The Mad Dog “Growl” –April / May 2006 Page 1 - Delta Virtual Airlines

I’ll take this opportunity to share an embarrassing
story of mine.
I was a relatively fresh DVA pilot with only a few
months under my belt. My schedule finally permitted
me to take part in one of the DVA Musketeer Fly-in
Events. Many of you still recall how big these events
were. If I remember correctly, the conga line took us
from KSTL to CYYZ. The flight went smoothly, but
things really picked up as the traffic buildup grew at
CYYZ. ATC kept the traffic tight and I ended up a
couple of planes behind Luke Kolin and right in front
of our President, Terry Eshenour. Talk about
pressure.
Cleveland Center comes on line and begins to track
our progress through his airspace. As we approach
his north-eastern border, he clears us down to
FL250 before sending us to UNICOM. With the
approach charts in hand, I prepare for the approach
into the Toronto area. Even though I’ve been
monitoring the weather situation at our destination, I
check the winds information to determine what
direction we can expect to approach from. Our
approach will be an easy one today, as we will be
coming straight in from the south-west. Skies are still
mostly clear and the air temp will be brisk. It should
be a beautiful arrival into Toronto.
We reach our TOD (Top of Descent) point and
initiate the descent via our autopilot. There is no
other traffic in the area, but we’ll still announce our
intentions on UNICOM as we get closer. The
workload really picks up as we make our way into
the Toronto area. We pick up some chop as we
head through 14,000 feet, but it clears into smooth
air relatively quickly.
A quick and final review of the approach information
is made and will hopefully ensure a smooth and
uneventful final. Our flaps are deployed according to
schedule and we slow to our final approach speed.
With runway 6R in view, we drop our gear and
disengage the autopilot. Touchdown is smooth and
we slow to proper taxi speed with plenty of room to
spare. Now the fun begins, finding our way to the
gate.
As Tyrone Weston described
in his article last month, even
the pros get lost at an airport.
For some reason,
Toronto/Pearson always
confuses me and I seem to
always get lost there. I’ll
probably regret this later, but
ATC cleared me for final and I let the autopilot take
care of the approach. ATC cleared me to land on the
runway, but I noticed (a little too late) that I was way
to the right of where the other DVA aircraft were. I
had received my clearance, the tires were down and
the runway was getting bigger. Time to land. After
putting the aircraft down and as I cleared the runway,
ATC informs me that I landed on the wrong
runway…way wrong. We were all coming in on 24R
& 24 L. I must have decided I was too good for those
The Mad Dog “Growl” –April / May 2006 Page 16