Nothing like getting up at 0330 coming off of a bunch of days of to get you right back into the swing of things. I had a 500a show time yesterday morning for a 600a departure. I was the only one leaving the hotel to head to the airport at that awful hour of the day. I downloaded all my paperwork for the flight on the way to the hotel and looked it over. The flight was scheduled for 5:33 across the country and had us planned to get in 10 minutes early. Everything went smooth on the gate and we got off on time.
A short taxi out and we were off earlier than planned. That's always nice on a 1 leg day. There was a little leftover rain in the area that caused some turbulence for us as we climbed out over New York. Once we cleared that at the western edge of the state it was smooth sailing. A very pleasant ride. The only problem was that it was just so early in the morning and it was a long flight. So staying alert and focused on the task at hand for that time was probably the biggest challenge.
Somewhere, whether it was a person of a computer that allocated flight numbers, a bad idea was hatched. We were numbered flight 1415 from EWR to SFO, and coming behind us, same company, flying from JFK to SFO was flight 415. Virtually the same route as well. So for the next 5 hours both of us were on the same frequencies. They were a 757, and cruising faster than we were so they ended up passing us enroute, but all the same, we were pretty much together. It only caused a bit of confusion. So as pilots go, I needed to pay very close attention to the call sign and enunciate my readbacks very clearly. At one point a controller, who was not paying attention, told me we were already at FL360, after we asked to climb. He was pretty adamant about it too after we reassured him we weren't. That was when he noticed the other flight. See on his screen all he sees is XX1451 or XX451. And he's looking at a big area with probably 20 or more airplanes on it with their altitudes, speeds and id blinking along. So you can see what a pain this whole thing was.
No delays for us in the airport and we parked a full 20 minutes early. Next we headed downtown for the layover. I was beat. I immediately went back to bed for a nap. My room had a tremendous view of Coit Tower and Telegraph hill. I thought that maybe I'd be able to see the fireworks last night from my room, and I could, sort of. But between the low cloud layer and the hill all I saw were the flashes of light. I decided not to hike down there because of the time and my body clock. It would have been 2a by my time, when I got back, so I just stayed. I did get out to enjoy some of the culture and had some good food, and wandered around China Town for a little bit. The musicians were out in full force yesterday and playing very festive, patriotic songs for the passersby.
This morning, I snapped this pic from my hotel room, just before sunrise.
