Professional Pilot, March 2018

Extended over water operations R eminisce back to a time when you were a youth at an amusement park about to go on an adventurous wild ride You probably held your parents hand with tremendous anticipation of the rush of a new experience As a child you cared little for the machines and contraptions that made the ride function behind the subliminal doors hiding the wizards that made the thing work All you wanted to experience was the thrill of the ride Fast forward to a time when you are jetting across the skies westbound enroute to the Orient or some other far flung and exotic continent While enjoying a view of the sunset from the cabin at FL360 you are sipping away at your grande mocha lattehalf cream half soy nonfat low sodium concoction You couldnt care less about the extensive operation below you that works 24 7 to support your safe experience should something go haywire in your pressurized tube flying at Mach 80 54 PROFESSIONAL PILOT March 2018 Should the vessel you are traveling in lose an engine or experience a sudden pressurization loss 1 of the 1st things youll experience after all the unsecured objects fly across the cabin from explosive decompression is panic When this dissipates what is known as a driftdown loss of altitude will occur whether you like it or not This loss of altitude will require the crew to guide the stricken aircraft somewhere quickly balancing the remaining fuel and oxygen to reach a suitable runway and effect a safe landing This has to be where repairs can be made and passengers are protected from the elements If this happens to you you have just landed at an ETOPS airport Quipped as Engines Turn Or Passengers Swim ETOPS officially means Extended range Twin engine Operational Performance Standards These regulations encompass all passenger planes with more than 2 engines Without this ETOPS airport associated flight planning maintenance preparation certification and execution the crew may not have known of critical suitable enroute alternates Or if they did know they may not be sure if they could reach 1 at a lower altitude which doesnt bode well for the passengers in an emergency situation Of course this is even more challenging at night This is not a short course on ETOPS rather an overview of what must be done on the ground to keep your ETOPS airports operational Kudos to our government and our airlines for enacting rules and implementing ETOPS airport standards to keep the flying public safe A brief ETOPS history ETOPS began in 1936 essentially as an idea to improve public safety It was promoted by some smart people with a lot of common sense who stated you had to prove that there were suitable landing fields at least every 100 miles along a specified route This morphed into regulations in 1953 by the Civil Aeronautics Authority CAA In 1958 the CAA transferred to the FAA with the signing of the Federal Aviation Act As aviation related regulations and agencies morphed and changed so did ETOPS 14 CFR 135364 and CFR Part 121161 There are numerous ways and ETOPS A backstage view of ETOPS airports hazards and why we need them Harold Katinszky ATP CFII FAA Lead Safety Rep Aviation Consultant Midway Atoll As the name suggests historical Midway Atoll located about 140 miles east of the international date line is almost equidistant from North America and the Orient which makes it a great ETOPS airport Image courtesy Google