[PilotMan]

So let me start with today and see where this goes. We had a 6a van this morning to get to the airport in West Palm Beach. This is the last leg of this trip with today being go home day. It's been a productive, if not tiring, trip. Let's be honest, they are all tiring to one extent or another. It's part of the reason that I've not been good about updates here lately. When I get to the hotel I have an agenda, like eat and sleep or I'm just too tired to really put much thought into this.

So anyway, one leg back to Newark. We were ready about 10 minutes early, but for some reason we didn't have an ATC clearance for our IFR (Instrument Flight Rules, all commercial carriers operate on an IFR flight plan) flight plan. A call to dispatch was in order and they set to getting the problem resolved. We could push back and taxi out, we just couldn't go anywhere without it.

The ride into PBI was fairly bumpy yesterday, no, it was crap. It was just crap for well over an hour. So I didn't have much hope that we would find much of a smooth ride today either. Our flight plan came in and we verified our clearance and then were off, still early.

Much to my surprise the ride was mostly smooth for us. Perhaps being at 39000 ft today was good, as we were hearing rougher rides below. This flight used to be considered a long flight when I was flying for a previous company. Anything over 2 hours was, but on the 737, it's now a short flight. From the time we get to cruise until we start down it's really only a little over an hour and fifteen minutes or so.

This trip hasn't been as good as the last few. I've actually flown with this Captain before, and I remember complaining last time that we just don't "click" in the cockpit. He is a nice guy, but something about our personalities just don't mesh well so we go through bouts of irritation, conversation, quiet. I guess just how you'd normally spend hours on end with someone that you wouldn't spend time with outside of work.

We were going to be early into Newark today, and I was supposed to have a 3 hour break. There was an earlier flight home, but it was scheduled to leave when we landed. So once we parked I didn't hurry off, but still checked the board to see if there was a chance. There was. It was delayed for maintenance, but it was still leaving in 10 minutes.

I had to walk across one terminal, ride the bus, then get to the gate. Odds were slim, but that flicker of hope started running through my mind. That's the dangerous part. The hope that you'll make it. I got to the gate and the plane was still there, but the agent was gone. The other agent said she already closed the flight, and didn't really go out of her way to try and help me. Ten minutes I stood there thinking that maybe she would take pity on me and just walk down and ask the other agent, but she didn't. She did all she needed to, and I missed my chance to get home.

I won't deny it. I was hot, irritated. The plane didn't leave for 10 minutes. I know, I know, I've been lucky before, but you're not always lucky. I know. It's that damned hope. Hope can fuck with you and get you all wound up. I'm still going to get home today. Home to a torn up family room getting ready for a remodel this week. Tonight will be loading flooring up the stairs, and moving furniture and tomorrow will be tearing up carpeting. I like these projects to just "be done." Preferably done by someone else. Lol. The chaos of the in between blows.

Yesterday we were at cruise, coming from Denver back to Newark in the morning when a 767, coming back from Honolulu passed us, 2000 ft above on the same airway we were on. With both of us going to the same place. I've been hoping that this would happen because I wanted to share this unique sight that passengers would never get to see.



Alright, so it's probably not that exciting. Just 2 planes flying in the same direction. Doesn't even look fast. We were cruising at .77 Mach, a very normal speed for our plane, and he was probably around .84. That equates to about 40-45 mph faster. So over a 2 hour flight, he ends up roughly 12 minutes ahead until the approach controller gets a hold of him. He landed right in front of us, or about 3 minutes ahead of us.