I could write a bunch of cool stuff about my trip… but I don’t remember much. It was just that exciting I guess.

I did get some nice pictures of the spaceships from the Men In Black movie.

Another early morning in CLE. This time we deiced in the deice pad with the big kids. It was much faster this way and we were on our way 15 minutes after pushing. My leg to Charlotte and it was mostly smooth compared to the trip up the night before where we got rocked the whole way. The weather in CLT was crap, like usual and I ended up having to shoot an approach down to just above mins in pouring rain and gusty winds. Tis the season I guess. It turned out ok and we got to the gate about 20 minutes late due to holding and getting slowed. That of course meant that our 55 minute turn was cut to 35 minutes and there was no chance to get breakfast.

We left for Memphis on time with a crew on board that was deadheading out to take the plane back to Charlotte. And what did we do? Get to Memphis and go to the Hotel at 9 in the morning. That my friends is efficient scheduling. Anyhow, we had a nice tail wind (going west bound) and got in about 20 minutes early. Left the plane to the crew and headed out. I stopped by a bagel place to get breakfast and then we sat outside and waited for the van for 30 minutes. Apparently the van driver didn’t see us the first time around so instead of looking some more he just went back to the hotel. Go figure. At least it wasn’t cold out.

We eventually got to the hotel only to find out rooms weren’t ready yet as they didn’t expect us this early. Normally this crew shows up around noon, not 9:30 am. In their defense they did give us coupons for a free breakfast buffet so I did end up getting breakfast anyways. It was actually pretty good. By the time we were done with that our rooms were ready and I went upstairs and took a nap. The nap ended up being a 4 hour sleep break which is going to play hell with my trying to go to sleep tonight. Or maybe not. I’m actually pretty tired now.

So now I am off in search of food and then will do my “early show” ritual of ironing my shirt, laying out my clothes and checking the weather at the airports for tomorrow (MEM, CLT, CAK, CAE). As a captain pointed out a while ago, I really shouldn’t even bother checking as we are going to end up going either way. Maybe I just like knowing if it is going to suck or not.

Weather, even late in the season, can be a pain. We started this morning in CLE with a 4:30 van. Yeah, that means getting up at 3:45. And for some reason I woke up at 3:30 and figured the extra 15 minutes of sleep wasn’t going to be worth it. Anyhow I managed to get downstairs in time to make the van which we shared with a Comair crew to the airport. Security was sort of quick (there was a 1 armed TSA guy moving the bags through.)

The first leg was mine. The wings were pretty frosty so we pushed off the gate and waited 20 minutes for the deice truck to show up. Turns out Airways is too cheap to pay for 2 people to work at the company that does the deice so the one guy had to call in another guy so we had to wait until he got there. Once he did get there it took all of 10 minutes to spray down the wings and tail and we were on our way. Mostly nice weather (sort of bumpy but not as bad as the night before) all the way down to Charlotte. We landed, taxied in and turned for LEX. Captain’s leg this time and he got to deal with some nice rain and low visibility on the way into Lexington. Right now there is only once ILS that is working and fortunately for us the winds were favoring that direction.

We did a mostly quick turn (only 9 people on board) and then headed back for Charlotte. By the time we got there the rain had reached the CLT area and were all set up for the ILS for 18L when the plane behind us declared a medical emergency and bumped us off the approach. I guess it’s good to know that those magic words do actually work. We got pushed over to runway 23 where I managed a not so nice landing in a light rain. We cleared the runway and taxied in, expecting a quick turn to Mobile (as we were running behind).

I went in to get the paperwork and was told my the gate agent that the last 2 flights had canceled due to weather and our release wasn’t even in the system. Back out to the plane where the captain had a powwow with dispatch and worked a routing for us to avoid most of the storms. The problem was of course that the storms were over Mobile and expected to be there at our ETA as well. We took enough gas to get down there and then back up to Birmingham if the weather was bad.

We launched and made it almost all the way past Atlanta before the weather started getting bad. About over Montgomery we started to hit nasty turbulence and heavy rain. Fortunately the worst of the weather had moved east and we were able to loop around the west of the airport and land behind it. The field was rather flooded but we avoided the puddles on the way to the gate.

After handing over the plane to the outbound crew we headed out front to wait for the van, which of course wasn’t there. I called them and found out the van was broken and we needed to take a cab. Nice of them to tell us this. There was a cab right there and he took us to the hotel (after going to the wrong hotel first). The Holiday Inn here is ok (it’s sort of old but they are remodeling it) but the area it is in is really bad. Directly off of I10 in a rather crime ridden area. Not really safe to wander around outside. Because of that I ended up having dinner in the lounge listening to the road warrior business men and woman complain about there day and sucked up cigarette smoke. Oh boy.

Tomorrow is a 4:45 van (why I don’t know but that is the only time it runs even though we don’t need to be there until 5:30). So, I guess that means I should stop typing and start sleeping.

As somebody recently pointed out I’ve been sort of lazy about posting recently. I think it’s mostly because I’ve been doing other stuff mostly. Addicted to the computer? Not me!

Today was day 1 of 2 off for me. I got in early yesterday (10am) so it was almost like day 2. I slept in a bit (ok, a lot) and then got up and didn’t do much of anything. I like that sort of day. Around 2 I wandered over to the mall and got my watch fixed. The battery was dead but the places I had taken it to couldn’t get the back off. The watch store at the mall had no problem popping the back and I now have a working watch again. Yeah!

Spent the rest of the day doing nothing really (ok, watching Home Alone and the Wizard of Oz) and putting my books back on the book case. We finally got furniture and the bookshelf got moved so everything came off of it. The books were just sitting on the floor so back up they went.

That was my day. The Wizard was as goofy as I remembered it to be. Tomorrow is another day and on the other hand there are 5 fingers.

Another 4 day trip taken care of. Yeah! This one was nice with the weather holding up until the very last leg. The early shows weren’t so good but other then that no complaints. Yeah, this is the new and happy me

Not much more to say about that anyways but there are a bunch of pictures up from October as well as a few from November.

Horses from about 1500 feet

Short final into LEX

Today is day 3 of 4. Day one was an easy deadhead to Charlotte and then flying to Tri Cities. Day 2 was a early (5am) show and then a brutal 6 legs where we didn’t leave the state of North Carolina until the last leg to Akron. I’m flying with a good captain but the FA is sort of crazy (and very old) so that isn’t too good. We managed to slog through the six legs. We did a Wilmington turn (where I got a really good cranberry muffin for breakfast and saw a gate agent dressed up like a pirate) and then a Jacksonville, NC turn. Jax North is an uncontrolled airport and there is something sort of cool about taking the jet in there. More on that in a bit. Following the OAJ turn it was my leg up to Akron for the night. The weather had been great all day but of course Akron was 2 1/2 miles and overcast at 700. At least the wind was right down the runway. We broke out at 700 as advertised and I planted it down on a wet runway. We taxied in, handed the plane off to the other crew and headed for the hotel in a steady drizzle.

I managed to grab dinner at Denny’s before falling asleep with my alarm set for 3:45. I walked into the lobby for the van at 4:25 to find the hotel desk clerk dressed up like a Vampire. He didn’t know he was 4 hours too late for Halloween. Oh well.

Today wasn’t too bad. We headed down to Charlotte and then did a Charlottesville turn. CHO is always nice to go into (with good weather) as you come right over the university and down town and then on to the airport. When we got back to Charlotte we had a 4 hour sit. Also the captain dropped off the trip to go home and take care of a family issue. Fortunately the replacement captain is cool and I have flown with him before (dad, you met him when I flew you DAY-PHL). Anyhow, we headed off to Jacksonville again for the overnight. Wilmington Approach cut us loose for the visual and we coordinated with a Ospray (that helicopter/airplane) thing that was in the pattern. They landed long for us and we had no problem squeezing in between their patterns. The downside to OAJ is that the van ride is about 30 minutes, but the hotel is good and there is plenty of food around.

Tomorrow is another early show (4:50 van). I fly back to Charlotte then do an MYR turn and then I am done.