I think I got lazy for a bit. I kept meaning to post but, you know how it goes… Anyhow, I’ll outline the past 2 weeks.

-Finished trip from hell (good crew, just really bad weather)
-Cleaned the apartment
-Drove up to Cleveland
-Drove back to Dayton
-Got Junior Manned at 3:54 in the morning to fly the 5:50 CLT flight
-Flew the 5:50 and then a GSO turn, deadheaded back to DAY, packed for my 4 day and then deadheaded back to CLT
-Flew a not too bad 4 day getting home on the last day at 10 am
-Napped, packed for Vegas and went back to sleep
-Went to Vegas through Chicago
-Had a great time in Vegas
-Flew home through Denver

And that gets us to last night. Today is laundry day. That’s what I SHOULD be doing anyways but instead I am doing this. Priorities. Really. I’ve got a 4 day starting tomorrow that consists of a deadhead to CLT and then a leg to Tri Cities for the overnight. Busy day for me.

The whole East Coast was ugly today. I flew 4 legs for a total of about 6 hours of flight time and saw the sun for maybe 20 minutes. Granted, the first leg was up and over before the sun even rose, but that wouldn’t have helped to much anyways as we bounced through a solid rain storm the whole way.

We started in Fayetteville at 4:55 am. It was just starting to rain as I did my walk around on the plane. By the time we pushed and I took off it was a heavy rain. We cruised over to Charlotte at 15,000 (100 mile flight or so) and were the first RJ to the express gates. I landed on runway 23 in a steady rain with a gusty crosswind. The clouds were pretty high up though so it wasn’t too bad.

We sat for an hour in Charlotte (yeah for breakfast). We stayed on the plane but ended up shutting the door as we weren’t on a jetway and the rain was coming in pretty good. We pushed on time for Nashville and at 22,000 we were in a solid cloud layer with a fair amount of icing. Yep, winter is here (almost) again. The ice, coupled with some nasty bumps made the leg a bit of a pain. The captain managed to pull of a nice landing on BNA despite breaking out of the clouds at 500 feet with a 25 knot crosswind.

The return flight to Charlotte was more of the same although we managed to get on top of the clouds for a few minutes. They gave us 18L and I broke out at 400 feet with visibility of less then a mile. We got back to the gate, quick turned and headed up to Allentown. Again, we were in the clouds most of the way with continuous light chop. Fortunately there wasn’t much ice this time. Again we broke out at 500 feet and thumped down on a 5000 foot runway, using most of it to stop with the anti skid coming on.

Fortunately the day was over then. Even though it was only 4 legs, the bumps and extra work of flying actual approaches took a toll on me. I guess it was also day 3 of a 4 day with 2 early shows in the bag. At least tomorrow is short. The trick is going to be staying motivated to get stuff done when I get home.

A 4 day trip done. God knows how many more to go.

This one wasn’t too bad. The first three days had good weather and little work (5 legs, 2 legs, 3 legs) with a nice overnight in Washington, DC.

The last day started off easy enough with a noon show for a DCA-Nashville flight. The captain and FA went to find food while I went downstairs to get our paperwork. Turns out it was Employee Appreciation Day in DC so I snagged some free food. We boarded up and took off to the South down the river. They leveled us off at 5000 feet and we got trounced pretty good going though some clouds. We eventually got a climb to 12,000 and out of the clouds. The rest of the flight to Nashville was no problem. On the arrival we dodged one good sized build up around the Volunteer VOR and then went into a broken layer at 13,000 feet. After one really good bump (+700 of altitude before the auto pilot got it under control) we were cleared in towards the airport and I managed a nice landing with a gusty crosswind. We did a quick turn and departed back to Philly in to a heavy rain shower.

The Philly flight was fine although we did get put into holding twice. The weather in PHL was nasty so things were backed up. We finally got down the arrival and on the ILS for 9R. The plane in front of us (another Bluestreak) was forced to go around due to getting to close to the plane in front of them but we broke out at 500 feet and landed in a driving rain which cut visibility to around 1/2 a mile. It was the first time I ever had trouble finding the taxi way signs to exit the runway. Good thing I wasn’t driving.

Up until this point the day had been going as planned. When we got to the gate both the FA and I got calls from scheduling. The captain would have too but they don’t have his number. Turns out they canceled our Dayton flight so we had to dead head to Knoxville and pick up a plane their to fly to Dayton. I ended up flying the leg as the FO who’s trip it was lived in Charlotte and that way was able to go straight home. We dodged a bunch of weather back to Knoxville and landed around 9:30.

Our plane to Dayton was waiting across the ramp all powered up and ready to go. Turns out it had been hit by lighting earlier in the day and had the radar knocked out. They flew a mechanic down from Dayton to fix it but it had to go back to Dayton for further inspection. Lucky us. Fortunately the radar was working as there was one line of storms between TYS and DAY. We got our clearance and gas and I flew the leg back up. It worked out pretty well. We headed a little west and then doglegged behind the storm and were able to fly direct to DAY. I landed out of a low overcast with the winds gusting to 25 knots across the runway. Not my best landing to say the least. The good news I guess was there weren’t any paying passengers on board.

3 days off (of which this is day 2). My dad is coming in this afternoon. Actually, he’s sitting in Philly right now waiting for his flight here.

Departing PHL behind Southwest.

Sharing the sky with a Northwest DC9 over Beckley, WV

Had a late show yesterday for the start of a 4 day. What that means is that the rest of the trip is late shows as well… get in late, leave late. I am in Rochester now. We flew DAY-DCA-ROC and got in around 10:30. We are back out at 12:00 today and go down to DCA (to sit for 3 hours) and then Hunstiville, AL, back to DC then back to ROC tonight. Oh well.

Going into DC last night, it was the captains leg and we were coming down the LDA/DME approach. It was a pretty nice night and we were visual almost the whole way. Well, we are down over the river and starting to turn to the runway when tower pushed out another airplane. The captain didn’t think we would have time so he went around. I was a little behind the curve on the go around unfortunately, but caught up eventually. Nothing like seeing the city light twice!

A sure sign it is almost halloween… coming into ROC last night the ground guy marshaling the plane in had purple light wands. Strange. At least he had them. We sat on the ramp at DC for 5 minutes waiting for them to find a set of wands.

I have pictures, but I don’t have a transfer cable with me. You’ll just have to wait I guess.

So the shortest distance between two points may be a straight line but that goes out the window when there is thunderstorms involved. Here’s our flight track for JIA2387 from Charlotte to Columbus. The funny thing is it only added 11 minutes to the trip.

Currently killing time in CVG. We got in last night at around 11 and don’t go out until 5pm today. Yeah for sitting. The hotel isn’t too bad, but it ain’t great either. There is nothing to do within walking distance, but at least there is food. Chipotle was good for lunch. Today is an easy day on paper, with just two legs (CVG-CLT-CMH). I even get to stay in the same book of my approach plates all day (all with the letter C). However the weather doesn’t look like it will be cooperating. Right now it is a nice day here but they are calling for thunderstorms at our time of departure. Charlotte looks good but Columbus is supposed to have the storms that hit here be there by the time we get there.

The good news is tomorrow is a VERY easy day with an early morning deadhead to DC and then flying one flight home. That gives me 2.5 days off.