A Year in the Life - Page 3

PilotMan · 03-25-2015, 10:17 PM

Yep, you knew this morning was going to be early, but you know what? I got a solid (enough) amount of sleep and woke up feeling pretty good. It was really foggy this morning in Miami.

We were ready to go and off the gate on time and told the flight attendants to prepare for a short taxi out. The end of the runway was just a few hundred feet away from the end of the alley we were parked in. We got out there pretty quick too. Then we waited....

We must have caught a bad spot because we ended up waiting about 15 minutes until we got to go. The fog had the runway down to approach minimums and that means that ATC has to increase the spacing between arrivals. So plane after plane had to come in and we just had to wait. If you always wondered how bad fog has to be to effect your flight remember this: Our minimums for takeoff are much lower than they are for landing.

We can takeoff with visibility as low as 500 feet at certain airports while we need about 1800 (sometimes 1200 and on large widebodies that fly around the world 0 visibility). Today it was about 2400 feet. When you are going 150 MPH it's a whole lot different than if you are going 35 mph down the highway.

Early morning flights are much better west bound than east bound. The sun is a killer on the horizon. We were north today so I had a nice view of the sunrise. The buildup of clouds are the remnants of some thunderstorms from the day before.

I made an easy connection for my flight back home and got done today around 1230p. So the cost of commuting on this trip was an extra 20 hours away from home.

I'm done now until after Easter and ready for the first family vacation in 2 years. It'll be the first major road trip we've taken in like 6. We are all looking forward to going to Hilton Head for the first time. Woot!

timmae · 03-26-2015, 08:05 AM

Enjoy your vacation bud!!

PilotMan · 04-09-2015, 08:12 PM

Alright, so if anyone is still reading this I'm back again. I'm trying to get to Newark tonight so I can start my trip in the morning but the midwest storms are causing delays here. I was supposed to be on a flight that left at 630p but the plane isn't even supposed to leave Chicago until 2 hours from now and then it's not supposed to get into Newark until after 1a. Luckily for now, my backup flight is closer to on time, but even it's delayed an hour. It's no leaving here for an hour and a half. Hopefully it stays open enough for me to get a seat on it. I'm sure I'll get there somehow, but I'd much rather get there earlier than later. I have to be at the airport around 645a tomorrow and the more sleep I can get the better tomorrow will go. If for some reason I don't get to Newark until after 1, I'll probably just sleep in the airport. That extra hour of sleep I'd get versus going to the crash pad would make a difference then.

I had a great vacation. If you've seen my fb, you'll have seen all the stuff that we did. We didn't really have any issues and had a great time. It was very nice to get away and our 11 year old minivan did it's part and ran like a champ.

There have been a lot of things that I've been dealing with for work that I haven't gotten around to writing about here. So I'll try and get caught up.

First off there was a seniority bid for something called guaranteed days off. They aren't additional days of, nor are they vacation days. They do allow you to block out a couple of days in a bid period though with a few stipulations. You can't use them over holidays, you only get 2 blocks of 2 days per year, and you can't use them both in the same month. We bid for the entire year now, but we can also bid for what's available on a month to month basis. I only chose to bid for 1 of my 2 blocks of days right now. I'll hold onto the other one to use later. The awards came out and I got my first choice. I'm thinking this was just because a lot of guys just don't even bother to bid for them. Either way, I now know that I'll have the 22nd and 23rd of December off work. I'm sure I'll still be working over Christmas, but it's nice knowing that I'll be guaranteed those days off at least.

Next I've finished my computer training that was due by the end of this month. Here were the modules that I had to complete for this training cycle:

- Annual Crewmember Security
- Basic First Aid and Emergency Equipment
- ATC Systems, Procedures, Phraseology, and Special Airports and Areas
- Crew Resource Management Threat/Error Management Stabilized Approaches and Standard Operating Procedures
- An exam on Latin American Operations
- An exam on South American Operations
- 737 Autoflight Procedures
- The integrated Stand By Flight Display
- 737 Common System Displays
- 737 Electronic Logbook
- Fatigue Risk Management and the New FAA Part 117 Regulations on Crew Duty and Rest.

There's some pretty exciting stuff in there. In fact, you may have fallen asleep just reading that!

I've got my annual flight physical next week. No EKG for me this year, I've got 1 more year before I have to start getting that regularly. Otherwise, I should be alright. I haven't had any changes or issues so I'm not expecting any surprises or issues with that, but you really never know for sure when you're dealing with someone who literally has your career in their hands, even if I have been seeing the same guy for 13 years.

Next I had to finish my bid for May. May is a bitch. I know it always seems like I say that, but this month truly is. Besides I'm spoiled from my last two with my vacation bump.

May already causes problems with Mother's Day. I'm supposed to try and get that off period. But it's on a Sunday and of course, I know that with my seniority Sunday's are challenging. Especially that one. So that's the 10th. Then I'm taking my youngest to WWE Raw for the first time ever on the 11th. I HAVE to have that day off. There is no other option if I don't. Then that Saturday the 16th the same boy has his spring piano recital. Follow that up with Monday the 18th and that's the night that the boys are recognized by the school for their awards and accomplishments for the year. I HAVE to be there for that too, as there will be plenty of accolades to go around. You have to add the 12th and 19th off because if I don't then I may have to commute the night before and then I'd still miss what I'm trying to go to! Then throw Memorial Day in there just for fun. Fun, eh?

So I've had to prioritize what I really need to be off for, which in this case means that I'll probably miss both the recital and Mother's Day. I've put my preferences in and even a bid for reserve which I really hope to God I don't get, but I'll take it I guess if it's the only way I'm going to get those days off. So we'll see here in a little over a week how this all turns out.

I'm supposed to be heading back to Cancun tomorrow morning. I think my sunburn from Hilton Head faded into tan nicely so I guess it'll be time to chill in the sun some more, provided there aren't any more issues tonight or tomorrow.

Well, look at that. While I've been typing this my main flight to Newark has decided to cancel. So that leaves me with my backup, a Delta flight, that's leaving here in about 45 minutes. It's about time to head down there and see how that turns out. If for some reason I can't get on that, then I have to call the company and let them know. I'd be taken off and get a missed trip and have to talk to the chief pilot, and lose the pay, but it is what it is. I've done my due diligence if it does come to that. Cross your fingers it doesn't.

britrock88 · 04-09-2015, 10:19 PM

Most certainly still reading.

timmae · 04-09-2015, 10:48 PM

Tornado's in chicago... it's a mess. I'm still reading along.

PilotMan · 04-10-2015, 09:54 PM

So went up to the gate agent last night and she tells me that I was right when I had previously talked to her about getting some other people from the previously cancelled flight. She tells me that she still has a seat for me and even though the flight is weight restricted the Captain thinks he can get me on.

Alright, now someone ask "What the hell is weight restricted?" It's an airplane right? How can there limits that keep it from being able to take a full load of passengers? It seems to me that this might be one of the more misunderstood things in aviation for passengers.

The simple answer is that the max weight is derived from many different possibilities. When I say max landing weight you think the maximum that the plane can weight at landing. And you'd be right. But when I say max takeoff weight you'd be wrong to think only in terms of what the structural limits of the aircraft are. This sort of limitation is more often found in the smaller regional jets rather than the larger 737's that I fly now.

You'll most often find restrictions on takeoff based on what the maximum landing weight of the aircraft will be. Especially on short flights, the plane has to burn off the right amount of fuel so it can be below landing weight when it get's where it needs to go. Now add bad weather at the destination that causes you to carry an extra 1500 lbs of fuel and instead of being able to carry a full load now you are looking at about 8 fewer passengers that you can carry. Because the weight that you would have carried in passengers is now in your fuel tank and because it's already a short flight you can't take off too heavy or you'll be heavy when you get to your destination. The FAA does not allow you to take off, knowing you are going to be heavy and burn extra in the air. But there have been plenty of times where I've gotten somewhere heavy and had to extend my downwind leg of landing by 4 or 5 minutes just get the extra weight off because ATC gave us a short taxi, or short cuts along the way.

I hope that wasn't too confusing, but the short of it is this problem is generally found in smaller planes, on shorter routes, where there is bad weather at the destination. Last night, the flight from CVG to EWR isn't that short, but if the required alternate was a long way away from Newark, like say Boston (because of course, there are rules as to what the weather can be at your alternate,) and if the entire east coast is socked in now you are adding 3000 lbs of fuel instead of the 1500 just to be legal to go.

I got on the plane and introduced myself. When I'm flying on a company that is not my own I'm essentially asking permission to ride as a possible extra crew member should the Captain need me. He can tell me to pound sand for any reason he wants. Maintaining the appropriate etiquette is very important if you want to get where you are going. He told me he'd try, but no promises. So I just sat and waited until I got the thumbs up that all was good.

I didn't get to the pad until about midnight. Luckily there was 1 bottom bunk left for me. Check out the get up and bathroom times for us:

We were out on time today, but again we had to deal with flow restrictions going south out of Newark. We also had some crap rides. We started off at 36000 ft and eventually ended up at 26000 ft to find a decent ride. Losing 10000 ft and the corresponding loss in cruise airspeed costs a bit of fuel and made us a little later. I did my best to stay on schedule, but we have to balance the fuel trade off for speed. The flight was about 3.5 hours, which is what I'd call a mid distance flight. We knew weather was good in Cancun and we were comfortable with the fuel on board so we could push it a little more. In the end we were 1 minute late, which kinda sucks. As crazy as it seems, that minute means a missed benchmark. Boohoo.

Cancun for spring break again? You won't hear me complain. The scenery was every bit as good as the scenery. I got sunburned. Early morning wakeup with a flight to San Francisco. I wish it ended there, but we have a 3.5 hour sit then fly to Vegas for a short overnight.

This is sunset on the eastern horizon from my balcony tonight.

PilotMan · 04-12-2015, 12:42 AM

I'm tired and I don't have the patience to do this tonight. Today was a long day. Started early enough with maintenance telling me while I was doing the walkaround that they were clearing a couple of write ups on the plane. One of them involved part of the braking system of the plane. Not a big deal, not much that can be done about it and not something that they were likely to be able to replicate and wasn't currently showing any errors. In this situation they jump through the required steps and if there isn't anything it's good to go. No problem, it was alright with us.

The first couple of hours of the flight was a steady turbulence that had us start at 32000, go up to 36000 and then back down to 28000 just to find a good ride. Eventually, we got to get back up to 36000, but not until we were into New Mexico. Also almost as soon as we took off, the issue with the brakes came back. Nothing we could do about it except follow our procedures and be thankful that SFO has a long runway so it really wasn't an issue for us.

We got to San Francisco and I had 3.5 hours to kill before the next flight. SFO has this walk through museum where they were displaying a bunch of 1930 Art Deco pieces. It was a real trip into the way back machine. As it got closer to our departure I see that our original plane has been swapped for the broken plane that we brought in. I have to think that they took our original plane to use in place of the one that we brought in. About the time I was heading over to the plane I see that they've swapped it again. The broken plane must not be available and now our new plane is inbound from IAD. It won't be on the ground until 30 min after our departure and our new departure is now an hour late.

When things get behind the dance get's hurried and hectic. The plane is a mess from the 6 hour transcon coming in so the cleaning crew is working while the flight attendants try and get their work done so we can start boarding. I run outside for the walkaround then get back in to start my preflight setup. I get stopped in my routines 3 times to help the flight attendant sort out some issues with passengers having the same seats. That's something that happens when planes are switched. Things just get jumbled up in the effort to try and get back some of that time. We have another pilot who is going to ride up front. He is going to work. Then finally, we have it all caught up, full plane, 2 jump seaters and we can finally go. We push back and taxi out with 1 hour to spare before we duty time out for the day. Meaning we've already been on the clock for so long that it's time to be done, because as much fun as 4.5 hour sits are after 5.5 hour flights are, we are both ready to be done.

Our layover tonight was only scheduled to be 12 hours anyway, which is on the shorter side. Now it's closer to 11 hours after about 10 actually in the room when you take out travel and check in time. FAA regs say that 8 hours is the absolute min you can have. I grab some dinner and decide to type this up so I dont' forget it tomorrow.

My pickup time for the airport is 430a.

I got a cool picture of the new tower and the old tower in SFO. The new tower isn't operational yet, but it's much more stylish (if that's an important thing in ATC towers) than the old one.

My next pic is the view from the hotel looking up toward the strip. The Flamingo and Caesars are right in front.

PilotMan · 04-17-2015, 10:18 AM

I just realized that I never updated the end of my trip. The flight back from Vegas felt long. Perhaps it was just the last leg syndrome or the turbulence but it felt long. We didn't have any issues and made it on time.

I was supposed to have a 2 hour wait for my next flight. It had seats available the last time I looked, but when I looked again the plane was down to 2 seats and I was down to #7 on the stand by list. That normally doesn't happen, but there was a family of 5 that was traveling on a vacation priority ahead.

My only remedy was to head for the gate and wait for the agent to show up and try and be the first one on the jumpseat list. This was cutting into my lunch time! She eventually showed up (after 30 minutes of me standing at the podium) and lucky for me I got on the list first. Only a pilot from that company or the FAA could bump me off now so I felt better, but you're still never really safe. I grabbed some lunch and then squeezed into the cockpit jumpseat once again for the flight home.

Tuesday was my all important FAA physical. Generally these things go alright and arent' too much hassle. There's a urine test for sugar (not drugs; I get drug tested through the company), a vision test, weight, bp, pulse and a general physical exam before it's done. Usually I get told every year that I need to lose weight. It's true. I do. But it's not like it's changed much in 4 years anyway. The FAA has been on this crusade to screen every pilot for possible sleep apnea. This has been due to a specific instance where both pilots fell asleep in the cockpit and overflew the destination a few years ago. Well, now they feel like it's a huge problem, but I think it's really bullshit. Sure some super obese guys, who probably already know they have issues are going to finally get help, but I know for a fact that I don't have this issue. Basically the short of the long is that I'm now on a watch list unless I drop some weight, but at least I'm not on the "must get (and pay for) a sleep study" list. The funny thing is that one of my friends had this issues and he wouldn't have been screened at all the way they are going about it. He is as fit as a fiddle. I don't really see this as being a significant issue that warrants all this, but whatever. I did get my certificate so I get to keep working for another year at least!

My week also consisted of shopping trips to Jungle Jims (look it up). I love shopping there, but it's a little out of the way. We have to go there from time to time to get things that my wife needs for her diet that we can't get other places. It's an amazing place for food. The day after we went to Ikea. Sometimes you have to go to work so you can get some good rest! With me being home during the week I didn't have any days to sleep in. I was getting up in the morning to take the boys to school. There will be no sleeping in on this trip either. Looking at my schedule the next day that I will get to sleep in will be the 26th.

Today I've got a transcon to the west coast. I had to get up at 330a at home to get ready and make my 600a flight into EWR. I had the luxurious exit row seat and slept for a good portion of that flight and I just spent about an hour in a recliner in ops dozing off in between construction noises. I should be good to go. This trip is commutable on both the front and back end and in the middle I'm hoping that I can meet up with a couple of friends that I haven't seen in almost 2 years back when we were all working at airline #2. Now we have moved on to better places, so hopefully it'll all work out.

PilotMan · 04-17-2015, 10:16 PM

Today's flight was a very big sign that winter has given way to spring. Our flight time was set for only 5:26 heading to Los Angeles. We were planned to get in about 25 minutes early. The loss of the winter jet stream had that kind of impact on us. That just means that we will have to hustle tomorrow going back east to stay on time.

We had a full load this morning, but sat on the gate for a few minutes as the ramp had cleared a plane (that called after we did) to push in front of us. Other than that it was a short taxi out and we were off. Turbulence was the name of the game today. We hit it over Columbus and it continued until we were just east of Denver. Once we cleared the Rockies it was a nice ride the rest of the way into LAX.

Getting in early of course, our gate was occupied. We waited about 15 minutes before the gate was available then parked on time. A good 45 minutes down to Long Beach for the layover. This weekend happens to be the Long Beach Grand Prix. I shot this video coming back from dinner. This is just a couple of blocks from the hotel.

Tomorrow morning isn't terribly early as I'm on east coast time, but it will probably be dark when we leave the hotel.

PilotMan · 04-19-2015, 09:17 PM

No update yesterday. Just a long freaking day. Started in LA and due to the weather in the central part of the country we were planned to fly south over El Paso and Dallas before heading up toward Washington DC. We flew just about as fast as that little plane would take us. Not a whole lot of tailwind to help and the extra miles didn't help either.

The company is really putting an emphasis on getting there as close to on time as possible right now. They don't want early, they don't want late. They want on the minute as much as possible and when there is so much between here and there it can be challenging. We got out of LA in pretty good time and we were ahead of the game so I was able to back off a save some fuel and still make it into DC on time.

We then had about an hour to switch planes and get set up for the next leg to Orlando. After a short break in our operations I headed to the plane to get is all set up to go. There were a couple of small maintenance issues that had to get resolved. Primarily one was a new seat cushion that someone had gotten sick on, on the previous flight and the other had to do with the lav smoke detector which looked to be falling down.

One of these proved much easier than the other and while we were ready to, and primed to push the mechanic wasn't done with the plane so we waited. Full load of passengers, pilots and crew primed for our flight to the layover. Keeping in mind that we'd already worked a transcon. The entirety of the delay was close to 45 minutes as they had to completely replace the detector and the very, very small screws that hold it in.

The flight down to Orlando went as it should. We made up about 15 minutes on the flight plan, but the flight that left after us still beat us down there. That's always frustrating. The layover was out near the airport and was less than 12 hours, so there wasn't really anything to do with it.

Today we got up early and had a much more manageable day. The first leg saw us head up to Newak. We were routed out over the ocean and up to North Carolina to avoid some nasty weather over the central part of the state. North of there was good and weather up north was beautiful today.

My landing sucked though.

I didn't realize it until afterward that the wind had shifted around to a tailwind and it caused me to float a bit, and when I had to put it on the ground it skipped a little bit. I didn't know what happened in that moment, but at least when they turned the airport around I felt a little vindicated.

We got to keep the airplane for the next leg. Which let me tell you, is really nice. I don't have to pack all my crap up and move it around, unpack it again. It's great. The other good thing was that it was another short flight down to Florida and we'd just come from there so we had a good idea of what to expect.

This flight was once again planned out over the Atlantic and then over Kennedy Space Center, Orlando and into Tampa. The routing was a little longer than normal, and we were kept at a lower altitude because of bad rides at the higher altitudes. Once we got over the ocean we could step all the way up to 38000 feet before they started dropping us back down for the arrival.

Today was shorter than yesterday and I needed it. I didn't sleep that great last night. Our layover in TPA has us staying in St. Petersburgh with the popular downtown within walking distance. Makes for good dinners and plenty of options.

Tomorrow is go home day! Yay! One leg back to Newark and then a race to try and catch a flight home. I only have about 30 minutes to try and change terminals for this flight and if I don't get it, it's a three hour wait for a full plane. Cross your fingers.

My yearly sim training in Houston is approaching. The month that I'm due for the checkride is June, but I can go the month before or after depending on what the company schedules. I bid in May for it, but didn't get it awarded. That means that June is likely or if not then for sure in July. I typically don't get all worked up for checkrides. You do your job the right way. They way it's supposed to be done and it shouldn't be an issue, but you never know when you'll have a bad day, or if the examiner will have a bad day. Still you'd think that after 14 years of check rides I'd have it worked out mentally a little better.

My May schedule was awarded. I told you that I put 9 bids in, but that I really only wanted a bid from 1-5. Well, I got awarded bid #3! So that's pretty awesome. Of the days that I needed off I got all of them with the exception of the piano recital for my youngest son. That means that Mother's Day, School Awards Night, and the WWE Raw show are all a GO! WooT! On top of that, all the trips are spaced out nicely and all of them are commutable on both ends except for 2. So that means that 2 times in the month I'll have to go the day before and head to the crashpad. All of them get me home on the last day. That's such a relief.

It's almost enough to make me think about dropping the crash pad and just buying a hotel room. Two nights is the bare min where it makes sense to keep it from a strict financial standpoint. I could spend that much on a room to myself. It is nice to know that it's there though, even if things just fall apart. I can still go there anytime, take a nap, take a shower. Whatever I need.

My flying next month is a little different than I've been doing. It's much more like the old flying that I used to do. Shorter flights, more legs. I don't really care. Every trip is an adventure. Yeah I might not be hitting the top destinations every week, but you can find great things anywhere.

PilotMan · 04-21-2015, 11:26 AM

Yesterday was stressful!

I was sitting in the hotel in the morning going over the paperwork and weather for the flight. The weather was going to be bad with a strong frontal system moving through the area that was going to bring a lot of rain and wind for our scheduled arrival. Everything was in place now we just needed to be on time.

Like I had said, I had 30 minutes from our scheduled time in to pack up, change concourses and get to the new plane and get listed for the jumpseat as there is no way for me to make that listing before I actually get to the gate. I was sitting there I got a text notification that my other flight, the one I'm more likely to take was cancelled due to ATC. Great. More on this later.

The good news was the we were planned to get into Newark a full 20 minutes early if we could get off the ground on time. We managed to get off the gate a minute early and quickly worked our way across the airport to the departure runway. We got there and found a line for takeoff 4 deep and approach wasn't giving tower any help by spacing their arrivals out enough so that planes could take off in between. So we waited and waited. What would have had us off the ground 6 minutes early turned into a 7 minute delay and ate into that 20 minute slush time.

We had a pretty bad ride north bound as there was still lingering instability in the atmosphere from the day before. Our route was standard north out of Florida, no going east over the ocean, but the turbulence found us climbing up as high as we could go to try to find some smooth air. It got better the further north we went and it didn't sound like they were delaying anyone into Newark yet so we flew on.

We got some updates from our dispatcher about inbound aircraft and how delayed they were. It showed that most planes weren't any more than 10 minutes delayed and that some were even early. That boded well for us. The weather in Newark was already crapping out. Winds were gusting to the low 30s (kts, about 35 mph), the visibility was between 1/2 mile and a mile with rain showers.

So my 115p flight was cancelled to try and get home. Why? Newark like a lot of airports has set number of arrivals per hour when the weather is good. All airline schedules are predicated on this number and all flights that are sold and booked are based on a good weather scenario. When the weather goes bad the number of arrivals is cut drastically because of greater spacing that is required between aircraft. It can create a massive accordion effect if changes aren't made, that leads to big delays across the US. That leads the airport into what is known as Severe Weather Avoidance Plan or SWAP. SWAP forces cancellations by delaying aircraft on the ground by controlling how many planes are actually in the air and inbound for the airport. This way ATC avoids big holding patterns and possible diversions. Passengers see this as cancellations where before they might have been stuck on a plane, holding or at an undesirable airport that is not their destination. My company also utilizes smaller regional jets to connect to airports like Newark. When ATC puts slot arrival restrictions on the company they choose to cancel these slots to keep the slots open for the larger, mainline planes and international arrivals. That is why my flight was cancelled. Other companies that don't use Newark for a hub are less impacted because they don't have as many slots that are impacted and can generally keep their schedules more intact. You'll see these programs all over, especially in airports like JFK, LGA, ORD, ATL where weather can cause major delays. This puts even more pressure on me to try and make that flight home.

I think I'd be kidding you if I said I wasn't nervous at all to shoot this approach. The funny thing is that between the Captain and me, I had the most flying time in the 737, even though I have less than 2 years on it. He was a newer captain who had flown widebodies and some Airbus, but not the 737. I am confident in my skills, but I also knew we were in for a wild ride.

We need to be sure before we start the approach that the weather is good enough and stays within the limitations of the plane. The clouds were down near 600 feet (200 is the lowest you'll see on most approaches). By the time I break out at 600 feet I'll be about 30-40 seconds from touchdown. Not a whole lot of time to assess the situation and make adjustments. The visibility needs to be at least 1/2 mile, and for us it was about 2/3. Again not great. The winds were brutal. We were coming down the glideslope and I was wondering how many people were in the back puking, because it was that kind of approach. Very strong moderate turbulence that bordered on Severe at times. The plane, even despite being 70 tons was getting tossed. The winds were almost a direct crosswind steady at 20 knots, gusting to 39 (45 mph). When I broke out of the clouds I picked up the runway. I was almost looking in the Captains windshield as we were crabbed so far to the right to compensate for the wind. The maximum crosswind for the plane is 40 kts. We were right up to the maximum, in low visibility, in low clouds with nasty, gusty winds. I got the plane down the centerline of the runway and put it down right where it needed to be then I let out a huge sigh. We had over 170 people on that plane. They should have given me a standing ovation after that one. Probably the most challenging landing ever. There was only one other landing that I did in a Cessna that was even close. The landing earlier this year was also very hard, but it was in VFR. I could see the runway the whole way down. This was work.

And we were on time. It was pouring. The ramp guys weren't in a big hurry to get us parked. I started packing up my stuff and almost literally ran for the next plane. I don't like not being able to greet people off the plane but getting home comes first. Not only was the 115p flight cancelled, but the 900a flight had been cancelled and the 730p flight was cancelled. That meant that if I miss this flight the next chance is at 4p and then 530p and then nothing. It's only 1030a. I really don't want to spend the whole day here.

When I got to the gate the plane was already done boarding. Flights typically close 10 minutes prior to departure to allow for all the gate and flight paperwork to get done and ramp to finish up so it can push on time. I was about 15 minutes. The gate agents were AWESOME! They got me listed, checked in and gave me my pass to get on so fast and I hustled down to ask my permission from the Captain. Yes, when I'm not flying on my own company I have to ask permission. It's a very important thing. He obliged and I took my seat, so happy to be there and still a little wound up from the run and approach.

I knew that there were long delays for takeoff. Newark was getting reports of severe turbulence and they were down to the short runway for takeoffs. We ended up sitting close to an hour and a half on the ramp waiting for our turn to go. When it finally came we had to bypass and head back to the gate to let 2 passengers off who requested to get off. They did NOT have to do that. It's nice that they did, but frankly, those 2 passengers getting off delayed the other 70 passengers another 30 minutes from getting where they had paid to go too. When you get on the plane has to be airborne within 3 hours of pushback. We had been on for a while, it was a Captain decision. We were still close to the gate, and getting back to the gate gives everyone the chance if they want. It resets that 3 hour clock as well. I was still just happy that I was on the plane and that I didn't need to worry about how I was going to get home.

Eventually we got in line and finally got out of there. By the time we left most of the weather had passed and things were starting to let up. When I got home at 530p I was just beat. Another successful trip and now a few days to reload and get ready to go again at the end of the week.

britrock88 · 04-21-2015, 11:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PilotMan

So my 115p flight was cancelled to try and get home. Why? Newark like a lot of airports has set number of arrivals per hour when the weather is good. All airline schedules are predicated on this number and all flights that are sold and booked are based on a good weather scenario. When the weather goes bad the number of arrivals is cut drastically because of greater spacing that is required between aircraft. It can create a massive accordion effect if changes aren't made, that leads to big delays across the US. That leads the airport into what is known as Severe Weather Avoidance Plan or SWAP. SWAP forces cancellations by delaying aircraft on the ground by controlling how many planes are actually in the air and inbound for the airport. This way ATC avoids big holding patterns and possible diversions. Passengers see this as cancellations where before they might have been stuck on a plane, holding or at an undesirable airport that is not their destination. My company also utilizes smaller regional jets to connect to airports like Newark. When ATC puts slot arrival restrictions on the company they choose to cancel these slots to keep the slots open for the larger, mainline planes and international arrivals. That is why my flight was cancelled. Other companies that don't use Newark for a hub are less impacted because they don't have as many slots that are impacted and can generally keep their schedules more intact. You'll see these programs all over, especially in airports like JFK, LGA, ORD, ATL where weather can cause major delays. This puts even more pressure on me to try and make that flight home.

More valuable insight from an industry insider. Great stuff! Welcome home!

PilotMan · 04-24-2015, 11:07 PM

So I the Mrs and I went to pick up some personal effects from the death of her estranged mother. I think there have been times in the last 13 years where she wondered if she was making the right choice to shut her mother out of her family and even after she died last month despite being sure it was the right thing there were moments that she wondered if it could have been different. After this trip and seeing the things that were kept and the things that were left behind I have no doubt, nor do I have any sadness for the woman. My wife was shaken by some of the things: Items from her youth that she asked for and were told had been destroyed, unopened birthday cards, all kept, from other family members that her mom told her didn't love her anymore, letters to our own kids telling them that their parents were bad people, diaries detailing every movement for months in what looked to be an effort to blackmail or fight for custody before we moved to FL (she had nothing), diaries written that said unspeakable things. Not just things that would be awful to say, but to say them to your daughter, a child or the things that she said before she was born. It's just plain disturbing. I hated the woman. She deserves to burn in hell; she should've spent part of her useless life in jail. I'm glad that this means that we don't ever have to think about her ever again. Her decision to cut ties was completely vindicated. God forbid, if she would've had any influence on my kids lives.

Caught a flight to Newark tonight to start another trip tomorrow. Can't say I'm looking forward to the layover all that much, but I will get to sleep in Sunday morning and I should get some good pool time. I should be able to get a photo or two uploaded as it's a pretty area.

timmae · 04-25-2015, 11:12 AM

Great reads! I like your mention of the standing ovation... Many times when things go right, even in such abysmal conditions, people will think that you are just doing your job. That had to be stressful!! Job well done!

PilotMan · 04-26-2015, 09:08 AM

I showed up at the airport about an hour and 20 minutes prior to our departure time. I headed for one of our briefing rooms where I ran into a couple of pilot from my first airline job, a company that is now out of business. It's good to see familiar faces making their way up from the ashes. I did all my regular stuff, updated all the databases in my tablet.

Let me digress for a minute. Until about a year and a half ago, and for my entire aviation career we had to carry what's called a flight kit. You'll still see many pilots carry them. You might recognize it at a pilot case. Inside this case we were required to carry all the Airport Charts for every airport that we might have to fly into. So one airport might have arrivals, airport information, a regional diagram, airspace layouts, and every approach for each airport. I had 3 full binders worth of airports. Literally thousands of pages of airport information. Every two weeks we'd get an envelope with revisions where you had to go through one by one and take out an old page and replace it with a new one. Some of them would be small and take 10-15 minutes and others were a couple hours worth of unpaid work. We also had to carry a binder with airplane specific information on standard procedures, limitations and generally how we were to fly the aircraft. There was another binder as well with more company specific information on how all fleets and the company would operate covering everything from Hazardous Material, to security protocol, to corporate structure. Both of these binders were a few hundred pages as well. My flight case weighed close to 40 pounds and took a beating. Because of the company upgrade to the Ipad I no longer have to carry any of that. It's all been digitized and it's all the difference in the world. Updates are automatic and it only takes a couple of minutes to have everything completely up to date.

So...I updated everything. Then downloaded all my flight paperwork (which used to have to be printed out) and weather and got started toward the plane. Today's flight was a trip down to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. We had a full flight and the plane was planned very close to our maximum weight. The company had planned for a long taxi out to the runway and actually a late arrival into SDQ.

ATC had changed our clearance and after the new route was loaded we were ready to go. The new route was a little shorter than the other. Our dispatcher had filed us to avoid some turbulence. ATC pretty much changed all that, so we were going to have some bumps until Norfolk at least. After a fairly short delay we were cleared to go. Once we got up to our cruising altitude and went through our checks we found that we weren't going to be late and we were going to be heavy. About 2,500 pounds heavy. We started looking at options for how to get that weight off and settled on heading for a lower altitude.

Once you get out in Oceanic airspace you lose radar coverage and you lose standard radio communication. You are then left communicating using 1940's technology, the HF radio. Very good at long distance, but it can also be very challenging to hear. We have required position reports that have to be made until we get closer to Puerto Rico and back in radar coverage from Miami. Getting altitude and speed changes can be difficult as you are expected to be at a certain altitude and a given speed for tracking purposes. So prior to getting in this area we took a decent down to 27000 feet and let our dispatcher know. He reran our fuel numbers and that was enough of a change that we should be good for our arrival. That's 385 gallons of jet fuel that unfortunately had to be used that we otherwise would've kept. Figure somewhere in the range of $2.50 per gallon and you're close to $1,000 of waste on just that 1 flight.

The arrival was uneventful. One thing flying into the Dominican. You've got a lot of very poor areas. People living in metal shacks here and there. There's a fair bit of agriculture, but the island is poor by our standards. Then you've got these fantastically beautiful, manicured baseball diamonds dotted here and there. It's quite a dichotomy.

Our hotel is actually considered one of the nicest in the city. It's right in the heart of the Colonial District. There is a lot of history here. Santo Domingo was the first European settlement in the New World and was founded in 1502. Aside from all that there isn't a whole lot to offer, even though this area is the main tourist area in the city. And the beds are insanely hard.

This is the Parque Colon in Santo Domingo. A statue of Christopher Columbus in front of the oldest Catholic Cathedral in the Americas.

This is part of Las Damas, the first street in the new world. The hotel starts ahead where the white building is. The left is part of the city wall with a couple of old cannons placements.

This is in the hotel, which was part of the mansion of the original Spanish governor of Santo Domingo, Nicholas de Ovando, who is credited for the success of the city.

I head out this afternoon and finish around midnight in Ft Myers. It'll be an 11 hour day, if it goes on schedule.

PilotMan · 04-27-2015, 10:55 AM

Short update today.

We ended up being delayed off the gate in Santo Domingo because of the plane being late coming in from Newark. We pedaled as hard as we could and low and behold we were able to make up all the time. Except that when we got to the gate there was nobody to be found. All our hard work to land and get to the gate and park and be completely on time went out the window because the ramp too almost 6 minutes to come out and park us.

Then the company switched planes for our outbound to Ft Myers. The result was that the next plane was a later arrival putting us almost 40 minutes behind by the time we got going. Again, we tried as we could to get some time back. Late at night you can sometimes get some help from ATC and since it was close to 11p I asked if we could take a shortcut off the arrival and go straight to our destination. Lucky for us they let us, and put us in front of two other carriers going to the same place. That took 10 full minutes off our arrival. They never would have done that any other time.

I really only had time on this layover to sleep, get caught up on the internet, talk to the family and get my butt to the treadmill. Today will see me end up in Orange County, CA, via Chicago, for another short layover.

PilotMan · 04-27-2015, 11:11 PM

Lots of turbulence from Florida to the upper Midwest. We never got above 28000 on our flight up to Chicago. One of the controllers said it best that we were paying for yesterday's smooth rides. We got out of Ft Myers on time and into the gate in Chicago on time as well.

I had about 45 minutes to change planes and do whatever I wanted before I had to begin my preflight for the Orange County flight. Again, things went smoothly and we got out 10 minutes early. The taxi out was painless and by the time we were airborn we were projected to get into Orange County over 30 minutes early. How often can you say that? Lucky for us there was a gate available and we didn't have to wait.

Today must be media day here in the thread. I've got a couple pics and vids for your viewing pleasure.

The first is from the other night going into Ft Myers. The video isn't great but you can still get the feeling of what I see when we are cutting through clouds. The lights are on so you can really see the speed. It was much cooler in person. We are probably going close to 400 mph at this point.

Next is a shot of Chicago. Very nice day for flying, much nicer than some days I saw this winter. Photos really don't do the view justice.

Next is a view of Vegas from 38000 feet today before we started down for Orange County. You can clearly see the airport. The cluster of buildings north of there is the strip.

The last is a video of of what closure rates and separation look like from the front. This plane starts off at about 10 miles away and is 1000 feet higher, traveling on the same airway in the opposite direction. You see that you really can't see the plane, and if not for the contrail you wouldn't really see it at all. In 30-40 seconds the plane is past us. This is what a 1000 mph closure rate looks like.

britrock88 · 04-28-2015, 11:12 AM

Great stuff!

timmae · 04-28-2015, 12:19 PM

Insane videos... just unreal. I'd post a video of what happens in front of me while I work but my coffee cup is fairly nondescript so no point in that! Thanks for the vids. Wow!

cmp · 04-28-2015, 10:14 PM

Love reading this and seeing the pictures and videos.

PilotMan · 05-01-2015, 10:21 PM

I'm happy you guys are enjoying it. It's always a boost to get some positive feedback.

My flight back from Orange County was about as smooth and on plan as you could have gotten. I really needed it to be on time too. I was trying to catch a flight home that gave me only 25 minutes from the time I parked until it left. And that's not taking into consideration the 10 minutes before the flight leaves that they close the flight to get it off the gate on time.

Today nothing went against us. ATC didn't slow us down, they didn't turn us off course. The ride at 39000 feet was great. Nothing. We got into Newark a little early and the gate was even available. The ramp was a little slow getting out to us but I had time to make a dash for my plane. In the end it all worked out. The plane was boarding and I didn't even have to sweat getting a set.

I made it home early and surprised my family as I hadn't told them that I'd made the earlier flight.

I've got a week off until my next flight. If you'll remember that I had to bid for my yearly training for May. I wasn't awarded anything then so I had to do it all over again for June. I've put my preferences for which days and sim windows I'd like. I should find out next week before I start my monthly bid for June if I get awarded anything.

June is my training month. The FAA allows me to train one month prior (May) or one month later (July.) These months are termed grace months. May is early grace and July is late grace. Last year I didn't go to training until July. I was in late grace. If I hadn't completed training I would go NQ or Not Qualified. Frankly there are a lot of reasons that I might go NQ. It could be failing to turn in my medical when it was due or not getting my continuing training online completed on time, or It might be that I didn't get my 3 landings within the last 90 days.

PilotMan · 05-08-2015, 12:18 AM

Ahhhh, I've been busy. Too busy to keep this updated the last couple of days. I left home yesterday at 430a to catch a flight to Newark to start my trip. Getting me there plenty of time before the start of my trip. I had some time to grab some food, check my mailbox and just to generally get prepped for the day ahead. As I was coming back from our operations area the police had part of an area blocked off. All they would tell me was it was some sort of emergency. I grabbed my bags, went down to the cafeteria to grab a couple of bottles of Diet Mt Dew. Something that will help me get through the next couple of days. I don't drink a ton of it and I can make 1 bottle last for the better part of 4 hours. My dentist says I shouldn't do that either.

So as I start to head to the plane I see that there are people everywhere. I mean not like normal just waiting around I mean holiday, bad weather. Not a Wednesday in May. I then get a text from the guy I'm flying with and he tells me that he is stuck in operations. Security has locked that part of the airport down. That would explain the people. It's clear that this is going to cause problems for us. We are only 20 minutes from departure by now, and still short 2 flight attendants and a pilot. We can't even start boarding yet.

I guess it made the local news, but they had found an unclaimed bag in the airport and it escalated from there as it was being checked out. In the end the bomb squad was called and eventually order was restored, but not until we were nearly an hour late. Ordinarily it wouldn't be that big of a deal but we had a long day ahead.

The first flight took us down to Orlando. Weather wasn't an issue, except for the turbulence that followed us almost the entire way. We managed to make up some of the time enroute but not too much. In order to get back on schedule we have to try and make up that time on the turn. That leads to very little down time throughout the day. We make every effort to get back as close to schedule as possible. You end up going right from the big, deep breath of getting there right into the preflight for the next one.

Our second flight had us heading to Chicago. The ride was easier this time. The turn allowed us to make up even more time and we managed to pull in at the gate in Chicago just a few minutes late. I'd consider that a success. I wasn't done yet though. A plane change and I had about 30 minutes before I had to be there. A quick walk around the terminal, maybe a phone call home, but most importantly is the walking. Just getting up to move again after having been sitting for most of the last 6 hours feels so good.

The last flight was a quick trip to Minneapolis. I haven't been here in a couple of years. I may have said this before but when I was a little kid I spent a lot of time at MSP. The airport feels like my second home. I love the city too. It's as close as I can currently get to North Dakota working and just enough that it feels like home. All told from the time I left home to the time I got to the hotel it had been 18 hours. No wonder I was tired.

I wanted to show you this picture so you didn't think that every layover is all sun and awesome hotels rooms. Check out the great view from my room last night:

Nothing like a wall and a rooftop.

A very short layover and I was back on the road at 8a this morning. Our first flight today took us to Denver. Aside from today being another long work day the weather and schedule worked according to plan.

Once we got to Denver it was another 30 minutes of me time, and again I chose to simply walk around to get the blood moving. We had to change planes. I tried to get a full lap around the terminal while I talked to the Mrs, but didn't quite get it before I had to go back to the plane.

The next flight took us to Phoenix where they had scheduled us less than an hour to empty and refill a plane with 180 people on it. It was just like Orlando where as soon as we parked it was right into the preflight to get out of there.

We headed back to Denver for the layover. Today had some really nice flying. The weather cooperated and the rides back and forth over the mountains were smooth which is never a sure thing. Six legs in the last 2 days with a couple of short overnights. The next 2 aren't quite so demanding. I start early again tomorrow for 1 leg back to Phoenix.

britrock88 · 05-08-2015, 11:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PilotMan

The last flight was a quick trip to Minneapolis. I haven't been here in a couple of years. I may have said this before but when I was a little kid I spent a lot of time at MSP. The airport feels like my second home. I love the city too. It's as close as I can currently get to North Dakota working and just enough that it feels like home. All told from the time I left home to the time I got to the hotel it had been 18 hours. No wonder I was tired.

I've learned a lot about the airline industry in the 2-3 years I've been in ND. But to your point, yes, 90% of the flights in/out of ND are going to be on 50-seat regional jets, so MSP will be about as close you can get... and it'll be a stop of mine more often than not when I fly east. (BIS has Delta to MSP, United to DEN, American to ORD/DFW.)

PilotMan · 05-08-2015, 01:35 PM

And you know that's a lot more than it used to be. Even before deregulation in the 80's, and while I was in college in the 90's it was only Denver or Minneapolis. I think there's a chance that in the next few years you might see some larger aircraft come back in as the number of pilots flying 50 seat jets goes down, but even to NoDak that still might not be enough to expand to larger aircraft.

I now have my yearly recurrent training scheduled for June in Houston. Recurrent training is something that is required for pilots to continue to keep their jobs. Covered over two days we cover general maneuvers, emergency situations, and a number of different approaches. I'll go into more detail next month. Day 2 is a simulated line flight that is evaluated for safety and standard procedures. Each day is two hours of classroom briefing and then we spend 4 hours in the simulator.

Today was (is) either very short or very long depending on how you look at it. Compared to what we did the last couple of days I think it's fairly easy. The plane that we were taking to Phoenix was a little late getting to the gate and we ended up getting out about 15 minutes late. With the flight to Phoenix being as short as it is, there just wasn't a whole lot of room where we could try and make up time. Even then we still managed to cut 5 minutes off and get into the gate about 10 minutes late.

I'm off the rest of the day for the most part. But tonight take the red-eye back to Newark. So I'll be heading to the airport about a quarter to 100a by my body clock for the overnight flight back. Then it's go home day again!

It's time to bid for my June schedule. I really haven't given a whole lot of thought as to what I want to bid for. Summer will be here and the constraints on my personal schedule will be fewer.

britrock88 · 05-08-2015, 03:40 PM

Yeah. After kvetching about not being able to get anywhere from BIS for less than $500, I was amazed to hear that that number was closer to $1000 until just a handful of years ago. I can't imagine.

PilotMan · 05-11-2015, 10:33 AM

I don't think there's a single person who ever looked at a red-eye and thought, "YEAH! I get to work overnight!" The majority of pilots that I work with bid against them. They don't want to see them and suddenly needing to change your sleep schedule to accommodate one overnight flight sucks. The only upside is getting finish your day in the morning. Not without the punishment though. I'm usually tired and crabby until I can get caught back up.

So I went to bed at 630p body time and I was able to sleep until 1130p when I had to get up to head out. I'm still not sure how I'm able to do that. Sleep for 5 hours in the afternoon, but I'm convinced that 90% of it is just mental. The flight left at 200a body time. We were routed north of the Kansas, OK, TX storm systems that have been raging this spring and took a route over Chicago. The flight was quite nice until western Missouri when we started to encounter some pretty good turbulence that lasted for about 45 minutes. We got into Newark on time at 630a after our 4+hr flight.

I had 3 hours before my flight going home and decided I needed to head right for one of the couches in operations. I found one open and planted myself there and slept for somewhere between an hour and an hour and a half. When I got up I found that I had already been given a seat for my flight home and made my way to the gate where they had just started boarding and got on.

Two and a half hours later I was home and off again to do some Mother's Day shopping with my kids and then to take my Mom out for some food to celebrate her. We had different plans for Sunday and she was busy so we just weren't going to have that chance. I really owe my Mom for the opportunity that she provided me to have the life I do and the career that I have. She was the one that sacrificed by having a second mortgage and taking a second job to pay the second mortgage so that I could have money to get my license. Not to mention raising me alone. She always looked for ways we could have fun and never made excuses for things we couldn't do. I'm grateful for those memories and the example she sets.

Tonight I'm taking my youngest son to a WWE event here in Cincy. I'm really excited about it and I hope it's a good experience. He's really been into it lately and it's something that we have in common growing up. He has no idea and I'm not going to even tell him until we are driving up to the show tonight. He'll just go to school late tomorrow. It'll be the first time he's missed any school this year with the exception of 2 hours he missed coming home sick one day.

We celebrated yesterday with my wife by going on a family hike nearby. We saw a snapping turtle that was about the size of a small drink coaster among other things. Then we came home and I grilled and we made a ton of food to celebrate her being a totally awesome mom. I genuinely couldn't have asked for a better Mother to my children. She really is fantastic.

Next, I've got to get this bid in for June. Father's day in that month, but besides that and training I really don't have anything else to bid around. The kids are out of school so it really frees us up. Back to work again early Thursday morning for another crazy long day.

PilotMan · 05-15-2015, 10:51 AM

Super short update. Like I said last time, yesterday was very, very long. Left home at 430a and got to the hotel at midnight. I did nap on the plane to Newark and then went to the crash pad for hotel breakfast and then another nap before work.

I just missed Bono at our gate. The flight attendants all got pics with him, but I didn't see him.

Flights to Dallas, Denver, then a 2 hour break and then finished with Omaha. Chicago on the books for today.

I finished my June bid in the nick of time (again.) Really wanting to try and keep this 4 on 4 off thing working as long as possible, but with my training (in Houston) in June and Father's Day, I'm not sure how that's all going to work out.

I've got another set of online training to do that will be due at the end of August.

My big accomplishment while I was home this week was tearing out some old deck lighting that we've had and installing some new. We've always liked the lighting, but what was there was really crappy looking. The new lights look very spiffy and add a really nice atmosphere. I've never done deck lighting before so the whole process was a learning experience.

The youngest and I had a great time at WWE Raw this week. I totally surprised him with what he thought was a errand and turned into a trip to the show.

My middle son is now officially into hobby rc cars. He told me he has watched every single hobby rc car video on you tube. No joke. Every single one. He just dropped nearly $400 on his own 1/8 scale vehicle. He is super excited. He had been saving for over a year.

timmae · 05-15-2015, 03:55 PM

Man I loved rc!! There was a track about 20 minutes from where I lived. I was there every week for quite a stretch.

PilotMan · 05-16-2015, 05:57 PM

Yesterday was supposed to be the easy day, one leg from Omaha to Chicago. It was all good early on. We were all boarded up, we had all of our work done up front and closed up the plane almost 10 minutes early. Things were looking good. Then we were told that load planning was having some difficulty with the cargo load and it would be a few minutes.

Then it was a few minutes longer. We noticed fairly early on that there were a lot of guys in business shirts, and a lot of what seemed like managers walking around. There was even some arguing and some yelling. Then the station manager got on the radio and said that he apologized. He said that the company had just outsourced the company employees that had been working at the station with this new company.

So we wait some more and then a lot more yelling and finger pointing. After a few more minutes the manager says that when the crew scanned all the bags in on the bags on the plane that they scanned them al into 1 cargo hold, but didnt' load them that way. So load planning had no idea how to balance the plane. In order to fix this all the bags would need to be unloaded, rescanned and reloaded back on to the plane. Give them another 15 minutes.

So frustrating when you know almost everyone has connections and here you sit at the mercy of circumstance and have to explain to your passengers what is going on. Finally, 45 minutes late in all, we were under way to Chicago.

It's a fairly short flight, but we tried as we could and did get a small shortcut, and ATC kept our speed up on the arrival into the city.

Chicago has 2 north side runways that they generally use for arrivals from our direction. One of them is far away and one isn't. The farther one, is at least a 7 min taxi longer to the gate and that's the one that we were assigned. I put in the request for the other runway, becuase you can always ask and lo and behold got it! We touched down konwing that we had cut some time off the arrival only to find that our original gate had been given away. Our new gate wasn't due to push for another 10 minutes.

There's just not much you can say. I was pissed and let someone konw that our efforts had been ruined. So frustrating again.

I'm going to digress for a minute and talk about why this stuff happens. The company looked at our scheduled time in which they had as 27 after the hour. They moved us to a gate that was due to push at 25 minutes after, thinking that we would just flow right in. Of course we were much faster and in the end it didnt' help us and it made us look like we didn't know what we were doing.

So why can't we just go to another gate that's open? That's a tricky question. The immediate thought is that you are here and it's open so we should go there, but it's much more complicated than that. The gates can be assinged early in the day and each of them is predicated on a arrival and departure times. Obviously they don't just give us whatever gate when we get there. There has to be time for us to get out before the next flight get's in, or if we change there needs to be a plan to deal with what happens downline to the other planes. Like a game of Rubiks Cube, one move may seem obvious and get you closer to your goal, but in the end you end up creating a mess, where sometimes the best solution is simply waiting. Flows for gates are very tight and planned accordingly. Like arrivals into airports you can create an accordian effect by screwing with it too much. Then you throw in the dynamics of changing arrivals, maintenance, cancellations, weather and the entire situation becomes very dynamic.

PilotMan · 05-17-2015, 12:30 AM

A much earlier start in Chicago this morning, but a much shorter drive to the airport at 430a than it was getting to the hotel the day before. Not long after I jumped in the cockpit and while I was getting the plane ready to go another pilot showed up and introduced himself to me. He was a Check Airman. Technically his job is to check and grade the Captain, because they are required to have checks every so long, and we in the right seat aren't required, but he is most certainly there checking both of us.

His job is to ride along on the flight and basically observe everything, point out issues that he has with how we do things, help answer questions about company standard, check our ability to work together as a team and oh yeah, if you really screw it up he can take you off line and send you for training. Now you'd really have to fuck up to get there, but the having him there is essentially a checking event with some manner of seriousness to it. You just try and relax, focus on doing what you normally do and look out for the other guy, because someone is going to need it and you both are being graded together.

Lucky for us this was a short flight to Columbus and we were out, up and down without any issues. Our next flight was off to Denver. My whole day was very tight. We had less than an hour to deplane close to 180 people, get cleaned up, and reboard the plane and get out. There isn't much room for error on a day like today. Any issues and you'll find yourself behind the ball and playing catch up all day long.

Another good flight to Denver with no issues along the way and one leg to go after.

Today was just long, but at least we didn't have to change planes all day. That's a big plus with things being so tight. Not having to pack up and get going saves a lot of time, but by the time I got to Denver I'd probably been sitting for close to 7 hours with another flight to.

For some reason the cleaners didn't show up in Denver. We called and waited, and called again and they just didn't show up. We couldn't board the plane on time until the plane got cleaned and set up. The rest of us were just waiting. So that put us almost 20 minutes behind when we finally got going. The flight to Seattle was padded nicely and we picked up the pace for the flight. I almost got all the time made up and we parked at the gate 2 minutes late. Not good enough to meet the company goal, but it does meet the DOT definition of on time.

The approach controller very nearly screwed us before the approach, he had us slowed way back and kept us high before clearing us for the approach. It took quite a bit of planning and effort to get the plane back on our normal decent profile. Controllers usually do an excellent job of timing our turns and putting us in a position to shoot the approach. If we fail to hit certain approach windows for speed, altitude and configuration we have to abort the landing and start over. And while that's a really safe and smart procedure it's a great big pain in the ass so getting back on profile prior to those approach gates is really important and sets my up for a good landing. Unstable approaches lead to unstable and uncomfortable landings. That is NOT the goal.

Tomorrow will be an early morning, but it's Pacific time so it won't be so bad. I loved getting out today in the city, despite being so tired. Not sure when I'll get back again, these layovers are in usually taken by other guys because it's a good layover.

Tomorrow is also go home day. I'm listed on a flight that is just unrealistic but who knows, maybe I can get on it. Much more likely I'll get the next flight an hour and a half later. I love go home day.

I leave you with this view I had today. Classic Seattle tourist shot, but good nonetheless.

PilotMan · 05-23-2015, 09:03 AM

The flight back from Seattle wasn't exciting, but that's not a bad thing. I was right, there was no way I was going to get on that early flight home so I sat around and killed some time and snagged a seat on the second one. That got me home by 7p.

It's house project time around my home. My wife is an avid upgrader/tinkerer, gardner whatever. Right now home improvement is in the air. The boys were off school on Tuesday and they thought that perhaps they would get some free time. Well they were wrong. We had a load of mulch delivered that morning that had to be put out, but before that could happen the beds had to be cleaned, plants had to be moved and various other projects had to get done. It turned into an all day event, but it did get done. It was only a third of what we actually have planned though. I hurt for a couple days after.

Thursday I left home again and headed back to Newark. Flights for me continue to be there. Everyone asks how the commute is from Cincy, and while I'd like to have a few more flights the truth is that there are enough to get where I need to go and generally I can get on without needing to sit in the jump seat more than a few times a year. Some commutes it's a battle every day and jumpseats all over. I know that it's probably going to change over time. The company is going away from the type of plane that they use on this route. That means bigger planes with more seats, but the exchange is going to be a drop in flights and opportunities to go back and forth.

So one night in the crash pad where I had the place to myself. I haven't had that for a few months. It was very nice and I slept half way decent. It was a 445a wakeup for my show time. I got to the airport and sat down and started going through my updates and downloading my paperwork for the flight. It took about 30 minutes to get everything and look at it. From there I went straight to the plane to start getting it ready for the trip out to Las Vegas.

We had a very full plane plane today (we almost always have a full plane.) But the flight just seemed long. Well, it was. Like 5 hrs 15 minutes long. We started picking up turbulence just west of Chicago and changed altitudes to search for a better ride. Somewhere over Denver we were able to climb back up and get above the clouds and the rides higher had smoothed out. I got an uneventful approach into Vegas, although it was a new approach that I hadn't shot before it worked out alright and we were there and done for the day.

I spent part of the day doing what I like to do in Vegas, just walking around with a drink and watching people. There is never a shortage of interesting things to see and do here. Today is back across the country to DC for the layover there.

My schedule for June isn't really what I was hoping for. It's going to be quite a change from what I've been getting. Training is only 3 days worth of credit and I have another trip that carries in from the end of May that's only 3 days worth. Where a good month has me with 4, 4 day trips. So they had to sandwich a lot of flying on my schedule to get me up to enough hours. I did get Father's Day off but the price to pay is 4, four day trips broken up by 2 days each and then my yearly training after all of that. But, as always, it could have been much worse. I've got a couple of red-eyes and every trip is commutable. I think I may only go to the crash pad once the entire month. It might be the first month that my investment in the crash pad won't pay for itself.

PilotMan · 05-24-2015, 06:25 PM

Yesterday we were routed north of the normal route that we would have taken coming from Vegas. Instead of going south we ended up north over the Great Lakes to avoid the bad weather in the heart of the US.

We were out early and in early so that's always great.

I got my new molded earpieces for my headset. It's the first real investment in my headset that I've made in my entire career. Tired of the weight and pinch on my big ass head this is something that I've always wanted to try. As for right now, it's great to have sound back in my left ear. The single side ear attachment that I've been using was driving me crazy. I think I still may need to have one ear redone, it's just not comfortable yet, but they promised me that they could do that if the fit wasn't right. They don't quite block out as much cockpit noise as I had hoped, but I'm not done yet. It does take some getting used to. An earpiece really fits differently than what I've used before. I have to get used to the weight in my ears. I know that sounds funny to say but it's the truth.

Today was the long day of the trip, but when I pulled up the paperwork this morning I was pleased to see that there wasn't any weather that we'd need to navigate around, nor were there any reports of turbulence or bad rides anywhere. Too bad it didn't stay like that. No, it really wasn't that bad. We just had a bit of turbulence for the first half of the flight, but once we got out over the ocean a ways it settled down and we had a nice flight to San Juan.

We had an hour on the ground. The great thing about Puerto Rico is that even though it's out of the country cell service works great without roaming and you can still get Duty Free there without worrying about customs and immigration.

The flight back was back along the same route. A couple storms here and there and a good ride until we got back close to the coast. We got in about 20 minutes early and called it a day after over 8 hours in the plane and 10 hours of work. Tomorrow is the easy(ier) day and it's go home day again!

I snapped this shot as we were flying over the Washington Mall passing 18000 feet.

britrock88 · 05-26-2015, 01:17 AM

I'm going to have to check your schedule against the handful of times I'm flying your airline (via Denver/Chicago) in the next couple months...

PilotMan · 05-26-2015, 10:35 AM

Saved the short day for the last day. One leg in the morning down to Orlando and then one leg back to Newark. We didn't have any issues on either flight. We had do dodge around 2 thunderstorms just off the coast of Florida and then in typical Orlando fashion had to dodge a number of towering cumulonimbus on the way out. Other than that we were on time off the gate and on time or early at our destinations.

As a matter of fact, we were a solid 20 minutes early getting back into Newark. I knew that my flight wasn't until 400p, but I pulled up Flightaware to check the status of the other flights thinking that maybe there might be something else. To my surprise I found a flight that I must have thought I had no way of making, but with us being early I hustled over to try and get on it. I have to walk to the other side of the terminal, take a bus to another concourse and then find my gate. They were boarding when I got there, but had seats and even got me an exit row seat for the flight back. Home an hour and a half early is never a bad deal.

My next trip back to Newark is on Friday for my next trip. It's the last 4 days of school this week and I'll be leaving again just as summer starts.

I've been trying to think about what things might be more interesting to know about that might not be general knowledge. I talked about what my preflight is like, but I stopped there. What do I do next?

Well, before we close up the plane one of the most important things that gets done is the briefing period for the pilots. By this time the computer is loaded, both pilots checks are completed and we are waiting for the final weights to be sent after all the passengers and bags are loaded on the plane. Both pilots have verified the routing and we both have an idea about what is going to happen next. To be sure that both guys are on the same page we brief procedures.

The Captain will start the brief by verifying that both pilots are fit for duty, that our cell phones and Ipad are set for airplane mode and what person is going to be flying and who is going to be working the radios. He continues by verifying that our required manuals are all up to date and that we are using the most up to date dispatch release and flight plan, how much fuel we have and are planning to land with, any maintenance variances with the airplane, any airport specific items relating to changes in published charts or runway or taxiway closures. He will then go over the planned taxi route that we are expecting out to the runway (wrong about 50% of the time), and then talk about the procedures involved in the event we have a rejected takeoff. What happens what he will do, what I should do and what needs to happen if we think we need to evacuate the aircraft. The last part of his brief deals with what happens if we have to return to land immediately, or if the weather is too bad at the departure airport, what airport we are planning on going to land at as an alternate.

Once that brief is out of the way, the person who is flying the leg starts their brief.

So I'd start off by going over the ATC clearance and verifying our flight plan. On that clearance will be the departure that we are going to fly leaving the airport. It usually involves flying a set route and may be dependent on the runway that we takeoff from. Making sure that the computer is programmed for the right departure and runway is imperative if you like your job. On the departure will be the radio frequency for the ATC controller we'll need to talk to as well as the altitude restriction on our climb out.

I'll cover any terrain or obstacles in the area and the altitude that we transition to "flight levels". In the US it's always 18000 feet, but outside the country is can vary greatly. I'll talk about the current weather and whether wind shear might be an issue. We'll talk about the expected weight of the aircraft and how that might impact the takeoff roll, and handling of the plane, or if we will be overweight should we need to return to the field for an immediate landing. I'll cover the air speeds we will be using for climb out and the cleanup profile (flaps and gear up). I'll then talk about the procedure should we lose an engine at the most inopportune time. I'll talk through the required procedure for it, and what my immediate plan will be. Sometimes there are complicated company mandated routes and procedures that we have to fly in the event that should happen at specific airports. They almost always deal with terrain. Denver is a good example. I'll talk about the flight "guide" or "director" modes that I'll be using and I'll finish with any other threats to the flight or issues that we need to be aware of that might be a hindrance to a safe flight.

Once all that is done we run a checklist and wait for the final data.

All that happens before every flight, even before the door closes. Next time I'll go over the process of what happens after the door closes and we are heading out to the runway.

Quote:

Originally Posted by britrock88

I'm going to have to check your schedule against the handful of times I'm flying your airline (via Denver/Chicago) in the next couple months...

You're not the only one! Shoot me a PM, I probably won't be anywhere in the area but you never know. Hell, I was within 40 of DT in Newark one day and we didn't find out about it until the next day! Funny thing, we had both been in a different city together the night before too, within walking distance!

CraigSca · 05-27-2015, 07:00 AM

Wow - had no idea each pre-flight check includes an alternate airport for landing - thought all of that was figured out on the fly.

I do have a quick question for you - you mentioned maintenance variances - how often do you fly with something wrong with the airplane (obviously, non life-threatening)? Do you ever fly with a lack of redundancy? Are you allowed to? I would assume there's something wrong with the plane the majority of the time (even if it's something that has nothing to do with its ability to fly), but I've often wondered to what degree are things broken on a plane and yet still pass "ok to fly".

timmae · 05-27-2015, 07:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CraigSca

Wow - had no idea each pre-flight check includes an alternate airport for landing - thought all of that was figured out on the fly.

I do have a quick question for you - you mentioned maintenance variances - how often do you fly with something wrong with the airplane (obviously, non life-threatening)? Do you ever fly with a lack of redundancy? Are you allowed to? I would assume there's something wrong with the plane the majority of the time (even if it's something that has nothing to do with its ability to fly), but I've often wondered to what degree are things broken on a plane and yet still pass "ok to fly".

I can tell you that flights won't leave Jamaica if they are missing a "gas cap". At least that is what we were told was wrong when we waited at the airport for about 12 hours for one to be flown in from Miami.

PilotMan · 05-30-2015, 09:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CraigSca

Wow - had no idea each pre-flight check includes an alternate airport for landing - thought all of that was figured out on the fly.

I do have a quick question for you - you mentioned maintenance variances - how often do you fly with something wrong with the airplane (obviously, non life-threatening)? Do you ever fly with a lack of redundancy? Are you allowed to? I would assume there's something wrong with the plane the majority of the time (even if it's something that has nothing to do with its ability to fly), but I've often wondered to what degree are things broken on a plane and yet still pass "ok to fly".

You won't have an alternate for every airport all the time. And the alternate that you have for takeoff obviously wouldn't be the airport that you use at your destination. Third, the alternate that you file for your destination is mostly so you have a plan and are even legal to depart. If the weather is bad enough they are required. If you do need to divert, it often times is a mix of where the company wants you and where you can go. I've had my alternate change 3 or 4 times on 1 flight just so we could hold longer for the the destination airport. With weather, it's a very dynamic situation.

So here's the story with maintenance and broken stuff. It's extremely regulated. FAA regulations state that everything must work on an airplane for it to be able to fly. Everything that is, unless it's on one of 3 lists. Lists are created so that planes aren't grounded for coffee pots being broken. They are put together with the help of the manufacturer and approved by the FAA. If it's one one of these lists we might be able to go with it broken.

That's the short of it.

There are a lot of redundancies built into the plane. A lot. We have a list called an MEL for checking to see if a we can fly with a broken item, like an air conditioning pack (one of the most common) or auxiliary power unit (APU). This list has explicit instructions about what can be broken, what action needs to be taken and how it needs to be flown with said broken item.

Another list is the CDL. It has items that can be missing and still let us fly like gear doors. Same rules apply as above. The last is a non-essential furnishings list like a coffee pot, or floor trim that can be missing.

If any item isn't in the books its considered a no-go item. A gas cap would certainly be a no-go item. I don't want to see my fuel siphoning out of the wing as we go along.

So to answer your question, a lot. Some planes are better than others. Planes with more automation that tell you everything that is wrong with it have a tendency to tell you a lot. That can lead to a lot of nuisance write ups for things that there just doesn't seem to be an answer for. The auto pilot, or flight management system can be written up and deferred. And there can be certain items that are allowed 1 flight to take it somewhere for the purposes of getting fixed.

One of the more interesting/frustrating things happened many years ago. We were in MSP with a full plane and a jump seater in the cockpit. I was finishing up the final weight and balance for the plane and then we heard this hiss, like air rushing out of a balloon. It took a minute for us to figure out that the valve on the crew oxygen tank had failed and we sat there helplessly while all of our oxygen drained out. The tank was inaccessible, once it was gone, it was gone. The flight cancelled and we had to fly back to Cincinnati, at a pressure safe altitude of 10,000 feet.

Another was when I volunteered to take a plane from Denver to St Louis to help another crew out so they didn't get screwed. I was going there anyway. Come to find out that the issue was with the landing gear and the plane had to be flown with the gear locked and pinned in the down position. No passengers again, but we had to make a planned fuel stop because of bad weather in St Louis.

Most times you'll have 1 or 2 things deferred, they will be minor things generally. Even broken tray tables end up in the book. But sometimes you'll hear of someone who determined that they simply didn't feel safe flying the plane with whatever mechanical issue was involved, like a shattered wind shield as an example. One pane can be shattered, but the plane can be ferried to a base, but some guys still will refuse the plane. It can lead to big discussions with the company and the union. For the record, I've never had anything that I haven't been able to work out, one way or the other.

PilotMan · 05-30-2015, 09:47 PM

I left home last night to head to work again. It was another Friday night leaving, and another weekend, the first weekend at of the summer, away from the kids. Our Friday night is pizza and family movie night. I haven't been home for that in weeks. The routine is probably the most important thing to keeping our house running smooth, but I will tell you, that not just working, but being gone for those nights wears on you. It takes a toll on me.

Family is so very important to me. We have sacraficed so much in our family to make this career work. Aviation is a high divorce rate industry. Aside from the trust issues between adults, the worrying about infidelity or what the other person is doing when you are away, it's the fact that a lot of pilots are type a, perfectionist assholes. They need to control everything. It's part of what makes us ideal for our jobs and part of what tears familes apart. The thing with traveling is that what causes strain, the distance, also brings reprieve. There was a point where I was leaving on trips so I could get some good rest when the boys were younger. That time away is so easy to resent when you are the wife, stuck at home with the kids and never able to get out. I thank God that my wife and I have the relationship that we do. You can see that all it takes is these little pits in the relationship to turn into bigger chasoms and rip the family apart.

So anyway, I digress. My report time on Saturday wasn't especially early, but the Saturday schedules aren't very forgiving on commuters. The upside was I had plenty of time to myself and I knew that a decent nights sleep and a get up time around 8a should make for a quality day today. Plus who doesn't love a free hotel breakfast, no matter the quality or healthiness.

Today I was off on a trip that sees me layover in DC for 3 consecutive nights, and 3 different hotels. Tonight will be our short hotel, tomorrow our mid, and then last will be our long stay hotel, downtown. By the time I got my paperwork duties done and headed to the gate it was 45 prior to departure, but there was no plane to be found. The plane came in the night before and maintenence had had it. We were just waiting for it to be towed over to the gate. They really weren't giving us a lot of time to get our stuff done as it showed up just about 30 minutes before we were to leave.

On our side was that we had one of the 737-700's and by being much smaller are quicker to board and deplane. Preflight checks complete and we somehow got off the gate on time. Our taxi out was easy until ground sent me back to another controller to get some different routing. The flight today had us going to St Maarten, so the routing had to be spot on. Weather wasn't going to be a concern, but ATC has reasons. Whatever it was it was adding 10 minutes of flight time. We had to make a call to our dispatcher to give him the new route and then we all agreed that we had the fuel and things were still good to go. While it seemed like a long time we managed to get off the ground close to our expected time.

Today was a beautiful flight down. There was barely any turbulence and although there wasn't much to look at keeping it easy is the name of the game.

This was my first time into St Maarten. I've seen the pics and videos. If you don't know it's the place where crazy people on the beach stand behind the airplanes as they take off, or the pics where it looks like the plane is landing on the beach, because the runway is that close to it. I didn't get the landing and frankly my attention is elsewhere when we are landing but I did notice a bunch of people hanging out by the fence, taking pics and generally having fun.

No layover here though, but I was not working the flight back. I couldnt. My day is capped at 8 hours of flight time schedueled and this had me at almost 8.5. So we carried a couple pilots down and then we got to ride back, in coach. No first class going back. Bummer. Anyway, I only had enough time to get off the plane and snag some Big Black Dick. It's a fun novelty of the airline business that you can buy liquor from duty free while you are working, getting some Big Black Dick in the islands is a rite of passage. Now I have to haul my Big Black Dick all over for the next 4 days.

Tonight is a very short layover, hence the short stay. Tomorrow is what we call a turn. It's when you start and end somewhere, out and back. Tomorrow, I turn to Cancun and back. Another great place that I don't get to stick around to see.

claphamsa · 05-31-2015, 12:06 PM

but you get to spend time in DC!

PilotMan · 06-01-2015, 06:10 PM

Yesterday was a long day. Maybe it wasn't getting a good night's sleep that made it feel worse or some issues I have with other people I share the cockpit with on this trip, but whatever reason yesterday was long.

It's nice to get lucky and avoid the nasty weather as it crosses the US. This trip hasn't had any transcons nor have we had to really deal with any weather. Flying south to Cancun was a solution to avoid all of it. We ran on schedule heading down there. I was there long enough to download my new paperwork, get outside and do the walk around and and be ready to leave again.

Leaving wasn't an issue either. We flew back almost exactly the same way that we flew down there and had a nice ride and got into the gate a little early.

So like I said I'm having some issues with the guy I'm flying with. I'm not going to go into great detail about it, but it's very frustrating. He is a very nice 60+ year old who has been flying a long time. He was even an accident investigator with the NTSB in the middle of all of it, but we don't click in the cockpit. In fact, he is driving me crazy. First officers are known as the chameleons of the cockpit. The Captain is the guy responsible, the guy in charge, and he will run his cockpit how he runs it. We may all do our jobs in a "standard" way but each of us certainly has a different feel for how everything goes. The first officer has to be constantly adjusting to new captains. The captain never has to get adjusted. It's his show, he does what he pleases. The first officer just gets shit done and tries to stay sane. Most times things go pretty well and you hit it off, you get into a rhythm and the whole things just flows. Other times you end up not talking unless you have to and bite your tongue because it's easier to do that than to try and explain why you don't like the way that your cockpit boss operates in the plane. This guy, despite his experience is just jumpy. I don't really know how to explain it. Jumpy and a tight micro manager. Like taking driving lessons from your mom as she chews her nails and tries to pump the imaginary brake. It's his way and no other, even if what I'm doing isn't wrong. It's still his way. It's just irritating. Like a rock in your shoe once you've started down that road you everything else just seems to be that much worse.

Having said that I started today with a pretty piss poor attitude. A short flight to Hartford and back to DC on the turn was all we had, and I was done with work not long after noon. And thank god because the less I'm sitting up there with this guy the better. Take this morning for example. We were to have a crew breakfast on the first flight to Hartford. It's a very short flight and he asked when I wanted to eat. I said I'll probably eat on the turn once we get up there, knowing that I might not have much time during the flight. He finds out that they've loaded breakfasts for both legs and decides to have both breakfasts brought up to eat before the flight pushes back. The captain has loads less work to do than the FO before we leave so he has time to eat. Mine just get's cold. I finally got to eat it before we started down..cold. Then on the ground they bring the extra food up and I tell the FA I don't want mine now because I just ate, but she doesn't realize that and gets her feelings all hurt saying the captain told her to bring them up, and I tell her that I he didn't listen to me about the first meal in the first place and that it wasn't her fault I was irritated. Just blindly powering ahead with your own agenda and expecting everyone else to just fall in line and generally being clueless about things. ARRRGH! I'm done!

So anyway, one more day of this and tomorrow is go home day again. My flight has plenty of seats. We have got to be on time coming back from Boston.

Our layover in DC was the first downtown layover that I've had in the last 5 nights I've been here. I walked around for about 2 hours and found my down to the White House and back before the big rain hit here. It's really the only time I've been able to get out and even get a good walk in this entire trip.

finkenst · 06-01-2015, 08:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Many times pilots will rely on other pilots to help decide whether or not they should do it. If the last 15 planes were just fine you might be too, but as soon as 1 plane starts to bail out you might see others as well (you'll see this especially on takeoff) it's much easier to wait on the ground than in the air.

And that is how a Singapore-Hong Kong flight takes 13.5 hours. Trapped on the upper deck of a 747.

Normal flight time is 4.5

PilotMan · 06-04-2015, 09:53 AM

I really expected everything to be fine on the last day. I really did. Why not be optimistic. Let me correct that. Everything was fine. I expected it to go smoothly and easy and painless. That was not true.

Before we even left the gate in IAD there was an issue. Somehow we had gotten a message from our dispatcher about a new flight release just before we pushed back but there were no changes on it. Smartly, the Captain decided to call the dispatcher and query him about it. To which we found, he had no idea what was going on and said that he had just sat down but he did see anything about a new release for our flight. He looked into it, and we agreed that our flight was good to go as it was and off we went to Boston. The crap weather up and down the east coast finally had caught up with my flying and we were in the soup for the entire day.

Coming into Boston they were advertising one approach to the airport and then decided at the last minute to change their minds. Apparently they can't shoot the lower approach if there are tall ships in the way to the runway. So quickly got set up and briefed the next approach only to have them switch it back just before they cleared us for it. I've had Boston change my approach 4 times before and another time when I told them I wasn't going to accept another change they just let us keep flying out over the Atlantic until we relented. Fuckers there, those guys are.

Anyway, nice landing and early into the gate. We then find out that our phone call was the tip of the iceberg that would ultimately lead to the company grounding the entire fleet for about 30 minutes while they got the mess sorted out. This even made a small, insignificant blip on the national news. This caused a backlog of automated stuff to back up and started causing a domino effect down line.

About the time we parked planes were getting released again but the dispatchers were having to manually modify and send out releases and they couldn't keep up. We were still told to board on time despite not getting our paperwork or fuel load for the flight back to Newark. We finally got it about 5 minutes before we were supposed to leave. When I called ATC to get our flight clearance they informed us that Newark was on a ground delay program due to low ceilings and visibility and that we had a 30 minute ground hold time. No worries about that, by the time we'd finish our paperwork and get going it might only be 10-15 minutes to hold tops.

We finally get all buttoned up, briefed and set up. Told the passengers what was going, they were already asking about connections as this was a very connection heavy flight. As I'm calling for the pushback ATC tells us that our delay has been extended by another 30 minutes. FUCK! Just great. Now it looks like we totally lied about everything.

All we could do was taxi out and wait. At least I got this lovely view of the city to look at.

I originally had an hour from when we were supposed to be in and when my flight home was going to leave and there were like 13 open seats on it too. Now I'm running late and the plane is oversold because of misconnects and other cancelled flights and I'm way down on the list. Good for me that the next flight home is only 90 minutes later, but still. Who loves missing the bus and has to wait 90 minutes for the next one. It was still going to be very close....if I ran.

We got into the gate as quick as we could and I jumped off and took off. I had about 20 minutes until the flight was supposed to leave and I had to take a bus to another terminal again. At one point I checked my heart rate on my new fitbit and it said 136. I thought that was funny because I really didn't feel like I was breathing hard although I knew I was sweating.

I got to the gate only to realize that my flight home was also delayed. I should have known better. It's the thing that passengers have to understand. When the airport slows down and flights get delayed all bets are off on which ones will run on time and which ones will be delayed. And with all the misconnects when the flight shows full, sometimes those people who are scheduled on the plane miss as well. Which is good news for standby passengers like me. I had a seat assigned as well. Looks like i made it.

Had. I had a seat. As they were boarding and I was waiting I noticed that I was back on the standby list. I had lost my seat to a paying passenger. I figured that with the plane being full and the extra long standby list that I was SOL on the jump seat, but I wasn't. It was available for me so that's where I ended up at going home.

I said I was going show you just how uncomfortable it is in the jump seat of the emb-145. Imagine the worst seat you've ever had. This is worse.

The backrest is completely vertical. In fact, it's padded which means that it pushes you forward in the seat. I can't put my feet flat on the floor, they have to be kind of tucked in under my seat as I lean or I can wiggle to one side or the other of the center pedestal. Speaking of that pedestal, it hits me right at mid shin. There is no other way to sit, no other way to go or lean or anything. Certainly no standing. I have to bend at the waist just to get in the cockpit on this plane. Now endure this for about 2 hours. The flight isn't that long but when you figure taxi out and in it is.

Hey, who am I to complain at this point? Home is home no matter what it takes. As soon as I walk in my middle son bombards me with more issues with his new, expensive hobby rc that he saved for over a year for. He ordered his car almost a month ago and still hasn't gotten to run it. I'm wondering if we've bitten off more than we can chew. I'm working on it before I'm even out of my uniform and I've got an HOA board meeting to run to an hour after I'm in the door. I am successful at getting the kinks worked out that he couldn't and we get it running. It's the fastest RC car I've ever seen.

Young Drachma · 06-04-2015, 10:22 AM

I just started rifiling through this, too awesome. Keep sharing your stories. Looking forward to the book.

Do you tell your copilot "yeah I'm writing this story for these nerds on this forum I belong to...?" Or "I just like shooting videos randomly and taking pics in the cockpit? lol

Young Drachma · 06-04-2015, 10:31 AM

Dola:

Quote:

I got on the plane and introduced myself. When I'm flying on a company that is not my own I'm essentially asking permission to ride as a possible extra crew member should the Captain need me. He can tell me to pound sand for any reason he wants. Maintaining the appropriate etiquette is very important if you want to get where you are going. He told me he'd try, but no promises. So I just sat and waited until I got the thumbs up that all was good.

So like...you always fly jump or get a seat or? And how often do they actually ever use you? It is just mostly a courtesy thing? Do you fly with your uniform on so they know this?

I was active duty USAF a long time ago in a flying aerovac unit so I spent a lot of time around pilots (their office was next to ours) but...all of this stuff is fascinating.

PilotMan · 06-04-2015, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Young Drachma

I just started rifiling through this, too awesome. Keep sharing your stories. Looking forward to the book.

Do you tell your copilot "yeah I'm writing this story for these nerds on this forum I belong to...?" Or "I just like shooting videos randomly and taking pics in the cockpit? lol

Lol, no I've only told a few friends I thought who might be interested to read it. Maybe my kids will be interested to read it at some point. Pilots do like to take pics and vids from the cockpit, we get some interesting views that most people don't get to see. One of my good friends is a good photog.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Young Drachma

Dola:

So like...you always fly jump or get a seat or? And how often do they actually ever use you? It is just mostly a courtesy thing? Do you fly with your uniform on so they know this?

I was active duty USAF a long time ago in a flying aerovac unit so I spent a lot of time around pilots (their office was next to ours) but...all of this stuff is fascinating.

Yeah, to get back and forth it's either a seat in the back or it's up in the cockpit, in the jump seat. You'll never get used, only in an extreme emergency. But if I'm in the flight deck or on a carrier that isn't my own technically I'm on duty acting as an extra crewmember if needed. That means that I still have to abide by the drug and alcohol rules and be available if needed. The jump seat is always a courtesy for other crew members. It's very controlled and regulated by the FAA about who can ride there and each company has a priority list about who can sit there, but in reality the captain has full, final authority about who rides. It's their seat to give. There is a dress code for the cockpit of business casual, but I always travel in my uniform as it just makes most everything that much easier, despite it being more uncomfortable.

Thanks for reading! I'm glad that people are enjoying it. It gives me something to think about each day!

finkenst · 06-04-2015, 05:15 PM

PilotMan,

still fascinating look...

There is a captain and first officer in the cockpit.
Are one of you assigned as the pilot for the flight?
Do the captain and first officer have the same schedule for an individual 4 day assignment? The entire month?
When you get promoted to Captain, do you essentially go back to the bottom of the bidding list and work back up via seniority?
Do you prefer many short hauls or one long haul flight?

PilotMan · 06-04-2015, 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by finkenst

PilotMan,

still fascinating look...

There is a captain and first officer in the cockpit.
Are one of you assigned as the pilot for the flight?
Do the captain and first officer have the same schedule for an individual 4 day assignment? The entire month?
When you get promoted to Captain, do you essentially go back to the bottom of the bidding list and work back up via seniority?
Do you prefer many short hauls or one long haul flight?

We take turns on who is the pilot flying. There isn't anything formal about it, but there are instances where the Captain is required to be the guy flying, such as a special approach or really any time he wants to.

There are trips of varying length from 1-4 day trips on my aircraft. The other planes that go international generally range from 3-9 day trips. In the beginning yes, a trip will have the same pilots up front for the duration of the trip. Of course, things can change, reassignments can get made, people can get sick and so on, so sometimes you end up with 3-4 different guys to fly with depending on what the company has available to them.

You are correct on promotions. Since everything boils down to seniority once you upgrade you are back to the bottom of the barrel for schedules. Most likely on reserve for a number of years. Some pilots at other companies had to wait up to 20 years to get the chance to move to the left seat. That's just an example of how stagnant and hard the industry got in the last decade.

As for the trips, one long flight is both less work, and more productive. A typical day might be 5.5 hours, but if I can do one, 6 or 6.5 hour flight I'm already ahead on the day, and I only had to do everything one time. Also if the weather is bad somewhere chances are that I only have to deal with it once. A day of shorter flying (like I had in the regional airlines) can be challenging because you spend the entire day dealing with the same weather and associated delays. The worst part of long flights is just the sitting, inactivity, keeping yourself alert and not bored over that long of a flight. Shorter flights ensure that you are busy and always have something to do, but the workload can wear you out. Hell sitting for 7 hours can wear you out the same. I could do longer flights every day. 1 flight a day for 4 days is a cake schedule. But sometimes I like just being active and not having to deal with the long lulls in between takeoff and landing.

CraigSca · 06-05-2015, 09:42 PM

Reading about the tragic PSA flight from 1978, how often do you have to deal with non-commercial aircraft either upon takeoff or on approach?

PilotMan · 06-06-2015, 12:32 AM

Another day back to work. It was a short 2 days at home this time. I was out the door at 430a this morning for an early 6a flight to Newark. In Newark I had a guy, who was on my flight, ask me about how to get to his next plane. I'm pretty sure this guy was stoned and out of it anyway. He looked rough. He said he had never been out of Ohio before and that this was his first time flying.

So I asked where he was going and he said he was going to Fort Lauderdale to get a new start. Then he proceeded to tell me that both his parents were killed in a car accident 7 months ago and that being an only child he had come into some money. He then said he had gotten into some trouble and had done some time in prison and had just gotten off of probation and that he was trying to get a fresh start. I'm not really going anywhere, just saying that you always run into interesting people in this job.

I went straight to our operations crew lounge and grabbed a couch and slept for about an hour and a half before I had to get up and head to the airplane. Preflight was painless. Today sees me go cross country to San Francisco. We were all closed up when one of the flight attendants comes up and says that a woman just got out of the lavatory and now the toilet wouldn't flush. We tried a couple quick efforts to get it to work, but no dice. So the jet bridge had to come back to the plane and we had to call maintenance. By now, all the lavs weren't flushing.

The issue was identified and the solution meant that the lavs wouldn't work below 16000 feet, but would be normal above. That was good enough to get us underway, albeit 42 minutes late. We made up a good 10 minutes, we could've maybe made up some more, but we didn't have a great deal of extra fuel so we played it more conservatively.

Now normally, I'd be done, but not today! Today, I have a 2.5 hour break and then get to do one more leg to LA. At this point it doesn't even seem like I started the day at home. It's been that long of a day. By the time I get to the hotel in LA, it's 1030p back home. And here I am at nearly 1230a, up for 21 hours and now typing. Lol.

My layover here is on the shorter side. I'm back out in about 12 hours. The upside to that is I should be able to sleep in until I wake up. So I shouldn't need to worry about the alarm, but it's set just in case.

Craig, to answer you, not that much. Of course you always need to be aware of where you are and possible threats that might be near you, but with the development of Traffic Collision Avoidance Systems (TCAS) and more ATC control into the busier airports that I find myself flying in and out of it's much less of a threat than in the past. It's still possible that I might find my way to a smaller airport or to an uncontrolled airport, or that a random aircraft might be in the wrong place at he wrong time, but generally speaking. It's not something that I have to deal with.

CraigSca · 06-06-2015, 07:52 AM

Thanks for that - tragic that it takes an accident like that for changes to be made, but I guess that's M.O. for a lot of things. Good to hear that's no longer really an issue.

One last thing - how much of your pre-flight check is automated? Meaning, when it comes to engine settings or flaps, is there an automation aspect to it, or must all of this be done manually before each flight? If it's done manually, do you ever have a hard time paying attention to all the minutiae? Meaning, "Man, I've done this about 50,000 times, I'll just do #4 and #10 at the same time because it's easier." Do you ever stop yourself while going through the list because it's just so ingrained as something you've done thousands of times?

03-25-2015, 10:17 PM	#101
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	Yep, you knew this morning was going to be early, but you know what? I got a solid (enough) amount of sleep and woke up feeling pretty good. It was really foggy this morning in Miami. We were ready to go and off the gate on time and told the flight attendants to prepare for a short taxi out. The end of the runway was just a few hundred feet away from the end of the alley we were parked in. We got out there pretty quick too. Then we waited.... We must have caught a bad spot because we ended up waiting about 15 minutes until we got to go. The fog had the runway down to approach minimums and that means that ATC has to increase the spacing between arrivals. So plane after plane had to come in and we just had to wait. If you always wondered how bad fog has to be to effect your flight remember this: Our minimums for takeoff are much lower than they are for landing. We can takeoff with visibility as low as 500 feet at certain airports while we need about 1800 (sometimes 1200 and on large widebodies that fly around the world 0 visibility). Today it was about 2400 feet. When you are going 150 MPH it's a whole lot different than if you are going 35 mph down the highway. Early morning flights are much better west bound than east bound. The sun is a killer on the horizon. We were north today so I had a nice view of the sunrise. The buildup of clouds are the remnants of some thunderstorms from the day before. I made an easy connection for my flight back home and got done today around 1230p. So the cost of commuting on this trip was an extra 20 hours away from home. I'm done now until after Easter and ready for the first family vacation in 2 years. It'll be the first major road trip we've taken in like 6. We are all looking forward to going to Hilton Head for the first time. Woot! __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

03-26-2015, 08:05 AM	#102
timmae College Starter Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Chicago	Enjoy your vacation bud!! __________________ Interactive OOTP 15 Dynasty (Single Season) CHAMPION!! Oh yeah... Happy New York Day everyone!

04-09-2015, 08:12 PM	#103
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	Alright, so if anyone is still reading this I'm back again. I'm trying to get to Newark tonight so I can start my trip in the morning but the midwest storms are causing delays here. I was supposed to be on a flight that left at 630p but the plane isn't even supposed to leave Chicago until 2 hours from now and then it's not supposed to get into Newark until after 1a. Luckily for now, my backup flight is closer to on time, but even it's delayed an hour. It's no leaving here for an hour and a half. Hopefully it stays open enough for me to get a seat on it. I'm sure I'll get there somehow, but I'd much rather get there earlier than later. I have to be at the airport around 645a tomorrow and the more sleep I can get the better tomorrow will go. If for some reason I don't get to Newark until after 1, I'll probably just sleep in the airport. That extra hour of sleep I'd get versus going to the crash pad would make a difference then. I had a great vacation. If you've seen my fb, you'll have seen all the stuff that we did. We didn't really have any issues and had a great time. It was very nice to get away and our 11 year old minivan did it's part and ran like a champ. There have been a lot of things that I've been dealing with for work that I haven't gotten around to writing about here. So I'll try and get caught up. First off there was a seniority bid for something called guaranteed days off. They aren't additional days of, nor are they vacation days. They do allow you to block out a couple of days in a bid period though with a few stipulations. You can't use them over holidays, you only get 2 blocks of 2 days per year, and you can't use them both in the same month. We bid for the entire year now, but we can also bid for what's available on a month to month basis. I only chose to bid for 1 of my 2 blocks of days right now. I'll hold onto the other one to use later. The awards came out and I got my first choice. I'm thinking this was just because a lot of guys just don't even bother to bid for them. Either way, I now know that I'll have the 22nd and 23rd of December off work. I'm sure I'll still be working over Christmas, but it's nice knowing that I'll be guaranteed those days off at least. Next I've finished my computer training that was due by the end of this month. Here were the modules that I had to complete for this training cycle: - Annual Crewmember Security - Basic First Aid and Emergency Equipment - ATC Systems, Procedures, Phraseology, and Special Airports and Areas - Crew Resource Management Threat/Error Management Stabilized Approaches and Standard Operating Procedures - An exam on Latin American Operations - An exam on South American Operations - 737 Autoflight Procedures - The integrated Stand By Flight Display - 737 Common System Displays - 737 Electronic Logbook - Fatigue Risk Management and the New FAA Part 117 Regulations on Crew Duty and Rest. There's some pretty exciting stuff in there. In fact, you may have fallen asleep just reading that! I've got my annual flight physical next week. No EKG for me this year, I've got 1 more year before I have to start getting that regularly. Otherwise, I should be alright. I haven't had any changes or issues so I'm not expecting any surprises or issues with that, but you really never know for sure when you're dealing with someone who literally has your career in their hands, even if I have been seeing the same guy for 13 years. Next I had to finish my bid for May. May is a bitch. I know it always seems like I say that, but this month truly is. Besides I'm spoiled from my last two with my vacation bump. May already causes problems with Mother's Day. I'm supposed to try and get that off period. But it's on a Sunday and of course, I know that with my seniority Sunday's are challenging. Especially that one. So that's the 10th. Then I'm taking my youngest to WWE Raw for the first time ever on the 11th. I HAVE to have that day off. There is no other option if I don't. Then that Saturday the 16th the same boy has his spring piano recital. Follow that up with Monday the 18th and that's the night that the boys are recognized by the school for their awards and accomplishments for the year. I HAVE to be there for that too, as there will be plenty of accolades to go around. You have to add the 12th and 19th off because if I don't then I may have to commute the night before and then I'd still miss what I'm trying to go to! Then throw Memorial Day in there just for fun. Fun, eh? So I've had to prioritize what I really need to be off for, which in this case means that I'll probably miss both the recital and Mother's Day. I've put my preferences in and even a bid for reserve which I really hope to God I don't get, but I'll take it I guess if it's the only way I'm going to get those days off. So we'll see here in a little over a week how this all turns out. I'm supposed to be heading back to Cancun tomorrow morning. I think my sunburn from Hilton Head faded into tan nicely so I guess it'll be time to chill in the sun some more, provided there aren't any more issues tonight or tomorrow. Well, look at that. While I've been typing this my main flight to Newark has decided to cancel. So that leaves me with my backup, a Delta flight, that's leaving here in about 45 minutes. It's about time to head down there and see how that turns out. If for some reason I can't get on that, then I have to call the company and let them know. I'd be taken off and get a missed trip and have to talk to the chief pilot, and lose the pay, but it is what it is. I've done my due diligence if it does come to that. Cross your fingers it doesn't. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

04-09-2015, 10:48 PM	#105
timmae College Starter Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Chicago	Tornado's in chicago... it's a mess. I'm still reading along. __________________ Interactive OOTP 15 Dynasty (Single Season) CHAMPION!! Oh yeah... Happy New York Day everyone!

04-10-2015, 09:54 PM	#106
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	So went up to the gate agent last night and she tells me that I was right when I had previously talked to her about getting some other people from the previously cancelled flight. She tells me that she still has a seat for me and even though the flight is weight restricted the Captain thinks he can get me on. Alright, now someone ask "What the hell is weight restricted?" It's an airplane right? How can there limits that keep it from being able to take a full load of passengers? It seems to me that this might be one of the more misunderstood things in aviation for passengers. The simple answer is that the max weight is derived from many different possibilities. When I say max landing weight you think the maximum that the plane can weight at landing. And you'd be right. But when I say max takeoff weight you'd be wrong to think only in terms of what the structural limits of the aircraft are. This sort of limitation is more often found in the smaller regional jets rather than the larger 737's that I fly now. You'll most often find restrictions on takeoff based on what the maximum landing weight of the aircraft will be. Especially on short flights, the plane has to burn off the right amount of fuel so it can be below landing weight when it get's where it needs to go. Now add bad weather at the destination that causes you to carry an extra 1500 lbs of fuel and instead of being able to carry a full load now you are looking at about 8 fewer passengers that you can carry. Because the weight that you would have carried in passengers is now in your fuel tank and because it's already a short flight you can't take off too heavy or you'll be heavy when you get to your destination. The FAA does not allow you to take off, knowing you are going to be heavy and burn extra in the air. But there have been plenty of times where I've gotten somewhere heavy and had to extend my downwind leg of landing by 4 or 5 minutes just get the extra weight off because ATC gave us a short taxi, or short cuts along the way. I hope that wasn't too confusing, but the short of it is this problem is generally found in smaller planes, on shorter routes, where there is bad weather at the destination. Last night, the flight from CVG to EWR isn't that short, but if the required alternate was a long way away from Newark, like say Boston (because of course, there are rules as to what the weather can be at your alternate,) and if the entire east coast is socked in now you are adding 3000 lbs of fuel instead of the 1500 just to be legal to go. I got on the plane and introduced myself. When I'm flying on a company that is not my own I'm essentially asking permission to ride as a possible extra crew member should the Captain need me. He can tell me to pound sand for any reason he wants. Maintaining the appropriate etiquette is very important if you want to get where you are going. He told me he'd try, but no promises. So I just sat and waited until I got the thumbs up that all was good. I didn't get to the pad until about midnight. Luckily there was 1 bottom bunk left for me. Check out the get up and bathroom times for us: We were out on time today, but again we had to deal with flow restrictions going south out of Newark. We also had some crap rides. We started off at 36000 ft and eventually ended up at 26000 ft to find a decent ride. Losing 10000 ft and the corresponding loss in cruise airspeed costs a bit of fuel and made us a little later. I did my best to stay on schedule, but we have to balance the fuel trade off for speed. The flight was about 3.5 hours, which is what I'd call a mid distance flight. We knew weather was good in Cancun and we were comfortable with the fuel on board so we could push it a little more. In the end we were 1 minute late, which kinda sucks. As crazy as it seems, that minute means a missed benchmark. Boohoo. Cancun for spring break again? You won't hear me complain. The scenery was every bit as good as the scenery. I got sunburned. Early morning wakeup with a flight to San Francisco. I wish it ended there, but we have a 3.5 hour sit then fly to Vegas for a short overnight. This is sunset on the eastern horizon from my balcony tonight. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

04-09-2015, 10:19 PM	#104
britrock88 Pro Starter Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Madison, WI	Most certainly still reading.

04-12-2015, 12:42 AM	#107
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	I'm tired and I don't have the patience to do this tonight. Today was a long day. Started early enough with maintenance telling me while I was doing the walkaround that they were clearing a couple of write ups on the plane. One of them involved part of the braking system of the plane. Not a big deal, not much that can be done about it and not something that they were likely to be able to replicate and wasn't currently showing any errors. In this situation they jump through the required steps and if there isn't anything it's good to go. No problem, it was alright with us. The first couple of hours of the flight was a steady turbulence that had us start at 32000, go up to 36000 and then back down to 28000 just to find a good ride. Eventually, we got to get back up to 36000, but not until we were into New Mexico. Also almost as soon as we took off, the issue with the brakes came back. Nothing we could do about it except follow our procedures and be thankful that SFO has a long runway so it really wasn't an issue for us. We got to San Francisco and I had 3.5 hours to kill before the next flight. SFO has this walk through museum where they were displaying a bunch of 1930 Art Deco pieces. It was a real trip into the way back machine. As it got closer to our departure I see that our original plane has been swapped for the broken plane that we brought in. I have to think that they took our original plane to use in place of the one that we brought in. About the time I was heading over to the plane I see that they've swapped it again. The broken plane must not be available and now our new plane is inbound from IAD. It won't be on the ground until 30 min after our departure and our new departure is now an hour late. When things get behind the dance get's hurried and hectic. The plane is a mess from the 6 hour transcon coming in so the cleaning crew is working while the flight attendants try and get their work done so we can start boarding. I run outside for the walkaround then get back in to start my preflight setup. I get stopped in my routines 3 times to help the flight attendant sort out some issues with passengers having the same seats. That's something that happens when planes are switched. Things just get jumbled up in the effort to try and get back some of that time. We have another pilot who is going to ride up front. He is going to work. Then finally, we have it all caught up, full plane, 2 jump seaters and we can finally go. We push back and taxi out with 1 hour to spare before we duty time out for the day. Meaning we've already been on the clock for so long that it's time to be done, because as much fun as 4.5 hour sits are after 5.5 hour flights are, we are both ready to be done. Our layover tonight was only scheduled to be 12 hours anyway, which is on the shorter side. Now it's closer to 11 hours after about 10 actually in the room when you take out travel and check in time. FAA regs say that 8 hours is the absolute min you can have. I grab some dinner and decide to type this up so I dont' forget it tomorrow. My pickup time for the airport is 430a. I got a cool picture of the new tower and the old tower in SFO. The new tower isn't operational yet, but it's much more stylish (if that's an important thing in ATC towers) than the old one. My next pic is the view from the hotel looking up toward the strip. The Flamingo and Caesars are right in front. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

04-17-2015, 10:18 AM	#108
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	I just realized that I never updated the end of my trip. The flight back from Vegas felt long. Perhaps it was just the last leg syndrome or the turbulence but it felt long. We didn't have any issues and made it on time. I was supposed to have a 2 hour wait for my next flight. It had seats available the last time I looked, but when I looked again the plane was down to 2 seats and I was down to #7 on the stand by list. That normally doesn't happen, but there was a family of 5 that was traveling on a vacation priority ahead. My only remedy was to head for the gate and wait for the agent to show up and try and be the first one on the jumpseat list. This was cutting into my lunch time! She eventually showed up (after 30 minutes of me standing at the podium) and lucky for me I got on the list first. Only a pilot from that company or the FAA could bump me off now so I felt better, but you're still never really safe. I grabbed some lunch and then squeezed into the cockpit jumpseat once again for the flight home. Tuesday was my all important FAA physical. Generally these things go alright and arent' too much hassle. There's a urine test for sugar (not drugs; I get drug tested through the company), a vision test, weight, bp, pulse and a general physical exam before it's done. Usually I get told every year that I need to lose weight. It's true. I do. But it's not like it's changed much in 4 years anyway. The FAA has been on this crusade to screen every pilot for possible sleep apnea. This has been due to a specific instance where both pilots fell asleep in the cockpit and overflew the destination a few years ago. Well, now they feel like it's a huge problem, but I think it's really bullshit. Sure some super obese guys, who probably already know they have issues are going to finally get help, but I know for a fact that I don't have this issue. Basically the short of the long is that I'm now on a watch list unless I drop some weight, but at least I'm not on the "must get (and pay for) a sleep study" list. The funny thing is that one of my friends had this issues and he wouldn't have been screened at all the way they are going about it. He is as fit as a fiddle. I don't really see this as being a significant issue that warrants all this, but whatever. I did get my certificate so I get to keep working for another year at least! My week also consisted of shopping trips to Jungle Jims (look it up). I love shopping there, but it's a little out of the way. We have to go there from time to time to get things that my wife needs for her diet that we can't get other places. It's an amazing place for food. The day after we went to Ikea. Sometimes you have to go to work so you can get some good rest! With me being home during the week I didn't have any days to sleep in. I was getting up in the morning to take the boys to school. There will be no sleeping in on this trip either. Looking at my schedule the next day that I will get to sleep in will be the 26th. Today I've got a transcon to the west coast. I had to get up at 330a at home to get ready and make my 600a flight into EWR. I had the luxurious exit row seat and slept for a good portion of that flight and I just spent about an hour in a recliner in ops dozing off in between construction noises. I should be good to go. This trip is commutable on both the front and back end and in the middle I'm hoping that I can meet up with a couple of friends that I haven't seen in almost 2 years back when we were all working at airline #2. Now we have moved on to better places, so hopefully it'll all work out. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam Last edited by PilotMan : 04-17-2015 at 10:19 AM.

04-17-2015, 10:16 PM	#109
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	Today's flight was a very big sign that winter has given way to spring. Our flight time was set for only 5:26 heading to Los Angeles. We were planned to get in about 25 minutes early. The loss of the winter jet stream had that kind of impact on us. That just means that we will have to hustle tomorrow going back east to stay on time. We had a full load this morning, but sat on the gate for a few minutes as the ramp had cleared a plane (that called after we did) to push in front of us. Other than that it was a short taxi out and we were off. Turbulence was the name of the game today. We hit it over Columbus and it continued until we were just east of Denver. Once we cleared the Rockies it was a nice ride the rest of the way into LAX. Getting in early of course, our gate was occupied. We waited about 15 minutes before the gate was available then parked on time. A good 45 minutes down to Long Beach for the layover. This weekend happens to be the Long Beach Grand Prix. I shot this video coming back from dinner. This is just a couple of blocks from the hotel. Tomorrow morning isn't terribly early as I'm on east coast time, but it will probably be dark when we leave the hotel. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

04-19-2015, 09:17 PM	#110
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	No update yesterday. Just a long freaking day. Started in LA and due to the weather in the central part of the country we were planned to fly south over El Paso and Dallas before heading up toward Washington DC. We flew just about as fast as that little plane would take us. Not a whole lot of tailwind to help and the extra miles didn't help either. The company is really putting an emphasis on getting there as close to on time as possible right now. They don't want early, they don't want late. They want on the minute as much as possible and when there is so much between here and there it can be challenging. We got out of LA in pretty good time and we were ahead of the game so I was able to back off a save some fuel and still make it into DC on time. We then had about an hour to switch planes and get set up for the next leg to Orlando. After a short break in our operations I headed to the plane to get is all set up to go. There were a couple of small maintenance issues that had to get resolved. Primarily one was a new seat cushion that someone had gotten sick on, on the previous flight and the other had to do with the lav smoke detector which looked to be falling down. One of these proved much easier than the other and while we were ready to, and primed to push the mechanic wasn't done with the plane so we waited. Full load of passengers, pilots and crew primed for our flight to the layover. Keeping in mind that we'd already worked a transcon. The entirety of the delay was close to 45 minutes as they had to completely replace the detector and the very, very small screws that hold it in. The flight down to Orlando went as it should. We made up about 15 minutes on the flight plan, but the flight that left after us still beat us down there. That's always frustrating. The layover was out near the airport and was less than 12 hours, so there wasn't really anything to do with it. Today we got up early and had a much more manageable day. The first leg saw us head up to Newak. We were routed out over the ocean and up to North Carolina to avoid some nasty weather over the central part of the state. North of there was good and weather up north was beautiful today. My landing sucked though. I didn't realize it until afterward that the wind had shifted around to a tailwind and it caused me to float a bit, and when I had to put it on the ground it skipped a little bit. I didn't know what happened in that moment, but at least when they turned the airport around I felt a little vindicated. We got to keep the airplane for the next leg. Which let me tell you, is really nice. I don't have to pack all my crap up and move it around, unpack it again. It's great. The other good thing was that it was another short flight down to Florida and we'd just come from there so we had a good idea of what to expect. This flight was once again planned out over the Atlantic and then over Kennedy Space Center, Orlando and into Tampa. The routing was a little longer than normal, and we were kept at a lower altitude because of bad rides at the higher altitudes. Once we got over the ocean we could step all the way up to 38000 feet before they started dropping us back down for the arrival. Today was shorter than yesterday and I needed it. I didn't sleep that great last night. Our layover in TPA has us staying in St. Petersburgh with the popular downtown within walking distance. Makes for good dinners and plenty of options. Tomorrow is go home day! Yay! One leg back to Newark and then a race to try and catch a flight home. I only have about 30 minutes to try and change terminals for this flight and if I don't get it, it's a three hour wait for a full plane. Cross your fingers. My yearly sim training in Houston is approaching. The month that I'm due for the checkride is June, but I can go the month before or after depending on what the company schedules. I bid in May for it, but didn't get it awarded. That means that June is likely or if not then for sure in July. I typically don't get all worked up for checkrides. You do your job the right way. They way it's supposed to be done and it shouldn't be an issue, but you never know when you'll have a bad day, or if the examiner will have a bad day. Still you'd think that after 14 years of check rides I'd have it worked out mentally a little better. My May schedule was awarded. I told you that I put 9 bids in, but that I really only wanted a bid from 1-5. Well, I got awarded bid #3! So that's pretty awesome. Of the days that I needed off I got all of them with the exception of the piano recital for my youngest son. That means that Mother's Day, School Awards Night, and the WWE Raw show are all a GO! WooT! On top of that, all the trips are spaced out nicely and all of them are commutable on both ends except for 2. So that means that 2 times in the month I'll have to go the day before and head to the crashpad. All of them get me home on the last day. That's such a relief. It's almost enough to make me think about dropping the crash pad and just buying a hotel room. Two nights is the bare min where it makes sense to keep it from a strict financial standpoint. I could spend that much on a room to myself. It is nice to know that it's there though, even if things just fall apart. I can still go there anytime, take a nap, take a shower. Whatever I need. My flying next month is a little different than I've been doing. It's much more like the old flying that I used to do. Shorter flights, more legs. I don't really care. Every trip is an adventure. Yeah I might not be hitting the top destinations every week, but you can find great things anywhere. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

04-21-2015, 11:26 AM	#111
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	Yesterday was stressful! I was sitting in the hotel in the morning going over the paperwork and weather for the flight. The weather was going to be bad with a strong frontal system moving through the area that was going to bring a lot of rain and wind for our scheduled arrival. Everything was in place now we just needed to be on time. Like I had said, I had 30 minutes from our scheduled time in to pack up, change concourses and get to the new plane and get listed for the jumpseat as there is no way for me to make that listing before I actually get to the gate. I was sitting there I got a text notification that my other flight, the one I'm more likely to take was cancelled due to ATC. Great. More on this later. The good news was the we were planned to get into Newark a full 20 minutes early if we could get off the ground on time. We managed to get off the gate a minute early and quickly worked our way across the airport to the departure runway. We got there and found a line for takeoff 4 deep and approach wasn't giving tower any help by spacing their arrivals out enough so that planes could take off in between. So we waited and waited. What would have had us off the ground 6 minutes early turned into a 7 minute delay and ate into that 20 minute slush time. We had a pretty bad ride north bound as there was still lingering instability in the atmosphere from the day before. Our route was standard north out of Florida, no going east over the ocean, but the turbulence found us climbing up as high as we could go to try to find some smooth air. It got better the further north we went and it didn't sound like they were delaying anyone into Newark yet so we flew on. We got some updates from our dispatcher about inbound aircraft and how delayed they were. It showed that most planes weren't any more than 10 minutes delayed and that some were even early. That boded well for us. The weather in Newark was already crapping out. Winds were gusting to the low 30s (kts, about 35 mph), the visibility was between 1/2 mile and a mile with rain showers. So my 115p flight was cancelled to try and get home. Why? Newark like a lot of airports has set number of arrivals per hour when the weather is good. All airline schedules are predicated on this number and all flights that are sold and booked are based on a good weather scenario. When the weather goes bad the number of arrivals is cut drastically because of greater spacing that is required between aircraft. It can create a massive accordion effect if changes aren't made, that leads to big delays across the US. That leads the airport into what is known as Severe Weather Avoidance Plan or SWAP. SWAP forces cancellations by delaying aircraft on the ground by controlling how many planes are actually in the air and inbound for the airport. This way ATC avoids big holding patterns and possible diversions. Passengers see this as cancellations where before they might have been stuck on a plane, holding or at an undesirable airport that is not their destination. My company also utilizes smaller regional jets to connect to airports like Newark. When ATC puts slot arrival restrictions on the company they choose to cancel these slots to keep the slots open for the larger, mainline planes and international arrivals. That is why my flight was cancelled. Other companies that don't use Newark for a hub are less impacted because they don't have as many slots that are impacted and can generally keep their schedules more intact. You'll see these programs all over, especially in airports like JFK, LGA, ORD, ATL where weather can cause major delays. This puts even more pressure on me to try and make that flight home. I think I'd be kidding you if I said I wasn't nervous at all to shoot this approach. The funny thing is that between the Captain and me, I had the most flying time in the 737, even though I have less than 2 years on it. He was a newer captain who had flown widebodies and some Airbus, but not the 737. I am confident in my skills, but I also knew we were in for a wild ride. We need to be sure before we start the approach that the weather is good enough and stays within the limitations of the plane. The clouds were down near 600 feet (200 is the lowest you'll see on most approaches). By the time I break out at 600 feet I'll be about 30-40 seconds from touchdown. Not a whole lot of time to assess the situation and make adjustments. The visibility needs to be at least 1/2 mile, and for us it was about 2/3. Again not great. The winds were brutal. We were coming down the glideslope and I was wondering how many people were in the back puking, because it was that kind of approach. Very strong moderate turbulence that bordered on Severe at times. The plane, even despite being 70 tons was getting tossed. The winds were almost a direct crosswind steady at 20 knots, gusting to 39 (45 mph). When I broke out of the clouds I picked up the runway. I was almost looking in the Captains windshield as we were crabbed so far to the right to compensate for the wind. The maximum crosswind for the plane is 40 kts. We were right up to the maximum, in low visibility, in low clouds with nasty, gusty winds. I got the plane down the centerline of the runway and put it down right where it needed to be then I let out a huge sigh. We had over 170 people on that plane. They should have given me a standing ovation after that one. Probably the most challenging landing ever. There was only one other landing that I did in a Cessna that was even close. The landing earlier this year was also very hard, but it was in VFR. I could see the runway the whole way down. This was work. And we were on time. It was pouring. The ramp guys weren't in a big hurry to get us parked. I started packing up my stuff and almost literally ran for the next plane. I don't like not being able to greet people off the plane but getting home comes first. Not only was the 115p flight cancelled, but the 900a flight had been cancelled and the 730p flight was cancelled. That meant that if I miss this flight the next chance is at 4p and then 530p and then nothing. It's only 1030a. I really don't want to spend the whole day here. When I got to the gate the plane was already done boarding. Flights typically close 10 minutes prior to departure to allow for all the gate and flight paperwork to get done and ramp to finish up so it can push on time. I was about 15 minutes. The gate agents were AWESOME! They got me listed, checked in and gave me my pass to get on so fast and I hustled down to ask my permission from the Captain. Yes, when I'm not flying on my own company I have to ask permission. It's a very important thing. He obliged and I took my seat, so happy to be there and still a little wound up from the run and approach. I knew that there were long delays for takeoff. Newark was getting reports of severe turbulence and they were down to the short runway for takeoffs. We ended up sitting close to an hour and a half on the ramp waiting for our turn to go. When it finally came we had to bypass and head back to the gate to let 2 passengers off who requested to get off. They did NOT have to do that. It's nice that they did, but frankly, those 2 passengers getting off delayed the other 70 passengers another 30 minutes from getting where they had paid to go too. When you get on the plane has to be airborne within 3 hours of pushback. We had been on for a while, it was a Captain decision. We were still close to the gate, and getting back to the gate gives everyone the chance if they want. It resets that 3 hour clock as well. I was still just happy that I was on the plane and that I didn't need to worry about how I was going to get home. Eventually we got in line and finally got out of there. By the time we left most of the weather had passed and things were starting to let up. When I got home at 530p I was just beat. Another successful trip and now a few days to reload and get ready to go again at the end of the week. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

04-24-2015, 11:07 PM	#113
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	So I the Mrs and I went to pick up some personal effects from the death of her estranged mother. I think there have been times in the last 13 years where she wondered if she was making the right choice to shut her mother out of her family and even after she died last month despite being sure it was the right thing there were moments that she wondered if it could have been different. After this trip and seeing the things that were kept and the things that were left behind I have no doubt, nor do I have any sadness for the woman. My wife was shaken by some of the things: Items from her youth that she asked for and were told had been destroyed, unopened birthday cards, all kept, from other family members that her mom told her didn't love her anymore, letters to our own kids telling them that their parents were bad people, diaries detailing every movement for months in what looked to be an effort to blackmail or fight for custody before we moved to FL (she had nothing), diaries written that said unspeakable things. Not just things that would be awful to say, but to say them to your daughter, a child or the things that she said before she was born. It's just plain disturbing. I hated the woman. She deserves to burn in hell; she should've spent part of her useless life in jail. I'm glad that this means that we don't ever have to think about her ever again. Her decision to cut ties was completely vindicated. God forbid, if she would've had any influence on my kids lives. Caught a flight to Newark tonight to start another trip tomorrow. Can't say I'm looking forward to the layover all that much, but I will get to sleep in Sunday morning and I should get some good pool time. I should be able to get a photo or two uploaded as it's a pretty area. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

04-25-2015, 11:12 AM	#114
timmae College Starter Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Chicago	Great reads! I like your mention of the standing ovation... Many times when things go right, even in such abysmal conditions, people will think that you are just doing your job. That had to be stressful!! Job well done! __________________ Interactive OOTP 15 Dynasty (Single Season) CHAMPION!! Oh yeah... Happy New York Day everyone!

04-26-2015, 09:08 AM	#115
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	I showed up at the airport about an hour and 20 minutes prior to our departure time. I headed for one of our briefing rooms where I ran into a couple of pilot from my first airline job, a company that is now out of business. It's good to see familiar faces making their way up from the ashes. I did all my regular stuff, updated all the databases in my tablet. Let me digress for a minute. Until about a year and a half ago, and for my entire aviation career we had to carry what's called a flight kit. You'll still see many pilots carry them. You might recognize it at a pilot case. Inside this case we were required to carry all the Airport Charts for every airport that we might have to fly into. So one airport might have arrivals, airport information, a regional diagram, airspace layouts, and every approach for each airport. I had 3 full binders worth of airports. Literally thousands of pages of airport information. Every two weeks we'd get an envelope with revisions where you had to go through one by one and take out an old page and replace it with a new one. Some of them would be small and take 10-15 minutes and others were a couple hours worth of unpaid work. We also had to carry a binder with airplane specific information on standard procedures, limitations and generally how we were to fly the aircraft. There was another binder as well with more company specific information on how all fleets and the company would operate covering everything from Hazardous Material, to security protocol, to corporate structure. Both of these binders were a few hundred pages as well. My flight case weighed close to 40 pounds and took a beating. Because of the company upgrade to the Ipad I no longer have to carry any of that. It's all been digitized and it's all the difference in the world. Updates are automatic and it only takes a couple of minutes to have everything completely up to date. So...I updated everything. Then downloaded all my flight paperwork (which used to have to be printed out) and weather and got started toward the plane. Today's flight was a trip down to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. We had a full flight and the plane was planned very close to our maximum weight. The company had planned for a long taxi out to the runway and actually a late arrival into SDQ. ATC had changed our clearance and after the new route was loaded we were ready to go. The new route was a little shorter than the other. Our dispatcher had filed us to avoid some turbulence. ATC pretty much changed all that, so we were going to have some bumps until Norfolk at least. After a fairly short delay we were cleared to go. Once we got up to our cruising altitude and went through our checks we found that we weren't going to be late and we were going to be heavy. About 2,500 pounds heavy. We started looking at options for how to get that weight off and settled on heading for a lower altitude. Once you get out in Oceanic airspace you lose radar coverage and you lose standard radio communication. You are then left communicating using 1940's technology, the HF radio. Very good at long distance, but it can also be very challenging to hear. We have required position reports that have to be made until we get closer to Puerto Rico and back in radar coverage from Miami. Getting altitude and speed changes can be difficult as you are expected to be at a certain altitude and a given speed for tracking purposes. So prior to getting in this area we took a decent down to 27000 feet and let our dispatcher know. He reran our fuel numbers and that was enough of a change that we should be good for our arrival. That's 385 gallons of jet fuel that unfortunately had to be used that we otherwise would've kept. Figure somewhere in the range of $2.50 per gallon and you're close to $1,000 of waste on just that 1 flight. The arrival was uneventful. One thing flying into the Dominican. You've got a lot of very poor areas. People living in metal shacks here and there. There's a fair bit of agriculture, but the island is poor by our standards. Then you've got these fantastically beautiful, manicured baseball diamonds dotted here and there. It's quite a dichotomy. Our hotel is actually considered one of the nicest in the city. It's right in the heart of the Colonial District. There is a lot of history here. Santo Domingo was the first European settlement in the New World and was founded in 1502. Aside from all that there isn't a whole lot to offer, even though this area is the main tourist area in the city. And the beds are insanely hard. This is the Parque Colon in Santo Domingo. A statue of Christopher Columbus in front of the oldest Catholic Cathedral in the Americas. This is part of Las Damas, the first street in the new world. The hotel starts ahead where the white building is. The left is part of the city wall with a couple of old cannons placements. This is in the hotel, which was part of the mansion of the original Spanish governor of Santo Domingo, Nicholas de Ovando, who is credited for the success of the city. I head out this afternoon and finish around midnight in Ft Myers. It'll be an 11 hour day, if it goes on schedule. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam Last edited by PilotMan : 04-26-2015 at 09:10 AM.

04-27-2015, 10:55 AM	#116
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	Short update today. We ended up being delayed off the gate in Santo Domingo because of the plane being late coming in from Newark. We pedaled as hard as we could and low and behold we were able to make up all the time. Except that when we got to the gate there was nobody to be found. All our hard work to land and get to the gate and park and be completely on time went out the window because the ramp too almost 6 minutes to come out and park us. Then the company switched planes for our outbound to Ft Myers. The result was that the next plane was a later arrival putting us almost 40 minutes behind by the time we got going. Again, we tried as we could to get some time back. Late at night you can sometimes get some help from ATC and since it was close to 11p I asked if we could take a shortcut off the arrival and go straight to our destination. Lucky for us they let us, and put us in front of two other carriers going to the same place. That took 10 full minutes off our arrival. They never would have done that any other time. I really only had time on this layover to sleep, get caught up on the internet, talk to the family and get my butt to the treadmill. Today will see me end up in Orange County, CA, via Chicago, for another short layover. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

04-27-2015, 11:11 PM	#117
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	Lots of turbulence from Florida to the upper Midwest. We never got above 28000 on our flight up to Chicago. One of the controllers said it best that we were paying for yesterday's smooth rides. We got out of Ft Myers on time and into the gate in Chicago on time as well. I had about 45 minutes to change planes and do whatever I wanted before I had to begin my preflight for the Orange County flight. Again, things went smoothly and we got out 10 minutes early. The taxi out was painless and by the time we were airborn we were projected to get into Orange County over 30 minutes early. How often can you say that? Lucky for us there was a gate available and we didn't have to wait. Today must be media day here in the thread. I've got a couple pics and vids for your viewing pleasure. The first is from the other night going into Ft Myers. The video isn't great but you can still get the feeling of what I see when we are cutting through clouds. The lights are on so you can really see the speed. It was much cooler in person. We are probably going close to 400 mph at this point. Next is a shot of Chicago. Very nice day for flying, much nicer than some days I saw this winter. Photos really don't do the view justice. Next is a view of Vegas from 38000 feet today before we started down for Orange County. You can clearly see the airport. The cluster of buildings north of there is the strip. The last is a video of of what closure rates and separation look like from the front. This plane starts off at about 10 miles away and is 1000 feet higher, traveling on the same airway in the opposite direction. You see that you really can't see the plane, and if not for the contrail you wouldn't really see it at all. In 30-40 seconds the plane is past us. This is what a 1000 mph closure rate looks like. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

04-28-2015, 11:12 AM	#118
britrock88 Pro Starter Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Madison, WI	Great stuff!

04-28-2015, 12:19 PM	#119
timmae College Starter Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Chicago	Insane videos... just unreal. I'd post a video of what happens in front of me while I work but my coffee cup is fairly nondescript so no point in that! Thanks for the vids. Wow! __________________ Interactive OOTP 15 Dynasty (Single Season) CHAMPION!! Oh yeah... Happy New York Day everyone!

04-28-2015, 10:14 PM	#120
cmp Pro Rookie Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Grand Rapids, MI	Love reading this and seeing the pictures and videos.

05-01-2015, 10:21 PM	#121
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	I'm happy you guys are enjoying it. It's always a boost to get some positive feedback. My flight back from Orange County was about as smooth and on plan as you could have gotten. I really needed it to be on time too. I was trying to catch a flight home that gave me only 25 minutes from the time I parked until it left. And that's not taking into consideration the 10 minutes before the flight leaves that they close the flight to get it off the gate on time. Today nothing went against us. ATC didn't slow us down, they didn't turn us off course. The ride at 39000 feet was great. Nothing. We got into Newark a little early and the gate was even available. The ramp was a little slow getting out to us but I had time to make a dash for my plane. In the end it all worked out. The plane was boarding and I didn't even have to sweat getting a set. I made it home early and surprised my family as I hadn't told them that I'd made the earlier flight. I've got a week off until my next flight. If you'll remember that I had to bid for my yearly training for May. I wasn't awarded anything then so I had to do it all over again for June. I've put my preferences for which days and sim windows I'd like. I should find out next week before I start my monthly bid for June if I get awarded anything. June is my training month. The FAA allows me to train one month prior (May) or one month later (July.) These months are termed grace months. May is early grace and July is late grace. Last year I didn't go to training until July. I was in late grace. If I hadn't completed training I would go NQ or Not Qualified. Frankly there are a lot of reasons that I might go NQ. It could be failing to turn in my medical when it was due or not getting my continuing training online completed on time, or It might be that I didn't get my 3 landings within the last 90 days. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

05-08-2015, 12:18 AM	#122
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	Ahhhh, I've been busy. Too busy to keep this updated the last couple of days. I left home yesterday at 430a to catch a flight to Newark to start my trip. Getting me there plenty of time before the start of my trip. I had some time to grab some food, check my mailbox and just to generally get prepped for the day ahead. As I was coming back from our operations area the police had part of an area blocked off. All they would tell me was it was some sort of emergency. I grabbed my bags, went down to the cafeteria to grab a couple of bottles of Diet Mt Dew. Something that will help me get through the next couple of days. I don't drink a ton of it and I can make 1 bottle last for the better part of 4 hours. My dentist says I shouldn't do that either. So as I start to head to the plane I see that there are people everywhere. I mean not like normal just waiting around I mean holiday, bad weather. Not a Wednesday in May. I then get a text from the guy I'm flying with and he tells me that he is stuck in operations. Security has locked that part of the airport down. That would explain the people. It's clear that this is going to cause problems for us. We are only 20 minutes from departure by now, and still short 2 flight attendants and a pilot. We can't even start boarding yet. I guess it made the local news, but they had found an unclaimed bag in the airport and it escalated from there as it was being checked out. In the end the bomb squad was called and eventually order was restored, but not until we were nearly an hour late. Ordinarily it wouldn't be that big of a deal but we had a long day ahead. The first flight took us down to Orlando. Weather wasn't an issue, except for the turbulence that followed us almost the entire way. We managed to make up some of the time enroute but not too much. In order to get back on schedule we have to try and make up that time on the turn. That leads to very little down time throughout the day. We make every effort to get back as close to schedule as possible. You end up going right from the big, deep breath of getting there right into the preflight for the next one. Our second flight had us heading to Chicago. The ride was easier this time. The turn allowed us to make up even more time and we managed to pull in at the gate in Chicago just a few minutes late. I'd consider that a success. I wasn't done yet though. A plane change and I had about 30 minutes before I had to be there. A quick walk around the terminal, maybe a phone call home, but most importantly is the walking. Just getting up to move again after having been sitting for most of the last 6 hours feels so good. The last flight was a quick trip to Minneapolis. I haven't been here in a couple of years. I may have said this before but when I was a little kid I spent a lot of time at MSP. The airport feels like my second home. I love the city too. It's as close as I can currently get to North Dakota working and just enough that it feels like home. All told from the time I left home to the time I got to the hotel it had been 18 hours. No wonder I was tired. I wanted to show you this picture so you didn't think that every layover is all sun and awesome hotels rooms. Check out the great view from my room last night: Nothing like a wall and a rooftop. A very short layover and I was back on the road at 8a this morning. Our first flight today took us to Denver. Aside from today being another long work day the weather and schedule worked according to plan. Once we got to Denver it was another 30 minutes of me time, and again I chose to simply walk around to get the blood moving. We had to change planes. I tried to get a full lap around the terminal while I talked to the Mrs, but didn't quite get it before I had to go back to the plane. The next flight took us to Phoenix where they had scheduled us less than an hour to empty and refill a plane with 180 people on it. It was just like Orlando where as soon as we parked it was right into the preflight to get out of there. We headed back to Denver for the layover. Today had some really nice flying. The weather cooperated and the rides back and forth over the mountains were smooth which is never a sure thing. Six legs in the last 2 days with a couple of short overnights. The next 2 aren't quite so demanding. I start early again tomorrow for 1 leg back to Phoenix. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

05-08-2015, 01:35 PM	#124
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	And you know that's a lot more than it used to be. Even before deregulation in the 80's, and while I was in college in the 90's it was only Denver or Minneapolis. I think there's a chance that in the next few years you might see some larger aircraft come back in as the number of pilots flying 50 seat jets goes down, but even to NoDak that still might not be enough to expand to larger aircraft. I now have my yearly recurrent training scheduled for June in Houston. Recurrent training is something that is required for pilots to continue to keep their jobs. Covered over two days we cover general maneuvers, emergency situations, and a number of different approaches. I'll go into more detail next month. Day 2 is a simulated line flight that is evaluated for safety and standard procedures. Each day is two hours of classroom briefing and then we spend 4 hours in the simulator. Today was (is) either very short or very long depending on how you look at it. Compared to what we did the last couple of days I think it's fairly easy. The plane that we were taking to Phoenix was a little late getting to the gate and we ended up getting out about 15 minutes late. With the flight to Phoenix being as short as it is, there just wasn't a whole lot of room where we could try and make up time. Even then we still managed to cut 5 minutes off and get into the gate about 10 minutes late. I'm off the rest of the day for the most part. But tonight take the red-eye back to Newark. So I'll be heading to the airport about a quarter to 100a by my body clock for the overnight flight back. Then it's go home day again! It's time to bid for my June schedule. I really haven't given a whole lot of thought as to what I want to bid for. Summer will be here and the constraints on my personal schedule will be fewer. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

05-08-2015, 03:40 PM	#125
britrock88 Pro Starter Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Madison, WI	Yeah. After kvetching about not being able to get anywhere from BIS for less than $500, I was amazed to hear that that number was closer to $1000 until just a handful of years ago. I can't imagine.

05-11-2015, 10:33 AM	#126
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	I don't think there's a single person who ever looked at a red-eye and thought, "YEAH! I get to work overnight!" The majority of pilots that I work with bid against them. They don't want to see them and suddenly needing to change your sleep schedule to accommodate one overnight flight sucks. The only upside is getting finish your day in the morning. Not without the punishment though. I'm usually tired and crabby until I can get caught back up. So I went to bed at 630p body time and I was able to sleep until 1130p when I had to get up to head out. I'm still not sure how I'm able to do that. Sleep for 5 hours in the afternoon, but I'm convinced that 90% of it is just mental. The flight left at 200a body time. We were routed north of the Kansas, OK, TX storm systems that have been raging this spring and took a route over Chicago. The flight was quite nice until western Missouri when we started to encounter some pretty good turbulence that lasted for about 45 minutes. We got into Newark on time at 630a after our 4+hr flight. I had 3 hours before my flight going home and decided I needed to head right for one of the couches in operations. I found one open and planted myself there and slept for somewhere between an hour and an hour and a half. When I got up I found that I had already been given a seat for my flight home and made my way to the gate where they had just started boarding and got on. Two and a half hours later I was home and off again to do some Mother's Day shopping with my kids and then to take my Mom out for some food to celebrate her. We had different plans for Sunday and she was busy so we just weren't going to have that chance. I really owe my Mom for the opportunity that she provided me to have the life I do and the career that I have. She was the one that sacrificed by having a second mortgage and taking a second job to pay the second mortgage so that I could have money to get my license. Not to mention raising me alone. She always looked for ways we could have fun and never made excuses for things we couldn't do. I'm grateful for those memories and the example she sets. Tonight I'm taking my youngest son to a WWE event here in Cincy. I'm really excited about it and I hope it's a good experience. He's really been into it lately and it's something that we have in common growing up. He has no idea and I'm not going to even tell him until we are driving up to the show tonight. He'll just go to school late tomorrow. It'll be the first time he's missed any school this year with the exception of 2 hours he missed coming home sick one day. We celebrated yesterday with my wife by going on a family hike nearby. We saw a snapping turtle that was about the size of a small drink coaster among other things. Then we came home and I grilled and we made a ton of food to celebrate her being a totally awesome mom. I genuinely couldn't have asked for a better Mother to my children. She really is fantastic. Next, I've got to get this bid in for June. Father's day in that month, but besides that and training I really don't have anything else to bid around. The kids are out of school so it really frees us up. Back to work again early Thursday morning for another crazy long day. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

05-15-2015, 10:51 AM	#127
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	Super short update. Like I said last time, yesterday was very, very long. Left home at 430a and got to the hotel at midnight. I did nap on the plane to Newark and then went to the crash pad for hotel breakfast and then another nap before work. I just missed Bono at our gate. The flight attendants all got pics with him, but I didn't see him. Flights to Dallas, Denver, then a 2 hour break and then finished with Omaha. Chicago on the books for today. I finished my June bid in the nick of time (again.) Really wanting to try and keep this 4 on 4 off thing working as long as possible, but with my training (in Houston) in June and Father's Day, I'm not sure how that's all going to work out. I've got another set of online training to do that will be due at the end of August. My big accomplishment while I was home this week was tearing out some old deck lighting that we've had and installing some new. We've always liked the lighting, but what was there was really crappy looking. The new lights look very spiffy and add a really nice atmosphere. I've never done deck lighting before so the whole process was a learning experience. The youngest and I had a great time at WWE Raw this week. I totally surprised him with what he thought was a errand and turned into a trip to the show. My middle son is now officially into hobby rc cars. He told me he has watched every single hobby rc car video on you tube. No joke. Every single one. He just dropped nearly $400 on his own 1/8 scale vehicle. He is super excited. He had been saving for over a year. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

05-15-2015, 03:55 PM	#128
timmae College Starter Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Chicago	Man I loved rc!! There was a track about 20 minutes from where I lived. I was there every week for quite a stretch. __________________ Interactive OOTP 15 Dynasty (Single Season) CHAMPION!! Oh yeah... Happy New York Day everyone!

05-16-2015, 05:57 PM	#129
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	Yesterday was supposed to be the easy day, one leg from Omaha to Chicago. It was all good early on. We were all boarded up, we had all of our work done up front and closed up the plane almost 10 minutes early. Things were looking good. Then we were told that load planning was having some difficulty with the cargo load and it would be a few minutes. Then it was a few minutes longer. We noticed fairly early on that there were a lot of guys in business shirts, and a lot of what seemed like managers walking around. There was even some arguing and some yelling. Then the station manager got on the radio and said that he apologized. He said that the company had just outsourced the company employees that had been working at the station with this new company. So we wait some more and then a lot more yelling and finger pointing. After a few more minutes the manager says that when the crew scanned all the bags in on the bags on the plane that they scanned them al into 1 cargo hold, but didnt' load them that way. So load planning had no idea how to balance the plane. In order to fix this all the bags would need to be unloaded, rescanned and reloaded back on to the plane. Give them another 15 minutes. So frustrating when you know almost everyone has connections and here you sit at the mercy of circumstance and have to explain to your passengers what is going on. Finally, 45 minutes late in all, we were under way to Chicago. It's a fairly short flight, but we tried as we could and did get a small shortcut, and ATC kept our speed up on the arrival into the city. Chicago has 2 north side runways that they generally use for arrivals from our direction. One of them is far away and one isn't. The farther one, is at least a 7 min taxi longer to the gate and that's the one that we were assigned. I put in the request for the other runway, becuase you can always ask and lo and behold got it! We touched down konwing that we had cut some time off the arrival only to find that our original gate had been given away. Our new gate wasn't due to push for another 10 minutes. There's just not much you can say. I was pissed and let someone konw that our efforts had been ruined. So frustrating again. I'm going to digress for a minute and talk about why this stuff happens. The company looked at our scheduled time in which they had as 27 after the hour. They moved us to a gate that was due to push at 25 minutes after, thinking that we would just flow right in. Of course we were much faster and in the end it didnt' help us and it made us look like we didn't know what we were doing. So why can't we just go to another gate that's open? That's a tricky question. The immediate thought is that you are here and it's open so we should go there, but it's much more complicated than that. The gates can be assinged early in the day and each of them is predicated on a arrival and departure times. Obviously they don't just give us whatever gate when we get there. There has to be time for us to get out before the next flight get's in, or if we change there needs to be a plan to deal with what happens downline to the other planes. Like a game of Rubiks Cube, one move may seem obvious and get you closer to your goal, but in the end you end up creating a mess, where sometimes the best solution is simply waiting. Flows for gates are very tight and planned accordingly. Like arrivals into airports you can create an accordian effect by screwing with it too much. Then you throw in the dynamics of changing arrivals, maintenance, cancellations, weather and the entire situation becomes very dynamic. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

05-17-2015, 12:30 AM	#130
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	A much earlier start in Chicago this morning, but a much shorter drive to the airport at 430a than it was getting to the hotel the day before. Not long after I jumped in the cockpit and while I was getting the plane ready to go another pilot showed up and introduced himself to me. He was a Check Airman. Technically his job is to check and grade the Captain, because they are required to have checks every so long, and we in the right seat aren't required, but he is most certainly there checking both of us. His job is to ride along on the flight and basically observe everything, point out issues that he has with how we do things, help answer questions about company standard, check our ability to work together as a team and oh yeah, if you really screw it up he can take you off line and send you for training. Now you'd really have to fuck up to get there, but the having him there is essentially a checking event with some manner of seriousness to it. You just try and relax, focus on doing what you normally do and look out for the other guy, because someone is going to need it and you both are being graded together. Lucky for us this was a short flight to Columbus and we were out, up and down without any issues. Our next flight was off to Denver. My whole day was very tight. We had less than an hour to deplane close to 180 people, get cleaned up, and reboard the plane and get out. There isn't much room for error on a day like today. Any issues and you'll find yourself behind the ball and playing catch up all day long. Another good flight to Denver with no issues along the way and one leg to go after. Today was just long, but at least we didn't have to change planes all day. That's a big plus with things being so tight. Not having to pack up and get going saves a lot of time, but by the time I got to Denver I'd probably been sitting for close to 7 hours with another flight to. For some reason the cleaners didn't show up in Denver. We called and waited, and called again and they just didn't show up. We couldn't board the plane on time until the plane got cleaned and set up. The rest of us were just waiting. So that put us almost 20 minutes behind when we finally got going. The flight to Seattle was padded nicely and we picked up the pace for the flight. I almost got all the time made up and we parked at the gate 2 minutes late. Not good enough to meet the company goal, but it does meet the DOT definition of on time. The approach controller very nearly screwed us before the approach, he had us slowed way back and kept us high before clearing us for the approach. It took quite a bit of planning and effort to get the plane back on our normal decent profile. Controllers usually do an excellent job of timing our turns and putting us in a position to shoot the approach. If we fail to hit certain approach windows for speed, altitude and configuration we have to abort the landing and start over. And while that's a really safe and smart procedure it's a great big pain in the ass so getting back on profile prior to those approach gates is really important and sets my up for a good landing. Unstable approaches lead to unstable and uncomfortable landings. That is NOT the goal. Tomorrow will be an early morning, but it's Pacific time so it won't be so bad. I loved getting out today in the city, despite being so tired. Not sure when I'll get back again, these layovers are in usually taken by other guys because it's a good layover. Tomorrow is also go home day. I'm listed on a flight that is just unrealistic but who knows, maybe I can get on it. Much more likely I'll get the next flight an hour and a half later. I love go home day. I leave you with this view I had today. Classic Seattle tourist shot, but good nonetheless. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

05-23-2015, 09:03 AM	#131
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	The flight back from Seattle wasn't exciting, but that's not a bad thing. I was right, there was no way I was going to get on that early flight home so I sat around and killed some time and snagged a seat on the second one. That got me home by 7p. It's house project time around my home. My wife is an avid upgrader/tinkerer, gardner whatever. Right now home improvement is in the air. The boys were off school on Tuesday and they thought that perhaps they would get some free time. Well they were wrong. We had a load of mulch delivered that morning that had to be put out, but before that could happen the beds had to be cleaned, plants had to be moved and various other projects had to get done. It turned into an all day event, but it did get done. It was only a third of what we actually have planned though. I hurt for a couple days after. Thursday I left home again and headed back to Newark. Flights for me continue to be there. Everyone asks how the commute is from Cincy, and while I'd like to have a few more flights the truth is that there are enough to get where I need to go and generally I can get on without needing to sit in the jump seat more than a few times a year. Some commutes it's a battle every day and jumpseats all over. I know that it's probably going to change over time. The company is going away from the type of plane that they use on this route. That means bigger planes with more seats, but the exchange is going to be a drop in flights and opportunities to go back and forth. So one night in the crash pad where I had the place to myself. I haven't had that for a few months. It was very nice and I slept half way decent. It was a 445a wakeup for my show time. I got to the airport and sat down and started going through my updates and downloading my paperwork for the flight. It took about 30 minutes to get everything and look at it. From there I went straight to the plane to start getting it ready for the trip out to Las Vegas. We had a very full plane plane today (we almost always have a full plane.) But the flight just seemed long. Well, it was. Like 5 hrs 15 minutes long. We started picking up turbulence just west of Chicago and changed altitudes to search for a better ride. Somewhere over Denver we were able to climb back up and get above the clouds and the rides higher had smoothed out. I got an uneventful approach into Vegas, although it was a new approach that I hadn't shot before it worked out alright and we were there and done for the day. I spent part of the day doing what I like to do in Vegas, just walking around with a drink and watching people. There is never a shortage of interesting things to see and do here. Today is back across the country to DC for the layover there. My schedule for June isn't really what I was hoping for. It's going to be quite a change from what I've been getting. Training is only 3 days worth of credit and I have another trip that carries in from the end of May that's only 3 days worth. Where a good month has me with 4, 4 day trips. So they had to sandwich a lot of flying on my schedule to get me up to enough hours. I did get Father's Day off but the price to pay is 4, four day trips broken up by 2 days each and then my yearly training after all of that. But, as always, it could have been much worse. I've got a couple of red-eyes and every trip is commutable. I think I may only go to the crash pad once the entire month. It might be the first month that my investment in the crash pad won't pay for itself. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

05-24-2015, 06:25 PM	#132
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	Yesterday we were routed north of the normal route that we would have taken coming from Vegas. Instead of going south we ended up north over the Great Lakes to avoid the bad weather in the heart of the US. We were out early and in early so that's always great. I got my new molded earpieces for my headset. It's the first real investment in my headset that I've made in my entire career. Tired of the weight and pinch on my big ass head this is something that I've always wanted to try. As for right now, it's great to have sound back in my left ear. The single side ear attachment that I've been using was driving me crazy. I think I still may need to have one ear redone, it's just not comfortable yet, but they promised me that they could do that if the fit wasn't right. They don't quite block out as much cockpit noise as I had hoped, but I'm not done yet. It does take some getting used to. An earpiece really fits differently than what I've used before. I have to get used to the weight in my ears. I know that sounds funny to say but it's the truth. Today was the long day of the trip, but when I pulled up the paperwork this morning I was pleased to see that there wasn't any weather that we'd need to navigate around, nor were there any reports of turbulence or bad rides anywhere. Too bad it didn't stay like that. No, it really wasn't that bad. We just had a bit of turbulence for the first half of the flight, but once we got out over the ocean a ways it settled down and we had a nice flight to San Juan. We had an hour on the ground. The great thing about Puerto Rico is that even though it's out of the country cell service works great without roaming and you can still get Duty Free there without worrying about customs and immigration. The flight back was back along the same route. A couple storms here and there and a good ride until we got back close to the coast. We got in about 20 minutes early and called it a day after over 8 hours in the plane and 10 hours of work. Tomorrow is the easy(ier) day and it's go home day again! I snapped this shot as we were flying over the Washington Mall passing 18000 feet. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

05-26-2015, 01:17 AM	#133
britrock88 Pro Starter Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Madison, WI	I'm going to have to check your schedule against the handful of times I'm flying your airline (via Denver/Chicago) in the next couple months...

05-27-2015, 07:00 AM	#135
CraigSca Pro Starter Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Not Delaware - hurray!	Wow - had no idea each pre-flight check includes an alternate airport for landing - thought all of that was figured out on the fly. I do have a quick question for you - you mentioned maintenance variances - how often do you fly with something wrong with the airplane (obviously, non life-threatening)? Do you ever fly with a lack of redundancy? Are you allowed to? I would assume there's something wrong with the plane the majority of the time (even if it's something that has nothing to do with its ability to fly), but I've often wondered to what degree are things broken on a plane and yet still pass "ok to fly". __________________ She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! She loves you, yeah! how do you know? how do you know?

05-30-2015, 09:47 PM	#138
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	I left home last night to head to work again. It was another Friday night leaving, and another weekend, the first weekend at of the summer, away from the kids. Our Friday night is pizza and family movie night. I haven't been home for that in weeks. The routine is probably the most important thing to keeping our house running smooth, but I will tell you, that not just working, but being gone for those nights wears on you. It takes a toll on me. Family is so very important to me. We have sacraficed so much in our family to make this career work. Aviation is a high divorce rate industry. Aside from the trust issues between adults, the worrying about infidelity or what the other person is doing when you are away, it's the fact that a lot of pilots are type a, perfectionist assholes. They need to control everything. It's part of what makes us ideal for our jobs and part of what tears familes apart. The thing with traveling is that what causes strain, the distance, also brings reprieve. There was a point where I was leaving on trips so I could get some good rest when the boys were younger. That time away is so easy to resent when you are the wife, stuck at home with the kids and never able to get out. I thank God that my wife and I have the relationship that we do. You can see that all it takes is these little pits in the relationship to turn into bigger chasoms and rip the family apart. So anyway, I digress. My report time on Saturday wasn't especially early, but the Saturday schedules aren't very forgiving on commuters. The upside was I had plenty of time to myself and I knew that a decent nights sleep and a get up time around 8a should make for a quality day today. Plus who doesn't love a free hotel breakfast, no matter the quality or healthiness. Today I was off on a trip that sees me layover in DC for 3 consecutive nights, and 3 different hotels. Tonight will be our short hotel, tomorrow our mid, and then last will be our long stay hotel, downtown. By the time I got my paperwork duties done and headed to the gate it was 45 prior to departure, but there was no plane to be found. The plane came in the night before and maintenence had had it. We were just waiting for it to be towed over to the gate. They really weren't giving us a lot of time to get our stuff done as it showed up just about 30 minutes before we were to leave. On our side was that we had one of the 737-700's and by being much smaller are quicker to board and deplane. Preflight checks complete and we somehow got off the gate on time. Our taxi out was easy until ground sent me back to another controller to get some different routing. The flight today had us going to St Maarten, so the routing had to be spot on. Weather wasn't going to be a concern, but ATC has reasons. Whatever it was it was adding 10 minutes of flight time. We had to make a call to our dispatcher to give him the new route and then we all agreed that we had the fuel and things were still good to go. While it seemed like a long time we managed to get off the ground close to our expected time. Today was a beautiful flight down. There was barely any turbulence and although there wasn't much to look at keeping it easy is the name of the game. This was my first time into St Maarten. I've seen the pics and videos. If you don't know it's the place where crazy people on the beach stand behind the airplanes as they take off, or the pics where it looks like the plane is landing on the beach, because the runway is that close to it. I didn't get the landing and frankly my attention is elsewhere when we are landing but I did notice a bunch of people hanging out by the fence, taking pics and generally having fun. No layover here though, but I was not working the flight back. I couldnt. My day is capped at 8 hours of flight time schedueled and this had me at almost 8.5. So we carried a couple pilots down and then we got to ride back, in coach. No first class going back. Bummer. Anyway, I only had enough time to get off the plane and snag some Big Black Dick. It's a fun novelty of the airline business that you can buy liquor from duty free while you are working, getting some Big Black Dick in the islands is a rite of passage. Now I have to haul my Big Black Dick all over for the next 4 days. Tonight is a very short layover, hence the short stay. Tomorrow is what we call a turn. It's when you start and end somewhere, out and back. Tomorrow, I turn to Cancun and back. Another great place that I don't get to stick around to see. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam

05-31-2015, 12:06 PM	#139
claphamsa Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: non white trash MD	but you get to spend time in DC! __________________ Dominating Warewolf for 0 games! GIT R DUN!!!

06-01-2015, 06:10 PM	#140
PilotMan Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Seven miles up	Yesterday was a long day. Maybe it wasn't getting a good night's sleep that made it feel worse or some issues I have with other people I share the cockpit with on this trip, but whatever reason yesterday was long. It's nice to get lucky and avoid the nasty weather as it crosses the US. This trip hasn't had any transcons nor have we had to really deal with any weather. Flying south to Cancun was a solution to avoid all of it. We ran on schedule heading down there. I was there long enough to download my new paperwork, get outside and do the walk around and and be ready to leave again. Leaving wasn't an issue either. We flew back almost exactly the same way that we flew down there and had a nice ride and got into the gate a little early. So like I said I'm having some issues with the guy I'm flying with. I'm not going to go into great detail about it, but it's very frustrating. He is a very nice 60+ year old who has been flying a long time. He was even an accident investigator with the NTSB in the middle of all of it, but we don't click in the cockpit. In fact, he is driving me crazy. First officers are known as the chameleons of the cockpit. The Captain is the guy responsible, the guy in charge, and he will run his cockpit how he runs it. We may all do our jobs in a "standard" way but each of us certainly has a different feel for how everything goes. The first officer has to be constantly adjusting to new captains. The captain never has to get adjusted. It's his show, he does what he pleases. The first officer just gets shit done and tries to stay sane. Most times things go pretty well and you hit it off, you get into a rhythm and the whole things just flows. Other times you end up not talking unless you have to and bite your tongue because it's easier to do that than to try and explain why you don't like the way that your cockpit boss operates in the plane. This guy, despite his experience is just jumpy. I don't really know how to explain it. Jumpy and a tight micro manager. Like taking driving lessons from your mom as she chews her nails and tries to pump the imaginary brake. It's his way and no other, even if what I'm doing isn't wrong. It's still his way. It's just irritating. Like a rock in your shoe once you've started down that road you everything else just seems to be that much worse. Having said that I started today with a pretty piss poor attitude. A short flight to Hartford and back to DC on the turn was all we had, and I was done with work not long after noon. And thank god because the less I'm sitting up there with this guy the better. Take this morning for example. We were to have a crew breakfast on the first flight to Hartford. It's a very short flight and he asked when I wanted to eat. I said I'll probably eat on the turn once we get up there, knowing that I might not have much time during the flight. He finds out that they've loaded breakfasts for both legs and decides to have both breakfasts brought up to eat before the flight pushes back. The captain has loads less work to do than the FO before we leave so he has time to eat. Mine just get's cold. I finally got to eat it before we started down..cold. Then on the ground they bring the extra food up and I tell the FA I don't want mine now because I just ate, but she doesn't realize that and gets her feelings all hurt saying the captain told her to bring them up, and I tell her that I he didn't listen to me about the first meal in the first place and that it wasn't her fault I was irritated. Just blindly powering ahead with your own agenda and expecting everyone else to just fall in line and generally being clueless about things. ARRRGH! I'm done! So anyway, one more day of this and tomorrow is go home day again. My flight has plenty of seats. We have got to be on time coming back from Boston. Our layover in DC was the first downtown layover that I've had in the last 5 nights I've been here. I walked around for about 2 hours and found my down to the White House and back before the big rain hit here. It's really the only time I've been able to get out and even get a good walk in this entire trip. __________________ He's just like if Snow White was competitive, horny, and capable of beating the shit out of anyone that called her Pops. Like Steam? Join the FOFC Steam group here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FOFConSteam