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!

Enjoy your vacation bud!!

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.

Most certainly still reading.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

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.:banghead:

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.

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.

Great stuff!

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!

Love reading this and seeing the pictures and videos.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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... :D

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.


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!

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. :D

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.

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.

but you get to spend time in DC!

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.


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!

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.

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?

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.

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?

Getting to sleep without an alarm to wake you up is not overrated. I needed it. There was a little issue of the dispatcher not getting the paperwork done for us early enough. We were within an hour of our departure and the paperwork needed to be in our hands by then or it starts to impact other things. We are busy and can't simply wait all day for them to get that done or we are late.

I'll get more into the preflight here in a bit, but part of that preflight is looking at things that are already "deferred." Deferred is when something is broken but it's on one of the aforementioned lists. Those lists lay out certain checks that the pilots might have to do to verify that the correct maintenance has been done and so we can expect certain errors or operating parameters in the flight. In this case we had part of the air conditioning temperature control for the cockpit that wasn't working correctly. During out checks we found something that needed a mechanic to look at it and get it rectified. This caused us to miss our departure time by a good 25 minutes today before it got fixed. Ignoring it isn't an option. The FAA is more than willing to take your license and violate you, putting your livelihood in jeopardy, if you allow something like that to happen.

We had a bunch of extra fuel on board so burning a little extra to try and make up some time wasn't a problem today. I think we ended up in the gate around 15 minutes late.

I didn't even realize it until the Captain brought it up that we had a 3 hour break in Denver today. I killed the time by walking the terminal two times and getting some food before I headed to the gate. I was only deadheading on my next flight. Riding as a regular passenger to Phoenix. That's it for today. Tomorrow is painfully early. Pacific time or not, when my alarm says 245a it's too damn early.

So how much of the preflight is automated? Hmm, there really isn't anything thats automated except the initializing of the flight computer. The list of things that I do for the preflight is substantial. This morning was a first flight for the plane so there were a couple of extra steps to get it ready to go.

I have to get on and introduce myself to the flight attendants, chat for a moment then put my bags away and unpack some of the things like my headset, logbook, sunglasses, ipad and so on. I have to check all the circuit breakers, make sure that the fire extinguisher is charged, that all the pins for the landing gear are on the plane. Then I can sit down turn the power on the plane on. I'll get the battery, position lights and external power turned on so the plane can start to boot up.

As the plane is booting up I'll start the alignment process for part of the navigation system and initialize the flight computer. The navigation system takes a full 10 minutes to be ready to it's one of the first things that get's taken care of. As the computer gets started it starts to spit out weather information for both airports and then throughout the next twenty minutes is spits out various regular messages on everything from our ATC clearance to what things have been serviced and whether or not we have live animals or dangerous goods on the plane.

I'll keep loading the flight computer with our position, yes I have to tell it where it is so it can cross check it with the navigation system. Then I'll start to load the performance information into the computer. I'll upload the winds and set some performance parameters depending on how I want the aircraft to be set up for speeds throughout the flight. After the winds are loaded I'll do a fire test on the engines and the cargo compartment.

In order for me to have a good walk around I have to pressurize all the fuel and hydraulic lines so the fuel pumps come on, the hydraulic pumps come on and I turn on some lights so I can see in the wheel wells easier. I'll finish by setting the parking brake. I'll head outside and do the walk around checking for major damage, leaks or anything that might need checked before we go.

Most of the time, before I even head outside we've started boarding. I might say hi to the flight attendants again, hit the lav, then jump back in my seat to finish my work. By now the ATC clearance has come up and I'll finish loading the flight plan and we both have to verify the routing.

Once I'm satisfied with the flight computer set up I start my panel checks. Starting up high I run a number of switch placements checks, flight recorder, stall checks, heated probes, air conditioning. I have to make sure that the pressurization is set right for the flight then continue with switch checks, set the auto brakes and run tests on the ground proximity warning systems, traffic collision avoidance system, and weather radar. I'll finish with my oxygen mask and then finish my ipad set up for the airport.

Once I've got all that done the Captain and I run through our briefings and checklists. Often times there are numerous interruptions from issues that the flight attendants have to jump seaters coming up to the cockpit to maintenance or even if you have kids come up. By the way, I love having kids come up. It was one of my strongest influences of commercial aviation and I try very hard to make it as fun of an experience as I can. It can be very easy to miss something if you don't stay diligent. All of that has to be done in 25-30 minutes or we won't be ready on time.

The most important thing is to get a very good, strong, efficient routine. There's no hard or fast rules about exactly how everything has to be done, just that it has to be done before you can go. There's two of you up there so it's as much on the other guy as it is on you to know that everything is done and ready to go.

As repetitive as my job is and as detail focused as it it, it's extremely important that I take it that way every time. There's just too much riding on it. Like I've told some of the guys I've flown with, If I don't get to go home at the end of this trip my wife is going to be really pissed at you.

PM,

Great job still!

2 questions:
1. "Pressurization for the flight" -- Could you describe this a little more? I believe you said earlier that if you have turbulence that you can go up or down by some number of 1000 feet...

2. More importantly: Kids... As a passenger with a small child, what ages are appropriately to see the cockpit? What's the best way as a passenger to approach the flight crew about getting a look-see for him?

as a passenger with a GF who is terrified of flying...chat with people, and make lots of announcements.

So the pressure controller for the flight is automatic but we have to tell the plane what altitude to plan to pressurize it and what the altitude of the landing airport is. That way the plane makes the adjustments for the rate and pressure altitude of the cabin.

There are two main factors when it comes to the pressurization. The first being the cabin altitude or the altitude that you feel inside the cabin at altitude and the second is the pressure differential or the difference between the pressure inside and outside the plane.

At cruise almost always, the pressure inside the airplane is between 5000 and 8000 feet. Most passenger jets, at anything above 32000 feet will get you a cabin pressure of between 700-8000 feet. Of course it's going to vary here and there as the plane makes the adjustments, but these are what you will feel. There are a lot of medical issues that even being at this altitude can cause people that they are completely unaware of. A hangover for instance at altitude could actually lead you to feeling drunk again as the alcohol density in your blood goes up as oxygen density decreases. Blood pressure medication side effects can be exacerbated in the lower pressure environment and any kind of discomfort, say from dehydration (which is probably the most common issue) can lead to hyperventilation (that you may not even notice) and the associated hypoxia and light headed feelings of being sick.

The plane plans these altitudes out by calculating the differential pressure and the adjusting the desired cabin altitude as the pressure differential increases. It also controls the pressure in the decent. Most of the newer planes now have great pressure controllers and rarely will you experience a change in pressure of greater than 500/ft per minute. This is comparable to driving down a steep hill, when you might feel your ears pop. The only difference is that in a plane you are coming from say 8000 to sea level, where in a car you may only be coming down the 500 feet. That's why any sort of sinus blockage can cause significant pain. Older planes were not able to make such slow changes and hence sinus pain was generally more often and more painful.

As for getting your kids into the cockpit, I can't think of anyone who won't give some time. Your best chance is to try and board the plane as soon after boarding has started, try and pre-board if possible. Then politely ask the flight attendant if it might be possible for your son to go and see the cockpit. They will generally ask the pilots for permission and then let you go. Be prepared and have your camera ready. Most times one of the pilots will get up and let the child into their seat, talk to them, let them move the controls, that sort of thing. Nothing is guaranteed, but pilots generally are very welcoming to guests. There aren't any regulations or restrictions as long as we aren't actually flying or close to it. The only issue generally is time and how busy they are. That's why getting on early is your best bet. You may also have some success in trying this after the flight if you talk to the pilot, but many times the crew has taken off to their next plane by the time you may get to the front.

As for the appropriate age I'd say old enough that he could talk and get in and out of the seat on his own. That's about it. There is no upper age restriction on it. We really know it's all for you. :)

And I've had terrified adults come up to the cockpit just to meet and chat with the pilots and ask questions just so they can feel more comfortable. That's not a problem either.

Then there was that whole Liza Minnelli encounter I had a few years ago. She just wanted us to see if we could descent gently because she was having problems with her sinuses and was afraid of the pain.

OMG. That was the worst flight of my life... MSP - HNL (yeah, destination awesome). I had a raging head cold on that flight. I thought my head was going to explode during that landing, and to top it off, I had back spasms the next day that wiped out a snorkeling event as my sister wisely pointed out: "Better to spend one day in bed resting, than the next 12"...

So yeah, it was early, not super duper ridiculous early for this east coast boy, but early enough. It was a gorgeous morning in Phoenix I snapped this pic of the sunrise with Camel Back in the background.



Early Sunday morning flights are almost always quiet. There is a lot less traffic this time of the day and since the sun is still down the rides are almost always good. If the visibility would have been better it would have been perfect. As it was, it was still a pretty good flight. We blocked into Houston early with an hour til our next flight to Ft Lauderdale.

Our flight was already showing a 30 minute delay and it was inbound from Punta Cana, so it had to clear customs before we could get on board. We got off the gate as quick as we could (25 minutes late) and with a painless taxi out to the runway we were off. Again, no issues going into Lauderdale. And with a very short taxi to the gate we ended up being only 7 minutes late.

Looking forward to my "long" 14 hour layover. It's not too often that a layover as short as this one is, is the long layover. It's been a busy trip, tomorrow morning is going to be another very early get up, but it's go home day, so there's reason to be excited.

We all know the drill on go home day. We know the flight has to get out on time because we want to get home, and those of us with say 30 minutes to get out our connecting flight and change terminals get there start to get antsy if things aren't going our way. That didn't happen though as we got off the gate 10 minutes early and off the ground just 14 minutes early. That head start gave me enough time to get where I needed to be and with a seat I was on my way home.

The wakeup was the earliest of the trip and I felt it. Each day had gotten progressively earlier as we went from the west coast back to the east and like a Friday for those who work 9-5 my body knew it and I was done as I slept half the flight home.

This crazy month continues. I've finished 2 of the 4, four day trips for the month and then there's the matter of training after all that. The next trip is coming later this week and my days off are are short and flying by.

Bidding for July is also done. I've got another couple days left to modify my bid but July is a tricky month to bid. My birthday and the 4th are the two main "events" for the month, but I'm trying to bid the end of the month (first few and last few in a block of days) off instead. Since I likely can't hold a big block of days in the middle combining two smaller blocks at the end of one and the beginning of the next can give me the same effect. The Mrs. are trying to make plans to get away as a couple but in order to get the days off I need I'm going to have to give up the 4th as an option. I don't usually mind if I work the 4th. If I'm working at night and the sky is mostly clear the view is incredibly unique and ever changing. Imagine a stadium of flash bulbs popping across the earth.

So now the waiting for that begins. Another week until I know if I can plan a get away trip at the end of June. It's kind of ridiculous.

Good luck, and I hope we get a chance to see a little of the July 4 view!

I demand pictures of this. I think I had the oppurtunity to fly once on one of the fireworks holidays and it was pretty cool watching fireworks from 32000 feet.

Flew into Newark this afternoon for tonight's all night flight to San Francisco. I call these flights "reverse red eyes" because we don't leave quite as late, but the flights are a full hour longer than coming from the west to the east. I tried out our new sleeping room in our operations area and I was pretty impressed. The sleeping beds weren't very comfortable for someone my size but the spaces available were pretty good. I took a pic, but it'll have to wait til later.

Tonight's flight is 6 hours and 6 minutes, and thanks to the weather across the midwest we'll be flying over my home state of North Dakota on our way out west. And to jump start our late night the plane is late inbound so we probably won't be on time getting out of here.

I was trying to get myself ready while I was at home by staying up pretty late, but it wasn't enough. These flights wear me out. When was the last time you ate dinner at midnight? This trip is also interesting in that tonight and tomorrow are both late nights and then we start the last day at 630 in the morning. So I'll be jumping all over the clock. But it's essentially part of what I bid for, trips I can get to and from work on the same day. So the means have to justify the ends.

I forgot to add that today marked my 2 yr anniversary with the company. I got a nice pay raise to celebrate it. Only 25 years to go till I retire.

Just caught up on this. It's really good stuff, I appreciate your taking the time and effort to do it.

We left Newark almost 45 minutes late, but with some rerouting enroute we cut that to 30 in the gate. I won't lie. This was a hard flight. It had just been a long day. I got to the hotel around 430a and that was the beginning of my screwed up sleep schedule.

The next day I thought "hey, you should get out and walk around, or eat, do something," but all I could manage was to sit in my room hooked up to Football Manager. I really should have done something else, but motivation had been sapped. Our layover was only 12 hours before we had to be back out the door to the airport.

The next flight was another transcon flight. This time to Boston. ATC had rerouted us pretty far north again. On paper it looks very out of the way when you fly up over North Dakota and Canada, but part of that was weather avoidance and part of that was great circle route stuff.

Just before we shut the door the gate agent comes up to the cockpit and tells us that a lady has hit another lady in the back and that she's being very disruptive and that he is taking her off the plane. That's really all I know about it. I didn't look back and didn't get any further information. When we are hooked up to the jet bridge that's above my pay grade. The gate agent is the person in charge of all of that.

This was a fun flight. I took a bunch of pictures and for the first time that I can remember we flew over places that are special to me and the weather was good enough for some good pics.



Climbing out over San Francisco. You can see across Downtown, the Bay Bridge, and Oakland across the bay. You can also see the fog layer drifting into the bay. That area it's covering is where the Golden Gate Bridge is. If you look close you can just see a spec of the top of it poking through.



The Great Salt Lake and Great Basin. One area that I've not spent much time. I just learned that all the water that drains into the lake can only escape through evaporation. It does not drain to an ocean.



This is just a sweet picture of the Grand Tetons. One of my favorite places in the world. I have many fond memories of camping here and in Yellowstone. I guarantee you this is an angle of the mountains that you don't normally see.



This is kind of a crappy picture of Bismarck. My hometown. It was on the wrong side of the plane for me and this was as close as I could get. The arrow is pointing to the airport in Bismarck, the site of my first job ever. Working in the Ice Cream Shop for the summer during an Airstreamer Convention.



Here's Fargo. That yellow arrow points to the Fargodome, home of the Back to Back to Back to Back FCS National Football Champion NDSU Bison. We are north of the city here looking south. As you go south from there you have the campus of NDSU, where I graduated from, and across the street from the Fargodome and along the arrow is University Village, where I lived while I was there. This town looks like it's grown a lot since I was there.



Sunset. I'm still trying to get that really awesome sunset pic. It's a little harder when you are flying east and the sun is behind you, but here you can still see a wide array of colors of the spectrum. I like the little faint line of green on the left of the picture.

So that was that. We landed in Boston around 1230a with all day Saturday to get recovered. At this point I've been flying for over 11 hours, in the plane for over 13 hours of the previous 28. So what do you do with a day off in Boston? There are plenty of options here, but I've never been to Fenway and the Red Sox happen to be in town. Plus it's only 2.5 miles from the hotel, a great day for a walk, and the Gay Pride Parade is happening as well. People everywhere, a good atmosphere and baseball. It made for a great day today.



I will say that the seats I had were not designed for anyone of my size to sit in them comfortably. I've heard about the seats in Fenway, but wow, 6'4", 290 pound guys need to buy the seat and the seat in front just to put their legs. Still the people were nice. It was a great afternoon.

Tomorrow is a pretty long day. I start off heading for Chicago and hope to end up at home by the end of it.

For those that don't know Bismarck: as crappy as PM's picture may be, a better-quality shot wouldn't have shown you much more than you can see already. :p

Glad you got to fly an enjoyable route, PM! :)

Great pics!

I still can't get over how early the sun comes up in Boston. Cincinnati is in the Eastern time zone, but we are on the far western edge. Under no circumstance should the sun be full up at 5 am. None.

The first flight today was off to Chicago where the weather looked like it had the potential to cause some issues for us. We loaded up and pushed back. After we got the engines started and ran the checklists we ran into a problem. Here's a heads up for travelers. After the plane pushes back and it seems like you've been sitting there for a while not moving one of a couple things is happening. First, you might just be stuck in a traffic jam and need to wait for your turn, or it's also likely that you've got a mechanical. They require some extra checklists and a phone call. So that was us this morning. It ended up being something that we were ok to continue with. Once we got going ATC had a slight delay to Chicago and that was just enough to put us a bit behind schedule.

Airborn we tried to make some adjustments to get a couple minutes back, but it wouldn't be enough. Shortly we got to cruise ATC had a weather reroute that would take us north of Toronto into Canada, adding almost 7 minutes to our flight time and guaranteeing a late arrival. We kept truckin' along until ATC slowed us down to keep the 20 mile spacing behind another flight also heading to Chicago. Chicago had heavy rain and while arrivals were slowed a bit it didn't impact us other than having to shoot an instrument approach and land with the wipers on. It was my leg and it wasn't easy to see through the rain, even with the wipers on.

After we landed we were supposed to have an hour to get to the next plane, heading to New Orleans. That plane was delayed inbound by 20 minutes so an on time outbound wasn't going to happen. I needed our flight to be kind of on time as I was a scheduled passenger on a flight to Washington DC about an hour after we were scheduled in in New Orleans. That plane came in and everything was done and ready as quick as we could. We pushed off somewhere around 30 minutes after our scheduled time and headed out. The rain had passed for the most part so we had nothing to delay us out. That was good news for me. It made sure that I'd have no problem getting on my flight to DC. We ran into a little line of developing thunderstorms that was just north of Pontchartrain that had to be navigated around. Here's what I was looking at from the cockpit:



We were already on decent for the airport and here you can see a pretty well developed and developing cell on the right and another lesser developed on the left. The hole that we are pointing toward is going to fill in eventually, it's only a matter of time, but we would be find. Thunderstorms are their most severe when they have that popped popcorn look. It signifies very strong updrafts as the storm continues to build. It will build until it can no longer support the moisture and then it will start to rain. After it's begun to rain, that's when you'll see the anvil top of a fully developed and dissipating storm. Thunderstorms build, blow up and blow out over and over again. These are still developing and we did our best to avoid them. They don't look like that much in the picture, but the clouds here are over 20,000 feet tall. Major thunderstorms regularly top 40 and sometimes 45,000 feet, while in the tropics they can reach upwards of 60,000 feet.

I was originally supposed to dead head (remember scheduled passenger, paid) to Newark, but our company has a policy that you are allowed to change your destination if it's the last leg of your trip and essentially get a ticket to go home. So that's what I did. It's crazy but today the easiest way for me to get home from New Orleans was to go through DC and then catch a flight home. I even got upgraded to first class for the flight to DC.

There were no issues with my flight to Cincy today either. I landed around 730 and headed home. I had been working for over 14.5 hours and flown from Boston to Chicago to New Orleans to Washington DC and finally to Cincinnati. I was gassed from the flying and gassed from the early morning. Frankly I'm surprised I'm even typing this right now.

I mentioned at the beginning of the trip that I tried out the new sleeping room in our operations in Newark. This is the ultra insiders look at it. The room is dark with some downlights on the floor, but you can see the general layout. This picture shows about 33% of the total space so you can see it's got plenty of room. I'll definitely use it again.



While I was home this week my kids started a week long Aeronautics camp at the local university. My middle son impressed one of the teachers so much that he asked if he could mentor him when he gets to high school. My son wants to pursue a path that somewhat mirrored this teachers and he wants to help him get as far down that path as possible. That's very rewarding to hear as a father. I was bumming on this trip because I missed parent day, where we could see what they worked on in the class and I missed the airport tour, complete with a flightline tour of a Cessna 172 and a tower tour at the original Cincinnati Airport, Lunken Field. Mark it down as more missed things courtesy of the career. Nothing is perfect, money has to be made and try as I might to be home for every single important thing there is just no way to make it all work every time. I still get to be a proud dad though. I'm just not sure if I want either of my children to think about a career flying an airplane. I'd be happiest if the middle one stuck to his plan of engineering no matter what field within that he chooses.

Hear hear!

Growing up in Dayton (1 hour due north of Cincinnati), the sun during summer should always be up until after 9 pm...

On a dynasty related note: PM, I flew through Chicago yesterday morning 6-9.30 am layover.. So close, yet so far...

I got to do my first go around... What causes things like that? We were on final and just about to land when you feel the full power and steep ascent happen. I had 3.5 hours, so i didn't care...

and in a strange twist of airline scheduling:

LAX-ord: one flight scheduled for 11.00 pm delayed for 90 minutes.
the other (mine) scheduled at 11:59 pm. So we arrived 30 minutes before a flight that was supposed to leave an hour earlier..


Finally, is it common knowledge who the company is?

I don't think it's mentioned explicitly. But PM's based out of Newark/EWR--that's a sufficient breadcrumb.

I'd say it's common knowledge, but like britrock said, it's never been named and it won't be.


Really? I was there! We got in from Boston at 8a and I was gone to MSY by 930! How about so close, yet so close!


It can happen for any number of reasons. The absolute, most common reason though is loss of separation with the plane in front of you. Either from the plane you are following to the runway, or if the controller cleared a plane for takeoff and they didn't get off the runway before you needed it. So those instances are generally started because of ATC.

If it's not that then it was a decision by the pilots to execute a go around. Pretty much anything that might put the plane into an unsafe position to land could force a go around. Some examples might be too high/low on approach, poor speed control, loss of lateral guidance. It could be weather related. A windshear warning at the airport for your runway might do it, or a drop in visibility that would make the approach illegal. Of course, if the landing gear didn't come down, you'd end up going around as well. ;)



It happens all the time. It just always seems like you're on the losing end.

I'm really struggling tonight. I have to leave again early tomorrow morning and I just don't want to go. I just haven't been home enough and the grind is really getting to me. Another 4 days on the road doesn't sound fun right now. I know that once I get going it'll be ok, but damn, that doesn't make me feel any better right now. Just kind of down tonight.

I know this is getting to sound like a broken record, but today was another long day. Up before 4 for the commute to Newark.

A National Weather Service weather computer crashed causing delays this morning. Basically, flights have to have the most current weather in order to be legal to depart. That weather can be electronic or something as simple as a brief from a flight service station over the phone. Some companies, such as mine, have their own meteorology department, others get their information from the National Weather Service or other places. When this computer went down it basically put flights on hold that needed that information in order to depart. So we were delayed. It got to the point that I called the company because if this went on for a while longer I was going to be in real danger of not making my flight.

Thankfully, it was resolved after an hour and we were under way. By the time I got to work I had just enough time to grab some food, download my paperwork and get to the plane without really needing to rush.

I started off the day with a flight to Minneapolis. Weather into MSP was not great, there were scattered storms here and there that we navigated around and the last 20 minutes of the flight were pretty turbulent. I won't lie, I had a good landing. We kept the airplane and turned back around and headed for Chicago next.

We got out of MSP at the right time as another thunderstorm was bearing down on the airport as we were heading out. No major issues going into Chicago and we weren't done yet.

One of the great things about today was not having to change planes one time. Having your stuff out and just leaving it out and not having to mess wtih all that is a massive time saver. Our last fight sent us back to Minneapolis to finish the day. The weather in MSP had gone downhill, heavy rain, thunderstorm over the field, etc. It was predicted to improve before we got there though. The only issue would be if there were going to be delays or any kind of ground stop heading there.

We lucked out and were on our way. We dodged around some smaller storms inbound and my landing was sub-par, but a landing you can walk away from is a good landing so I won't dwell on it too much. lol

I spent a good part of the evening wandering around the Mall of America. I've done many laps around this place over the years. Staring with college and taking day trips down here from Fargo to the many times I've laid over here and killed time. It's a place of comfort. eh, that probably sounds crazy.

I think that in this job you have to have a bit of introvert in you, but you have to be able to fake being an extrovert a lot. As the only child of a single mom, I spend a lot of time by myself. I dont' mind being alone, but I can tell you that this job will bring out the crushing loneliness of being alone. Just being on the road as much as I have lately and not getting enough family time is kicking my ass right now.

You'd think that being around so many people all day that wouldn't happen, but it's not as if I'm hanging around with friends. Just some random collection of other people who I've never met before and may never see again. Aside from the cockpit, it's pretty impersonal. Even in the cockpit though, unless you really click with each other, it's just not there either.

The July schedule came out today! Remember I said I bid the maximum of 20 different bids in an effort to maximize just what I wanted? Well I ended up with #11, which isn't terrible! Basically I got the majority of what I asked off for. I've got some time between trips and the best part of all of it is that I don't have to take either proposed trip off the table! Everything can just keep moving in the right direction.

Sadly though, you wont' get any July 4th nighttime flight videos. I get to San Francisco before noon and have a full 24 hours off. So what's to do in SF on July 4th?

i had a colleague on a flight from msp to ord today. he landed in ord between 7 and 8 pm//

Today I was planning to jet back to Chicago from Minneapolis first thing this morning. We were over half done with boarding when we got a message from operations that there was a ground stop to Chicago due to heavy fog and low visibility. It wasn't super low, just 1/2 mile vis and about 300 overcast, which is right down to the minimums for a standard instrument approach. So nothing to get too excited about, but it was enough that Chicago went into this delay program.

Like I've mentioned before, stopping inbound traffic when the airport can no longer handle the arrival rates keeps planes from holding and diverting en route. They had an "update" time of an hour later. An update time means that no further information will be given within the time frame and they will reevaluate in one hour and from there they can either extend the ground stop of end it.

But mostly, thats bull, they extend stops and end them within that time frame if the conditions improve of fail to. This is usually the time that I hear "this is crazy! I'm never flying "bumfuck" airlines again because this happens ALL THE TIME!" You can rest assured that all of this happens well above my pay grade and that I'm only passing along the information that I have. I may give opinions on what I think may happen next based on my experience, but that's all it is, pure opinion. This is also the time I hear that we aren't communicating well enough or that nobody knows whats going on, but in reality, that's all the information that there is and people just can't accept that that's all there is to it.

So the ground stop extended beyond that hour for another 45 minutes. Then they call us and tell us that we have a wheels up time in 10 minutes. Of course they don't know that we are at the gate, not boarded up, and it's going to take time to fix that. Sometimes you'll have a crew that will board up early and go sit at the runway and try and wait it out. With the limitations on how long passengers can be on the plane on the ground it's a gamble. Sometimes it works and you can get going faster or sometimes it backfires and you have to go back to the gate, deplane and reboard.

We boarded up and had no further delays. The weather had cleared out by the time we got to Chicago, but by now we were 1h45m late. We were scheduled to switch planes and take another plane to Dallas for the layover. That flight was supposed to leave 45 minutes before we even got to Chicago.

After we parked, I packed up and the Captain and I decided that we'd better stop and grab some food because there were no meals on this flight to Dallas. I told him that I was sure that we'd get to the gate and the plane would be boarded up and they'd all be sitting there waiting for us to show up. Well we did get there, just as they were finishing the boarding.

I was supposed to have lunch with my Dad in Dallas before he went to work, but with the delay that plan had to be nixed. It took us about 30 minutes to get everything caught up and ready to go. We actually did pretty good at getting everything up and running. The biggest challenge in this situation is trying to avoid rushing. Staying steady, deliberate and maintaining the normal routine to get everything set up. Giving in to the pressure to rush simply invites trouble. It can set you up for failure or a mistakes that while small might lead to bigger mistakes. Patience and discipline will keep it all together.

If you've seen the weather map lately you are aware of the tropical depression, or now the low pressure system that has been making it's way up from the south. That low is driving a lot of moisture as it spins. All that added up to some really crappy rides from Chicago, south. We were supposed to be at 34000, but went to 32000, then to 30000 then to 28000, then to 26000 and back up to 28000. It wasn't until we passed south of Oklahoma City that we found any smooth air.

So this was the long layover, that was shortened by almost 2 hours already. Then the ride to the hotel was made extra long with Dallas traffic. I guess there had been an accident and our trip was doubled. The nice thing was that my Dad was able to make it down and we had dinner. It's the first time that I'd seen him in 9 months.

Another silly early report time this morning (430a in Dallas) to work a flight to Denver to start the day. I've completely lost track of what day of the week it is. Each week has progressively gotten more mixed up and more mixed up, until yesterday I really had no idea. And I have a watch that tells me!

This morning's flight was very nice. We climbed out to a beautiful sunrise and I was somewhat thankful that we weren't heading east and directly into it.



We landed in Denver and parked, unloaded and packed up to switch planes for our next flight. I had about 30 minutes to kill so I walked around and went to ops. Nothing terribly exciting at all. The next destination and my second to last real flight of the month took me out to Seattle. This was the nicest flight that I've had in over a week. Glass smooth, good views absolutely no issues whatsoever.

I took this great shot of Mt Rainier. It's a very intimidating mountain in looks and just how it towers over everything else. We were on time into the gate and I headed for the hotel. I've got to get some sleep this afternoon. Another red-eye awaits me tonight as I head back to Newark and then home tomorrow. I'm excited to be home for Father's Day and a weekend. My only weekend of the month.

even if this wasn't awesome...its worth it just for the pics!

Thanks for the encouragement! I need it after last night. The inbound flight was delayed out of Newark and we didn't see it until we were already heading to the airport. That flight got in over 90 minutes late so I just had to sit and wait it out. After they got in we tried to go quickly and get moving, it being the last leg of the trip but we ended up waiting on fuel. I swear that was the slowest fueling of my life. We needed 30,000 lbs and it was going in about 100 pounds every 5 seconds. So we just sat there....waiting.

Once we got moving things went quick and we got out of there. We knew that there was some pretty severe weather over the Dakotas and we were supposed to fly north over Minot past it. The reports from the previous crew said it was bumpy and over central Montana our dispatcher sent us a number of pilot reports from other aircraft that had gone over the same area. They ranged from severe to occasional moderate turbulence. With a plane full of sleeping passengers the goal was to keep the ride as easy as possible. We were already flying as fast as we could and asked dispatch to come up with an alternate route.

Instead of our routing going over Minot we were now heading for Nebraska and over Rapid City. Even that routing saw us deviate even further south until we finally past that nasty weather. For the most part the ride was good. There were areas that weren't great but nothing on the order that we might have faced had we stayed on our northerly routing. We heard Minneapolis having a hard time with things. The weather had shut off a number of their arrivals and they were reporting holding times of an hour or more. I heard a few planes simply head to their alternates because they couldn't hold that long.

This flight seemed to take forever. Getting up and midnight and then not even getting to leave until after 3a (body clock time) is never easy.

Now I'm stuck in part two of this adventure...trying to get home. There are only 3 direct flights out of here today, 130p, 430p and 530p. The first one was my original plan, even though we were scheduled to get in at 730a. Then I saw the flight fill up and my name slide down the stand by list. So I decided that I'd try and go through Charlotte, but our delay caused me to miss that flight. Flights to Chicago look terrible and at this point any 2 leg flight doesn't really get me home any earlier than the first direct does. My hope now is that I get that first direct flight home. I will probably need to sit up front again. If I can't get that one I'll have to wait around for the next couple. I think that the second flight has at least a couple seats available. For now though I'm going to try and catch a nap and cross my fingers that this 3 hours to wait for the next flight will be worth it and I can just go home. I'm tired.

A total of 16 hours after my day started. I'm home. The first flight worked out to be the right choice and I was able to crash in a recliner for an hour in ops too. The next trip out is Tuesday morning for my yearly requalification (2-day event) in Houston. Father's Day is tomorrow and I'm excited to actually be home. We were planning on going to the local minor league baseball game tomorrow, but the weather doesn't look like it's going to help out there so I don't know what the next plan will be. I'm just happy to be home again.

It always feels like this when I get home again:

Thirty Seconds To Mars - City Of Angels (Lyric Video) - YouTube

so, my friday:
Go to Airport at 1.45ish.
Desk Agent: Are you interested in volunteering to be bumped.. Get you to LA 1-2 hours later..
me: Well....

didn't need anyone to get bumped on the first flight...

SEcond flight home to La from ORD... Catastrophe.. Cancelled mechanical..

REscheduled: ORD-SFO landing at 10.40pm. SFO-LAX departing at 10.30pm... Umm.. Hello?

Anyway.. Made it to hat flight to LAX as they were delayed via mechanical, as well...

Got home.. Almost died as i was too tired to really drive and had to stop in a parking lot for a n hour...

Yeah, that stuff over the Dakotas was no joke. It was a derecho with 80mph winds, flash flooding, a lot of downed trees, some torn roofs. Then there was another front yesterday that forced me to pull over on I-94 for a little while. Glad you made it back!

Finally, I've reached the finish line of this scheduled that I've been on the last few weeks. I've been on the road for 19 of the last 27 days and it's worn me thin. It's the nature of summer flying in the airline business. Schedules get more hectic and the pressure to work is doubled up on by having the kids home on summer break. It's been a slog to get this far, but I'll admit it's going to pay off. Literally.

I flew down to Houston yesterday for my yearly requalification training, generally called "recurrent." The idea is to get crews in the simulator doing things that they have to be able to do, but probably haven't done in a while or ever in the last year. It's a 2-day event and it used to be coupled with classroom ground school, but that has been replaced with the computer distance learning. So what the hell do you do for training?

Crews are paired up so I'm working with another Captain also based in Newark. Day one starts off with a 2 hour brief where the instructor goes over specific items that have been decided ahead of time, usually via analytical analysis of data and safety reports. Together, with the Union, the company creates a training schedule with hot topics and things that are going to be checked and refreshed. The FAA also mandates that certain things be accomplished every year so those are added in as well. The instructor gives us an idea of where we will be flying and what approaches will need to be accomplished, what maneuvers have to be done and the rough outline of the timeline for executing the ride.

Once the briefing is done we have a few minutes to go to the sim and get our stuff set up, generally the same way that we would in the real plane. In fact, one of the things I try and do is approach everything the exact same way each time. The routine of it helps the mindset for the flight. The sim is the sim however, and while it's certified to be an exact replica of the plane it has enough differences in how it handles and feel that you notice it. After everything is set up we go through the normal set up and preflight that we would in the plane. All the checks and checklists, weights, calls etc. Then we'll get fast forwarded to the end of the runway where the real work starts.

The Captain takes the first half of the ride. So when I say this I mean he is flying, he is being primarily evaluated and trained, but the cockpit is still a two person job, and I still have all the non flying pilot duties to attend to. Sometimes those are much busier than simply flying. So even though he starts we are both heavily involved. His takeoff is at min visibility, he get's a distraction that has us continue the climb out. We climb up to do some air work, namely stalls and steep turns. We take turns so we both can get our evaluations. From there we continue on and step through a security scenario where the result has us divert back to our departure airport where we have to set up for an approach that we don't shoot that often. All of our landings and missed approaches are with direct crosswinds at or near approach minimums. Some approaches are designed to have us land others to have us go around. We do another takeoff that results in an abort. Another low vis take off that results in an engine failure at the most critical point of the takeoff. All the checklists and emergency procedures that have to be followed are done, some of these take quite a while. Then that's followed by a couple of single engine approaches to a landing and one to a go around. The company also has some other specific events that they like to train, that were briefed in prior. This year happened to be some windshear escape maneuvers, a landing with flaps less than 30% extended, and an emergency decent. It's all pretty exhausting. Two hours for his flight, a short break and then it's my turn for a similar, but not identical ride. It's not merely good enough to struggle through all of these, there is a lot of communication and tolerances that cannot be exceeded. If they are, or if something isn't done good enough then it's got to be redone until it is.

When we are done it's a short debrief session to talk about everything and go over the things that we missed, did right/wrong. And a chance to ask more questions and generally discuss anything pertaining to the ride.

Day 2 is a little different. It's what we call a Line Oriented Evaluation. The instructor who is with us this day isn't teaching. He is evaluating. His job is to determine if we are doing things the right way, the safe way, the standard way, and making good decisions in the meantime. He is the guy with the power to take you off line, disqualify you from flying and so on. However, this ride is geared around a normal timed leg and flight to a destination planned ahead of time. Just like it would be on a normal schedule. So while it's important it's not as hectic and action packed as the day before. It's about doing your job the way you do it every day. It's not a big deal if that's how you operate every day. Generally there are a couple of "incidents" that happen on the flight that require some work and communication. We start with another 2 hour brief that isn't just about the flight but a chance for the evaluator to check your knowledge of the plane and the limitations and memory items associated with it. The flight is then scheduled for 4 hours and it'll take most of that. Hopefully, it's a happy ending and I can call myself qualified for another year.

So yesterday went as well as I had hoped. The Captain and I worked well together and he had some very flattering things to say about yours truly. Basically that I flew the plane very well and that I was very easy to work with in the cockpit. He said that I communicated clearly and efficiently and was a pleasure to work with. So my big head just keeps getting bigger.

The checking instructor had kudos for us as well, saying that we exceeded expectations and passed us with no issues. So this whole event is done for another year. I hopefully won't have to worry about the things that we did in the sim happening for real, but if they do I will be ready!

So yeah, the sim is a love/hate relationship. It's a great opportunity for learning when you are learning a new plane or just receiving general instruction. It can be insanely exhausting as one thing upon another happens and you struggle to keep it all together. It can be stressful when you are expected to perform to a certain level of proficiency and you just can't seem to pull it together. The stress can build as you fight with yourself to do better, to keep it together mentally while performing physically. You can fly a single engine approach over and over and over again until you get it right, so many more times than you could for real in the plane. The sim condenses everything and forces you to stay focused on what you are doing and where you are. In the end though you always get to walk away. It can be fun at times as well, but it's certainly where a lot of the money is made.

I'm now home for some well deserved time off. This was one of the breaks that the Mrs and I were going to try and get away with some friends of ours but that plan fell through. We still have the plans at the end of July/first of August time in the works, pending my days off in August. My bed is happy to have me back again.

So my big shock of the day was finding out that Shipley Do-nuts (and another favorite of mine Panchitos Mexican) in the B terminal is closing next week. I'm assuming because some larger entity is forcing them out for more expensive food options. No matter what it's crushing. These doughnuts are possibly some of the best I've ever had and I'm sad that they won't be there anymore. So I bought 2 dozen of them and brought them home for everyone to enjoy. Sorry, but you can't have one. ;)

Now I'm hungry for doughnuts :(

Congrats on your work in Houston. Glad it went well and you received such positive feedback.

Listened yesterday to a podcast whose topics of the week was Air France 447. Essentially it talked about the dangers of automation and how the crash happened because the pilots didn't realize the autopilot had changed from fly by wire, didn't realize they were in a stall and so they didn't correct. Don't know if you know that about that or have thoughts about pilots being in control vs autopilot but thought I would throw it out there. The podcast (which I think is really good) can be found at: Children of the Magenta (Automation Paradox, pt. 1) | 99% Invisible

There was a whole lot going on in that cockpit that is beyond the understanding of most of the non-aviation world. I don't fly the Airbus, but I'm somewhat familiar with the limitations and rules that they put in place. To start with this writer's use of the term "fly-by-wire" is wholly incorrect. The writer is trying to say that the laws and automation make it fly-by-wire, when in reality the term means "by electronic control." Let me explain.

Most planes going back as far as the first are controlled by a pulley and cable system used to control the different surfaces of the airplane. This set up works great on smaller planes. Larger and heavier planes are incredibly hard to control with this setup. The inputs necessary to fly the plane solely by cables are damn near impossible to manage. Now it can be done, and it's great as a backup, but let me tell you, it's really, really challenging.

So all modern jets have some other form of hydraulic control mechanism that can adjust the amount of force depending on airspeed and so on to allow for more accurate control. In the event of hydraulic failure the plane can still fly on the cables. Well as time goes on and multiple redundant hydraulic systems are put on planes the safety margin gets much bigger. Now you can save weight by getting rid of the cable and pulley system and use a straight electrical system to simulate the feel for the pilot and then the pilots inputs are sent to the control surfaces electronically. It's lighter, there are still redundant controls so it's not any more dangerous. This is fly-by-wire. Not what ever this guy is trying to say.

One of the biggest issues that these guys had in the cockpit was a failure to define who was doing what. Both of these guys were first officers. The Captain was taking his break. When their pitot tubes froze they failed to follow standard procedures to keep the plane in a stable state. It's been repeated many times in the sim that if they had just stuck to the procedures none of it would have happened.

Once they were in the shit, the lesser experienced of the two pilots sort of froze up. He was unable to get control of the plane back and told the other guy to take over. This Airbus has side sticks. They move independently of one another as opposed to the yolks you find on most other planes that are linked so when one guy moves the controls, both sets of controls move. The guy in the other seat always knows what you are doing. That wasn't the case here. The problem though was that the lesser experienced guy, the guy who had just told the other pilot to fly, was in the left seat. He didn't completely relinquish control and kept pulling back and pulling back on the stick, even after he had told the other guy to take over. His controls are designed to be able to override the inputs of the right seat. So the plane kicked itself out of some of it's protections when it noticed the significant control input differences between the two sticks.

The guy in the left seat, who was scared, froze up, didn't tell the other guy what he was doing. The guy in the right seat is trying to size up the situation but none of his inputs are working either because he doesn't know that the guy in the left seat has overridden his controls. They aren't working together because they are both still trying to fly the plane. By the time the Captain gets up there it's way too late. He is still trying to assess the situation but he realizes that they have no airspeed and have no altitude left to recover the plane.

I don't lay this crash at the feet of automation. I lay it at training. You don't see this type of thing in the US (much, not saying it can't happen, but it's a much different environment otherwise), but you do see it in foreign countries where pilots are trained more rote repetition rather than the more complete thinking assessing, communication and teamwork. You'll find guys who can fly the airplane day in and day out under most circumstances, but struggle in an emergency. Also these long haul flights are very different than say what you find in domestic operations in the US. On a domestic trip I might do 1 or 2 landings a day, or 4 for a 4 day trip. There are up to 4 pilots scheduled on these long haul flights and only 1 of them will takeoff and land. So over a trip the captain and first officer might get 1 landing each, while the relief pilots get none. In order for the relief pilots to even stay current they have to go back to simulator training every 3 months just to get the required 3 take offs and landings. It's very easy for your skills to decline when you aren't using them.

This is a perfect example of a training failure:

Flight captain: 'Wow, pulled back the wrong throttle' - CNN.com

Back at it again.

I know that I was home for over a week, and we had tried to plan a trip with some friends to Florida to get away for a couple of days but that plan fell through.

We did get to attend the wedding of an old friend of ours. They had planned their wedding in advance, but the Supreme Court decision just happened to come down the day before so it made it that much better. Got to catch up with an old co-worker that we hadn't seen in 15 years so that was good. But the main part of the time off was finishing a shed project that we had had in the works since early this spring. It involved hauling and spreading close to a ton of rock and paver stones, and then actually putting the stupid thing together.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the handiest guy. Hell, my wife is handier than I am but some projects are only possible when the big guy takes charge and this was one of them. We got it built in between rain storms. Good god, when is this rain pattern going to end? The ground is so soggy it feels like you are stepping on a sponge. I haven't even been able to season my new grill yet! It just sucks to be outside right now.

Today I got to experience one of the joys of holiday travel as the number of direct flights to Newark was cut from 7 to 2 with the last leaving home at noon. My showtime is very early tomorrow morning, but still, I'm pretty much blowing my day off today to fly to Newark so I can work tomorrow.

I should also be hopping the train to Manhattan just to hang out and go look around, but my motivation level for it just isn't there. Besides, I've got this dynasty to keep updated!

Either way, I've found myself back into FM14 again, picking up an old save that I've run for 12 years now. It's so freaking addicting. I feel like I'm answering that question, "so PilotMan, you've had a quite a break since you last stepped into the plane. How do you think you'll respond?" So it's either going to be "We have enjoyed the break and feel invigorated because of it," or "We may have some rust that we'll have to shake off so we'll just have to deal with it." Lol.

Tomorrow though holds a lot of potential if everything goes according to plan. One leg, across the country to a long layover in downtown San Francisco for the 4th of July. No night flying to show you, sorry guys. You really ought to do it sometime though. The fireworks from 30,000 feet are quite the sight to see.

Nothing like getting up at 0330 coming off of a bunch of days of to get you right back into the swing of things. I had a 500a show time yesterday morning for a 600a departure. I was the only one leaving the hotel to head to the airport at that awful hour of the day. I downloaded all my paperwork for the flight on the way to the hotel and looked it over. The flight was scheduled for 5:33 across the country and had us planned to get in 10 minutes early. Everything went smooth on the gate and we got off on time.

A short taxi out and we were off earlier than planned. That's always nice on a 1 leg day. There was a little leftover rain in the area that caused some turbulence for us as we climbed out over New York. Once we cleared that at the western edge of the state it was smooth sailing. A very pleasant ride. The only problem was that it was just so early in the morning and it was a long flight. So staying alert and focused on the task at hand for that time was probably the biggest challenge.

Somewhere, whether it was a person of a computer that allocated flight numbers, a bad idea was hatched. We were numbered flight 1415 from EWR to SFO, and coming behind us, same company, flying from JFK to SFO was flight 415. Virtually the same route as well. So for the next 5 hours both of us were on the same frequencies. They were a 757, and cruising faster than we were so they ended up passing us enroute, but all the same, we were pretty much together. It only caused a bit of confusion. So as pilots go, I needed to pay very close attention to the call sign and enunciate my readbacks very clearly. At one point a controller, who was not paying attention, told me we were already at FL360, after we asked to climb. He was pretty adamant about it too after we reassured him we weren't. That was when he noticed the other flight. See on his screen all he sees is XX1451 or XX451. And he's looking at a big area with probably 20 or more airplanes on it with their altitudes, speeds and id blinking along. So you can see what a pain this whole thing was.

No delays for us in the airport and we parked a full 20 minutes early. Next we headed downtown for the layover. I was beat. I immediately went back to bed for a nap. My room had a tremendous view of Coit Tower and Telegraph hill. I thought that maybe I'd be able to see the fireworks last night from my room, and I could, sort of. But between the low cloud layer and the hill all I saw were the flashes of light. I decided not to hike down there because of the time and my body clock. It would have been 2a by my time, when I got back, so I just stayed. I did get out to enjoy some of the culture and had some good food, and wandered around China Town for a little bit. The musicians were out in full force yesterday and playing very festive, patriotic songs for the passersby.

This morning, I snapped this pic from my hotel room, just before sunrise.

We didn't even leave the hotel until after 9 Pacific time. That's after noon by my body clock. It was great to get to sleep in, even if there were some incredibly loud fireworks around the hotel. If you ever want to know what the fireworks sound like when they explode just go up to the 18th floor. The Captain and I were both laughing this morning that it felt like we were being shelled with mortars last night.

It took the ramp crew, what seemed like, an extra long time to get everything loaded onto the plane before we left. We even ended up going out about 7 minutes late as a result. Nothing much we could do about it, we just sat there until everything got done. Taxi out was uneventful until we got a message from the company that there was a chance that the plane might be in a tail tip situation when we got to Chicago. So the remedy for that situation was to unload all the cargo out of the aft bin before we could unload any passengers. I don't think anyone wants to see this happening:



This is actually the first time that I've run across this situation, and while I'm sure it's frustrating for passengers who just want off and now have to wait. In the end, it's well worth the hassle. To me anyway.

So we had to brief everyone who was listening. So that meant that most everyone had no idea what was going on so they had to be told a second time.

Chicago was the destination this morning and we had been remarking that it was really nice to have a smooth flight with really no weather to worry about when the ride suddenly got choppy and lasted for the next hour and a half. We couldn't fly as fast as we were supposed to so the idea of making up the time we had lost was out the window as well. We got into Chicago a few minutes late, landed on the far north runway and taxied a long way back to our gate. Ops was aware and said they were ready to get the bags and cargo off as fast as possible, which they did. It took about 6 or 7 minutes to get all that done. So not a stellar day as far as time was concerned, but another safe trip with over 185 people in a tube, 7 miles over the earth, going over 500mph.

Oh and as a note, don't make negative comments about landings unless it was a real fuckup. My landing today wasn't awesome, but it was better than most in a gusty cross wind. Someone made a sarcastic comment that they loved the bouncy landing and thanks for that (which it wasn't, it touched down and the shocks extended as it lifted up some, but it never left the ground after it touched.) The Captain jumped right up and defended it saying it was about as normal a landing as you'd get. Hey, you just flew 1500 miles in my plane and got here safe and sound. Why would you insult me now? Whatever, maybe he thought he was being funny or something. Its not anything I especially care about. Just trying to pass on my day.

That's all I had today. I've got a short layover here tonight and an early get up to finish up tomorrow. This was only a 3-day trip, one shorter than my standard 4 that I've been doing. But it only means that tomorrow is go home day! Woot!

A couple of new pics for you today. The first is inside the wheel well of the 737 on my walk around. It's taken across the bay, you can see the opposite landing gear and the spot it takes in the gear bay when it's retracted. Plus you can see the massive network of guts just in this section of the plane.



The next is a snapshot of my view in the right seat just before we pushed back today. You can see most of the good stuff that I have to look at. The engine instruments towards the left (which is right in the middle of the cockpit), the flight management computer next to that, my map and primary flight instruments on the screens right in front of me. I've got my scratch pad with my standard set up of information for the start of the flight with reminders like callsign, flight time, min fuel, departure and arrival weather in addition to various other odds and ends in the cockpit.

Thanks for your perspective on that crash. Really helpful to understand.

Yesterday ended up being the longest of the three day trip. I started the day early, getting up and walking over to the airport. On short Chicago layovers we stay at the airport hotel. It's not great for the layover, but it maximizes your available rest time better than say, going downtown does. Being able to walk to the plane is nice too.

I got to the plane with plenty of time to get it ready. Chicago is the place where things can unravel pretty quick. Any seasoned traveler can tell you that, but this day was different. Today, it all fell into place and went the way it's supposed to. The plane was closed up, no delay for pushback. No delay from ground to get to the runway. Then number 1 for takeoff and cleared off with almost no delays.

The first flight was down to Dallas. No issues, no problems. Got into Dallas almost 20 minutes early thanks to our smooth departure out of Chicago. A whole lot of delays and the determination on how early you will be is decided on the ground after you push back and before you take off. And while that part may have nothing to do with me the pilot, I'll be happy to take full credit for getting you to your destination that early. :)

That flight down from Chicago had a brand new flight attendant on it. She was working her first flight so when we got to Dallas I took her outside and took some pics of her with the plane and in the engine like has been the tradition for flight attendants for decades. That made her day, I was glad for it.

The next leg was our final leg to Newark. Nothing special about it. A very standard flight, and again we got in a solid 10 minutes early. Always great to finish a trip early.

I had a couple hours until my flight home, so I went down to the employee cafeteria and ate some dinner. My flight home was full so my only hope was for the jump seat. Someone once asked me how I liked sitting in the jumpseat. My response is that it's always more comfortable going home, than going to work, and it's much more comfortable than every seat in the Newark airport. Meaning that I'd sit on the toilet if it meant I could go home.

Got home around 7 after starting the day at 6. Ended the day at 2. So a 5 hour commute home and if you add that to the 18.5 hours I had before my trip I lost an entire day off. So while my trip was only 3 days, it really played almost like a full 4 day trip.

It's nice to be home for my birthday. I'm having issues accepting that I've turned the corner on a new decade of life. I don't feel that old, but the guy I look at in the mirror is starting to. The weather at home is messing with me. I still haven't gotten to season the new grill or even try it out. We were supposed to go to the drive in for a double feature of Inside Out and Lost World, but it's going to storm again here on my days home so even grilling out is probably out of the question.

So this morning I got woke up by some lovely person mowing their grass at 730a. Except that the person mowing was my 13 yr old, and he was doing it because he got in trouble for not doing it the day before even when he had been told it needed to be done and that I was very disappointed that it hadn't been done because it hadn't rained in a couple of days. So in his 13 yr old mind this is what I had in mind. Sigh. Trying to just stay relaxed and not put to much thought into this. I'm sure it'll get better from here. At least I'm home to enjoy it.

PM,

Still following and keeping up.. Thanks for pointing me to this from steam...

How would this morning's issues have affected you? Particularly if this were your commuting day?

--t

Happy I wasn't working today for sure.

As a commuter I would have been in the same boat as any passenger. As a commuter I have to have 2 flights that I can take that will get me to Newark in time for my scheduled trip. Let's say for instance I was to take the 0600 on my companies flight and had a backup of a 0730 flight on another company plane. If the first flight is delayed or cancelled then I have the second as a backup.

In this case the backup can either work or not. If it works, great, but say I don't get on that either, then I can call the company and let them know, I can be taken off my trip and stay home, but I lose my pay for the trip.

Most likely I miss my trip and lose my pay, but then I either make it Newark and get reassigned to something else and get that pay, or I am essentially reserve available for the days I've missed and get paid accordingly, which is almost always less.

I don't fret about getting to work as long as I've got my bases covered. If something happens, it happens. I've been commuting for 3 years now and haven't missed a trip yet. That's a pretty good record. Now if I was missing a trip every other month I might have to talk to the boss and find out why exactly this was happening.

God, bidding can just be a big giant pain the ass!

Especially when it seems like every month it's crucial to get specific days off. My bidding seniority has gone up over the last couple of months. Right now I'm bidding at 57% of all the pilots in my plane and base, and 71% out of the lineholders. That means that I'm still safely in the bottom half for bidding purposes. I can't just throw a bid out there and expect to get anything out of it. It's got to be crafted the right way. Bid too aggressive and you'll get nothing out of it, bid to general and you'll leave stuff on the table that you could have gotten.

So it's a matter of looking at past bids, seeing what you have been awarded in the past, mixing it with what you need for the next month and then throwing a detailed, specific net wide and detailed enough to capture what you want without going overboard.

Now add the pressure of not getting the right days off so you and your wife can go on your first (big) vacation ever, with the first day of school and a local neighborhood party that you are trying to spearhead and plan because you decided that the community needed more togetherness and you've been throwing your opinion around the board trying (and succeeding) to win support for a variety of projects. But this one is the biggest yet and if you aren't there will it go the way you want?

So yeah. I've been procrastinating taking the time to sit down and do this for 4 days. I've got a couple days until it closes, but I have to go back to work and I needed to get this done while I could discuss it at home.

Now in the past, I know I've gone on tirades about what to bid, and pretty much I've been successful about how I've bid, but until I see that award in 9 days I just sit around on pins and needles and wait and hope that it's good enough. Plus every month that goes by and my seniority gets better improves my chances of getting what I want.

I've got another trip starting tomorrow that will involved heading out today to the crash pad. Looking forward to tomorrow as I'm going to one of the better international layovers that I've never been to before. Stay tuned.

Just posting to say that I still follow this and look forward to each update.

Maybe a dumb question, do you ever use any of the pc flight sims? Microsoft FSX, X-plane, P3D?

Thanks pbot, I really appreciate the feedback. I'm glad that you guys are enjoying it. I'm enjoying doing it and we've made it over the halfway point! Just a few more months to go!

Sorry I've been slacking here this week. My trip started off with no internet and I just haven't gotten caught up yet. Planning to try and remedy that tonight.

To answer your question I used to play Microsoft regularly. I used a program called Pro Pilot '99 with the whole yolk/rudder pedal set up and would practice on that, especially when I was working on my instrument rating. However, I will tell you that once I got my instrument rating, and I could do all of that for real. I stopped cold turkey. It simply held no more enjoyment for me.

My dad was a pilot in the Air Force and I couldn't understand until that moment why he would never play any flying games. I figured that he should, because he flew and all that, but I found all the understanding I would ever need after this experience. I've got Microsoft on Steam right now, but I still haven't fired it up yet.

Makes sense, thanks. When I get home from work, the last thing I want to do is open up Excel so I can see why since you do this for real, the pc sims would hold no interest.

I've spent a good bit of time flight-simming, and some of the add-on planes I have purchased through the years claim to be quite realistic, at least procedurally. I have no way of knowing if that's true as I have never been anything but a passenger back in coach, but reading this thread has given some sense that they are "reasonably" close. Not that I could land a plane if the pilots became ill due to eating a bad meal in flight or anything like that of course.

:)

So, let's see if I can remember back to 3 days ago. The only reason that I'm hesitating is that I killed a fair number of brain cells and I flew with a guy that I'd rather forget about. It's not that we were at each others throats or anything, but we simply disliked each other.

So commuting to work proved to be a bit of a thing this week. The plane was late coming from Chicago due to an ATC delay to we didn't get boarded up until late. I had an early morning and was anxious to get to the bed. We taxied out to the runway only for Newark to go into a ground stop with a 45 minute update time. So we just chilled on the taxiway until they told us it was being extended by an hour. At that point the crew threw in the towel and went back to the gate to wait it out. It was only another 30 minutes before we were back on the plane and this time it was for real, but not without being seriously behind the ball. I finally rolled into the crash pad at 1230a and hoped to be in bed by 1a. I was number 3 in the pad that night so at least I got a lower bunk. I didn't sleep that great and was up at 530a to get ready for the trip.

Saturday was only 1 leg to a new destination for me, Punta Cana in the D.R. Just a couple of storms to dodge here and there, but it was an otherwise easy flight down. Our hotel is an all inclusive and I've never been to one of those either, but I do like to eat and drink and check out hot summer beaches I didn't complain. It was a really nice layover and I look forward to getting to head down there a second time. Here are a couple of shots I took from the resort. I wasn't too impressed with D.R. on the whole though. It's not a very scenic area, and it's all inclusive because there is simply no reason to leave. Nothing else to, but eat and drink and lay in the sun, which certainly has it's time and place.





Day two was another 0 dark 30 start as we got to the airport seemingly before anyone else. It sure felt like it at 5a. We got stopped going through security because they said that they didn't have us listed as crewmembers. They didn't speak English, we didn't speak Spanish, but after about 10 minutes of just standing there looking at one another they managed to find a way to get us through.

The plane hadn't even gotten here yet. It was on it's way from Houston on a red-eye. I'm not a morning person. By the time it got there they didn't leave us much time to get it turned around and make an on time departure, especially in the islands. It worked out alright though, the flight to Houston was blocked heavy so we had some time to play with. There were some big storms south of the Bahamas that we had to deviate around which makes things more interesting when you are heading right toward Cuban airspace.

I like to take pics of things that I think people just don't think about or get to see. So here is a picture of the Mississippi River delta, where the Mississippi flows into the Gulf of Mexico. There is a very distinct line here where the fresh, muddy, river water mixes with the salt of the Gulf.



No rest for the weary traveler however. We weren't done in Houston, there was one more leg to complete the cross country trip, San Diego. The flight there was easy. No weather, no issues. I'm going to try and get a pic of the border sometime. It's so very interesting to see the stark difference between the two borders even when they are just a few feet apart. I took another pic on this leg too. If you've ever driven across west Texas you'll recognize this. Thousands upon thousands of Oil and Gas rigs as far as you can see.



Normally my biggest excitement in San Diego is Fish Tacos in the Gas Lamp District, but our normal hotel downtown had made arrangements to sell our rooms for a lot more money ('cause of Comic-Con) so we were moved to a nice hotel in La Jolla. Another really nice area. I did succeed in finding some fish tacos, btw.

This morning was West coast time, so the 0330 wake up was the latest of the entire trip. I nearly ran into Seth Myers at the airport. By the time I realized it we were already past one another and I wasn't about to go chasing him down. The morning was spectacular. Aren't they always in San Diego? Here's a shot of the sunrise coming over the hills while I was doing my walk around, preflight check. Completely unedited or enhanced.



On climb out I snapped this pic of the Sierra's. All cloud covered and looking smokey. The cloud formation creates a really nice perspective on the entire shot.



The flight today was smoooooooth and painless (except for that not liking the guy you are stuck in a broom closet for hours on end part.) When I got to Newark I found out that a flight home was delayed but getting ready to leave soon. All the flights home were sold out with a bunch of stand by passengers, I'm guessing due to the All Star game. I hustled to the gate only to find that it had just left a few minutes before. I talked to the agent and I guess I wouldn't have gotten on anyway, even the jump seat was taken.

So I had about 90 minutes til my flight. Like I said the flight was full, and I was now down to number 6 on the stand by list. I needed to get on that plane! My only option is to go to the gate and wait for the agent to show up. The jump seat can be all about first come, first serve so being early always pays off, even if it means standing there for 30 minutes. Just like being in line at Disney...without the ride part that is.

So this long story ends with me getting the last seat on the plane. I didn't even need to sit in the cockpit. The door was closed and we were on our way. Then the armrest on my seat broke. Not a little. It broke off and just hung there. Nothing embarrassing about that! Last guy on the plane, breaks it and now they have to pull the jet bridge back up, they have to call maintenance and the work has to get done and the log book signed off. Nothing like 49 people looking at you, blaming you for their late flight to Cincy. I can see it now, "Big pilot breaks seat, now we are delayed. I hate this airline!"

My day was pushing 12 hours by the time we landed back home. Even though it was only a 3 day, I'm done, tired and in need of some family time.

how often do you see similar pilots? can you schedule around the ones you dont like?

It's somewhat random. I say somewhat because a lot has to deal with seniority and bidding preferences. For example, with the kind of trips that I'll hold I'll line up with captains that have similar seniority or bid similarly to me, like commuters for example.

If you look at the math of it all and assume that it's a perfectly equal chance of flying with the same captain twice then it looks like this:

Say I fly an average of 4 trips per month and on each trip I fly with 1.2 Captains (totally unscientific, but there are trips on occasion where scheduling is covering the trip with reserves and I'll fly with 3 guys for that trip. So 1.2 is an extra captain every 5 trips.

4 x 12 x 1.2 = 57.6 ~ 58 Captains in a year.

There are roughly 400 737 Captains in Newark and 1944 company wide. Figure that 5% of those guys aren't flying, either because of illness or management so that makes our numbers: 380 and 1845.

So 15.3% that I'll fly with the same Captain who is based in Newark in the same year. Or you could say that I could go 6.5 years without flying with the same guy twice.

Company wide (just for comparison, I mean, I think I've only flown with guys from other bases a few times in 2 years), those same numbers are 3.1% or 32.3 years (which is longer than my career will be there without a rule change.) And all of this is just on the 737. Each fleet type is a little different due to size and crew requirements.

To answer your second question, yes I can bid against certain guys. It's a part of the preferences I can set in our bidding program. Some companies have policies that allow first officers to bid against Captains, but not the other way around. The reason being that good Captains have to be able to manage any situation and work with anyone, the cockpit IS truly a reflection of the personality of the Captain. They set the tone for every one else in the crew. If a Captain finds himself on too many 'do not fly' lists then he might get called into the office for an informal chat. And yes, there are guys like that.