A Blue Moon on the last night of the year, surely a sign of better things to come.

Here we are, climbing out below a patchy overcast as the moon shines down through the clouds.

It’s 6:15pm and the same piece of wind blasted North Carolina hillside is passing by my window for the 5th time today. Like the 4 previous times I watch as the snow capped peak slides by, disappearing behind the left wing. The only thing different this time is that instead of sitting in my normal seat up front I am crammed into row 22 in the back of a full Airbus 321, headed for points West, finally.

…

My day started with a 7:30am show time to deadhead back to Dayton. The night before I had run out of duty time and been unable to deadhead home. Today, my last day of reserve for the week, the only thing on my schedule was the deadhead and an optimistic hope of an early release to catch a flight out to San Francisco and three days off. By the time I got out of the hotel van and into the airport that hope was already fading as I was assigned a Mobile, Alabama turn before catching a later deadhead back to Dayton.

While throwing a small wrench in the works, this still wasn’t too bad as the Mobile turn would get me back to Charlotte just after noon and I’d still have time to deadhead back to Dayton and head out or even better, drop off the deadhead and just head west from Charlotte on a direct flight at 4:40 or 5:55. With that in mind I met up with the crew and after loading up 45 passengers, blasted off towards Mobile.

A strong winter storm had rolled through Charlotte the night before and I had watched from the comfort of my hotel room as a mix of ice and rain fell for most of the evening. By morning the weather was heading up the coast where it would eventually dump over two feet of snow and shut down Washington DC. Charlotte still had a low overcast but by the time we were climbing out over the foothills of the Blueridge Mountains we’d hit the back end of weather and the skies cleared giving us a view of the snow capped peaks below us.

We eventually leveled off at 30,000 feet and as the ride was smooth I was debating turning off the seatbelt sign when we got a single chime and a STALL FAIL caution message. The Stall Protection System predicts an impending stall due to slow airspeed and high angle of attack and will alert the pilot via a warbling tone and a stick shaker. If the pilot doesn’t correct the issue the stick shaker turns into a stick pusher which will literally attempt to lower the nose of the aircraft in an attempt to prevent the stall. The system uses, among other things, small vanes that “fly” on the outside of the airplane to sense the angle of the attack.

The procedure for this message involves disabling the system so it won’t inadvertently deploy the shaker or pusher and then add 10 knots to your approach speed as you have lost some slow speed protection. The proper checklist run, the FO and I talked it over and decided we could safely continue to Mobile. I typed up a message to Mother (the Company) informing them of the issue and our intended course of action and while waiting for a response we discussed potential causes. After some investigation into the problem in the onboard maintenance computer the problem was traced back to the right AOA Vane.

Between the two of us we were able to conjure up enough system knowledge to guess that the due to all the rain and ice the night before some moisture had gotten into the base of the AOA Vane and once up at altitude it froze the vane in place leading to abnormal readings. There is a heater on the vane, but it may not have been enough to keep the moisture from freezing inside the housing of the probe. Either way, the situation appeared under control and Mother had agreed with our decision to continue and said they would work on getting a mechanic in place for our arrival.

As promised the mechanic was at the plane before the last passenger was off and after 30 minutes of trouble shooting was able to reset and test the system. The problem apparently fixed, we boarded up while he finished up the required paperwork. For a while I’d been worried that I might be indefinitely delayed and not make the last flight west but now that things were moving along again I was feeling good about my chances. That lasted until my phone rang with another message from scheduling letting me know that once we got back to Charlotte we’d be doing a Huntsville turn and then deadheading back to Dayton.

The return from Huntsville would get us back into Charlotte at 5:15 so in theory, if they let me out of the deadhead and I was really quick about it and we were on time and the stars aligned and… and… I could still maybe catch the 5:55 flight. The one problem was that they had a zero minute turn scheduled between our return to Charlotte from Mobile and heading back out to Huntsville. The good news was we kept the airplane and crew for the turn so we could try to be quick. I put all that out of my mind and watched as the FO kept the airspeed just below redline the whole way back to Charlotte. We touched down and were at the gate 25 minutes early, turning our zero minute turn into a relatively easy 25 minute affair.

Loaded up once more the FO again kept the speed up as we raced across the Blueridge for the third time of the day and then descended over the flatlands of Alabama into Huntsville. 10 minutes out I radioed Huntsville operations and let them know we’d like to do as quick a turn as possible. They said they’d make it happen and sure enough as soon as our last passenger was of the plane, all 12 of our Charlotte bound passengers were boarding and 14 minutes after pulling into the gate we were pushing back out. ATC cooperated as well and after a 2 minute wait I was rotating the plane off the 2 mile long runway that serves as an alternate Shuttle landing strip and turning east to Charlotte and hopefully my trip home.

Our luck held and we arced back over the Mountains doing 320 knots and benefiting from 60 knots of tailwind. ATC never slowed us and I touched down just after the sun dropped below the horizon at 5:05pm. By the time we got to the gate it was 5:15pm and I was off the plane as soon as the last of our passengers left. A frenzied sprint through the airport while talking to Crew Scheduling (who released me from the deadhead) had me at the gate just as they announced pre boarding for San Francisco. The gate agent had a ticket waiting for me (a window seat no less) and 30 minutes later I was dozing in my seat as we pushed back.

…

The Blueridge have passed by for the last time today. Somewhere 2300 miles away the Bay Area waits. I close my eyes and have a vision of our plane completely motionless in the sky while the earth rotates underneath us. I smile slightly and drift off to sleep.

By the time we get to the runway the rain is coming down hard enough to be heard over the engine noise as it strikes the windshield and fuselage. The airplane in front of us, an old Mainline 737, flips on its landing light as it is cleared for takeoff and starts rolling forward. The light beams cut a path through the heavy rain and the engines, set low to the ground under the wing, kick up a huge spray of water vapor. As the blinking strobe light of the 737 disappears into the murk and clouds we are cleared on to the runway and released for takeoff as well.

It’s my leg, and the 4th flight of a day that began 12 hours ago and has yet to show any sunshine. I gave up on that hope hours ago as it is rapidly approaching 11pm and the likelihood of seeing any sun now before we get back to Dayton is slim to none. With the landing lights on and the thrust levers up we start moving forward down the runway into the clouds of vapor left by the recently departed 737.

The FO calls out rotate and we are in the air. Before I can even call for the gear up we enter the clouds and the ride gets bad. I trying to remember when we dropped into the clouds on the descent into Charlotte earlier in the evening, but the day has been too long and I can’t remember. With that happy thought I tighten by grip on the yoke and watch our airspeed and climb rate yoyo back and forth. Due to the late hour and lack of other traffic the departure controller immediately climbs us to 14,000 feet and gives us a turn to the north and towards home.

Through 10,000 I turn off the exterior lights and am debating about calling back to our two Flight Attendants to tell them to stay seated when we break through the top of the cloud layer. The ride instantly smoothes out and I flip the Electronic Device sign off which is the cue for the FAs to get out of their jumpseats.

Overhead, now unobstructed by the clouds, a blanket of stars come into view. As we climb higher they seem to grow in numbers so that as we level off at 30,000 feet the entire dome of the sky is filled with splashes of white. Overhead a meteor flashes by, visible for only seconds as it skips off the Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrates in a burst of light. It is followed by another and then another and soon every 30 seconds the sky is torn by a streak of light that fades as rapidly as it appears. My FO and I stare, transfixed at the display as the darkened Kentucky and West Virginia countryside rolls by under the solid layer of clouds below.

Eventually ATC gives us a descent to 24,000 feet but I put off starting down as long as I can. Finally, when I can wait no longer and still keep the ride somewhat comfortable in the back, I roll the nose downward and pull back on the power. We slowly sink towards the clouds below where 100 miles ahead of us the Dayton Airport sits under a low overcast and rain showers. Above us the lightshow continues as the Geminid Meteor Shower passes over the darkened earth.

I’m 36,000 feet over Waterloo, Iowa, or so says the scrolling map in the seat back in front of me. Instead of sitting in my normal seat up front, I’m back in 9F with my laptop out, enjoying the free internet and in flight entertainment system. The down side of seeing the real time map is the distance to go number which is very slowly spinning down, currently reads 2600 miles. It’s worth it to get home though.

My day started at 9am this morning when Crew Scheduling called to tell me I was flying a single flight from Dayton to Washington, DC and then sitting 4 hours before deadheading back to Dayton. Today is my last day of reserve for the week before 3 happy days off so I requested to be released as soon as I got to DC. This sometimes works out and sometimes doesn’t. Today I got lucky and after ducking under the clouds, flying up the Potomac River and managing a nice circle to Runway 33, I was done for the day and released until Tuesday.

I then began a public transportation adventure, taking the Metro Blue Line from the airport to Rosyln, where I switched to the Orange Line out to West Falls Church. From there I took the bus to Dulles and then, once through security, a People Move (think giant StarWars like bus) to my gate. There were plenty of seats and I eventually ended up here in 9F.

Waterloo has passed by now. Webster City and Fort Dodge are coming up. 2550 miles to go. It’s going to be a long evening.