Santa's Little Helper: A Cargo Pilot's Christmas Eve

It makes perfect sense that Santa Claus would employ freight aircraft to help him with his Christmas duties. Here's an account of what a real cargo pilot goes through at the most wonderful time of the year.

jwanwest

Friday, December 04, 2015 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The North Pole's new RNAV approach is critically flawed with design errors, reversed course guidance on modern HSI systems, and malfunctioning landing lights, making it unflyable for Santa's new pilots.
An "old dog" pilot is called in to teach the tech-reliant younger generation how to fly the broken approach using traditional, non-digital navigation techniques and improvisational solutions.
Through mentorship, the new pilots learn to adapt their "glass cockpit" skills with old-school "freight dog" ingenuity, ultimately enabling them to complete their crucial Christmas Eve deliveries despite the technical challenges.

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It was a dark and stormy Christmas Eve, just like it is almost every year. What were they thinking? Christmas should be in July.

I thought I was retired from working for the Big Man, but no. There was the text message in that green-on-red font. (How does he do that? Must be a deal with Apple.) I didn’t have to read the text; I could tell just listening to the howling wind outside. The weather was low and the kids hauling Santa’s bags to build their 1500 hours were in trouble. Santa was calling to the old dogs…meaning I had to go.