if and when able not before. As for the supervisors I'd guess the issue is probably more one of them pressuring controllers to get information when the pilots are unable. That will never happen certainly not with me anyway I have a plane to fly communication is secondary to flying the plane and making sure I'm going where I need to be, if I can hep you to help me I will but not at the cost of taking attention away from flying the plane at a critical point. This is how even private pilots like myself are trained aviate, navigate, communicate, in that order no exceptions.
Is emergency information entered into the FAA computer system by the first controller and passed from enroute to approach and tower? I have listened to a couple hundred emergencies on various UA-cam channels and two things happen regularly that take time away from the pilots. The first is having to repeat the same information upon being passed to next controller. Is this a problem of the earlier controller not entering information into the system or the subsequent not taking the time to look at what's in the system? The second pilot time waster is the lack of uniformity of information requested of pilots. Souls onboard is pretty straightforward but requests for hazardous materials onboard are either not made or drawn out. By far the worst emergency question pilots are asked is "fuel onboard?"! If the pilot responds with time in hours and minutes the controller asks for the fuel in pounds, presumably so the fire command can assess the potential size of a fire. If the pilot responds with the fuel in pounds the controller asks for gallons or kilograms or time. Isn't there some way to standardize these requests to minimize pilot distractions? A simple conversion chart for controllers would solve the pounds vs kilograms vs gallons problem...
@@wizardgmb There is a very good reason for the latter, namely that there are two reasons ATC will ask you for fuel on board. One is during a potential fuel emergency where they need to know how long they have to get you safely on the ground. The other is in the event of a potential crash where fire and rescue are asking how much of the flammable liquid hazmat may be involved in any potential fire. As fuel burn varies widely between types and flying conditions it is necessary to get the correct value for the situation at hand. The former is however more common this is why when this is what is wanted the units are often not specified but they always are (or should be) when the request is being forwarded from rescue services.
@@beverlyweber4122 Why 'America too' ? People in many countries outside of the U.S. pay more for gasoline due to higher taxes on fuel. European countries tend to have the highest gas taxes.
@@peterjf7723 There are a lot of places in the US where gas prices are just as high or higher than Europe. In Europe, prices go anywhere from the equivalent of $5-10/gallon, which is pretty much the same as the US right now. The US doesn't have the same taxes on fuel, but we have to ship fuel overseas in a lot of cases because we shut down the pipeline.
@10:40 As a pilot myself, one thing I always appreciated I had the opportunity to do was go into the tower and meet those guys. My commercial flight program required us to spend an hour at the tower. I made friends with controllers and would go quite often and sit in the TRACON and watch those guys work. After that, I always made sure every one of my students also went to our local tower and got time watching controllers work upstairs and in the TRACON. You make a great point that controllers should go sit in a sim and watch us work as it would give some valuable insight for them. Again, I would say it's just as important for us to do the same so that we both understand all the work going into both sides of moving Px and Cargo around the world.
Approach Control gets the most action😎 Tower is best if you watch the ground controller, I hate that position. Flight Data used to be a pain using flight strips and a felt pen but it's better now. In the military I worked it out so the Airfield Commander had newly assigned pilots come through on their orientation flight day. They actually got a better idea of how their new airfield worked so it was a good idea.
@@charliesierra9430 I bet it's a lot different now. I was definitely hanging out back in the flight strip days, they would have them all lined out. I really liked it down in the basement best!
I work at my local airport for a fueling company. Was in a kitchen for most of my working life but going to the airport has been the best decision I've ever made. I love to fuel! And it's super awesome to learn about aviation in general. Really have grown to appreciate the engineering behind it all.
My hat is off to you. Fueling is damn hard work. If you like the engineering, there is a huge shortage of A&P mechanics right now. You might want to see what sort of resources are available to assist you in the expenses of going to an A&P school.
Great video, Kelsey. In the 1990s I was in the USAF flying the 135 out of Riyadh. Climbing the ladder to fly a mission, I saw a stream of 'water' about the diameter of my thumb pouring from the belly between the wings. The puddle was quickly growing. The ground crew was going about their normal business and the crew was climbing aboard. I walked to the edge of the puddle and put a finger in it and took a sniff. "FUEL LEAK! Everyone off the jet!" Luckily there was no fire. Turned out the transfer pump blew out a fitting. One of the maintenance guys told me the fuel in the belly was a foot deep. Yikes.
Wowsa. I think you did the right thing being safe. You were ultimately wrong but if that little puddle caught fire it could spread fast. It’s better to be wrong and safe than unsafe and wrong. Well done.
Great one at the end lol. "I didnt mess it up." That pilot is not the type of guy who takes responsibility for anything even after admitting to ATC exactly how he messedup the last instruction (was told to JUST hold short of Q, he was NOT told "goto Q, then hold short of 25R" which is what the pilot did)
Regarding your idea of ATC doing simulator "ride a longs" - that is excellent. Many industries could use that kind of cross-exposure. It helps all people understand how to do their own job better as part of a system of people, as well as be more compassionate to those who are maybe seem as challenges in their day-to-day responsibilities. There are often just factors at play that people don't know about their adjacent teams, companies, and industries
Never happen because money. An equally useful excercise would be to have pilots take a back seat when ATCs are doing their training. Everyone is busy, more so when there's an emergency.
ATC does get some jump seat privileges, not sure quite how far those extend but that was reinstated a few years back IIRC after being removed following 9/11. It should be mandatory. I know some airlines mandate that their dispatchers ride jump seat a few hours a year to have a better sense of pilot workload and responsibilities.
As a controller, I feel that watching your videos gives me a better understanding about what you do, what to expect, and do my job better (kinda like that training in the simulator you wish we could see). So.. great JOB on the channel, I love your content! I enjoy the last one.. sounds like yeah, the pilot screwed up. And I like how the controller saved his attitude because he wasn't sure at first if he screwed up! LOL..
Even if he was sure he hadn't, makes sense to double-check that it wasn't a simple miscommunication. I mean, not great in a safety-critical environment either, but not quite the same as "yeah, you told me to hold short, this is close enough, right??"
While this story is not about a fuel leak, it does illustrate how things pile up on a pilot with an emergency: I was commanding a B 707 on a series from Karachi--Muscat -Bahrein and back the same route. Muscat was renovating the airport and there was no aids (NDB ILS VOR) available so visual approaches without VASI had to be carried out. Only 7000 ft out of the usual 10,000ft Runway was usable. Night landings were forbidden but night take offs were allowed. On the return take off at night from Muscat, when passing 300agl there was a loud thump and the aircraft shook. I thought that we might have grazed an unlit crane but the British controller said: Pakistan aircraft, your Number Four engine is on fire! We had taken off with lots of fuel as we were tankering to Karachi---fuel was cheaper in Muscat so we were over max landing weight. I had a F/E on training with the instructor F/E. I had the gear up by now and had began accelerating into the black night, letting the 707 get to 3000ft before taking action. Ther had been no fire warning light or bell.I sent the spare F/E back to look out at the number four engine. He returned shortly saying that the number four was NOT on fire. "Thanks goodness for that,"I told him. But he had just hesitated. "Four is not on fire--number THREE is--and the flames are going past the tail!" I asked for permission to circle over Muscat Bay while we sorted things out. We did the fire check list for 3 but there was still no fire warning. We fired the bottle anyway for 3. and circled like a comet over the Bay trailing fire. I could not dump fuel as that was not possible with an engine fire ( unlike a 747 ). so, in our circling we dropped the landing gear and partial flaps to burn up fuel faster. THEN the Number four engine failed. Now I had to get her down fast. The only aid that I had were the two strips of runway lights--not even threshold lighting. This was going to be an "eyeball Mark One " landing on a short runway, overweight and coming in fast because of two engines out on the right side. We made it---just! AND did not burst a tyre. It turned out that we had run into several hundred birds that set fire to the number three and severely damaged four. You must have flown a later model of the 747 than our -200s. Our auto brakes had three settings: Low, Medium, and Full. I usually landed without auto brakes and only used them on wet or slippery runways. This was a good presentation and it shows the general public how loaded pilots are in emergency situations--keep up the good work!
When I was a fueler, part of my routine when walking up to a plane was to do a quick check for wet spots on the ground under the wings. If I found a wet spot, I'd do a quick check to see if it was fuel or water. If fuel. I'd take a minute to see if it was a leak. I caught a 737 with a leak in the pylon that was dripping directly behind the engine that way.. This was befire I'd put 10.000 lbs of fuel into the wings and with all the pumps turned off.
I was once fueling a small jet and noticed a puddle of brake fluid under the main gear. They had blown out a seal in the brakes. I've never seen a fuel leak though.
I met that captain about a week after the incident. From what I recall, they did a fuel check at TOC and noticed that something was wrong then. I really appreciate your comment about stopping ASAP on the runway, I never thought of that either
When I went through military ATC training, my base mostly had fighters. We were taught to never to talk to the aircraft during critical phases of flight such as takeoff roll or short final (unless it was an emergency).
Yeah, if the information isn't absolutely time critical then it doesn't need to happen right that moment. If you're saying "i don't know if you can do this now" then it probably doesn't need to happen right then. Its like being a passenger in a car and asking whats in the driver's back seat right as they're trying to pull out into a busy road. Just wait a minute.
That's the overall gist of things, you've already cleared them for takeoff or landing so the only need would be a runway incursion (which happens more at training bases like Vance AFB)
I assume the fighters were mostly single-seat, unlike transport planes where the pilot flying isn't also working the radio. That might be why there's extra emphasis on not distracting them in critical phases. (I assume this policy applied to all aircraft, including larger ones with more crew, but I'm guessing it was designed around single-seaters.) Or maybe it's just a good idea that everyone should be doing, IDK I'm just an interested amateur.
I was on an MD-95 from Raleigh to Kansas City. Window seat just behind the wings and I saw that there was fuel leaking from a sump cover and streaming as mist off the back of the wing. I told a flight attendant about it, but the message was never relayed to the cockpit. When we landed at Kansas City I waited until everyone else was off the plane and approached the cockpit and informed the second officer who was staying at the door what I had seen. His reply? "I guess that explains why we used more fuel than normal this time." Oh, well. I was on the ground and we didn't blow up so I guess that was a good thing.
The only thing about stopping as quickly as possible is the fact that you might wind up with hot brakes and/or blown tires, which can create a problem. Hot brakes plus fuel leak could make the situation a whole lot worse. Total judgement call, but I'd be inclined to stop more normally. Great video as always!
@@KaitouKaiju Tires on airplanes don't typically blow, they deflate on purpose. There are lead bolts in the metal rim, and if the brakes get too hot these melt and deflate the tires. Fuse plugs they call them.
At max autobrake, if the tires aren't in crap shape they wouldn't blow. And yes, a plane can blow its tires, I've seen all main tires blow on a 747 freighter. But, that wasn't because of hot brakes, it was because that company didn't like spending money on new tires and therefore flew with tires that were often at the brink of falling apart. But as someone has already stated, fuse plugs prevent wheels of properly maintained planes from blowing when brakes are hot. But typically, even max autobrakes doesn't get them that hot.
As a former highway maintenance worker I know how damaging fuel can be to asphalt. It's also very slippery. So minimizing the landing roll is preferred as it spreads less fuel on the runway thereby reducing the damage to the surface
additionally, they're not really allowed to wash it off but have to sprinkle it with kitty litter and sweep it up. that runway will be out of order for cleaning for hours anyway, no need to spread it any more than necessary
@@kirakaffee9976 it makes sense that they're not allowed to wash it off of the runway, since that would probably soak into the ground and get into groundwater. But are you saying that there's no other way that they can get the fuel off of the runway? It just seems kind of strange that we don't have a better technology for that yet.
I am one of your nervous flier viewers, but no more. You've demystified this enough that my last set of flights to the U.S. were no more worrisome than taking the Chicken bus through Nicaragua. You're providing service to all nervous fliers.
@@efulmer8675 Chicken bus is where U.S. school buses go to die and rise again. They are painted vainglorious colors and designs, and cost very little to ride. Went down to San Juan Del Sur to a resort and as I left the Nicaragua immigration at the border various taxi drivers started shouting they'd take us for fifty bucks. I climbed on the chicken bus and paid a munificent less than a dollar for the same ride. Best and cheapest way to get around Nica! Now if only they weren' t having political strive I'd go back to visit. Beautiful place.
We (try to) do something called “walk a mile in your shoes” at my job, having nurses of one department (the ER for example) shadow nurses in a different department (maybe the ICU) and it creates a mutual respect and better understanding of what each department does. There can be tension between departments because the work and skills themselves are quite different, but the overall goal is the same-safety and taking care of people. I love the idea of a simulated session with pilots and ATC! Cool to hear that the ILS and autopilot can be used in this way, to offload some of the work of the task-saturated crew. If the technology is there and it’s going to maximize safety, use it! Thanks for another great video!
That away to make friends AA. Hey Kelsey, your simulator story reminded me of a simulator where I had the FAA observing. The crew was doing a great job. They had a cargo fire, divert, weather issues…. You know how we write LOE’s. As we went through 10,000 at 310 knts. the fed leaned over to me and said “that’s a violation! That’s a down!” I calmly leaned back towards him and said “Bill, their on fire!” He said “oh that’s right!” They had been doing such a great job. Making it look so normal, that he had forgotten the cargo fire. In the debrief he had nothing but praise for the crew! I passed my check also.
The Gimli Glider. A 767 ran out of gas at 35,000 feet over Canada due to an incorrect conversion from imperial to metric when fueling the aircraft. A true story and a great book.
We were getting ready to launch a KC-135R, engines running and aircraft closed up, when a fuel leak started. It was pumping fuel at 80 psi out a four inch line. I immediately signaled the pilot to shut down and evacuate the aircraft. Once the engines were shutdown, the leak stopped, but there was already a large spill on the ground. Very exciting for a few minutes. Repairs were done and it departed the next day.
Wow, 80psi on a 4 in line is like a big firehose wide open. I've seen firetrucks run out of water real quick when pumping that fast. Sounds like the entire fuel load of the plane would be emptied out in only a few minutes with a leak that large! I don't think the pressure would still be 80 psi if the entire line broke off. Maybe that 4in line just had a small crack in it? Don't know the exact numbers off the top of my head, but my gut instinct is telling me it takes several hundred horsepower of pumps to maintain 80 psi with a wide open 4 inch line.
@@Sierrahtl aft main fuel shutoff valve stuck open, ands since the tank was already full, when the pilots pressurized the AR pumps, it sent fuel out the vent.
I just wanted to say, even though you might not see this, I love how you point out good and great thing pilot have done instead of just roasting people all of the time, it nice to see the guys who do right get some recognition for what they've done well. its a nice change of pace to the usual youtuber who thinks "if I point out their flaws I look better."
Thank you, look forward to your post every week especially when my plane is down. Been a 172 pilot flying over cornfields for 30 years. Recently endeavored to get IR. Been a ruff go so far, old guy, older plane, and a fear of screwing up is a real thing to tackle, you really help with that, especially when dealing with ATC.
When I was a line guy at a major FBO chain, we had a tenant Falcon 500 that had a faulty single point fueling system and would, for whatever reason, only fuel the right side, center tank and trim tank from the single point and wouldn't do the left wing at all. So, we had to do the left side over the wing(which doesn't allow for a full tank). Anyway, the last time we did this, the fuel just starts gushing from the left wing like crazy just like in this video, and we tell the pilots over UNICOM that this is happening, they just ball out the throttles hold the left brake and whip that sucker around like we were trying to mug them, and headed out to the active. Meanwhile, the tower had heard us on UNICOM and was telling them to stop. Airport OPS comes over to our ramp asking us what is going, on just as the Falcon hits runway 24, requests permission to take off, gets it, and then blasts out of there like he was a Nicaraguan drug smuggler. To top it off, guess who the VIP was on this flight? None other than former President Bill Clinton. I don't know if they ever got it fixed though, as I quit that job a couple of months later.
My son trained at UND and I like that all the majors have to do some of all the other majors, so he had to do a semester of air traffic management (I.e being a controller) and all the air traffic management majors have to get their private pilot and as you note, then everyone has a sense of the other’s workload. Obviously flying an archer and a CRJ are going to be very different but handling an aircraft in busy airspace under stress is going to resonate. The reverse of a pilot understanding what the ATC guys are dealing with during an emergency (clearing the pattern, etc) is good for pilots to know as well so you can frame your emergency to get exactly what you need for help. I’d say the much more useful stat that the fire-rescue guys should have asked is, how much faster is the fuel flowing on the left tank which would approximate the leak rate (I.e. how big a puddle of jet-a is there going to be)
I like your idea about controllers sitting in on a simulator session. Ideally that would be part of their basic curriculum and also be done as needed as follow up training after an incident. The incident could be controller error, an equipment problem, or anything else where understanding the cockpit situation would have educational value.
This is awesome! I fuel for United out of Denver and I always give extra 100-200 lbs of fuel in case of something like this, and I make sure when I walk away I look at the wings and make sure none is spilling out
Kelsey thank you for all of this information over the last year or so that I’ve been watching your channel you have definitely made a change in my life no more Valium before I have to get on an airplane🎉 I understand things so much better you’ve been an extremely great help to me thank you again. This clip was very interesting But I loved the last part of it oh my gosh that’s so funny😂
It makes such a difference doesn't it? I've been following this channel for perhaps a year too, and I feel like I could get on a plane now. I haven't tried it yet, but I think I will. I never thought that I would feel this way, I was all set never to fly again - ever! It's such a liberating feeling isn't it?
Just put in my application for air traffic for this bid yesterday! Honestly watching your videos made me want to do it and got me looking into it. Thank you!
1982 an AV-8 Harrier Marine Corps Air Station Yuma AZ had a fuel transfer issue. I was a Crash Crew the fire rescue crew. As we were heading to the mid field via taxiway toward our designated station as it landed it summersaulted and was in a wall of fire what seemed 200' high and 1000 feet long. 41 years later I see it like it was yesterday He landed conventionally because the imbalance and on Harriers the have struts near the tips of wings and it caught the arresting cable like on an aircraft carrier. Seeing his horribly charred body was heart breaking. RIP 1st Lt Charles Simpson
I love your attitude Kelsey. I'm a professional in the engineering world and I think all industries could learn a lot regarding giving feedback with a positive and supportive perspective.
Great video. These ATC vs Pilots take me back to my days as a controller. The reason that the fire trucks and county requested a stop on the runway is that it is much much easier for the trucks and other vehicles to get to all parts of the aircraft without driving in the grass on narrower taxiways. It is also much easier to deplane passengers and crew via the emergency exits on the wider runway if necessary. It obviously causes the closure of that runway until all is resolved but the possibility of a quicker rescue if necessary takes priority. Also, all surfaces have to be inspected after the plane lands for FOD and in this case fuel before opening the airport again which is much easier if the plane stays on the runway.
@@GigsTaggart Typically in the U.S., a fuel spill will be contained with those rope like absorbent barriers then vacuumed up by a truck that looks like a street sweeper. All the contaminated fuel is then disposed of as hazardous waste. Some airports have been built or modified with special drain systems that funnel ramp spills into underground tanks for disposal.
16:03 At the first backtalk, it was pretty clear the pilot messed up. Any professional pilot would focus on getting his plane to the gate first and leave complaints until after they are no longer operating the plane. If they argue there and then? Yeah, probably messed up.
That was classic. I've had very little interaction with ATC in my young life, the only instruction I remember clearly on final was to speed it up if possible. Hard to do in my little plane, and I was cleared on my downwind to enter final... but it worried me. And I was nineteen at the time I believe. I really appreciated the ATC guy in this one.
"what did I tell you?" "hold short of quebec" "why didn't you hold short of Quebec?" "we would have if you'd told us to" ummm.... someone seems to have some memory problems.
8:15 This is quite accurate for me too. Not a pilot, but a truck driver. Some guys I meet say that they've been working for 10+ years and they're all the way from across the country. They run 2 or 3 hauls in a week, or so. I've been running regional deliveries with a truck and full, 13 meter long trailer with front pivot axles. I reverse into tight spots and some places where even my colleagues say that I shouldn't even go in with a trailer but pull over the pallets from the trailer to the truck before delivery. You can almost see what type of driver someone is by how they behave and how quickly they're able to work on a terminal. I can reverse 90° in between 2 trucks and still be centered between the lines and have the truck and the trailer straight when I'm finished. A driver who does longer hauls don't go in reverse as often as I do. Some of them are quite good but then you have those who you think are really good cuz they're driving really nice trucks. But in fact I almost get gray hair before they're done and they're not even straight in the gate.
I watch some of the trucker dashcam videos, and when one comes up of a truck stop at night, I just know some poor soul's sleep is about to be ruined by somebody who doesn't have the skills to make that maneuver. I'll stick to American Truck Sim. ;)
You have a similar dynamic with Formula 1 drivers and their engineers. Drivers have a huge workload during a lap, they’re driving at speeds of up to 200 mph, they have to tweak a lot of engine and powertrain parameters (engine mappings, brake bias, managing the boost from the electric part of the hybrid engine), while trying to go around as quickly as possible and also managing tyre temperatures. At the same time they get a lot of info from their engineers. Lap times, deltas to their opponents, information about the sensor suite (tire temps, engine temps, brake temps etc.) This can seriously distract them from the actual task of driving the car as quickly as possible. Given that there’s no FAA which mandates codes of conduct and the stakes are much lower sometimes drivers get on the radio to tell their engineers to „shut up I’m driving“ to ease the work load
This comment made me smile. Takes me back to when Kimi took the lead and he had everyone on the radio trying to micromanage him to which Raikkonen responded “ leave me alone I know what I’m doing “
I was a passenger on a KLM flight out of Schiphol on an Embraer and just after take off we noticed fuel venting out of both wings. It was pretty scary as we flew back to the airport as quickly as possible. I was old enough to remember the Concorde incident and had images of that happening.
One of the most informative videos on this channel. Out of my (very limited) experience in aviation and air safety, I already knew most of the info that Kelsey reports here, but I think this is awesome for the general public, very clear and well-explained as usual. Safe flights
I don't remember if I told this story on one of your videos, But when I had a cockpit fire in a C182 one time, we landed at a small towered airport. The controller said any taxiway, and the pilot Saif "We'll take the first turn off," This is a GA airport, no high speed turnoff. The controller said "Are you sure? That's close to the threshold " My pilot said, "We eill make it." Greased the landing with the stall horn pipping for the last 100 feet of altitude. We made the turnoff with no problem. I then realized why. There was the building that housed the fire truck.
Yup, I feel the pain of hitting an airport maybe once or twice in a year and ATC talks as if I’m a frequent flyer. Pen, paper, airport diagram and Safe Taxi all help 👍😎me. Super job explaining the emergency for those you have less exposure to this flying thing. 🙌
Question about braking/max breaking in a fuel leak...While stopping and getting FD on scene quick is good, if there was no fire while flying would it not be better to NOT introduce heat from braking potentially causing a fire? IE, the entire runway is already yours, use what you need to stop, but nothing more. Maybe a change to FD response instead, like one follow vehicle and others along the way?
We sometimes do place a truck at the middle of the runway. It all depends on the sop's and the situation. We want to get to the aircraft as fast as possible but also maintain a exit corridor for passenger evacuation
The fuel leak is well aft of the breaks. Once landed he can shut off all fuel to that engine including internal boost pumps so HOT breaks are not an issue.
I've worked a few Airports and usually they do stage units in back and the middle. I've seen alot of Emergency landings, none were serious, mostly loss of hydraulics or other minor things. No fires or crashes. The Rescue teams do a great job taking no chances
Controllers "sitting in" while a pilot is in the simulator is a GENIUS idea. I hope it's implemented and I hope you are recognized for that suggestion. Keep up the great work, Kelsey. P.S. I hope the 'tug driver' in _your_ incident was recognized for taking the time to alert you of the "water" pouring out of your engine. Small effort with potentially big consequences.
I love the videos you do of ATC vs pilots as I am currently going through the clearance process to become a controller. I am so excited to get this opportunity and never realized how much I enjoyed the vacation industry.
@@ClearedAsFiled if you are a US citizen with at least 3 years combined work experience or a bachelor's degree or combination of both and under 31 years old you can go apply for this year's bid.
Wow, that last convo between ATC and 58 was hilarious. Even civilians understand what "hold short of" means, but the pilot insists the controller screwed up, he even reads back correctly the instructions with "hold short of Q"... while coasting on Q like a gangsta.
I've noticed that pilots seem really hesitant about officially declaring panpanpan or emergency. Even in fairly obvious emergency situations they never actually state, "I am declaring an emergency."
I've wondered this as well. I think behind the scenes there's a lot of paperwork, possibly off-duty while a review is in progress and maybe some simulator time and a lengthy write-up on your record.
I imagine if they get it wrong there could be a lot of ramifications. It would cost the airline a fortune so they'd be asking questions if there was no emergency after all. I think that was one of the issues with the Air Transat flight why they waited too late to declare a fuel emergency- because they would get in trouble if they had misread the sensors and were wrong. Plus the safety boards will want to do an investigation, there will be customer complaints and they could possibly be benched while the investigation is going on.
They were already receiving priority handling so they didn’t need to say the magic words themselves. The controller can declare for the crew if they feel necessary. If the crew wasn’t receiving the priority, the could say the words and simply do what they felt necessary. In this case it looked like everything was working just fine. They also would not change their squawk code because they were already on a discrete code. If they had been a VFR aircraft switching would be one of the first steps.
@@charleseinarson Is it possible that there are fees associated with displacing other aircraft and getting priority access? If so it could explain why ATC would declare the emergency because they know that Judy from accounting is going to get on their back for a freebie emergency and airlines requesting credits for the amount of fuel burn while holding for the emergency.
I'd be interested to hear the opinions of actual commercial pilots, but I do suspect that there's an element of not wanting to say the "magic words", because they definitely are acting like there's an emergency.
@@anthonyC214 Would be interesting. I doubt seriously that Kelsey was flying it. Even if he was the Captain on deck is the one responsible. I’m sure there is more to the story than what the media gave. Kelsey has enough experience to tell or suggest to a Captain who maybe “ain’t from around here” that he’s ordering the wrong airport.
My training as a fueler for the airline i work for "3rd party", The CRJ-700 and 900 have a maxium wing to wing imbalence of 700 lbs / 317 KGs. Any more than that, EICAS msgs appear in the cockpit. I fuel them all the time and the only time you deal with it is during overwing. Thats when the pressure refueling hookup is inop which is rare. Its funny to see the looks of passengers though seeing what overwing refueling is. All they see is a "hole" in the wing. The average arrival fuel is about double of what those pilots stated in my experience.
Yes, I've been on some RJ flights where the landing roll out was... "short". Been on a couple where the landing was so hard I could swear there must have been potholes in the runway.
Great video! I don't understand why it is so hard for some of these pilots to own up to their mistakes when they make them. Granted, I am still a student pilot, but I would never imagine myself arguing with a controller. That is not an argument you are going to win.
Can only speak for my own experience in non-airline industries Owning a mistake or being blamed for one means you're getting written up or fired. Written up is basically fired, they are just waiting for you to train your replacement. If you don't own up to mistakes, and refuse to be blamed, they stick it onto the weakest link. Weak leaders caused this, strong leaders will have their staff own up and learn/grow from mistakes.
@@mrsilver8517 Too bad. I've been at my company for 38 years and the attitude of most managers I've had has been "fix the problem, not the blame." They realize that everyone makes mistakes and they work to try to improve the systems and controls to limit the number of mistakes that are made. Of course, there have been engineers who haven't bothered to learn and/or follow the systems and controls, and those are the engineers that are gone at the next layoff.
In an emergency you have to tell ATC what you want. It’s not an argument, just a statement of requirements. It’s also not about winning or losing it’s about operating going safely.
I mean it’s not like every radio transmission between ATC and the planes are recorded or anything… yeah sometimes it’s okay to admit mistakes and then never repeat that mistake again.
I don't truly see the value of that being done more than once in the entire career (pilot in controller sim). The opposite does have some value from time to time.
@whatsApp⓵⓷⓪⓻⓶⓹⓺⓼⓼⓺⓽ Hey champ thanks for your reply. Sorry to say I don't do the apps scene. Very old school. Happy to comment as is on future posts to offer my views and thought, cheers Kelsey
It would be awesome if you could find one of the Pilots from one of these videos and have them discuss what was going through their head while their situation was unfolding.
I love when someone knows 100% they screwed up and instead of owning it and taking it as a learning experience they double down with the "NO YOU" argument
Love, love love these videos Kelsey! Not a pilot, just a little aviation geek and I really appreciate your insight into the videos you post. Keep 'em coming!
Sometimes people know their jobs so well they forget it took a long time for them to get to where they are. They are the people who are difficult to collaborate with or to train under.
Hi Kelsey, Loved the bit at the end. Whenever I'm near LHR I listen in to the ground ops FM repeater. The way the controllers move aircraft around the field and have a total overview of where everything is and what's going on never ceases to amaze me. (Also like the very polite way ground hand outbound traffic over to the tower frequency at Heathrow) Perhaps you could do a video on ground ops.
a excellent video idea for the pilots vs atc series is interview a air traffic controller about what things that pilots do that annoys them and also talk about how air traffic controllers annoy you as a pilot without air traffic controllers you would not be able to land or go anywhere
I noted the reference to the Instrument Landing System (ILS). Some history. When that system was first developed the FAA and the airlines needed an airport for pilots to be able to safely train on the system, a location with mostly clear weather. Had a friend who worked for the FAA. He suggested Yuma, Arizona, 360 clear days a year (they claim). Yuma is also a US Marine Corps air base. The Colonel in charge didn't like the idea at all. The system was installed anyway. (Chuck C. - he was in charge of all the FAA navigation aids in that area.)
would totally love more reacts to atc/pilot conversations xD they're always fun to listen to but sometimes as a normal person, some stuff are missed and not understood xD
#1 rule in being a pilot is that looking cool is far more important than being safe, if you look cooler flying a 737 either upside down or at a 90 degree bank then you are required to do so, even if it leads to a crash, if I were a passenger I would totally understand crashing as long as it was due to the flight crew looking cool
Kelsey, you left out that part with the controller telling the pilots: "Do you have a piece of paper handy? There's a phone number I need you to jot down..."
I lost it when the instructor said “so you just want the firetrucks to chase you a couple extra thousand feet down the runway” then “so you want them to put you out right away or wait a couple minutes”😂😂 Obviously it would be a serious issue in a real life scenario, but in this case I couldn’t help but find the humor in the passive aggressiveness
Well you generally don't go from non-pilot to wide-body airline pilot. It's a gradual progression learning to fly little Cessnas, then small airliners, then bigger planes, etc, so you've got many years to get comfortable with the transition. Think of it like learning to drive and going from a tiny 2-seat car, to a mid-size sedan, to a big SUV.
Your comment about controllers sitting in being of benefit is spot on. Different industry, but having Powerplant operators sit in the transmission dispatch office was beneficial to those operators. I believe the opposite was also of benefit.
I thought the main point of setting up for ILS in most situations was that you can instantly switch from ILS to visual at any time if needed, but not so much the other way around. Plus it's just the easiest way to trim down the task list and let everybody have a chance to double check all the critical stuff while Otto does the grunt work for a minute.
And it goes for pilots too. Once in a while visit one of the ATC facilities so that you can get a better perspective of what controllers deal with. Controllers, for the most part know that when theres an emergency that the pilots are busy and so, we only ask questions we need answers too. Souls on board, fuel, and type of emergency is a must, controllers need to know this thats why they ask, “when you are able”. Lastly, just like the workload increases for the crew, the controllers workload doubles. You see, theres a good chance thats not the only A/C on frequency and so, they cannot ignore the other twenty planes. There are multiple frequencies controllers monitors and so we have other pilots trying to talk while they are dealing with and emergency. Controllers, have to do coordinating with other controllers, supervisors asking questions, we have to answer land lines and at the same time open the way for this emergency A/C and so, yes, this video is good because it gives you a perspective of what the pilots go thru but just remember that controllers are just as busy.
I was on a turboprop going to Dayton OH (charter flight) and had the ice storm hit.... we did the goto another airport. The president of the company was upset for the lost time. The Sr. Vp of operations turned to the president and said "Let's just have the profeshinals call this one.". Appreciate your work.
Excellent, Kelsey!! I just love your presentations. . . So informative and professional, yet I love how you mix some humor in as well!! Thank you so much!! Stay safe out/up there!! Cheers!! 💖✈✈💖
"I didn't mess it up, you did" is a quick way a pilot can turn a something a controller may have let slide, into a "Possible pilot deviation, I've got a number for you to call..."
I was entirely expecting a "Please call this phone number" moment for that act of utter childishness from the pilot.
I'm curious how that ended up for the pilots. surely there's some bad attitude there, regardless if they felt they were right
Fact
@@eannliska423 The sheer audacity of that controller to even THINK about challenging the competence of the Steely Eyed Missile men of AA for even a second is mind boggling!
I don't think being childish warrants an official slap on the wrist.
I'm sure that the ground guy got his revenge some other way though.
"Oh look... your gate opened up 10 minutes ago. Let's see if I can find a way to get you there within the next half hour."
Never mess with the guy giving you your instructions.
Kelsey, I'm a controller and I LOVE the idea of controllers sitting in on a simulator during an emergency. It'd be great to get supervisors in there as well so they can stop telling us to ask stupid questions of the pilots when they're so busy.
Definitely a great idea. Would be great situational awareness in the pocket for ATC. And everyone could be better on the same page. Great team building training. Push it!
Good luck getting OKC to teach that. Even approaching the schoolhouse makes me shake my head. It's a good idea, and teaching it at the academy would be easy. Nonetheless, I will suggest it as if it's my idea, lol
Asking isn't necessarily the problem but there does need to be an awareness it will be provided if and when able not before. As for the supervisors I'd guess the issue is probably more one of them pressuring controllers to get information when the pilots are unable. That will never happen certainly not with me anyway I have a plane to fly communication is secondary to flying the plane and making sure I'm going where I need to be, if I can hep you to help me I will but not at the cost of taking attention away from flying the plane at a critical point. This is how even private pilots like myself are trained aviate, navigate, communicate, in that order no exceptions.
Is emergency information entered into the FAA computer system by the first controller and passed from enroute to approach and tower? I have listened to a couple hundred emergencies on various UA-cam channels and two things happen regularly that take time away from the pilots. The first is having to repeat the same information upon being passed to next controller. Is this a problem of the earlier controller not entering information into the system or the subsequent not taking the time to look at what's in the system? The second pilot time waster is the lack of uniformity of information requested of pilots. Souls onboard is pretty straightforward but requests for hazardous materials onboard are either not made or drawn out. By far the worst emergency question pilots are asked is "fuel onboard?"! If the pilot responds with time in hours and minutes the controller asks for the fuel in pounds, presumably so the fire command can assess the potential size of a fire. If the pilot responds with the fuel in pounds the controller asks for gallons or kilograms or time. Isn't there some way to standardize these requests to minimize pilot distractions? A simple conversion chart for controllers would solve the pounds vs kilograms vs gallons problem...
@@wizardgmb There is a very good reason for the latter, namely that there are two reasons ATC will ask you for fuel on board. One is during a potential fuel emergency where they need to know how long they have to get you safely on the ground. The other is in the event of a potential crash where fire and rescue are asking how much of the flammable liquid hazmat may be involved in any potential fire. As fuel burn varies widely between types and flying conditions it is necessary to get the correct value for the situation at hand. The former is however more common this is why when this is what is wanted the units are often not specified but they always are (or should be) when the request is being forwarded from rescue services.
Hi Kelsey. I wish I'd known about his fuel leak. With the price of fuel in the UK at the moment, I could have run behind him with a bucket! 😂
$$$ And a mop!
🤣
And in America too...!
@@beverlyweber4122 Why 'America too' ?
People in many countries outside of the U.S. pay more for gasoline due to higher taxes on fuel. European countries tend to have the highest gas taxes.
@@peterjf7723 maybe because americans are experiencing high fuel prices right now, too? no need to make it into a pissing contest
@@peterjf7723 There are a lot of places in the US where gas prices are just as high or higher than Europe. In Europe, prices go anywhere from the equivalent of $5-10/gallon, which is pretty much the same as the US right now. The US doesn't have the same taxes on fuel, but we have to ship fuel overseas in a lot of cases because we shut down the pipeline.
@10:40 As a pilot myself, one thing I always appreciated I had the opportunity to do was go into the tower and meet those guys. My commercial flight program required us to spend an hour at the tower. I made friends with controllers and would go quite often and sit in the TRACON and watch those guys work. After that, I always made sure every one of my students also went to our local tower and got time watching controllers work upstairs and in the TRACON.
You make a great point that controllers should go sit in a sim and watch us work as it would give some valuable insight for them. Again, I would say it's just as important for us to do the same so that we both understand all the work going into both sides of moving Px and Cargo around the world.
Approach Control gets the most action😎 Tower is best if you watch the ground controller, I hate that position. Flight Data used to be a pain using flight strips and a felt pen but it's better now. In the military I worked it out so the Airfield Commander had newly assigned pilots come through on their orientation flight day. They actually got a better idea of how their new airfield worked so it was a good idea.
@@charliesierra9430 I bet it's a lot different now. I was definitely hanging out back in the flight strip days, they would have them all lined out. I really liked it down in the basement best!
I work at my local airport for a fueling company. Was in a kitchen for most of my working life but going to the airport has been the best decision I've ever made. I love to fuel! And it's super awesome to learn about aviation in general. Really have grown to appreciate the engineering behind it all.
My hat is off to you. Fueling is damn hard work. If you like the engineering, there is a huge shortage of A&P mechanics right now. You might want to see what sort of resources are available to assist you in the expenses of going to an A&P school.
spent most my time in a kitchen and started cleaning planes about a year ago and its been great
@@Hopeless_and_Forlorn Thanks man. I'll probably fuel for a few years and then yes I'm absolutely going to look into schooling options around me.
@@tutudanny Awesome dude I'm super happy it's going well for you too
In other words, you're having fun.
Good on ya, dude!
The way life should be.
That last pilot held really short of "write this number down and call".
Great video, Kelsey.
Great video, Kelsey. In the 1990s I was in the USAF flying the 135 out of Riyadh. Climbing the ladder to fly a mission, I saw a stream of 'water' about the diameter of my thumb pouring from the belly between the wings. The puddle was quickly growing. The ground crew was going about their normal business and the crew was climbing aboard. I walked to the edge of the puddle and put a finger in it and took a sniff. "FUEL LEAK! Everyone off the jet!" Luckily there was no fire. Turned out the transfer pump blew out a fitting. One of the maintenance guys told me the fuel in the belly was a foot deep. Yikes.
Wowsa. I think you did the right thing being safe. You were ultimately wrong but if that little puddle caught fire it could spread fast. It’s better to be wrong and safe than unsafe and wrong.
Well done.
Great one at the end lol. "I didnt mess it up." That pilot is not the type of guy who takes responsibility for anything even after admitting to ATC exactly how he messedup the last instruction (was told to JUST hold short of Q, he was NOT told "goto Q, then hold short of 25R" which is what the pilot did)
ha ha yes - he reads back the correct instructions, says he didn't follow them, and then blames the controller.
@kneel, he is not this way with ATC, he’s like this with everything and everybody in his life, I guarantee it!!
Regarding your idea of ATC doing simulator "ride a longs" - that is excellent. Many industries could use that kind of cross-exposure. It helps all people understand how to do their own job better as part of a system of people, as well as be more compassionate to those who are maybe seem as challenges in their day-to-day responsibilities. There are often just factors at play that people don't know about their adjacent teams, companies, and industries
Never happen because money. An equally useful excercise would be to have pilots take a back seat when ATCs are doing their training. Everyone is busy, more so when there's an emergency.
ATC does get some jump seat privileges, not sure quite how far those extend but that was reinstated a few years back IIRC after being removed following 9/11. It should be mandatory. I know some airlines mandate that their dispatchers ride jump seat a few hours a year to have a better sense of pilot workload and responsibilities.
Flight attendants should join in too! They are an integral part of crm
I imagine they at least watch piloting videos during ATC education/training so they have _some_ clue about what the other side is dealing with.
These are ‘grow your perspective’ moments. They are useful in all aspects of life.
As a controller, I feel that watching your videos gives me a better understanding about what you do, what to expect, and do my job better (kinda like that training in the simulator you wish we could see). So.. great JOB on the channel, I love your content!
I enjoy the last one.. sounds like yeah, the pilot screwed up. And I like how the controller saved his attitude because he wasn't sure at first if he screwed up! LOL..
Even if he was sure he hadn't, makes sense to double-check that it wasn't a simple miscommunication. I mean, not great in a safety-critical environment either, but not quite the same as "yeah, you told me to hold short, this is close enough, right??"
While this story is not about a fuel leak, it does illustrate how things pile up on a pilot with an emergency: I was commanding a B 707 on a series from Karachi--Muscat -Bahrein and back the same route. Muscat was renovating the airport and there was no aids (NDB ILS VOR) available so visual approaches without VASI had to be carried out. Only 7000 ft out of the usual 10,000ft Runway was usable. Night landings were forbidden but night take offs were allowed. On the return take off at night from Muscat, when passing 300agl there was a loud thump and the aircraft shook. I thought that we might have grazed an unlit crane but the British controller said: Pakistan aircraft, your Number Four engine is on fire! We had taken off with lots of fuel as we were tankering to Karachi---fuel was cheaper in Muscat so we were over max landing weight. I had a F/E on training with the instructor F/E. I had the gear up by now and had began accelerating into the black night, letting the 707 get to 3000ft before taking action. Ther had been no fire warning light or bell.I sent the spare F/E back to look out at the number four engine. He returned shortly saying that the number four was NOT on fire. "Thanks goodness for that,"I told him. But he had just hesitated. "Four is not on fire--number THREE is--and the flames are going past the tail!" I asked for permission to circle over Muscat Bay while we sorted things out. We did the fire check list for 3 but there was still no fire warning. We fired the bottle anyway for 3. and circled like a comet over the Bay trailing fire. I could not dump fuel as that was not possible with an engine fire ( unlike a 747 ). so, in our circling we dropped the landing gear and partial flaps to burn up fuel faster. THEN the Number four engine failed. Now I had to get her down fast. The only aid that I had were the two strips of runway lights--not even threshold lighting. This was going to be an "eyeball Mark One " landing on a short runway, overweight and coming in fast because of two engines out on the right side. We made it---just! AND did not burst a tyre. It turned out that we had run into several hundred birds that set fire to the number three and severely damaged four. You must have flown a later model of the 747 than our -200s. Our auto brakes had three settings: Low, Medium, and Full. I usually landed without auto brakes and only used them on wet or slippery runways. This was a good presentation and it shows the general public how loaded pilots are in emergency situations--keep up the good work!
When I was a fueler, part of my routine when walking up to a plane was to do a quick check for wet spots on the ground under the wings. If I found a wet spot, I'd do a quick check to see if it was fuel or water. If fuel. I'd take a minute to see if it was a leak. I caught a 737 with a leak in the pylon that was dripping directly behind the engine that way.. This was befire I'd put 10.000 lbs of fuel into the wings and with all the pumps turned off.
I was once fueling a small jet and noticed a puddle of brake fluid under the main gear. They had blown out a seal in the brakes. I've never seen a fuel leak though.
Beennnffffff, why you lying doh
What is the test you use? Do you use a lighter and see if it ignites?
@@MJSEN uhhhh huge difference between water and fuel. Doesn’t exactly require being sent to the lab.
@@MJSEN If it smells like fuel, it's probably fuel.
I met that captain about a week after the incident. From what I recall, they did a fuel check at TOC and noticed that something was wrong then.
I really appreciate your comment about stopping ASAP on the runway, I never thought of that either
When I went through military ATC training, my base mostly had fighters. We were taught to never to talk to the aircraft during critical phases of flight such as takeoff roll or short final (unless it was an emergency).
Yeah, if the information isn't absolutely time critical then it doesn't need to happen right that moment. If you're saying "i don't know if you can do this now" then it probably doesn't need to happen right then. Its like being a passenger in a car and asking whats in the driver's back seat right as they're trying to pull out into a busy road. Just wait a minute.
That's the overall gist of things, you've already cleared them for takeoff or landing so the only need would be a runway incursion (which happens more at training bases like Vance AFB)
I assume the fighters were mostly single-seat, unlike transport planes where the pilot flying isn't also working the radio. That might be why there's extra emphasis on not distracting them in critical phases.
(I assume this policy applied to all aircraft, including larger ones with more crew, but I'm guessing it was designed around single-seaters.)
Or maybe it's just a good idea that everyone should be doing, IDK I'm just an interested amateur.
@@Peter_Cordes civil aviation craft are mostly single-seaters too or fly with one person aboard, so its important either way
I was on an MD-95 from Raleigh to Kansas City. Window seat just behind the wings and I saw that there was fuel leaking from a sump cover and streaming as mist off the back of the wing. I told a flight attendant about it, but the message was never relayed to the cockpit. When we landed at Kansas City I waited until everyone else was off the plane and approached the cockpit and informed the second officer who was staying at the door what I had seen. His reply? "I guess that explains why we used more fuel than normal this time." Oh, well. I was on the ground and we didn't blow up so I guess that was a good thing.
The only thing about stopping as quickly as possible is the fact that you might wind up with hot brakes and/or blown tires, which can create a problem. Hot brakes plus fuel leak could make the situation a whole lot worse. Total judgement call, but I'd be inclined to stop more normally.
Great video as always!
One might say if your tires blow you were trying to stop faster than what is possible
My thoughts exactly.
That’s what I was thinking.
@@KaitouKaiju Tires on airplanes don't typically blow, they deflate on purpose. There are lead bolts in the metal rim, and if the brakes get too hot these melt and deflate the tires. Fuse plugs they call them.
At max autobrake, if the tires aren't in crap shape they wouldn't blow.
And yes, a plane can blow its tires, I've seen all main tires blow on a 747 freighter.
But, that wasn't because of hot brakes, it was because that company didn't like spending money on new tires and therefore flew with tires that were often at the brink of falling apart.
But as someone has already stated, fuse plugs prevent wheels of properly maintained planes from blowing when brakes are hot.
But typically, even max autobrakes doesn't get them that hot.
As a former highway maintenance worker I know how damaging fuel can be to asphalt. It's also very slippery. So minimizing the landing roll is preferred as it spreads less fuel on the runway thereby reducing the damage to the surface
additionally, they're not really allowed to wash it off but have to sprinkle it with kitty litter and sweep it up. that runway will be out of order for cleaning for hours anyway, no need to spread it any more than necessary
@@kirakaffee9976 it makes sense that they're not allowed to wash it off of the runway, since that would probably soak into the ground and get into groundwater. But are you saying that there's no other way that they can get the fuel off of the runway? It just seems kind of strange that we don't have a better technology for that yet.
I am one of your nervous flier viewers, but no more. You've demystified this enough that my last set of flights to the U.S. were no more worrisome than taking the Chicken bus through Nicaragua. You're providing service to all nervous fliers.
I’d be scared of taking the chicken bus through Nicaragua!!
@@ASRivers Naw, piece of cake. You just need decent Spanish.
Tell me more about the chicken bus
Chicken bus?
@@efulmer8675 Chicken bus is where U.S. school buses go to die and rise again. They are painted vainglorious colors and designs, and cost very little to ride. Went down to San Juan Del Sur to a resort and as I left the Nicaragua immigration at the border various taxi drivers started shouting they'd take us for fifty bucks. I climbed on the chicken bus and paid a munificent less than a dollar for the same ride. Best and cheapest way to get around Nica! Now if only they weren' t having political strive I'd go back to visit. Beautiful place.
We (try to) do something called “walk a mile in your shoes” at my job, having nurses of one department (the ER for example) shadow nurses in a different department (maybe the ICU) and it creates a mutual respect and better understanding of what each department does. There can be tension between departments because the work and skills themselves are quite different, but the overall goal is the same-safety and taking care of people. I love the idea of a simulated session with pilots and ATC!
Cool to hear that the ILS and autopilot can be used in this way, to offload some of the work of the task-saturated crew. If the technology is there and it’s going to maximize safety, use it! Thanks for another great video!
That away to make friends AA. Hey Kelsey, your simulator story reminded me of a simulator where I had the FAA observing. The crew was doing a great job. They had a cargo fire, divert, weather issues…. You know how we write LOE’s. As we went through 10,000 at 310 knts. the fed leaned over to me and said “that’s a violation! That’s a down!” I calmly leaned back towards him and said “Bill, their on fire!” He said “oh that’s right!” They had been doing such a great job. Making it look so normal, that he had forgotten the cargo fire. In the debrief he had nothing but praise for the crew! I passed my check also.
The Gimli Glider. A 767 ran out of gas at 35,000 feet over Canada due to an incorrect conversion from imperial to metric when fueling the aircraft. A true story and a great book.
And an amazing story as well.
I’ve been flying single 1965 and I have to say I have never heard or seen better advice and knowledge in flying. And I’m 83 years old. Bless you.
We were getting ready to launch a KC-135R, engines running and aircraft closed up, when a fuel leak started. It was pumping fuel at 80 psi out a four inch line. I immediately signaled the pilot to shut down and evacuate the aircraft. Once the engines were shutdown, the leak stopped, but there was already a large spill on the ground. Very exciting for a few minutes. Repairs were done and it departed the next day.
Wow, 80psi on a 4 in line is like a big firehose wide open. I've seen firetrucks run out of water real quick when pumping that fast. Sounds like the entire fuel load of the plane would be emptied out in only a few minutes with a leak that large! I don't think the pressure would still be 80 psi if the entire line broke off. Maybe that 4in line just had a small crack in it? Don't know the exact numbers off the top of my head, but my gut instinct is telling me it takes several hundred horsepower of pumps to maintain 80 psi with a wide open 4 inch line.
I believe.. since I’ve worked on R models..
@@Sierrahtl aft main fuel shutoff valve stuck open, ands since the tank was already full, when the pilots pressurized the AR pumps, it sent fuel out the vent.
I just wanted to say, even though you might not see this, I love how you point out good and great thing pilot have done instead of just roasting people all of the time, it nice to see the guys who do right get some recognition for what they've done well. its a nice change of pace to the usual youtuber who thinks "if I point out their flaws I look better."
Thank you, look forward to your post every week especially when my plane is down. Been a 172 pilot flying over cornfields for 30 years. Recently endeavored to get IR. Been a ruff go so far, old guy, older plane, and a fear of screwing up is a real thing to tackle, you really help with that, especially when dealing with ATC.
When I was a line guy at a major FBO chain, we had a tenant Falcon 500 that had a faulty single point fueling system and would, for whatever reason, only fuel the right side, center tank and trim tank from the single point and wouldn't do the left wing at all. So, we had to do the left side over the wing(which doesn't allow for a full tank). Anyway, the last time we did this, the fuel just starts gushing from the left wing like crazy just like in this video, and we tell the pilots over UNICOM that this is happening, they just ball out the throttles hold the left brake and whip that sucker around like we were trying to mug them, and headed out to the active. Meanwhile, the tower had heard us on UNICOM and was telling them to stop. Airport OPS comes over to our ramp asking us what is going, on just as the Falcon hits runway 24, requests permission to take off, gets it, and then blasts out of there like he was a Nicaraguan drug smuggler. To top it off, guess who the VIP was on this flight? None other than former President Bill Clinton. I don't know if they ever got it fixed though, as I quit that job a couple of months later.
Great information by a great teacher, and storyteller, as usual.
My son trained at UND and I like that all the majors have to do some of all the other majors, so he had to do a semester of air traffic management (I.e being a controller) and all the air traffic management majors have to get their private pilot and as you note, then everyone has a sense of the other’s workload. Obviously flying an archer and a CRJ are going to be very different but handling an aircraft in busy airspace under stress is going to resonate. The reverse of a pilot understanding what the ATC guys are dealing with during an emergency (clearing the pattern, etc) is good for pilots to know as well so you can frame your emergency to get exactly what you need for help.
I’d say the much more useful stat that the fire-rescue guys should have asked is, how much faster is the fuel flowing on the left tank which would approximate the leak rate (I.e. how big a puddle of jet-a is there going to be)
I like your idea about controllers sitting in on a simulator session. Ideally that would be part of their basic curriculum and also be done as needed as follow up training after an incident. The incident could be controller error, an equipment problem, or anything else where understanding the cockpit situation would have educational value.
This is awesome! I fuel for United out of Denver and I always give extra 100-200 lbs of fuel in case of something like this, and I make sure when I walk away I look at the wings and make sure none is spilling out
Thanks for doing such a great job....!!!
Kelsey thank you for all of this information over the last year or so that I’ve been watching your channel you have definitely made a change in my life no more Valium before I have to get on an airplane🎉 I understand things so much better you’ve been an extremely great help to me thank you again. This clip was very interesting But I loved the last part of it oh my gosh that’s so funny😂
It makes such a difference doesn't it? I've been following this channel for perhaps a year too, and I feel like I could get on a plane now. I haven't tried it yet, but I think I will. I never thought that I would feel this way, I was all set never to fly again - ever! It's such a liberating feeling isn't it?
@@suegardner Yes absolutely
That’s so cool for you👍🏽🙌🏽
Just put in my application for air traffic for this bid yesterday! Honestly watching your videos made me want to do it and got me looking into it. Thank you!
Hey pal, me too! Its a long shot but a job as an ATC would be pretty cool
Good luck to both of you......AWESOME CAREER
If the plane is already on fire, aggressive autobraking is great. For a fuel leak near the gear, getting the brakes that hot can ignite the fuel
The fumes alone could have. I couldn't help but also think about the fuel spewing on people as it made its approach.
1982 an AV-8 Harrier Marine Corps Air Station Yuma AZ had a fuel transfer issue. I was a Crash Crew the fire rescue crew. As we were heading to the mid field via taxiway toward our designated station as it landed it summersaulted and was in a wall of fire what seemed 200' high and 1000 feet long. 41 years later I see it like it was yesterday He landed conventionally because the imbalance and on Harriers the have struts near the tips of wings and it caught the arresting cable like on an aircraft carrier. Seeing his horribly charred body was heart breaking. RIP 1st Lt Charles Simpson
I love your attitude Kelsey. I'm a professional in the engineering world and I think all industries could learn a lot regarding giving feedback with a positive and supportive perspective.
Great video. These ATC vs Pilots take me back to my days as a controller. The reason that the fire trucks and county requested a stop on the runway is that it is much much easier for the trucks and other vehicles to get to all parts of the aircraft without driving in the grass on narrower taxiways. It is also much easier to deplane passengers and crew via the emergency exits on the wider runway if necessary. It obviously causes the closure of that runway until all is resolved but the possibility of a quicker rescue if necessary takes priority. Also, all surfaces have to be inspected after the plane lands for FOD and in this case fuel before opening the airport again which is much easier if the plane stays on the runway.
do they wash it or what for fuel on rwy?
@@GigsTaggart Typically in the U.S., a fuel spill will be contained with those rope like absorbent barriers then vacuumed up by a truck that looks like a street sweeper. All the contaminated fuel is then disposed of as hazardous waste. Some airports have been built or modified with special drain systems that funnel ramp spills into underground tanks for disposal.
16:03 At the first backtalk, it was pretty clear the pilot messed up.
Any professional pilot would focus on getting his plane to the gate first and leave complaints until after they are no longer operating the plane. If they argue there and then? Yeah, probably messed up.
That was classic. I've had very little interaction with ATC in my young life, the only instruction I remember clearly on final was to speed it up if possible. Hard to do in my little plane, and I was cleared on my downwind to enter final... but it worried me. And I was nineteen at the time I believe. I really appreciated the ATC guy in this one.
"what did I tell you?" "hold short of quebec" "why didn't you hold short of Quebec?" "we would have if you'd told us to"
ummm.... someone seems to have some memory problems.
Ego is a dangerous thing if left unchecked. LOL!
Great controller. Understanding that pilots might be a bit busy with setting up for an unanticipated landing. Understanding the ANC sequence.
8:15 This is quite accurate for me too. Not a pilot, but a truck driver. Some guys I meet say that they've been working for 10+ years and they're all the way from across the country. They run 2 or 3 hauls in a week, or so. I've been running regional deliveries with a truck and full, 13 meter long trailer with front pivot axles. I reverse into tight spots and some places where even my colleagues say that I shouldn't even go in with a trailer but pull over the pallets from the trailer to the truck before delivery. You can almost see what type of driver someone is by how they behave and how quickly they're able to work on a terminal. I can reverse 90° in between 2 trucks and still be centered between the lines and have the truck and the trailer straight when I'm finished. A driver who does longer hauls don't go in reverse as often as I do. Some of them are quite good but then you have those who you think are really good cuz they're driving really nice trucks. But in fact I almost get gray hair before they're done and they're not even straight in the gate.
I watch some of the trucker dashcam videos, and when one comes up of a truck stop at night, I just know some poor soul's sleep is about to be ruined by somebody who doesn't have the skills to make that maneuver. I'll stick to American Truck Sim. ;)
Love how you explain things...and your humor is so refreshing. Thanks!
You have a similar dynamic with Formula 1 drivers and their engineers. Drivers have a huge workload during a lap, they’re driving at speeds of up to 200 mph, they have to tweak a lot of engine and powertrain parameters (engine mappings, brake bias, managing the boost from the electric part of the hybrid engine), while trying to go around as quickly as possible and also managing tyre temperatures.
At the same time they get a lot of info from their engineers. Lap times, deltas to their opponents, information about the sensor suite (tire temps, engine temps, brake temps etc.)
This can seriously distract them from the actual task of driving the car as quickly as possible.
Given that there’s no FAA which mandates codes of conduct and the stakes are much lower sometimes drivers get on the radio to tell their engineers to „shut up I’m driving“ to ease the work load
This comment made me smile. Takes me back to when Kimi took the lead and he had everyone on the radio trying to micromanage him to which Raikkonen responded “ leave me alone I know what I’m doing “
I was a passenger on a KLM flight out of Schiphol on an Embraer and just after take off we noticed fuel venting out of both wings. It was pretty scary as we flew back to the airport as quickly as possible. I was old enough to remember the Concorde incident and had images of that happening.
That must have been horrifying. Did they tell everyone or was it only those who could see the wings who knew why you were returning? Yikes.
@@MrWolfTickets yes they told everyone. The pilot was very calm, which helped.
@@Yewbzee Thanks so much for sharing.
One of the most informative videos on this channel. Out of my (very limited) experience in aviation and air safety, I already knew most of the info that Kelsey reports here, but I think this is awesome for the general public, very clear and well-explained as usual.
Safe flights
Kelsey, you're such a naturally nice guy. Some woman is/was/will be lucky to have you in her life.
Looking forward to watch your video, as I do every Sunday. Thanks very much.
I don't remember if I told this story on one of your videos, But when I had a cockpit fire in a C182 one time, we landed at a small towered airport. The controller said any taxiway, and the pilot Saif "We'll take the first turn off," This is a GA airport, no high speed turnoff. The controller said "Are you sure? That's close to the threshold " My pilot said, "We eill make it." Greased the landing with the stall horn pipping for the last 100 feet of altitude. We made the turnoff with no problem. I then realized why. There was the building that housed the fire truck.
74 gear..
Head and shoulders above the rest..hope ye good kelsey
Yup, I feel the pain of hitting an airport maybe once or twice in a year and ATC talks as if I’m a frequent flyer.
Pen, paper, airport diagram and Safe Taxi all help 👍😎me.
Super job explaining the emergency for those you have less exposure to this flying thing. 🙌
Question about braking/max breaking in a fuel leak...While stopping and getting FD on scene quick is good, if there was no fire while flying would it not be better to NOT introduce heat from braking potentially causing a fire? IE, the entire runway is already yours, use what you need to stop, but nothing more. Maybe a change to FD response instead, like one follow vehicle and others along the way?
We sometimes do place a truck at the middle of the runway. It all depends on the sop's and the situation. We want to get to the aircraft as fast as possible but also maintain a exit corridor for passenger evacuation
Staging ARFF vehicles along the length of the runway is already standard procedure.
The fuel leak is well aft of the breaks. Once landed he can shut off all fuel to that engine including internal boost pumps so HOT breaks are not an issue.
I've worked a few Airports and usually they do stage units in back and the middle. I've seen alot of Emergency landings, none were serious, mostly loss of hydraulics or other minor things. No fires or crashes. The Rescue teams do a great job taking no chances
@@mikeknowlden9617 Location of leak was unknown.
Controllers "sitting in" while a pilot is in the simulator is a GENIUS idea. I hope it's implemented and I hope you are recognized for that suggestion. Keep up the great work, Kelsey.
P.S. I hope the 'tug driver' in _your_ incident was recognized for taking the time to alert you of the "water" pouring out of your engine. Small effort with potentially big consequences.
I’m a private pilot with instrument rating sign off (ready for check ride) love this channel !
I love the videos you do of ATC vs pilots as I am currently going through the clearance process to become a controller. I am so excited to get this opportunity and never realized how much I enjoyed the vacation industry.
That's awesome. ......I would love to e controller. ......
@@ClearedAsFiled if you are a US citizen with at least 3 years combined work experience or a bachelor's degree or combination of both and under 31 years old you can go apply for this year's bid.
WELL,the last clip .That pilot wasnt given a # to call.That's a plus.
Wow, that last convo between ATC and 58 was hilarious. Even civilians understand what "hold short of" means, but the pilot insists the controller screwed up, he even reads back correctly the instructions with "hold short of Q"... while coasting on Q like a gangsta.
LOL. Slow and Furious 17: LAX Drift!
I've noticed that pilots seem really hesitant about officially declaring panpanpan or emergency. Even in fairly obvious emergency situations they never actually state, "I am declaring an emergency."
I've wondered this as well. I think behind the scenes there's a lot of paperwork, possibly off-duty while a review is in progress and maybe some simulator time and a lengthy write-up on your record.
I imagine if they get it wrong there could be a lot of ramifications. It would cost the airline a fortune so they'd be asking questions if there was no emergency after all. I think that was one of the issues with the Air Transat flight why they waited too late to declare a fuel emergency- because they would get in trouble if they had misread the sensors and were wrong. Plus the safety boards will want to do an investigation, there will be customer complaints and they could possibly be benched while the investigation is going on.
They were already receiving priority handling so they didn’t need to say the magic words themselves. The controller can declare for the crew if they feel necessary. If the crew wasn’t receiving the priority, the could say the words and simply do what they felt necessary. In this case it looked like everything was working just fine. They also would not change their squawk code because they were already on a discrete code. If they had been a VFR aircraft switching would be one of the first steps.
@@charleseinarson Is it possible that there are fees associated with displacing other aircraft and getting priority access? If so it could explain why ATC would declare the emergency because they know that Judy from accounting is going to get on their back for a freebie emergency and airlines requesting credits for the amount of fuel burn while holding for the emergency.
I'd be interested to hear the opinions of actual commercial pilots, but I do suspect that there's an element of not wanting to say the "magic words", because they definitely are acting like there's an emergency.
Hi Kelsey. You're turning into a real celebrity pilot. It's always great to hear new stuff. Keep it comin'.
Would be neat to get insights into the recent wrong airport landing for a Dream lifter. Enjoying your channel as always.
He probably can’t talk about it because it was him flying it; he said he flies Dreamlifters and very few of them exist
@@streetracer2321 There is either 4 or 6 of them. The pilot on the radio wasn’t Kelsey but then the radio pilot wouldn’t be on the controls usually.
Love to get his input on that mistake
@@anthonyC214 Would be interesting. I doubt seriously that Kelsey was flying it. Even if he was the Captain on deck is the one responsible. I’m sure there is more to the story than what the media gave. Kelsey has enough experience to tell or suggest to a Captain who maybe “ain’t from around here” that he’s ordering the wrong airport.
He probably can’t say anything while there’s any ongoing investigation, plus if it’s not him, he probably knows the pilots personally
My training as a fueler for the airline i work for "3rd party", The CRJ-700 and 900 have a maxium wing to wing imbalence of 700 lbs / 317 KGs. Any more than that, EICAS msgs appear in the cockpit. I fuel them all the time and the only time you deal with it is during overwing. Thats when the pressure refueling hookup is inop which is rare. Its funny to see the looks of passengers though seeing what overwing refueling is. All they see is a "hole" in the wing. The average arrival fuel is about double of what those pilots stated in my experience.
Yes, I've been on some RJ flights where the landing roll out was... "short". Been on a couple where the landing was so hard I could swear there must have been potholes in the runway.
I wasn’t sure about 74 gear at first, now I absolutely love him, so dry and funny
Great video! I don't understand why it is so hard for some of these pilots to own up to their mistakes when they make them. Granted, I am still a student pilot, but I would never imagine myself arguing with a controller. That is not an argument you are going to win.
Can only speak for my own experience in non-airline industries
Owning a mistake or being blamed for one means you're getting written up or fired. Written up is basically fired, they are just waiting for you to train your replacement.
If you don't own up to mistakes, and refuse to be blamed, they stick it onto the weakest link.
Weak leaders caused this, strong leaders will have their staff own up and learn/grow from mistakes.
@@mrsilver8517 Too bad. I've been at my company for 38 years and the attitude of most managers I've had has been "fix the problem, not the blame." They realize that everyone makes mistakes and they work to try to improve the systems and controls to limit the number of mistakes that are made. Of course, there have been engineers who haven't bothered to learn and/or follow the systems and controls, and those are the engineers that are gone at the next layoff.
In an emergency you have to tell ATC what you want. It’s not an argument, just a statement of requirements. It’s also not about winning or losing it’s about operating going safely.
Hard to admit a mistake when you think you're a god (massive overgeneralization obviously not all pilots are like that).
I mean it’s not like every radio transmission between ATC and the planes are recorded or anything… yeah sometimes it’s okay to admit mistakes and then never repeat that mistake again.
"Classic Pilots " that's too funny Kelsey!
Too bad too many of us have lost the ability to laugh at ourselves. 😊
Good idea to let controllers sit in with a SIM session, but it would also be great if pilots would sit in a controller session 😉
I don't truly see the value of that being done more than once in the entire career (pilot in controller sim). The opposite does have some value from time to time.
These docco's get better over time. Great balance of facts and humor. 10/10 champ
@whatsApp⓵⓷⓪⓻⓶⓹⓺⓼⓼⓺⓽ Hey champ thanks for your reply. Sorry to say I don't do the apps scene. Very old school. Happy to comment as is on future posts to offer my views and thought, cheers Kelsey
It would be awesome if you could find one of the Pilots from one of these videos and have them discuss what was going through their head while their situation was unfolding.
I have a flight on the 28th and i cant stop watching these.
I love when someone knows 100% they screwed up and instead of owning it and taking it as a learning experience they double down with the "NO YOU" argument
Love, love love these videos Kelsey! Not a pilot, just a little aviation geek and I really appreciate your insight into the videos you post. Keep 'em coming!
Great video as always! Thanks, Kelsey! Have a great week everyone!
Kelsey, you took a boring situation and turned it into complete entertainment. Thanks.
Sometimes people know their jobs so well they forget it took a long time for them to get to where they are. They are the people who are difficult to collaborate with or to train under.
The new colors of the intro clip and the general new image processing of this video are great. Good work!
I love your content, I'm going to be taking my checkride soon and a lot of what you go over has helped me. Thanks for all the great breakdowns!
Good luck! whereabouts?
@@kneel1 Northern PA
@@jonathanharrell1475 nice! Im from PA originally, but philly area
Hi Kelsey,
Loved the bit at the end. Whenever I'm near LHR I listen in to the ground ops FM repeater. The way the controllers move aircraft around the field and have a total overview of where everything is and what's going on never ceases to amaze me. (Also like the very polite way ground hand outbound traffic over to the tower frequency at Heathrow)
Perhaps you could do a video on ground ops.
I like how your eyes changed color as the video progressed.
Long night in the hotel with the laptop and camera.
I so love when you share those things. Thank you.
a excellent video idea for the pilots vs atc series is interview a air traffic controller about what things that pilots do that annoys them and also talk about how air traffic controllers annoy you as a pilot without air traffic controllers you would not be able to land or go anywhere
I am an anxious person, I am pessimistic to a fault, this channel helps when it comes to having to fly.
Other possibilities for why fire wanted them to stop on the runway was to inspect the leak away from the terminal.
I noted the reference to the Instrument Landing System (ILS). Some history.
When that system was first developed the FAA and the airlines needed an airport for pilots to be able to safely train on the system, a location with mostly clear weather. Had a friend who worked for the FAA. He suggested Yuma, Arizona, 360 clear days a year (they claim). Yuma is also a US Marine Corps air base. The Colonel in charge didn't like the idea at all. The system was installed anyway. (Chuck C. - he was in charge of all the FAA navigation aids in that area.)
would totally love more reacts to atc/pilot conversations xD they're always fun to listen to but sometimes as a normal person, some stuff are missed and not understood xD
Which is exactly why i love when 74 goes on and explains the important things mentioned so we can understand to a degree.
You have some great ideas Kelsey! Well done! I hope people in charge are listening to you.
I just wanted to say thank you for keeping my day on the blue side 😂😂💙
#1 rule in being a pilot is that looking cool is far more important than being safe, if you look cooler flying a 737 either upside down or at a 90 degree bank then you are required to do so, even if it leads to a crash, if I were a passenger I would totally understand crashing as long as it was due to the flight crew looking cool
Seems like hot brakes is the last thing you’d want to risk with a fuel leak.
Or a blowout
Like always! very interesting and informative! Well done again
Kelsey, you left out that part with the controller telling the pilots: "Do you have a piece of paper handy? There's a phone number I need you to jot down..."
I lost it when the instructor said “so you just want the firetrucks to chase you a couple extra thousand feet down the runway” then “so you want them to put you out right away or wait a couple minutes”😂😂
Obviously it would be a serious issue in a real life scenario, but in this case I couldn’t help but find the humor in the passive aggressiveness
Great video as always! It would be really good to hear your thoughts on the Red Air MD82 runway excursion at Miami on June 21st.
I would imagine there's not all that much to say since there's not even a preliminary accident report yet.
, trust me flying into Houston was always nerve-racking. Thank you for acknowledging that.
Pilot: I didn't mess up, you did.
ATC: find your pen and paper, I got a phone number for you to jot down... 🤭
Exactly. I imagine that pilot would be having a "conversation" shorlty after disembarking.
Loved this video Kelsey. Thank you
I'd love to be an airline pilot but I feel like having the controls of such massive aircraft would be terrifying
Well you generally don't go from non-pilot to wide-body airline pilot. It's a gradual progression learning to fly little Cessnas, then small airliners, then bigger planes, etc, so you've got many years to get comfortable with the transition. Think of it like learning to drive and going from a tiny 2-seat car, to a mid-size sedan, to a big SUV.
Your comment about controllers sitting in being of benefit is spot on. Different industry, but having Powerplant operators sit in the transmission dispatch office was beneficial to those operators. I believe the opposite was also of benefit.
I thought the main point of setting up for ILS in most situations was that you can instantly switch from ILS to visual at any time if needed, but not so much the other way around. Plus it's just the easiest way to trim down the task list and let everybody have a chance to double check all the critical stuff while Otto does the grunt work for a minute.
Ah yes, Mr. Otto Pilot.
thats literally what he said though.
And it goes for pilots too. Once in a while visit one of the ATC facilities so that you can get a better perspective of what controllers deal with. Controllers, for the most part know that when theres an emergency that the pilots are busy and so, we only ask questions we need answers too. Souls on board, fuel, and type of emergency is a must, controllers need to know this thats why they ask, “when you are able”.
Lastly, just like the workload increases for the crew, the controllers workload doubles. You see, theres a good chance thats not the only A/C on frequency and so, they cannot ignore the other twenty planes. There are multiple frequencies controllers monitors and so we have other pilots trying to talk while they are dealing with and emergency. Controllers, have to do coordinating with other controllers, supervisors asking questions, we have to answer land lines and at the same time open the way for this emergency A/C and so, yes, this video is good because it gives you a perspective of what the pilots go thru but just remember that controllers are just as busy.
I was on a turboprop going to Dayton OH (charter flight) and had the ice storm hit.... we did the goto another airport. The president of the company was upset for the lost time. The Sr. Vp of operations turned to the president and said "Let's just have the profeshinals call this one.". Appreciate your work.
Excellent, Kelsey!! I just love your presentations. . . So informative and professional, yet I love how you mix some humor in as well!! Thank you so much!! Stay safe out/up there!! Cheers!! 💖✈✈💖