A nice layover in Bethlehem. We got in around 3 and spent the afternoon walking around the city. First time I have been in a city with time to walk around and been with a crew who wanted to walk around. Actually a neat place. The city went to hell when Bethlehem Steel folded but there is still a pretty good downtown district. Strange thing though… Barber Shops are ALL over the place. An old friend of the captain suggested an Italian place near the hotel which was really good.

I tried taking some pictures of stuff in town but couldn’t get any shots that came out good. Oh well. I’m sure I’ll be back here sometime again.

Tomorrow is a short day. Here to PHL and then back up to Akron. We start early… 5:30 van, but are finished by 10. Good stuff.

Day 3 of my IOE trip dawned (actually, I was up before dawn so it didn’t) bright and early. As I was walking out of my hotel room I snapped this picture. Keep in mind, I had already been up for 30 min. getting ready to go.

So I go to fire up the airplane and find that it is the same aircraft that we had at one point yesterday. How do I know? One of the TRs was MEL’d inop. That’s not a huge problem in and of its self as the TRs on the CRJ200 are all but usless. So I do the rest of the walk around and get the
APU going. Well wouldn’t you know, the door gets stuck in the “mid” position which means it can’t close and we are speed restricted to less then 300 knots. Yeah, today was starting off just great. Then I go look in the can (MX log) and find we have an open write up for some switches on the captain’s side not working. Then the captian comes outside and tells me and the FA that we are canceled and we have to ferry the plane down to the Charlotte for MX.

The day got a little better from there. The flight down was bumpy as all hell. It’s just as well we didn’t have any PAX on board. We were planned to get into CLT and leave the plane at the hanger and then snag a ride over to the airport and catch a 9:30 flight Manchester to position for tomorrow. Well, we land at 9:15 and secure the plane. A nice MX guy gives us a ride right across the runways and drops us right at the jetway. We get on the plane at 9:30 and head up to Manchester. We got in around 1pm, about 2 hours after our scheduled arrival flight. Ah yes, 121 ops.

Finished up day one of IOE. So far so good. Today we went Dayton – Washington – White Plaines NY – Philly – Rochester, NY. Started at 6:30am and finished up about 20 min late at 1:00pm. Oh yes early mornings ROCK!!

Rochester is actually pretty nice right now. I went for a walk around the hotel (it’s freaking huge by the way) and it was about 75 out. I can picture in the winter that wouldn’t have been so nice a walk. Tomorrow we head back to Philly and then south to Charleston, SC. Oh wait, there’s a hurrican kicking up down there. Hmm… Re route anybody? If we do go, I’m thinking it is going to be the captain’s leg

Anyhow, that about does it for me. I have to be up at 3:30 tomorrow. For those of you not in the know… that’s really early.

Finished up training down in Charlotte over the weekend. My check went alright. I managed to make some really dumb mistakes, but then again, there is no such thing as a perfect checkride. We had a LOFT session the next morning and then I was done with the sim. I waited around until Sunday morning and then drove up to Lewisburg, WV and left my car at a friends house there. Caught an Express flight (1900 baby!) back down to CLT. I felt like I had just been there. Oh wait… I was. From there it was a mainline 757 up to Hartford and home. It’s funny I’ve been back in Amherst more in the past 2 months then the past 2 years. Go figure. I’m here until Sunday when I head back down to LWB and pick up my car to drive to Dayton, OH. A friend of mine is looking at a house to rent there. I start IOE on the 13th with a nice 4 day trip. Hopefully I can be moved in (somewhat) by them. Time will tell I guess. No linkies in this one. I’m on dial up again.