"When you land...please call this number"

I got the dreaded call this week, "When you land...please call this number."  For those of you who don't fly, I'm not sure how to accurately describe the feeling pilots get when they hear those words.  I rank this phrase right up there with "say your altitude."  Simple words that strike fear into any aviator.  For me there was an immediate uneasiness in my stomach as I perused my memory of the last hour of flight.

"A pilot lives in a world of perfection, or not at all"

-- Richard S. Drury, "My Secret War"

We departed Palm Springs, California an hour earlier and were cruising at 31,000 feet when Los Angeles Center gave us a phone number and instructions to call SOCAL TRACON after we landed.  SOCAL TRACON is an acronym for Southern California Terminal Radar Approach Control, which controls most traffic in and out of southern California airports.  I immediately knew what they wanted to discuss and knew I had not violated any FAR's, but I still felt slightly uneasy...a little like that feeling you get when a policeman is following you on the highway.  You know you're driving under the limit, your tags and inspections are up to date, but it still makes you uncomfortable to have him back there.

Before we left Palm Springs, I contacted "Clearance Delivery" who issued our en-route clearance.  We were instructed to fly the CATHEDRAL ONE DEPARTURE (CATH1.PSP) V370 TNP then as filed.  Take a look at the departure below.  Departing runway 31L, the procedure called for us to climb on an initial heading of 310 degrees until passing  the Palm Springs 268 degree radial, followed by a right turn direct to the Palm Springs VOR.  After passing the Palm Springs VOR, we would fly the PSP 104 degree radial until passing the EMRUD intersection, then make a right turn direct to PSP.  Confused yet?  The procedure also requires pilots to cross PSP the second time at 6,200 feet before proceeding to the northeast on V370.  Terrain around the airport necessitates these turns, providing more distance to climb above surrounding mountains before venturing away from the security of the valley surrounding the airport.

CATHEDRAL ONE DEPARTURE - Palm Springs, California

Palm Springs International, looking west past the passenger terminal.

I jotted down the clearance on our flight plan then loaded the route into the FMS.  The CATHEDRAL ONE is not an RNAV departure, but I intended to use the FMS to guide us along the route.  An important part of the pre-flight process is the route check.  After I loaded the route into the FMS, the Captain checked my entries as I read from the clearance and the flight plan.  It is standard procedure at most airlines for one pilot to load the FMS and for the other pilot to check his work.

Here's an unrelated video that shows how to load the FMS (also known as the GFMS on this jet).

It was at this point that I noticed a discrepancy between what was depicted on the chart verses what appeared in our FMS.  I took the picture below while sitting at the gate before push back and engine start.  See if you can see the difference.  Take a look at the departure procedure and decide which way you would turn after EMRUD.  Now take a look at what the FMS instructed us to do.  After EMRUD, the chart shows a right turn and the FMS shows a turn to the left.  

The terrain I was most concerned about was west of the airport, so I was surprised that the procedure called for a turn toward the mountains.  But regardless of what seemed right or logical, I wanted to know what ATC was expecting us to do.  Here's where things got a little more confusing.  I asked PSP Clearance to find out which way they expected us to turn after EMRUD.  His response?  "I would expect you to turn left.  There are mountains to the right."  Well, now I was really confused.

After some time and a promise that he would check into the matter, clearance confirmed that the chart was correct.  A right turn didn't seem logical, but that's what the procedure instructed us to do.  The whole thing was a moot point, since we were able to climb fast enough that the teardrop turn after PSP was not necessary.  Even with a fully loaded jet, we were able to climb well above the 6,200 foot restriction and were almost immediately cleared on course.  The picture below is our actual flight path.

An hour into the flight, someone a little higher up in the chain of command at SOCAL got involved and wanted more information.  Thankfully, the ass chewing that usually goes with "call us when you land" wasn't going to happen today.  The moral of the story is to check your FMS or GPS or whatever it is you are using.  Don't assume the data in your device is correct.  Don't assume the guy on the other end of the radio knows the procedure.  Safety is everything...trust but verify.  

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Rush to Comply

Ok, before I begin I must admit that JFK is not common ground for me…I pass through every now and then, more often as a last minute divert from LGA or EWR than a planned destination. I possess a mental short list of airports that I avoid for one reason or another and JFK makes the list for a number of reasons. I was flying a “turn” this day…one leg out, one leg back, home at night. Not a bad deal if, like me, you savor the company of your wife and kids and are lucky and or wise enough to live where you are based. Our arrival, landing and taxi-in were unusually routine for New York. Beautiful winter day. No delays. Landed 31R. Short and simple taxi clearance to an open gate…arrived about 20 minutes early. Uneventful…just the way I like it. Getting the heck outa Dodge wouldn’t be so easy.

The 100+ knot headwind that yielded our early arrival would be a thorn in our side on the way home, so we made every effort to get underway on-time if not a little early. In spite of what the Captain may tell you when running late, it’s quite difficult to make up any measurable time en-route. That extra speed at altitude on a flight like this would cost the company at least another 1000lbs of fuel and would result in about 5 minutes saved…not a great return on investment. The best way to hedge our bet against the headwind was to get off the gate early and hope for a short taxi.

I can’t speak for the ramp crew, but for whatever reason they didn’t start paying any visible attention to us until about 20 minutes before departure. This would not suffice for our fully loaded flight home. We would leave the gate a little late. Strike one.

We finally requested push clearance about 10 minutes past departure, but the flight at the next gate beat us to the punch. We would have to wait for him to push, start and taxi out from behind us before we could move. Strike two…and here comes the fun part.

With pencil in hand, I requested taxi clearance from ever-patient JFK ground (yes, I’m being facetious). We got off to a good start with a clearance to taxi via Tengo and Alpha. “Follow the jet ahead to runway 22R” he told us. Great. Follow him…we can do that. We were turning onto Alpha when we got our first amendment. “Hold short Victor” he said, “I have a runway change for you. Standby.” So we pulled up and held short of taxiway Victor, hoping for something simple. Our new instructions were to taxi to runway 31L via Bravo. I read this back before looking at my chart and realizing that we could go left or right on Bravo and reach runway 31L. In hind sight, turning left seems more logical, but I still didn’t know for sure and needed clarification. But this is JFK ground and getting a word in is often more difficult than it sounds. So we sat there, not know which way to turn, until we were in someone’s way, got noticed by ground control and were finally asked what we were doing. Questions like “what are you doing,” “where are you going,“ and “say your altitude” are not favorites of any flight crew as they usually infer an error on your part. To add to my discomfort, the tone in the controller’s voice was not one of a nurturing parent, but one of a weathered schoolmarm. We were indignantly instructed to turn left and contact clearance for a re-route. Strike three.

We received a new full-route clearance comprised of numerous navigational points and airways with which I was not familiar. Jet this, victor that, intersections and VORs…it wasn’t pretty. I’m sure my read-back sounded something like a student pilot's first attempt at an IFR clearance, but I muddled through it with a bit of assistance and managed to get it all down on paper. Getting the new route into the FMS wasn’t any easier. Each fix and airway along our route had to be verified on a map before being entered in to the FMS. Just locating an unfamiliar fix in this part of the country is a chore. An airway map of the northeast looks a little like a plate of spaghetti. Everything is compressed and jumbled together, so finding unfamiliar points is a time consuming task...and the pressure of the clock was beginning to have its toll as we approached the departure runway. We pulled out of line to give ourselves some extra time, verified the new route and successfully entered it into the FMS. We then contacted dispatch to verify legal compliance and viability of our new clearance and left New York on our way home. Crawled into bed a little late that night.

Time seems to compress when you are feeling rushed, but the key to a safe flight is not allowing yourself to be pushed into what is know as a “rush to comply.” Pilots are proud beings...and an inability to comply with a clearance in what is perceived as a timely manner is an attack on that pride. We must resist the temptation to rush. There has never been an accident or incident that was not made up of many links in a chain. Allowing yourself to be rushed may be the quickest ways to add links to your flights chain of events. Breaking any one link could very possibly prevent a tragedy. On a good day, only checklists are completed between the gate and the runway. On this day, we had much more to do, but we took each step as it came and completed it in a safe and timely manner.

Forgive me while I paraphrase…A pilot lives in a world of perfection, or not at all. Not sure who said it, but I like it.

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