Yes, I’ve been remiss about updating this. I’ve been busy… doing nothing.

Yesterday I finished up a four day trip which served as an introduction back into winter operations. As was the trip turned out to be pretty easy, but with the weather system moving through it could have been a whole lot worse. All of our flying was confined to the southeast (with one quick trip up to DC and another to Lexington). While we did turns to mostly sunny North and South Carolina other crews fought through a early season Northeastern snow storm. At one point while sitting in the plane on the ramp in sunny Greenville, SC I got a phone call from a friend who was currently grounded in Scanton, PA due to 1/8th of an inch of slush on the runway and windblown snow.

Despite not having to deal with frozen precip (we didn’t even deice the whole trip) we did have pretty gusty winds near the surface and strong winds aloft for the majority of the trip. This manafest itself in bumpy rides down low and increased flight times as we fought against 150mph + headwinds. The worst was a flight from DCA down to Huntsville, AL that normally takes about 1:15 in the air. With the winds as they were it took us 1:54 from the time the wheels came up until my FO managed a nice landing on the 12,000 foot long alternate shuttle landing runway in Alabama.

This was also the first 4 day trip I’d flown in a while, and the shear length of it (I’m used to one and two day trips now) coupled with the early morning show times (6:15am, 4:50am, 6am and 6:15am) made for a long trip. Of course it didn’t help that I got home at 5pm on the last day and had to be back at the airport at 5am the next day to sit hot reserve.

Vegas Baby… Vegas, originally uploaded by nethan19.

I got upgraded to a suite and have this nice view out my window.

New York, originally uploaded by nethan19.

Testing a mobil upload thingy

Somewhere over Pittsburgh last night, as I dug into my second doughnut of the night, I realized that I pretty much eat my way through a day at work. Despite people’s views to the contrary, mostly, flying is a pretty boring job. Sure, there are moments during takeoff and landing where the work load increases, but once you’re up at cruise, and while sitting at the gate (or in the crew room) between flights, there’s not much to do. Personally, I deal with boredom by eating.

Yesterday was scheduled as a deadhead from Dayton to Philly to start the day followed by 4 legs of flying starting with a quick trip from Philly to New York. From there we were supposed to head back west to Dayton and then after sitting for an hour, do another New York turn, getting us back into Dayton at 9pm. The day was scheduled for about 13 hours of duty and almost 8 hours of credit, which, as bad as it sounds, (working 13 hours and only getting paid for 8 ) is actually pretty good for our schedules.

I’d had hot reserve the day before and had gotten almost no sleep. That coupled with getting up at 3am (despite my alarm being set for 4am) meant when I went to bed at 10pm, I was rather exhausted. It’s rare I sleep all the way through the night without waking up, especially when I have an alarm set, so I was rather surprised that I only woke up once around 5am and managed to stay asleep until my alarm went off at 7am.

I was at the airport by 8:20 and after clearing security I stopped by the coffee shop (Starbucks has yet to make it to the Dayton airport, although the rumors are that it’s coming soon) and grabbed a cranberry muffin. I’m not a big breakfast person (in fact it’s rare I eat anything before noon) but if I’m going to be in an airplane I have to put something in my stomach or I tend to get a little queasy. Yep, even pilots can get air sick. I ate the muffin (which was really good) while sitting in the crew room talking to the hot reserve crew and my crew who were also deadheading to Philly with me.

By 9:15 the plane had pushed off the gate and I was well into the Time Magazine I had brought with me. Through 10,000 feet the Electronic Device Sign went off and my mp3 player went on. I was in the mood for some rock and roll so my reading of Time was serenaded by some Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. An hour later (and with 2 songs left on the album I was listening to) we dropped back out of the sky and touched down on Runway 26 in Philly. After waiting for everybody else to get off the plane, and helping the cross seatbelts and pick up trash, I grabbed my flight case and suitcase from the gate checked bags and headed up to the crew room to stash my bag.

We had 1:45 before we were due back out and because we were only scheduled for 37 minutes in New York, my FO and I headed over to the main gates to get some lunch, despite it being only 11am. I grabbed a turkey and mozzarella sandwich and a raspberry and cheese croissant while the FO picked up a bowl of soup and a coffee. Very few crew members drink airplane coffee if they can help it. The ones that do mostly do so because they need coffee so often that they just don’t have time (or the ability if it’s in flight) to go anywhere else.

We got back to our gate just as the plane was rolling up, and after everybody got off, we boarded up and started getting stuff set up. Once everything was done I managed to eat half my sandwich while the last of the passengers settled in and even remembered to finish chewing before I made a welcome aboard PA.

The weather was perfect and the flight up to New York at 6000 feet went by quickly. LGA was using runway 4, which is pretty much a straight in approach from the south so 23 minutes after the wheels came off the ground in Philly I put them back down on the ground in New York. Despite being a few minutes early our gate was open and I had us parked and shut down shortly thereafter.

After heading inside to get the paperwork I came back out and after getting stuff set up for the trip out to Dayton I took the time to finish my sandwich while the passengers were boarding. We ended up with 48 people and 3 minutes early we pushed back from the gate and taxied out to go home for the first time of the day. The FO managed to very nice Whitestone departure climb (basically a ground track to keep the plane from overflying the more wealthy neighborhoods, while at the same time keeping it out of the way of traffic into JFK) before turning us west. The flight computer was showing 1:12 to get home and once up at cruise I watched the clock roll down to 45 minutes left before eating my croissant. It was well worth the wait.

Once back in Dayton the 1 hour break went quickly by and at 4:15 we were heading back eastbound to New York. This time, assisted by a tailwind the trip went by a bit quicker. I also ate a 6 pack of peanut butter crackers as we leveled off at 32,000 feet over Cleveland. The FO and I had decided we were going to run in and grab some Mexican (from the rather stupidly named “Mex In the City”) once we got to LGA. The turn was scheduled for 39 minutes, but if we had most stuff set up for the return trip before we got off the plane, we could conceivably spend 15 minutes inside getting food and still manage to depart on time. As was we landing in New York (after a scenic trip up the Hudson River) 25 minutes early, giving us plenty of time to get dinner.

My FO waffled a bit and almost headed over for McDonalds, but after watching them make my Vegetable Burrito, he wisely decided to stick with the Mexican, and while he got his dinner I headed over to Dunkin Doughnuts and picked up two doughnuts for the trip home. I don’t drink coffee (or soda for that matter) so I pretty much rely on sugar to keep me awake. It’s probably not that healthy, but it’s how stuff works out.

After picking up our food we headed back to the plane and after a bit of a delay (in which time we both ate our dinner, which was excellent, minus the VERY hot peppers that neither one of us had ordered) our passengers boarded. We closed up and after one false start (a passenger got claustrophobic and had to get off) we pushed back and headed west for the final time that evening. It was a completely clear night and I spent most of the trip looking out the window at the stars. I took a pause from star gazing to eat a doughnut (granulated sugar, jelly filled) at the 1 hour remaining point, and another one (chocolate frosted) at the 30 minute point. By then we were starting our descent into Dayton. Due to the clarity we both picked up the airport about 35 miles out and much to our surprise we got a visual approach clearance and handed off to tower. Tower then cleared us to land about 25 miles out and despite a little squirrely crosswind down low the FO made a nice landing on 24R.

And now, all this talk of food has made me hungry. It’s time to go cook up some dinner.

Git er DOONE

By the time you read this a man may be dead, and his son may or may not have made it to his bedside before he passed. Regardless of the outcome (one which I probably will never know), I do know that me and my crew did everything we could have to help this man get there in time today.

I am the product of an upbringing where helping others is a major part of everyday life. Whether it be through the traditional volunteer methods of working at soup kitchens and homeless shelters, or the more career oriented paths of becoming fire fighters, teachers, social workers etc, many of the people I grew up with do their part to help others. As much as I really do love my job (most of the time), one of the biggest hang-ups I have about the job is that it is hard for me to see how I can directly help others while performing it.

In one sense this shows a rather selfish need for recognition from others that I *am* actually making a difference, but beyond that, because service is such a core part of my being , I sometimes feel slightly less than complete in the career I am in. I’ve spoken about this with other people (not many of whom are pilots though as the standard Type A personality that many of us are, or at least masquerade as, isn’t too big on the whole touchy-feely thing) and discovered that this issue is mostly in my head.

Every once in a while when I am walking out of an airport through security and I see people greeting friends and loved ones I get a small sense that I am in fact helping others and making a difference on that level, but it is so impersonal, even if I saw one of those people on my plane just moments ago, that the feeling quickly passes. However, those fleeting moments do show the potential is there for this career to provide help to others.

Today we flew into Charlotte from Tri Cities and then headed out on the 20 minute flight to Fayetteville, NC. It was the FO’s leg and after dropping though a broken layer in the clouds he managed a soft landing on Runway 4. As we cleared the runway we both were surprised to hear another company airplane calling for a clearance back to Charlotte, and even more surprised to see that they were still sitting on the gate, the only gate that we have in Fayetteville. When I’d called operations over the radio on the way over nobody had answered, which isn’t all the unusual and because we didn’t have any special needs (such as wheel chair passengers or unaccompanied minors) it wasn’t a big deal. However now we had no idea why our gate was still occupied by a flight that was supposed to have left 2 hours ago.

I parked that plane on the side of the ramp and made a quick PA to the passengers to let them know why we were waiting and that I’d update them just as soon as I knew how long we’d have to wait for. It wasn’t too long and 10 minutes later our company plane spun off the gate and we pulled in. After shutting down and unloading out passengers (2 minutes early despite having to sit and wait) I asked the gate agent what the delay had been for. He said that they had had to load a 350+ pound passenger using a straight back wheelchair and it had taken about an hour to accomplish. He then told us we had a straight back too, but this guy wasn’t as big and he could move his arms to help.

We loaded up our passengers (including the straight back) and blasted off back to Charlotte. The flight was mostly uneventful, minus getting slammed for the approach. I managed to get the plane down and despite a few bumps down low, put the wheels on the runway about where I wanted them to go. We then taxied to our gate where, despite our request there was no jetway and no ramp for our wheelchair passenger. The only ramp Charlotte had (why they only have one I don’t know) was still attached to the other plane that came in from Fayetteville where they were still trying to get their large passenger out.

All of our passengers (minus the guy in the wheelchair) got off and headed on their way. I asked the guy if he had a tight connection and that’s when I got the full story. His father was in coma in Orlando and he had just booked the flight this morning when he found out, To make matters worse they had routed him from Fayetteville to Charlotte and then up to Philly before heading down to Orlando where he was scheduled to arrive at 11:30 that night. The good news was that his Philly flight wasn’t for another hour.

I told him I’d look into direct Orlando flights while we waited for the ramp and with the help of the gate agent figured out there was a 7:40 flight that would get in at 9:30 and a 9:50 flight that would get him in at 11:45. The problem was there were no seats on the 7:40 but at least with the late flight, even though it would get him in 30 minutes after the Philly flight was scheduled in, he wouldn’t have to go all the way to Philly first. While waiting for the ramp (which 30 minutes after our arrival was still in use on the other plane) I explained his options to him. By the time we finally got the ramp (40 minutes after we got to the gate) he’d worked out a plan with the gate agent to standby for the early direct flight and get confirmed on the later one.
A former PIT PSA ramper hooked up the ramp and with the FA and FO helping we got the passenger in the straight back. The ramper and gate agent rolled him down the ramp and then out of the straight back into his own wheelchair. Meanwhile I shut down the airplane as it was going to sit for the next 2 hours before going to Chattanooga for the night. The long delay for a ramp actually worked in this passenger’s favor as he ended up missing his Philly flight anyways and they were working on rebooking him, with a confirmed seat on the early direct flight, when we left to go to the crew room. As I said earlier will never know if he got there in time to see his father, but I know that my entire crew, as well as the ramper and gate agent tried just as hard we could to make it happen and that’s enough for me.

Sitting in the darkened cabin on my deadhead back to Dayton as I type this, the lights of western Kentucky are sliding underneath us. In my mind this is a very small instance of being able to take the extra step and help somebody who needs helping. This job isn’t necessarily about that but as I saw today (and several times in the past) it provides the opportunity to just that.

I took this job because a) I like to fly, b) I don’t like working in a cube and c) I am a people person. Despite the locking cockpit door and long periods of time where you sit next to just our fellow flight deck crewmember, throughout the course of “a day in the office” you interact with many people, from the rest of the flight crew to the rampers and agents and most importantly the passengers. Knowing that allows me to come to the realization that that right there provides all the opportunities to help others that I’ll ever need.

Location: Over the Florida-Georgia State line

Altitude: 19,000 feet and rapidly decreasing

Airspeed: 290 knots

We are flying the last flight of the night into Gainesville, Florida and on the other side of our Kevlar (or so they tell me) reinforced cockpit door, 34 passengers and our Flight Attendant are preparing the cabin for our upcoming arrival. My FO is at the controls and while I am busy entering in our current fuel number into the flight computer to generate our landing speeds I’m sure he’s busy mentally running over the approach. Today is his one year anniversary at the company which means he is no longer on starvation pay (although not by much) and he’s no longer on probation which means the company can’t fire him at will. However I guess (and correctly too) he’ll fly the plane the exact same way he did yesterday and all the 363 days that he’s flown before that. It’s what professionals do.

Through 18,000 feet we are handed off to Jacksonville Approach Control who is responsible for the airspace around Gainesville (and much of the north east corner of Florida) They give us a further descent and a heading to fly which will set us up nicely for the approach to Runway 29. After reading back the clearance for lower I confirm it with my FO and then momentarily hand radio duties off to him while I check in with the Flight Attendant to see if she needs anything (which she doesn’t). That accomplished I give the passengers a quick update as to the weather in Gainesville and turn back on the fasten seatbelt sign. I’m convinced nobody listens to these announcements anyways and have always been tempted to utter complete gibberish. The fact that I haven’t yet, and I still have my job has so far dissuaded me from trying.

After a quick call to Gainesville Operations to let them know we’re coming I take over the radio again and my FO briefs the approach. He doesn’t think he’s been here before, but a runway looks pretty much like any other runway, especially at night, and he moves right on through hitting the highlights of the required briefing. JAX hands us off to another approach controller who descends us to 6000 feet. Through 10,000 I turn on the no electronic device sign, signaling our Flight Attendant to start her final preparations on getting the cabin ready for landing. I also turn on our landing lights (2 on each wing and 2 in the nose) as well as our logo light which shines on the tail. Now they can see us coming.

Another frequency change and we are descending to 3000 feet with instructions to call the airport in sight. I’ve been here before so I have a sense where to look. My FO is slightly lost looking out at a sea of lights below us. Fortunately there is a bright line of lighting just north of the airport and with that in sight it’s pretty easy to find the field. Once we both agree we are looking at the same thing (and the right thing) I let approach know we have found the airport. He clears us for a visual approach behind a Citation Jet which is currently on a 3 mile final. We are still 8 miles away and quickly slowing so the other traffic isn’t an issue.

A minute later the auto pilot is off and the gear is coming down. Tower clears us to land as the kaleidoscope of lights out the window resolves it’s self into approach lighting with a runway behind. The FO calls for the final flaps and slows down to our approach speed. Through 1000 feet the aircraft is in a stable, 700 feet per minute descent which will put us on the ground just about 1000 feet down the runway. At 500 feet the airplane reminds were we are with a quick “500″ aural alert. That’s repeated at 100 feet and then at 50 as the FO brings the thrust levers all the way back essentially making us a glider for the last 50 feet. The plane keeps counting down.

At 40 feet the nose starts to come up…

At 30 feet the nose stabilizes and the airspeed starts to roll back…

At 20 feet the FO makes a slight correction back to the left to keep the plane on centerline…

At 10 feet we seem to hover while the wheels stretch out below us looking for the runway.

The plane stops counting at that point but 0 feet is confirmed by the very light rattle and vibration of the main landing gear spinning up to almost 150 miles per hour in just a second as it settles to the runway about 40 feet behind where we are sitting. The airspeed continues to bleed off as the nose gear settles on to the runway as well.

We are done flying but still moving at almost 130 miles per hour. As the tires spin up the spoiler panels on the top of the wing pop up to kill any lift being generated as well as act as airbrakes. The aircraft senses the weight on the wheels and releases the lock on the thrust reversers allowing them to deploy and redirect most of the engine’s airflow forward to aid in slowing down.

Finally as the speed drops below 80 miles per hour the FO adds some wheel brakes. The plane quickly decelerates to a manageable 40 miles per hour at which point I let him know I’ve got the airplane and slide my feet (which have been hovering over the rudder pedals since about 400 feet above the ground) on to the pedals. A slight bit of pressure and we are slowed to our taxi speed and I can turn the tiller to the left and exit the runway.

As a man who writes much more eloquently than I do says… life on the line continues.