What's that smell?

Being stuck in a pressurized tube to protect us from the harsh environment in the higher skies mean additional hazards. Just like submarines, we must check for pressurization differences and react promptly to fires and smoke. Despite all the QRHs and emergency drills we train for, our noses become more sensitive to changes in smell when on the job and as our noses record new smells, we keep sensing scary smells.

With the wet season in force, our minds are occupied at avoiding clouds and rechecking runway conditions whenever we hear "runway wet". The last thing we needed was smelling something out of the ordinary.

On one recent night flight, we were on our way to climb to 33,000 feet when I smelled something that wasn't right. I couldn't figure it out. When the purser came in, I asked if she can smell something.

"Mbak, can you smell something?"
"What Kep?"
"I don't know. Sometimes I smell smoke, sometimes I smell fuel, sometimes I smell something rotten."
"I'll check the galleys and the lavatories Kep."

A few minutes later she came back reporting that nothing was out of the ordinary. So me and my buddy rechecked the aircraft Pressurization and Air Conditioning System.

"The Packs are normal, cabin pressure normal, recirculation everything, everything's normal."

I just shook my head, but didn't want to get overly concerned. We continued to climb.

On reaching our cruise altitude over Palembang area, the weather radar painted us a wet path ahead. We can see from the lightnings in the clouds that the cells went pretty high. We requested several deviations to stay ahead of the nastiest clouds, but we couldn't avoid the clouds altogether, and the occasional lightning would blind us from time to time.

Just as the first officer turned to face the central pedestal to take a new notepad from his bag behind his seat, a lightning flashed. He froze and became pale. The smell came back. Ash, fuel and something worse than a rotten egg.

"What? What? You OK?" I asked him.
He wasn't looking at me but mumbled, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"
I was getting worried, the last thing I wanted was to land on a wet runway after a bumpy ride with my first officer restrained to his seat because he suddenly decided to become mentally ill.
"Kep," he called me. "ignore the smell."
"What?"
"Don't let the smell bother you."
"What do you mean?"
"Trust me Kep, you don't want to know."
Someone knocked on the cockpit door, I wanted to ask the purser to check the smell again.

So there was the pretty purser, smiling always, coming into the cockpit.

Just as I opened my mouth to ask, another lightning flashed and brightened the cockpit.
To my horror, there was a dark figure on the jumpseat behind me. It was a man, his clothes were ripped, soaked with blood and fuel.
I'm sure I turned pale instantly.

"Kep, what's wrong?"
"Ah, nothing."
"Kep, pucet banget!" (you're pale)
The first officer assisted. "It's nothing, can you bring us another coffee for both of us please?"
She wasn't sure. "OK. By the way, what's that smell?"
"Just get us the coffee mbak!"

As soon as she was out I turned to my first officer.
"As I said Kep, don't worry about it."
"But..."
"Don't let it bother you Kep, he just wants a ride. Let him have it and he won't bother us."

I tried to not let it bother. We agreed not to talk further about the smell, or the invisible rider until we landed.

The coffee arrived. I don't drink much coffee on duty but at least it kept the smell down.

A few minutes later, the first officer said, "OK Kep, he's gone to the toilet."
"Who is he?"
"I'm not sure if he's sensitive about it, but the guy recently died in a car accident. Collided with a truck."
"Nasty!"
"Just stay cool about it Kep, please. It will keep him calm."
"I'll try my best."

After we landed, we quickly taxied to the gate. The smell had become unbearable, but we stayed as calm and cool as we could.

As soon as the cabin doors were opened the smell disappeared. I turned and had to ask, "Is he gone?"
"Yes Kep, he's gone."
"Fiuh"

After the passengers had deboarded, the purser came in.
"OK you two, that was scary!"
"You knew?"
"I saw him Kep, ngeri deh"
"Oh my God! Who else saw him?"
"Two passengers on the first row saw him too and told me."
"Did they smell it too?"
"No."
"Thank God! What did they say?"
"I don't know Kep, but I hope they're not going to complain about it."
"WHAT? If they blame me, I think I quit!"

We're trained to deal with situations and keep our cool, that is how we earn our pay, but I wonder if the company would pay us extra to deal with things like this. I guess not.

Don't/Come Fly With Me!

While the marketing and PR department can throw all the flashy publicity all over the place, I do feel for my friends trapped by the company's harsh reality. I write this revised song for them.

Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away.
If you can't face the very long MEL,
There's a barfbag on your seat,
Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away.
Come fly with me! Let's glide down to the sea.
Do the ditching drill, let's arm the slides,
And switch the E-L-T.
Come fly with me! Let's take off to the blue.

Once I get you Up there, where the air is rarified,
We'll just glide, engines dead.
Once I get you up there, I'll switch all the packs to off
You will hear the PR cheer because you got a bargain.

Weatherwise, we shouldn't fly today!
Just say the words, "You go fly those planes"
And I think I'll quit today!
It's perfect for a flying honeymoon, they say.

Come fly with me! Let's fly, let's fly a way.

Oh come on let's fly!

Once I get you Up there, where the air is rarified,
Use the masks, don't be scared.
Once I get you up there, I will avoid all the clouds.
You may hear all the angels cheer coz the girls are so lebay.

Weatherwise, we shouldn't fly today!
You just say those words, "You go fly those planes"
And I think I will quit today!
It's perfect for a flying disaster, I say.

Don't fly with me! Let's fly someone else.
Pack up, let's write a will !

Ego is the highest safety risk!

Back in the flying school days, bragging and egoism was rife. While most are what we call the typical student pilot gaya kapten, some are just dangerous people. The safety mindset in aviation needs to be embedded in the head from the beginning. The problem is, what if the guys teaching at the flying schools are not safety minded?

I had a friend who once was a flight instructor, a skillful pilot but I must say he has a poor grasp of safety. When I started with an airline, I visited my friend who was at the school, and he invited me to join him for a ride (well, I paid for the flight). At the time he had way more hours than me, I didn't really want to fly with him but I thought I could do with some practice. There were 3 of us on the Cessna 172. Me, him, and a student coming along for the ride. It was unavoidable that he would brag about something.

So, predicting he would carry the "anything you can do I can do better" mindset as onboard baggage, after doing some touch-and-goes, he said, "OK, I want you to land on and stop at the numbers."

Oh boy, here we go. It was also inevitable that in such rivalry situations, we did not want to let the student at the back down. We called for stop-and-go.

I did the approach as well as I could and all I could manage was stopping a short distance beyond the numbers.

His turn was next. He literally hung the Cessna by the prop and the plane flopped on the runway and stopped on the numbers. Only the stall warning was louder than the propeller.

"Who taught you that trick?" I asked.
"My seniors, great huh? Look at our buddy back, pucet (pale) mas?

This isn't healthy.
"Let's go out to the training area, I want to try something different."

So off we went, and chatting all the way as usual. When we got there, I asked him to show me slow flights with full flaps claiming I want to learn that trick. Of course, his ego was well served and he was eager to show me.

We ended up hanging in the sky along at VS1, and when the stall warning sounded, I pulled my trick.
I looked to my left and said, "WADUH? APA ITU AT 8 O'CLOCK?" [what the? WHAT'S THAT AT 8 O'CLOCK?]
He looked to the left and the distaction was enough to reduce the pressure on the right pedal and YEEEHAAAA! We flipped over. He was distracted and disorientated.

"I have the flaps", raising them as he was still trying to figure out why we departed controlled flight, took control of the aircraft and flew back home.

After finishing everything off, we had coffee together. He was awfully quiet, together with the student. During the one of the lulls he finally asked, "Ton, what did you do?"
"Yah! Finally you asked. We were in the same configuration at 6000 feet that we were in at 50 feet on short final. All I did was give you a little distraction. Perhaps what happened should explain why we fly approaches at 1.3VS."

I did him a favour by telling the student to remember that distractions can come very easily and when you least expect it. Feel free to do tricks, but remember you can get distracted.

If I just given my friend a lecture on why we shouldn't pull tricks, he would have just put me down as a sore loser.

I hope I have prolonged my friend's life expectancy.