[Milsurplus] knots and The Gimli Glider

[Kenneth G. Gordon]

On 16 Mar 2006 at 15:04, Tom NØJMY - AAR7FV wrote:

> Yeah.  The pilot pulled off a dead-stick landing in a 757(?), saved
> the passengers, he and the co-pilot went back and put out the fire
> (and saved the plane) and the airline reprimanded him. The union
> blew its top.  The airline relented.  The government blew its stack
> and went after the airline.  The airline pointed out that they were
> only doing what government told them to do.  The government blew its
> stack again and went after the airline for not arguing with them
> strenuously enough.
> 
> Remember Hatlo's "Theyll Do It Every Time"?

Hmmmm....hadn't heard that one. However, it sure sounds EXACTLY 
like any gummint. I'll explain mine below.

> P.S. I still like the story of  Maynard "Snuffy" Smith saving his
> B-17.  I'll bet *he* could write *his* name in the snow.

Now THAT I would love to hear about.

OK. The Gimli Glider was, I believe, an Air Canada jet liner. I don't 
remember the exact model, but I believe it had twin fan-jets, one under 
each wing.

In any case, it was late taking off because Canada had just mandated
changing everything from English to Metric measurements. At one time
there were some six people in the cockpit all trying to make the
conversion from Imperial gallons to Liters to figure out how much fuel
they should carry.

Finally, they supposedly had it all figured out, loaded the fuel, and
took off from some Eastern seaboard city to fly to, IIRC, Vancouver.
B.C. on the west coast.  They had a full load of passengers. Again,
IIRC, about 200.

Somewhere over Alberta, they suddenly ran completely out of fuel. 
They were at altitude, and had SOME time, but not much. They 
frantically radioed for someplace, ANYplace to land. Turns out the 
nearest airfield that could possibly take them was an abandoned one 
at, IIRC, Gimli, BC. The airfield was routinely used as a drag strip.

When they arrived over the airfield a race was in progress. The pilot
had recently had some time in REAL gliders, and managed to side slip
the plane in to land it, passing silently over two kids on bicycles
who were racing down the runway, and missing EVERYthing and 
everyone on the ground.

They could not get the nose-wheel down, so landed it on its nose.
Lotsa sparks, lotsa noise, no fire.

Everyone and everything was safe.

Later, Air Canada took a fuel truck out to the airfield, lifted the
nose and cranked the nose-wheel down, took off and flew it somewhere
for maintenance. The last time I talked with an Air Canada pilot (or
whatever airline it was in) that plane was still in the fleet,
although it is probably retired by now.

The story was written up in Readers Digest a number of years ago, and
is one of my favorites.

Ken Gordon W7EKB