FedEx 715

by BronyPilot

A Calm Evening, Right?

Chapter 1: Just A Calm Evening

The summer evening over the Topeka Center controlled airspace was perfect: a beautiful sunset, gentle winds, and hardly any turbulence. However, these kinds of nights can also be hell for the Air Traffic Control. It’s nights like these that make the job stressful, with several more aircraft than usual cruising across the state to various destinations such as Albuquerque, Atlanta, Chicago, you name it.

“Delta 891, contact Denver Approach on 120.5”

“Going to 120.5, Delta 891. Good night.”

Mark had only gotten this job a few months ago, and was enjoying it so far. At times it was really tiring, but it sure paid well. He looked at the clock and wished time would just skip 30 minutes ahead so his shift for the day would end. He was looking forward to watching a late night Hallmark movie or something since he had the day off the next day. He, still being a rookie at the center, only had to control a few flights at a time. I just handed one off, so another should be radioing in any moment now, he thought.

“Good Evening Topeka Center, FedEx 715 En Route to Orlando at Flight Level 320.”

“FedEx 715, Topeka Center roger. Turn left to a heading of 098 resume own navigation.”

“Left 098, proceed on course. FedEx 715,” as the pilot on the other end said this, the flight appeared on Mark’s radar. Just like the pilot said, they were at 32000 feet, at a speed of Mach 0.80, and a heading of now 098.

Mark believed was the last flight he would receive before the end of his shift, so he started to relax and make a final decision on his plans for the remainder of that evening.

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The FedEx 777-200LR Freight rushed high above the plains of Kansas at near supersonic speed as it made its way to the sunshine state of Florida. The aircraft was only a few years old, so its control systems were considered quite new still.

At the controls was Captain Anthony Beckham. This was his second and final flight for today and was expecting a relaxing evening after two long haul flights across the continental U.S. in one day. On his right was First Officer John Roberts, who was handling the radio communication for that flight. He had been with the airline for a few years now, however this was only his third time flying a 777. Captain Beckham had a lot more experience with the 777, flying it innumerable times to countless destinations including Los Angeles, Tokyo, Paris, and even London.

As they passed another checkpoint of their flight and set the navigation instruments for the next one, just 40 miles ahead, F/O Roberts made a observation: “Uhh… Anthony do you see that?” Roberts’ question caught Beckham off guard a bit. What could possibly be in front of them? It wasn’t another plane because otherwise their TCAS [Traffic Collision Avoidance System] would have sounded some annoying warning message about it and what action to take to avoid a collision. He squinted his eyes and looked out the front window to see what his F/O was talking about. All he could see was a fading sky, and some clouds. He thought Roberts might be seeing things until a slight flash caught his eye. Plus, it had come from that group of clouds. Strange, the weather report didn’t say anything about a chance of a storm, thought Beckham.

“John ask ATC if they know anything about this, because I’m quite sure I didn’t see this in the latest weather report.”

Without any hesitation, Robert gave a quick ‘Yes Sir’ and got back on the line with the ATC.

“Topeka Center this is FedEx 715, you copy?”

“FedEx 715, Topeka Center, What’s up?”

“Were spotting some clouds not too far off from our present location and they don’t look too friendly. We were wondering if you could give us any information about it in case we need to deviate to avoid or something.”

“Ok 715, just a second.”

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Mark rose from his swivel chair and asked one of the standby controllers to take over for him while he sorted out what the FedEx flight had reported. He walked over to a desk piled with different reports of weather conditions and things the pilots might ask about. He picked up the most current report, marked as the forecast for around the time now. It said it was forecasted a few hours ago as well. It showed a few clouds that could create a small shower, but nothing too serious. He decided to call the local weather station just to make sure his report was valid. He picked up the phone, dialed the number listed and waited until someone answered.

“Hello, this is the East Topeka, Kansas weather station. How may I help you?”

“Hi, my name is Mark and I work at the ATC center for Topeka. One of my planes got a sighting of some electrical activity in some of the clouds in front of them but there’s nothing pointing to something like that for this evening. Do you guys see anything like that in our area?”

There was a slight pause between Mark’s question and then the answer from the person at the weather station.

“Tell them that it might just be some dry static air, nothing to worry about. We don’t see anything that could harm them right now.”

“Ok, thanks.”

Mark hung up the phone and took over his position again and gave the information the weather center had told him to the FedEx flight.

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“Oh okay, thanks for checking it anyway though.”

“No problem 715, stay on planned course to next airspace.”

“Will do, FedEx 715.” Roberts looked over at the Captain who gave a sigh of relief that he wouldn’t have to deviate from the current route.

The plane pushed on as it made its way to Orlando. However, little did the ATC and pilots know, the clouds were not just static air. Something more serious that couldn’t be picked up by the weather radars of the weather station at the time was about to occur.

And FedEx 715 was headed straight for it.

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The sun slowly descended below the horizon of Equestria as everypony began to make preparations for a good nights sleep. Twilight would usually study her books at this time, but she had been doing so for the past two weeks and was becoming sleep deprived. She decided to give herself a break and get some more sleep this night and resume late night studying the night afterwards. As she prepared herself for a well-deserved slumber, she thought she heard thunder rolling in the distance. Either the sleep deprivation was getting to her or the weather pegasi were planning for a summer shower that evening. Looking out her bedroom window, she couldn’t see any clouds over Ponyville. However she did spot some over Everfree forest. Knowing that if the storm did start to drift over to Ponyville the weather team would take care of it, she climbed into bed and closed her eyes. She began to dream about the happy day of her brother’s wedding and wished the best for him.

Not 5 minutes after Twilight began to fall to sleep, a loud knocking came from her front door downstairs. She looked over to Spike, who was fast asleep already, and decided to get the door herself instead of waking the peaceful dragon. She trotted downstairs while thinking of who could possibly be knocking at this hour. She opened the door and on her doorstep was none other than Rainbow Dash. “Of course…” she muttered under her breath. She yawned and asked, “What do you need Rainbow Dash?”

“Well, uh, the weather team told me to tell you that we have a slight problem.”

“Rainbow, you know quite well that I don’t know too much about the weather.”

“I know, but the situation’s a little bit more complicated than that.”

What could possibly be more complicated than moving some clouds around, she thought. She then realized how stupid she sounded and decided to be a little more helpful with Rainbow at the moment. “Alright then, what’s the problem?”

Just as Rainbow Dash was about to answer, a faint boom of Thunder sounded behind her. She simply stated, “That.”

“Okay, so it’s an Everfree storm. Whats wrong with it?”

“It’s drifting into Ponyville.”

Seriously?!, she began to say in her mind, I skip some deserved sleep for this?! A little annoyed now she calmly asked, “Well, can’t you move it back?”

“That's just it. When we tried moving it something prevented us from moving it!”

Well, at least this doesn’t sound to stupid anymore. “What do you mean?”

“Some of us, err the weather team, tried to move it but some weird energy flung us away from the clouds.”

Okay, now this is getting weird. “Alright then, show me.” What am I saying? I want to go to bed not solve a weather problem! Ugh, I’d do anything for a friend of mine though. After the small confrontation in her head she followed Rainbow Dash over to the edge of the Everfree forest, where a storm was beginning to grow overhead. Twilight’s horn softly glowed as she cast an analysis spell, giving information on the anomaly. She could tell something was not normal. There was a weird energy field causing this storm, and could not be stopped.

“Rainbow, this storm is not natural. Have the pegasi inform other ponies to get inside and see if you can’t strengthen anything that might be damaged in the storm. Also, see if you can’t move the storm around and lessen its intensity but be careful.”

“Sure thing Twi!”

“I’ll be at the library. I’ll see if I can’t find a book or something on what this is exactly.”

Twilight quickly trotted off back towards the library. Her trot started to become a gallop as she heard the booms of thunder intensifying and small flashes in the clouds becoming blinding and wicked lines of lightning.

It seemed that this storm was not going to stop very easily. Not without a good fight.

Comments

[Desert Nocturne]

Intriguing! As a FedEx employee and (apparent) fellow aviation enthusiast, this story has piqued my interest. It is very well written and formatted, but I would suggest italicizing character thoughts. Also, some terminology, such as TCAS, Traffic Collision Avoidance System, should probably be explained to the reader. I love how you nailed the ATC exchanges! You have a thumbs up and a favorite from me. I look forward to the rest of this story! Is the whole plane going to end up in Equestria?

P.S. Is the 777 used for domestic routes? I thought they were used exclusively for long hauls (i.e. Asia).

[BronyPilot]

580124

I believe that if enough cargo needed to be flown, FedEx would use a large plane. I know UPS uses 767s on domestic routes so...

Plus the 777 is my favourite out of their fleet.

I thought I had those thoughts italicized... Guess I ll have to do a quick edit.

I guess being a VA pilot payed off too (It's how I knew about the exchanges of ATC )

[Desert Nocturne]

The 777 is a beautiful plane alright. I wish we would get them at our ramp, but I think our gates are too narrow to accommodate the increased wingspan over the MD-11. The MD-11 is a nice looking plane in its own right too. I love watching them take off; goosebumps every time.

Sometimes when importing text into this site, formatting gets lost, as I'm sure you've discovered. It's usually worth reading through your chapter a few times to make sure everything is where it's supposed to be. I've made a more than a few mistakes myself.

[BronyPilot]

MD-11... That gives me an idea for later in the story

[JDash]

Quite curious where this is heading As an aviation enthusiast and vatsim flyer, I have to admit, the aviating parts are solid. Good job! I would have liked a MD11 better than the triple seven, but thats all a matter of taste. Are ATC transmissions really that sloppy in Topeka? Following and faved, so long!

[BronyPilot]

580309

I did say the guy was new to the job. Still what do you mean by sloppy?

[Gaz1997]

ah yes another story with the addition of aircraft i must say i enjoy this being a fellow aircraft enthusiast myself and i see what you did there (there not in Kansas anymore) lol

[damnaion]

mmmmm

[Island_Dancer96]

One thing I should point out that the FedEx 777 has the Integrated Standby Flight Display in place of the Standby Attitude indicator, the Standby Airspeed Indicator, and the Standby Altimeter. But other than that one minor difference, the rest of the cockpit is the same as the 777-200 and-200ER (Extended Range) models. Also the wing design is based on the Boeing 777-200LR (Long Range) model. The FedEx 777s also have the same engine on the 777-200LR, the General Electric GE90.