Quito, Ecuador (Not boating, but...)

[Hampton]

Great write up.
Brings back memories of when I was flying out of Bogota on a wet lease.
Try being an Avianca Captain and not speaking spanish...lots of smiling and nodding
That was a month of HARD time. No flight is easy around there.
Only two of our 757s can operate in and out of those airports.
Quito was the highest!!
Caution!!! controllers will clear you to descend into a mountain down there......be careful.
Makes you appreciate how good our US system is...
Good luck,
Mark.

Good words, Mark. I think the key is that we are basically going to fly our flight plan, transition into an ariival, and directly into a published approach. There isn't enough traffic (yet) to start getting vectors... The real problems start when the jet isn't 100% - that's where Kevin comes in.

 

[Hampton]

Great post John! I worked a layover check on one of the -700s this week. Awsome aircraft to be able to do what it does. Thanks for the post, helps to remind me how important what I do is. I think I'll have to take a ride on that flight.

Great to hear from you! I tried to reply to a post of yours last week, but our internet was giving me fits (Knology - bad). Don't take that stuff you do lightly. It's completely saturating flying around the mountains and landing in extreme conditions at night, in the weather, when everything is working well. If one critical system goes down, things get really dicey.

 

[Gunn]

PS - I had flown this route in the simulator 2 weeks ago with every emergency you could think of. I wanted to fly the route while it was still fresh in my mind to cement it all together.

Awesome writeup! Was very exciting to read...I think I could read an entire book of your experiences if they were told in that way. I'm an aerospace engineer specializing in flight simulators (miltary fixed and rotary wing) so glad to hear the simulator was useful. :smt001

 

[1956olds]

Hope you got out of there ! looks like a rebelion is going on ,the military (not sure who's) just took over the airport.

 

[1956olds]

now they are saying a coup,police are protesting pay and benifits cuts.

 

[Hampton]

I just imformed the Chief Pilot's office - thanks for the heads up. They didn't know. We have pilots there right now.

 

[1956olds]

Glad you got the post then ,and now i see a greater benifit of the sea ray club .The first thing i thought of was your story from the other day.