Depressurization Routes
 

Any experts out there? Got short called to do a Cabo turn out of CLT. Our planned route thru Mexico flies right thru the brown shaded area on the Depressurization Critical Terrain Chart. There are no notes on the release that indicate anything about depressurization planning required. The terrain column on our release showed no terrain higher than 9200 ft between waypoints. Then we got rerouted just as we entered mexican airspace. Now our release terrain numbers are useless and grid numbers on the high chart show terrain over 13000 ft in our general area of flight but we can't really determine if it is a factor or not. I messaged our dispatcher with the reroute and asked if it was terrain critical but no reply for 45 minutes. So we planned our escape routes. Good way to pass the time but we couldn't really tell if it was required.


Suggestions? Advice?

Um, if you fly down into Mex or Central America where there are depressurization routes... Use them. Load the escape points into the secondary as you go along. That's all there is to it. The depressurization chart has instructions on it.

My suggestion is.... don't try to figure out how to fly your airplane from a message board.

My advice is.... study your manuals and then contact your training department if you still don't understand.

Good advice although maybe a little acerbic. I will do exactly that. However, thought I might start here first and engage those who might have experienced this issue before. Plus, it starts a discussion for those who haven't had this problem before and maybe helps them learn something. By the way, we loaded escape routes and studied our manuals enroute and tried to do what we thought was right, as well as balancing our resources with Dispatch. Dispatch said our route was not terrain critical (after a 45 minute delay) so we probably wasted our effort.

You're going to public message board for serious operational questions!?

No internal message boards? Friends you can call? CKA? Training department?

And you want to get others to respond, who don't know the operational requirements of your airline or fleet?

I like the idea of posting questions on message boards but I agree with the above, this place isn't the place for your sort of questions. C&R is actually a pretty good resource and it's private.

I've never seen anything on the release relating to required depressurization planning. Usually the information on the release is about enroute alternate airports that are planned in the case of one engine inoperative and your drift down altitude will not clear the terrain ahead along your filed route of flight.

When you asked the dispatcher if the reroute was "terrain critical" how were you expecting them to respond? Did you specifically indicate that you were asking about critical terrain in regards to a depressurization event? Maybe the dispatcher thought you were referring to the grid MORAs. Or that you were questioning the drift down altitude capability with one engine inoperative and the need for enroute alternate airports?

Simply put, when you have a flight routing that puts you in the brown shaded areas of the Critical Terrain Orientation chart, always load the escape route in the secondary flight plan/RTE 2. Put the Escape Point into the PROG/FIX page and plot the 80nm ring around it. Don't expect the dispatcher to remind you to do this kind of planning, and they certainly aren't going to do any of it for you. Like CamYZ125 said, the charts have instructions on them. Use them!

Great question and discussion opportunity.. for C&R... And it would greatly improve the value of same.

GOT ALPA?!

DELTA PILOTS USE DEPRESSURIZATION ROUTES FOR $840 MORE PER HOUR!

GOT SCAM?!

2200NM ETOPS RJS COMIN' IN HOT!!!!

In addition to the other information you'd receive from C&R.

:D

Donald??? Is that you?:D