Wow… what a bit of self indulgent pity that was. Haven’t done that in a while

Anyhow, the last of the pics from May are up. I’m done flying for the month. It seems that each month I put a few more pictures up. I guess that is a good thing as I am actually using my camera. Also, I have managed to cut down on the pictures of ground from altitude. If you look early on there were a whole bunch. They mostly were blurry and of nothing interesting. There ya have it.

I got to thinking today. I know… a bad thing to do. But I was anyways. It may have had something to do with the little amount of sleep I got last night (didn’t fall asleep until 12 and was up at 3:45) or it may have had to do with the fact I was sitting in a hotel room on Memorial Day Weekend in Jacksonville, NC. I dunno. Either way I was thinking how my trip is done tomorrow and I get home at 10am. But then I was thinking about how I am going back to an apartment with nothing but a spider plant in it. How depressing is that? I mean, there is other stuff there, but the only thing that would know if I wasn’t there (in a sense) is the plant. And even then, at the rate I water it (or forget to) it is doubtful it can even tell the difference.

I guess what I was getting at when I was thinking, is that as much as I really love this job, and I do even though those of you that know me know how much I pretend to complain about it some times, there is a HUGE downside to it. There really doesn’t seem to be a way to have an actual life outside work. There may be one, but I sure haven’t figured it out yet. I think it comes down to that I wasn’t really a social person by nature for a long time and then that all change at some point and I am still trying to catch up and on top of that I’m working a job which really doesn’t help. I’m thinking that what sets this whole thing off is the one step forward two steps back bit I’ve been doing as of late.

Well, enough of my moping. I’ve got a 4:45 van tomorrow morning (ouch!) so I guess I should really be calling it a night.

Just those this whole post wasn’t a complete waste, here’s a picture from DCA from yesterday. I have more but the internet connection here is being stupid and I can’t seem to upload them.

I was told I should put these up. So here they are.

The view out my hotel window in Charleston, WV. The paddle wheeler is a education boat. The tug was doing some construction work.

Sunset from New York back to Dayton. I think we were at 32,000ft somewhere over Pittsburgh.

Why no new updates? Lazy. That’s why. There are some new pictures up from May though. Thanks to Captain Mike for letting me shoot while jumpseating the other day.

Charlotte has gone upscale (well, the express gates anyways). There are now bathroom attendants who hand out paper towels and man the mouth wash/breath mint stations. Also there are plants and boxes of kleenex along all the sinks. It looks pretty stylish. I just don’t know how long it will last for though.

Flying out of DCA yesterday we were departing to the North. The problem with departing that way is that if you were to fly straight out off of runway 1 you would end up over flying the Whitehouse, which sits in the middle of some of the most restricted airspace in the world. So, normal procedures for the P56 NW Noise Abatement departure is a sharp left turn as soon as safe (depending on who is flying anywhere between 50ft and 300ft and keeping over or to the west of the Potomic River. If the clouds are down there is a radial of the the VOR at DCA that is tracked instead. Needless to say, it is one of the busier departures out there.

Yesterday we were cleared up to 5000 feet initially. Almost immediately after take when checking in with Potomic Departure they cleared us to 19,000. This is rather high rather early for the normal flow of things out of Washington, but as the captain said “they know who we are”. What ever. Shortly there after they started turning us towards to the east (we were going south to Charleston, SC) and then they cleared us up to 23,000ft. Eventually they cleared us direct to a fix on our flight plan and switched us over to Washington Center.

On the first checking with center the captain reported “Bluestreak 2442, 17-5 for F230″ meaning we were climbing through 17,500 for 23,000. Center simply replied with “roger”. Shortly there after center called back and asked us to confirm we were climbing to 19,000. At this point we were already around 21,500. The captain replied that we had clearance to 23,000 at which point center got very angry and stated that we didn’t and we should descend back to 19,000. There are procedures in place to limit problems like this, and to the best of my knowledge we followed them and had in fact be cleared to 23,000. Before I could even re enter the altitude center cleared us back up to 23,000 so we continued climbing and that was the end of it.

After getting switched to the next controller (still Washington Center) the captain asked for the phone number of the watch supervisor. Wise move. The FAA has been known to not say anything about deviation and for a pilot to receive a letter in the mail several weeks later notifying them of certificate action. He called when we got to CHS and found out that it wasn’t a problem and we had in fact been cleared to 23,000 but the controller who had done that hadn’t marked that we had. It happened with 2 other aircraft on a similar routing right around the same time. Moral of the story, no harm no foul.

Today is Washington to Detroit and back and then home to Dayton where I have 3 well deserved days off.

Two new pictures are up in may from heading into PIT a few days ago. I don’t know why, but I am having quality issues with my camera. Here’s one…

I put a few pictures up from May. More coming once I take them.

So I have a line now, which is a good thing. It means I am scheduled for the rest of the month and don’t have any of this, call us back later for an assignment (or not) stuff. Well, turns out the line isn’t that great of thing either.

Yesterday wasn’t too bad. We flew in from Columbia, sat for 2 hours and then trucked down to Mobile, AL. A pretty nice flight down with an almost normal landing once we got there. (I was busy looking out the window at some really pretty river front houses and got a little fast.) A relatively quick turn in Mobile is interrupted by my cell phone ringing. Why did I have my phone on do you ask? Well, maybe I was hoping somebody would call me. Stupid me… somebody did call me. It just happened to be scheduling telling me that they were extending me for the night and then junior manning me for the next day. So, instead of getting back to CLT and deadheading home to DAY I got to sit for 2 hours and then fly to Cinci, over night there and then fly back down here and sit for 3 more hours (what I’m doing now) and then deadhead back to Dayton. Was it worth my time? Sort of. I get 6 hours of pay for it so that is nice, but I had plans for today. What made it entirly NOT worth it was the fact that the internet was out in the CVG hotel making me resort to *gasp* a telephone. Grrr. Actually, that was ok anyways, but I need something to complain about.

The only good news that I’ve got going is that the company approved my trip trade for the end of the month which means have the weekend I was trying to get off…. that is assuming they don’t go junior manning me again.

Well, it ain’t really a dock, and it certainly isn’t a bay… but it’s outside and it has water and there is wireless. Ah yes, the hotel pool and a lounge chair. It’s actually pretty nice here in Columbia today, except for the fact the hotel is backed up against a major interstate. Eh… I guess it really does sound just like a waterfall if you don’t think about it. Good call E-Dawg. Anyhow… At least I’m not sitting in my hotel room. We don’t leave here for another 2 hours and then it’s up to Charlotte (about a 15 min flight) and then a Mobile, AL turn and then I deadhead home to Dayton.

Coming down here last night was sort of fun. The captain I am flying with is due up for a checkride next month so he has been hand flying the airplane a bit more then most. We were filed for 10,000 coming down here as it is only 85 miles so I figured I would just hand fly the whole way. No problem going out of CLT but as soon as we reached 10K and I leveled off it was some thing of a pain to actually hold the aircraft on altitude. I guess I’ve gotten lazy in my stick and rudder skills. But, for a short flight it wasn’t a problem. They held us up at 10 until about 30 miles and and after clearing some traffic they dropped us down to 6. There was an ExpressJet ERJ that was also heading into the airport but they were landing on Runway 23 and we were landing on 29. So, they kept us at 3000 while we flew right over the top of XJet and then turned us in for a 4 mile final. The problem was I didn’t really see the runway until we were turning right through the approach course. At night with a lot of ground lighting it is sometimes hard to find the right lights. But, despite having to bank rather hard to get back on the centerline it worked out nicely. I really need to hand fly more often.

The hotel is nice enough. Typical of the places we stay. If the hotel is nice the neighborhood is bad or there is nothing to eat in the area. If we stay in a place with lots of food and things to do the hotel is a dump. So here we have an Shoneys next door and a WaffleHouse across the street. Living it up no doubt.

One other thing…

(I’m going to laps into “Street Talk” here probably due to the fact that [i]somebody[/i] picked it up watching Robin Williams get Gangsta on some kids in RV the other day and then got me hooked on it when they started up last night. Yeah, I’m talking to you:) )

[b]Mad props to my mom! [/b]She actually IM’d me around 12:30 last night. I guess she’s got going in the tech age. Oh the humanity.

Not really anything interesting. Still trying to adapt back to east coast time from being in Seattle (where much fun was had). Out of Dayton and down to Charlotte. A quick TYS turn and then to Lexington. Now I’m sitting in the crew room slaving though a bunch of the FAs watching American Idol. Oh well. We head back out to Columbia, SC in an hour. I remember driving through there a while ago, but haven’t flown in there yet… I don’t think. At least the weather is mostly nice.