Helping Hands

A friend of mine came to see me yesterday. He tried to park his car over the covered drain in front of our house but failed to notice that some concrete slabs on the drain were missing. As a result one of his front wheels went into the drain. I am sure that he had got up from the wrong side of his bed in the morning. There is no other reason for him missing the missing slabs! Anyway, when I opened the door, he was standing there looking very anxious and stupid. 

I went out to see the situation. The car was jutting out onto the road at an awkward angle blocking a considerable part of it. One front wheel was hanging helplessly in the open drain and the opposite back wheel was half a foot up in the air. It was an awkward and difficult situation. I know it for sure because I had once put my car in a similar position.  

Now, we had to get the car out. My friend was a stranger to the neighbourhood. And he had come to see me. So, morally it was my duty to help him out. I thought that if I could find half a dozen able bodied men, we may just be able to lift the car up from one end and put the wheel back on the road. Luckily for me there was some construction work going on closeby and there were men working on the site. I went to the supervisor, explained the situation and requested him to lend me his men for a few minutes. He nodded his head, called out to his men and asked them to help me out. 

They came in a group. Two of them got down into the drain, others positioned themselves on the edge, and tried to lift the car. They could lift it a few inches but the collective effort was not enough to lift it up completely and put the wheel back on the road. 

We were wondering what to do next when a food delivery man came there on his two wheeler. He stopped, took a look at the scene, parked his bike on the road and said that he would get the car out. Taking the key from my friend, he got into the driver’s seat, and instructed the men to lift the car up and push it towards the edge of the drain on his signal. He started the car, put it in reverse and signalled. The engine roared, the car was lifted, the wheel turned but nothing more happened. In fact, after the exercise, the wheel had gone a bit deeper in the drain. 

The driver got down, looked around, and without a word walked to the construction site. He came back with a thick wooden plank. He placed it on the edge of the drain, one end of it projecting onto the road and the other end hanging next to the dangling front wheel of the car at an angle. He made two men stand on the part of the plank that was on the road. He got in again and started the engine. The workers lifted the car so that the wheel just came on top of the plank and like magic the wheel moved on the wooden plank and then onto the road. 

The food delivery man got down, returned the key to my friend, kicked his bike to a start and rode away. The workers got out of the drain, straightened their backs, dusted their hands and went back to work. I went to the construction site, thanked the supervisor for his help and came back. My friend had relief written on his face and it had regained some colour. We sat down for a chat and a cup of coffee. 

I wrote all this because I was impressed and intrigued by what I had witnessed. My friend had put the car in the drain and was standing there helplessly. Half a dozen strangers who were not at all connected with or affected by the situation had come forward willingly to help and had spent considerable time and energy without expecting anything in return ! 

The food delivery fellow had no reason to stop and take the initiative to get the car out. He would have probably honked impatiently and cursed my friend if the car was blocking his way even for a few seconds on any other occasion. Now he had calmly and willingly spent twenty minutes trying to take the car - again, with which he was in no way connected -  out of the drain. 

My friend, who would have thought ten times before allowing the fellow to even dust or wash his expensive car, had just handed over the key without bothering to consider whether the fellow was capable of taking the car out of the drain or capable of just driving it in the first place !  

After completing the job the fellow just went away on his errand without even waiting for a word of thanks from us. And so did the group of labourers who offered their muscle power which is their only resource !  All these people worked just to get a stranger out of the difficult situation he was in and they gained nothing in return ! 

I feel that is why we call ourselves social creatures. It is probably natural for us to help another creature when you find it in distress. At other times we may be impatient with each other, intolerant or even antagonistic but at times like this, everything else is forgotten and the inner goodness of individuals surface.  

One of the rare occasions when we get a chance to feel nice about the society we are living in and our co - inhabitants ! 

Have a nice holiday and a happy Independence day everyone !

Aborted landing / Balked landing - a recent experience

We were scheduled to fly from Bengaluru to Goa and were to depart

from terminal 2 of KIA Bengaluru. We were there well in advance,

spent some time looking around the splendor of the new terminal,

experienced whatever the lounge had to offer and boarded the flight.

The pre-departure experience was fine. 

The flight took off from Bengaluru on time. I read for some time and dozed

for about half an hour. After some time, I experienced some turbulence

and realised that we were in the clouds and were on our way down.

Looking out of the window, I saw the mining pits of Sanvordem, the

roof of MRF and Nestle, the Verna industrial estate, the new six lane

highway crossing the river Zuari and then the BITS Goa campus located

close to the airport. 

The captain made an announcement and the flight started the steep descent.

It crossed the Zuari industries and the highway, past the Airport fence and

touched down with a strong bump. It seemed to raise a bit, appeared to

have made a second touch and instead of slowing down, gained speed

again! Even before I could realise what was happening, we were airborne

once more.

I knew there was something wrong and that it was serious. There were

butterflies in my stomach. But when I found that the aircraft was stable

and steadily gaining height, I calmed down and after noticing that it was

banking and had started making a U turn, I felt that things should be OK.

But there is no escaping the fact that all of us had been very close to our

last few seconds on this planet.  I don’t think many of my co-passengers

realised that a disaster had just been averted.  

In retrospect, I feel that the plane touched down with more speed than

usual. Maybe the pilots noticed that they would be short of the runway

and decided to take off, instead of trying to stop and overshooting the

runway. It is also possible that they experienced a sudden gush of cross

wind and decided to take off instead of veering away from the runway.

These are my guesses. I enquired with the cabin crew after landing but

they had just as much information as I did. 

I dont know whether I should thank the Pilots or my fate. But I am glad

that I am back in my home and typing this. I am curious to know what

exactly happened. If I get to know, I will come back with details. Meanwhile,

I felt like sharing this unusual experience and hence, you are reading this.

Bye.

I sent the above write up to a friend, who is an experienced pilot and

got the following 

response. 

Response : As for my view on the experience,

It is a little difficult to be sure about what might have happened without

actually being in the cockpit or speaking to someone who was in the cockpit

at the time. My best guess would be same as your father's first assumption. 

1. They may have come in too high on the final approach and as a result

touched down out of the ideal touchdown zone (roughly the first 25%) on the

the runway. When that happens there may not be enough runway to stop the

aircraft and the aircraft can go off the runway which can be disastrous. In this

situation, it seems like the cockpit crew realised this and aborted the landing

and carried out a Go Around maneuver (a maneuver where the landing is

aborted on final approach or after touchdown and the aircraft climbs to a certain

height and attempts another landing or diverts to another field)

2. They may have come in at the correct height but may have been too fast

and resulted in the same outcome of touchdown towards the mid or second

half of the runway and eventually carried out a go around.

3. Could be a combination of 1. and 2. Resulting in a go around.

I think the crosswind explanation is possible but less likely because Goa is

not one of the airfields where crosswind is a major concern.

What happened here is technically called a balked landing. Where a landing

is rejected very close to the ground or sometimes even after touchdown.

The engines are producing very little power when coming for landing and

close to the ground. From this state for the engines to start producing

maximum power in order to start climbing again it takes a few seconds.

This lag for the engines to go from low power state to max power is due

to design. And it is this lag in the power delivery of the engines is what c

aused the second touchdown. Momentum would have carried the aircraft

in the air after the first touchdown and lag in power delivery caused the

aircraft to sink and cause the second touchdown and as the engines reach

max power the aircraft will have started climbing again.

Ideally this landing should have been aborted at a much earlier stage.

It is extremely unlikely if the aircraft is on the correct height profile and speed

on final approach to end up in this situation. However, they did have the

good sense to do the right thing albeit at the very last stage.

I know my reply is very long and detailed 😂. But I wanted to explain

certain concepts so that he will understand the explanation better.

I hope this helps.