[PilotMan]

I had wanted to give some updates before now, but now is better than never so let me take you back to Friday morning.

I started my trip with a deadhead (me in the back getting paid to be a passenger) from Newark to Montego Bay. We were delayed getting out of Newark due to a sold out plane being downsized and now there were about 10 seats that had to be bought off. With it being an international flight the ramp had to make sure that the people who didn't get on didn't have their bags shipped off to Jamaica. We were eventually somewhere close to 45 minutes late. I was only supposed to have about an hour between flights in Jamaica anyway.

Once we got to Montego Bay I had to go from gate 7 to gate 4, but wait, it's not that easy. No, I have to go clear customs like all the other passengers, leave the building (side-note; I'm wearing my suit, hat and trench coat. It's 80 degrees. Jamaican's have no problem asking you why you are wearing a coat or calling out from the road, or bar, or pretty much anywhere), walk outside to the departure building then go back through security and then I can finally get to the gate. What a pain. So this flight was going to be late too. When I got to the plane it had already been boarded and the passengers were just waiting on us pilots to take them to Chicago. It took us a normal amount of time to get the plane ready, but for the passengers I'm sure that it was an eternity. Finally we left for Chicago. I flew this leg and got my first landing since my time off. It wasn't an easy one either as winds were 25-30 mph. I've logged over 1500 landings in my career but that voice in the back of your head can get to you when you've been off so long. I put it right where I wanted it and we were back on the ground again. We cleared customs again and then walked to the hotel for the short layover.

Next morning up at 445a and it's cold as fuck. I'm not looking forward to the preflight. Today is a breeze compared to yesterday though. While yesterday was over 8 hours in a plane (flying) and nearly 12 hours on duty, today is just one leg to Ft Myers. I haven't laid over in Ft Myers in years, and even more, the hotel we are going to is the hotel we used to be at when I worked for Comair. I'm a sentimental kind of guy. I always see these loops in life where things get to come full circle. So this was one of those days. It started snowing while I was doing the walk-around and even though it wasn't supposed to we felt like we needed to get deiced before takeoff. Chicago can sometimes be really busy and have plenty of delays, but today it was easy. We got out quick and made it to Ft Myers early. The only drawback was that it was only about 60 there. Still beats where we had just come from.

Today was another early start as we were off to the airport before 6a. Today was also the longest and the day that had the biggest potential for bad things to happen. Weather in the northeast today had caused the cancellation of about 50% of the flying in and out of Newark. The issue was wind. Winds were from 330 (NNW) at 33 and gusting to 39 kts. That translates to 39 to 45 mph. Unfortunately the main runways in Newark are orientated on 040/220. In other words for the main runways the wind was a direct crosswind and gusts exceeded the limitations of the plane. That leaves 1 useable runway in Newark, runway 29, which is only 6200ft long and due to NY's airspace restrictions makes this runway more complicated to use due to Manhattan and airspace owned by LaGuardia. With only 1 runway for takeoffs and landings the potential for delays, holding and fuel diversions was high. However, all the cancellations tempered a lot of this and we weren't really slowed down at all. We had some very rough turbulence from 5000ft all the way down to the surface. It's not like you are making this easy decent right to the runway, for arrivals into EWR you are flying around at this low altitude for about 15-20 minutes due to airspace constraints above for planes going to JFK and LGA and space reserved for departures so you fly lower, longer. I won't lie. This approach was one of the hardest landings I've ever had to do. I'm pretty confident with my flying but even this one had me working hard. It wasn't pretty, but despite everything I still put the plane where I wanted. It was just a harder landing than usual which you will find is normal in strong gusty winds.

That lead into the next flight. The Captain and I weren't entirely sure that we'd be able to use 29 because we needed a lot of fuel and the 737-900ER is known to be a bit of a runway hog. Much to our surprise though and against the grain of a day where I'm sure plenty of people didn't get where they needed to go we were happy to take a plane, full of passengers from that cold hell-hole known as Newark four hours away to the warm vacation destination known as Aruba. This is my first trip to Aruba, and I've got a little time tomorrow morning before we head back to Newark to finish off this trip to relax and get some sun.

We get back too late tomorrow for me to catch a flight to Cincinnati so my plan was to take a flight out first thing Tuesday morning. Of course, Cincinnati is due to get between 6-10 inches of snow Monday and Tuesday. That could really mess things up. I only have 1 full day off in between these 2 4-day trips and I really need to get home so I can take my youngest boys to a car show that we gave them as a Christmas present. I know there's nothing I can do about it right now and I'm only borrowing trouble but I can't help but worry about it.