Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler - The joys of weather, south-of-the-border style

Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | Airline Operations | The joys of weather, south-of-the-border style

DVA1427
Senior Captain, MD-11
OLP

Joined on December 14 2003
Online Double Century Club
50 State Club
Tri-Jet Triumph
Globetrotter
Moose Club
US Capital Club
Everett 250 Club
Quincentenary Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary

"Livin' in the Dog Pound!"
Kannapolis, NC

558 legs, 1,984.3 hours
250 legs, 611.8 hours online
384 legs, 1,530.5 hours ACARS
38 legs, 82.7 hours event

Posted onPost created on March 26 2004 07:00 ET by Lewis Gregory

I just had to do my first-ever diversion due to bad weather. I flew codeshare AeroMexico 8171, San Diego-Loreto, but had to divert down the coast to La Paz (no, not Bolivia) due to 1/4 mile vis and fog at LTO--and ActiveSky wasn't kidding, I tried to shoot the approach, got down to 250 feet and saw NOTHING. No lights, no runway, nada. So I pulled out and flew south to MMLP. I didn't have the gas to keep going all the way down to Cabo San Lucas and stop in at Cabo Wabo to slam some tequila, sadly. smile

(Funny thing is, the weather all up and down the rest of the Baja was great, but there was a fogbank parked right over Loreto. Go figure.)

If you like Mad Dogs and smaller fields, try some of those AeroMexico flights. There's not a lot of ILS approaches down there, and lots of 6000-9000' runways with visual or VOR approaches. And I think most all those flights use the MD-88. (They'd also be good for a CRJ or 737 of course.)

Next flight I'll take the -88 from La Paz up to Mexico City (assuming there's a flight, else I'll go from Loreto), then fly the Big Dog back to Hartsfield.

Lewis Gregory

Senior Captain, MD-11

DVA544
Senior Captain, B727-200

Joined on October 24 2001
Online Century Club
Triple Century Club

Southeastern United States

329 legs, 661.4 hours
186 legs, 368.2 hours online
47 legs, 90.0 hours ACARS
7 legs, 22.1 hours event

Posted onPost created on March 26 2004 07:08 ET by Joe DeGregorio

Glad to see your keeping you -88 in the air ...;-p

Posted onPost created on March 26 2004 07:13 ET by Lewis Gregory

Always, man, always. smile

I had to completely reinstall the -88 and -90 though. I grabbed the new installers and overlaid what I already had to get the RWYINFO and AVC tuner gauge...without remembering that the panel underwent extensive changes. So I had the new gauge placement in the old panel graphics...uuuugggly. So I deleted the panel and sound directories and the model directory, then reran the installer, and voila! One perfectly functional Mad Dog.

I like the newer -88 changes except the cockpit's virtually silent, I can hardly hear the engines. As opposed to the older -88 installer, where the air noise was deafening!

Lewis Gregory

Senior Captain, MD-11

Posted onPost created on March 26 2004 18:07 ET by Lewis Gregory

I just flew the second leg of MX8171, Loreto to Mexico City. If you want to see some truly gnarly, nasty, tight, hard-to-understand STARs, go to the VATMEX site and look at the STARs for MMMX. I think I flew the GABTU1 about right and got vectored onto the localizer for 05R at 4 miles. It was uuuuugggglly, Joe, it's a good thing the Mad Dog's got strong landing gear, 'cause between that and the crosswind I kinda hung the right mains off the runway for about 4,000 feet. They're hosing the mud out of the wheel wells now. smile

Lewis Gregory

Senior Captain, MD-11

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