Std Deviation

Have a Greyhound going to adoption in Calgary from DFW. Not familiar with the environment in cargo on the 737. Temp ok for DFW in the summer? Note: Greyhounds are not tolerant of extremes in temperature.

Grumble

The cargo hold gets the cabin air... Fwd cargo gets that plus e&e. So it's slightly warmer than whatever the cabin is getting. On the ramp, that may be a problem in a TX summer. You can always escort the dog (assuming you're United crew) and have them load it last until they're about to close the door.

You can always check out PilotsNPaws. See if there's a private flight going that's willing to take it.

Packrat

CAL used to be really good about not exposing pets to high heat environments. They had a special ramp vehicle to transport animals from the terminal to the jet. Don't know of that program made it through the transition though.

Std Deviation

Thanks Grumble. It will be on Westjet and an employee will have the dog in tow most of the time. I do P&P Missions here in TX but the distance is just too great for this one, even leap frogging. Plus we have the International issue. Just curious how soon after closing the doors will conditioned air get to the cargo area? On my current aircraft the checklist calls for it after engine start is complete.

Grumble

United still has it. It's called "PetSafe" and you can see the van's driving around the airport. Most of them have pictures of dogs and cats all over them.

I've only had one problem thus far, we were stuck at the gate so the rampers pulled the dog from the fwd bin... and left it on the ramp. The dogs owner said something to the flight attendants so I went down and moved the dog indoors. When everything was wrapped up and we were ready to go I went back down to make sure the dog was loaded and took a picture with my phone for her so she could see he was ok and on board.

On the 737 there's no control for the cargo bins, but once pack air is on it's drawn into the bins via the recirculation fans (which for us are always on). Ground air gets pulled down too if it's plugged in but may be pretty warm by the time it gets down there. The other thing to watch is how much baggage they pack in with the pet. Every bag is that much air being displaced so if they pack it tight that can be a problem but again I haven't personally had an issue yet.