Leaving JFK

I'll depart JFK for Narita in a couple of hours, completing a ten day Asian trip with stops in Narita, Nagoya, Manila and JFK on flight 173. This will be my line check, completing my 747 training. Then it's a matter of dead heading to DTW, clearing customs, running for my commuter flight to Boston and driving to New Hampshire. I should be in fine shape by the time I arrive home! More later with pictures.

Rand

My Last B-767-300ER Trip

Apparently eBlogger has experienced problems the last few days. They're back up but I've lost my latest info, such as the pictures donated by Carl Cantrell and son and many readers comments. 

I have good news, I've been able to retrieve Carl's photos below. Carl and his son visited SFO to witness Lufthansa's A380 arrival and sent me these pictures.

Yesterday, 10 May, the city of San Francisco celebrated LUFTHANSA, GERMAN AIRLINES DAY, to commemorate the airlines new A-380 service to the city. Lufthansa has been serving the Bay Area for 50 years and plans to have eight A-380's in service by the end of this year. I took the shot above several months ago in Frankfurt.

Congratulations to JB

Yes, between the sun and the heated windscreen I'm trying to melt my serving of ice cream that presently is as hard as a hockey puck!

Although I look forward with great anticipation to flying the 747-400, I leave behind two of the nicest jets that I've flown; the B-757 and B-767. They've been a pleasure to fly, reliably seeing me over continents and oceans and have taught me much about my craft. With that in mind let me tell you about my last 767 trip... or more accurately, my last two trips.

We're at gate 8 at Frankfurt Main. I flew the inbound leg and my FO's will fly us back to DTW, so as the pilot not flying, or more accurately the Pilot Monitoring, I'll do the exterior walk around inspection this morning. I know it's a beautiful day here in Deutschland, but yes, I do walk arounds in the rain too. I have noticed though, surprised looks from ramp agents when they see a captain doing the walk-around. I love getting out on the ramp with my camera and capturing as many aviation images as possible. 

This was to have been my last 767 trip, so I coerced my crew into posing for a celebratory group shot in the first class cabin. As you can tell they're a gregarious lot and were a lot of fun to fly with. 

But then a few days later, a FRA trip appeared on the open board and I grabbed it. I love Frankfurt layovers and enjoyed yet another fantastic crew. For this flight though we're out on a hardstand and gather in the shadow of our faithful 767.

Meet Ernie, a retired Naval aviator, an excellent pilot and good friend. In fact just two annual checkrides ago we shared the simulator and wowed our check-airman with our vast depth of knowledge and finesse. Or at least that's what he said! You may remember my post concerning this event with captain Don Schoblum as our examiner.

Say hello to Deb, our second First Officer who happens to live within a few miles of my home in New Hampshire. Her husband also flew for NWA, but after suffering through a few furloughs sought greener pastures elsewhere. Although he landed on his feet and has a fantastic corporate job at Bedford - Hanscom Field in Bedford, MA, I hate hearing of stories like this. It does emphasizes however, my theory concerning a fall back plan, a second career or a business should you persist in following your airline dream. Like Ernie, Deb was wonderful to share a cockpit with and made our nearly nine hour flight to DTW pass quickly. 

When I told our FRA mechanic, whom I've come to know over the years, that this was my last 767 trip, he grabbed his step ladder, reached for my camera and told me to climb up into the engine intake. He even laid out a little rubber mat for me to stand on to avoid contact with the cowl. This Pratt and Whitney 4060 develops more than 61,000 pounds of thrust. That is of course later, after I've climbed down from here.

In fact, here's our friendly German mechanic/photographer right here. Deb's looking just a bit too comfortable in my seat don't you think!! It will be yours soon enough. 

Deb from the FO window as I start my walk around. Though not as beautiful as the 757 with its distinctive dropped down nose and windscreen, the 767 is far more roll sensitive due to it's (dual) inboard and outboard ailerons. The 757 only has one set of ailerons.

We've pushed back from the gate and start our taxi to runway 25R. We have much to accomplish in the way of checklists and briefs and a very short taxi distance with which to complete them, so I'll drag my feet just a bit in order to get everything done. 

We're holding short of 25 Right now as a Singapore -400 lands and Lufthansa is next in line to depart.

All checklist items and briefs are complete as we hold in position for an LNAV/VNAV departure. If I remember, this is a close in community departure as well that has us climbing to 3,000 feet before we start flap retraction. 

We've flown past the UK and have joined a random track west of the Outer Hebrides Islands off Scotland as we fly past this DAL A-330 en route from Paris to DTW.

Deb's holding our oceanic chart here as Ernie has gone back into the cabin on First Break. We've actually duplicated this chart and I've taken many pictures of Deb today as she'll speak to her daughters fourth grade class next week concerning weather and oceanic flying procedures following this trip. I vividly remember my father coming in to speak with my fifth grade class many years ago when he was a Northeast Airlines DC-6B captain; it was a very proud moment for me. What made his appearance even more interesting was that my fifth grade teacher had been my Dad's second grade teacher! Miss Carney, you probably don't know her.

A little closer look at our oceanic chart indicating Shannon (EINN) and Goose Bay Labrador (CYYR) as our 180 minute ETOPS alternates. Unfortunately we're passing three degrees south of Greenland today and will miss one of the most beautiful, rugged, vistas on our planet.

Yup, a personal portrait of 'ol Rand as he enjoys his last 767 oceanic crossing. It's with mixed emotions that I leave the 7ER category for the 744A and my final, great airline adventure. I've flown the 757 for nearly eight years now and it fits like a comfortable old pair of shoes, the kind that you just can't bear to discard. 

Some may wonder what I'm referring to when I use the term 7ER and 744A. Let me explain. As you know the 757 and 767 are a dual type rating and you can find yourself in either piece of equipment depending upon the route. For company purposes, the bid category for this combined position is designated as 7ER. 744 means 747-400 and the A means captain. A first officer would be a B. So, I'm leaving my bid position as a DTW 7ERA for DTW 744A as the sun slowly sets on my airline career. Yes... I'll miss it.

This is the flight plan from my previous trip. We passed 58N 30W two minutes late at 1309Z with 77,900 ponds of fuel. We're within our parameters, but just one more minute late and we'd have to contact Gander and notify them of our tardiness. This is a CPDLC flight which means all of our communications with Shanwick and Gander are automatically transmitted. There is an exception to this though. When you cross a FIR boundary or change controlling agencies, voice communications are required, in this case, accomplished on HF frequencies. If you look up the flight plan you'll see our primary and secondary HF frequencies listed for both facilities.

You'll also find other important information noted here as well, like when we expect to shut off the center tank fuel pumps and when the second break starts. You'll also see that we're flying at FL 320 at mach .81 too. Normally we're at mach .80, but due to headwinds we're trying to stay on schedule by flying a little faster. This will increase our fuel burn, but the dispatcher has taken that into account as an on time arrival is vitally important. 

This raises another point that I'd like to clarify. Often, while commuting I'll hear a passenger remark, "we're late" as we're taxiing after "departure" time. The published departure time is the time that the boarding door must be closed by, not the time that the airplane becomes airborne. If you think about it, how could anyone really know what time we'll become airborne. With ground traffic at major airports like JFK, LGA, CDG and others, how could anyone correctly anticipate the taxi out time? Flight times are adjusted by historical data but keep in mind that if the boarding door is closed by the published departure time and our rotating beacon is illuminated (it used to be brakes released at NWA) you're on time. Gate agents and managers are scrutinized closely here for compliance to "on time" and scurry to make it happen. Ramp personnel have a countdown clock by the gate identifier visible to me through my windscreen that they take very seriously. After takeoff, if even just a minute late, I'll receive and ACARS message requesting information from the flight crew as to why we pushed late. 

The last block indicates a "cost index" of 88. What does that mean? As you know, the cost of operation has to be weighed with on time performance. The dispatcher, with winds aloft and cruise altitude knowledge, has calculated that with this figure inserted into the FMS (computer) the airplane will be programmed to fly at a speed that will see us arrive on time with the least possible fuel burn. It works pretty well! We'll fly at a fixed mach .81 across the Atlantic today guaranteeing safe separation with other aircraft, but once feet dry we'll use a cost index of 88 to determine our thrust settings, thus airspeed.

The last note in the right margin indicates "55W 132.65." We'd received an ACARS message from Gander to contact Gander Center at 55 degrees west longitude on VHF, 132.65. We created a point on our Fix page at 58N 55W to visibly remind us to do this. To insure that we'd see this on our map, we added a 10 mile ring around this point to even make it more obvious. It worked!

Ninety minutes prior to your oceanic departure point, you send an ACARS message to, in this case Shanwick, requesting your oceanic clearance. Within moments they reply indicating that they've received your request and to contact them no later than a particular time by voice if we hear nothing further. That's never happened to me as I've always received my clearance within 10 or 15 minutes of my original request. We print the message, check the coordinates against our flight plan and the FMS and then acknowledge its receipt. 

This is how it looks. DAL 143 cleared to DTW via PIKIL AND NAT (NAT TRACK) B via the listed coordinates at flight level 320 at mach .81. You can see here too that our ETOPS airports for this flight were, Glasgow, Scotland (Prestwick) and Goose Bay, Labrador. 

Here's how the clearance appears on our ACARS screen after we've passed 59N40W en route to 59N50W. This page has been called up because we're sending a company position report to dispatch.

We're back in VHF contact with Gander Center now as we fly over eastern Labrador. Does anyone know what this is and why I'm doing it? I'll wait a few days and answer the question if no one arrives at the correct solution.

Once again, I'm going to miss this fabulous airplane.

but.....

.... onward and upward to new challenges.

As usual, thanks very much for reading along.

But before I leave, I'd like you to meet three very good friends who offered moral support as I navigated through 747-400 school. You've seen their pictures many times in previous posts in airplanes and during layovers.

Dave recently moved from the 7ER to the 747-400

Tom as well just checked out in the 747-400

And Wes is flying the 767-400 out of JFK.

Flying jet airplanes is great, doing it with great friends is even better.

Thanks fella's.

Rand

Five weeks later....

Just arrived home a few hours ago after completing training, and with the help of many good friends and a dedicated training department I have a new type rating! 

More later, I'm going to bed now and plan to sleep for a week!

Historical Flight Foundations DC-7B

I've added a new LINK to my favorites site; passrider.com. This site has bailed me out several times when I've finished a trip in a city other than my domicile and want to fly directly to BOS. In seconds I know everything I need to know to quickly get home. It's also wonderful for any type of pass riding or planning after you've been bumped from several flights.  Give it a try, I think it's a fantastic tool.

Meet Captains Frank Moss and John Brier.

Captain Frank Moss in the companionway of Historical Flight Foundations DC-7B, N836D, serial number 45345, delivered new to Eastern Airlines in 1958.

I'm still away from home, have about four more weeks to go, but I just received these photos from my friend John Brier and wanted to share them. Let me introduce you to a couple of good friends from my past. This is Frank Moss, he was hired with me in 1974 to fly at Hyannis based, later Boston based Air New England. I've written much about this historically significant commuter airline that at one time was the nations largest commuter airline. We flew an eclectic variety of airplanes that included Twin Otters, DC-3's, FH-227's and Convair 580's. It was a ball and as we age, friends like Frank and John become even more valuable to me.

In October 1981 we were given notice that our little airline would be shuttered shortly. We all scrambled to acquire, fill out and distribute resumes and applications to Eastern, Delta, Braniff, Piedmont and other major carriers. That is all of us except Frank, who marches to the beat of a different drummer; and I say that with great admiration. While most of us sought seats in DC-9's, 737's and 727's he had a different vision. Frank took off for Alaska in search of DC-3's, DC-4's and remote gravel runways. He found them! Other radial adventures saw him spanning oceans and jungles through skies over South America. He is a Renaissance Man. 

Here's a little closer look at the cockpit of Historical Flight Foundation's historic Douglas Airliner.

Now this ladies and gentleman is an airliner. Round dials, muscular radial engines, prop levers, mixture controls and cowl flaps. Standing here I can inhale the intoxicating aroma; a mixture of leather, coffee, Lucky Strikes, oil and combusted high octane aviation gasoline that defines this magnificent flying machine. Her engines rumble easily, while the individual firing of her 18 cylinders, shrouded within these Wright R3350's is symphonic.

Captains Frank Moss and John Brier in the back "lounge of the "Seven." John flew with us at Air New England too, but left to fly at a variety of airlines before landing on his feet at People Express where he flew the 737 and 747, eventually retiring from Continental Airlines. Today he enjoys flying his Cessna Cardinal between his homes in Florida and Maine.

Eastern's been gone for a long while now (1926-1991) and many of you may be curious as to exactly where Captain Eddie's Great Silver Fleet flew.  Look at this cabin divider and enjoy a wonderful display of their route map. If you're moved by the thunder from radial engines, the aroma of combusted aviation gasoline and the history of Douglas Aircraft and historic airlines, you may want to click over and visit those at The Historical Flight Foundation.  If you'd like to see photography dedicated to this DC-7B, visit Chris Sloans website for a very enjoyable experience.

Thanks very much to John for sending me these photos. I plan to make a trip to Florida soon to visit Frank and see this beautifully restored DC-7B.  

ADDENDUM

I've been listening lately to news reports concerning the SWA 737 that developed a hole in her fuselage last week. My first reaction is how ill informed our news sources are with regard to aviation matters. If they report dubiously here, why would I expect accuracy in other fields? Before I get into that though, let me express my congratulations to a professional airline crew who handled this emergency in stride.

One reporter expressed that she never wears her seatbelt while flying at cruise altitude and didn't think that it was necessary. She's changed her mind now though. Interestingly, I bet she wears her seatbelt in her car at all times. What she and most people fail to consider, is that at altitude they're flying through the earths thin, upper atmosphere at 80% of the speed of sound in a metal tube. We're generally flying in the troposphere over oceans, lakes, mountains, cities, forests, deserts and other land forms that contribute to uneven heating of the atmosphere above, creating turbulence. Now throw in a jet stream that often experiences speeds in excess of 150 mph and we can see that we're operating in an unpredictable environment. And we haven't even mentioned clear air turbulence yet!

So, when your flight crew advises to "wear your seatbelt anytime that you're in your seat, like we do in the cockpit," there's good reason to do so. Also, please pay attention to the flight attendants when they attempt to inform you concerning emergency procedures. From this incident we've learned that many passengers were unable to activate oxygen flow from their oxygen masks dispensed from the PSU above. Why? Because they were probably reading the newspaper when instructed in its use.  

Once again, thanks for following along.

Rand

Will be gone for a while...

Photo: Bruce Magnason

I'm here with Evan Elliott, Aircraft Collections Technician at the Seattle Museum of Flight Air Park across the street from the main Museum complex. Evan and his friends kindly rolled up a set of stairs to their 747, the City of Everett, and gave me an interior tour. I'd arranged for this a few weeks ahead of time when I first knew that I'd have this long SEA layover. So once again, thanks very much to Evan and his colleagues at the Museum for arranging this tour, as well as to John Wegg at AIRWAYS MAGAZINE.

This is the number one 747 that first flew on 9 February 1969 as we're joined in the cockpit by Bruce Magnason. This is far more than just a visual delight. The aroma in here speaks to "Old" airplanes and transports you back to an era of round dials, flight engineer panels and early jet engines. It's a fixed point in time, an undisturbed shrine to Bill Allen, Joe Sutter and others who accomplished the phenomenal feat of the Boeing 747.    

The Museum of Flight

If you've not visited the Museum of Flight yet, you need to put it on your list of things to do, it's fabulous. The red building is referred to as the Red Barn, the original Boeing factory built in 1909. Everywhere you look here it's full of history, our history, aviation history. 

More on all this later, but I'll be away from my keyboard for five weeks... yes five weeks. So, as usual, thanks for following along and I'll see you in a month or so. To learn more about the museum, click on the link above or click over to Chris Sloan's site, go to the Museums tab and enjoy his photography. 

Rand


If you're enjoying a long downtown SEA layover it's easy to get here. Take the 124 bus with $2.25 exact change (each way) and 25 minutes later you'll arrive at the Museum on Marginal Way. The entrance fee is $16.00 but if you have a Triple-A card it's $14.00. I failed to, but take a moment and visit the Boeing Store nearby too.

A Saipan roundtrip and an email from a new B-767-300ER captain.

I'd planned to introduce you to FO James Reeman in this posting but that will have to wait awhile as I've had a few problems attaching his photography to my blog. You're going to really enjoy it so stand by a while until I iron out a few problems.

In the meanwhile, join Greg and me as we flight plan, meet our crew and fly to Saipan and back to Narita.

We'd arrived in Asia a few days earlier via Delta 183, Seattle to Osaka in this B-767-300ER. Of course we had a relief pilot for this flight as it covered 4,617 nautical miles in ten hours 54 minutes. We carried a moderate load of 200 passengers with 7,200 pounds of freight and 143,500 pounds of fuel for a takeoff weight of just a little over 400,000 pounds.  After takeoff from SEA we travelled north to Anchorage. I love flying through this area along the Aleutian Island Chain past Cold Bay and Dutch Harbor. Northwest Airlines pioneered this region during WWII in DC-3's and DC-4's and created an impressive history under extremely harsh conditions. In other words, other airline pilots paved the way for me today.

From here we made a slight westerly turn to join the North Pacific tracks, go feet wet and traverse Russian and Chinese airspace. Ten and a half hours later and more than ready to land, we started our descent after passing Sendai, Tokyo and Nagoya. The Japanese eastern coastal region is spectacularly beautiful and my thoughts go out to the many Japanese friends that I've made over the years as I write this. They've endured massive destruction in the form of earthquakes and tsunami's with their usual uncomplaining attitude. I've traveled the world, met thousands of people and have never met kinder or gentler people. Let me give you a few examples below of just some of my friends. Please notice, they always have a smile on their faces.

A crew from Osaka to Narita

Meeting a JAL crew while standing in the customs line at Saipan.

One of our gate agents at Nagoya.

"Ah, Pecksohn, konnichi wa."

Here are four of the six ladies who run the Radisson laundry service for our pilots and flight attendants. Every time I show up they act as if I'm the most important person in the world and they couldn't wait to see me. It's a nice greeting when you're 4,000 miles from home!

Well, Greg's still a little worn out from our long flight from SEA to Osaka and curled up in one of the Lazy-Boy recliners in the crew lounge. Kids!

But the slave driver that I am, gets him up to draw our oceanic chart down to Saipan.

And finally out to the gate to meet our flight attendant crew as we await the arrival of our 757. Yup, more smiling people. It's nice to fly with someone who has a sweet tooth as he passes out chocolate macadamia nuts.

Here's our route from Narita to Saipan: RJAA, MANGO, OTR20, ADKAK, A337, TEGOD, G205, GUYES, DCT PGSN. A337 is the yellow line to the far right. This is a relatively quick flight of just three hours eight minutes to cover 1,342 nautical miles. We'll be out of VHF range so will communicate via HF with Tokyo and San Francisco Radios. This will be a long day though because this is a SPN turn. We'll have an hour and a half on the ground and then it's crank it up and fly back to NRT. About a 12 hour duty day with nearly eight hours of flying. The southern flight will be uneventful, but the return trip will be spent dodging thunderstorms that build along this route as the day passes. They won't be imbedded so navigating past them is fairly easy, except for the HF radio work to coordinate it all though.

Here's what it looks like on a more conventional National Geographic map. We're the black line to the right. From Narita we'll fly pretty much directly to Iwo Jima and follow the Bonin Trench which becomes the Mariana Trench to the Northern Mariana Islands. This area encompasses the deepest point of the worlds largest Ocean, which according to National Geographic is 36,200 feet.  

Approximately 200 miles north of Saipan, we've contacted Guam approach on VHF and received a clearance to descend, pilots discretion to 10,000 feet. In an attempt to stay high as long as possible and save fuel, we've built an intersection in our FMC to cross a point 30 miles north of Saipan at 10,000 feet and 250 knots. This will give us an economical, power off descent of 29,000 feet. We've added the 250 knots by habit, because if more than 12 miles offshore it's not necessary to slow to this restricted speed. But 30 miles at 250 will pass quickly enough so we'll keep it in and plan as usual. Besides, we're a little early so it's not necessary to come screaming in and then have to use the boards.


In the distance you can see the runway at Saipan, but do you see those parallel strips just over our nose? They're what remains of old "North Field" from where Enola Gay launched on 6 August 1945 with its nuclear load code named "Little Boy" en route to Hiroshima. Three days later Bockscar launched with her load "Fatman" for Nagasaki. The next day, 10 August 1945, Japan capitulated and WWII unofficially came to an end. Saipan and Tinian here are just two of the 14 islands that make up the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands that stretch some 300 miles.

Saipan, straight ahead. But what's that over in the far corner just beyond the airline ramp?

Greg and I have about 1:45 minutes on our hands so after completing our shutdown checklist, wolfing down lunch and preparing for our return trip to Narita, we abandon the cockpit in search of other aircraft.

And this is what we found. Andy, our station manager piled into his truck and drove us to the other side of the field where we found this. It's a Volga-Dnepr IL76TA, just one of a varied fleet designed for heavy lifting. 

This is a Russian based company, that I've seen all over the world that specializes in moving large, bulky, heavy objects. This aircraft normally has a crew of seven with a MTOW of 346,000 pounds and a range of 3,650 miles. I think that this is the smallest aircraft in their fleet. A rather ungainly looking flying machine, but it gets the job done I suppose.

Four tires per main truck for 16 tires on the main landing gear. Look forward and you'll see the nose wheel assembly with four tires. I'd love to see all these wheels retract!

Andy and Greg beneath the tail. Look closely... you'll see them.

Anyway, this is why the IL 76TA is here today in Saipan. This Shanghai Airlines B-767 blew the right engine shortly after takeoff and returned to land. A few days later a new engine was shipped in and maintenance was working on it when we arrived.

OK, we have to run and head back to our 757 to launch for Narita, but before we do, Andy gives us a quick tour including this WWII Japanese bunker. After the Marines secured the island on 7 July 1944, this airfield became known as Isley Field, home to the 73rd Bomb Wing, 21st Bomber Command of the 20th Air Force. Picture if you can 180 B-29's on this site. 

Thanks for following along on this quick Saipan turn, but before I shove off, let me leave you with an email I received regarding recent events in Japan. This is a first person account from a brand new 767 captain on his first Asian trip. He and his crew did a fantastic job... my hat's off to them.   

PIREP Airline flight on approach to Tokyo during earthquake Subject: Report from an airline pilot on approach to Tokyo during earthquake  I'm currently still in one piece, writing from my room in the Narita crew hotel. It's 8am. This is my inaugural trans-pacific trip as a brand new, recently checked out, international 767 Captain and it has been interesting, to say the least, so far. I've crossed the Atlantic three times so far so the ocean crossing procedures were familiar. By the way, stunning scenery flying over the Aleutian Islands . Everything was going fine until 100 miles out from Tokyo and in the descent for arrival. The first indication of any trouble was that Japan air traffic control started putting everyone into holding patterns. At first we thought it was usual congestion on arrival. Then we got a company data link message advising about the earthquake, followed by another stating Narita airport was temporarily closed for inspection and expected to open shortly (the company is always so positive). From our perspective things were obviously looking a little different. The Japanese controller's anxiety level seemed quite high and he said expect "indefinite" holding time. No one would commit to a time frame on that so I got my copilot and relief pilot busy looking at divert stations and our fuel situation, which, after an ocean crossing is typically low. It wasn't long, maybe ten minutes, before the first pilots started requesting diversions to other airports. Air Canada , American, United, etc. all reporting minimal fuel situations. I still had enough fuel for 1.5 to 2.0 hours of holding. Needless to say, the diverts started complicating the situation. Japan air traffic control then announced Narita was closed indefinitely due to damage. Planes immediately started requesting arrivals into Haneada, near Tokyo , a half dozen JAL and western planes got clearance in that direction but then ATC announced Haenada had just closed. Uh oh! Now instead of just holding, we all had to start looking at more distant alternatives like Osaka , or Nagoya . One bad thing about a large airliner is that you can't just be-pop into any little airport. We generally need lots of runway. With more planes piling in from both east and west, all needing a place to land and several now fuel critical ATC was getting over-whelmed. In the scramble, and without waiting for my fuel to get critical, I got my flight a clearance to head for Nagoya , fuel situation still okay. So far so good. A few minutes into heading that way, I was "ordered" by ATC to reverse course. Nagoya was saturated with traffic and unable to handle more planes (read- airport full). Ditto for Osaka . With that statement, my situation went instantly from fuel okay, to fuel minimal considering we might have to divert a much farther distance. Multiply my situation by a dozen other aircraft all in the same boat, all making demands requests and threats to ATC for clearances somewhere. Air Canada and then someone else went to "emergency" fuel situation. Planes started to heading for air force bases. The nearest to Tokyo was Yokoda AFB. I threw my hat in the ring for that initially. The answer - Yokoda closed! no more space. By now it was a three ring circus in the cockpit, my copilot on the radios, me flying and making decisions and the relief copilot buried in the air charts trying to figure out where to go that was within range while data link messages were flying back and forth between us and company dispatch. I picked Misawa AFB at the north end of Honshu island. We could get there with minimal fuel remaining. ATC was happy to get rid of us so we cleared out of the maelstrom of the Tokyo region. We heard ATC try to send planes toward Sendai , a small regional airport on the coast which was later the one I think that got flooded by a tsunami. Dispatch then sent us a message asking if we could continue to Chitose airport on the Island of Hokkaido , north of Honshu . Other company planes were heading that way. More scrambling in the cockpit - check weather, check charts, check fuel, okay. We could still make it and not be going into a fuel critical situation ... if we had no other fuel delays. As we approached Misawa we got clearance to continue to Chitose. Critical decision thought process. Let's see - trying to help company - plane overflies perfectly good divert airport for one farther away...wonder how that will look in the safety report, if anything goes wrong. Suddenly ATC comes up and gives us a vector to a fix well short of Chitose and tells us to standby for holding instructions. Nightmare realized. Situation rapidly deteriorating. After initially holding near Tokyo , starting a divert to Nagoya , reversing course back to Tokyo then to re-diverting north toward Misawa, all that happy fuel reserve that I had was vaporizing fast. My subsequent conversation, paraphrased of course...., went something like this: "Sapparo Control - Airline XX requesting immediate clearance direct to Chitose, minimum fuel, unable hold." "Negative Ghost-Rider, the Pattern is full" <<< top gun quote <<< "Sapparo Control - make that - Airline XX declaring emergency, low fuel, proceeding direct Chitose" "Roger XX, understood, you are cleared direct to Chitose, contact Chitose approach....etc...." Enough was enough, I had decided to preempt actually running critically low on fuel while in another indefinite holding pattern, especially after bypassing Misawa, and played my last ace...declaring an emergency. The problem with that is now I have a bit of company paperwork to do but what the heck. As it was - landed Chitose, safe, with at least 30 minutes of fuel remaining before reaching a "true" fuel emergency situation. That's always a good feeling, being safe. They taxied us off to some remote parking area where we shut down and watched a half dozen or more other airplanes come streaming in. In the end, Delta had two 747s, had two 767's and a 777 all on the ramp at Chitose. We saw two American airlines planes, a United and two Air Canada as well. Not to mention several extra Al Nippon and Japan Air Lines planes. Post-script - 9 hours later, Japan air lines finally got around to getting a boarding ladder to the plane where we were able to get off and clear customs. - that however, is another interesting story. By the way - while writing this - I have felt four additional tremors that shook the hotel slightly - all in 45 minutes. Cheers,

*    *    *    *

And for those who think that we just push buttons once in a while, maybe you'll think of "ghost-rider" (I love that reference) and his crew should that misguided thought ever pass through your brain again.  

Thanks for following along.... until later, Rand