I'd have to quit out of shame if I ever got the shaker in flight. yikes.

 

Stick shakers are not common at Colgan people. JS was a pilot who needed to go, period.

Keep in mind that this "whitsle blower" also failed his Q400 PC with Colgan, he was fired from CCAir in 1997 for landing at the wrong airport...I don't think he is anyone to be talking about good flying.

As for the overspeeds, this was discussed in the NTSB Hearing, see Day 1. The NTSB clearly saw there was no issue. And the flying with a broken radio, common practice at Colgan- gotta maintain the flight schedule, right Buddy?

 

Colgans chief pilot slept with my wife......and i loved him for it!

 

True!!

Double True!!

 

It is not the ref speeds that are the problem with getting slow.

Some pilots (the inattentive bad ones) when slowing down to configure will pull power near idle to slow below 200 in a descent so they can start calling for flaps and gear and then the airplane levels off and they never add power back in. In less than a few seconds the speed deteriorates to the shaker.

It is not an issue with the speeds we fly, the planes we fly, the training we get, it is an issue with some of the terrible pilots colgan has hired and have somehow remained on the seniority list after NUMEROUS issues.

As for the pilot monitoring catching it when the pilot calls for gear down etc or the landing checklist in the time it takes us to pull out or 9"X11" checklist that blocks out the outside world and read the appropriate items the speed can go from 200 to 100 if level. It happens fast. After watching the video of the controls during the crash I know choose to not read checklist or do anything during the times when it would be a possibility that the airplane could get slow such as the above mentioned scenario. It takes 5 extra seconds and ensures me and the 74 people behind me get home. It has never been an issue for me or any of the guys I have flown with but id like to keep it that way.

 

Well said.

Believe it or not guys, most Colgan guys are really good pilots. They were educated at the same universities as us and have seen the same things we have as we grew our careers. I wouldn't let a few bad apples spoil the entire bushell.

This may very well come out to show that Colgan did a bad job putting the Q400 into service. We already know about the Kindergarten CFM, thanks P.D. W (who is SCAB, btw). But keep the blame off the pilots, they were just doing what they could.

I tell you who I feel bad for is the competent pilots and all the SAAB drivers who look like fools because of this media fiasco, this whistle blower trying to get his name out there and flying around the airplane with the Captain America scheme on it for everyone to see Colgan Air.

JS, JW were Colgan lifers. JW used to go to Manassas on his days off to shoot the shyt. JS failed upgrade on the SAAB at CHQ, but Colgan had no problem hiring her, then failing 4 Q400 PC's, putting her in the left seat of it?!?! That was the old Colgan. The new Colgan I believe (from what I hear) will be more run like a real airline, by real people. Not Daddy's HS Grad Kids. MF and HM made absolute fools of the airline in Day 2 of the hearings, I feel EXTREMELY bad for you Colgan guys and gals. Keep doing your jobs as professionals and everything will work out just fine.

One more thing about Colgan's Pay...There is no way in HELL that the Average Q400 CA makes $67,000/yr. My year as a CA at Colgan on the SAAB I made $35,900...the Manager at McDonalds in LGA told me she made more.

 

seriously? or is that an exaggeration?

 

Sometimes the predictive nature of the stall warning system can, and most often does, go into flux and freaks out and ' runs home to mommy ' as jonesy puts it in the Hunt for Red October. The CRJ200 has a limitation, which is correct, that when you are vref flaps whatever +17 you need to avoid operation with spoilers deployed and flaps greater than 30. The aircraft can be safely flown in this regime, only very carefully and any deviation or large control inputs will result in the stick shaker momentarily activating.

 

Well said but I am have a issue with one part.

How many items is the landing checklist? Is it split into two sections? i.e. Above the line at gear down and below the line at final flaps? My issue is that when I flew the mega whacker, at gear down you had (I believe) 4-5 items on the list that max took 5-7 seconds to complete, half of that time you were heads up doing the items then verifying with the checklist. Below the line was 3 items that took maybe 5 seconds. I guess I am just rambling without a point. IF your guys are level and are going to idle with the power levers and such, this is a technique issue and needs to be nipped in the butt asap.

 

We are not level with the power out. Where the problem lies is SOME pilots will be at 4 and get the "cross XXX at or above 3,000 cleared for...." and they pull power back to slow to flap speed while starting their descent. Somewhere lost in the process the airplane hits 3 and levels off meanwhile their power is still back. That is where the problems have been. Again, it is a rare problem but it associated only with poor piloting technique and skill and a lack of attention to detail.

As for our landing checklist we do not have a line, none of our checklist has a line.

bleeds min on
aux ptu stby pumps on
fa notification complete
landing gear down three green
flaps set indicating
condition levers max

one may be out of order but its my day off and im not going downstairs to verify in my books.