Scary approach to Atlanta yesterday

[Brett1]

My trip to Colorado was ending yesterday and I flew from Vail to Atlanta in a Delta 757. At about 160 miles out of Atlanta the captain comes on the comm and says that there is a nasty storm on Hartsfield and we will have to hold for 40 minutes. I could see the mess going on in the distance and we had a pretty big circle of planes going in the hold. Finally the captain says that we are going to "shoot an approach" and see what happens. That was my first clue that we may have a naval aviator on the flight deck.

As we started to descend he tells all of the crew to buckle in its "gonna be a bit bumpy". We rolled left, we rolled right, and we went up and down like a farking elevator!! It was rough as shit. I looked out the window and it looked like the plane was flapping its wings for propulsion. We finally broke out of the soup at a few thousand feet with heavy rain and crazy winds. This guy was working his ass off up there and frankly I thought we might be a smoking hole in the ground at any minute. My 2 year old is laughing his ass off and having a great time, my 7 year old is immersed in nintendo and I am starting to not have fun. He dirtied the plane up and we did the roughest approach I have ever been on and right before touchdown he leveled perfectly and slammed it on the deck. Unreal landing executed perfectly under the circumstances. I was shitting.

With all of the kids and carry on crap we were close to last off the plane. As we exited the captain was standing at the door and my son blurted out "must be a navy pilot"..... the response was, "no son, marine corp f-18 pilot"...... then he says to my boy "can i get an OK 3 wire?". I told him that we would have felt a whole lot better knowing that he was a Naval Aviator before the descent. He said that he didnt want to hurt any AF guys feelings. Bad Ass pilot. Even my wife was impressed.

 

[EvilGN]

good story! but what was your son doing playing with an electronic device during the descent to approach? J/K btw...

 

[Brett1]

good story! but what was your son doing playing with an electronic device during the descent to approach? J/K btw...

Breaking the rules, as usual!!!

 

[invertedflyer]

Sounds like a good thread for airline stories. Right after the FAA started seperating aircraft by 500 ft. instead of 1000 I had a "close encounter of the 1st kind" ... I was in a UAL 767 at around 35k on my way back from Quantico of all places... the movie had just ended, and I was one of the few that put my window shade up after its completion. Some of you may have heard this story before... Anyway, much to my surprise, I saw a southwest 737 that must have come from our 1:00 shoot past us close enough for me to hear the soft whoosing sound of its engines. I'd estimate that he was betwen 500 - 1000 ft. from us... but given the closure rate it was pretty impressive to see. I was, however, probably the only person to see it, since everyone else had their shades down. At the time I was alarmed, but after some thought realized that he was probably at least 500 from us.

@Brett, great story, good read.

 

[Brett1]

When we were in the holding pattern I couldnt help but watch out the window to keep track of the other planes. That article in the news a few months ago about near misses came to mind a few times also.

 

[jfulginiti]

Right after the FAA started seperating aircraft by 500 ft. instead of 1000 I had a "close encounter of the 1st kind" ...

When did that happen?

 

[goosegagnon2]

Sounds like a good thread for airline stories. Right after the FAA started seperating aircraft by 500 ft. instead of 1000 I had a "close encounter of the 1st kind" ... I was in a UAL 767 at around 35k on my way back from Quantico of all places... the movie had just ended, and I was one of the few that put my window shade up after its completion. Some of you may have heard this story before... Anyway, much to my surprise, I saw a southwest 737 that must have come from our 1:00 shoot past us close enough for me to hear the soft whoosing sound of its engines. I'd estimate that he was betwen 500 - 1000 ft. from us... but given the closure rate it was pretty impressive to see. I was, however, probably the only person to see it, since everyone else had their shades down. At the time I was alarmed, but after some thought realized that he was probably at least 500 from us.

@Brett, great story, good read.

I'm not up to date on my airspace and haven't flown in a loonnnnggg time, but isn't that class A airspace? are there even seperation mins for that? considering it is all IFR...? Just a random question/thought...

 

[Junior]

When did that happen?

Yeah, I thought RVSM reduced minimum separation between FL290 and FL410 from 2,000 ft to 1,000 ft ? Below 290 I thought it was still 1,000 ft. But I haven't read the FAR/AIM in a while...

 

[bunk22]

Flying back from Singapore, stopped in Taiwan, then off to LAX....the wife and I flew in a 767. At some point, we entered a storm and for two hours....yes, two hours...that plane was bumped, bounced around like I've never seen. We had our seat belts on max tight and still were lifted up and tossed around like rag dolls. The plane (pax) was dead quite. I've flown through thunder storms, been bounced around like crazy but this was the worst I've experienced. Not fun when you're not in control.

 

[invertedflyer]

Yeah, I thought RVSM reduced minimum separation between FL290 and FL410 from 2,000 ft to 1,000 ft ? Below 290 I thought it was still 1,000 ft. But I haven't read the FAR/AIM in a while...

I heard that seperation was down to 500 ft. from a Delta ERJ pilot... but then again I haven't read the FAR/AIM in a while either, I always thought it was 1,000.

 

[Mumbles]

Try flying around the Osaka-Tokyo corridor.....the controllers there have little regard for the 1000' of seperation.

 

[Brett1]

Flying back from Singapore, stopped in Taiwan, then off to LAX the wife and I flew in a 767. At some point, we entered storm and for two hours....yes, two hours...that plane was bumped, bounced around like I've never seen. We had our seat belts on max tight and still were lifted up and tossed around like rag dolls. The plane was dead quite. I've flown through thunder storms, been bounced around like crazy but this was the worst I've experienced. Not fun when you're not in control.

That makes my stomach hurt thinking about it.... I was pretty freaked out after we landed.

 

[BACONATOR]

good story! but what was your son doing playing with an electronic device during the descent to approach? J/K btw...

I've either not had my MP3 player on, or if I have, I've never been "caught" and asked to put it away. If I was, I would gladly obey but every time I flip it over, I keep looking at that sticker that says "this device will accept any interference blah blah blah" and wonder why the fvck I can't blast punk rock/heavy metal while careening down an approach when it specifically says it will not interfere with any avionics et al....??

 

[HokiePilot]

The reason that you can't us electronic devices during an approach is not based on any interference issue. It is based on having you unencumbered and able to hear and react to emergency instructions given over the PA system. You have to have your "seat backs and tray tables in the upright and locked position" for a similar reason. If you have to make an emergency exit, they don't want anything in the way.

 

[HAL Pilot]

I heard that seperation was down to 500 ft. from a Delta ERJ pilot... but then again I haven't read the FAR/AIM in a while either, I always thought it was 1,000.

Below 18,000 you might have a VFR traffic separated from IFR traffic by 500 feet but the normal IFR vertical separation is 1000 feet.

...close enough for me to hear the soft whoosing sound of its engines....

I'm calling BS on this. Any sound you heard was in your imagination. You are not going to hear another airline aircraft from inside your airline aircraft unless it is smashing into you.