Houston we’ve had a problem!

I’ve not been spending time flying for couple of reasons. No time and no money! Every day is worse than the previous one. I think I won’t be flying for a long time now. In the meantime I thought to pen down my thoughts about the current crisis, and why I think this is just the beginning of ‘the end of the world’ we as know it! Or atleast it will be long (years) before things get back to normal.

First the current situation can be decomposed into two factors: economic and financial. What all the central bankers across are doing is to contain the financial crisis by injecting tones of liquidity in markets to thaw the MM / credit freeze. That is sacrificing tomorrow for today. I respect their predicament though. There is apparently nothing else that can be done or atleast done immediately.

After this first wave of mortgage crisis, the next wave will be of ABS (credit cards). With so many people furloughed, things are going to get uglier. This festive season is not going to get the same demand of goods as previous seasons. This will entail cut in production, reduced ancillary demand and more retrenchments (vicious cycle).

This is affecting all the industries across the board:

1) Credit lines are withdrawn. Industries have no cash flow to meet working capital requirements.

2) Low demand for goods due to lack of finance, and rising unemployment

3) Fall in commodity prices (infrastructure, petrochem etc…)

4) Furlough across the board… airlines, construction, financial services, IT & ITES, commodities ventures etc… more job loss than we ever imagined

The economic effect of all this intervention is tremendous. Think for a moment, where is all that money coming from. Initially I was against using peoples’ money to finance / fund all this. However, the scene got so bad that I had to either change my mind or lose my job. Let’s sit back and imagine for a moment that things (financial crisis) start improving. But the already fiscal deficit for countries like US and even India for that matter will be staggeringly high. This is going to be another big problem in itself that will unfold after all the waves from the tsunami are over. This will be the ensuing epidemic that will engulf the economy for much long.

The world that we will see tomorrow will be completely changed for better or worse. There will be lot of political impact too. Imagine, the days of free credit are gone. People will be unable to afford to buy home. The social and economic divide among the rich and poor will widen. There will be more people at the bottom of the pyramid. Lack of finance, insurance, social benefits will be affected. More people on roads than in homes. Get the picture.

Fiscal intervention will needed. But don’t ask how and when. The government will need to do something to reduce unemployment. What we are seeing now is just the tip of the iceberg. Lets hope someone will prevent Titanic II happening.

Flight Level 120 (Part II)

“Positive rate of climb”, “gear up”. The engines love the cold air; it is accelerating very fast through the cool evening. Reduce the thrust to climb. Switch the autopilot to NAV (FMS). The flight director comes up and the FD guides the jet on the assigned course to RENO intersection. The TAS reads 220 kts. Start to reduce the flaps. ATC clears us to climb to FL 120 and contact the center. Since we are VFR, we request ‘flight following’. Once we are FL120, thrust to set to cruise.

We are now ‘feet wet’ over the sea. I keep a check of the flight navigation of the autopilot and the flight plan. We are having a direct tail wind of 20 kts.
Soon we are on TOD (Top of Descent) point (It’s only a short hop). Time to get busy. Things move pretty fast from now on!

I contact the approach at SABA and request a VOR/DME approach to runway 27. They vector us to the approach procedure which requires me to perform 15DME Arc over SABA VOR. The ATIS informs us of a wind shear near the runway and a direct crosswind component of 15 kts. Within the operational flight envelop. It will be fun.

After completing the DME Arc, we are almost lined up with the runway 27 10 miles out. Wind blowing from the left is pushing the fuselage off the runway alignment. I switch the smoke & mirrors off and crab the plane and cross control thereby increasing the stall speed. Nudge a bit on the throttles, roll to the left and a little rudder input to right align with the runway.

5 miles, IAS = 140 kts, flaps = 45, gear = down and locked, spoilers = armed, anti skid = armed. At 1.0 DME and @ decision height. Visually lined up and looking good (PAPI = 2 red & 2 white). Over the threshold 50’… smoothly reduce the throttle to idle… 40’… come out of the crab – null the rudder rate, and gentle left aileron to keep the plane more or less lined up with the runway…30’… 20’… start the flare – nudge on the stick to raise the nose 2-3 degrees… 10’… touchdown…

Spoilers come up… and I pull back on the reversers and smoothly slow down… the runway is long, and the tower has cleared us to use the entire length of it! At 60 kts, throttles at idle and apply breaks to slow down to taxi speed of 15 kts.
The ground instructs to turn left via taxiway delta and proceed to gate 2. As I come to the assigned gate, I apply the brakes and come to halt right on the markers. Cut the engines and pull the parking breaks. The engines spool down, switch off the avionics master switches, batt off display off.

Wonderful feeling to have accomplished another crosswind landing… life on the line continues!

FL120 (Part 1)

Equipment – Bombardier CRJ70

Flight Plan – TNCM (Princes Juliana) – SABA (Juancho Yrausquin), ALT – FL 120, VOR – TNCM (112.10), Distance – 40 Nautical Miles. Clear Skies. Winds 2 Knts at 210


Started the day (err… evening) in a cool warm summer in SXM. Not bad! I filed my flight plan and set out on the ramp to begin my pre flight checks. I did a detailed circuit of the beautiful CRJ and checked for anything out of place. Satisfied, I entered the cockpit, err Flight Deck. Completed pre flight check and pre APU start check-list. Instinctively, my hands went up to the over head panel, armed the batteries and started the APU. All the electronic equipments in the flight deck came to life. Completed the post-APU start check list.


Now comes the interesting part. Setting up the comps in for the flight. Setting all the NAV data. Set the altimeter, barometric altitude, heading, Transponder ‘Squawk, set auto-pilot settings for altitude, heading, speed,’ set the ground freq on NAV1 and VOR freq on NAV2. Once completed the entire pre pushback checklist, called the ground for pushback. The ground cleared us for the pushback. After the pushback, I complete the pre-engine checklist. Start the Engine 1 followed by Engine 2. I hear nice rumbled noise of the engines spooling up @ idle thrust. The ground gives us the taxi clearance for RWY 09 (the active runway) thru the taxiway Delta and contact tower on 190.12.


I start the taxi to the runway. Set the tower freq on NAV1, and call the tower to request clearance. Tower instructs to hold short RWY 09. And wait further clearance. I reach the holding point and wait for clearance. The tower finally gives me the clearance to enter the runway and hold. Then finally, “AF 2110, cleared for takeoff runway 09. Climb and maintain 3000 heading 90. Contact departure at 120.31. Have a safe flight.”
Nice. Just as planned. I push the throttles to 40% thrust, after 2-3 seconds, push it to forward stops. The sleek jet starts rolling at an amazing thrust. The automated metallic female voice calls out the speed. 30..80.. 100… V1… Vr.. rotate!!! Pull back gently on the yoke and the nose gear lift off the ground… followed by the main gears 2-3 seconds later. We are airborne!!


Life on the line continues....

life on the line...

Equipments Flown:-

Boeing Family

1) B737 – 300 (thanks to my route from CAL – DIB)

2) B737 – 800 (mostly on MUM – CAL routes)

3) B747 (one one of the older Air India’s)

4) B777 - 300

5) B777 ER (SGX – CAL on SG)

Airbus Family

1) A300 - 200 (mostly TO/FRM Middle East VORs)

2) A300 - 300

3) A319 (mostly TO/FRM Middle East VORs)

4) A320 (Fi-Fi / Sparky!)

5) A330 (mostly TO/FRM Middle East VORs)

6) A340 (mostly TO/FRM Middle East VORs)

ATRs

1) ATR 72 (on one of the pioneers in rupee travel – Deccan)

Equipments dreaming to fly:-

1) A380!

2) B787 Dreamliner

Life on the line continues… and so does the list!!

The Economics