I just watched the last hour of The Bourne Identity (or is it Supremacy?) Which ever the first one was. A pretty good action movie actually. I’m actually looking forward to the third one that comes out this summer. It’s odd that I even look forward to a movie coming out. It’s been a long time since I’ve even seen a movie in the theater. Well, not that long really. I saw Happy Feet late last year. Anyhow, I probably won’t catch anything in the theater, but I am going to try to see Shrek III, Spiderman III and the third Pirates. Interestingly enough I saw both Pirates in the theater as well a the first Spiderman (a first date movie no less), but none of the others.

Enough movie talk…

I’m actually in Central Time for a change. Most of our overnights keep us in eastern, but Jackson, MS is far enough west to qualify. It was a mess getting in here today. We started in Atlanta at 5 in the morning. ATL was DEAD. Of course it was early on a Sunday, but I’ve never heard it so quiet. The same controller was working both north and south ground as well as all 5 runways. Impressive to think about, but from the time we taxied off the ramp until we switched over to departure climbing off of 26L three planes landed and 2 planes took off. I guess he managed.

CLT was pretty quiet too which was good. The captain I was scheduled to flying this month with decided to come back from vacation and we headed down to Charleston, SC. Smooth flight down and one of the smoothest approaches I’ve ever had. I literally set the power and trimmed the plane out and then didn’t touch it again until I pulled the power out at 50 feet. Of course I managed to hit the one thing on the runway (the arrester cable that the military guys use to prevent an overrun). Made for a nice bump. I guess you can’t have it all.

We were early enough into CHS that we had almost an hour on the ground which allowed me to read the rest of the National Geographic I’ve been carrying around for a week. Interesting stuff about Slums in Mumbia (Bombay) India and ants. We eventually loaded up and headed back to CLT. Typical CLT arrival had us slowed to 170 knots 30 miles from the airport. Wahoo. There was a line a mile long (literally, the runway is about 1.5 miles long and the line stretched most of the way back it on the parallel taxi way) for take off but we headed right into the gate. When I called in range they gave us Gate E20 with the plane going back out to Jackson. When I called up the ramp they said we had been swapped to E26 and our plane was going to Jacksonville (NC). Great. So we park and head over to E20 where our deadhead to Jackson was going to be out of. The crew was there waiting but no airplane. It showed up about 20 minutes prior to departure and was met my maintenance. Never a good sign.

Turns out the APU door wouldn’t open. No big problem as MX can just wire it open. We boarded anyways (to eat lunch away from the masses) and about 30 minutes later maintenance finished up the paperwork and they boarded the other passengers. After all was said and done we pushed off the gate 35 minutes late. It was a mostly full flight (blocked for 1:53) but I fortunately had a window seat and was sitting next to a smaller person so I wasn’t too cramped. We taxied out of the ramp and then instead of taking a taxiway we parked in the penalty box. CA comes on the PA and says something else broke and we are going to go back to the gate and get MX to reset it. So back we go, don’t unload and 47 passengers (including 3 somewhat unhappy crew members) sit in a sweltering heat for 45 minutes while maintenance does there thing. Finally they sign off on it and away we go again, now running 1:30 late.

We didn’t make up any of the time on the way so we got to the hotel around 1:30 in the afternoon, local time.

Not much of a hotel either, but that is another story.

Now I’ve seen it all.

My trip ended in Charlotte yesterday afternoon. I ended up being able to go back home to Dayton instead of having to do some other stuff so I listed for the jumpseat for the 7:25 departure. The flight was oversold by 4 (on the 70 seater) so I figured I would be sitting up front. The plane pulled up to the gate at about 6:30 and unloaded. I was sitting in the boarding area looking out the window at the pouring rain coming down on the ramp when a deice truck pulled up to the tail along with a MX van. An MX guy got in the bucket and started looking at the top of the tail. Uh oh!

Shortly their after the FO that was flying the flight went down the jetway. Maintenance was still playing around with the tail and now had a digital camera up there and were snapping away at something. About that time my cell phone rang although it went straight to voicemail. I check the message and as I was listening to it the FO came back down the jetway and motioned me to follow her. The message was from scheduling telling me the flight canceled and was going to ferry back to Dayton and to get on it if I wanted to go. I hung up and asked the FO what was going on.

Turns out the plane had gotten hit by lighting on the way in. Another crew was flying it so she wasn’t sure what had happened exactly. I asked one the mechanics that was working on paperwork and he said the only damage they found was to the gear door (a small hole), the radar dish (some scorching) and the left corning of the tail (burned paint and a missing static wick). Pretty standard hit on the airplane. About then the Captain showed up. I had flown with him several times and was actually the first IOE captain I flew with when I started at the company. He said it was no problem if I caught a ride.

After about 40 minutes of paperwork we pushed off the gate with Captain Ben and FO Tammy up front and me and the two FAs in the back. It was raining pretty good during the taxi out and take off but wasn’t too bumpy during the climb out. we broke out of the clouds after about 15 minutes and the flight smoothed out completely. I had a nice view out my window to the west of the glow from the already set sun, and a small crescent moon hanging above the darkening horizon.

As we started the descent into Dayton I sat in the jumpseat and took a few pictures of the night time arrival, which for the most part didn’t come out too well.

Unfortunately the other Dayton flight (the later one) also got hit by lighting and had to ferry with out passengers as well meaning about 140 people got left in CLT. Messy night for everybody I guess.

Day three of four and I am SO ready to be done with this trip. Unfortunately I’ve got to finish some stuff after I am done with this trip and I won’t get back to Dayton until Friday evening. And then I only have 1 day off before going back out again. Oh well, maybe my cold will be gone by then.

Today was a pretty easy day. We came in from Louisville and then did the North Carolina Shuffle from Charlotte to Greensboro and back and then over to Wilmington. The weather was much better then day one of the trip on the surface (ie no winds) but it was cloudy and very choppy between 8000 and 16000 feet. You can’t have it all I guess.

Highlight of the day was climbing out of Greensboro. It’s my leg and we are climbing out of about 11000 on the way to 13000. The auto pilot is flying and the thrust levers are in the climb detent. (On the 700 there is a FADEC system, which stands for something like Full Authority Digital Engine Control. Basically instead of having to set the level of power you want you just push the lever into a detent (climb in this example) and the system gives you the max climb power adjusted for altitude, temperature and who the majority congressional party is). Anyhow we are bumping away through the clouds and I am trying to keep an eye on the airspeed as we start to level at 13,000. I don’t want to go too fast in the bumps and overs stress the airplane. It’s about a 15 minute flight from GSO to CLT so I reach into my flight case to take out my binder that has my Charlotte charts in it when all hell breaks loose.

Also in my flight case is a fold out sun shade. It’s one of the ones that compresses into a little circle and then unfolds it’s self to form the 4×4 (or so) shade. The edges are some sort of flexible wire that naturally tries to straighten and open the thing but when you bend it just right it makes a nice little oval package that you can latch shut with the attached cord. Some how the latch cord caught on my binder as I pulled it out and not only did it pull out the folded up visor but also unlatched it. It landed in my lap and then opened, completely blocking my view of anything. About the same time we hit some nasty bumps and I am afraid that either the autopilot will disconnect or the plane will overspeed, but I can’t see anything. So there I am desperately trying to fold the thing back up, but it doesn’t want to go. The captain is laughing his ass off while I fight with the thing. I finally manage to wrestle it behind my seat so I can see the instruments and actually get at the yoke if I had to. But, George (the autopilot) does his job and the air settles down so I don’t have to worry about overspeeding.

Way too much work for a 15 minute flight though.

Yesterday I got to play around on the backside of the front that blew through the entire east coast. While the North East was dealing with the actual storm, the South East had a nice sunny day going but the surface winds were kicking to 40 knots. My day started with a deadhead from Dayton down to Charlotte. Nothing like getting up at 3:45 in the morning to go sit in the back of the airplane for an hour. The flight down was pretty uneventful. Actually, it may have been eventful but I was sleeping so I’d of had no idea. It was relatively smooth in CLT when we landing and I grabbed my stuff and went to the crew room.

I showed up back at the gate 2.5 hours later (around 9) to meet up with the crew and start the trip. I got out to the airplane (on a jetway no less) and stepped outside to do the walk around. It had gotten windy. There was tons of dust and junk blowing around the ramp. I hadn’t seen that much seen being out in Phoenix. We got stuff set up and I agreed to fly the outbound legs.

The winds were 70 degrees off the runway (if the runway is heading to 360 degrees, the winds were from 290) and 22 knots gusting to 34. Other then *that* it was a nice day.

Quick pause for windshear 101:

Basically, an airplane flies due to air moving over the wings. You can either put a big fan in front of the plane and blow air over the wings and it would “float” much like a kite, or you can push the wings through the air using thrust and create airflow and hence lift. So, picture you are flying though perfectly still air (no wind in any direction) and in order to keep enough air flowing over the wings (actually the plane moving forward through the air) you need 100 miles an hour. Now, throw in a headwind of say, 20 miles an hour. You would only need to make the plane go 80 miles an hour forward as the air is coming at you at 20 miles an hour. On the flip side, if there was a 20 knot tailwind you would need to go 120 miles an hour to have the same amount of air over the wing. Windshear occurs when the wind direction and/or magnitude rapidly changes. It normally happens when you are climbing or descending through horizontal layers of air as air movement tends to stratify although it can shear in vertical sections too.

Because we are flying a speeds that not only keep us up in the air but also make us go forward as well (lift AND thrust) encountering windshear can cause two things to happen. Either we shear from a tailwind to a headwind and encounter increasing performance or we go from a headwind to a tailwind and encounter decreasing performance. By performance I mean airspeed or climb performance (or lack there of). So, if we are trucking along at 150 miles an hour climbing off the runway and into a headwind that suddenly shears into a tailwind bad stuff starts to happen. The amount of “wind” going over the wing decreases (as the air being made to flow over the wing by our forward movement is partially being offset by the wind now blowing from behind us) and our lift decreases. To keep the rate of climb going we have to pitch up more which causes our airspeed to bleed off. This of course is a bad thing because if our speed gets to slow we stop flying and start falling, which near the ground is not a good thing at all.

A shear from tailwind to headwind isn’t as bad, but it can cause problems as well. As the headwind builds our climb performance increases which is fine if we want to climb but if we are trying to descend to land we have to pitch over more which causes our airspeed to build. This means that we have to pull power out to stay on speed and not overspeed the aircraft. By its self this isn’t a bad thing, but if we unspool the engines too much and then encounter another shear going back the other way we already have the power back and it an be nearly impossible to get the power back in time to climb out of it.

Modern aircraft have windshear detection systems built in. If the plane senses a rapid decrease or increase in performance it will warn the pilot with a visual and aural cue. On the CRJ (and I would guess most other airplanes that are equipped with this system) an increase in performance brings a yellow “eye lash” to the top of the primary flight display and flashes the word “WINDSHEAR” in bright yellow letters just below the flight director. There isn’t too much you can do with a increasing performance windshear alert accept keep the speed down as much as possible but be prepared for a decrease that may follow.

If the decrease is encountered the “eye lashes” turn red and the word “WINDSHEAR” is in red. Also there is a two tone chime followed by a slightly panicky (I think) male voice that says “windshear! windshear!” If you are departing and encounter this the procedure is to leave the aircraft configuration as it is (gear, flaps where they are) and climb inside the command bars and try to climb out of it. If needed, you can use max power to climb. In the sim climbing out can some times be interesting as you have to ride the stall stick shaker (right at the very edge of stalling the airplane) to climb out at all. A red windshear alert on arrival will normally occur lower (<2000 feet) to the ground and is grounds for an immediate go around.

Okie, well this turned more into a lesson on windshear then I planned, but anyhow, we departed out of CLT going to Nashville and through about 500 feet we got a yellow windshear alert triggered by a 20 knot increase in the airspeed, which I climbed out of no problem. The air was extremely rough until about 2000 feet and then we had moderate turbulence until 10000 feet. Nashville was slightly better then Charlotte and I managed a nice landing (my first in the 700 in a few months) despite a gusty cross wind. The captain flew back to Charlotte and fought hard the whole way down the ILS getting windshear through 1000 feet. The plane in front of us had gone around but we managed to get down with pretty constant +/- 15 knot fluctuations.

From there we turned and headed to Altanta. Again I fought turbulence all the way up in the climb but had a mostly smooth flight over. Atlanta was gusty as well but mostly down the runway. I encountered some shear at 1500 feet that took about 20 knots off our airspeed but I was flying fast anyways so we were ok. The landing there was good but it was mostly luck. I was trying to find the runway and I just happened to flare that extra inch as the main wheels touched down. What ever. I’ll take it. Heading back to Charlotte stuff had calmed down a bit but the last 200 feet were interesting to say the least. From there we had a 2 hour sit and then deadheaded to Savannah. We got in around 7:30 and got to the hotel at 8:00 meaning my day had been 15 hours of fighting the wind.

Good times.

Today was a little better with less wind and a shorter day. And tomorrow morning I get to sleep in all the way to 5am!

I’ve spoken before about how an airline has to run on a very specific schedule or stuff starts falling apart. Last night was a perfect example of this. I was supposed to fly CLT-DAY and be done for the night. The flight was scheduled to depart at 9:35. The average passenger doesn’t see a lot of the “magic” that happens behind the scenes to get the airplane out on time. They just walk down the jetway (or across the ramp in this case), get on board, buckle up and wait for the plane to go.

US Airways came out with this whole internal marketing campaign a while ago to try to get more on time departures. The program, called All Together On Time probably cost more then it has saved, but it does do a nice job or breaking down what is supposed to happen when.

The plane had been sitting since about 7:30 when it came in from Atlanta. I got to the plane with the captain at about 8:50. Both flight attendants were in the galley putting away catering which had been delivered some time after the plane arrived. I say catering like it is some sort of good food. In reality catering is just soda cans, water bottles, pretzels, cups, napkins and other miscellaneous stuff the FAs need. I put my bags in the plane (my rollaboard in the closet in the galley, my laptop case on the floor to the right of my seat and my flight case in the holder to my right) and then grabbed a flashlight to do a walk around. The captain talked with the FAs for a minute and then started setting up his side of the cockpit. The ramp is a wild place some times. At night it can be hard to see with all sorts of lights glaring off of everything. Also it is often very loud due to APUs, fuel trucks, baggage carts, belt loaders and airplanes taxiing by. As I did the walk around the fuel truck showed up to pump out gas. Due to bad weather in Dayton we needed an alternate and hence a good amount of fuel. The release called for 10,800 pounds of gas, so the fuel guy started pumping just under 1600 gallons of fuel into the airplane.

By the time I got around to the other side of the airplane the ramp crew had a belt loader up to the rear baggage bin and was starting to load bags. The baggage system is still something that I view a black magic. Somehow (mostly) your bag makes it from behind the ticket counter, on to your airplane, off your airplane, on to your next airplane, off your next airplane and then to the baggage claim area at your destination. Anyhow, the rampers were doing there thing as I worked my way back up to the door and got back on the plane. At this point it was 9:00, 35 minutes until departure time.

After I sat back down I started “nest building”. Basically this consists of getting everything set up the way I want it. I normally start by taking 2 alcohol wet wipes ands wipe down the yoke, the hand mic, the throttles, the flap handle, the gear handle, spoilers lever, the checklist, master warning and caution buttons, the autopilot control panel and the radio tuning unit. Does it make a difference? Probably not. Then I take my headset out and plug it in. After that I normally get me seat into position, get the seatbelt set and move the rudder peddles (they move up and down on a track) to where I want them. Even if it isn’t my leg to fly I still set up my seat to where I can fly in case something goes wrong.

Once my nest is built I start in on the paperwork. We have data cards that have blank boxes to fill in information as needed. I copy the flight number and our ramp and take off fuel numbers from the release to the top of the data card. Then I copy the ATIS (weather). Some airports have digital that we can pull over the ACARS and it’s simply a matter of copying it. Most smaller airports have a verbal broadcast on a frequency that has to be transcribed. Once that is done I’ll start loading the flight management system with our route, the weight and balance and other system set ups stuff.

Normally the captain will help out (or do all of this), but it only takes a few minutes to do anyways. Last night the captain had a phone call so I slammed through the setup in just a few minutes. At 9:10 (25 minutes to departure) I called clearance to get our flightplan and transponder code. This info comes up 30 minutes prior to departure. Also at 30 minutes prior to departure the gate should start boarding. We had a full flight so all 30 minutes would probably be needed. I copied the clearance and entered the correct radio frequencies for the leg and then took a look at the weather in Dayton to make sure it wasn’t going to be too bad, which it wasn’t.

The fuel guy finished up at 9:15 and we ran a receiving checklist to make sure everything was set as it was our first leg in this airplane. Still no passengers. One of the FAs checked to see if we needed anything (the captain asked for some coffee) and then at 9:20 (15 minutes to departure) the first of our passengers came out. At the same time the rampers connected the push bar and a pushback tug to the noise gear.

The captain was flying so he briefed the departure and the weather and then we went back to waiting for the rest of the passengers. Boarding is supposed to be finished by 10 minutes prior to departure and the paperwork (with the total passenger count and bag number) at the plane 7 minutes prior). At departure time we still had 9 empty seats and no paperwork. At 5 minutes past departure we had 7 seats and no paperwork. A ramper came over to the plane and told us the gate had put a 10 minute hold on us for late connecting passengers. The gate is allowed, at their discretion to hold a flight 10 minutes. Anymore then that and they have to request the delay from our dispatch. The 10 minute hold passed and still no more passengers and no paperwork. Meanwhile the rampers disconnected the tow bar and tug and went to push another airplane.

I called operations to see what was going on and they didn’t even know we were holding. At departure + 15 minutes they called me back to say that they had called the gate and found out the gate was going to hold until the passengers got there, completely against policy. The captain went inside to talk to the gate agent and came back several minutes later and said that she had said it wasn’t her problem if we were late and that we weren’t going anywhere until everybody got on board. Two more passengers come out at 20 minutes past and finally at 25 minutes past two more came out followed by the gate agent with the paperwork which she gave to a ramper before going back inside.

We ended up waiting anther 10 minutes until the bags from the late passengers made it over and were loaded. In the mean time they had re connected the tug and we were able to push back 37 minutes late. Grrr.

In slightly better news…
I got to see the sun come up at 8pm last night. We were flying from Charlottesville to Charlotte and climbing through a cloud layer at 8000 feet the sun had already set to the west. However, as we climbing up to 24,000 the horizon dropped and it looked like the sun was rising. After we leveled off the sun “set” again. It was sort of cool.

Here’s the sun setting for the second time.

A few things. Not all related to flying for a change. Ok, most are, but some aren’t.

I don’t normally post links anymore. Curt Schilling’s Blog 38 Pitches is an interesting character study. His post after his opening day loss to KC gives a very in depth look at how he views the game. The site also promotes awareness for ALS. Good stuff.

It’s cold again. Actually snowed a bunch today. Not that I was here to enjoy (or not) it. That takes us to the airplane stuff.

I got junior manned to fly today. It was just a day trip that was DAY-DCA-CHA-DCA-DAY. Not too bad really except I was supposed to deadhead the first 2 legs and then fly back. All kinds of fun. At the last minute they changed my schedule so I flew DAY-CLT, deadhead CLT-CHA (on a Dash8… thank god for ear plugs) and then flew CHA-DCA-DAY. I met the crew in Chattanooga and we loaded up for the flight to DCA.

The captain was a very senior (number 15 in the company) guy who does this pretty much as a part time job. He’s also a jazz musician (electric bass) and is just starting a recording company. We got to DCA early thanks to a 90 knot tailwind. I ran inside and grabbed a bacon cheeseburger from the new food place 5 Guys Burgers and then headed back to the plane to eat it. Mmm Mmm. One of best burgers I have ever had.

We loaded up a mostly full flight and I took off from Runway 1 and headed west. Coming into Dayton we couldn’t pick up the weather so we got handed off to Approach Control with no idea what was going on on the ground. They told it is was 3/4 mile visibility with a 700 foot ceiling and gusty winds. Wahoo. I quickly briefed the ILS approach but as the captain guessed correctly it was just a snow squall that blew across the field before we got there. By the time I was on a 5 mile final I could see the airport clearly. To the northwest of the field was another squall line which we beat to the gate by a minute. Visibility went away as I was doing my walk around.

Driving home was a bit interesting as there were a bunch of cars off the road as they were starting to ice up a bit.

Phrase of the day (and really my reason for posting anything tonight):

“It’s like pulling a freight train with a thread.”

Thanks Dave.

Our last leg yesterday was Washington to Dayton. We were running a little late but managed to make up the time on the ground. We boarded early and 15 minutes before departure had 48 people on board. Then a bus pulled up with 4 people. The 200 seats 50. 48+4 is 52 and we didn’t have the roof wrack option either. So, after some calls to operations they tell us to pull 2 non rev passengers off who mistakenly got cleared. One of them was a Delta pilot who already had a jumpseat form filled out so after some confusion he took a seat up front and the other passenger (and after 20 minutes of searching her bag) got off the plane and took the bus back to the gate. We were now 10 minutes late pushing.

With Todd in the left seat, me in the right and Delta Dave right behind us in the jumpseat it was a pretty crowded cockpit. Add in the 50 passengers, 1 lap child, 1 flight attendant and over 2000 pounds of cargo in the back, our little CRJ was loaded up pretty good. We taxied out to runway 19 and after an arrival I managed to pull the plane off the runway and start climbing out. Regs mandate a “sterile” (no talking unrelated to present flight stuff) below 10,000 feet. Most people *mostly* follow it, but once stuff is going smoothly other stuff creeps in, both going up and going down. Jumpseaters normally do respect this rule and Dave was no exception. Todd and I discussed our climb performance briefly as we went through 6000 and were cleared to turn west and on course towards Dayton. We passed through 10,000 climbing towards 17,000 and were handed off to Washington Center.

We punched through the top of the cloud deck (and the last of the bumps) at 21,000 and slowly started working our way to our final altitude or 26,000. The conversation dynamic over the trip and been varied between me and Todd. We had flown together for the whole month and a few months before so there wasn’t too much new stuff to talk about. With a new guy up front, the conversation turned towards career stuff, past and future (but not too much present). The conversation briefly stopped while we plotted our way between two thunder cells.

Fortunately although daylight was fading fast there was still enough light (we were heading west with the night) to see the storms in front of us. Our routing was going to take us just through the edge of the southern one and well to the south of the northern one. Both were active throwing off a fair amount of electricity and strobing an almost purple color every few seconds. Our radar (a rather weak feature of the CRJ) was only showing the northern storm, which was the bigger of the two so we hugged a little closer to the south. Weaving through a canyon in the clouds is always awe inspiring. With both sides spitting out bolts of lighting and flashing against the already set sun it was amazing. The autopilot was flying but I reverted to heading mode to dodge the storms. The air was smooth and the plane banked as I spun the heading bug. It was just one of “those” moments.

We broke free of the storms as we crossed the Ohio River and headed directly to the Appleton VOR, just north east of Columbus. There was a broken layer of clouds below us and the lights from the ground showed weakly through. Talk turned back towards hopes and goals. Delta Dave was interested in what I though was the “place to be” these days. I told him probably Delta and United (when they start hiring again). He seemed surprised that I would even think Delta was a good place to go. I guess it’s all relative.

We began our descent just east of Columbus. Todd lives there and made a small wave out the window to his family 20,000 feet below who he would see in a few hours. The weather in Dayton came up with strong gusty winds from the west, but mostly down the runway and an overcast layer at 9000. We headed into the clouds at 15,000 and the darkening world got very dark. As promised we broke out at 9000 to night time. The runway lights were in sight 25 miles in front of us and after checking in with approach I spun the altitude down to 4000 feet. A company CRJ was coming in from the south (the 7:35 Charlotte departure) but they were only 6 miles out and we were still at 20 so I kept the speed up. I slowed going through 3000 feet and called for flaps and gear on speed to configured at 1000 above the ground. The autopilot came off as the gear came out and I managed to get the speed back to our bug as we passed through 500 feet. The PSA call is “500 feet bugspeed plus X, sink rate X”. I still in my mind make the ATP call “400, gear down stabilized”. Old habits die hard.

I caught a gust of wind at about 200 feet but had everything back under control over the threshold at 50 feet. Power to idle and keep the nose up just a bit. With 20 knots of wind holding us back the wheels just barely touched the ground and we were done flying. The reversers came out as ordered and we slowed to make the right turn off. Todd took the plane and taxied us to the gate.

Driving home I got to thinking about the conversation we had been having. While I certainly hope to go fly the heavy metal some day, the things I enjoy about this job will always be the same. It’s the moments when it is just me and the airplane moving though the sky or touching down on the ground. That won’t change at all. The places I do those things may as well as the type of airplane and the number of people sitting in the back will, but at the end of the day what makes me happy is moving the control surface and making the plane go where I want it to go.

And… I’m back.

Yesterday I had to deadhead from Dayton to Charlotte to pick up my trip. I was positive space on the flight, meaning that my status allowed me to boot a paying passenger as I had to be on the plane when it left. Of course the flight was oversold by 7 when I checked in 1 hour before departure. The gate agent told me he added me to the standby list and didn’t have a seat for me right then. I informed him I was a must ride (which he knew as he had handed me a must ride for to fill out) and I was going to have to have a seat. He nodded and walked away. So, they eventually board the aircraft and when they make the final boarding call I walk over and ask about me seat. He says “oh, we didn’t get one for you. Can you get down to Charlotte some other way?” I laugh and explain I have 3 legs to fly when I get down there and I sort of need to get down there soon. We go back and forth for a while until I offer to call scheduling and see if they can do something else. Of course, they can’t (as I already know) but the supervisor says she will call the gate and let them know I need to be on the plane. I warn the gate that the call is coming and the gate agent there says he has no idea why the other gate agent didn’t give me a seat. Meanwhile the gate agent that messed up had gone down to the plane to try to get 1 more volunteer. The phone call comes, and 15 minutes later the gate agent comes up the jetway with a passenger. I go down to the plane and get a bunch of dirty looks. We push 25 minutes late, miss our flow window to Charlotte and hold by the runway for another 15 minutes, arriving 35 minutes late in Charlotte. Airlines run on a tight schedule. Let’s take a look at the problems I caused.

-The plane I flew down on was scheduled for a quick turn back out (different crew). By arriving 35 minutes late, we pulled up at the gate at the same time it was supposed to be leaving again. With unloading, crew swap and reboarding (another full flight) the plane probably was running 45 minutes late by the time it actually left. It was doing an Asheville, NC turn so chances are there were no connecting passengers in Asheville, but it probably got back to Charlotte late meaning that the inbound passengers may have missed connections and the plane was still running late for the rest of the day.

-The crew of the plane I was flying down on had a 43 minutes turn (with a plane swap) in Charlotte. That meant they had to unload the plane they were on, get off the plane (while the Asheville crew was trying to get on), walk to another gate, get on another plane, set it up, board and depart in 43 minutes. But because we were 35 minutes late they were down to 8 minutes. Obviously that didn’t happen. I’m not sure where they were going but chances are they were doing a turn out of Charlotte and coming back they most likely would be late and might have some mis connecting passengers.

-The 49 other passengers on the plane I flew down on were mostly all connecting somewhere. The ones sitting near me mostly had 45 minutes connections or less. Being 35 minutes late meant that they had maybe 10 minutes to get to where they had to be. Obviously, unless the other flights were being held (or running late themselves) they weren’t going to make it. Not everybody had the tight connections, but certainly a fair number did. Also, due to it being a Spring Break travel week most other flights were oversold so if they missed their scheduled flight it would be very difficult to get on another one.

-I originally had 39 minutes to get to the flight I was scheduled to fly (up to Akron and back). By the time I actually got off the plane and got my bag it was already 2 minutes past departure time. By the time I got to the other gate and on the plane it was 15 minutes past departure (I stopped to talk to my old room mate… it was his last day). So, we board 25 minutes after departure time and push off the gate 45 minutes late. We get to Akron only 20 minutes late and make up 5 more minutes on the turn, leaving 15 minutes late. By the time we get back to Charlotte we are back on time and none of our passengers will miss their connections.

One little hiccup can cause a whole bunch of problems for the day. One factor that does mitigate this is that the block times for a flight (what they are scheduled for) are normally padded a little bit. our blocks come from the average flight times compiled over a certain period of time. They are very rarely much shorter then the norm, but some times are much longer due to delays, holding and ground stops so the “average” is actually normally longer the the actual.

Moral of the story, lots of people got inconvenienced because a gate agent didn’t want to have to pull one more seat.