Inefficiency

Today was a regular reserve day. My reserve duty window opened at 6 a.m. and at 6:01, my pager went off. Crew scheduling notifiedd me of a whopper of a trip:

Deadhead to Washington DC (DCA) operate 1 leg to Boston and then deadhead back to Cincinnati. The report time was 7:45. So I got up, showered and dressed. On my way out the door, one of my roommates was looking at the scheduling system and noticed that my report time had changed to 11 a.m.

There was no way I could go back to sleep, so I headed to the airport. Before I could get there, scheduling called to inform me of another change. The non-stop flight was canceled. They were going to deadhead me from CVG to ATL, then ATL to DCA. 3.5 hours of deadhead just to get to Washington DC.

I flew the leg from DCA to BOS. It was a nice, clear day. They were using runway 01, which points directly at the US Capitol. Because of restricted area P-56, it is important to start the turn west right when the gear goes up. It was nice and clear all the way to Boston, where we did the visual approach to runway 33L.

There was just enough time to make the deadhead back to CVG, another 2.5 hours. 6 hours total time spent deadheading for 1.5 hours of block time. It's days like this that make me thankful for the duty rigs in the contract.

Our scheduling system operates on obsolete software. I'm talking about stuff that dates back to the days of Wang and Kaypro computers. The obsolete software makes efficient use of flight crews nearly impossible. Add that to a shortage of captains, which means they're getting yanked all over creation, and you get some pretty pissed off crews.

Tomorrow is day one of two ready reserve days. Blech.

Minor Change

Due to the misconduct of a few, comment moderation has been enabled.

Unfortunately, someone who had nothing better to do on Valentine's Day decided to leave some crude, ill conceived comments. I don't have the time or desire to feed a troll.

This blog was created first and foremost as a diary of my flight experiences. It is intended solely to preserve memories. If it has entertained or helped anyone along the way, that makes me happy.

I enjoy receiving comments and will add them when received. Comments do not have to be of the same view as mine. All I ask it that they be written in a manner that is respectful to everyone that visits this blog.

Flying is now my job. The first year is a time to pay dues and earn the respect of my peers. If I am good to flying it will be good to me, just like any career.

One of the best things about this blog is the friends I have made along the way. You guys know who you are and I really have enjoyed getting to know you.

If by chance you find yourself annoyed or offended by this blog, please stop visiting.

On The Job Observations

This post isn't really aviation related, more a day in the life kind of thing.

One of the things that pilots do when not flying is spend a lot of time at airports. We like to call it "airport appreciation". Last week, I spend some "airport appreciation" time in New York at LaGuardia. This post is about that experience.

When killing time at the airport, there are several options.

1. Go to the crew lounge. (if available)
2. Sit in the gate area and wait for your next leg.
3. Go to the food court.
4. Stay on your aircraft (if available) and sleep.
5. Find a comfortable spot and people watch.

I don't usually like to hang out in the crew lounge. With everyone coming and going all the time, it's noisy. Also, there tends to be a lot of complaining. Every job has its positives and negatives, but dwelling on the downs just doesn't appeal to me.

The gate area gets a little crowded and you get asked a lot of questions that you don't have the answer to.

The food court is ok if you're hungry, but otherwise not so much.

So the other day in LaGuardia, I decided to do some people watching. In the terminal, there is a ramp up that leads to the shopping/food court/security screening area. It is carpeted and becomes marble tile at the top.

I was standing by the rail next to Brooks Brothers chatting with a Port Authority K-9 Officer. A man in a matching outfit with matching roller slowly went by and stopped at the top of the ramp on the first tile, right in the middle of the walkway.

I thought maybe he forgot something or was looking for keys, wallet etc. as he split the flow of people like a rock in a stream. I went back to my conversation with the PA cop. A few minutes later, I noticed that he was still standing still, a few tiles ahead. He was standing perfectly still, shoulders squared with his roll aboard at his side.

Now I was intrigued. I set my watch to stop watch mode and waited. A moment later he picked up and moved forward ONE tile, set down his roller and went back to the same posture. I started my stopwatch. 1:05 later, he did the same thing. Another 1:05 and he moved forward one more, repeating until he reached the exit where he snapped out of his OCD routine, picked up the pace and walked out.

It was one of the strangest things I had seen at an airport and strange people are not a rare occurrence at airports. I walked over to the security personnel at the exit and asked if they noticed his strange behavior. Apparently, he goes to LaGuardia every morning and takes a flight out and returns. When he reaches the top of the ramp, he does the same thing. They said that he then returns at noon and does it all over again.

When I was watching him, nobody accidentally bumped in to him or his roll aboard. I wonder what would happen if someone did?

Next time I spend some appreciation time at LGA, I'm going to look for him.

A Bad Day At The Office

The little white sticker on top of the display screen is a bad thing.

Last week, crew scheduling notified me of a last minute 4 day trip and I was actually pleased. The trip had 3 overnights in Boston and two days of Boston-Jacksonville-Boston legs. Nice and easy, right? WRONG.

The photo above comes from day two. Looking forward to the first day of out and back to JAX, I hopped in to the flight deck to claim my space only to find out that the FMS (flight management system), which makes navigation simple, was out of service. That is why the photo shows a bunch of dashed lines under ACT LEGS. No flight plan loaded due to deferred status.

Does a broken FMS mean the flight gets canceled? Nah, it just means the the flight crew actually has to work by using 1960's technology to navigate. Basic flight stuff. En-route charts and VOR tracking. This is why we still carry paper charts with us. FMS computers break and flights still have to go on.

This is the high altitude en-route chart for the east coast. Good times.

Tracking in & out-bound courses on VOR's and intercepting airways is nothing new to any pilot with an instrument rating. The big difference is speed. With 500+ knots ground speed, VOR's come and go just a little faster. Planning ahead is crucial and flying old school requires much more crew effort.

To make matters worse, ATC kept forgetting that our flight plan was filed without GPS and kept giving routing to GPS way points. "Unable" is all we could say...then wait for a sigh from ATC as they had to do more work and give us vectors.

The FMS is a very useful tool. Not only does it tell the aircraft where to go, it calculates weight and balance, fuel burn, vertical navigation for climb and descent planning and much more. It is a very useful tool and is taken for granted.

BOS-JAX, right? Nah.

Another time the FMS comes in handy is when a diversion is necessary. When operational, the FMS tells you your arrival time and fuel. When diverting to the alternate, which is already in the FMS, you simply check the fuel numbers and make sure there are adequate reserves to make the alternate.

When we departed, the weather in JAX was forecasted to be well above approach minimums. By the time we started to fly the arrival, the weather had actually deteriorated and visibility was reported at 1/8 mile, which is far below even CAT II minimums. We were given holding instructions to wait out the fog. JAX approach came on and told everyone that the Category II ILS was out of service and that CAT I minimums weren't forecast for another two hours.

Our original alternate was Daytona, but the fog was hugging the coast and it was no better there. We radioed our dispatch and our new alternate was determined to be Orlando. So in the old-school holding patter tracking in and out, calculating wind drift etc., we did our fuel burn calculations and determined that we could make Orlando with 200 pounds over reserves.

We made it to Orlando, refueled, lost a few passengers who's final destination was Orlando anyway and, two hours later, arrived in Jacksonville.

Thankfully, other than having no FMS, the trip back to Boston was uneventful.