Today (well, yesterday now) was the first day of a 5 day reserve block. They gave me 10am regular reserve and then called me at 4:18pm to get the hangar as quick as I could to fly a reposition flight down to Columbia, SC. Now, when they call, I have 1:30 to get to the airplane, even if they say “hurry”. I used about 1:15 of it to pack, fight traffic and walk to the hanger through a light rain. The plan was for us to fly down to CAE and then double deadhead through Charlotte and back to Dayton, getting in around 11:39pm.

The FO was already out in the plane so I headed through the MX hangar and outside to where it was parked. A quick check of the logbook showed it had been flown to Dayton to have a parking brake issue fixed. Basically, some times (not always though) when the parking brake was released there was an error message shown for about 10 seconds. Other then that it was a good airplane.

I started in on my checklists and wouldn’t you know it, when I released the brake to check the anti skid system, the same error message appeared. So much for them fixing it. I called up MX Control (who were just a few hundred feet away inside the hangar and they sent some mechanics out who had us shut down the APU while they connected a tug and pushed us backside the hangar.

We headed over to the break room and waited. And waited. The TV was on Fox and we sat through Seinfeld, According to Jim and two Simpson’s episodes (so we sat for 2 hours). Bones was just starting when I headed in to the Operations Control Center to find out what was going on. They said it was almost fixed and gave me new paperwork. About 20 minutes later we were back in the plane (which they had tugged back out of the hangar) and ready to try again. This time I tested the parked brake first, and sure enough, it failed again.

MX Control just laughed at me when I told them what had happened. They said they would send the guys back out, and while we waited I started running some numbers. The flight down there was scheduled for 1 hour and 25 minutes. I had to add to that our taxi out time and our taxi in time (5 and 10 minutes) and then a 15 minute debrief period. We started the day at 10am (on reserve) which meant 14 hours of duty time would be midnight. However, because of the MX delay, they could push us to 15 hours. 10+15 = 1am. Working back from 1am, I came up with the fact that we needed to be off the ground, heading towards CAE no later then 11:05pm. Otherwise we couldn’t go.

Nobody had come out yet, and there was another plane parked next to us that was about to head down to Mississippi to get painted. There were two crews on board, one flying and the other deadheading as there were two planes to pick up down there. I talked to them for a few minutes before they were readying to go, and our plane was getting hooked up to a tug for the second time that evening. Back in the hangar I spoke with one of the mechanics and he said they were probably going to try to change a part out, and put it in another plane. If it failed in there they knew the part was the problem and then they could replace it. But they didn’t have that spare so they would either have to cannibalize it from another airplane while they waited for the part to put back into the cannibalized airframe, or just sit it out and wait for the spare to put directly into the broken airplane.

At that point we had about 1:15 before we needed to be off the ground. The mechanic didn’t think it was going to happen so we headed back into OCC and told them the bad news. The MX Control Supervisor was just about to release us and cancel the flight when one of the line mechanics called her and said they could probably swap the part out of a good airplane and have us ready to go by 10:45. So much for going home.

I started wondering if we could get the plane out to the runway in 20 minutes. I certainly wasn’t going to push things just to get off in time. The minutes ticked by while we sat and waited. Finally at about 10:50 they said it was done and we headed out to the hangar again. The plane was still inside but the tug was hooked up and as soon as we got on board they closed the door and started pulling us out of the hangar. I got the APU going and power on the plane at around 11pm. At that point I was pretty certain it wasn’t going to happen. I released the brake and there was no message, so at least they had fixed the problem. I started running checklists knowing we weren’t going anywhere, and when we finally go the MX logbook back at 11:02, I told the FO to relax because we were done.

I called OCC over the radio and let them know it wasn’t going to happen. There was just no way we could have set up the plane for flight, started the engines, taxied out and taken off in 2 minutes. I wasn’t willing to rush to even try to make it happen at that point.

So, we shut the plane off, headed back inside (for the third time), thanked the mechanics for their effort and then headed out.

Both the FO and I agreed that we really did want to get the plane down there, and even though we both knew there was no way it was going to happen when we still hadn’t gotten to the plane by 10:45.

The good thing for me was I realized I will not be pushed around, and I am going to take the conservative route.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

I just got back from 26 hours in San Fransisco. Yep, it sounds like a bad movie, but it actually was a pretty good time.

My old room mate was getting married and because I am back on reserve it was relatively easy to trade around days to get the time to go out there. The wedding was 3pm on Saturday so I planned to head out Friday mid day, have dinner with a friend and her boyfriend and then head to the wedding the next day. Then the plan got sort of fuzzy. Either I was going to bail on the wedding by 8pm and jump a redeye eastbound Saturday night, or get up really early Sunday morning and get on the first bank of flights east. It’s really easy going west. You don’t even have to leave early in the morning and you (normally… story follows) get there by mid day. But coming back east even if you leave early in the morning, you still burn almost a whole day getting home.

I didn’t get to bed until pretty late Thursday night so I planned to get a 11am or so flight out of Dayton, up to Chicago, where there is almost hourly service on United to SFO. The first leg worked out ok. The United Express flight was operated by GoJet, which I almost won’t even ask for a ride on (safety wise they are fine, but their pilot group SERIOUSLY screwed over another group that is owned by the same company that owns them). But despite not liking it, they were the way to Chicago so off I went.

The flight up was fine, but the approach was sort of rocky. I was in row 5 and we had one of the hardest landings I have EVER seen in a CRJ 700. There was a crosswind from the left (not much of one though) which means the left main will should have touched down first, followed by the right main gear then the nose gear. Instead the right main touched first followed by the left main AND nose crashing to the ground at the same time. Then we bounced. As I said, it wasn’t pretty. I’m guessing it was the FO’s leg (the Captain had made all the announcements in flight). Either way, it wasn’t pretty. The Captain even made fun of it by saying something like “come back and fly on us again… if that landing hasn’t scared you away completly”.

Once we got parked and unloaded I headed over to the B gates to get on the Airbus 320 heading out to SFO. I had about an hour so after I listed (and was told there were plenty of middle seats left) I headed over to the C gates to get a sandwich for lunch. Food eaten, I was just in time to board the flight, which was already delayed from 11:23 to 11:55. I wasn’t too worry as if I didn’t get on that one there was another at 12:25 and then another at 3:05.

I checked in with the captain and went back to my wonderful middle seat. And then we sat. And sat. Finally the captain told us that there was a part that was broken (which neither he nor the gate had been told about). MX control was telling them that it would be 45 minutes to fix and he advised people to go ahead and get off if they wanted to get something to eat. The one good thing about this wait was the guy in the window seat in my row got upgraded into 1st class so I got the window and my old middle seat was empty.

45 minutes turned into an hour and then the update was that it would take at least until 2:00pm (it was 12:45 now) to get it fixed. And if that didn’t work they were going to find us another plane. I thought briefly about the old 12:25 flight which had been delayed until 1pm but 15 minutes probably wasn’t enough to get over there and get on the jumpseat. As it turned out that too had been delayed again, now until 2:40pm.

By 1:45 they had delayed us to 2:40 as well, and then made a PA that we were swapping aircraft and to exit the plane. Fortunately the other gate was just 2 down. The bad news was the new plane wasn’t in yet. It was due in at 2:25. There is no way they were going to turn a 320 in 15 minutes and have us out by 2:40 and sure enough the departure moved back to 3:05… the same time as the still not delayed 767 SFO flight. I thought briefly about running over there and just going on that one, as the crew on the 320 was risking running out of duty time at 4:05pm. I held back for a while but then as we still hadn’t started boarding the 320 by 2:45 I headed over to the C gates to gamble on the 767 leaving at 3:05.

They changed my jumpseat listing to that flight and after some confusion (they gave me a first class seat, but then gave it instead to a United FA who was going home) I settled into my seat in 40H. Aisle seat in the middle section, second from the last row. At least middle seat was empty. We pushed off the gate at 3:05 and as we taxied by the gate for the delayed flight I’d been on, it was still there, with the baggage doors open and no push tug.

4 hours and 37 minutes later we touched down at SFO, about 3 hours later then I’d planned. After a long walk, a train ride and waiting in line for ever I managed to get my rental car (I asked for an “economy” and ended up with a “small SUV” in the form of a Ford Taurus X, which pretty much sucked). From there it was about an hour drive north to San Rafael to meet my friend for dinner. The drive was sort of good news bad news… Traffic was really bad until I got to downtown where 101 turns to surface streets. Then the traffic wasn’t bad but I caught just about every red light I could. The good thing was I got to drive through the city a bit. From there I headed north across the Golden Gate (way cool) and then north for about 15 miles to San Rafael. The Taurus had a Garmin GPS unit in it, so the car handled the navigating the whole trip, which was sort of nice.

On in San Rafael it was pretty easy to find my friends house. Her boyfriend had just gotten back on the ferry from downtown, so the timing worked out fine, despite me running late. We then headed back into San Rafael to a really good Mexican place. After that I picked up my car again, loaded the Garmin with the hotel address
in Newark and headed off. I would have liked to have driven that during the day so I could see stuff, but the views from the north east part of the bay, looking back towards the city, were great. I got to the hotel at around 11pm (2am eastern time) and made it to my room before completly crashing.

The next morning I ran a few errands (Lowes to get a gift card, target to get wrapping paper and blue socks) and then grabbed some lunch. By then it was 2pm and I headed out to Fremont to the chapel the wedding was at. It was a really nice wedding, although it was incredibly hot out in the sun. Fortunately the service part was short and there was enough shade to go around. By 7:30 I’d snagged a piece of cake, said goodbye to my old room mate and his wife (hey, I think he reads this… so CONGRATS PAUL!) and headed back to my hotel room to shower and check out.

When I checked earlier in the day, most of the flights heading east has seats. By the time I got to the airport at 9:30pm, a lot of flights had filled up. Resigned to the fact I probably was going to be in a jumpseat I chose the most comfortable option and headed over to the Delta 767 leaving for Atlanta. After a small issue at the gate (their computers crashed) they were able to clear me and the crew welcomed me aboard the jumpseat up front. We touched down in Atlanta in a light rain, and parked at the gate at 5:45am. I made my way over to the 8:20 Airtran flight where, after waiting for 2 hours, we pushed off the gate a few minutes early. This time I had a whole row to myself, and I really don’t remember much of the flight north.

I was back home by 11am, where I took a nap until early afternoon.

Despite only spending about 26 hours in SFO it was well worth it. Next time, hopefully I’ll be able to spend some more time.

Yep, 4 hours 25 minutes of sitting on the jumpseat. Fun fun. Needless to say I didn’t sleep for more then 10 minutes during the whole flight.

So, the last of my FO flying (for now) went into the logbook. Here’s what I got out of my 2.5 years in the right seat of the RJ:

1444 flights (1103 in the 200 and 341 in the 700).

1912.8 hours of flight time (1456.4 in the 200 and 456.4 in the 700… exactly 1000 hours more in the 200).

532 Day Landings (417 in the 200 and 115 in the 700)

199 Night Landings (144 in the 200 and 55 in the 700)

114 Approaches (the vast majority of them being ILS)

A whole lot of knowledge.

Even more stories.

Moving on…

I flew my first trip as an actual captain yesterday. Very exciting. Actually, it wasn’t. Other then a few moments of worry while my FO landed in Little Rock (it actually was pretty good, but it was the first time *I* was responsible for somebody with less time landing an airplane with people in it) it was pretty straight forward.

Today of course there is a huge line of weather between Little Rock and Charlotte that we’ve got to punch through. That should be all kinds of fun. Then it’s up to Allentown, PA, back to Charlotte, a three hour sit (dinner time… can’t touch this…) and then back up to Dayton and home by 12:30am with any luck.

Yep. Fun stuff.

Yesterday morning started early, but because the show was 30 minutes later and we were in the central timezone I got to sleep in an extra hour and a half. Pure happiness. The only problem was my nap ended up getting me in trouble as I went to sleep around 9pm but couldn’t actually fall asleep until 10:45. One of the dangers of the job I guess.

In the morning we piled into the hotel van (their “shuttle” van was broken so this was a straight minivan with 3 crew, two other hotel guests and all our bags. I felt like I was getting out of a clown car when we got to the airport. Once there we got the plane started up and after loading 17 passengers, we were the first plane of the morning to taxi out to the runway. They gave us runway 16 (which is a long taxi from the terminal) but gave an Eagle flight coming out right behind us 34 (the opposite end of 16, and right next to the terminal). By the time we got down to the end of 16 Eagle had already called ready at 34 so we had to wait until they took off and climbed out past us before we could go. Once they did I got it centered up on the runway (actually somewhat near the centerline too) and then blasted off in to a pre dawn sky.

We were very light with just 17 passengers on board so we were leveled off at our cruise altitude of 31,000 feet pretty quickly. Heading eastbound towards the westward moving sun, we managed about 500 knots (550mph) across the ground due to a nice 80 knot tailwind. We met up with the sun about 100 miles west of Bowling Green, KY and out came the sunglasses and visors. I also set up my camera to capture what is probably the most boring 5 minutes ever posted to YouTube (and that is saying a lot).

Charlotte was actually running smoothly for our arrival and we touched down 5 minutes ahead of schedule. From there it was a quick turn and we were soon heading up to Akron (again). I was having trouble staying awake this leg, especially after it took is 55 minutes to get to the runway from the gate. At one point I counted and we were number 19 to go. Very depressing.

Once we got airborn the time moved a little quicker, and my “FO” made a nice straight in approach to Runway 1 at CAK. Once we slowed I took the plane and taxied in to the gate where the other crew was waiting for us. A quick swap and they were on their way back to Charlotte while we headed for the hotel van. Done for the day at noon.

I was determined not to nap yesterday so I could go to sleep early enough to get up at 3:40am. I made it work, somehow, and after walking over to Applebees for dinner, I went to bed at 9pm.

This morning was rough, but as it was day 4, that counted for a lot. We took off out of Akron 7 minutes early, and arrived in Charlotte on time. Unfortunately we had a plane swap, but our aircraft was already there so it wasn’t a big deal. There wasn’t much of a line for the runway either, so by 8:30 we were off the ground and heading north. We went into the clouds climbing through about 10,000 feet and didn’t come out until we started to descend over Cincinnati. It made for a bumpy ride, but we were able to find some smooth air at 26,000.

The checkairman made a nice space shuttle approach to 6R with a feather soft landing, despite Airtran departing right in front of us and leaving a nice bubble of air right over the threshold. I took the plane and taxied in to the ramp, dodging a United 320 heading out to go to Chicago. Once at the gate, shut down and unloaded, they plugged in ground power and I put the plane to sleep as it wasn’t going out for over an hour. A quick stop in the crew room and I was out the front door of the airport, looking at 5 days off.

I’m not sure if this will work, but I’m trying to embed the youtube video right here.

This early morning stuff is SO not me. I managed to go to bed by 8:30 last night, and only woke up twice (for some reason when I’m on the road I wake up every 2 hours) before my alarm went off at 3:40am. Lovely. At least the weather was nice (but windy) so the walk from Ops to the plane was bearable. The last time I did that walk in Akron it was 5 in the morning and sleeting.

Despite our FA sleeping in and missing the van, we managed to get off the gate 5 minutes early and with my slightly more skillful then yesterday steering we were off the ground shortly there after. It was my leg down to Charlotte where the weather was reported to be less then good. The printed out weather we had listed the visibility as 1/4 mile and fog, while the updated weather from ACARS said about the same with the RVR (basically a measurement in feet of visibility down the runway as measured at different points) was 2200. We need 1800 to shoot the approach.

Our worry was once the sun came up and started reflecting off the water droplets in the air, it would get worse, unless it either a) got windy and blew the fog away or b) warmed up the temperature enough above the dewpoint that the fog would dissipate. Fortunately we didn’t get slowed down and we ducked into the clouds descending through 6000 feet before the sun was up. They vectored us for a 20 mile final, and the RVR came up to 4000 at one point. The plane in front of us was cleared to land with the RVR back to 2000 (just 200 feet better then the minimums).

For Part 121 operations, in most cases, only the visibility is required to legally shoot the approach. They often times will give you ceiling information (the hight of the lowest layer of clouds/fog/mist) and there is a minimum number published on the approach plate (normally never lower then 200 feet above the ground) but that number doesn’t matter as long as you have the required visibility. So for us this morning we needed 1800 RVR to get in. The plate also said we needed a 200 foot ceiling, but that didn’t apply. They were reporting 2000 feet and 100 foot ceilings.

We were cleared to land and tower said the RVR was up to 5000 feet. That’s almost a mile visibility. However, the ceilings were reported at 100 feet still so we wouldn’t see anything until very low, but one we did, we would be able to see a pretty good ways down the runway. At minimums (200 feet above the ground) the runway approach light system came into sight. At 100 feet above the ground the very end of the runway came into sight through the fog. I dumped the autopilot, chopped the power and flared. The thing was, the visibility was no where near 5000 RVR. Maybe 2000 at best. In the end though it didn’t matter as we got in.

The trick of course was using my slightly poor (ok, very poor) driving skills and navigating to the gate when I was only able to see 2000 feet in front of me. That actually worked out ok and we pulled up to the gate right on time. We’d been told we were swapping airplanes for our next leg, but when the check airman called ops to find out where out plane was we were told that they had diverted to Asheville and we were keeping the plane we had. Lucky us.

From Charlotte we headed over to Jacksonville, NC, where the captain managed a nice visual approach around a rain storm and some low laying clouds. There is no jet way in OAJ and just as the last of our passengers got inside, the sky opened up and it started raining. Just in time for me to do the walk around. (Even though I’m a quasi captain now, I’ve still been doing the walk arounds this trip. I could probably get away with having the checkairman who is playing FO for me do them, but I really don’t mind, and I won’t be doing then too much once I have real FOs with me.) For I think the first time ever, I took an umbrella with me on the walk around. I must be going soft in my old age.

Once we loaded up (between rain showers thankfully) we blasted off to Charlotte again, where I got to shoot yet another 100 foot overcast approach. This time it really was 5000 RVR underneath, but we still had to go right down to minimums to break out. Another quick turn (after a stellar parking job by me) and we were heading west to Fayetteville, Arkansas. The computer showed a 1:55 minute flight, and that’s about what it was. Fortunately we had some paperwork to do for IOE so the time went by pretty quickly. The “FO” shot our first true visual approach for the day and I managed to taxi to the gate with out getting lost. From there it was a quick ride to the hotel and we were done for the day by 1pm.

I actually took a nap this afternoon (I never take naps) and although I still feel a little groggy, I think I’ll make it until 8 or 9 when I can actually go to sleep to get up at 4am tomorrow.

The hotel has a Manager’s Reception in the lobby, but the food looked less the appetizing (actually, the chips and salsa were good as was the cookie), so I ordered a sandwich from a nearby pizza place. They just delivered it to my door, so it’s dinner time.

As much as I don’t like these early morning starts, it is kind of nice to be in a hotel and done for the day in time to eat dinner.