Page updated: 11.08.2020
This section is for stories related to the G-159. They can be about any topic as long as it is related to the G1. They can be accompanied by pictures as long as they are relevant to the story.
The author(s) of the stories are listed as Anonymous. No names or identifying data will ever be released.
Please send the stories to: rsm6120@protonmail.com
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I had another memorable event in the G-1.
We had regular shuttle runs several times a week from BPA (Bethpage NY) to DCA.
Back in the 1980’s there used to be hundreds of business airplanes in and out of DCA daily, and parking could be a challenge. We were being parked in a crowded area with a crown in the middle tapering off to the sides.
Since it was so crowded they wanted to push us back into a parking spot tail to a fence parallel to a line of parked airplanes. I was an SIC at the time, and since there were no tugs around at the time, the captain decided to get two people on the wheels and just push the airplane backwards by the tires into the parking spot. Pretty easy since it was downhill…
I got in the pilot seat and began to review how I was gonna stop the airplane with the aux pump and brakes nice and gently. While I was doing this I was startled to hear shouting from outside and looked up to see us rolling rapidly backwards towards a disaster! In a pure panic I yanked on the parking brake locking the main wheels. The airplane rocked backwards and damn near sat on its tail. I was told the nose wheel came 6 feet off the ground, teetered there for a second and then came crashing back down. It took a while for my heart rate to come down…..
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I flew S/N 1 G-1 for 13 years with Grumman, up to the point where they were taken over by Northrop and ceased to exist. (1994)
In 13 years, the only failure I ever experienced was a blown Landing Gear hydraulic up line taking off out of DCA bound for BPA (Bethpage, NY).
We were down to the Aux system with Parking brake after a blow down of the gear for landing.
The resulting landing was totally uneventful and I commented that the airplane performed just like in the simulator. After some thought I realized that, no, the simulator performed just like the airplane!
Another funny Grummanism was related to a peculiar company policy:
When it was time to do a change on one of the Rotol props, a maintenance balancing flight was required. This would also include a mandatory shutdown and restart of both engine’s in flight. (Not at the same time). I did many of these flights as we had two G-1s at that point and I got quite comfortable with the procedure.
The strange part is when these flights occurred, the company would announce a free ride to any company employee who wished to go along.
We had 20 passenger seats and they were always full while I as tooling around shutting down engines and restarting them in flight (Hopefully!). Sounds pretty crazy now……
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As a young man just out of the Air Force in 1971, I had just returned to Long Island, N.Y.
An uncle who had been with Grumman since it started suggested I give Grumman a try. I applied and was immediately hired as a Plane Captain on their EC2 aircraft in Bethpage. I advanced quickly and became Run and Taxi Qualified under Lou Calsetta, Bill Newman and Lemar Cress. I soon bcame a Fieid Service Rep on the EC2 working out of Pax River and NAS Norfolk. I was the youngest Field Service Rep the company ever had and part of their Tiger Team. Almost every weekend I would fly back to Bethpage on the company G1 or their G2 and loved every flight. What amazing planes they were for the times. One of the highlights was when we landed at the Grumman Field in Bethpage at night. Millions of lights and until they kicked on the runway and REIL lights it was impossible to find. Only someone who has landed there can truly understand.
I spent many times in the right seat chatting with the pilot and he suggested I go to flight school and get my tickets and then fly for Grumman. I decided to go to flight school and after discussing it with the Plant Manager he said go for it. We will give you a leave of absence and supplement your VA and help pay you through umemployment and a program they had. Then we will hire you as a pilot when you complete your training…..Wow what an opportunity for a young veteran.
So I went to Emery Aviation in Colorado and completed their professional Puilit Program and my A&P tickets. During the time I was gone Grumman Aerospace sold off the commercial aviation interests to Grumman American in Savannah. After graduation, I called and spoke to Management and they said they were unable to honor the promise made in Bethpage. Dissapointed, I became a Flight Instructor/ Corporate pilot in Phoenix and then eventually got on with Hugh Airwest. I had a great career with the airlines for 30 years and retired about 10 years ago. My days with Grumman were some of the best memories of my life. Sometimes I still wish I could have progressed flying their aircraft probably up to the G5 before retiring.
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One night back in the 80’s my dad and I where flying along at 23,000 feet about 2:30 am coming back from the North to our home in Fairhope AL. There was mild icing but all was coming off so we were cool, when the master caution light came on. Left hand alt failure, now we have no de-ice on the left engine. I look over at my dad, he is just smiling and says no biggi we are close to home. Then wham, the master caution goes off again, right gearbox oil psi light. Damn, now we need to shut down the right engine. Well dad what now? Shut it down he said still smiling. I said ok, so we shut it down and I called Atlanta center and advised them we were single engine and needing to descend. They said ok and asked if we were declaring an emergency. I replied no, not at this time, by the way I did not have my ticket yet. We started a slow decent to Fairhope. We were about 55 minutes out, with no deice on one and on one engine. I asked my dad if he would like to go to Mobile that has a big airport, lots of light on a very big runway. He said no, our cars and my tools where in Fairhope and it would be closer
to our home. I reminded him 5200 foot strip 55 foot wide v. 10,000 foot and 150 foot wide he said no biggi, he had done this before and there would be no problem. I then suggested we could restart the engine for landing if he would like. He said no, it was not a good idea to change the plan. It could damage the gear box and make the cockpit to unstable at landing. I then asked how many times he had landed the GI single engine. He (while smiling) said many many times. Ok pop as you wish. As we got close to Fairhope the skies where crystal clear. The glow over Mobile bay was bright and the runway looked great. I asked one more time if he would like me to restart the engine. He smiled and said no we were good, leave it alone, ok pop. The landing went perfect as we rolled out my dad looked over at me and said (man the FlightSafety simulator was just like the real thing) that was the one and only time my dad ever landed a GI single engine. He had over 15000 hours in type. That says a lot about the reliability of the plane and its engines!
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An anecdote you may find amusing concerns Ser.#127, the trusty GI aircraft that I flew full time for 10 years. The party that I sold it to, leased it to a fledgling music tour operator based in Texas, who promptly fell way behind in their payments, I got a call from the owner asking if I would be willing to repossess the aircraft for him! Since he was willing to pay a hefty amount for the return of his aircraft, I agreed, and so at 1:00AM on a dark and snowy night just before Christmas in Islip Long Island I watched as Billy Joel deplaned the aircraft, entered his Limo and drove off. Then the owner, with the assistance of the airport police took possession of the aircraft. I flew all night with two stops and left the aircraft in Oakland, Ca. which was the last time I ever flew her!! As his tour was over, I’m sure Mr. Joel was never aware that his tour aircraft had been repossessed before he had even left the airport that night!
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I had the N number on #126 changed from N63AU to N110RB while Rotec owned it, It was N110RB on the around the world trip. It was parked shortly after that trip when I discovered that the wing spar X-rays had been altered prior to our purchasing it!! Under the threat of an imminent lawsuit, the purchase price was refunded to Rotec. We operated the aircraft as N63AU and N110RB for a little over a year and flew it about 600hrs. during that time, including regular trips to Mexico and South America. It did indeed literally disappear!! While stored at Priester Aviation after we had parked it and returned ownership to the seller, two unnamed pilots showed up and purchased fuel with cash and flew it away VFR, never heard from again!! Aviation can be a truly strange business!!
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This happened last year (2012). I showed up at a small airport to reposition our G1 to another field. While I was paying for the fuel, an older gentleman heard me say “G1”. He says, did you say a G1? You mean an old Grumman G-159? I said yes sir. He then went on to explain how he used to fly a G1 for a large corporation back in the early to mid 70’s and how much he loved the airplane. I invited him out to see it and he practically beat me out to it. He was now a Captain on a large Falcon corporate jet and had to explain to his young co-pilot, who had never heard of a G-1 how the G-1 was the corporate airplane in its day. He then told me some stories of the plane he flew and explained how he had heard the plane had been scrapped. When he told me the serial number, I realized that not only had the plane not been scrapped, but I had just flown it a few weeks ago! He was estatic to learn his old plane was one of the five that had been chosen to be stretched to become the G-159C in the late 70’s.
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I believe I am one of the few pilots to ever fly the GI around the world!! This trip occurred in 1995 and departed from Palwaukee airport in Chicago in Sept. This trip was flown for Rotec Ind. with whom I was employed as the Chief Pilot, we proceeded eastbound with stops in Goose Bay, Keflavik Iceland and flew through England, Austria, Italy, Turkey, Kazakhstan, China, Russia and returned to the U.S. 30 days later at Nome Alaska. We circumnavigated the globe in 76hrs of flt. time with a few back and forth hops within Europe. The aircraft (#126) performed flawlessly with the exception of a false battery overheat warning in Vienna and a leaking accessory gearbox oil seal which occurred leaving Anchorage and necessitated extra stops in Juneau and Winnepeg to refill the oil in the gearbox!! Not many if any other GIs have flown across China, where we stopped in Urumqi, Xian, and Beijing! In those days there were very few American corporate aircraft that had operated in China (Mostly GIIS, GIIIS)
I also flew a national tour in 1996 with a very famous Rock band in serial number 47 ( the former Upjohn GI) throughout North America to approx. 55 cities.
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As all good G1 stories start, and there I was, standing in the middle of nowhere, on a 1,200 ft long and 150 ft wide runway, with a G1 beside me. It had a feathered non-rotatable prop and smoldering embers oozing out of it’s tail pipe. How we got there can be summed up in a few words; pilot training, air start, and a HP fuel lever that wasn’t in lock out. This is not a story of how we got to this point, it is a story of what I had to do to fix it.
Picture in your mind a young, impatient mechanic that can only speak english. Now picture him surrounded by inexperienced, on the Gulfstream 1, personnel that can only speak spanish. I was that mechanic. As I began to investigate the engine, I quickly realized that it was melted internally and would not be runnning any time soon. Realizing that the sun would be setting soon, I asked the flight crew about the availability of the facilities. I was informed that there was nothing at this airport but a bar that tripled as a resturant and as a hotel that charged by the hour. What else would you find at an airport? Due to the fact that the airport was not intended for overnight use by civilians, it was never developed for commercial use. I decided that with the day that I had, it was time to go to the bar to discuss our options. After several hours of drinking and fumbling painfully through spanish and english, we broke the language barrier. We came to the conclusion that the tools needed to be brought here from the home base airport, so that we could change out the engine. Because the airport was 150 miles away through sunflower fields, the tools and engine would arrive around noon the next day.
The next morning I was feeling the effects of the local adult beverages. I was glad that the truck would be arriving later in the day. I decided to begin prepping the plane for the engine removal. After the prep, I was talking and eating lunch with the pilots. We soon began going over the list of items the flight crew had written down for me. It quickly came to my attention that some how the A-frame that I had requested, wasn’t on the list. The bartender, who had overheard and understood enough, told us that his brother had lifting equipment and that he would send for him. Later that day, we were simply waiting on the man and his lifting equipment. We were completing the prep on the engine when a tiny, old man came down the road with a cart full of timbers and a donkey. We soon found out that the man spoke absolutly no english, but he was the bartender’s brother. I was confused because the man had no lifting equipment. He informed me, through the lead mechanic, that his donkey could lift any thing, provided he had enough rope and blocks. I looked at the donkey and hoped that it spoke better english than people around me. I was disappointed to find out he did not. Looking at the horizon, I realized that the sun was soon going to vanish. I decided to call it a day and head to the comfort of the bar.
The next morning I awoke and was a man on a mission. After eating breakfast, we headed to the plane and was greeted by the old man and his donkey. Hoping that it was only a dream, I began mentally preparing myself for my first engine change by donkey. The old man had come earlier to set up his wooden A-frame, so we decided to test the donkey by having him remove the prop. I was amazed to see that the donkey was easily able to move the 650 pound propeller. However, it quickly came to my attention that while the donkey had all of the strength that I needed it lacked the precision that was needed to move the tight-fitting pieces smoothly. Everytime the donkey so much as twitched the pieces would shift. Once the propeller was removed it was time for the engine. Because the engine is three times the weight of the propeller and requires four close tolerance pins, I was unsure of how this would work, but it did. The donkey was able to remove the engine, though it was not stable and required a lot of man power. Best of all no one was hurt, man or donkey. The day wound to close and we decided we would tackle the installation the next morning.
I rolled out of bed without the spring in my step that I had the day before. This was probably due to wrestling with the spanish/english language barrier, an ansty donkey, and the pounding sun of the previous day. I will close this story like this, after four and a half days of labor in the middle of a sun flower field, I was never so glad to fly an airplane home. I now had a great appreciation for my crew and lifting equipment back home in Louisiana. What took me four and a half days here would have only taken me only a couple of hours.
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Things I’ve done in a G1
Smuggled Chinese people out of Panama for Noriega paid for by the U.S. Government.
Transported large amounts of foreign currency…….huge amounts.
Transported Billy Graham.
Transported girlfriends of the governor of Arkansas……later President.
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Supplied a diamond mine by transporting troops in and out on a home made strip.
Transported people to arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi to a private ranch with a 12000′ strip.
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We had RON’ed in Casper, WY after flying up from Houston the previous day. XXXXXXX had a warehouse/distribution facility in Casper. It seemed that some of the senior workers there had invited some potential clients to visit the National Dinosaur Monument near Vernal, Utah. We had a dry take-off from Houston the day before. With over 10,000 feet of runway at Casper, we again made a dry take-off. We only had 8 passengers and we fueled for two take-offs and two hours in route plus reserve for the wife and kids. V235 to Rock Springs was only 187NM and V395 to Vernal was 76NM. We were looking forward to an easy trip. We arrived at Vernal, Elev. 5278′ about 10AM. The day was a hot one. Parking out in front of the terminal building, we saw our passengers off, and obtained a crew car. The Airport Manager gave us the name and address of a good place for lunch. We were away from the airport just over three hours. Upon returning, my co-pilot went out to fire up the APU. The cabin was like an oven. Our people were due back between 4 and 5PM and we needed time to cool down the cabin. My co-pilot returned, excited, and told me that the main gear (wheels) were sinking into the asphalt where we had parked. Quickly, I went out to see for myself. I wondered if I could power out of the indent the tires had made. With both engines started I slowly increased power and at some point, we started rolling with a jerk. I had seen a patch of concrete in front of a nearby hanger and headed for that concrete. Parked and shut down, my thought was it was time to take a serious look at the performance charts. Departure was going to be a true “hot & high’ take-off. Runway 16 was 6,201 feet long. The temperature was now 91F/33C and I wondered if it would increase in the next couple of hours. The two of us started working the performance charts. We added a bit of temperature, up to 34C, factored in the elevation of 5278 and read the numbers (using a water methanol take-off) Having no performance charts available, as I write this, I must turn to my memory. I member that we arrived at the V1/Vr/V2 speeds. We did have enough runway length to lift off. (according to the chart) I was worried about start/stop and asked the Airport manager to drive me down the runway in his truck. My co-pilot and I agreed that if we didn’t have 100K, indicated airspeed, by an easy to see check point along side the runway, we would abort. If we had 100K or more, we would carry on with our take-off. Our eight passengers arrived just before 5PM. But there was no longer eight. They had offered a ride to two other persons who wanted to go to Casper. I increased our T/O weight by 350#. The chart with our new weight imputed, said we still had enough runway.It was close to 5:30 by the time we had both fans turning and pulled onto the end of Runway 16. We had 6,201 feet of runway in front of us. Holding the brakes, I increased power until the water kicked in. Maybe the outside temperature had dropped a bit, but we had a solid 110K when we passed our check point. V1 and Vr was called out and we rotated off the runway with 1,000 feet or more left. Both Dart engines were performing as advertised and after reaching 130K we retracted the flaps and turned towards Casper. It was an easy flight back. We spent another night in Casper before returning to Houston. Grumman Ironworks builds good solid airplanes.
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I had spent the night at a first class Hotel in downtown Mexico City. The afternoon before, I took a tour of the neighborhood and enjoyed a visit to the (much photographed) central Plaza.
At the Mexico City Airport, my Gulfstream G-1 was waiting for its departure this up-coming afternoon. We had the owner of our company as our single passenger. (The owner had the money to use the G-1 as his own personal “Piper Cub.”)
Our flight plan called for a ‘manitory stop’ in Brownsville, TX to clear immigrations and customs. Then we would take the ‘Boss’ onto Lexington, KY so he could check out his horse racing farm. We estimated our return to Houston Hobby by midnight.
My co-captain and I had completed our fueling and done our aircraft inspection. Our departure ‘slot-time’ was with ATC and we were now just waiting for the ‘Boss’ to arrive. When he did, he had a Mexican Government Official with him. “Can we drop him off in Chicago on our way to Lexington?” he asked us. “Yes, we can,” we answered. After all, all the members of our flight department knew Rule #1, “What the boss wanted…the boss got!” He then asked if we carried a certain type of wine on board. We checked and found no such bottle. “Could you get two bottles?” he asked. “My friend favors that wine.” he added. “Boss, you need to know that we have a departure slot-time. If we miss it, another new slot-time might take awhile. Are we on a tight schedule?” we asked.
“I’m happy to wait awhile, if we can get the wine.” he answered.
Back inside the FBO, we re-rented our rental car and found out where the nearest bottle store was located. It took a bit over one hour before we returned to the G-1 with our two bottles of wine. Inside the FBO we had talked with ATC and secured a second slot-time, in about 45 minutes. “We have a new slot-time and will start our engines in about 35 minutes.” I told the boss.
He seemed happy to host his Mexican friend with the proper wine, so all was well.
We departed on time and it was a short flight to Brownsville where we landed and cleared all the U.S. formalities. Before landing at Brownsville we had filed a flight plan to Chicago Midway Airport. This was ready for us when we finished customs and were starting up our RR Dart engines.
Chicago is never easy to get into. It is a very busy place, even in the early evening. We did the usual holding and our delay wasn’t too bad. The boss said go bye to his Mexican friend at the Midway FBO and we now were headed to Lexington. We had been blessed with good weather from Texas to Illinois. To the east of Chicago was a line of thunderstorms which we would have to contend with. Using our Radar, we kept the ride fairly smooth and dropped the boss off at the Lexington airport. We arrived back at Houston Hobby shortly before midnight. Arriving back home, my wife asked me, “Did you bring me anything from Mexico?” “Yes, how about a half full bottle of special wine?” I answered.
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THE HUNTING CAMP
Our Flight Department’s Chief Pilot reported directly to the President of our company. No Vice-Presidents acting as middle-men. We did fly one Vice-President more than any of the others. He was the VP of sales.
This VP was in charge of a small group of sales persons, all ‘type A’ middle management guys who we flew on a regular basis. There was always one or two of them accompanying our VP. Our G-1 was one of the main players in making sales for our company. The other was our Texas hunting camp. This camp had a large amount of land with some interesting game animals roaming on it. These ‘type A’ executives would be offered a five day visit to our hunting camp. Here they could swim, play tennis, go out on hunts, after sighting in their guns, talk business with our people, and eat very well. The hunting camp kitchen staff was first class. In fact, the hunting camp, itself, was first class. Over 60% of our companies annual sales were connected or generated at our hunting camp.
Each customer had his own bedroom & bath. These were two bedroom cabins.
These rooms were on a par with an ‘up-market’ motel room. The G-1 flight crew shared a cabin, each pilot having his own room. Even though we spent a half day at the airport, re-fueling and cleaning the aircraft cabin, for the flight crew, it was like a short vacation. Swim, play tennis, shoot guns on the firing range, read, watch videos and best of all, we ate well too, right beside our passengers in the dinning room.
The flight crew was never invited to go out on a hunt. We never found out who had made that rule. (or why)
Our passengers were mostly pleasant and well mannered. They were now riding in a good sized, expensive aircraft, and enjoying a plush cabin. I believe they felt special because of being invited to go hunting. Only Beer was available in the Bar. No hard stuff.
Our Gulfstream traveled to many areas of North & Central America. A trip might include picking up passengers in Boston, then a quick trip over to Pittsburg for another group. Then it was direct to Texas and the hunting camp. Another common route took us to Calgary which is Canada’s oil capitol. Another oil-rich area is Ciudad del Carmen near the Gulf of Campeche, Mexico. This was another common trip with, usually, a stop at Tampico or Veracruz. (there always seemed to be passengers, oil related, in these two cities.) Upon our return to Texas, our company paid to have Immigrations and Customs drive to the airport we used, which was close to our hunting camp. This saved us an extra stop at the border.
Not all our trips were long distance. We brought executives from New Orleans, Dallas, Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, all much quicker trips.
Our G-1 was well maintained and the flight crews enjoyed a high reliability departure rate. Our G-1 really earned its keep, helping in making those sales which kept our company prosperous.
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HURRICANE ALLEN
A few years back, Hurricane Allen’s clouds covered most of the Gulf of Mexico. It was a big storm. And it was headed our way. Our flight department had several aircraft including a Gulfstream G-1. The Chief Pilot was keeping our Company President advised as to the movement of the storm. He told his boss that we might need to fly out our aircraft to El Paso and Oklahoma City. Upon arrival at the hanger the next morning I received my orders. Stand-by to fly the G-1 to El Paso. Bring your wife. You will be taking the maintenance engineers and their families with you. Also, I was advised that several kids and a dog would be among my passengers. I made a few phone calls, finding a boy-friend of my daughters who would stay inside and guard our home while we were away during the next few days. I told my wife to pack for four days away from home. In between putting up the storm shutters over the windows, we listened to the weather reports which told of this large storm coming straight at our city. Before leaving work, the Chief Pilot advised that we would depart at noon tomorrow if the storm was still coming our way. Plan to file a flight plan to El Paso Texas. I have secured rooms at the Airport Hilton. Use your company credit cards to pay hotel, food and rental car expenses. That afternoon, I talked with our engineers and found that I would be carrying eight adults and four kids plus a dog in a kennel. My co-captain and I worked on our fuel load and made sure all the aircraft paperwork was in order.
That night my wife and I watched the late news and found that Allen had not changed course during the last 12 hours. The forecast called for either a direct hit on our city or a slight chance of a curve towards the northwest giving us a ‘near miss.’ It looked like we would depart for El Paso tomorrow. It was 580 NM to El Paso. I estimated about 2 hours in route with no wind.
All our aircraft sat out in front of our hanger the next morning. My G-1, our G-2, 731 Jetstar, Citation II and King Air 200 were ready to depart. It seemed a mob scene as all the wives and kids of our flight department employees were milling about waiting to board their assigned aircraft.
My co-captain and I boarded our wife’s and called the maintenance families to now board our G-1. I was happy to see that the dog was inside a kennel and would not be running up and down the cabin. I counted heads after everyone had found a seat. I then rechecked the way points put in by my co-captain on our INS computer. As usual, he had done an accurate job. (This was before the age of GPS) Our G-1 had, besides VOR/DME navigation, a very nice INS navigator which gave us the same information that GPS navigation gives us in 2011. We called it “Mickey-Mouse-Magic!” When a passenger asked as to our arrival time, we could give him an almost exact time using our INS information.
Shortly after noon we had all the flight department personnel, and their families, aboard our various aircraft. We all were uneasy about what we might return to when we came home. The company hanger was supposed to be able to withstand 120 mph winds. (That’s what our company paid for when they built it.) And, I wondered if my home would still be in one piece. My daughter’s boyfriend, who was house-sitting our place, had a hole he could retreat to if needed. Both of our daughters were off at University, one in California and the other in San Antonio.
I watched as our Citation II and 731 Jet Star left our parking area. As they were faster aircraft, these two, plus our G-2, would be flying to Oklahoma City where our company had a facility. Not El Paso, with us. The G-1 and King Air 200 would both proceed to El Paso.
We waited for our INS to signal us that we could now move. It was “aligned for navigation.” Both Dart Engines were making their usual noise as we called for taxi clearance.
I had filed for FL240, via J138 to San Antonio, via J183 to El Paso. Having the INS aboard allowed us to request ‘DIRECT’ (if available from ATC) on most trips. Today, our flight was almost a straight shot via airways, so no need today. With our taxi checks and pre-takeoff checks completed we approached the holding point on 30R. It was my leg over to El Paso, my co-captain would be in charge on our return trip. I called for the take-off checks. Lining up on the center line, I re-checked the Gust Lock OFF and excursed the controls, full and free. Master Caution Panel lights were all off, so it was time to roll. “100 knots, V1, Vr, were called out as we approached rotation. I noted 300 feet as V2 went by. “Gear Up please.” I watched as three green lights came on. No red handle lights. Passing 400 feet and 130 knots, “Flaps Up, everything on the gages OK?” I asked. “Please set the fuel trim and climb power.” My co-captain fine tuned the engines to 14,200rpm and 770c on the TGT. My co-captain informed me, “We have cabin pressure and rate of climb working normally. Water Methanol going OFF. Boost pumps, two OFF. Lights are OFF. Let’s leave the seat belt sign on until it gets a bit smoother. The TGT on the APU is down. I am securing the APU. Climb checks completed.” He told me. We were on our way.
ATC asked us to level off at 12,000 for traffic. We then were cleared to FL240. I checked the outside temperature as we climbed through a layer of cloud. No Ice here. We had a solid layer of cloud below us as we reached FL240. “Set Cruise power, please.” My co-captain adjusted the fuel trim. We both watched as the Cruise Lockout and Cruise Pitch lights went out. Looking at our INS, it showed our ground speed to be 268 knots. “We have a head-wind.” I told my co-captain. ETA time is still two hours from now. Why don’t you go back and see how the passengers are doing.” I suggested. “Have my wife bring me a coffee black. Thanks.” A few minutes later I had a hot cup of black coffee. My wife was sitting in the co-pilots seat enjoying the ‘out-front’ view when my co-captain returned. “Pay attention to all these dials.” She told me as she made her way out of our flight deck and back into the cabin. It took awhile but our DME and INS were both telling us that we had 75 miles yet to El Paso. “Descent checks, please.” My co-captain reached up and switched on the seat belt sign.
We did not need the fuel heat or any icing protection. ATC turned us over to El Paso approach. We had already listened to the ATIS information and had set the altimeter setting passing through 18,000 feet. The surface temperature, 91F was actually quite warm. What did you expect? El Paso is noted for its heat!
We called 15 miles east for landing. Approach gave us the tower frequency and we cancelled our clearance, ‘Field in sight.’ Tower cleared us to final on runway 22, Wind southerly 18, gusts to 24mph.Why do I always get the leg with the cross-wind? I thought to myself.
My co-captain had all four boost pumps on, we had 1500psi in the accumulator, prop synch is off, we don’t need fuel heat on a hot day like today. We then briefed for landing on runway 22. We had our Ref. speed & V2 speeds written on the clip in front of us. “I am going to hold another ten knots over Ref. speed. For the wife and the kids. With this cross wind, I will cross control down the center line. With five miles to the runway we dropped the gear, got three green, and checking my airspeed at 145 knots, I called for landing flaps twenty. “With this wind and 10,000 feet of runway, I am going to leave the flaps at twenty.” I told my co-captain.
The G-1 was getting bumped around more as we lost altitude for landing. I got the left wing down and using opposite rudder kept us down the centerline. I had to work the last fifty feet or so but managed to get the left gear on the runway, then the right gear. I still had rudder authority but as we slowed, had to get onto the steering early. Not too bad considering the conditions. I’ve made lots worse!
I called for after landing checks as I headed towards the FBO, Atlantic Aviation..
Inside Atlantic Aviation with our passengers and dog, they called for a hotel van to come pick them up. I planned to share a rental car with my co-captain. Also, we heard that Hurricane Allen had started to veer towards the northwest.
We always used a hanger for overnights when one was available. Our company took good care of their aircraft. Atlantic Aviation had room so we told them we would fuel before departure. My co-captain was a single guy so the three of us, me, my wife, and him, headed to the hotel in our rental. We discussed visiting Ciudad Juarez across the border tomorrow. I needed to find out if any of my passengers, mainly our Chief Maintenance man, had rented a car. He had no kids so I was thinking of inviting him and his wife to go with us.
The next morning the TV showed Hurricane Allen moving northwest and missing my home and our hanger. There was flooding from the heavy rain and wind gusts to 45-50mph though. I put a call through to my chief pilot and he was said come home tomorrow. All aircraft were returning tomorrow. Good deal! We had the day free. Mexico was a disappointment. To much junk for sale, aimed at the tourists. The town was run-down and dirty. We only spent a few hours there before re-entering the U.S.A. We decided to set a 10AM departure time for the next day. I phoned Atlantic Aviation and asked that our G-1 be out on the ramp by 8:30AM. My co-captain and I would get an early breakfast so that we could refuel and pre-flight our bird before our passengers and the dog, arrived. My wife was unhappy to have to get up so early and accompany us out to the airport. I told her she could wait in the lounge at Atlantic Aviation and have a second cup of coffee while we did our jobs.
As I was now the co-captain, I filed a flight plan back home while the captain supervised the fueling and did a walk around. I went aboard and programmed the INS for our return flight. Our trip home went well. I read the check-list, did what I was asked, and my captain made another of his regular grease-job landings. He had no cross wind. Truth be told, he had lots more time in the Gulfstream that I did. Back at my desk in the hanger, I called my home and the ‘boy friend’ answered. No damage, the swimming pool over flowed from all the rain and a big area of the back yard was flooded. Never mess with Mother Nature. Run, when you have the chance!
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