‘I knew we would go in the ocean, kill all the people and would say: “They were a bad crew.” I’d sooner not have that on my name.’ ‘I wasn’t afraid that I was going to die … I was really mad that I was going to die. ‘I was not afraid-that’s the funniest thing,’ he says. Heidt, between rechecking his panel and ransacking his experience for solutions, was coming to a similarly morbid conclusion. The sensation was as if I was outside the aircraft and observing this occur from some distance away.’ Stall, roll to the left, and descend vertically disappearing into the clouds – at night – over water. ‘I had a clear mental image of exactly what the aircraft was going to do. Then the mental fog lifted in what he modestly described as ‘a very unusual experience’. ‘There was the Canary Islands accident involving KLM and Pan American two weeks prior, the Southern DC-9 at New Hope, Georgia, the week before, and – the sudden realisation that you are about to become number three!’ He also referred to ‘some thoughts of a very personal nature,’ about the death of his 16-year-old son several months earlier in a car crash. ‘I remember thinking of the triumvirate theory, accidents occur in series of threes,’ he wrote. Shock, superstition and a recent tragedy were clouding McMahan’s mind, even as he called for checklists. I’m thinking: “I didn’t sign up for this”!’ ‘We’re over the ocean at 3000 feet and slowing through 140 knots. There’s a huge rolling moment as well.’Īs a pilot for half his life, Heidt well knew the signs of approaching stall. He’s telling Will to get on the controls with him … and not only are the yokes full forward, they are at 90 degrees right. ‘I see Jack moving the yoke forward almost to the stop-that’s not a good thing to be seeing from the engineer’s seat. I reset the electric trim switches with no effect, and the thumbwheel trim remained immovable.’ There was no response by the mechanical trim and I found that the trim was already zeroed out with full nose down stabiliser trim as indicated on the stabilizer trim indices and zero stabiliser indicated on the SPI (stabiliser position indicator) instrument. The pitch controls felt very sluggish and I immediately attempted to utilise the mechanical trim wheel that serves as a backup system and overrides the electric trim. I was exerting a light push force on the control column and trimming electrically by use of thumbwheel trim when the thumbwheel movement stopped. ‘At an altitude of approximately 400 feet and airspeed of 168–170 knots, the pitch started to become excessive, exceeding 15–18 degrees. Writing a year later in Airline Pilot magazine, McMahan described what happened just after take-off. The aircraft carried 52 people and a light fuel load. He noted with approval how McMahan would apply subtle back pressure as speed rose on take-off to smooth the ride from the nosewheel.Īt 11.53 on Tuesday night they lined up for the next-to-last leg, a short run from San Diego in far southern California, north to Los Angeles. The workload of a new type was balanced by the pleasure of working in a friendly but meticulous crew. Heidt enjoyed the first two legs of his first Tristar trip. Will knows a lot about that panel and we’ll help you out”.’ If there’s anything that happens too fast or you don’t understand just say. ‘I said it was my first flight on the L1011 and he said, “Don’t worry. ‘Jack was very pleasant, we talked about what he expected and he asked me what I’d been doing,’ Heidt says. Despite this, he was no solitary hero, but collegial on the flight deck. The captain, Jack McMahan, was the oldest, a World War II veteran who had flown the redoubtable Grumman Wildcat in the US Marine Corps. ‘He was a really nice guy and a good pilot as well and we discovered we lived only about 40 miles apart.’ At the airport he met the other crew members for the first time. His first flight as engineer on the Lockheed L1011 would be a round trip from Atlanta via Dallas, San Diego and Los Angeles. ‘But Delta said, “We’ve got too many DC-9 guys ,” so I went through training on the L1011, then I went back to DC-9.’ ‘I didn’t really want to be an engineer, I preferred to fly-it’s better to have something to grab on to,’ he says from near Atlanta, where he still lives. But, after getting a crew posting to Atlanta in his home state of Georgia, he saw the prudence in putting his hand up to add a qualification on the three-engine wide-body. Heidt, 30, had been flying since he was 15 and joined Delta Airlines as a Douglas DC-9 pilot after an enjoyable US Air Force career as an instructor on the T-38 jet trainer. Airmanship, teamwork and expertise stopped that from happening.įor Steve Heidt, becoming a flight engineer on the Lockheed L1011 Tristar was technically interesting but a sideways step in career terms. Illustration: Juanita Franzi | Aero IllustrationsĪ sudden, strong and uncommanded pitch up immediately after take-off could have destroyed this airliner.
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