Tempting fate for a golf game
"Remember that Oregon golf trip I was planning? Well, something scary happened on it, so I don't think I'll fly with that guy anymore."
This surprised me, as over the last few years Gavin had enjoyed numerous golf outings in the twin-engine turboprop owned by his friend "Bill." Always upon returning he had glowed with excitement about how much fun it was.
On my last visit Gavin had boasted that Oregon would be the group's farthest golf destination yet. "In fact Bill is concerned about making it nonstop from Phoenix with eight guys and luggage," he'd told me, "so we might have to ship the golf bags separately." Since Bill is a retired airline captain, this was mentioned as a point of interest, not a concern. I'd observed that Bill could always lighten up on fuel to carry a larger passenger load. Even if that meant adding a fuel stop along the way, the speedy turboprop would still deliver the group quickly to Oregon. What had gone wrong?
"As it turned out, two guys flew by airline and the other five of us plus baggage rode with Bill in his airplane," said Gavin. Joining Bill in the cockpit was his old friend "Jerry," another airline pilot, while the other golfing buddies enjoyed the roomy cabin in back.
"We took off uneventfully from Phoenix," said Gavin, "and everything seemed to be going fine for the first hour or two. It was smooth, and the four of us in back had a game of gin going--the rest were drinking beer, and I was winning their money." He laughed. "But suddenly the cockpit door, which had been closed most of the flight, slammed open so hard it startled us. Out came Jerry looking very upset."
"Is everything OK, Jerry?" Gavin had asked.
"Just going to the head," Jerry replied, but his expression indicated something more serious.
"Would you like to play my hand for awhile and I'll go up front?" Gavin offered.
"No, I'll be OK," replied Jerry. The rest of the flight seemed to go smoothly except that several times Gavin noted the pilots talking in raised voices. "They had to be loud for me to hear them through the closed cockpit door and over the engines," he said. "Then our destination fogged in, so we had to make an instrument approach. Of course with two airline pilots up front, I figured there was nothing to worry about."
After landing, however, Gavin noticed that Bill and Jerry weren't speaking to each other. When their silence continued into next morning's golf game, Gavin started wondering what had happened between the two pilots. Then he overheard Jerry on the telephone booking an airline ticket home.
"At first Jerry wouldn't reveal what was going on," said Gavin, "but when I said, 'Look, if there's a safety issue you need to tell me,' he finally opened up." Gavin took a deep breath and then continued, "Before takeoff, I myself had overheard Jerry telling Bill that the fuel onboard was minimal for such a trip. He told Bill, 'It gets foggy along the Oregon coast, so we'll need reserves to allow for an instrument approach.'" The pilots had discussed a possible Northern California fuel stop, about two-thirds of the way to their destination.
After takeoff, Gavin and the other cabin passengers noticed repeated altitude changes. "Jerry told me that the pilots tried numerous altitudes trying to escape 60-knot headwinds," said Gavin. "Not only did the headwinds slow our progress, but we ended up cruising 5,000 feet lower than intended, meaning our turboprop engines burned more fuel than planned. According to Jerry, even before reaching Las Vegas the plane's flight computer indicated the need for a fuel stop to make our destination with any kind of reserve."
Apparently when the airplane approached Redding, California, which Jerry felt was an ideal place to refuel, Bill chose to press on in hopes of diminishing headwinds. "Jerry told me he insisted on landing, but Bill wouldn't do it," said Gavin. "I gather it was then that he got upset and slammed open the cockpit door." Evidently the pilots really started sweating the fuel situation over Oregon's unforgiving Cascade Mountains. "Jerry wanted to land and refuel on the dryer east side of the range where the weather would be predictably good," said Gavin, "but since that meant backtracking, Bill opted to continue to our seaside destination, which was almost as close."
Unfortunately, Bill's plan didn't adequately account for weather. When an instrument approach became necessary because of incoming coastal fog, the situation went from critical to crisis. "After landing, Jerry went back and physically checked the fuel and apparently there was very little left," said Gavin. "That's why he booked airline reservations for the trip home. He said that after sharing an airline cockpit with Bill off and on for 20 years, he would never have anticipated his friend's behavior. 'I thought I knew the guy,' he said. 'What was really upsetting to me was his lack of concern about cutting it so close. And all for a golf outing, for cryin' out loud! Even with a fuel stop we would have made tee time.'"
"You can imagine how upset I was, Greg," said Gavin. "After all, these are old friends of mine. I asked Jerry why he didn't tell the rest of us what was going on, and he said, 'I didn't want to alarm you.' I told him, 'These sound like extreme circumstances where our lives could have depended on the outcome. You should have informed the passengers so we could impose our collective will on Bill to land and refuel. If necessary I'd have personally dragged him out of his seat.'" He paused. "Greg, is there any penalty for mutiny on this sort of flight?"
"Not like on a commercial flight," I said, "but interfering with a pilot is serious business on any flight. Then again, dying is serious business too. Any idea how much fuel was left in the tanks after landing?"
"Jerry said we had about 130 pounds remaining--about 19 and one-half gallons. Of course, not being a pilot, I didn't know whether that was bad or not until he explained it. 'This isn't like having 19 gallons in your pickup truck,' Jerry told me. 'At the very most we had under 20 minutes of fuel left.'"
Greg Brown was the 2000 National Flight Instructor of the Year. His books include Flying Carpet, The Savvy Flight Instructor, The Turbine Pilot's Flight Manual, Job Hunting for Pilots, and You Can Fly! Visit his Web site.
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