Single Thrust Reverser

Landing performance we use for our revenue flights do not take into account thrust reversers. As hard as we decelerate on the reversers, many passengers do not realize that if we need to, we can brake a lot harder. We don't use the maximum available brakes much under normal circumstances as it is not our customer service policy to bang passengers' heads onto the seats in front of them.

Was given a 737 with a single reverser locked out yesterday. The dispatch papers noted that and they reminded me again before we started our first flight of the day. As a habit, I would put a post it note in front of me to remind myself of various things I need to remember about the aircraft. I wrote "T/R #1 INOP"

Our first leg of the day was to Pekanbaru, narrow clearway strip with a runway only 25 meters wide. Normally we land at runway 36 to take advantage of the uphill slope, and exit at taxiway A to the right. The slope beyond that is a steep downhill, but we normally are at low speed if we pass that intersection.

Before top of descent, the First Officer briefed for the landing. He's a young lad and a recent addition to our company. He's relatively green, and this is the first time I've flown with him with a deferred.

"Oke Kep, my landing yah. Pekanbaru, expecting 36 ILS, we come in for a straight intercept down to 1,500 unless they tell us to hold as published. Visibility is good, if they change the runway we'll go visual right hand, is that OK?"
"Yeaps, go on."
"ILS from 1500ft, visibility is good, QNH is 1012, and decision is at 200 above or 230 on the QNH. Runway is 2200 meters, landing weight will be 49 tons, ref will be 133 on flap 30, autobrake 2, the wind is 040 at 5 knots so we'll approach at 140. Standard roll and manual braking to go for exit A."
"Missed Approach?"
"Climb straight ahead to 1500ft and notify ATC. Expect vectors right hand to the downwind and redo it. Any questions?"
"Have you missed anything?"
"Oh yes, reverser on engine one is locked, so, idle reverse on number two OK?"
"Yes... want me to call for descent?"
"Landing brief complete yah Kep, ready for descent."

There was no traffic and we were cleared to descend continuously to 1500ft and cleared for the high speed below 10,000ft. Down at 1500ft and slowing our speed from 300 knots on idle power, we got busy. I told him to keep it at idle as we need to start the deploying the flaps. We steadied down to 210 before selecting the flaps to one, then 5, then 10, at 170. Nose was a bit high, and I was waiting for the glideslope to go alive. Autothrottle was still on.

Then the glideslope came alive and I called it. Since we were only at 1500ft, I reminded him to go and select 15 and gear down, I didn't want him not to stabilize at 1000ft.

"Fly the slope on manual will you?"
"Yes Kep. Flaps 30 and Set speed 140 please."

The Autopilot disconnect horn came and he smoothly descended the pig on the glideslope. The airplane slowed to 140 with the autothrottle. The air was bumpy and the aircraft started to oscillate a bit with the autothrottle lagging. The airspeed went off from the targetted 140 due to the oscillation. He switched the autothrottle off to kill the oscillation and retrimmed the pig.

"One thousand," I called, shortly followed by the automatic voice.
We then received our landing clearance.

"Five hundred... and watch the speed, 140 please slow it down abit."
"Two hundred."
"One hundred."
"Fifty... forty... thirty... go idle" I called.
The wind suddenly disappeared and we lost our 5 knots immediately. He pulled the yoke to keep the pig from falling and applied a bit of power to cushion the loss of airspeed before going idle, but it was a little too long and we floated.
"Whoops," he said.
"Hit the aiming bar," I said. I wanted him to bring it down firmly on the 1000ft markers. He hesitated to drop the aircraft and we touched down 1500ft from the threshold. There was still ample room to stop.

The whine of the ground spoilers autodeploying was heard and I hand checked it. "Spoilers deployed."

The pig derotated nicely as he opened the right engine reverser as we climbed up the hill, faster than normal.

To my horror, he said "We're fast," and pulled the reversers into full.
The pig's nose swung to the right catching him by surprise, he realised that the left reverser was locked. "Damn, single only." He yanked the rudder to the left to keep the pig from having a run around the grass, he idled the right reverser and the nose swung left now, we were below 100 knots with the wheels biting and the ground spoilers dumping whatever remaining lift we had on the wings and transferred the weights on the wheels.

"Buset! Nyante dong!" (Jeez, easy boy!)
He pressed on the manual brakes and adjusted our direction to remain on the runway.
"80... 60..." I called as we were still swinging left to right to left to right as he tried to keep us on the runway. "OK, my control."
"Your control Kep."
The swinging took his eye off the braking and I braked harder to a hard stop on the intersection.

I took the pig off the runway and onto the apron, and waited on the parking stand to allow for engine cooling, APU startup and completion of the after landing checklist. We shut down on schedule.

I looked at him and said, "enjoy the single reverser?"
"Scary on this runway Kep. Sorry, first time on a single rev."
"It's not wide, bet you were scared of going off after forgetting the single."
"Indeed. I never knew I'd do that."
"Well, there's always a first time, at least you're not a single reverser perawan (virgin) anymore. Narrow runway, overcompensated, realised the error, and tried to correct it."
"Sorry."
"Don't worry, do the next one back to Jakarta and I'd kick your butt if you swing like mad over there."

The pax deboarded, we completed the paperwork and prepared for the next leg. One of the cabin crew told us they were goyang Inul at the back. Thank God I don't sit on the rearmost part.

The next leg was perfect and the first officer focused on the brakes for deceleration on the 3000m runway. Thank God for long runways.

2 wrongs don't make a right!

The reason why you have more than one pilot in the cockpit is so that one covers the other one for mistakes, lapses and whatever else. This system works well, some airline use the supporting method where the pilot flying is supported by the one monitoring, while some use the delegative method, where the pilot flying is in charge and delegates the monitoring task to the one monitoring. It works well, when I started, the captain would tell me what I'm doing wrong or what I forgot and correct me. When I became captain, I would do the same to the first officers, especially the new ones as they're sometimes nervous.

Unfortunately, the system can break down when you have two people in the cockpit whose minds were somewhere else. This happened to me on an approach into Padang's Minangkabau airport. It's a new airport, replaces the old Tabing whose instrument procedure require some careful planning.

it was the first officer's leg, so he did the briefing. As we neared, a late descent caused us to fly over the airfield at 10,000ft before turning downwind over the sea. We planned for the ILS. Everything was routine for the approach, but the day was out of routine.

My mind was largely somewhere else that day, and the first officer just broke up from his girlfriend. We were running late and weather wasn't on our side. We did the descent on the downwind through the clouds, down to 4000ft. There was another traffic at 4000 about to intercept the ILS and descending, and I saw him on the TCAS. It was a bumpy ride.

We levelled at 4000, just on the bottom of the clouds, so we get moments of obscurity, and moments of a clear view. The reported visibility was 4000m. We were told to extend our downwind due to departing traffic. As we turned towards the ILS, we descended to 3000, in scattered rain.

As we went about our business, we were chatting too. We normally do that, but as I monitored our instruments, selecting the flaps according to the F/O's request, the rain stopped and he suddenly called visual. I was thinking, "huh?"

There was a runway in the distance, but no lights. Airports in Indonesia don't always switch their damn lights even in dull weather. As we hadn't intercepted the localizer yet, the runway was to our right, and we were a bit high.

I asked him, "You gonna go visual?"
"You betcha!"
"Swing it round then. I'll call for clearance once we're near the centerline. We're a bit high so go down but not too steep."
"Aye-Aye sir!"

He manouvered the aircraft nicely, speed was good, we were visual, we'd be landing shortly. I made the announcement, "Cabin crew be seated for landing."

I can see he's planning a turning final, not a large one, but it'll be good and safe enough.

"Landing checklist please," he called.
I took the checklist and did a quick instrument scan.

"Something's not right."
"Whaddya mean Capt?"
"Localizer's too our left now."
"Really?"
"Yes!" I suddenly realized. "Man, that's Tabing!"
"Oh shit..."
"You wanna do it or you want me to do it?"
"I still got it. Going left now for the intercept, no wonder we were high for that runway."

We were down to 2000ft. We did the error of going for whatever we saw first without checking the instruments. This is the most fundamental error one can make on an instrument approach. Landing at the wrong airport would certainly cause a major embarrassment for the airline, and probably ruin our careers.

"Yeah, just keep it smooth and we'll be OK."

We continued the approach and landed without anyone noticing the mistake we made. As we rested in the ground turnaround, we sat there looking each other wondering how we could have made that mistake.

One thing is for sure, the system is there to keep us out of trouble. That's why we have two and not one pilot. However, in the rare occasion that both are having personal problems, both must realize it and be on the extra lookout. When we didn't, the minor lapse we did could have ruined our careers. We were lucky it wasn't some other lapse that would have costed our lives. After researching, I found that a lot of mishaps happened when one is disturbed or pressured from the going ons of our personal lives. I have always avoided it, work is work, personal is personal. I've had this kind of situation before and never had a problem only this time, both me and the other guy are having problems. When this happens, BE CAREFUL.

The last time a plane landed in Tabing thinking it was Minangkabau, one or both of the pilots were having personal problems. The airline however, said it was a cellphone interference causing the ILS to make an error and guide them to another airport. So much for that, but hey, thats for another time to discuss.

Fly safe and calm everyone.