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Shattered windshields don't hapen in flightsim

B

Bone

Charter Member
I was minding my own business going from Norfolk, Virginia to Atlanta, Georgia at 32,000 feet, when all of the sudden *spark-spark-flash-bigger flash-CRACK!!-CRACK!!*. The windshield heating element torched and then the glass shattered...it took about four seconds.

Made an emergency descent into Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, and I'm glad to say it was a happy ending. The white stuff you see on the windshield is condensation, since it didn't have heat anymore.

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Whoaaaa, that got you attention.

I thought you were going to say you had a bird strike. Then I saw 32,000 MSL and I thought, WHAT bird flies that high.

I then read the rest.
 
Wow Bone, that's flippin' scary! Sure glad all came out hunky-dory in the end. How many times does that happen to other aircraft at 32,000-ft?

Caz
 
Wow. Are you parked up against a building in those shots, or is that all you had to look at while tring to land?
 
To answer some Q's:

A. Yes, JMIG, it had my full attention. I did murder about 30 starlings one day in Detroit. As we flew over the runway threshold, a flock of them that were sitting there took flight. There were bloody impact marks all over the front end of the plane...a very distinct sound as they slammed into the plane, alot of rapid pops.

B. Yes, ATC was fully onboard. We even got the "good luck guys" statement.

C. It all happened too fast to be scary. Although I was worried about how long the windshield would hold. It does happen once in awhile. I had a side window crack a few years back.

D. The pictures were taken after we got parked at the jetway. That's part of the terminal building that you see.

E. No pressure issues, but I've had that happen before, too. Haha, the newspaper...
 
Dang! That's a new one for me! I never heard of heating elements causing that kind of damage. We had them in the C-130's I flew and sometimes they might fail, but that would be a simple matter of them not working anymore. This is the first I've heard of them wiping out the dang windsheild!

Nice job on the EP! Always feels real good when you encounter something like ths and handle it well.

Cheers,

Ken
 
Ken Stallings said:
Dang! That's a new one for me! I never heard of heating elements causing that kind of damage. We had them in the C-130's I flew and sometimes they might fail, but that would be a simple matter of them not working anymore. This is the first I've heard of them wiping out the dang windsheild!

Nice job on the EP! Always feels real good when you encounter something like ths and handle it well.

Cheers,

Ken
Click to expand...

Ken, the OAT was -32C, so I guess that didn't mix well with the superheated area at the element interface where the short happened, and the rest of the pane that was at a somewhat normal temp. I guess the pane couldn't handle the non-uniformity of temps, because your right, they don't break like that just because the heat stops working.
 
Bone said:
Ken, the OAT was -32C, so I guess that didn't mix well with the superheated area at the element interface where the short happened, and the rest of the pane that was at a somewhat normal temp. I guess the pane couldn't handle the non-uniformity of temps, because your right, they don't break like that just because the heat stops working.
Click to expand...

Good theory on the cause.

Among the more obvious good outcomes for bringing her down in one neat piece is that now that airplane is going to be studied rather intensively by everyone in the technical and maintenance side of the house.

I think you've got yourself a good investigation project likely to result in revised airworthiness directives and revised manufacturing standards.

Wonder how it will feel to know you have AD's written on your exploits! :icon_lol:

Ken
 
I think it's just outstanding that he can remember this as an exploit - instead of us just reading about it. . .

:running:
 
back when I worked at Heritage, we had two King Air's that lost a windshield in similar circumstances. And we loaned some hangar space to a pair of mech's sent from Detroit to replace the FO's side windshield on a CRJ 700. it was kinda cool watching how they did that.


Brian
 
Brian_Gladden said:
replace the FO's side windshield on a CRJ 700. it was kinda cool watching how they did that.


Brian
Click to expand...

Yeah, they don't just pop them in, do they.

For anyone who hasn't seen how they do it: There's a bolt hole about every 3/4's of an inch all the way around the winshield frame (there are alot of bolts). Each bolt has to be torqued to a specific intermediate value in a specific order, until all the bolts have been done in the first round. Then you up the torque to it's next specific value, and hit each bolt again and in the proper order...which may be different than the order they were done on the first round. Then up the torque again, and hit them in the right order again. Then repeat the cycle, then repeat the cycle....this takes along time until the job is done. Whew! Not easy!
 
I see a couple of things here that MS FlightSims don't simulate. Shattered windscreens and emergency calls/landing clearance.
 
It has always amazed me how training kicks in when the chips are down and you have to act fast! Nice bit of flying. I'm glad it worked out! :salute:
 
srgalahad said:
View attachment 14269
http://www.paulnoll.com/Oregon/Birds/migrate-ascending-altitudes.html
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1976/how-high-can-birds-and-bees-fly

Nice job getting it down!

--memories of the last scenes of The High and The Mighty--
http://www.ask.com/wiki/The_High_and_the_Mighty_(film)
Click to expand...

I would hate to hit a goose at 30K!

I hit something once at about 8000. make a blood and grease spot about the size of your fist on the windscreen. Had to look around it the rest of the flight.

Nothing like this Bone. I agree with Ken and the rest. Good job on the EP.
 
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