I finished up a trip yesterday, that on day 4 had me flying 6 legs with 3 different captains and 6 different flight attendants. Playing musical FAs isn’t too bad as the interactions between the front crew and the back crew are pretty standardized and not to in depth. The calls to the front or back are made at mostly the same time in the same way and you can generally expect the same answers (2 bags of ice, lav service and potable water). However, adapting to a new captain every few legs can add a bit of stress to a day.

Normally, once you are senior enough to hold a line you will fly with the same captain the whole month unless they have vacation or a training event or drop a trip. Although, due to or chronic short staffing issues it isn’t uncommon to shuffle crews around now even if they are holding a line. For a reservist swapping crews is just part of the game. Ironically enough, it is harder for reserve guys (and I’m talking about FOs only right now) to swap around as they may not be as confident in their own flying abilities yet and to have to adjust to a new (and sometimes demanding) captain can make things hard.

So yesterday I flew with 3 very different captains. My day consisted of Birmingham to Charlotte followed by a Allentown, PA turn, a New Bern turn and then flying home to Dayton. I flew with one captain for the BHM-CLT and CLT-DAY legs, a second captain for the Allentown turn and a third captain for the trip over to New Bern.

Captain 1 is the guy I’ve been flying with all month. he has been here 8 years and has been a captain for 5 of those years. He was a check airman on the Dork but not the jet and drives into Dayton from about an hour away. He is very laid back and safe, although not 100% by the book.

(Let me digress for a minute and talk about flying by the book. The “book” is our operating handbook. It explains the correct way to do everything from start an engine to dealing with an engine failure (or 2) to how to deal with angry passengers. The nice thing about the book (I’m laughing here… anybody seen Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back recently?) is that is allows everybody to be on the same page. You know what is going to happen every step of the way even if you have never flown with somebody before. The book is the standard. Now, all that said, even though the book is the RIGHT way, it isn’t always the most comfortable, fastest, most efficient and safest way of doing thing. Should that matter? Nope, not really. It should still be followed despite all that, but the fact of the matter is that often times it doesn’t. And that isn’t the discussion I am pursuing here today.)

Anyhow, Captain 1 and I have been flying together for 2 months now. We both trust the other guy to do the right thing. I feel comfortable giving him grief about a bad landing (just as he does to me) and I can make a gay joke (he’s gay) and know If I get stuck with a phone call during a quick turn I don’t feel bad that he has to do all the set up work because I know a) he knows I don’t slack off in general and it’s just something that came up on this leg and b) I’ll get the next few for him. We know which buttons and switches I’m going to hit even though they may not be part of the FO flows but I am setting stuff right there anyways (fuel pumps for the first flight of the day fuel check valve check, avionics cooling fan during engine start etc) and if one of us misses a switch the other one will just grab it instead of pointing it out.

Our approach briefs are slightly consolidated (ok, very consolidated) we don’t always wear headsets but every checklist is read fully, special considerations (weather, fuel, maintenance) are always discussed and my opinion is included in the end decision.

All that is pretty normal for a crew that has been flying around together for a while. The benefits of this are huge. Although we haven’t had any emergencies, I know that if we did, I could focus on my duties and not even have to think about what the captain was doing because I know he would be doing it. Likewise he could concentrate on what he had to do because he would now I was doing what I needed to be doing. Now, that said, both of us would probably be keeping an eye peeled to the other side of the cockpit for redundancy’s sake, but I think that is a normal human reaction.

Captain number 2 was a furloughed mainline pilot. He was also a current check airman who routinely does IOE (meaning he teaches “by the book” to new guys) and had been a captain since he came over here 3 years ago. I had to adjust my thinking a little bit. Suddenly everything was standard. We wore headsets through 18000 feet per the book. He hit all the switches he was supposed to even if I was right there (leading to a few UMTs or “uncomfortable man touches”) and every brief was in full and standard. He flew the leg up to ABE and on final I wasn’t sure if he was going to get down in time, although I didn’t say anything, I wasn’t familiar with his descent profile and didn’t know he was going to put the gear out at 210 knots (I normally wait until 180) to slow down. On the way back into Charlotte I was flying and we were slowed from 290 to 250. Normally I would just pull the power back and slow gradually. It’s more comfortable for the passengers and we get to go a little bit faster for just a little bit longer getting there a few seconds earlier. However, not knowing how he wanted things done I went to flight idle and slowed quickly. Would he have said anything if I hadn’t? I don’t know but I didn’t want to take the chance. I sweated out my landing a little bit too as it was the only landing this guy was going to see me make and I my pride wanted it to be a good one. Turns out it was, but if it hadn’t been I would have probably tried to justify it. Captain 2 was a really nice guy. He flew MOSTLY by the book and had a good attitude. Even with all that it was a fair amount of work for me to adjust to his style of cockpit management and procedures.

Captain 3 was flying his last turn before ending his trip. Due to a maintenance problem earlier in the day the flight was running behind and had been downgraded to a 200 from a 700. He has been a captain for 1 year here and been at the company for 6 years. I’d flown with him once before on a turn a few months ago, but didn’t remember too much of it. He seemed very by the book and also very bitter that he was going to be over an hour late getting off his trip and home to his wife of 6 months. After some confusion as to what airplane and what crew was actually doing the New Bern turn we got on the 200 that he had brought back in and boarded up. Of course, there were 70 people trying to go to EWN and we only had 50 seats. They eventually figured out who was going and who wasn’t and we got 50 passengers and a United jump seater. The jump seater complicated stuff a little bit because even though it is the captain’s cockpit people tend to be a little more conservative when there is another set of eyes (especially from another company) on the flight deck.

(Side note: Thank you United Rusty for taking the time to answer all sorts of UAL questions and to offer to answer any future questions either one of us had. You were hands down, one of the most well informed mainline guys I have ever had in a jump seat. Thank you for taking the time to know and understand the regional industry as well as your own mainline world.)

It was my leg over to New Bern and I flew very much by the book (called for all flight control panel changes when I was hand flying, full briefs etc). As it turned out due to traffic at the airport I had to make a quick modification and instead of entering a right downwind I had to fly over the field and make left traffic. It worked out fine though and we managed a 14 minute turn and headed back to Charlotte with Captain 3 at the controls. He was very standard as I had expected, although he lightened up a whole bunch when he saw that he was only going to be about 20 minutes later getting back into Charlotte.

For the final leg up to Dayton I flew with Captain 1 again. We had a little bit of weather to dodge, but other then that it was a non event right up until I forgot I was back in the 700 when flaring out over the numbers and planted it nicely.

So, the moral of the story? I flew with 3 very different captains over the course of the day. Each one set a slightly (or very) different tone on the flight deck. However, because there is a baseline (the book) to start with, I really had no problem adapting to each one’s methods and preferences.

Tonight I had salad for dinner. Egg, Potato and Garden. Mmm mmm mmm.

I’m going to generalize a little bit by saying that most pilots have something of a love hate relationship with mechanics. On one hand, we need them to fix stuff when it breaks, and we trust them that they do it right so we don’t crash, but on the other hand we complain that they a) never want to fix anything and would rather just defer it or b) take for ever to fix stuff when they do actually fix it.

Last leg of the night going Charlotte to Charleston, SC. We are supposed to leave at 10:05pm (after starting at 10:20am). Of course we are late pushing off the gate due to the gate not counting right, which is becoming an alarmingly frequent thing in CLT, so we ended up at the back of a huge line going out to the runway. We eventually worked our way to the front and then were cleared on to the runway to hold while traffic cleared down field. That’s when things started going wrong.

The captain set the parking brake and we immediately got a PARKING BRAKE SOV message. We asked tower if we could clear the runway and work on the problem. They had us taxi down and turn off the runway and work on the problem there. The QRH basically said to not shut off the engines until the airplane was chocked as the parking break may not hold. It was also a no go item meaning if it is discovered before take off (which it was) then you can’t leave and have to return to the gate.

So back to the gate we went. By now it was 11pm and there wasn’t another airplane in sight. Fortunately there were still two rampers (both supervisors) and two gate agents still at the gates so we were marshaled in and parked (and chocked before the engines were shut down). The lead MX tech showed up closely followed by the other two on duty mechanics. The lead came up and we told him what was going on. After a quick check of the system (there is a maintenance data computer that is accessible from the MFD) he said they didn’t have the part and the plane was probably done for the night. He called MX Control (located back in Dayton) and they told him to go check the actual valve in the back by the wheel well. So while we unloaded 60 passengers the two mechanics crawled under the plane and started pulling stuff apart.

About this time the message went away and the lead couldn’t get it to reappear. Due to this and the mechanics in the back not finding anything wrong MX Control deemed it a “nuisance message” and told us the plane was good to go. So, after the mechanics put ever thing back together we re boarded the passengers and finally taxied out to go to CHS. 1 hour and 45 minutes late (12am) we arrived beating our 15 hour duty limit by 20 minutes.

I really should go to bed. It’s 1am EST, although only midnight here in Little Rock. I just got back from going out with the crew (700 so there are four of us). Good fun, but I am really tired now. Today was relatively easy, but for some reason it dragged.

We showed in Dayton at 4pm for 5pm departure. Of course, we were missing a flight attendant. Apparently she no showed. Either way, they found another one (who had just worked a flight inbound) and off we went to Charlotte. It was a really nice day for the trip down, although we did have one thunderstorm to dodge as we descended into Charlotte. Once there we switched airplanes (lost both our FAs, got two different FAs) and headed off to Little Rock.

It was my leg and we managed to avoid most of the weather heading out. There was a big cell over Memphis that we deviated around another one on the arrival into Little Rock that we stayed just to the south of. The weather at the field was reporting calm winds and using runway 22R and 22L. After setting up for the visual for 22R and heading towards the outer marker we were handed off to tower who informed us the winds were now 340 at 11 gusting to 17. He suggested we take runway 4L instead. So I rebriefed the other direction and entered the right downwind. Meanwhile, a thunderstorm that had been to the southwest of the field started heading towards the airport. Even though it was dark out we could still see a line of rain about 5 miles from the airport and huge bolts of lighting hitting the ground near the city. I kept it as tight a pattern as I could (almost too tight actually) and managed to land with tower calling the winds 010 at 22 gusting 30. What fun.

The cell ended up moving off to the north before it got to the field so we were able to unload the passengers and shut down the airplane with out any problems.

Tomorrow doesn’t start until 11am so I am planning on catching up on my sleep.

I want a baby cockatoo too!

http://www.maildumper.com/birth-of-a-parrot.html

Just a (mostly) normal day 2 of a 3 day trip.

-Wake up at 5:55am in Atlanta. My alarm is set for 6:00am. I feel cheated out of 5 minutes of sleep, but on the other hand am glad I didn’t actually have to hear my alarm go off.

-Get downstairs at 6:25 to find that I am actually leaving “late” enough in the morning to have breakfast out already. Eat a strawberry yogurt and decide to forgo the bagel as it looks sort of stale.

-Get on the van at 6:30. Instead of heading to the airport we head to another hotel to pick up a group of people. The van ride takes 20 minutes instead of 5. We get to the airport 40 minutes before departure.

-Cut in line (and get some dirty looks) at security. With out the blazer (we only have to wear them October 1st -May 1st) I only need one bin, hence my time in line is greatly reduced.

-Get on the shuttle to head out to the D gates, and laugh a little bit inside (as always) while I watch people trying to be cool and stand in the shuttle with out holding on and stumble as it slows or speeds up despite the recorded voice saying “please hold on” every 20 seconds.

-Get to the gate and start my daily new airplane ritual of putting away my rollaboard, flight case and laptop. Doing the walk around (thanks TSA for making me open all these panels) and then sterilizing every surface I might touch in the cockpit with an alcohol wipe. It takes about 3 or 4 to do it.

-Do the normal flying stuff and head up to Charlotte. I actually remember to turn on the transponder upon exiting the ramp. I am the non flying pilot on the in legs today so I get to work radio and finish my Time Magazine.

-Get to Charlotte (where the wind is gusting to 24) and quick turn for the leg to Greensboro.

-Get to Greensboro where I land with the winds gusting to 28, although mostly down the runway.

-Fly back to Charlotte with a Fed in the jumpseat. Do a 30 mile final for 36R slowed to 150 knots. It takes for ever. The Fed falls asleep. We get windshear on final, but it is positive and not too bad so we continue and the captain lands. The Fed wakes up and says nice job and goes away to bother Jet Blue to JFK.

-While people are boarding for us to head to Nashville, I realize that out of the crew of four (male captain, and male and female FA) I am the only one checking out the women as they get on the plane. I also realize I am the only one that doesn’t stare at the group of 6 Marines that get on the plane.

-Fly to Nashville.

-Get a really good chicken taco during our 50 minute sit in Nashville. Eat said taco and manage to dump some on my white shirt. Tide Pen to the rescue.

-Fly back to Charlotte and sit for 3 hours. Manage to watch the end of Fletch (what ever happened to Chevy Chase?), try to get the internet to work (and fail), check some flight availability for later in the month (loads look good) and eat some ice cream (frozen yogurt actually). 2 1/2 hours later I head out to the airplane.

-Check the weather at Wilmington and find the wind is gusting to 36 knots about 50 degrees off the runway. We get more gas so we have Charlotte as an alternate if we can’t get in.

-Leave about 10 minutes late due to late international connection.

-Fly the visual approach with nasty bumps and winds of 27 gusting 36. Manage to touch down near the centerline and aiming blocks after getting rattled pretty good below 400 feet.

-Do the walk around and see the engines are still spinning so fast due to the wind that you can’t tell the blades apart.

-Get to the hotel, check in, change, head downstairs to the bar and order salad and chicken tenders and hang out and decompress a bit.

-Call it a night and head back upstairs. The conversation that is going on as I leave involves the bartender talking about how if “a crackhead takes your ####, don’t even try to get it back ’cause those ####### are fast as hell.”

A yes, a day at the regionals.

Today is day 1 of 4 off. Highly exciting. I don’t even know what I am going to do with my self. Well, actually, today is laundry day. If the weather holds up I’ll go play Ultimate later today. Other then that the (as Tom Petty says) the future is wide open. How scary!

The trip I was on finished up yesterday. Not too bad actually. We started in Pitt-Greenville, North Carolina. Home of Eastern Carolina University. WVU used to (and may still) play ECU in football and I always wondered where they were. Now I know. It was nice to show before 7 am but for it to be light out. A nice change from the early morning shows over the winter where the sun didn’t come up until we had already landed in Charlotte. The airport is very small and has no control tower. With our plane being one of the only jets on the ramp and the only one getting ready to go at that hour, before the captain got the APU going I could actually hear birds chirping. A very nice change from the constant noise on busier ramps, even early in the morning.

After we loaded up (a full flight too) we taxied out and I actually got to talk to Flight Service on the radio which something I haven’t done since I was still instructing. They gave us a take off clearance and we departed. It was my leg and the captain was able to get in touch with Washington Center as we climbed through 2000 feet. They cleared us on our way and we were off to Charlotte. It was a pretty quick flight over and we were able to get right in to our gate. A 1.5 hour sit gave me enough to to go get a bagel for breakfast and then we loaded back up for a quick Cincinnati turn.

It is always frustrating to be headed home later in the day and to be headed directly towards it and then have to turn around and go back to Charlotte first. We were actually number one for CVG and they cleared us for the visual abeam the numbers on the downwind. A quick chop and drop had us turning final across the river and landing at a very deserted airport. As far as former major hubs go, Cincinnati makes Pittsburgh look busy. There were only 2 737s parked on the main gates and a few RJs over in the commuter world. Sad how far CVG has fallen.

We turned out of there and back to Charlotte in just 28 minutes which is pretty good for an outstation turn. This was my last leg in a 200 for a while as I am back on the 700 this month. I managed a very nice landing on 18R and even was able to turn off at the highspeed taxiway somewhat smoothly before giving the plane back to the captain.

Of course CLT was slow in turning us and we pushed 10 minutes late. It’s always the last leg where that happens. You could be early every single leg of a 4 day trip, but the go home leg will always get delayed. Just the way things are. We managed to make up a little time by going fast but the left runway at Dayton was closed so we had to land on the right side and because a bunch of taxiway closures we had to taxi all the way around the perimeter of the airport It normally takes about 2 minutes to get from the runway to the gates. It took us 12 minutes.

In the end it didn’t matter. I got home around 3:30 and I don’t have to be back until Sunday morning. Pure Goodness!

Taken the first morning of the trip climbing out of La Guardia.

Cincinnati Riverfront