Frozen Shaving Cream
Circa 1994
Once,
I was westbound over the Atlantic Ocean in a 767. The 767 relies on electric heat in the cargo compartment. In the mid-90’s, I had the privilege of flying to Stockholm several times. (As a side note, I can say that I was there on both the longest day of the year, and the shortest day.) Those winter trips across the North Atlantic at those latitudes were so cold that we had to be serviced with special fuel and monitor the fuel temperature during the crossing. At times, we had to speed up to increase frictional heat across the wings to control the temperature of the fuel, which had a limit of -37 degrees Celsius. (Another side note: this cold fuel is what brought down a British Airways 777 on final approach at Heathrow.)
One day, after landing in Chicago after one of these flights, I got to the part in the Shutdown Checklist to turn off the cargo heat switches, but found them already off. It is possible that the guy behind me was doing me a favor by shutting them off for me, but that would not be the norm. The best explanation I could think of was that I had forgotten to turn them on in Stockholm, and the other guys didn’t notice – nor had they noticed me find them already off when reaching that action point of the checklist. I think I had stumbled, or bumbled, upon the extreme circumstance referenced above. I couldn’t remember if the closeout had mentioned any dogs. So I waited for the other guys to leave, and then fished through the trash bag to find the closeout. There was no mention of pets, so my mind went to other consequences that I might be asked about. I recall frozen shaving cream crossing my mind as a possibility. As far as consequences, I figured I would cross that bridge when I came to it, but I never heard a thing. I would have liked to see the look on that guy’s face when he tried to use his frozen shaving cream.
Captain’s Log 