SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - The precious juice

That was one of those stories today. Scheduled for a flight from Frankfurt to Vienna in my beloved 737-800, I did the fuel "calculation" like I always do: 45 kg per minute in flight, 3% contingency, fuel to alternate, 350 for taxiing, 1350kg mandatory 30 minute reserve, plus 500-1500 kg extra-fuel, depending on wind and weather I expect to meet. Then crossreferencing that with the data on the progress page for what the CDU says I would have in fuel at LOWW, depending on the numbers I had entered for wind and weather.

Just that this time I forgot to calculate for an alternate.

In the beginning, things were nice. Got de-iced in Frankfurt,

http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/9973/fsscr028r.jpg

took off into a perfectly clear sky,

http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/7397/fsscr032x.jpg

and was on my way.

But later, weather became bad. Overcast sky, strong wind.

http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/7316/fsscr033.jpg

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/3430/fsscr031e.jpg

And then, already in Austrian airspace and somewhere between Salzburg and Linz, I started to get worried about the strong wind that I faced, I did a quick brainstorming over the fuel indicator and the fuel flow, checked with the CDU's Progress page, and found that maybe I would consume some of my reserve fuel.

Some...? :huh:

I considered an early safety landing in Linz, but then gave up the idea. I hoped fuel levels would hold until Vienna.

When having entered the 30 miles ring around Vienna at the latest, it was clear that I had a problem. With an approach course of around 120°, I hoped to get cleared for runway 11. Problem is that tower had other plans. They said 29. Even worse, the airport was IFR, there was snow and low clouds, and I did not even see where the damn airport was, except on my navigation display. For a landing on 11, I would have had enough fuel. But I could not see it. And the ILS of 11 was not up and running (even more, my CDU's database did not even list an ILS for 11, only for the other three approaches that Vienna has).

You cannot do a visual emergency landing on a runway you cannot see.

So I had to waste my precious last fuel, already less than the reserve of 1400 kg, to bypass the airfield south of it, and fly a half-circle around it, just to get an approach on exactly the opposite course of my heading that I was flying.

Sometimes, life sucks.

Well, when I entered the third leg and prepared for intercepting the localiser at around its 15 miles marker, I was below 1000 kg. I delayed flaps setting and lowering gear, to gain as much speed from the engines without increasing their setting, just staying in the air, descending. I did not switch on the APU, what I normally do not just after touchdown, but at the time I lower gear. And my eyes were nervously travelling back and forth between the HGS screen in front of my eyes, and the fuel counter on the engine display. On glideslope, estimated fifteen or ten seconds before touchdown, I finally had runway in sight, and just seconds before that I had started to flap down, lowering gear and decelerating to touchdown speed.

And when the altimeter announced "100", the red A/T warning light came up with the news that the fuel pressure was failing me.

The engine display still showed 180 and 200 in the wing tanks, but the autothrottle had disengaged, and seconds later the first engine died. Then already in flare, the other engine went off, just three seconds or so before the wheels touched the ground.

Which meant: no reverse thrust. The engines were dead.

And the runway was slippery with ice and snow.

I travelled down the runway like on a bob sledge, hitting and releasing the wheel brakes. Then electricity switched back one or two gears (generators as dead as the engines), the blowers and systems became silent, and with the last swing I was able to move the plane onto a taxiway, do one last turn, role out and came to a silent, gentle standstill. It was almost surreal how silent and gentle it ended.

Incredible feeling, incredible luck, and rescue not one second too early. If I would had dialed in the final intercept course for localiser to intercept localiser just one half of a mile more away, the plane probably would have crashed some meters before the beginning of the runway, right into the rapids.

I just love this plane!

This is the final standstill position at Vienna. Just behind it, the runway.

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/8140/fsscr034l.jpg

http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/7682/fsscr035.jpg

And from the tower:

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/4294/fsscr036.jpg