I had all kinds of stuff to write in here today, but seeing as I’ve got to be up in about 7 hours now and I didn’t sleep well last night, I think it is just going to have to wait a day.

All this not flying is making me really tired. Stuff I’ve accomplished today…

-Some web design work for the union
-Played a flash game at mini clip
-Ate lunch
-Read a book
-Browsed some web forums
-Read some more
-Tried to beat the game (and failed)
-Read some more
-Preheated the oven
-Started writing this

As you can see. It’s been a busy day.

I go back out on a trip on Monday.

Today was supposed to be the start of my second IOE trip. A four day that, everyday, started after 9am and ended before 10pm. My sort of trip. This was also going to be the first trip where I wore the new uniform. We have switched from dark blue to black, and the width and color of the stripes has also changed. The new blazer came via FedEx last week so I was all set to go.

It’s been really windy here today so I had to fight through that to get to my jeep, while driving my jeep and then walking in from the parking lot. While going through security I ran into another crew consisting of a captain who had just upgraded and a new hire FO. The captain said they had just ferried an airplane from Charlotte up to Dayton (her first leg off IOE) and were going to deadhead back to Charlotte but scheduling had just told them they were flying the flight.

Wait a minute… that was supposed to be the flight I was flying. A quick look at my schedule on the computer in the crew room showed that I didn’t have a trip today. Interesting. It actually showed I didn’t have anything until Sunday (six days from now). I called scheduling to find out what was going on and as it turns out, the IOE captain I was supposed to be flying with called in sick, and hence I was off the trip. Of course, they just happened to forget to call me. Go figure.

So the whole morning was something of a bust, but the good news is I talked to the guy who schedules IOE about trying to get something else in this week (there is nothing) and he got my IOE scheduled for April such that instead of the normal 10 days off a reserve has I ended up with 13 days off.

It’s the small things.

And now, I have a mini 6 day vacation.

Not much to say really. The flying part was about the same. It’s the driving bit that is a steep learning curve. This trip was in the 700, which I hadn’t really flown for several months, even in the right seat. The upshot of that was that I can’t land the thing, from either seat. Of the three landings I had (CLT, LIT and CLT) they were all “acceptable” but none of them were very good.

The other amusing thing was that the checkairman I was flying with had about 30 minutes in the right seat, just enough to get signed off to be a checkairman. So he was about as lost over there as I was on the left. Funny times ensued.

This is sort of rambling. Just one of those days.

It looks pretty good there huh?

I had an interesting thought the other day when I was in the sim. We had a simulated smoke in the cabin scenario and my FO and I were both on oxygen with the smoke masks on, trying to beat what ever was burning in the back end of the plane to an airport that was well below weather minimums. Somehow in the middle of all that I got to thinking.

For most of my childhood, back as far as I can remember, my dad was a volunteer fire fighter. The “danger” part of it never really registered (the worst I remember was when, during some training fire, part of his face shield melted and burned his forehead) and I always thought that it was a job I wouldn’t mind doing. The flashing lights, the big machines, the radio chatter… it all looked interesting. However, the one thing that I didn’t like was the whole SCBA system. I don’t know if it was the whole breathing compressed air or more the entire face being covered and the Darth Vedar esq sounds. What ever it was, it was enough to make me not interesting in that as a career.

And yet, here I am, in a pressurized tube, backed up for safety with the same face mask system that scared me when I was little. I guess that’s one fear I have managed to get over.

The PIT commute plan fell through. There was weather in the area and the flight became weight restricted meaning they had to go with a few empty seats. They were able to get three non revs on, but they were all higher seniority then me. I ended up getting on the DC flight (which had tons of open seats) and sat next to a September new hire at United. He seemed pretty happy over there after flying a GIV for 20 years. We got to DC a few minutes early and I hurried over to the Charlotte flight, which as I said in the last post was oversold. It was a 737 which means only one cockpit jumpseat. I was all set to go when at the last minute a Mainline pilot rolled up and took the seat. Oh well. The next CLT flight was an hour later and on an Airbus with 2 jumpseats. I managed to snag the first one and a UPS pilot got the second. After all that it was a quick one hour flight down to Charlotte.

Today I had my 700 Proficiency Training. Basically it’s to give us at least a bit of time on the other plane (all my upgrade sim was in the 200) before we get out on the line. Because my sim partner from upgrade didn’t make it through I was paired up with another guy from my class for this ride. We showed up at around 8:45 in the morning and our instructor met us at 9:15. The previous group got out of the sim at 9:30 so after a quick talk we got in. I started in the right seat while my sim partner played captain. He managed to adapt to the different feel of the 700 pretty quickly and after about 2 hours we swapped seats. Also, at that point an FO who is upgrading next month jumped on the extra observer seat to watch.

I started on the runway on 27R in Philly. After getting everything set we blasted off, only to encounter severe windshear at about 400 feet. The plane bottomed out at around 100 feet before I was able to get it climbing again and clear the weather. Once everything was stable we climbed to 5000 feet and I did a pair of steep turns. The roll rate on the 700 is a bit slower and the controls feel more sluggish to respond then the 200. But, that makes it a bit easier to control. After the steep turns I did two stalls and then got vectors around for a GPS approach back to Philly.

“Approach” (our instructor) asked us to slow to 170 knots so I put out the flaps and of course they broke. I had my FO run the emergency checklist and then we headed in on the approach for a flapless landing. During my type ride I did this same thing, except the weather was clear and a million. This time it was 3 miles and 1000 foot ceilings, so it was legally VFR weather, but I couldn’t acquire the airport until 1000 feet. Coming through 500 feet another plane appeared holding short of the runway and then started taxiing into position. I stared to call for a go around but our instructor realized he’d put that plane there about an hour ago for my sim partner to have to go around for, but it never activated. The plane disappeared and I continued the approach and still managed an ok landing, but forget that when the sim is set to the 700 you have to be VERY gentle lowering the nose to the ground after landing or else it tends to slam pretty hard.

After landing we reset at the top of the runway and took off again. This time at about 90 knots my stick pusher (for the stall protection system) activated and I rejected the take off. Another reset and off we went. This time just after V1 my left engine blew up and we rotated and climbed out single engine. After leveling off at 3000 feet I had my FO run the checklist while I declared an emergency and we headed back around for an ILS approach. Other then the autopilot breaking and me having to hand fly the approach it went fine until 50 feet off the ground when tower told us to go around. So around we went, back up to 3000 feet.

This time we got vectors for the localizer approach to Runway 9R. Another brief, and we were on our way back to the airport. Once again I found the field in time and I managed my nicest landing in the sim yet. We still had a bunch of time left so our instructor repositioned us to 10,000 feet and about 25 miles from the airport heading away. He then dropped our fuel to 300 pounds (which is about 5 minutes worth). We started a turn back to the field, but both engines and the APU flamed out in the turn. The ADG (air driven generator) popped out and we got limited power back, but I was gliding back to the field that was over 20 miles away. The other problem was that with only the ADG power the airplane I didn’t have my moving map display and I didn’t have a DME (distance measuring equipment) receiver. So I could line up on the runway, and I could follow vertical guidance down, but I had no way of knowing how far from the airport we were until I got on the glideslope and figured a rough 3 to 1 ratio. Tower called my distance for my at 15 miles and 10 miles. I realized we had plenty of altitude so I went to flaps 8 and put the gear out to get down. We eventually caught the glideslope about 6 miles from the airport and our airspeed started increasing so I made a mistake and called for flaps 20. At that point the speed started rolling back very quickly and so I had to trade altitude for airspeed and drop below the glideslope. By now were were 3 miles from the airport and well below the glideslope. I had my FO bring the flaps back up, but at that point it was too late. I managed to stretch out the glide to about 500 feet short of the runway before we crashed. It certainly was a survivable crash, and we were right next to the runway so Crash and Fire could have gotten to us. Still, I was sort of ticked off about putting those flaps out and not making the runway.

After that we were done and after our instructor signed some paperwork we caught a shuttle to the airport. I managed to get on an earlier flight (which was a good thing because the weather in Charlotte died later in the day) and I was home by 5pm. After being gone for 12 days I was pretty happy to be home even if all the mail that was jammed in my box consisted of lots of junk, 3 bills and a wedding invitation.

I start IOE on Thursday. Until then, I don’t even want to think about airplanes.

Here’s a picture from the sim. Exciting no?

I’m about to do something I’d normally consider stupid: commute through PIT. When PIT dehubbed earlier this year the number of flights dropped drastically. However, the number of non revs trying to get to work went up (due to everybody who was based and lived there commuting to their new base).

I’m down to few options though, so I’ve got to give it a shot. The ACC bball tourney is in CLT this weekend so the loads from most places are aweful. Out of PHL there are almost 100 more people listed then seats and DC worse. So off to PIT I go.

We’ll see I guess.

So, it’s mostly a blur, but here’s what I remember.

We were supposed to start at 10am, but due to the sim breaking the night before and examiner that was doing our ride staying at work until 4am, we were pushed back to 3pm. Add to that that the sim was running late we didn’t even get in until 4:30pm. My sim partner had wanted to go first, but changed his mind, which was fine with me as I’d just as soon get it over with, so I strapped in to the left seat first.

We started at the gate in Washington with the airplane powered. I managed to get through the receiving checklist and the before start checklist with out too much trouble. We pushed off the gate and I had the FO start the right engine. No problems there, so with the parking brake set, I started the left. The engine started ok, but it never really stabilized correctly so I shut it down. A quick call to MX didn’t turn up anything so I tried starting it again. This time it started fine so we moved on.

The taxi out was fine, despite the 1/4 mile visibility. We got to Runway 1 with out any problems and after being cleared for take off I pushed up the power and released the brake. At about 100 knots the right engine died so I rejected the take off, set the brake, talked the problem over with my FO and elected to clear the runway. This time I remembered to tell the passengers to remain seated so nobody jumped out of the plane. We reset to the top of the runway and tried again.

This time we actually took off and after turning north west up the river, we climbed to 8000 feet. Once there I did steep turns (not my best, but ok) and a maneuvering stall (acceptable). We then repositioned up to 35,000 for unusual attitudes and the emergency descent. They both went ok and we were cleared back to DC and down to 3000 feet. They gave us the GPS approach to 19.

The autopilot kicked off just after I joined up on the final so I had flew down. It went pretty well until I broke out of the clouds and sort of had the runway in sight. The problem is that the inbound course is 30 degrees off the runway heading so the approach involved a low level turn to align with the runway. I had the weather to do it, but it just never looked right for me so I went around. Halfway to the hold our right engine blew up so I briefed the VOR approach to 15 for a single engine procedure. The approach was fine, but I couldn’t find the ruwnay soon enough to descend so around we went one more time.

They gave us vectors back around for the same approach. This time I saw the runway soon enough to get down, but at 50 feet off the ground tower had us go around. Nothing like being single engine, power idle and in the flare when trying to go around. I managed to keep it together, but took too long to climb so I ended up going past the missed approach course before I could turn. A quick turn in heading mode solved the problem and we entered the hold as published. From there they gave us an ILS to Runway 1.

This approach worked out pretty well and it got me all the way down to the runway. I missed the center line but still managed an ok landing. From there we reset at the top of the runway and took off again. This time my engine failed at V1. I managed to hold the climb and headed up the river again. Fortunately we were able to restart the engine just as the visibility came up to clear and a million.

They gave us the visual to Runway 1 and midway on the downwind I put the flaps down. Of course they broke. So we took delayed vectors to run the checklist and then headed in to land. I was a little low the whole way down, but I managed a nice landing right on the 1000 foot markers. We taxied clear and I took it to the gate. Once there we shut down and I was done.

Over all it wasn’t pretty, but it was within standards and it was safe.

I did a quick LOFT this morning and now I’m heading home for a few days before coming back on Friday for a PT on the 700.

I passed. Maybe I’ll write more about it later. Right now I just want to go to sleep.