Day 1 of this trip was long on paper. Made even longer with the commute to work, that started at 430a. My flight that morning was very open so getting a seat wasn't an issue. It's that time of the year again. School has started in a lot of places and the summer vacation season is all over. It's the first, post summer, down turn, of the aviation year. Generally that means that there are lighter loads throughout and my commute gets easier until the holidays. The other major low time for travel is Jan-mid March, when spring break kicks up, then again from late April til the end of May.
I slept as much on the plane as I could, didn't really get comfortable though, then got to work and claimed a couch to sleep for another hour and a half. I had to skip breakfast. Sleep was way more important. The first flight was to Denver, we had a mostly full flight. There was weather, and by weather I mean scattered thunderstorms in the northeast, that was causing changes to ATC filed flight plans. We were given a reroute after we started taxiing out to depart. This one was completely different, as opposed to say just a couple of different departure fixes, so it took a little bit longer to get loaded and verified. We had originally planned to be to Denver a few minutes early, but Newark and this reroute conspired against us. The flight was a non-event though, just like I like them, and we arrived in Denver on a hot, hazy day. I couldn't even see the mountains from the airport because of it.
Instead of keeping the plane, or going straight to another for our next flight we had 2.5 hours to kill. It may not seem like much, but breaks in the day not only lengthen the day, but it can halt any momentum that you've got going on. I spent it in ops milling around on my laptop and chatting with the Mrs. We grabbed some dinner before our next flight out to Baltimore. Which just happened to be late inbound.
Tack on another 30 minutes of waiting and finally, at about 815p eastern time we were off. So much of managing the time on the flights is about keeping it in perspective. For example, I'm sure that everyone has had some long drives. I'll play the 10 mile, or 100 mile game, just counting down the miles in groups of 10, figuring the percent remaining, or remaining until I decide to take a break. I do the same thing in the plane. That way I can think about the flight in blocks rather than 3 or 4 hours at a time. That sort of thing is critical when it comes to staying alert, or staving off the boredom of the day. It's all worse in the dark. Winter is coming, the time change comes in November, and that's the worst of it.
I digress.
The weather on the east coast, associated with a cold front moving east, that hindered us in the morning was still a factor for our flight to Baltimore, although it was supposed to have moved off and dissipated by the time we got there. We messaged back and forth with the dispatcher and he told us it shouldn't be an issue. Ultimately, it wasn't but not by much. We were flying directly at this massive thunderstorm that has non-stop lightning for nearly 30 minutes. At night, depth perception is lost. Relying on the radar helps, but you still have to be skeptical. All it takes is one storm that you didn't see, or though you would miss to cause a lot of paperwork, or a severely damaged plane, like Delta had last week. One instance like that might get you 30 days off of work or more, depending on what happened and your actions that lead up to it.
At the most for us, it was distracting. The arrival that we were doing into Baltimore is a busy one, with many altitude step downs and speed reductions, more than enough to deal with, without a big thunderstorm that has just hit the field to worry about. I landed us and we headed to the hotel for some much needed rest. That's how day one ended.
Yesterday started with me heading out for some lunch. This was my first time in downtown Baltimore, my only real goal was to head to Camden Yards and check out the stadium, and eat in one of the pubs close by.
I thought it was great. I wish I could have stayed there and gone to the game that night. They were playing the Twins. Lunch was good, and then it was back to the airport for our next legs.
The flight attendants were already on the plane from the inbound flight and mentioned to us that the pilots had written the plane up and explained why. This one involved the eventual change of the nose wheel tires on the plane and made us over an hour late for our flight to Chicago.
Now the race was on. We had a planeful of people with tight connections in Chicago, and we only had an hour scheduled between our flights to be on time for our next leg. ATC didn't know it, but they helped us out by telling us to fly fast, and giving us some very favorable shortcuts along the way. We landed in Chicago on the best runway for our ramp and gate. I passed along notes to the station to make sure they knew when we would be in and to try and get extra help at the gate to get our passengers to their connecting flights. I have no idea how they did, but we got them into the gate over 15 minutes earlier than I told them to expect getting in.
We got to keep the plane for our next leg to San Diego. Keeping the plane is so nice. I don't have to pack up and unpack all over again. I just get off, grab a snack, and hit the head. Peeing in a real bathroom is a nice perk of an airline pilot. Hey, don't get me wrong, our lavs beat peeing in a bottle, but, peeing while fully upright (not hunched over; as opposed to fully erect (that's a different story)) is better.
The flight to San Diego was obviously delayed. But we managed to cut 13 minutes off that planned departure, and then flew like the wind. The ride was mostly smooth, which is necessary if you are going to go fast. Turbulence is so much worse at mach .80 than it is at .77 or even .78. So with our extra speed we shaved off even more time, and were into the gate only 25 minutes late. If you consider that we left Baltimore an hour and 20 minutes late, kept the plane, turned it in Chicago without much wiggle room, and ended up in San Diego only 25 minutes late, I'd say we did a good job for the day.
Now I've got most of the day here to relax and recuperate before I operate the red eye back to Newark to finish off the trip. Fish taco's here I come.