The Great Gig In The Sky

Detroit Meltdown

2011-04-16T07:07:00.002-04:00

Like I said, getting home is a story in and of itself. I picked up a taxi from CAE to the international terminal at Pearson. CAE is just on the other side of the aiport, so it's only a 10-15 minute taxi ride. It took a while for my taxi to pick me up and I was beginning to worry about missing my flight, which connected through Detroit.

When he picked me up, I had exactly one hour to departure and was extremely nervous about not getting to the gate on time. I asked the driver to get there as fast as he could. As we were heading down Derry Rd. on the West side of the airport, the driver suddenly slammed on the brakes. Out in front of him was a police officer, pointing at cars that had been caught speeding. Luckily he didn't point at my taxi. Apparently, that's how they pull you over. You Canadians are so civilized...wait...civilised.

I made it to the terminal 45 minutes prior to departure. I made it the gate 5 minutes prior to departure only to find that the flight was delayed by 90 minutes. No problem making it. The late departure would make me miss my departure to Cincinnati.

When I got to Detroit, I made my way to the gate area and found that there was one more flight departing to Cincinnati. It was sold out, but there was a Comair pilot flying on company business back to Cincinnati, so I approached him and asked if he'd take the jumpseat so I could get a seat in the cabin. He agreed and told the captain. The captain came down and asked told the gate agent there would be one more seat in the cabin. The gate agent had already closed the flight and wouldn't let me on board the aircraft. It's not good to argue when you travel on pass privileges, so I graciously (on the outside) bowed out and started looking for other options.

The only other option was to go through Ft. Wayne. I was ticketed and about to board when a family of non-revenue passengers with higher priority came and took all of the remaining seats. I was bumped. Faced with the prospect of a night in Detroit was not very appealing. Money was very tight and anxiety was building.

Just as I thought a good day had turned bad, a couple approached me. The husband said, "Sounds like you need to be in Cincinnati tonight." I nodded and indicated that I had been bumped from my last flight option. I introduced myself and we all got to chatting. We got to know each other a bit and found that we lived within 10 miles of one another. Their son was a pilot with Delta and they too had been bumped from the Cincinnati flight. They too wanted to be home that night, but didn't feel like driving. They said if I drove, they'd pay for the rental car.

They said that since I was a pilot, they figured I could drive a car safely too. Umm...ok. I'm in. They had no luck finding a rental car, but I was able to get a one way rental from Enterprise for a very reasonable rate. Withing 30 minutes, we were on our way to Cincinnati which is about 250 miles away.

It was a very enjoyable drive. The husband is a petro-chemical engineer with Ashland and the wife a physician. I stopped and bought burgers for everyone along the way and we had a nice time. I appreciated their generosity and hope to be able to do the same for someone else in their time of need. We made it back to Northern Kentucky by 9 p.m., I dropped them off at their lovely home and met my wife at Enterprise. Pure serendipity.

It was a good ending to a long weekend and a very long day. Storm clouds were on the horizon.

Fast Forward

2011-04-16T06:15:00.007-04:00

I have a lot of holes to fill and have been remiss about posting. Although mindful of the personal importance of keeping up with writing, several challenges and obstacles had taken my heart out of it.

I used to have a link to some of my favorite aviation blogs through Blogrolling, but they have ceased operation and all links were lost. I've added a few. If you have an aviation related blog and would like me to add it to Great Gig In The Sky, please let me know.

In twenty five years, I want to have something to look back on that can be shared with my children and grandchildren.

Back to blogging. It's going to be out of sequence for a while, but I will try to fill the gaps as time goes by.

Where am I now? West Africa. Abuja, Nigeria to be exact. Abuja is the capitol city of Nigeria, created the 1970's from scratch as a master planned government city along the same lines as Brasilia, Brazil.

Today is presidential election day. Nigerian law dictates that election days are strictly enforced non-movement days. The night before from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., there is a curfew. Everyone is to be off the streets except for essential personnel. Coming back from the airport last night at 10 p.m., we had a police escort and encountered several road blocks where citizens were being questioned for their reason for being out past curfew. Election day non-movement is from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. People are only allowed outside of their home to vote at their local polling station. Needless to say, I am sitting in the Sheraton with plenty of time to kill. Time to blog.

Last August I was invited to interview with my new airline in Toronto. The interview was to include a face to face and simulator assessment. Having been out of an aircraft for almost 10 months, I was rusty and feeling more than a little nervous. I needed this job.

Luckily, the guy that interviewed me is a caliber guy. He made me feel relaxed from the beginning and my nerves settle by the time the simulator was open. I had the earliest flight of the interviewees and took the first slot. Might as well get it over with, right?

It was a straight forward assessment. We began with a standard take off where I climbed to 10,000 feet. He then had me demonstrate some steep turns. A steep turn consists of a 45 degree banked turn, usually 180 degrees in one direction and then 180 degrees back to the original heading. ATP standards are +/- 100 feet and +/- 10 knots. My first one was a disaster, so I asked for another. The second one was within ATP standards and he said he was satisfied.

Next we returned to the airport for a standard ILS approach. It was down to minimums and required a missed approach. After the missed, did a hand flown VOR approach to a landing. He re-positioned me for a low visibility takeoff and gave me a V1 cut (engine failure at the most critical phase of takeoff). The V1 cut worked out fine. It was due to severe engine damage. I did the emergency items for it, stayed on single engine and did a hand flown, single engine ILS to a full stop. One last normal takeoff, he failed the flaps and I did a visual approach with flaps zero back to 31L at JFK.

Whew! It was over. He said, "Good job. We'll see you in a few weeks for training and then in Lagos, but the official word will come from our office in London." It sounded like I was hired, but not hired. He saw the confused look on my face and said, "I'm the one that makes the decision. You just have to get the confirmation from the London office." That made me feel a lot better.

I shakily got out of my seat in the sim and headed back to the lounge area where the other guys were waiting their turn. They were all anxious to hear the gouge so they'd know what to expect in their ride. That's the downside of going first. You don't know what to expect. I spent about 20 minutes telling them all about it, wondering which of them I'd be seeing in Africa. Then it was time to get to Pearson airport so I could get back home.

That's another story in and of itself...

The outside of the Sheraton Hotel in Abuja. It's a large hotel with resort
style amenities like a steakhouse, Italian restaurant, casino, large pool area,
tennis, conference facilities and spa facilities.

This is the view from outside of my room.
Each tower is pyramid shaped with an open atrium.

Long delays between posts

2011-03-21T00:46:00.002-04:00

Although this blog was created purely for personal reasons, I feel fortunate to have made many friends through it and am honored that it has many followers.

Life has been very hectic and that is the reason for the delays. Lots to say, stories to share, promise to be back very soon.

Long Time Coming

2010-12-20T17:12:00.004-05:00

Well, the title says it all. This post has been a long time coming. The last year or so has been difficult at times but, as always, persistence pays off.

To summarize the last eighteen months, there have been highs and lows (seemingly more lows) travels abroad, job changes, job searches, interviews, job offers and finally employment that is suitable for the needs of my family.

Yemen was an interesting country to spend time in. I have many photos and experiences to share from my time there. Flying in Yemen made me a stronger pilot. Spending five months straight in Yemen nearly made me lose my mind. The main contract was canceled and I was offered a local contract with no rotation home. Due to scheduling for a required proficiency check, I was forced to remain away from home for five months to the day. Being away from my family for that amount of time was one of the most difficult experiences of my life. The negative impact it had on my family was inexcusable and never again will I let a contract employer stand between my family and I.

There were many positive experiences in Yemen. I made life long friendship connections with the guys I flew with. I've never had the honor of serving in the military, but I can say the camaraderie that develops between men in a situation that only you as a group can relate to/understand must be comparable. I can tell my family and friends in the US about the experiences, but only the guys I worked with truly understand what it was like.

I left for Yemen on a twelve month contract. Based on the pay, it was a good opportunity. When the airline canceled the contract between my employer in the United Kingdom and themselves six months early, it left myself and the others between a rock and a hard place. The job market was still VERY tight. Few of us could afford to stop working and go home. The airline knew that and offered us all "local" contracts at a much lower pay rate and zero rotation. Most of us had no choice and took it with the intention of leaving as soon as possible.

By the end of 2009, I could no longer stand to be away from home and decided to leave. There were a few opportunities around the corner. It was time to leave and be back with my family. I needed them and they needed me. After a wonderful homecoming, the opportunities on the horizon had dissolved. Hiring in the US was still stagnant and there was no where else to turn.

Due to the economy and the declining state of the industry, finding employment in my previous profession was impossible. With a resume heavy with flying for the last few years and the absolute desire to stick with it, finding employment was difficult. I was constantly told I was over qualified or that my eventual return to aviation meant poor return on investment for prospective employers.

After doing some temporary work, I was fortunate enough to find employment with Staples, Inc. working in a call center. It was a good work environment, the pay was livable, there were benefits and the company was glad to have my talent for the time being. They encouraged me to continue seeking employment in aviation while always encouraging me to grow within the company as well. I have nothing but positive things to say about Staples and what a caliber company it is. Thank you, Staples.

I interviewed at a few airlines while working for Staples, but just couldn't justify starting over at another airline and making my family suffer through first year pay all over again. It just wouldn't be fair to them. They have been through enough the past few years. I was also offered a job with a cargo/freight carrier that operates point to point delivery all over the country. The pay was better, but the schedule would keep me away from home too much.

The answer was there. I just hadn't found it yet. I continued working for Staples in to the summer, enjoying the time being home with my family. I purchased a motorcycle that my wife and I enjoyed immensely. There's nothing like a relaxing ride on a cool, Kentucky summer evening under the dense tree canopy of summer, sharing the cool breeze with millions of fireflies. I see a Goldwing in our future.

This was the beginning of an eventful summer, filled with promise, despair and ultimately a renewed lease on life.

Time To Catch Up

2010-09-24T09:39:00.013-04:00

Before disclosing the current locale, I should probably spend some time catching up over the last 12-15 months. Many interesting things happened in Yemen both good and bad and overall it was a rewarding experience. In the end due to circumstances beyond my control, I ended up spending five months away from home. It was a sacrifice I will not let happen again.

Living and flying in Yemen was quite an adjustment. It is a country of very diverse geography, from hot and humid coastal zones to mountians in excess of 12,000 feet in height and the arid, sandy desert of the Wadi Hadramaut. All of the planes are/were based in Sana'a, the capital, which sits in an a very high valley (7,200' above sea level) surrounded by huge, jagged mountains.

Sana'a looks very much like Phoenix, my home town. With Sana's elevation, the temperatures there are more moderate than Phoenix. A typical summer day sees a high of about 32C (about 90F), but the weather patterns, vegetation and topography look very much like the Sonoran Desert. Prickly Pear, Cholla, Bouganvilla, Eucalyptus, Aloe Vera, Pyracanthia and a variety of other plants. There is the Monsoon like rainy season with afternoon thunderstorms that build over the mountains and roll in to the city in late afternoon. Those create some pretty white knuckle flying too.

The average American has one opinion when it comes to Yemen: terrorism. While there are undoubtedly extremists and terrorists in the country, the average person is kind, generous and willing to go out of their way to help you. Petty crime there is non existent and I was able to safely walk the streets of the city day or night. Here are a few photos of Sana'a:

This is a view of the Presidential Mosque as seen from an area called Hadda Street. It was built two years ago at a cost of $20,000,000

View looking south from Babel Yemen aka Old Sana'a

More to come about Yemen, it's people and flying experiences while there.

The End of an Extended Absence

2010-09-23T18:44:00.003-04:00

Well, I think I've really dropped the ball on something I worked long and hard at. Aviation is a tough business and has not been kind to myself and scores of others these last few years.

I spent all of 2009 flying in Yemen. Although I had a lot of interesting experiences there (which I will start writing about), it was very tough being there. At one point, I was away from home for five months to the day. I left Yemen in November, 2009 and decided to take some time off from flying and just be home.

I turned down several flying opportunities while waiting for a recall at Comair. I just missed the last round and was pretty upset about it. I decided to start looking at other opportunities again.

In late July, I went to a sim evaluation in Toronto. I was rusty and hadn't touched a jet since November. A few weeks later, I received a job offer from another overseas airline. This time with better terms and conditions.

I'm there now and hope to be better about adding to the blog once again. I've put too much effort in it to just let it remain dormant. Time to go flying again.

chirp...chirp

2010-06-07T22:53:00.001-04:00

It's been a while since I've posted. The last year has been intersesting. More to come soon.

Welcome to Yemen

2009-03-22T02:30:00.010-04:00

The first thing I thought of when we landed in Sana'a was John Candy saying to me (as in Planes, Trains & Automobiles "Welcome to Wichita!") "Welcome to Yemen!"

Getting the aircraft to Yemen was quite an ordeal due to several factors. In the end, we only had one captain to fly the entire trip. Our ever evolving route took us from Goderich, ON to Halifax, NS where we picked up a life raft. From there, we went to Keflavik, Iceland where we spent the first night. Due to a late afternoon departure from Goderich and Keflavik being GMT, we didn't arrive at our hotel until 5:30 in the morning. We departed about 2 p.m. for our next stop, Vienna, Austria. It was my leg and it took 4.5 hours to get there. By the time we arrived, the sun had already gone down. I was really disappointed by not getting to see the approach in to Vienna. Oh well, another time. We refueled, picked up a trip kit and headed to our next overnight, Cairo. We arrived in Cairo at 2 a.m. local and headed to the hotel. We we booked at the Fairmont and it is one of the nicest hotels I have ever stayed at. We met up downstairs the next morning, where we found the CEO waiting for us. He joined us on the final leg from Cairo to Sana'a.

Our arrival in Sana'a was very exciting. There were hundreds of people there to greet the aircraft. After about a thousand handshakes, we obtained our visas and headed to our accommodations. We were all extremely tired and needed rest.

The next day, a driver picked us up and took us to company headquarters. They are located in a very modern 10 story glass building. We were personally introduced to the entire management and office staff and given a tour of the entire operation.

There is a lot more and I will post again soon. Here are some photos to accompany the story.

The snowplow/dumptruck is towing the broken fuel truck (on ice) to the aircraft to refuel. Only a photo will do here.

This is the Fairmont Hotel in Cairo

Part of the welcoming party upon arrival in Sana'a.

The view East from my flat. Even though the elevation here is 7.200 feet, the terrain and vegetation looks a lot like Phoenix and the Sonoran Desert.

View from my room. This is a garden with a lot of different vegetables sprouting.

This is the company's very well equipped training center. Computer based training, cockpit mock-ups and whiteboard. Very nice.

This is a group of Yemeni First Officers that took the US pilots out for dinner the day after we arrived. From left: Ibrahim, Basam, Ahmed, Waleed and Mubarez. They are all really outstanding guys and I like them all very much.

Week One - New Job

2009-02-21T10:28:00.008-05:00

The first week of "New Job" has wrapped up - and - I'm still in North America. Yes, another delay has ensued.

The call came Tuesday morning. I was to head to Toronto Tuesday night instead of Wednesday because of flight scheduling. That gave me only Tuesday to get packed, tie up loose ends and have a really good lunch with my good friend, and former co-worker, Dan. We met him in Lawrenceburg, IN - a nice little town on the Kentucky-Ohio-Indiana border. Lawrenceburg's biggest claim to fame used to be a huge Seagram's factory. Now it is Argosy Casino. Anyway, we met at a great restaurant called Whisky's. It's in a building that has been around since the mid 19th century and has a great menu. Recommended. Dan is about the join the US Army and go to helicopter flight school. So Tuesday was the last chance for us to get together for at least the next year. Good luck Dan and thanks.

The rest of the day was spent getting packed and spending as much time with mykids as possible. We treated them to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings on the way to the airport.

I was the first of the group to arrive late Tuesday night. A few other guys came in Wednesday morning. The remainder of the crew was to come in Thursday morning when we would all head to Goderich, ON to pick up the newly painted and appointed aircraft from the paint shop. Five guys, with 2 months worth of bags, plus a driver. Sounds like a job for a 12-15 passenger van, right? How about a Chevy Uplander. There was no way that everyone, even with just a carry-on would fit. Luckily, two of the guys inbound flights were delayed and the van made a second trip to pick them up.

Have I mentioned that I don't care for Canadian weather? Yeah...no. I completely understand why the US is full of Canadian geese. I don't blame them. On top of bitter, below zero cold, the trip to Goderich was complimented with sudden intermittent snow squalls, lake effect snow, icy roads and sudden onsets of zero visibility. It took us all afternoon to get there. I do have to say that, even covered with snow, Canada is truly a beautiful country. Every small town we passed through was clean and charming.

When we arrived in Goderich, we went straight to the airport. The aircraft was out on the ramp and it looks great. They did an excellent job. This paint might actually avoid stripping and peeling for the first month, unlike the lower than lowest bidder shop contracted to paint the Comair fleet.

The plan was to do some take offs and landings for the guys that needed currency and then leave Friday morning. Well, like before, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. The weather was intermittent squalls, gusts to 39 knots and 500 foot ceilings. Not the kind of weather for pattern work at a non-towered airport with no navaids, not to mention a lack of proper deicing equipment. There would be no flying.

The FMS needed to be updated. The update was in hand, but the data-uplink computer was supposed to be coming in on another CRJ coming to the paint shop. There was no way it would get there either. There would be no departure for Friday.

One issue created another and now the new departure date is Tuesday, with pattern work to be done on Monday. The good news is that at least I'm being paid. The bad news is this town is so small that, due to a hockey tournament (go figure), there are not enough rooms for us this weekend and we have to go to another town 15 kilometers aways. It's not that big of a deal. It's just inconvenient.

I have to take a minute to talk about the little motel we've been staying at, The Maple Leaf. It's not a fancy Marriot or Hilton, but it has something they'll never have: Jeanette and her staff. What The Maple Leaf lacks in polish, it more than makes up for in personal, caring service. Jeanette went out of her way to make sure that every unique need we had was taken care of. I wish we could have stayed.

The new place is in Bayfield, ON. This place is too weird to describe. The closest description I can give is The Overlook Hotel (Come and play with us, Danny...REDRUM) and a Lawrence Welk Show rerun. There's no phone in the room and the Electrolux COLOR TV has KNOBS! The place is too weird for words. I really expect to see Danny riding his Big Wheel through the hall when I open the door or this...

When I go outside with all of the snow that has fallen, I expect to see Scatman Caruthers* in the Snow Cat coming our way.

There are worse things in life than being paid to do nothing although it would have been nice to have extra time at home with my family, who I already miss so much.

Hopefully, we'll be on our way Tuesday morning. Here is the planned route from Goderich: Gander, NF; Keflavik, Iceland; Shannon, Ireland; Marseille, France; Istanbul, Turkey; Cairo, Egypt and then our final destination.

*Thanks John...late night. I couldn't have been more wrong!

Finally

2009-02-17T09:21:00.002-05:00

Well...five months after interviewing, three and a half months after being furloughed and sixty days of delays...I'm finally going back to work! I might even be leaving tonight. Yikes. (sorry K)

All I can say right now is how fortunate and grateful I feel to have a job.

More soon.

Heartbreaking

2009-02-13T00:36:00.006-05:00

Continental Flight 3407, a Q400 operated by Colgan Air went down on approach to Buffalo taking the lives 45 passengers, 4 crew members and one on the ground.

God rest their souls and be with the families of their loved ones.

Nothing else matters.

A Rare Flying Opportunity

2009-02-11T22:20:00.016-05:00

Over the course of the past three months, I've had plenty of spare time. Of course, without income, spare time doesn't yield too many flying opportunities. As of February 5th, it had been 90 days since being at the controls of an aircraft. 90 days is kind of a milestone. It meant I was no longer current. In order to be current again, I would need 3 take offs and landings and figured the next chance to get current would be at the new job.

Now, back a few weeks. My father has had a rough ordeal involving his eyesight over the past several years. It all came to a conclusion a few weeks ago with some pretty major surgery. I decided to go and visit my parents for a few days before heading overseas for an extended period of time.

While deciding the best date to go, my friend and former co-worker Mark invited me to go flying with him when I came out to Arizona. He needed someone to fly to California with him in his personal V-tail Bonanza. So on top of a nice visit with my parents there would be an opportunity to get back in an airplane.

I headed over to Phoenix for a jam packed trip full of family, friends, flying, Mexican food and In 'N Out Burgers. The first night, I enjoyed dinner with one of my oldest friends. Day two, I spent enjoying the company of my parents and seeing Slumdog Millionaire (highly recommended) with my mother.

On day three, I headed over to Deer Valley airport where the 1967 V35 Bonanza is stored. It was time to go flying with a CFI and get signed off in the Bonanza. There was a special flying event for physically challenged children going on, which was great. But between that and flight school traffic, it took almost 2 hours on the Hobbs to complete the checkout. By the final landing the weather had deteriorated and the winds were kicking, but all I could think about was how much fun it was to be back in a light aircraft.

I have to say, I love this plane. Even though the all of 42 years old, it flies nice and tight, like it was built yesterday. The Continental IO-520 engine started without the slightest protest and its full complement of IFR avionics work flawlessly. The interior is gorgeous and the leather still smells new. It's obvious how well Mark maintains his Bonanza.

The previous owner was a character named Tex Earnhardt, Arizona car dealer with the slogan "NO BULL". With more money than taste, the man puts his giant bull horn logo on everything and this poor Bonanza was no exception.

Even though the logo has been removed, years of oxidation left a giant "Tex" stain on the side that won't rub out. Only new paint will erase it. "And that ain't NO BULL!"

We put the plane back in the hangar with plans to take it to Yucca Valley, California the next day...if the weather was going to cooperate.

On the way back, my phone rang and it was a friend who will be working with me at the new job in the Middle East. Travis happens to live in Phoenix. Once he found out that we were planning on a trip to California in the Bonanza the next day, he told me that the V-tail Bonanza is his favorite aircraft. One call and he was invited to join us the next day...if the weather...

Sunday rolled around and the weather looked dismal. A check of the weather said our best chance was to depart Deer Valley around 2 p.m. Ceilings were about 5,000 broken. So our plan was to fly VFR at 4,500 feet...not the most efficient altitude but for three guys itching to go flying it was perfect.

We had a pretty strong tailwind, so the trip took a little over 2 hours. On the plus side, flying low provided for some pretty spectacular views. It was really neat to see things like the huge CAP pumping stations built in to the side of the San Jacinto mountains. It was also cool to see Joshua Tree National Park from the air. Joshua Trees are pretty amazing things.

The ceiling came down as we turned north towards Yucca Valley and we got some close up views of the surrounding foothills. The airport has a single runway 4300x60' runway with no taxiway. The surface is pretty deteriorated. We entered on the upwind and came in on 24. The winds were pretty gusty, but Mark's landing was picture perfect.

We taxied over to parking and met up with an interesting guy named Glen Porter. Glen is a retired Marine with a background in airport management. With more degrees than you can shake a stick at, this guys is full of knowledge. His latest venture is working with metal. He customer manufactures weather vanes to match just about any aircraft you can imagine. Mark had ordered one a few months ago and this trip was to pick up the finished product in person.

Here's a photo. It doesn't justify the craftsmanship. For example, the prop and spinner is custom made, precision balanced and has commercial grade bearings to keep it spinning flawlessly for years. It really is a beautiful piece of work.

The lighting doesn't do the copper finish justice. The welds are nearly invisible, the copper finish is gorgeous and the price was very reasonable. Here's a link to his site.

The brief intermission in the weather that allowed us to slip over there was coming to an end rather quickly, so we jumped in the plane and headed back to Deer Valley. We had a nice tailwind on the way back, giving us about a 200 knot ground speed. We got back to Deer Valley just before sunset and had a nice dinner at Macaroni Grill.

One of the things I've enjoyed most about getting in to aviation is the friends I have made along the way. Some through training, some through work and many right through this blog. It's experiences like these that make flying so enjoyable.

Here are a few more photos from this trip:

Ain't she pretty? (the plane)

Downwind for Yucca Valley Runway 24

This picture doesn't do justice for how beautiful the moon looked.

The Moon Valley area of Phoenix as we returned to to Deer Valley.

Many thanks to Mark for providing such a great aircraft for us to fly and to Travis for providing the photos. I can't wait to do it again some time soon.

Long Awaited Good News

2009-01-26T17:49:00.002-05:00

Things are finally coming around for the new job. The original start date was in December. The next one was January. Well it looks like mid-February, but things are becoming much more firm.
The aircraft flew to Canada to get a brand new paint job last week. CRJ's usually take 10-15 working days to paint, so I would imagine February 15th at the absolute latest.

My first flight for the new job will be a ferry from Canada to the Middle East with the other Captains and First Officers. A ten thousand mile flight in a CRJ should be pretty interesting and I'm looking forward to it. What a way to start, right?

---

I can't stress enough how grateful I feel to have this opportunity with such dismal economic conditions world wide. The news today alone highlighted over 62,000 layoffs from major employers nationwide. Caterpillar, Texas Instruments, Microsoft, Google, Citi, Wyeth (due to Pfizer acquisition), Halliburton, Schlumberger, Home Depot, Sprint/Nextel, United Airlines and Clear Channel (Cheap Channel) Communications are just a tip of the iceberg.

There's a double edged sword to being a furloughed pilot in a down economy: currency and qualification. To remain qualified in an aircraft that a pilot is type rated in, he/she must have recurrent ground and simulator training along with a check ride every 12 months. Most contract jobs require pilots to be current and qualified in type to be eligible for employment. Many of my coworkers will lose currency next month and qualification by summer.

For many furloughed pilots, right to recall is at least a light at the end of a long tunnel. In the case of ever shrinking Comair, with 300 on the street currently and rumors of another displacement/furlough next month, our group has been told not to expect a call back. For guys that have less than 2,500 flight hours, this could potentially spell the end of their flying careers. When hiring does resume in the US, many who had to sit on the sidelines for 1-3 years will not have the hours necessary to qualify for a premium job. And a large number of them will not be able to afford going to another regional airline for first year pay, which is just awful.

Comair's only hope, which really isn't hope at all, in the near future is the court case between Mesa Air Group's Freedom Airlines and Delta Connection. Delta canceled Freedom's contract for 50 seat lift using Embraer 145 aircraft in March 2008. Mesa filed a lawsuit against Delta and a temporary injunction was granted. Freedom began flying Delta routes again late last summer. The day in court is supposedly sometime around the 30th of January.

First of all, it's hard to call another airline's loss "hope" for your airline. Nobody wants to take someone's job. Second, my guess (that and four quarters will get you $1.00) is that Mesa/Freedom and Delta reach a financial settlement and Delta will simply not re-assign the flying. Freedom pilots will lose and other DCI carriers, Comair included, will not receive anything. What is my reasoning? Mesa Air Group is in a bit of cash trouble due to a settled lawsuit with Hawaiian Airlines, major losses at Go! (Mesa's Hawaiian subsidiary), a share price below 20 cents, major upcoming debt payments and the looming threat of losing Delta lift.

I don't want to see any more pilots, no matter where they are employed, lose their job.

A Little Cryptic

2009-01-23T14:55:00.002-05:00

Finally. A day with some good news! The image below will explain a lot to a few and very little to most. Does that make any sense?
More soon...

How Lough Will They Go?

2009-01-22T22:00:00.003-05:00

Last Monday, Comair furloughed another 92 of my brothers. That makes the grand total, as of this very moment, 298 pilots furloughed - roughly 21 percent of the pilot group. There are rumors of more displacements/furloughs in the months ahead. This greatly decreases the odds of receiving a recall notice in 2009-2010.

The latest displacement, puts the most junior Captain as a November, 2000 hire. Wow. 8 years to hold a junior reserve captain seat, at JFK no less. I don't know the exact date, but I'm guessing to be a line holding CRJ-200 captain at Comair, he/she would have been hired some time in 1996-97. 12 years to be a line holder at a regional airline?

The question is: If I were to get a recall notice, would it be wise to accept? As the company drastically continues to shrink, I would think the answer is clear.

Comair has a great group of people, from the pilot group to ramp agents to overworked back office support staff. None of them deserve what has been wrought and what may be still be looming.

More Shell Game Fallout & A White Elephant Is Born

2009-01-08T18:12:00.005-05:00

Yesterday, 80 more pilots took a solid kick in the tenders. Most likely due to their net loss of 10 aircraft in the Great CRJ-900 Switcheroo of 2008-9, ASA will be furloughing for the first time in it's proud history.

Like I mentioned in the previous post, being "awarded" 10 CRJ-900's wasn't exactly great news for ASA. Delta is doing everything it can to get out of the 50 seat regional jet market and we should expect more reductions to come in 2009.

I'm truly sorry to see more pilots hitting the street. When recalls actually start happening industry wide, I wonder how many will actually accept?

---

CVG: White Elephant?

As of January 1st, Delta closed terminal 3's Concourse C and moved all regional flights to Concourses A & B. Opened in 1993, the groundbreaking Concourse C has 48 gates and was the largest terminal ever constructed specifically for regional aircraft. The initial reasoning was to streamline the product and allow the utilization of jet bridges for more passengers. A large number of flights from both A & B will require passengers to ingress/egress via ramps to/from terminal level, in addition to RJ stairs versus convenient ground level Concourse C. Also, at times they will still be using a wing of Concourse C for boarding, requiring buses. However, no services (including restrooms) will be avaiable. Does that sound like seamless product?

With the increased passenger traffic in A&B from the loss of C, Cincinnati-Northen Kentucky airport will appear to be busy. In addition, the previous two evening pushes/banks have been combined in to one, to complement Cincinnati and Detroit's traffic patterns. Looks can be deceiving. With Comair alone having lost over 20% it's flying from CVG, passenger traffic at CVG has been drastically decreased and will probably see even fewer flights over the course of 2009-10.

The systematic dismantling of Delta's CVG hub has begun. Like St. Louis and Pittsburgh, CVG has reached "white elephant" status.

Has anyone seen the Travelocity commercial where the couple are just checking in and every time the husband tries to speak, a jackhammer interrupts him? I think the commercial sums up my feelings about the US airline business, at least until the economy turns around. Every time I think I've figured something out, the jackhammer of change interrupts and things change. I love the part at the end where he says in the perfect sarcastic tone, "It's gonna be great...it's gonna be a big week."

Well, it's gonna be great...it's gonna be a big year.

The Regional Airline Shell Game

2008-12-29T20:43:00.006-05:00

Watch the jet. Can you find it yet? Wherever it lands, you're sure to fret.
Do you wanna make a bet?

The world's largest airline has been busy reducing capacity. The biggest target is 50 seat regional jets. Since the beginning of 2008, Delta has reduced the number of 50 seat RJ's utilized more than any other carrier.

The first catalyst was the cost of fuel, which peaked last summer. The need to decrease capacity continues due to the dismal state of the economy.

Where the cuts come from and how deep is a constantly changing equation. At this point, I don't even think Delta knows. Since wholly owned subsidiaries don't have contractual capacity purchase agreements, it's easier to make changes with them. That is why they have put the screws to Comair.

Another way Delta is trying to reduce regional capacity is by canceling contracts of under-performing carriers. In May, Delta canceled their 50 seat contract with Freedom Airlines, a subsidiary of Mesa Air Group claiming poor completion and on-time performance. Mesa sued and received a temporary injunction to maintain the flying until the case goes to trial sometime in the first quarter of 2009.

In July, Delta announced that they were canceling Freedom's contract for 76 seat CRJ-900 flying as well. Those particular aircraft were owned by Delta and leased to Mesa/Freedom. Mesa had no recourse and Delta began the process of re-assigning the aircraft to other Delta Connection carriers.

First, they announced that the 15 aircraft (some of which have yet to be delivered by Bombardier) were going to Comair. By mid-August, Delta reversed that decision and temporarily assigned the aircraft to Pinnacle Airlines. This, along with the reduction in 50 seat aircraft, was the primary catalyst for my furlough, along with 205 and another 92 on January 16th, 2009.

In November, Delta announced that the remainder of the CRJ-900's were going to be placed with Mesaba, which has experienced tremendous growth in 2008. Now the reasons for that growth are another story entirely. To make a long story short, Mesaba was shrunk and squeezed a few years back and the pilot group is just now returning to it's original size.

Today, a memo was released by Mesaba. The memo stated that 10 of the 15 CRJ-900's that were assigned to them would now be given to ASA. ASA is the major Delta Connection carrier in Atlanta and is owned by Sky West. ASA has a great pilot group and they have been experiencing some reductions, including the loss of their ATR-72 turboprop fleet. Apparently, the awarding of the 900's was a 2 for 1 swap for 50 seat CRJ-200's. This ends up being a net loss of 10 aircraft. With and industry average of around 6 crews per aircraft, that means about 120 fewer pilots. So I wouldn't call it good news for ASA either.

Many of my fellow furloughed pilots had been recently hired by Mesaba and were due to start class on Monday, January 5th. I was glad to see them find work. Late this afternoon, they all received notice that their classes had been canceled. This just sucks.

2009 looks to be a very difficult year in the airline business. The hiring boom of 2007 was short lived. Too short lived. Rest assured there will be another, but with the increase in the mandatory retirement age to 65, it's going to be 2011 or 2012 before mass retirements become a factor and there is any substantial hiring at the majors.

I know there will be another "panic" hiring boom at the regionals before too long, but it won't necessarily be a healthy one. It will be due to the fact that there are so few people going through commercial flight training. The costs have skyrocketed and the lack of available credit for student loans will decrease the number of qualified entry level pilots. Best case scenario would be such a lack of newly trained pilots that the airlines are forced to offer competitive compensation for highly qualified pilots that have either walked away or gone overseas in search of better income. That is a subject of its own and would involve a virtual dissertation.

One thing is certain. Delta is going to continue to dangle larger regional aircraft like carrots in front of it's regional partners in order to drive costs lower. Regional airlines will fight for larger airframes and try to force their remaining pilots to fly bigger aircraft for less money. Scope will continue to be etched away. Until things change, (no I don't have the answer) the race to the bottom is going to be dirty, painful and destructive. The only thing I can do now is watch from the sidelines and hope for the best.

I will also continue to seek the answer to this question: If the CEO of DAL stated that there would be no loss of front line jobs as a result of the merger, why have over 300 pilots been furloughed from a wholly owned carrier?

U Fly Mike Update

2008-12-27T20:04:00.002-05:00

With all of this downtime, it's time to catch up a little. The U Fly Mike has generated a lot of interest here and I've received a bunch of emails with questions about how it has held up over the last 2 1/2 years. So here's what I have to say about the U Fly Mike/QC2 combo since it was purchased...

After about 1200 hours of use, I can say that the QC2/U Fly Mike combination is still performing flawlessly. Both the QC2's and the U Fly Mike have stood up to the rigors of heavy duty part 121 flying. Some days, the set would be put together, taken apart, plugged in and unplugged as many as five times. After a 14 hour duty day, no fatigue from the headset.

Cosmetically, they're a little worse for the wear but that hasn't affected performance whatsoever. Considering the amount of abuse they receive, they look pretty darn good.

Battery life has remained constant. I can usually count on about 22 hours before the indicator light begins flashing. Never once has the battery died while in use.

The only issue I've had was my own fault. One day I was in a hurry to catch a deadhead home. Instead of unplugging by pulling the plugs, I hastily yanked the cord. This was a bad move and caused an intermittent short. After a week of intermittent noise and having the play with the plug to get it "just right", I called U Fly Mike to set up a repair. Unfortunately, they were at Airventure in Oshkosh and wouldn't be back for a week.

It just so happened that I was flying with a captain who has a headset business on the side. He offered to do the repair for me when we got back to base. He replaced the plug set with a set from David Clark. It works great and I have to say that the David Clark cord is much sturdier than the cord that is sourced by U Fly Mike (I think it's Sigtronics). However, the short was my fault and it would probably still be working fine with the original plug had it not been yanked out the way it was.

I've also heard from some people that say the U Fly Mike is not legal to use because it isn't TSO'd. All I will say is that I have had feds on the jumpseat while I was using the combo, one who even had the U Fly Mike, and have never been violated for it. From what I can determine, there is no regulation or requirement under part 91, 135 or 121 or part 25 FAR to use a TSO'd headset in any aircraft, by any crew member.

The best feature? The ability to disconnect the mic and just use the headphones while commuting or deadheading. Even without listening to music, they're great. After hearing "shouldn't you be up front/who's flying the plane?" jokes 1,001 times, it's nice to just put the headphones on and enjoy the silence. Nothing says, "I'm really not interested in talking right now" more than wearing headphones with no wires attached.

So after all is said and done, would I buy the U Fly Mike again? Most definitely. Everyone I've flown with that owns the combo has felt just as strongly.

2008 - Good Riddance!

2008-12-26T23:06:00.006-05:00

How do I start? It's been a long time since the last post here...which was only to say farewell to an admired artist. The title says it all, but is a little broad.

November 5th came and went. That was the date of the furlough from the airline I worked for. My last official day was the 4th. My last leg was from Cincinnati to New Orleans in a CRJ-700. When I arrived back at company operations, I went to the chief pilot's office and handed in my badges and company manuals. Then an intern escorted me from the building to the curb. Nice, huh? I was among 206 guys that experienced the same treatment. Another 92 will get the treatment on January 16th.

The actually tried to make me sit ready-reserve my last day. Unfortunately, I was sick. I think a lot of other furloughees were sick that day too. Something was definitely going around. The best case for recall is 2010. Worst case is never. Based on what Delta is doing to my airline, I'm leaning towards worst case. However, I'll hang on to my seniority number as long as possible. There's also a chance of a merger between all of Delta's wholly owned regional carriers. Who knows. Wondering gives me a headache.

Now let's back up to August. That's when the bad news was flowing and rumors of furloughs were rampant. I started looking for work. Having a family to support, going back to another regional airline for first year salary was unthinkable. Only one airline was doing any significant hiring and it was another wholly owned subsidiary of the world's now largest airline. I couldn't see any way to justify going back to first year pay.

I talked with a friend that had done some overseas contract flying and he had some good things to say about it. Noting the dismal state of the US economy and airline industry in particular, I decided to look abroad.

In October, I went to London for a job interview for a growing airline in Africa. I wasn't thrilled with the specific location of their base and had other pots on the fire. However it was the first interview that I was offered and I wasn't going to pass the opportunity.

The job that I was most interested in involved flying in the Middle East. The money was very good, the terms were good and people that had worked with them had nothing but good things to say. I had sent my resume to them in early September and had sent them all documentation and done a phone interview in late September.

At the end of the final day in London, I received an email from the contractor representing the Middle East operator. It was a job offer with a signed contract! This was the job that I had been most interested in.

Even though I was in London interviewing for another job, I signed the contract and returned it immediately. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, especially when it's the one you wanted originally. I had an extra day in between interview events and went in to the city for the day. Here are a few photos:

This is Sir Winston Churchill's office in the Cabinet War Rooms, part of the Imperial War Museum. The Cabinet War Rooms are underneath The New Public Offices between Parliament and No 10 Downing Street. Worth every penny.

Buckingham Palace, just after the changing of the guards ceremony.

Piccadilly Circus

The Royal Horse Guards Parade Ground, with Big Ben in the background.

With all that being said, there are always downsides. This is an expatriate job that will take me away from home for weeks at a time. However, I will get substantial amounts of time off in between rotations. Being away from my family for extended periods of time will be very hard. Thanks to the internet, especially Skype, it will be somewhat easier.

Would I take this job with a good domestic economy? Maybe, but most likely not. The income is nearly 2 1/2 times what I was making here, but money isn't everything. I moved across the country to stop commuting and be with my family. Now it's going to be an 18,000 mile round-trip commute. Good times.

The bottom line is that this is a great opportunity during a bad time and I am fortunate to have a job. When I first told my co-workers about this job, most had nothing good to say. After a few months of searching the domestic flying job market, opinions change. Lately, my phone has been ringing with requests for help getting a job there. Unfortunately, over 300 pilots applied for only 12 positions.

I am thankful for having the last 2 months off to spend time with my wife and children. It was a gift to be home for Christmas. I've been able to travel to see some friends and get things in order at home. The new job starts in January. It will be nice to fly again. My wife is actually looking forward to me being gone after 2 months of being at home...every...single...day...after...day.

It's been a tough year for people everywhere, not just us. For 2009, it's going to be back to basics for myself and many others. Who knows what's in store? All I know is that I count myself thankful for family, friends, good health and lemonade from lemons.

So Long, Rick Wright

2008-09-15T21:17:00.005-04:00

A sad note that's not aviation related, but nonetheless related to the title of this blog:

Richard Wright, one of the founding members of Pink Floyd, passed away today after a battle with cancer. He was 65.

Rick wrote several Pink Floyd songs including Us And Them and The Great Gig In The Sky from the album Dark Side of the Moon.

Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
When I come home cold and tired
It’s good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells.

The time has gone, the post is over, thought I'd something more to say...

The Great Gig On The Ground

2008-09-13T21:02:00.005-04:00

What a year it's been so far. Oil prices began surging. One airline announced a merger (more like an acquisition) with another which, when (not if) complete will create the world's largest airline. Initially, it appeared to create good news for my carrier. In fact, there was so much projected growth that moving my family to my domicile would be a pretty safe bet.

Less than a month after the move, things began to unravel. The projected growth was gone in an instant. Not only that, but many of the 100 plus of the projected 300 new hires that had been hired were either un-hired or hired through completion of training with the expectation of furlough on completion of new-hire training.

August 1st, it was announced that we would be receiving new CRJ-900's. Furloughs were off and things were looking better. On August 20th, as I ended a really great 4 day trip with one of the best crews I've ever been with, it was announced that the CRJ-900's were not coming and to expect a further decrease in flying.

The following week, a displacement bid was released. There are two kinds of bids for pilot positions, vacancy bid and displacement. A vacancy bid is good. It is issued when more pilots are needed, whether for new captains or a different aircraft. A displacement bid is never good. It means that people are either being moved to another base, aircraft or seat position. The displacement bid called for 100 captains would be downgraded to first officers. 100 captains downgraded creates an extra 200 first officers.

Last week the news was released. 210 pilots were to be furloughed. That is back to an April 2007 date of hire. I was hired in August 2007. So the music stopped and there wasn't a chair for me or the 160 or so pilots junior and 50 senior to me. The first half are being shown the door October 5th and my half November 5th.

With my carrier being wholly owned, it appears that it is easier for the parent company to make the deep cuts with us. Can things change before then? Seeing how they've changed so quickly this year, I would say yes. However, hoping for a miracle isn't a good game plan.

A quick word about furloughs. A furlough is similar to being laid off. It's basically an unpaid leave of absence. The difference between being fired and furloughed is that certain employment rights are retained in a furlough. Basically, when an airline with a union represented pilot group furloughs, the airline is subject to provisions of a collective bargaining agreement. Every furloughed pilot has right to recall before any new pilot can be hired. (Not that anyone would be clamoring to work at a place that is being systematically dismantled by the parent company)

At any rate, it's time to make lemonade from the lemons. I have a few interviews set up but, in this environment, decent flying jobs are few and far between. Plans B, C, D etc. are being formulated and remaining positive is the biggest obstacle.

One of the best things to do right now is remember that we, as furloughed pilots, are not alone. This has happened before and will most certainly happen again. Many brothers are on the street and, unfortunately, there are probably more to go before this bottoms out. We all have to help one another, stick together and stay positive.

To my brothers at Express Jet, Trans States, Republic, PSA, Continental, United and others on furlough, not to mention those who were put on the streets by defunct airlines, best regards. 2008 can't end fast enough.

Like any displaced pilot, I'm trying to leave no stone unturned. I'm current and qualified in the CRJ-700 and 900, have 650 hours in the CL65 and hold a CL65 command type. If anyone has a lead for CRJ, Challenger 850/870/890 or any other positions, please let me know.

The Highs and the 'Loughs

2008-08-06T22:10:00.003-04:00

Has it really been six weeks since the last post? The last time I posted, the sims were just about over. The oral and check ride (L.O.E. - Line Oriented Evaluation) went fine and, after a few more weeks of waiting, O.E. was scheduled and completed.

That's the Cliff's Notes version. Now the meat and potatoes.

A few posts back, I mentioned the volatility in the airline industry and how it could affect things in the coming months. Well now that we're in the middle of the coming months, things have started to take shape. For better or worse.

One day, the last week of June, a sudden message was released from the company. Effective immediately, all new-hire interviews were canceled. Not only were interviews to be canceled, all new hires were to be placed in a hiring pool and classes were canceled too. The next news was the announcement of a major decrease in block hours for the fall. Instead of projected increases, the company was facing a severe decrease and staffing reductions would be forthcoming.

So in the matter of a few weeks, we went from projected hiring of 400 to furloughing of up to 300. Just like that.

Oil had reached nearly $150 per barrel. Merging airlines were getting nervous. A regional airline that had lost a major Embraer 145 contract won a temporary injunction to continue the contract until a settlement or court decision could be reached. There were many factors.

Furloughing is a messy business. In order to begin the furlough process, staffing levels for captains and first officers in each aircraft need to be projected. Once that is done, a displacement bid is issued for the number of seats affected. Everyone bids. It's kind of like musical chairs. Junior captains that aren't displaced to another domicile are downgraded to first officers. Line holding first officers are downgraded to reserve. When the music stops, it's the junior first officers that are left without a chair.

Once the bid "award" is released, everyone finds out their fate. Last week the music stopped and the "award" showed the bottom 90 first officers to be furloughed effective September 1st. More were expected to be announced soon for October 1st.

Fast forward to last Friday. At the close of business, a brief memo was posted on the company intranet. The displacement bid and award was canceled. If the displacement was canceled, that would mean furloughs were canceled. The memo was vague.

Monday morning, the rumors started flying. The gist: expect good news from the company before close of business. By mid morning, the parent company announced the cancellation of a contract with the same regional partner that it had canceled another contract with earlier this year. This time, it was for CRJ-900 aircraft. The difference this time is that the aircraft are owned by the airline we contract to.

Tuesday, the news was official. Our airline would be awarded the CRJ-900's. Our 50 seat aircraft flying was still being drastically reduced, but the amount of furloughs was expected to be reduced significantly. If there are any furloughs, they won't be expected until October.

Although this is good news for my airline, it's not new flying. It's replacement flying. I would much rather hear good news for everyone involved. I wish the best for my fellow brothers that have already been furloughed.

The price of oil has come down $30 per barrel. Today it closed at $118 and change. Technical analysts say a key support level is $117. If it breaks that, it could go back down near $100. Of course, violence in the Middle East, a category 5 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico or a variety of other factors could easily take it to $200. With long term futures contracts still trading around $100, it appears that oil is never again going to be a bargain. Here's hoping that new synthetic jet fuel technology, along with new geared turbofan technology is as promising as it sounds.

Everyone strap in, it's going to be a wild ride.

May I have a Diet Coke, PLEASE?

2008-06-21T20:43:00.004-04:00

It's been a while since the last post and there has been much happening. Where do I start?

I spent a week in May looking for a home. After a lot of searching, found the perfect home in a nice neighborhood with great schools. I was surprised to find out how much more is spent per child on education in Kentucky vs. Arizona, too. Nice.

The rest of May, I spent doing out and back trips while dealing with the new home. I spent nearly 3 weeks in KY without going home. This left my poor wife to do a majority of the packing. She did a great job and I'm proud of the way she handled all of the stresses of preparing for a cross-country move.

The kids got out of school the Thursday before Memorial Day and we left on the 29th. Without getting in to too much boring detail, it was the move from hell. We had two moving trucks, plus a tow trailer for my wife's car. The main 26 foot truck was the problem. We ended up getting a replacement truck twice. That's right, our belongings had to be swapped two times. Once in Payson, AZ and once in Albuquerque, NM. There were nightmare customer service issues that went along with it. I won't name the company, but the trucks are big and yellow and it rhymes with Pense Key. Never again. I learned that a moving truck with a nice paint job doesn't necessarily run well. Something like a fleet of polished turds comes to mind.

We finally made it to Northern Kentucky 3 days late. I had to miss a day of work which, was of course, without pay. Two and a half weeks in and it's finally beginning to feel like home.

Things I like: cooler weather, grass, trees, friendly neighbors, 15 minutes from the airport, rural feel, proximity to parks and recreation for the kids, much lower utility bills and fireflies.

Things I'm not thrilled about: lack of good Mexican food, lack of family, tornado warnings (thank goodness for basements), the chili (just don't get the Cincinnati chili thing) and the phrase "please?". Apparently, "please?" means "what" here. I was at a restaurant. The waitress said, "Can I get you something to drink?". I said, "Yes, I'll have a Diet Coke." She said, "Please?" I said, "Ok, I'll have a Diet Coke PLEASE." She said, "No silly, I meant what?" Why didn't she just say, "What?" Oh well, it's a regional thing to get used to. At least she didn't think I was being rude.

---

The Monday following the move, differences training for the CRJ700/900 started. The first week was ground school. One day of recurrent training, 3 days of systems and 1 day of differences between the CRJ700 & 900 (not very many other than gross weights and a few limitations). On Thursday, we had our final exams which consisted of systems, memory items and limitations. Everyone in the class did better than 93%.

Thursday night was hangar night, where we do emergency drills and a walk around. Not that the CRJ-900 is a big aircraft, but it's very striking how much larger it is than a CRJ-200. You can walk under the wings, the tail section is much taller and the landing gear is much more robust. The CRJ's all carry the same type rating, it just surprised me how much larger the -900 is.

We finished systems class ahead of schedule and had Friday off. With my simulator bid complete, I had six days off to study, work around the house and relax. It was nice. We celebrated Father's Day and my birthday in one day with a trip to Big Bone Lick State Park, just 10 minutes from our house. It's a very nice park with a lot to see and do. We plan on returning before summer ends for a weekend of camping.

Last Thursday, after an enjoyable six days off, it was time for the sims. Unlike many, our class had both captains and first officers. I am fortunate to have been paired with a senior captain. He's a great pilot and a wealth of information. I couldn't have asked for a better sim partner. The differences training only calls for 5 sim sessions total, including two checking events. Day One and Two were straight training events where we practiced Cat 1 & 2 ILS, non-precision CANPA and single engine approaches, V1 cuts, rejected takeoffs, in-flight emergencies etc.

Today was day three and the maneuvers validation. An MVis conducted by an FAA designated examiner and is a maneuvers check ride.

My portion started with a low visibility, crosswind takeoff, then a standard Cat I ILS to minimums and landing. Then with 600' visibility was given a V1 cut and left engine fire. After completing the takeoff, memory items and Quick Reference Handbook items returned to the airport for a hand-flown single engine ILS to a crosswind landing. Next, it was a normal takeoff with standard instrument departure and a CANPA (constant-angle, non-precision approach). I had wind-shear at 300' and went missed and did the wind-shear escape maneuver. Once clear of the shear, the DE failed the flaps/slats and I did a no-flap visual crosswind landing. Last but not least was a rejected takeoff due to cargo smoke followed by a passenger evacuation.

The captain had the same maneuvers as me, other than a CAT II ILS for him (a captain's only maneuver). I usually get sim-itis and today was no exception. However both the captain and I both passed without one bit of criticism. Today was one of those rare days where everything just goes right. A good day.

Tomorrow is a day off, then back to the sims Monday for a LOFT (line oriented flight training) day and a mock oral. Tuesday is the big day, the oral exam and LOE (line oriented evaluation). After the LOE, I will be released to OE (operating experience) on line with a check airman. This is usually only 4-6 legs and can be done in 2 days.

More soon.

HELLO...Hello...Hellooooo? Is Anybody THERE...There...There

2008-04-25T14:56:00.002-04:00

It's been a long dry spell. There's been a bit of turmoil in the airline business and with the price of oil, things aren't looking too good for a lot of good people. How can any airline be profitable at at current fuel prices? Some analysts are projecting $200 per barrel by the end of the year!

Over the last few months, ATA, Aloha, MaxJet, EOS, Skybus, Skyway and Big Sky have either gone out of business or ceased passenger operations. In addition, Frontier filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. On top of that, one of the nation's largest regional airlines is in pretty deep financial trouble. They lost a large lawsuit filed by another carrier in Hawaii. They lost a contract from Delta flying 38 Embraer 145 aircraft out of JFK, Cincinnati and Orlando. They have a potentially large debt obligation due in June and there are rumors about the loss of flying from United Air Lines. Another regional, considered by many to be one of the best, is feeling some pain due to a takeover bid from the largest regional airline.

This is a very tough time for the aviation industry. In the current environment, today's darling of the regional airline industry can become tomorrow's pariah. I feel for those who have recently lost their job and feel fortunate that the company I work for has just announced the hiring of at least 300 additional pilots. The reason for the hiring is purely speculative. A few months ago, the rumors of our demise were flying. What a difference 90 days makes. Who knows what the next 90 days will bring? The light at the end of the tunnel could very well be another freight train. We could be pariahs again in the blink of any eye. Or, we could see the fruits of rumored growth. Who knows? Ahh, life at an airline.

Right now, one of my biggest hopes is that pilots at the legacy airlines hold on to current scope restrictions. Scope restrictions are basically the limit on the size of the aircraft that can be sub-contracted to regional carriers. Continental currently limits regional scope to 5o seats, Delta & Northwest at 76 seats, American 50, plus a small number of 70 seaters, and United at 70 (I think). The future of everyone will be brighter if mainline size aircraft stay at mainline carriers. A new crop of quasi-regional aircraft such as the utterly ridiculous CRJ-1000 (I mean seriously, how many times can Bombardier stretch a Challenger?), Bombardier C-Series, Embraer 195 and the new MRJ from Mitsubishi are just too large to be flown at regional rates. Hopefully, legacy pilots will stand firm on scope. Unfortunately, legacy carriers are going to keep pressuring their pilot groups to relax scope to 110+ seats. That's not good for any pilot.

Making any type of drastic move right now if risky. That being said, my family comes first and airline cutbacks have made an already difficult commute nearly impossible. Commuting across three time zones has never been easy. Since the cutbacks began 60 days ago, I have lost at least 4 days per month with my family. That just isn't acceptable. There were three choices:

1. Quit and go back to previous career. This really isn't an option. Too much effort and time, as well as sacrifices from my wife and children, has been spent to give up.

2. Move to another airline with a base closer to home. Making a lateral move in a seniority business is never a good idea. The current health of the airline business makes it virtual career suicide.

3. Relocate to my domicile. This is the option we have chosen.

Yes, there are still risks involved in moving across the country. With the current mega-merger, will my home domicile even be around post merger? Will I even have a job? The important part is that my wife and children will be closer. They are all excited about the change of scenery. Going from the desert to an area with four seasons will be nice. The cost of living is much lower in the Midwest too. From housing to food to energy costs, it's just more affordable.

So that's where things stand. We're getting ready for a huge change in our life and things are going to be very hectic for another six to eight weeks.

Right after moving, it will be time for two weeks of differences training followed by a check ride and some IOE. It appears that all future growth at my airline will be 76 seat CRJ-900's and that is the place to be. I just hope that 76 seats is the upper limit.

Busy

2008-03-22T06:42:00.004-04:00

The economy is definitely starting to make things interesting in the airline industry. With fuel prices at record levels and fierce competition for passenger dollars, the volatility is bound to affect regional airline staffing levels. The questions are: which ones and how many jobs?

It's getting more difficult to find time to post. The company is short staffed and things have been a little busy. As a reserve pilot, the airline guarantees at least 75 hours of pay per month. The last several months, I have seen at least 90 hours. Between the time working and commuting, time at home has been precious.

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With fuel prices ever increasing, there is a shift toward larger, more fuel-efficient regional aircraft. I would prefer to fly 50 seat or smaller aircraft and leave the larger planes for mainline carriers. However, relaxed scope has made 76 seat aircraft the wave of the future. Fortunately, my airline has a separate increased pay scale for 76 seats. Some regional carriers actually pay pilots the same wage for 50 and 76 seat aircraft.

In the next few months, I will be moving from the CRJ-200 to the 700 & 900. Differences training is scheduled for summer. I am looking forward to moving to the 700/900 type for many reasons including:

They have a large crew bag locker that doesn't require contortions to stow a bag. (No more cuts and scrapes on my hands)
They have leading edge devices on the wings, which allow lower approach speeds.
The more powerful engines offer better rates of climb above 20,000 feet.
The environmental control system works much better...set it and forget it.
The engines are managed by a full authority digital engine control system (FADEC).
There is a forward lavatory. No more trips to the back during long flights.
One or two forward baggage compartments in addition to the aft. No more weight and balance issues.
Automated control of the bleed air system.
Simpler operation of fire systems
The 700/900 trips are better and easier on the schedule.

From a passenger standpoint, the CRJ-700/900 series are more comfortable. The air distribution system circulates cabin air much better. The floor is lower, which makes looking out the windows easier and more comfortable. Also, there is a few inches more headroom. On the new Nextgen planes, there are larger windows, overhead bins and enhanced LED lighting. The CRJ-900 also has 12 first class seats.

With the number of 50 seat RJ's declining, moving to the 70-76 seat aircraft seems to be the right thing to do. Time will tell.

A few photos:

The world-famous Verrazano Narrows Bridge, which connects Staten Island with Brooklyn. When it was completed in 1964, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. This was taken on a particularly clear day in February flying the Expressway Visual approach to runway 31 at LaGuardia. I will never get tired of flying over New York City.

These two photos were taken at JFK on runway 31L. They were utilizing the runway as a taxiway to hold traffic departing over Robbinsville. When we pushed back from the gate, visibility was zero. In the first photo, the fog was just beginning to lift. A few minutes earlier, the World 767 was not visible. The second photo was taken just before we started our engines again to taxi. After the fog lifted, the wind started blowing. Almost every arriving aircraft was executing a missed approach due to gusty crosswinds. Departures were getting out, though. When it was our turn, we encountered a plus 60 knot wind shear. The airspeed indicator instantly jumped from 70 knots to rotation speed! Pucker time for sure. After our departure, they shut things down again for a while.

Our destination was Baltimore, where a bunch of JFK arrivals were diverting to. An Emirates 777 declared a min. fuel emergency and landed. We also saw a United 747, British Airways and others. When we left Baltimore 3 hours later, the Emirates 777 was still sitting on the ramp, doors closed. Can you imagine being a passenger on a flight all the way from Dubai, getting diverted to Baltimore and then having to wait on board until JFK was accepting arrivals? That's about a 12 hour flight, at least 3 hours on the ground in Baltimore and another 60 minutes to JFK. That's a long time to sit in a coach seat.

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More soon...

Inefficiency

2008-02-16T23:15:00.002-05:00

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

2008-02-15T01:38:00.004-05:00

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

2008-02-12T19:05:00.002-05:00

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

2008-02-09T08:31:00.003-05:00

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.

Ready...Set...Wait

2008-01-14T11:10:00.000-05:00

This has been a weird trip. First the random line check. Then 30+ hours in Allentown. When I landed this morning in Cincinnati, the snow wasn't the only thing blowing. The other thing was my day.

As we taxied to the gate, the RIDS (display screen that shows various flight info) had my name displayed and call crew scheduling. Great. What would they want from me? A quick phone call would answer that.

They took me off the last two legs of my trip and put me on ready reserve for the rest of the day. The first officer that replaced me was displaced from a canceled flight and was not thrilled to be there. I was definitely not thrilled to go sit ready reserve. Now I'm stuck sitting here in ops, hoping my phone doesn't ring so that I can make it home tonight to see my wife and kids.

Based on my last ready reserve, I can expect a call from scheduling during the last 5 minutes of duty. This is the part of being a first year F.O. that is just no fun.

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I'm not really a neat freak, but do like the place I work to be free of trash and fairly organized. This is my biggest cockpit pet-peeve: someone leaving their cup/bottle/can with chew spit in it. Nothing is more gross. Kind of a random thought, but truly a disgusting thing to come across.

You're Who? You're Here For What?

2008-01-13T17:46:00.000-05:00

I'm currently on a 4 day trip. The first day was Cincinnati-Savannah-Cincinnati-Toronto. Yesterday we flew from Toronto to Atlanta and then Allentown, PA where I'm currently spending my second night. Yeah, two nights in Allentown...in January. The crew and I made the best of it by seeing a movie at the cineplex next to the hotel (I Am Legend...C-).

Tomorrow morning, it's off first thing for a flight to CVG, then an out and back to Rochester to end the day by noon. If all goes well, I'll be on a flight back to Phoenix and home by 8 p.m. YES!

The trip got off to a rocky start. As the captain and I were doing pre-flight paperwork, a check airman stepped in to the cockpit. He said, "Good afternoon gentlemen, I need to see each of your credentials in full. I will be performing a randomly selected line check on this leg." With the airline's recent switch to Advanced Qualification Program (AQP), line checks are performed on every route in the system and are random. Technically, you could have multiple line checks in one month vs. one every 18 months.

A line check is basically where the flight deck crew is judged on their performance from start to finish. It is a jeopardy event and not to be taken lightly. Performing to standards is critical.

Well, being on line for only a few months, this made me very nervous. Of course all of the weight and balance had to be worst case scenario, meaning Cg and weight issues. We had to move passengers and add ballast to put the aircraft center of gravity withing tolerances. It's not really difficult, just time consuming and easy to make mistakes...especially with a check airman in the jump seat looking over your shoulder. I ended up doing the W&B twice just to make sure it was 100% accurate and legible. Normally I do it right the first time. This had to be the time for a Cg issue.

W&B issues solved, we headed out. Thankfully, the flight wasn't too eventful other than some thunderstorm dodging. The most difficult part was hearing ATC calls while listening to the check airman "critiquing" our flying. In the end, after a few small comments and suggestions, we passed and breathed a sigh of relief. I only wish it was guaranteed to be another 18 months before another line check.

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Yesterday on the flight from Toronto to Atlanta, there was a nice old woman from Hungary on our flight. She spoke just a few words of English and I helped her figure out how to go about getting to Los Angeles from Atlanta. At the end of the flight, I was outside the aircraft at the bottom of the stairs when she came down. She turned to me, grabbed me with both arms , gave me a big bear hug and a kiss on the check and in broken English said, "Thank you". That made my day.

Time Is A Precious Commodity

2008-01-10T09:40:00.000-05:00

Being a reserve pilot gives me new respect for time. There just isn't much of it.

December was an incredibly busy month with over 95 hours flown. The best news came on the last Friday of the year. When checking out, I found that the transfer to Cincinnati happened a month earlier than expected.

How can anyone be excited about Cincinnati? After a month of riding a bus 50+ minutes each way, plus rain, sleet & snow along the addition 1/2 mile walk to the crashpad in Jamaica, Queens, it is welcome news. Cincinnati isn't a bad place and is certainly a much easier and more affordable place to be based.

The downside is longer reserve and more ready reserve schedules. I'm sitting ready reserve right now. The upside of being a prisoner for 6 hours is allowing time to blog.

This post was interrupted by a call to scheduling for fly an out and back from CVG to DFW due to a maintenance problem with a CRJ-700. The phone call came with FOUR minutes to go on my ready reserve schedule. At least the trip was good for 4.5 block hours.

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I'm up to almost 150 hours in the jet now and things are becoming much easier. Techniques are developing, muscle memory is burning in and, most importantly, I'm beginning to feel more relaxed.

Approaches down to minimums, gusty crosswinds, 250 knots to the final approach fix, fog, ice and snow are now just everyday occurrences. Life on the line is starting to settle in.

Time away from home is the biggest challenge. I am really missing being home with my wife and kids.

Not much else to post about right now. Too many thoughts, too little time.

December To Remember

2007-12-25T19:26:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I've had the time to post. Last time I checked in, it was just before the beginning of the last IOE trip. Due to having several legs canceled, it was necessary to have one more trip to meet the required IOE hourly minimums.

The last trip was a piece of cake. The check airman told me after the last leg of the first day that he would be signing me off. That made the trip go by quite a bit faster. The remainder of the trip was enjoyable and easy, except for a minor emergency that we handled on the last leg of the final day.

After IOE, I enjoyed 5 days off with my family before heading to New York to hunt for a crash pad and begin my reserve tenure at JFK. I found a crash pad in Queens near Jamaica Station that was willing to give me a flat rate for 7 weeks. It's a depressing little place with 8 beds in one room, a bathroom, a kitchen with no stove, a 13-inch tv with basic cable and inconsistent wireless internet. It is cheap and cheap is good right now.

Being on line is MUCH more relaxing than IOE. It's nice not being next to a line check airman having every move evaluated. I'm actually making fewer mistakes with the relaxation of being in a non-jeopardy position. It's also more fun.

The story that was being passed around prior to IOE was that new hire pilots are utilized heavily for the first 100 hours. Once a new pilot reaches 100 hours in the aircraft, several limitations are removed. I have been flying a lot and have already reached 100 hours which makes me eligible to take off and land at special use airports, on icy and contaminated runways, with crosswinds up to the aircrafts limitations, where wind shear is forecast and more. The first thing I'm looking forward to doing is The River Visual at Washington Reagan National. Hopefully it will pop up on my schedule soon.

The thing I've enjoyed most is visual approaches. With a greater comfort level in the aircraft, setting up and configuring for a visual approach is now routine. Very little time is spent in training teaching visuals and most of it is learned in the aircraft. Luckily, they haven't been a struggle for me. Things happen a lot faster on a visual approach and it isn't as regimented as a precision or non-precision approach. Most of the set up is at the pilot flying's discretion. Needless to say, being at 10,000 feet in the downwind and cleared for the visual approach can be a challenge. The CRJ is slippery and although there are several ways to slow it down, it has to be done quickly to ensure staying below 250 knots and configuring for a stabilized approach. I love doing visual approaches.

I have enjoyed several trips up and down the East Coast and have a few photos to share. I keep thinking about bringing the DSLR on a trip, but its bulk is too much. My Canon pocket camera doesn't do too well in low light situations, so a few of the photos are kind of noisy. Unfortunately, my internet connection here at the crash pad is unreliable and slow. For now, here is one photo.

This is Lower Manhattan from over the Hudson River at 3,000 feet. We were following the Hudson North for a visual approach to runway 22 at LaGuardia. This was taken just before sunrise. In the foreground is Battery Park and at the bottom is the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. I should have been more clear when I posted this. Too tired. Thanks for the correction, Rob G.

This has been a busy week with several fill-in trips from Boston to Bangor. Big Sky Airlines has ceased East Coast operations and we are picking up several of their routes. Tomorrow, I start a 3 day trip with a round trip to Melbourne, FL and an overnight at LaGuardia. I am glad to have that versus being released at JFK to the crummy, depressing crash pad. The rest of the trip will keep me busy and put me close to 96 hours for December, just 4 hours shy of the legal limit. Right now, I'll take all of the flying I can get.

I'll try and post more photos, as well as a few interesting stories, when I have a better internet connection.

Flying good. Away from family, BAD. It really sucks to be 2,000 miles away on Christmas. I will be reassigned from JFK to CVG in February and hope that makes the commute easier...for the time being.

The Big Chill, Part Two

2007-12-05T22:59:00.000-05:00

YYZ. Up until now, my only experience with it was listening to an instrumental performed by Toronto's Rush on the fantastic album Moving Pictures. Now, I've been initiated at the source of Rush's inspiration.

Toronto Pearson International Airport. Big, Canadian and cold. We landed on Saturday afternoon with light snow flurries and freezing cold temperatures. We settled in for a nice overnight at the YYZ Travelodge (I wish the room was a nice as the elevators) hoping that the next day wouldn't be so bad.

I thought these airport police vehicles were pretty interesting. They look like Segway meets Robocop. Canadian GST at work!

Overnight, two feet of snow had fallen in Toronto. When it was time to head to the airport, it was still snowing and visibility was less than 1/2 mile. Things improved, but getting to the airport was challenging. Due to icy roadways on the ramp, the safety mounties decided that the inter-terminal buses weren't running. It took an hour for the buses to resume their schedule and get us to the international terminal...where...our aircraft sat all night long with no nacelle covers. Yes, the engine nacelles had 2 feet of snow in them and that, among other things, kept us from an on-time departure. Every other flight to JFK had been canceled. That made us the only game in town and nobody was complaining about delays.

A cold soaked airplane with snow in the engines requires a few extra steps. Takeoff weights are reduced by contaminated runways as well as the need to use anti-ice for the engine cowls and wings. To make matters more challenging, ATIS kept changing every 7-10 minutes between freezing rain and snow. We can depart with snow falling, but not freezing rain. Making the necessary calculations, communicating the max gross load to customer service agents so they can determine who stays and who goes and getting in sequence for JFK arrivals on a bad weather day meant pushing back 90 minutes late. The ATIS changed to snow and we headed to the de-icing pad.

At Toronto, de-icing is a very well orchestrated operation. They use Volvo boom trucks that can be driven from the truck and watching them do the two stage process is fascinating. After 15 minutes, Type I and IV had been applied and our holdover time had been issued. It was finally time to leave The Great White North.

The flight to JFK went smoothly. When we arrived, a message from crew scheduling informed us of a few changes. Our deadhead to Boston was canceled, which canceled our flight to Halifax. We were spending the night in New York. The new schedule called for a deadhead to Boston on Monday with legs from BOS to Nashville to CVG.

Monday morning, we headed to BOS as scheduled. In BOS we were having lunch waiting to operate the Nashville flight, when the flight attendant received a call from crew scheduling. She was informed that our Nashville flight was canceled and she was released and going back to Cincinnati. The captain and I gave each other a high five, thinking we were to be released too. Nah. We were going to operate a flight to Baltimore and then deadhead back to Cincinnati on the last flight of the day.

The weather in BOS kept deteriorating and it started snowing heavily. When we got to the gate, we found out that our flight attendant was sitting ready reserve at JFK and was just boarding a flight to BOS. Her departure time at JFK was our departure time from BOS. We would be delayed...again. We finally pushed back and had to be de-iced...again. The winds were howling and it was pretty turbulent in the terminal area around BOS.

A nice day in Boston...NOT!

Things smoothed out en-route and a nice tailwind got us to Baltimore 10 minutes ahead of schedule. The winds in Baltimore were worse than Boston, much worse. Winds were 300 at 28, gusts to 43. It was really bumpy on short final, but a few extra knots for the gusts helped bring us to the runway firmly, but smoothly.

Unfortunately, we arrived 15 minutes after the last flight to Cincinnati and had to spend the night. Our normal crew hotel was overbooked and it took an extra hour for company to find us rooms. Finally they found rooms for us at Amerisuites, which was just days away form becoming a Hyatt. All of the rooms were remodeled including 42 inch plasma televisions. Too bad it was late and we had a 5:15 report time for our deadhead back to CVG.

One day five of a four day trip, I finally made it home. I had been away from home for ten days and it was wonderful to see everyone again. I can't say enough how hard it is being away from home.

Unfortunately, due to having four legs canceled, I didn't get enough hours to complete IOE and will have to complete one more trip. That is scheduled to start this Sunday. Thankfully, I'm off until then and get to enjoy time with my wife and kids.

The Big Chill - Part One

2007-12-01T19:48:00.000-05:00

Today I paid pennants for yesterday's glorious weather. To say it was cold today would be like saying "It's a little warm" in Phoenix on a July day. With each destination, I kept thinking that it couldn't possibly feel any colder. Well, umm...it can get colder and it certainly did.

We started off in Baltimore where it was mild and 40. It was a little breezy, but not bad. Our leg to Boston was smooth and easy until the descent in to the terminal area. At about 16,000 feet, we began hitting heavy turbulence and some wind shear. That lasted until about 11,000 feet, which was just below the cloud layer.

As I turned final for the visual to 33L, the whitecaps and foam on Boston Harbor along with a Coast Guard cutter bobbing up and down told me what was in store for landing. The winds were 280 at 20, gusts to 28. Nice. The wind correction crab gave me a nice view of downtown Boston. Surprisingly, I kicked in just the right amount of rudder as we touched down and it was a smooth landing.

40 minutes later, we had a full load of passengers and were on our way to JFK. The weather forecast for JFK looked much the same as BOS. For some reason, people were a little touchy on the radios today around JFK. I was the non-flying pilot on this leg and, when it was time to check in with JFK approach, made the usual call..."XXXair XXX, level at one-two thousand with Echo". There was no response and the radio traffic picked up a bit. Sometimes they don't have time to respond and you just wait for them to acknowledge. About 30 seconds later, the controller came on and said, "XXXair XXX, you checked in yet?" I responded with "XXXair XXX level at one-two thousand...echo." He came back and asked if I had any information for him. Umm...I said ECHO. I told him that I had echo and he said that maybe I should consider giving it to him next time before being asked. He gave me a descent and I responded. He came back, sighed and said, "This is going to be fun...XXXAIR XXX. Descend and maintain 8,000 and call me back when you have FOXTROT". This was at about 54 minutes after the hour and it had just changed. All he needed to do was give me the current altimeter, but he felt like punishing me for the fact that he didn't hear my read backs. Grouch.

We were cleared for the visual for 04R. The controller brought us in right behind a 757. We slowed down to 170 knots and shallowed our turn to put some distance in between us. The 757 couldn't see the airport and had to join the localizer to find the runway. Once inbound, one of the 757's crew started complaining to the tower about the 20 knot direct crosswind and said they should change active runways. The controller said that 04R was the available runway and if they wanted to land, that was the one. They put on their big boy pants and landed just fine. They still were complaining on the ground. Another crew asked to copy a number because of sequencing issues. Everyone at JFK was grumpy today and it was COLD. The temperature was minus 3C, which is about 25 degrees. With the wind chill, it felt like it was about 8 degrees. Brr.

We had a few hours to kill at JFK. There is an employee commissary in the subterranean dungeon underneath the terminal. It's a little dark and dreary, but the food is really good and cheap. There is a station where they make chopped salads to order. You hand them the lettuce and choose the ingredients and they make it right there for you. Very good.

With another hour to kill we headed over to the crew room where I did the most recent Jeppesen and flight standards manual revisions. Big fun. Our aircraft arrived a little late, but with a light passenger load, we were able to push back on time. Apparently, there were only 8 people in New York that were brave enough to face the Arctic Chill in Toronto.

To be continued...

Clear, Blue & A Million

2007-11-30T15:57:00.000-05:00

Today was one of those perfect flying days, which are few and far between this time of year in the Northeast.

We started off at CVG. It was below freezing and we did have to de-ice, but there was no queue and it took just a few minutes. It was my leg to Raleigh-Durham, NC and the flight was beautiful. I like flying over the Ohio River Valley this time of year. When it's calm and cold, the warmth of the river draws a gray line of fog along as it meanders along its circuitous journey. Even with the delay from deicing, we made it to RDU on time and loaded up for the next leg to Boston.

Our route to Boston took us directly over New York City and I was able to shoot a few photos as we flew over Manhattan. I also took a few photos of the approach in to BOS. Boston was absolutely beautiful.
This photo was taken from 31,000 feet over New York City, so the quality isn't great.

This photo is of the base leg for runway 27 in to Boston. At the left is the airport and the entrance to Boston Harbor. Downtown is just out of view to the left. What a gorgeous day in Boston.

We had a full load from Boston to Baltimore, with most of the passengers headed for this Saturday's Army-Navy game. As we flew over the Hudson River, we made sure to point out West Point for the Army fans.

After we landed in Baltimore, we ended up on the same shuttle as several of our passengers from the BOS-BWI flight. They complimented me on a nice flight and the especially smooth landing. I can't really brag. The winds were pretty light and 30+ mile visibility made the visual approach to 31L pretty easy.

The flight attendant really wants to go to G&M Restaurant for crab cakes. Apparently, this is the place for Maryland crab cakes. We're all headed there tonight for an early seafood dinner. It doesn't take much to convince me to have seafood.

Other than a 150 knot headwind between BOS and BWI, it was a perfect day for flying.

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There are three more days left on this trip which I expect to be the final for IOE. Tomorrow we fly back to Boston, then JFK before heading to Toronto for our overnight. Sunday we'll be doing much of the same, but overnighting in Halifax. I've never been to Halifax and am looking forward to it. Hopefully by Monday I'll be released from IOE and ready to start life on the line.

IOE Update Three

2007-11-26T09:48:00.001-05:00

With Thanksgiving out of the way, there's finally a little time to catch up. Due to illness from the line check airman that was supposed to fly with me on trip number two, it was canceled. That gave me a nice five day block at home. We're starting to develop a routine for the days that I'm at home and it's amazing how much you can pack in to a short amount of time.

Trip number two was a 2 day that began on the 21st in CVG with only one leg to Detroit (DTW). Other than a late departure due to the aircraft arriving late, it was a quick, smooth trip. In DTW, we were assigned 8 hours, 3 minutes rest which was already 57 minutes short of minimum rest. Under certain circumstances, minimum rest can be reduced to 8 hours but nothing less. That meant our report time and departure would be delayed the next morning from DTW.

The weather for the 22nd was looking pretty shaky. Two systems were supposed to collide and it wasn't looking good for the next day. Our schedule was DTW-JFK-ORD-CVG and we expected to be delayed the entire day.

Much to our surprise, the weather held off until the Chicago-Cincinnati leg and we were never more than 10 minutes behind the entire day.

The last leg from ORD-CVG made up for the easy day. We traveled through some pretty severe weather from Indianapolis to Cincinnati. We re-routed North to avoid a pretty strong line of thunderstorms just prior to the approach in to CVG. On the approach, there was some fairly strong wind shear along with pretty heavy rain. On short final, the wind shear changed to a gusty crosswind. The landing was ok, not great. It was difficult to land on centerline with the gusts and I ended up about 15-20 feet right of center. Oh well, it was safe and the captain didn't feel compelled to shadow the controls. The weather was pretty intense and I have to admit that it was a little intimidating.

Weather notwithstanding, it was a good, yet short trip. Unfortunately, getting home wasn't in the cards and I had to spend the night in Cincinnati. There was a flight on Thanksgiving morning that had plenty of open seats and would get me home by 11:30 a.m. For the first time in 17 years of marriage, we were hosting both sides of the family.

I was lucky enough to get a first class seat, the flight was on time and the Thanksgiving celebration was a huge success. Everyone ate well, had a great time and left happy. I added a few pounds to my chiseled physique too.

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My next trip starts today (Monday), but I had to leave Phoenix and Saturday in order to get a seat. Many thanks to the Delta crew for inviting me to ride in their 737 jump seat. Without them, I would have been stuck in Phoenix. Jump seating is one of the privileges we, as commuters, enjoy.

Things are about to get busy. Today's trip is three legs. CVG-Rochester (ROC), ROC-CVG and CVG-Minneapolis (MSP). An 18 hour layover in MSP should give me enough time to check out the Mall of America, which is adjacent to the airport in Bloomington.

Tomorrow is just one leg from MSP-CVG. Then I have to deadhead to JFK for some class I know nothing about. After the class, it's another deadhead back to CVG for a 4 day trip that begins on Friday. The first day Raleigh-Durham (RDU), BOS and an overnight in Baltimore (BWI). Day two is BWI-BOS-and overnight in Toronto (YYZ). Day three is YYZ-JFK-BOS and overnight in Halifax, N.S. (YHZ). Day four is YHZ-BOS-Nashville (BNA)-CVG. I suspect that the last leg will be a line check to release me from IOE.

Well that's all for now. Due to the JFK class in the middle of two trips, this is an unusually long trip away from home. Being away from my wife and kids for so long after the lengthy training is hard.

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The weather in Cincinnati sucks today. It's 45 degrees and raining. Here's a few photos taken from my hotel room looking north towards the Ohio river and downtown Cincinnati. Dreary.

From this photo, you can just barely see the outline of Downtown Cincinnati, about 1/2 mile away. Just behind the bridge on the right is Paul Brown stadium where the Bengals play.
This is North and West. That is I-71/75 and the hills of Covington, KY which run along the south bank of the Ohio river.

Trip One, Over

2007-11-16T21:22:00.001-05:00

Warning: This post is kind of long-winded.

The first trip is finally complete. In the course of 4 days and 3 nights, I was able to experience more than could have ever been expected. As a bonus, a good friend came all the way to Boston for a brief visit.

Saturday has already been summed up, so let's begin on Sunday. Knowing better than to count on a hotel to properly program a wake-up call, my cell phone woke me up on time. Good thing, the wake up call that had been requested never came. Other than that, the Crowne Plaza Old Town Alexandria was pretty nice.

After convincing the van driver that we did indeed need to go to DCA, not Dulles (IAD), we made our way through security and out to the plane. The weather was great; above freezing, clear, blue and a million. We decided that I would fly this leg. We took departed from runway 01 and made the early turn to avoid area P-56, the prohibited area to end all prohibited areas. When departing visually, the procedure calls for a left turn "as soon as practicable" to avoid P-56. This means starting the turn about 50 feet AGL. Normally, most turns are not initiated until at least 400 feet AGL. After the turn, maintain a ground track directly above the Potomac River. This puts the Pentagon on your left and P-56 on your right. Good times.
It was severe clear all the way to Boston. Our route took us directly over Baltimore (BWI), Atlantic City, Manhattan, Bridgeport, CT and Providence, RI before landing in Boston. We had a 2 1/2 hour layover before heading for Louisville, KY (SDF) so I took advantage of the time and enjoyed a nice lunch at Legal's Test Kitchen. Yum. Weather en-route wasn't too good and the radar kept us clear of a pretty sizable line of thunderstorms. Once on the ground, the weather delayed our departure and we arrived in Boston later than scheduled. After checking in to the very nice Hilton Boston Logan, it was time for room service and bed.

Monday morning, I was the first to arrive at the aircraft. I went ahead and did the security check, cockpit safety check and started the APU to get power to the aircraft and warm it up for everyone. The captain and flight attendant arrived soon after and before we knew it, 50 passengers we aboard and ready to go to Philadelphia (PHL). The performance data and weight & balance had been calculated and we were just about to call for push when there was a loud knock on the flight deck door. The flight attendant's inter-phone was inop. The captain called maintenance and was just finishing up the paperwork so we could depart when...another maintenance issue came up. This one was a no-go.

After nearly 2 hours of chatting with maintenance and operations, we were expecting to have to ferry the aircraft to Cincinnati. It was decided that we would move the passengers to a new aircraft and still continue to PHL. We finally made PHL and turned around. On the second trip to PHL, we ran in to another maintenance issue with a funky landing light. Our day that was supposed to end at 2 p.m. didn't end until 5. So much for a nice afternoon in Boston.

My friend Teller, a fellow pilot who flies a more manly Beech 1900 for another carrier, flew down to Boston with his fiancee to have dinner with me. We had a nice visit, told a few lies and before too long, it was time for Teller & Co. to head back to Maine. Teller has an interesting blog called Journey In Flight. If you haven't been there, I highly recommend a visit.

I was pretty tired and a nice relaxing evening watching the nice flat screen TV in my room was in order. Unfortunately, the TV was out of order. My stuff was already unpacked and I was too tired to change rooms and went to bed early. That would prove to be a very good move...

Tuesday started off smooth. Almost too smooth. The aircraft was ready, en-route weather looked good and it was the last day of my first trip. Almost time to go home. The first turn to PHL was smooth. The second trip to PHL was smooth, other than a short hold. We were ahead of schedule and had a three hour layover to enjoy cheese steaks and pretzels (yeah, I'm a foodie and this occupation is really going to make me fat).

The final leg had an unusually low passenger count and everyone had checked in early. We boarded everyone early and pushed back ten minutes ahead of schedule. In my best Ron White voice, I turned to the captain and said, "It's gonna be a good day, Tater".

We were cleared to taxi to runway 27L. Just as we were crossing 27R, PHL advised us that JFK was issuing ground stops. Our EFC was in 30 minutes. Oh well, we had plenty of time. Ground came back and cleared us to proceed to 27L. Just then, the aircraft advised us of a problem with the anti-skid braking system. Not good. We lost our takeoff slot and had to taxi to a holding spot while the problem was sorted out. Minimum takeoff fuel requirements necessitated the shutdown of both engines. When we finally had the problem sorted, ATC advised us that another 45 minute ground stop was in place.

After 45 minutes, ATC cleared us to taxi again to 27L. However, it was now busy in PHL and we were 8th in line. Before we could get to the hold short line, we were given an indefinite ground stop. Ground cleared us to park at the hold short line of 27R and advised us to shut down again. They would call us when they had an EFC time. We finally were cleared after sitting on the ground for 2 1/2 hours.

I finally took off and departure put us on course to JFK for the CAMRN4 arrival. PHL to JFK is about a 25 minute flight (only 80 nautical miles) ... unless ... a hold is issued. XXXair 123, climb to one-four thousand, proceed direct CAMRN and hold as published. EFC in 45 minutes. CRAP. Now I was beginning to worry. I had a 7 p.m. flight home to catch.

What made it extra frustrating was that the weather was clear and we could see both PHL and JFK from CAMRN, which is just north of Atlantic City, NJ. We did 5 turns in the hold before being vectored in for an ILS. JFK kept us fast until the marker and then just as we were grabbing the localizer, switched us from 22L to 22R. CRJ-200's are Category D aircraft with higher approach speeds than most other transport category aircraft. There was a 777 on final ahead of us and that necessitated the side-step. Any closer and we would have been surfing its wake, which isn't a lot of fun when the aircraft is configured for landing. My last landing of the trip was on center and smooth, or maybe it was just my numb butt. 3.5 hours is a long time to be sitting in a CRJ seat.

We taxied back, deplaned the poor passengers, shut down the plane and headed back to operations. It was 6:55. The Phoenix flight was closing and the gate agent refused to allow me to board. I know there were at least 45 open seats. Nice.

Luckily, I found a Las Vegas flight that left 20 minutes later. The last flight to Phoenix left Vegas at 11:55 (12:55 Arizona time). A big "thank you" to the Mesa crew that gave me a ride home. I didn't get home until 3 a.m., but it was better to be awake for 24 hours and make it home than to spend the night at JFK.

First trip: 12 legs total. I flew 9 out of 12. Nine takeoffs and landings. 4 ILS approaches, 5 visual approaches, 2 holds, thunderstorms, ice, rain, fog and some healthy crosswinds, clearance amendments and many crossing/speed restrictions. I think a lot was accomplished. The check airman said that I did a great job and he never felt that he needed to shadow the flight controls. He said his best advice would be to slow down a bit. Speed comes with proficiency. I can definitely see that.

The next trip starts in two days, then I have the entire Thanksgiving weekend off! That's one advantage of IOE. All of the check airmen are senior and get the holidays off. After Thanksgiving, I have two more four day trips with a JFK class in between. By then, IOE should be over and it will be prime time.

Baptism by Fire, Complete

2007-11-10T22:28:00.001-05:00

Well today was the day I had waited thirty years for. It was also 1 year, 7 months and 10 days from the day I started training. Today I flew the CRJ from JFK in New York to DCA in Washington D.C.

We pushed back from the gate 15 minutes late (no, it wasn't my fault). That put us 10 slots behind where we should have been. Luckily, it was Saturday afternoon and traffic wasn't too bad. When we finally taxied to our position in line, we were 17th for takeoff. We shut down an engine to conserve fuel and about 20 minutes later, it was finally out turn for takeoff.

We took off on runway 31L and were assigned the Kennedy One Departure, Canarsie Climb. The Canarsie Climb is somewhat of a legend and is responsible for more than a few airspace violations. Between Kennedy, La Guardia and Newark; New York airspace is very tight. Basically, when departing runway 31L on the Kennedy One departure, Canarsie Climb, many things must be accomplished in a relatively short period of time to avoid busting La Guardia's airspace. After takeoff, turn at 400 feet direct Canarsie (CRI) VOR. Make sure to complete the turn before crossing the CRI 039 radial. At about 1.5 DME from CRI, start a left turn to intercept the CRI 176 radio outbound. Cross CRI 2.0 DME at 2,500 feet or above.

I managed to fly the procedure without incident. Thank goodness for small miracles. Here is a sample of the NACO procedure charts for the Kennedy One departure in case anyone wanted to know more about it. ***Disclaimer*** Charts change frequently. The ones below are an example only and are not intended for navigational use.

One hour later, we were descending in to the terminal area for DCA. Potomac approach gave us vectors for the ILS runway 01. It was a beautiful night. We broke through the cloud layer at 5,000 feet and had a beautiful view coming in. I let the autopilot take us down to 1,000 feet and then clicked it off and hand flew the final segment of the approach. I actually greased my first CRJ landing and it felt damn good, too. At 70 knots, I transferred the controls back to the captain and he taxied to the gate as I did shut down the number 1 engine, started the APU and ran the after landing checklist.

We ran in to another crew from our airline waiting for the shuttle to the Crowne Plaza. When it arrived, the driver kept trying to take us to the Holiday Inn. It took 2 phone calls and some flared tempers to convince him that we were indeed assigned to the Crowne Plaza. Duh.

The captain, flight attendant and I decided to walk a few blocks to Old Alexandria for dinner. We ended up at Bertucci's Brick Oven Pizzeria. It was ok. None of us had pizza, which was probably the first mistake.

My first day in the real world and my poor wife is at home with the stomach flu. I really wish I could be there right now to take care of her. I know she's miserable :(

Day one was good. Everyone at JFK was friendly and outgoing, the flight went well and I never felt like the plane was ahead of me. Tomorrow is a meat and potatoes day. Washington DC to Boston, Boston to Louisville then from Louisville back to Boston for an overnight. Time for bed, the anxiety and stress of today really wore me out.

2007-11-09T18:05:00.000-05:00

Today was the first day in the aircraft. I sat in the cockpit jump seat and observed four legs. Cincinnati-Chicago-Cincinnati & Cincinnati-Milwaukee-Cincinnati.

This was the approach in to 25L at Milwaukee. There was quite a bit of turbulence during the approach, so the video is a little shaky.

Tomorrow morning, it's time to deadhead to JFK for my first flight as a First Officer. JFK-DCA. The weather looks like it will be pretty good in the afternoon. I hope to get the River Visual approach in to Reagan National. That would be a memorable ending to my first leg, huh?

As much fun as all of this is, I really miss my family.

Go Time - Big Time

2007-11-07T00:49:00.000-05:00

Well here I sit at Sky Harbor waiting for my a flight. Wednesday will be a day to regroup with some friends in Cincinnati. Thursday is Initial Operating Experience (IOE) class. It is conducted at my airline's flight ops and lasts just one day. I'm sure it will be a refresher on how to read schedules, how to check in, a little flight and duty and whatever else is necessary for the newbie first officer.

Friday is my first day on the line. Nope, I won't be flying. We are all assigned one day of observation flights. I will be sitting in the comfy CRJ jump seat for four legs. Cincinnati (CVG) to Chicago O'Hare (ORD) and back, then CVG to Milwaukee (MKE) and back. The purpose of the observation legs are to become familiarized with the real world vs. the simulated world. CVG-ORD should be a pretty good start. Some guys are doing Appleton, WI and Des Moines, IA. I am thankful to be heading to O'Hare for my very first flight in the cockpit.

I'll spend one last night in Cincinnati on Friday before heading to JFK on Saturday for my FIRST ACTUAL LEG! Just like my observation flight to O'Hare, my first actual flight as a First Officer will be baptism by fire. My first leg is JFK to Washington, D.C. Reagan National (DCA). That's a pretty tall order for my first leg and I am 100% ready for it. Again, some of my other classmates first legs are to Birmingham, Lexington and Grand Rapids. I'm sure those will be exciting too, but JFK-DCA is just over the top exciting. WOW. Flying from one of the most notoriously busy airports to one of the most restricted in the world should really keep me on my toes.

I feel kind of like someone that decided to take up jogging by running the Boston Marathon. Speaking of Boston, after an overnight in D.C., I'll be spending two nights in Boston. My mouth is already watering for some crab cakes and clam chowder. Yum. The remainder of the flying on my first trip will have me on several out and backs from Boston with one trip to Louisville, KY (SDF) and many to Philadelphia, PA (PHL) before the last leg to JFK on Tuesday. Hopefully, I'll get in early enough to make it home Tuesday night.

This has been a long time coming and the excitement is really starting to build. I'll try and post some photos on the next post.

The Lowdown

2007-11-06T02:04:00.001-05:00

First of all, thank you to everyone for the positive comments and emails. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! It made a difference.

Wow! 19 months, 2 days from the first day of flight school to an airline check ride. It feels very surreal. It's had to believe that 2 years ago I was just beginning the quest to become an airline pilot and would have never expected for it to happen so soon.

Well I'm back in Arizona enjoying my family. The kids are sick, but it's nice to be home. It feels good knowing I don't have to leave until Wednesday afternoon. Ahhhh.

So...about the check ride. I guess it's about time to talk about it.

In summary, it was AWFUL. Yes I passed, but the one word that truly describes the experience is AWFUL.

The examiner was fair and that's all that should have been expected. However, he has a military background which seemed to play the lead role during the oral and check ride.

I arrived at the training center twenty minutes early to relax, collect my thoughts and prepare. We ran into each other in the men's room, exchanges pleasantries and I headed to the break room to relax. He came in right behind me and said, "Ok, let's get this party started." Crap. I wasn't ready, but felt like I had no choice.

Every previous check ride has begun with a little ice breaker. Hi. How are you? Where are you from? What is your background? Let me tell you a little bit about myself. Here's what to expect from this event. Well...zip...zero...zilch. He asked for my license, medical, FCC and paperwork. I said, "Well I'm excited about being here today. It's been a long journey to finally get to this moment. I've been looking forward to it." With an absolute straight face, zero sarcasm intended, he said, "Flattery isn't going to get you anywhere with me." Umm...ok. My statement wasn't intended to flatter him, but whatever. That was the tone for the oral.

The oral started with a performance problem. He wrote down some weather data and then told me he wanted the performance for a specific airport and runway. He said he'd be back in five minutes and left. When he came back, we went over the data and he started quizzing me on all aspects of performance. We then went in to the systems of the aircraft including flight controls, engines, APU, fuel system, electrical system and environmental control system. While discussing each one, he would ask for emergency memory items for certain events, specific limitations and procedures.

In past experiences, if I didn't understand the question or the concept from the examiner, he/she would redirect to find out if I needed to look at it a different way or just didn't understand. Not this time. He would just ask the question over and over until I figured out what he wanted to hear. There was little room for error.

Usually, an oral exam has a natural flow and it is pretty easy to determine when it is coming to an end. This time, there was no segue. His final question was about fuel system shut off valves and how they can be closed. When I answered it, he simply said, "That concludes your oral. Here's your dispatch release. Look it over and I'll see you in the sim in 10 minutes."

I met the captain who was assigned to fly with me. We exchanged pleasantries and he assured me that he would do everything in his power to make the LOE go smoothly. He would take the first leg (ATL to CLT) and I would fly back.

We had one item on the Minimum Equipment List (MEL). It was a deferred right pack. A pack is an air conditioning unit. The aircraft has two packs. During single pack operations, the CRJ-200 is limited to operations below FL250. There is also a different method to transfer the 10th stage bleeds.

The flight out was uneventful. From push-back and engine start to taxi, takeoff and arrival in Charlotte, everything went smoothly. He programmed an over temp caution message for Hydraulic system 3B. We ran the QRH procedures and continued on to CLT and landed fine. He told us to take a 10 minute break and be ready with the same passenger & cargo load for the return leg. That made it easier to do the load manifest.

He didn't give me any starter malfunctions and the taxi and takeoff were without incident. The pack deferral and hydraulic caution were cleared and operation was normal. He gave us a 200 knot tailwind, which is common on check rides to save time and money. Once approaching Atlanta, he started throwing a bunch of stuff at us, including a nearly impossible crossing and speed restriction. He was intentionally throwing as much as he could at me to see if I would get flustered and do something stupid. While I did feel the pressure, it didn't affect my decision making skills. I decided to go missed and slow things down a bit. I think that's what was expected. We came around for a second ILS approach and landed without any problems. He gave me a nice crosswind and I touched down on center line.

After the flight ended we went out to the lobby where he informed me that I had passed. The check ride was worse than it sounded. To include every horrible detail would take 10 pages. Like I said, he was fair and that's all that should be expected.

He did say that he threw a bunch of stuff at me in ATL because that is what it is really like there every day. He wanted the LOE to be as real as he could make it.

I thanked him for his time and told him that I walked away having learned a few things. He sounded offended by that and replied with, "Don't ever tell an examiner that they taught you something. My job isn't to teach you anything. It's to see if you can fly worth a damn and if I feel comfortable putting you in a $25 million aircraft with passengers." I replied by thanking him again and said, "I didn't really say that YOU taught me anything. I said that I came away from this experience having learned a few things. I have always learned new things on a check ride." That doesn't mean the examiner is teaching, it just means that learning has occurred.

I have also been told by many examiners that their goal is to evaluate me successfully and teach a thing or two. Oh well, either way it doesn't matter. What matters is that I passed.

I called my instructor afterwards. He really is a good guy. He confessed that when I asked him about my examiner before the check ride, that he was afraid to tell me about him. He didn't want to make me more nervous than I normally would be (A LOT). He said that the guy is very fair, but has a bit of a reputation as a difficult examiner. He was probably right about not telling me about the examiner. I would have been a bigger wreck and probably would have busted the check ride somehow.

It's over. Almost time to start flying on the line.

Enough about me already. Blogging is fun, but kind of a self-centered past time. Once in a while, after going back to read an old post, I wonder why other people read it. I am constantly amazed by the number of visitors to this blog as well as the countries where visitors reside. Maybe one day I'll have enough time to create and post a map of visitors.

I just checked my schedule and it's there! More about that tomorrow. Time for bed.

The Results Are In

2007-11-02T21:08:00.000-04:00

PASS

More soon. Time to relax for a few days and see my family.

10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 ...

2007-11-01T17:41:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow is the big day. My first 121 check ride. 4-6 p.m. oral, 6-10 p.m. flight.

Yes. I am nervous. Am I prepared? Everyone says yes. I feel no. That is normal, right? I will be flying with a qualified line captain, which is a definite plus.

If all goes well, it will finally be time to go home and see the family. It's been a very long time and I really miss my wife and kids. I get 5 days off before the beginning of IOE and plan on getting the most out of it.

Please pray for me, send positive vibes or whatever.

I'll try and post the results tomorrow night.

What a Week

2007-10-28T15:37:00.000-04:00

All I can say is that last week was one heck of a week. Four sim sessions, a trip to Washington, D.C. and the dreaded maneuvers validation. Where do I start? Work first, play second.

We had 16 hours to complete the four sim sessions over a four day period. The approaches we had to complete were: Cat. I ILS, Cat II ILS, Single Engine Cat I ILS, GPS, VOR, back course, localizer, PAR & PRM ILS approaches. All of the approaches were flown coupled to the autopilot and hand flown.

The only type of approach that might not be familiar is the Constant Angle Non-Precision Approach (CANPA), which are utilized by my airline. Once the procedure is down, it's actually easier than a standard non-precision approach with multiple step downs. To do a CANPA approach, the briefing includes a Derived Decision Altitude (DDA). DDA is the MDA plus 50 feet. Most non-precision approach plates have a glide slope pre-determined. We then use the descent rate based on the ground speed.Once we reach the final approach fix, we start our descent to the DDA at the pre-determined vertical speed and monitor the descent to ensure crossing at or above any intermediate step downs. If there is no visibility at the DDA, we begin a climb to the missed approach point and then fly the missed approach. The reason we use DDA is to ensure that the MDA is not violated during the descent. Well anyway...that's CANPA. I think everyone else is probably familiar with the other approach types.

Other activities in the sim were Rejected Take Offs (RTO), engine failures at critical phase of takeoff (V1 cuts), missed approaches, engine failures while executing a missed approach, ground proximity warning and escape maneuver, TCAS resolution, wind shear escape and wake turbulence.

On Thursday, my instructor signed off on my partner and I for the maneuvers validation on Friday morning. After a good night's sleep, it was time. My partner flew the first half and, other than a sloppy V1 cut that he performed again satisfactorily, passed his MV. Next it was my turn.

We started out with a 600 RVR takeoff with a 10 knot crosswind. That was followed by a regular autopilot coupled ILS to minimums and a full stop landing.

The check airman re-positioned the aircraft for another low-vis takeoff. This time, he gave me a right engine roll-back at 120 knots (V1 was 130). We carried out the reject procedure and taxied off the runway. He then repositioned us for another low-vis takeoff. This time there was a 10 knot crosswind and a right engine fire occurred at V1. When I rotated the aircraft, I took out the crosswind correction too early and went 15 degrees off of the runway heading. I corrected the heading and went on to complete the memory items and QRH procedures for the event.

He then vectored us back to the airport for a single engine autopilot coupled ILS to a full stop landing. Next, he repositioned us in the downwind with a failed engine and had me hand-fly the same approach to another landing.

After landing, he gave us the engine back and we did a low vis takeoff and departure procedure. We were then vectored for another ILS. After setting up for the approach, we were notified that the glide slope was inop and would have to do an ILS, localizer only approach. We set up and briefed the CANPA approach. At the DDA, the pilot non-flying called "go visual". I called "landing". On short final, a 767 crossed the hold short line and I called "go missed, set thrust, flaps 8". At the lowest energy segment, the right engine failed. I stabilized the aircraft and we flew the missed approach perfectly.

The last maneuver was a no-flap landing. After doing all of the required procedures, we set up for an ILS to minimums with no flaps. He told me to fly the approach coupled. Nice. A no flap landing isn't too difficult. You basically do the approach at Vref for flaps 45, plus 30 knots. At 47,000 lbs., that comes out to 171 knots. The only caveat is that the limitation for tire speed, which is 182 knots. Also, the aircraft attitude is about 2.5 degrees nose up vs. 2.5 nose down with flaps at 45 degrees. The approach was perfect. I touched down at 400 fpm on the VSI and airspeed was just right.

The check airman said that everything went well, but he wanted to see me do one more V1 cut. For whatever reason, I started to panic a little and that was the beginning of my downfall. The next V1 cut was sloppy and I got a "bank angle" aural. He said I had one more chance to do it right. I asked for a minute to compose myself. When it was time for the last attempt, I was so tense that I rotated too hard, when the EFIS display went out (happens on right engine failures when generator switching occurs - lasts about 2-3 seconds) I released rudder pressure and that cause the aircraft to veer too far off course. The MV was over and the result was UNSAT. CRAP!

I knew I could perform V1 cuts. My mind was my own worst enemy. I had failed myself by becoming nervous and uptight. The check airman said that it was gut wrenching for him to have to UNSAT my MV. He said that every other aspect of it was perfect and to not be ashamed. It was only an internal checking event and I was eligible for re-training and a re-check.

After feeling sorry for myself for a day, I spoke to scheduling and found that the re-training and re-check was scheduled for Sunday (today). The scheduler said that the check airman recommended that only V1 cuts be redone. Most of the time, the entire check ride must be re-flown.

I came in this morning and did 90 minutes of V1 cuts. We did mostly worst case scenario cuts, which is strong left crosswind with right engine failure. After that I was ready for the re-check. The check airman had me do two V1 cuts. Both of them were perfect and that FINALLY concluded my MV. I still have a job!

Next up: The oral exam and Line Oriented Evaluation (LOE). It is scheduled for Friday at 4 p.m. After successful completion of the LOE, I will be released for Initial Operating Experience (IOE) on the line! One more week and it will finally be time to fly.

---

I had all day Monday off. I had been working and studying for 10 days and needed a break. I check flight availability and found plenty in and outbound to Washington D.C. Reagan National. Why not spend the day at The Mall? I flew out at 8:30 and we arrived in D.C. at 9:50. It was clear, blue and a million and we came in on the river visual. That is where the aircraft follows the Potomac River with The Mall on one side and the Pentagon on the other side. Clear days like that are rare and it was beautiful. The high was forecast to be 80. Perfect.

I jumped on the Metro ($1.50 each way on the Blue line to the Smithsonian station) and headed to the National Air & Space Museum. Although much of it was under renovation, it is always moving to see some of the history there. I always enjoy seeing the Spirit of St. Louis and had never seen the actual Wright Flyer.

After the Air & Space Museum, I was getting hungry. Eating in Washington D.C. can be very expensive. Here's a well kept secret. It's the key to eating well and cheap in D.C. The Department of Agriculture has an excellent cafeteria that is open to the public until 2 p.m. It is located at the Wing 3 entrance, 12th & C Streets, SW in the South Building. You must sign in and present a photo ID. I had a grilled panini salad and a soft drink for $6. That's a little better than an $8 hot dog, huh?

After lunch, I walked across the street to the National Holocaust Memorial Museum. It is a very difficult museum to experience and everyone should go at least one time. Human nature is a very scary thing. If you're on the West Coast, I recommend the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. One visit to either of these museums will change your life forever. I wish Mr. Mahmoud Ahmandinejad would've paid a visit to one of them instead of Columbia U.

I headed out back towards the mall. Last time I was at the Mall, the Washington Monument was still being refurbished. What a beautiful sight. I tried to take a few photos of aircraft approaching Reagan on the river visual, but only had my point and shoot. The DSLR would have come in handy.

I headed to the National WWII Memorial to reflect about the service of my grandfathers. I never miss the WWII Memorial.

I headed back to the Smithsonian Metro station and returned to National for a 5:30 flight back to CVG. There were 90 seats available and it was nice to have my own row on the trip back. I was back at the apartment by 7:15.

All in all, it was a great day. How many people can wake up in the morning, decide to go to D.C. that same day and only spend $14? Not many. I am fortunate.

Here's a few photos from D.C.

The Spirit of St. Louis

The original Wright Flyer

737 on The River Visual Approach to 19 at DCA

My mother's father was aboard the carrier Lexington in the Battle of The Coral Sea. He was rescued after the Lexington was sunk by the Japanese.

Sims Week One

2007-10-19T21:42:00.000-04:00

Life seems a little twisted when you're away from home for so long. It has now been eight weeks and the end is finally in sight. The sim is the final phase of training before going on line for IOE.

It's easy to complain about the length of my company's training program, but it really is excellent. Many regional airlines outsource their training. The average length of service for instructors is over seven years.

Our first four sim sessions consisted of practicing cockpit flows, checklists and profiles and procedures. It was all of the basics of flying the aircraft from the beginning to end of a flight. We flew many departure procedures, arrivals and a lot of the things you'd normally do during flight including flight level changes, vectors, flight plan changes, climbs and descents with altitude and speed crossing restrictions, abnormal procedures and a significant amount of ILS approaches.

Our instructor also threw a few things at us including unexpected wake turbulence encounters, thunder storms, turbulence and wind shear.

The procedures validation was pretty straightforward. We started with a cold, dark airplane. Then had to pick up a clearance, push back, start the engines and taxi. He gave me a slow hot start. That's where the inter-turbine temperature (ITT) goes too high after fuel is introduced. The procedure is to put the thrust lever to shut-off, turn off the ignition and dry motor (leave starter running) the engine until the ITT is below 120C or until the starter has been running for 60 seconds. Next, you run the QRH procedure, then call maintenance.

During taxi, runway visual range (RVR) dropped to 600 feet. With visibility below 1200 RVR, a takeoff alternate is required. Also in order to take off with 600 RVR, center line lights and runway center line markings are must be adequately visible. For a low visibility takeoff, the brakes must be held until thrust is at 70%.

We took off from CVG on runway 18L and did the Bluegrass 8 departure. After a series of vectors and altitude changes, we were cleared to our final altitude. Once at cruise, the instructor gave me a pack low press caution. After that, he gave me a GEN 2 FAIL caution. We handled both of the procedures and were then vectored back to CVG for an ILS. Visibility was lower than reported and we ended up going around and flying the published missed. We were then vectored around for another ILS to minimums and landed.

That was the end of my portion of the procedures validation. After a ten minute break, it was my partner's turn to do the same thing and his went well too. We both passed and are ready to move on.

The next step is the maneuvers stage which is four sims sessions followed by the maneuvers validation. The MV conducted by a check airman and is a pass/fail checking event. We will be expected to perform rejected takeoffs, V1 cuts, single engine approaches and missed approaches and other tasks that are determined by the check airman. From what I've heard, the MV is a bigger deal than the actual check ride, which is called a line-oriented event (LOE). The LOE is the final event and is basically a typical flight between a city pair.

If anyone has any questions about airline training that haven't been answered here, feel free to ask. I'll do the best to answer them based on what I've experienced over the past few months.

--

After finishing the PV, I hopped a flight home to see my wife and kids. It was another quick trip, but worth it. I actually had to fly through Los Angeles to get home. An extra two hours of flying got me home 5 hours earlier. The worst part of the trip was getting a middle seat from CVG to LAX. The guy in the aisle seat was over 300 lbs and made me look anorexic. Needless to say, it was kind of uncomfortable. On the way back today, I was luck enough to get an aisle seat in the emergency exit row. Ahh...legroom.

Rounding 3rd

2007-10-12T21:54:00.000-04:00

Part One: Launch - 2 weeks

Parth Two: Basic Indoc - 2 weeks

Part Two: Systems & Integration - 4 weeks

Part Three: Sims - 3 weeks beginning on Monday at 4 a.m. The sim training is the last part of training before hitting the line for Initial Operating Experience (IOE). The three week process involves training sessions each followed by a check. The first check is the procedures validation which falls at the end of week one. The second check is the maneuvers validation at the end of week two. The third and final check is the Line Oriented Evaluation (LOE) or simply The Check Ride.

The LOE is usually done with a current and qualified line captain. It consists of a round trip flight between a city pair. The FO performs one leg as the pilot flying and the other as pilot monitoring. It is conducted just like a regular revenue flight, with a dispatch release, manifest and weight & balance. There are usually some abnormal procedures and emergencies thrown in for good measure.

The three part training is structured under the airlines Advanced Qualification Program (AQP). AQP's are approved by the FAA for Part 121 & 135 operators. An AQP basically allows the airline to break up the traditional check ride in to 3 phases. Instead of a day filled with a 3 hour oral exam and 3+ hour check ride, it is broken up over three separate events.

The check ride is three weeks from today. Ground school is officially over. Time flies when training in the simulator and then it will finally be time for the real thing. The culmination of a lot of time and effort. Will it be worth it?

Leviathan of the Sky

2007-10-04T20:51:00.000-04:00

The A380 landing on CVG Runway 18L. There are
20 wheels on the 4 main landing gear trucks!

CVG is a pretty busy airport. Around 65% of the air traffic is comprised of regional jets including Bombardier CRJ-200/700/900 and Embraer ERJ135/145 and 170 series. None of them carry over 90 passengers.

Yesterday was a pretty big day for CVG. The Airbus A380 stopped by for a promotional visit for all of the employees of the GE engine plant in Cincinnati. The A380's GP7000 engines are manufactured by Engine Alliance, joint venture of Pratt & Whitney & GE Aircraft Engines, headquartered in Cincinnati. The other engine choice for the A380 is manufactured by Rolls Royce/Trent.

After doing a low altitude fly over of the GE plant, the behemoth headed south for CVG in Northern Kentucky. It landed on runway 18L and taxied to the Airborne cargo ramp on the south end of the airport. It spent the day there giving GE employees the opportunity to see it up close and personal.

It was a big deal to see the A-380 here. CVG will never see service from an aircraft that size. Delta 767's are the biggest planes you'll see here.

It's going to be interesting taxiing behind one of these monsters. I bet full t/o thrust could turn a CRJ upside down.

Here are some more photos:

You could drive that Ford F-150 underneath the outboard engine.

When I look at the main wheels, I can't fathom the heat those brakes must generate.

The size of the wings is what impresses me most. They are HUGE.

Photos 1, 3 & 4 courtesy Michael Davis, Nashville Aviation Photographers. See all of his A380 photos here
Photo 2 courtesy of flycvg.

So Let It Be Written, So Let It Be Done

2007-10-02T22:18:00.000-04:00

Monday was the Limitations and Memory Items Exam. It was the final written exam, the one that everyone dreads due to a 100% score requirement. Apparently, people do better under the pressure of having their job at risk. Everyone passed.

We have one more CRM class this week, then airport indoc and systems integration intro. Next week is systems integration where we take everything we've learned from company ops specs to aircraft systems and put them all together for the FINAL phase of training: Sims.

Sims start 10/15 and run through 11/1. The check ride is scheduled for 11/2. Hopefully the next 4 weeks will fly by. I'm ready to be done with initial training.

I've finally reached the training saturation point and am officially sick of all things CRJ related. Being away from home is something I'll have to get used to until I can locate to a base that is suitable for family. However, there will still be breaks in between where I can see them. 10 weeks is a very long time and I just miss my wife and kids. Nobody forced me to be here and there aren't any regrets. It's just hard.

Tomorrow is my wife's birthday. Our anniversary was last month and my daughter and youngest son have October birthdays that I'll be missing. We've all discussed special occasions and how they can be celebrated when everyone is together. A day is just a day. A special occasion is any time we can be together as a family. I thank God every day for my wife and children.

My attitude isn't as bad as it sounds right now. It's just one of those bumps. Maintain positive mental attitude.

Hangar Night

2007-09-29T17:00:00.000-04:00

Last night was hangar night. Basically, the class goes out to the maintenance ramp where an aircraft has been set aside for our use. Over the course of three hours we: did a pre-flight walk around inspection, inspected the avionics bay and aft equipment bay.

After all of the exterior activities were complete, it was time to open up the main cabin door and climb aboard. My sim partner and I were the first aboard and that meant we were tasked with doing the flight compartment safety check and firing up the APU. I've done it over 50 times in the simulator, but doing it for the first time in the actual aircraft was a little unnerving. If you do it wrong in the sim, the instructor has you do it again. If you do it wrong in the aircraft, it just might destroy a one million dollar APU.

It's amazing how accurate simulators are. When the battery master is flipped in the plane, it sounded just the way I expected it to. I love seeing the displays light up like Times Square. After doing the safety check and the APU start flow, it was time to press the APU START switch light. I love the way an APU sounds when it's firing up and it was especially gratifying to hear it from the cockpit for the very first time. This may sound corny, but I will never forget it.

The rest of the evening was spent practicing opening the emergency exits, learning the locations of all of the emergency equipment, opening and closing the main cabin door and galley service door, the crew escape hatch in the cockpit plus a few other things. It was a fun night.

In the cockpit getting ready to start the APU

Just after APU start...getting ready to turn on the AC Packs.

Teamwork

2007-09-26T16:56:00.000-04:00

Today was the systems test. It was 100 questions about every system in the CRJ-200. I scored 97, but should have scored 100. Some day I'll learn to RTFQ/RTFA. Am I happy with a 97? Absolutely. 80 was passing. However, blowing questions strictly due to attention deficit is a bummer.

The time spent here in training is like living on a different planet. The only people that I have anything in common with right now are the other 13 members of my class. Our class of 14 is pretty tight-knit and a wonderful group of people from all walks of life. Our ages range from 22-42, with 13 men and one woman. Backgrounds range from fresh Embry Riddle grads to former engineers and a flight attendant. Everyone in the class performed well with no one scoring less than 95. That is a testament to teamwork. My room mate and I have had as many as 10 people at the apartment on nights and weekends, each contributing their particular strengths. By the time we wrapped up studying last night, not one person felt uncomfortable with any CRJ system.

After each hurdle is cleared, there is only a moment to breathe a sigh of relief. Now that systems is over, it's time for CRM, flight planning and performance. The next big exam is Monday, covering aircraft limitations and memory items. Passing score: 100%. No pressure there. Now does it make sense why I'm bummed about a 97?

The most difficult thing about training is being 2,000 miles away from my wife and children. I miss them so much and the 3 hour time difference makes communication difficult. In addition, being so wrapped up in myself and training means that I have no other contact with the outside world. Finding things to talk about is like pulling teeth. My head has been crammed full of new information with more on the way. The only recent news stories I can recall are the death of Luciano Pavarotti and disappearance of aviator Steve Fossett. Now if you want to talk with me about hydraulics, game on.

All I can say is my wife is the most wonderful, understanding person for putting up with all of this. Aviation is definitely a selfish business.

I saw something funny not too long ago:

"The average pilot, despite the somewhat swaggering exterior, is very much capable of such feelings as love, affection, intimacy and caring...These feelings just don't involve anyone else."

I'm ashamed to admit that I'm starting to see myself that way right now. The check ride has been scheduled for November 2nd. God bless my family for the willingness to stick it out.

Training Week 4: Family Orientation and Systems

2007-09-23T13:26:00.000-04:00

First thing Monday was the final exam for indoc. Everyone in the class passed and the instructor said that she can't remember a time when everyone scored over 90. At noon, it was time for family orientation. The airline flew class members' families out for the day to meet management, enjoy a nice catered lunch and hear about life as an airline pilot. Afterwards, they were given a tour all of the company facilities and the simulators. It was a pretty nice thing to do. Monday was a good day.

Tuesday was the first day of systems class. It felt good to be re-immersed in to CRJ systems. As much as I thought had been forgotten started to come back out of long term memory storage. That is a very good thing as the CRJ is a complicated aircraft. I remember how difficult it was the first time around and am glad to have a leg up.

In the first four days we covered EICAS (Engine Information and Crew Alerting System), AC/DC electrical system, APU (Auxiliary Power Unit), Fuel System, Powerplant, Environmental Control System, Ice & Rain Protection, Fire Protection, Hydraulics, Landing Gear, Flight Controls, EFIS (Electronic Flight Instrument System), Oxygen & Emergency Equipment and Lighting. That's enough for four days, right?

Monday & Tuesday we'll be finishing up on systems with Navigation, Communications, EGPWS (Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System 0r E Jip Whiz for short), Water & Waste, Aircraft Doors & AFCS (Automatic Flight Control System). Wednesday is the comprehensive systems test which is about 100 questions covering all systems. Multiple choice, true/false and my favorite...fill in the guess. Oh well, it's just another hurdle in a seemingly never ending race.

Thursday is the first of four CRM (Crew Resource Management) classes and Friday night is hangar night. We'll be spending about 8 hours in a CRJ learning about and performing tasks like pre-flight and emergency procedures.

Since I'm in severe study mode, if anyone has questions about the systems of the CRJ-200, I'll try to answer them for you. It will definitely be good study matter for me. Keep in mind, this is from a pilot's level of knowledge - not an A&P. I can't and won't build the system for you.

For anyone interested in learning a little more about the CRJ-200, here are some images of cockpit panels and descriptions of what each switch, switch light, button and dial does. Enjoy.

Above are the left and center overhead panels.

Above is the right overhead panel along with lighting, oxygen and mag compass
Above is the glare shield, minus the AFCS, and the captain's side panel. The triangular black handle is called the tiller. It is used to steer the aircraft on the ground, up to 70 degrees.

The above panels are from the lower pedestal. There are several detail panels missing including the throttle quadrant, main radio tuning units, audio panels and FMS.

Training Update - Week 3

2007-09-15T22:29:00.000-04:00

Another week has passed bringing my classmates and I a little closer to livin' the dream.

For the most part, indoc class is over. On Monday morning we have the final exam. The indoc exam will cover: company policies and procedures, flight and duty regs, takeoff minimums, departure and destination alternates including company specific ops specs, ops specs that allow Cat II precision approaches down to 1,200 RVR (runway visual range), flight planning and dispatch requirements, MEL (minimum equipment list) & CDL (configuration deviation list) and more.

It sounds like a lot, but shouldn't be too difficult. 80 or better is passing unlike the upcoming limitations and memory items test, which require 100% and there are NO retakes.

After the test is family orientation. It's a pretty nice thing. The company provides air transportation for spouses and other family members to come to Cincinnati for a tour of headquarters, the training center and the simulator facilities. My wife is coming out tomorrow morning and will be here for 2 days! I'm really excited about seeing her and wish the kids could come too. Being away from them for so long is really hard.

After orientation day, it will be time for the meat and potatoes of training: systems class
Systems covers everything from nose to tail on the CRJ200. It will be mostly a refresher, with a few company specific differences in operation and limitations. I'm looking forward to it.

Happy flying.

The Best Museum EVER

2007-09-08T22:05:00.001-04:00

My roommate Brad and I decided to take a short road trip today to the National Museum of the US Air Force at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH. This museum is a must see. And best of all, admission is free!

The museum's collection contains hundreds of aircraft that date from the dawn of aviation to the F-22. One of the most special areas is The Presidential Gallery. It contains several aircraft that served US Presidents from FDR to Bill Clinton. Of course, the jewel of the collection is SAM26000...

one of several Boeing VC-137 (707-320B) aircraft that served US Presidents. SAM26000 is most famous for being the aircraft that carried the body of John F. Kennedy from Dallas in November 1963 as Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as the next President. You can still see the marks where the bulkhead was cut to make room for Kennedy's casket in the aft main cabin. The crew refused to let his casket travel in the cargo bay. You can just feel the history in the air walking through through this famous aircraft.

This is a B-58 Hustler. Like all of the aircraft at the museum, it is pristine. I think the B-58 is one of the most wicked looking aircraft ever designed. The thing with orange paint on it is an escape pod. There were 3 on the Hustler, each capable of safely ejecting a crew member at 50,000+ feet at Mach 2. I love this plane.

This is Bockscar, the Boeing B-29 that dropped Fat Man on Nagasaki, Japan on August 9th, 1945. There are also replicas of both Fat Man & Little Boy next to Bockscar.

This is the North American XB-70 Valkyrie. It is massive. It was conceived in the 1950's as a supersonic high altitude bomber capable of Mach 3. It first flew in 1964 and achieved Mach 3 in 1965. Only two were ever built and the other one crashed after a mid-air collision.

The XB-70 is powered by 6 specifically built GE engines with afterburners and 30,000 lbs of thrust each.

The cost of the project was enormous and the Valkyrie project was retired in 1969 and has been at the museum ever since. Photos do not do this aircraft justice. The cockpit sits as high as one of a 747.

Look at the size of those jet pipes! Ever seen a plane with six in a row? Me either.

I took about 100 photos at the museum, but Blogger only allows 5 photos at a time, so check them out and enjoy.

Thirsty? Have A Drink.

2007-09-07T17:44:00.000-04:00

Today was the first day of basic indoc, where we really start to get learned about the airline business. Basic indoc runs through Monday the 17th, topped off by...you guessed it...an exam. Most of today was spent on duty rules and minimum rest requirements. Basically, a pilot is only allowed to fly 8 in 24 hours, 30 in 7 days, 100 per calendar month and 1,000 per calendar year. Of course the FAA has seen to it that there are many caveats. In addition, the ALPA contract confuses things further. It's initially presented as you vs. dispatch. They will try to extend your schedule beyond legal limits, not intentionally of course. As a pilot, you are responsible for not over flying your legal flight hours.

Since everyone in the class passed "Launch", we were now worthy to receive all of the course materials. ALL OF THEM! As you can see, it's not a light load. Everyone received 13 books, plus a large paper CRJ-200 cockpit mock-up (see below). The large blue books are the course training books. The small book is the Ops Specs for my carrier. It details the way the carrier operates and all of the company procedures for day to day operations. The gray books are the Flight Standards Manuals for the CRJ-200. They are like owners manuals for a CRJ. They cover limitations, procedures, weight & balance, performance, maneuvers, MEL & CDL. The green book is the manual for the Collins 4200 FMS (Flight Management System). The red book is the QRH (Quick Reference Handbook) It is used for abnormal and emergency procedures. The remaining books contain the ALPA contract, and general CRJ training info.

Needless to say, the fire hose has been turned on. The amount of books is a little intimidating, but the airline definitely makes sure that new pilots have all of the tools necessary to be successful. Every bit of training is handled in-house and has been since the airline was founded in 1977. It's pretty clear that anyone who washes out will have done so by choice.

The paper tiger. This is the best place to practice cockpit flows and procedures.

First Hurdle Cleared

2007-09-02T10:26:00.001-04:00

This morning (bright and early at 5 a.m.) was our initial sim evaluation. It's pass/fail and marks the end of the Launch Program. My partner has less experience with RJ systems so our instructor spent a good deal of time showing him synoptics pages on the EICAS (Engine Information and Crew Alerting System). The EICAS pages have a great deal of information about the CRJ which is a very video intensive aircraft.

After the systems refresher, it was my turn to fly. I did some low RVR (Runway Visual Range) takeoffs, some hand flown and coupled departure procedures, course intercepts, direct-to intersections and other flight plan amendments. Then the instructor vectored me for some CAT II ILS approaches, both hand flown and coupled with the auto pilot. Since we were ahead of the Launch curve, we had a little extra time to fly a few missed approaches too.

As mentioned earlier, Launch is designed to be an introduction to the CRJ for the uninitiated. There's nothing difficult like V1 cuts, rejected takeoffs, rejected and balked landings or emergencies. Very straight forward with no surprises.

My partner and I both passed launch and can check off the first phase of Part 121 training at our airline. Passing the first milestone feels great.

Picture of the cockpit with flash. The guy in the red shirt is Paul, my current sim partner. Please excuse the mess of papers covering the FMS (Flight Management System). These photos were taken just as we were switching seats.

Here's one without the flash. It's a little more representative of what the CRJ-700 sim looks like when in use.

This is the captain's seat. In a real CRJ, there is a fuse panel directly behind it. In the sim, it is on hinges and rotates out of the way to make a clear view for an observer. The seats are very comfortable and infinitely adjustable. Unfortunately, the flash washes out the view from the cockpit.
Here's another view of the captain's seat without the flash. The level D CRJ sim is an actual cockpit delivered by Bombardier. All of the controls and displays are functional and could be installed in a line aircraft. On the top is the glareshield, which contains master warning, master caution, stall, GPWS (Ground Proximity Warning System) & flight control enunciators, engine and APU fire controls and the FCS (Flight Control System - Autopilot). The screens, from left to right, are: Primary Flight Display (Altitude Heading Reference System), Multi-Function Display (navigation, terrain and traffic data), EICAS 1 (always displays engine info, gear, flaps/slats and fuel data), EICAS 2 displays systems information (status page showing, other pages: Environmental Control Systems, Hydraulics, AC/DC Electrics, Fuel System, Flight Controls, Anti-Ice and Doors). Underneath the papers is the FMS, which controls navigation as well as landing gear, ground proximity and a few other items. Next is the throttle quadrant, which contains the thrust levers, spoilers, flaps/slats, thrust-reversers and ground spoilers. Next are the RTU's (radio tuning units), some engine system controls, EICAS controls, aileron and rudder trim, stabilizer and mach trim, radar, yaw dampers, transponders and standby RTU, display controls, cargo fire system, computer cooling fan controls, observer radio panel, parking brake, manual landing gear handle, and ADG (Air Driven Generator) controls.

The other important panel is the overhead. It houses controls for these systems: electrical, fire detection, lighting, fuel management, 10th & 14th stage bleed air, APU (Auxiliary Power Unit), Engines, hydraulics, pressurization, air-conditioning, and anti-ice.

There are more buttons and levers, but that's enough for today. My fingers hurt.

Now I'm off to CVG for a flight home. 4 whole days off! I can't wait to see my wife and children.

Just For Laughs

2007-09-01T11:55:00.000-04:00

HP, American Express, B of A - the list goes on. Outsourcing call center support to a foreign country. What if Crew Scheduling was outsourced? It might go a little like this. By the way it isn't meant to be xenophobic. It's just for chuckles, courtesy of Airline Pilot Central.

Back In The Saddle

2007-08-31T20:52:00.000-04:00

We jumped in to the sim today and it just felt right. Due to scheduling conflicts, we were assigned the CRJ-700 sim, which isn't what I will be flying initially.

The -700 has some nice features not found on the -200 such as FADEC, leading edge slats, one-touch switchover for 10th stage bleed air, single button ignition, better environmental controls and fire detection/suppression system. In addition, the CRJ-700 weighs about 20,000 pounds more than the -200.

With leading edge slats, the -700 has a slower Vref speed. It's a CAT C aircraft whereas the -200 is CAT D. They also land in completely different ways. After one "learning" landing, I managed to get the technique and grease the rest.

It was really a laid back session with a lot of hand flying, ILS approaches and not much else. No emergencies, no single engine approaches or V1 cuts. Two more sessions like today, with a few more challenges hopefully, and it will be time say goodbye to the sims for a few more weeks. Things are going well, very well.

---

Tomorrow, my wife and I will be celebrating our 17th wedding anniversary...apart. After Sunday's sims, I have 5 days off and will be heading home to see the family. Being away from them is the most difficult part. This first year will be bittersweet. A dream finally realized mixed with the heartache of being absent from family so much. Next month, I will miss my daughter's 9th birthday and my younger son's 5th birthday. We won't talk about Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years right now.

Thankfully, my laptop has a built-in web cam and we get to have video conversations every few days. Isn't technology great?

Training Update

2007-08-30T11:43:00.000-04:00

Well after only 3 days of training, I have an entire day off. Then after 3 more days, I'll get 4 days in a row off. Not a bad start.

Since there have been fewer new hire classes, this one is pretty large at 14. There's a pretty good cross section of people. The youngest is my roommate at 22 and the oldest is 44. Experience ranges from absolute zero to previous military and airline flying. I am surprised that there is only one female, a former flight attendant. Everyone is great and we all seem to get along.

The first day was basically in-processing. B O R I N G was the theme for the day. Company history, HR speaker after HR speaker, acknowledgment of corporate policies, procedures, protocol etc. and company ID badging. At least there were plenty of opportunities for breaks and a nice catered lunch was provided.

The next two days were the introduction to our recently implemented addition to pilot training called "Launch", plus security training in order to receive a CVG SIDA (Secure Identification Display Area)badge. A SIDA badge is required to access secure areas at US airports with air carrier operations. Launch is basically an overview of the the CRJ-200. It consists of 2 days of ground school, followed by 3 days of sims (5 a.m. ouch) that culminate with a basic pass/fail sim evaluation.

I think it is a smart move for the company. For an initial $4,000 company investment in sim time, they have the opportunity to see if you are able to adapt to a jetliner. Since they've started launch, the washout rate for pilots that have passed the launch program has decreased dramatically. Better to invest $4-5,000 in a new hire early than $25,000 later only to find that the pilot isn't ready for prime time.

So today is a chance to relax and study before 3 full days of sims. If all goes well during launch, there will be 4 days off before basic indoc starts. Otherwise, there will be many days off!

Baby, If You Ever Wondered

2007-08-25T00:39:00.000-04:00

Wondered, Whatever became of me...

3 days, 2,150 miles, a respiratory infection, intense thunderstorms and a tornado sighting and still managed to get here in one piece. I pushed a little harder than planned, but thought getting here a day earlier than planned would help with rest and recovery before the big day. I already miss my family.

The first day, I woke up with a tickle in my throat. 900 miles later, it was a full-blown infection, with fever and aches. Nice. I decided to get curbside pickup from Macaroni Grill. When I finally got back to the hotel, got comfortable and sat down to eat, I opened the bag to find nothing but my dinner. No fork, no napkin or anything. I though, "No problem. I'm staying at a 300 room hotel." I called the front desk and asked about a fork and napkin. They said that since the restaurant was closed for renovation, all utensils were in storage. Not one fork? Plastic even? Ugh. I walked to a convenience store nearby. Maybe I could buy a pack of gum and get a fork from the food counter. There were no loose forks, knives or napkins so I ended up having to buy a box of utensils...for $4.00! Don't you love convenience stores? By the time I got back to the room, my Penne Rustica was more like Penne Gluesticka. I took Nyquil liquicaps in hopes of falling quickly asleep. No sleep until 3 a.m.

Thursday I felt better. I got started a little later than planned, but made it to Kansas City, MO. I had planned on staying in Topeka, but it was only another 80 miles to KCI where Marriott offered a nice room on the cheap.

Today, I planned doing Topeka to St. Louis. Since I was already in KCMO, I decided to go to Indy. One thing I remembered about St. Louis is that it is the western terminus for White Castle. That is what I was dying to have. Well...um...it really wasn't as good as I remembered. Maybe I'm spoiled by In-N-Out out west. Oh well, it was sustenance.

After my little White Castle letdown, it was time to stretch the legs and and visit the Gateway Arch. I had always admired it from the interstate, but never up close. The closest parking was 1/4 mile away and it was oppressively HOT. I decided against stopping there, but did stop at the President Casino, not really to gamble, but to see The Admiral, one of the largest riverboats ever built. It has a unique Art Deco meets Buck Rogers appearance.

I've always wanted to see it and was let down to see that it's just a shell with a bunch of slot machines and gaming tables. How sad to see something so magnificent be unceremoniously gutted and treated like a garbage barge.

As I was returning to the car, a massive gust of wind hit. A massive tower crane weather-vaned nearly 180 degrees in what seemed like an instant. I have never seen a crane turn that fast. Less than 30 seconds later, it started raining...no it started POURING. This was the beginning of a long line of storm cells that would follow me all the way to Indianapolis.

Despite HEAVY rain and wind from a line of thunderstorms that seemed to parallel I-70, I made it to Indy by 8 p.m. Cincinnati...er...Erlanger was only 125 miles further and I decided to get there tonight. Now I have 2 full days to get well before class. It was another long day, but worth it.

---

I met a guy the day of the interview that was hired too. We've been chatting back and forth for a few months now, are like minded and it looks like we're going to be room mates. Not knowing who would be my room mate/study partner was one of my bigger worries. Here are a few interesting photos from the trip. Mostly weather related.

This was taken on I-25, in Colorado Springs following a pretty big thunderstorm. That is Cheyenne Mountain in the background. Where's Michael Landon or Della Reese?

This is approaching The Gateway Arch from I-70. The crane on the left is the one I saw weather-vane when the storm hit.

This is the best photo I could get of The Admiral. From the front, it is obscured by the stupid casino entrance. At the bottom is my trusty Passport 8500 X50. It has helped me remain ticket free for 18 years. I watched a young lady get nailed after passing me. Old 8500 had already told me what was goin' down. I tried to warn her, but she was in too big of a hurry to pay attention. I guess that means she deserved it. By the way, Missouri wins hands-down for the most Ka blaring patrol cars. I lost count after 50 between Kansas City and St. Louis.

I just like the angle of this photo
.
It's not obvious from the photo, but this was ripe for a funnel cloud.

Couldn't do 80 here. Visibility was about 150 feet. This was the view on and off for about 250 miles.

---

Next up: A post that is actually about flying, or at learning to fly at least.

The Time Has Come

2007-08-21T01:51:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I was hired by XXXair. Almost 10 weeks has passed and it's finally time leave for training.

XXXair has always been good about accommodations during training. Full pay, plus per-diem, plus single occupancy hotel room. Not bad. Other's have no pay, some have double occupancy. We XXXair just came out with a new option. During training, you now have the choice of single occupancy hotel - OR - double occupancy furnished apartment. At first, the apartment doesn't sound so great. After the thought of the same hotel room for 8 weeks, the apartment comes back to mind. Well after looking at what the apartments offer, I wondered why I even considered the hotel option. The apartments are fully furnished, 2 bed/2 bath, digital cable w/HBO, 32" or larger TV in living room, TV in each bedroom, washer & dryer, weekly maid service, telephone, intercom, gated security and more. Having a room mate in a nice apartment is better than any hotel for that length of time.

Who wants to spend 8 weeks away from home without a car? Instead of flying, I've decided to drive. Yeah, 2,000 miles is a long drive, but it would be pretty inconvenient to be without a car for that long. Since class begins Monday, August 27th, I'm leaving Wednesday. That will allow enough time to get there by Saturday night and have all of Sunday to relax and recharge.

---

Training will be a busy time with little room for much else. Hopefully, I'll be able to update every few days. From what I understand, the new training schedule is something like this:

Day 1-3: Indoc
Day 4-10: Simulator
Day 11: Orientation Day (wife gets to come to CVG and see the facility!)
Day 12-21: Systems
Day 22-32: Simulator
Day 33: Oral Exam/Check Ride
Then: Observation flights & IOE (Initial Operating Experience) are scheduled.

For anyone wondering...The answer is Yes. The first time a first officer actually flies the plane is on a passenger carrying revenue flight. Of course, said FO is with a line check airman that has MANY years of experience. No worries. This is how every airline operates training. From American to Qantas.

Wish me luck.

Frequency Change

2007-08-18T00:46:00.001-04:00

Two weeks ago, I submitted a letter of resignation. Today was my last official day in broadcasting. It has been good to me, but the time to move on has finally come.

I was literally raised around broadcasting. When I was an infant, my parents actually lived at a radio station. My father had a long and distinguished broadcasting career working in major markets as a DJ, then in sales, management and ownership. I followed in his footsteps and stuck it out for 17 years until I realized how much deregulation had changed the industry and broadcasting was no longer fun.

Some of the major changes about to take place are hitting me hard. A new career totally unrelated to previous experience, being away from home and family more often than not at first, an initial pay cut that is hard to swallow and moving from a meritocracy to an industry where performance is expected, but not necessarily rewarded are some of the bricks in the wall which I am headed for at break-neck speed.

I am becoming a number. It is the number that determines where I live, when I work, where I go and ultimately when I become captain. That number begins on day one at the absolute bottom of a very tall ladder. There are only three ways to go up the ladder: 1. Someone falls off 2. Someone jumps off 3. The ladder gets bigger. Here's to hoping that my airline is looking to build a bigger ladder.

If anyone else that has been through this, I'm open to advice on coping with all of the changes. Right now, it's a little suffocating. 9 days until class begins. 5 days until departure.

---

On a lighter note...When said goodbye to my staff yesterday, I said the typical and stupid "You too!" thing when they said good luck with you new career. It reminded me of one of my favorite comedians, Brian Regan. I love they way he makes himself look like a doofus without using profanity. If you're in the mood for a few laughs, listen to his "You too" clip:

If you like this, you can get more clips at this fan site.

Sometimes it's good to know that you're not the only idiot in the world.

Night Flight to IFP

2007-08-03T17:32:00.000-04:00

Last Friday night, Dana and I decided to take our last flight together. With summer monsoon season in full swing, weather in Arizona can be sketchy. We chose 3 destinations: Flagstaff, Tucson and Laughlin/Bullhead City. I reserved a nice little IFR Archer with GPS, DME and slaved HSI. It ain't fast, but it'll get you there safely. What more can you ask for? I know...constant speed prop, turbo, retractable gear, glass cockpit - but who has the money to be picky.

With a planned departure of 8 p.m., we hoped that at least one of our destinations would be free of thunderstorms. At 6 p.m., a check of the radar showed severe thunderstorms in Tucson and all over Northern Arizona. It wasn't looking promising. By 7:30, Flagstaff and Tucson were still looking bad, but we could see rapid dissipation on the route from Falcon Field to Laughlin/Bullhead City (KIFP). The only activity was a line of storms moving South from Las Vegas that weren't a factor.

At 8:00, we were off the ground. I love flying at night, especially after thunderstorms. The atmosphere was perfectly calm and visibility was greater than 45 miles. ATC was in a particularly good mood, too. Our route took us over Scottsdale, Deer Valley, direct Wickenburg, direct Lake Havasu and then up the Colorado River to KIFP.

The moon was full and I regretted not having my camera as we flew over Alamo lake. With our 8,500 foot cruising altitude and visibility so good, you could actually see Lake Havasu City from Alamo Lake.

After turning North to follow the Colorado River, we started seeing increased lightning in the distance. Apparently, the storms in Las Vegas were pretty strong and traveled further south than expected. They usually die out over Boulder City. The storms were still 25-30 miles north, so it wasn't a factor. We did enjoy the light show.

We landed in Bullhead at 9:50, just before the FBO closed. It's under new ownership and is now Encore FBO, Inc. It's the same nice people that worked for Sun Western Flyers. The Flight Service Station called the FBO to see if we had arrived and told them I had 3 minutes to call. Huh? We landed 5 minutes earlier than filed and hadn't even been on the ground more than 10. 10 minutes after arrival time and a phone call? To the FBO and not me? They girl at the FBO said that FSS calls them sometimes, especially when it's around closing time. When I called FSS, they couldn't even find an open plan, so the caller must have closed it when they spoke with the FBO. Weird.

We took the free shuttle across the Colorado River in to Laughlin and had a late dinner at Outback Steakhouse inside The Aquarius Hotel (Formerly Flamingo Hilton). It's strange to eat at a chain restaurant inside a casino, but it was actually very good. I usually refer to Outback Steakhouse as Steakback Outhouse, but this location didn't deserve it.

I kept temptation at bay and passed the gaming tables as we made our way back to the airport for our return trip home. The flight back was totally uneventful, other than a guy working the Phoenix TRACON that couldn't get anyone's call sign or aircraft type right. He was convinced that we were in a Seneca.

Sky Harbor Approach cleared us through the bravo at 5,000 feet or below, descent at our discretion direct to Falcon Field. Ahh...the joy of flying through Class B airspace after midnight. As we headed towards Falcon, Dana lined us up for an approach to Gateway! She hadn't flown to Falcon at night and couldn't see Falcon from a left base. No big deal, I took the controls and got us lined up on final and gave her the controls back for landing. We touched down at 2 a.m. exactly.

Okay, I have one complaint about Falcon Field. The GA ramp is WAY TOO DARK. You can't see anything. Parking at night is a PITA. /RANT OFF

Well, it was a nice trip and probably the last time Dana and I will fly together for some time. She starts at Air Wisconsin Monday, August 6th.

Thanks Captain Nelson - The Ooooooonly Way To Fly

2007-08-02T20:12:00.000-04:00

I was rummaging through some old documents looking for something the other day and ran across my Western Airlines "First Flighter" certificate.

I remember this day. It was the day I decided that I wanted to be a pilot. The big, noisy Western Airlines 727-200 was parked at Terminal 1 at Sky Harbor (gone since 1990, RIP). Captain Ron Nelson invited me to sit in the cockpit and watch them do the pre-flight. He also invited me up for a short time during the flight to LAX. I was hooked. I still have the real metal wings. Captain Nelson probably ended up at Delta and is probably retired by now. I wish he knew how much influence his kindness had on me that day back in 1981. Thanks Captain Nelson.

Western Airlines - The Ooooooooooonly Way To Fly!

Post 172 Is Actually About 162

2007-07-25T15:57:00.001-04:00

This is the Cessna 162 Skycatcher. Yes, I want one. A blue one or red one...maybe not purple.

I'm not one to do commercial posts, and this isn't solicited by Cessna. This is just about pure love for Cessna's new LSA - The Skycatcher.

The Skycatcher is simple and state of the art. It as a 100 horsepower Continental O-200 engine, that burns just over 4 gallons per hour at 77% power/112 KIAS at 6,000 feet. Max speed is 118KIAS at sea level. It has electric trim and MANUAL slottted flaps. YES! Manual flaps on a new Cessna.

Takeoff roll at sea level 770'/1250' over 50' obstacle. Landing distance is 420'/1040' over 50' obstacle.

It holds 24 gallons useable, climbs at 850 FPM at sea level and has a service ceiling of 15,500 feet.

The flight controls consist of a sticks with trim & radio controls and rudder/brake pedals on both sides. The nosewheel is free castering, so steering is done via differential braking. 172/182 pilots are already used to that technique anyway.

A single Garmin G300 display will provide primary flight and engine information in a split screen format. A Garmin SL40 Com radio, Garmin GTX327 Mode C transponder,
and a 121.5 Mhz ELT will be standard equipment. This photo shows an MFD as well. I imagine it will be optional for GPS nav/wx/terrain and other goodies. Gotta love the cup holder on the passenger side, too.

Strange angle for a photo, huh? That's possible because the doors open vertically. It looks a little more comfortable than a 152, don't ya think?

Cessna is accepting orders already for delivery in early 2009. I think this plane is going to bring some affordability back to flight training. Kudos to Cessna. This is a lot of airplane for a pretty low price, especially considering that it comes from Cessna.

2007-07-25T15:48:00.000-04:00

WSUS33 KKCI 251855SIGWCONVECTIVE SIGMET 38WVALID UNTIL 2055ZAZ NVFROM 70N PGS-40SSW INW-50WSW PHX-40ESE LAS-70N PGSAREA TS MOV LTL. TOPS TO FL420.OUTLOOK VALID 252055-260055FROM 30NNE HVR-50NNW GGW-40WSW ELP-50S TUS-30SSE BZA-CZQ-40WREO-50SSE HLN-30NNE HVRWST ISSUANCES EXPD. REFER TO MOST RECENT ACUS01 KWNS FROM STORMPREDICTION CENTER FOR SYNOPSIS AND METEOROLOGICAL DETAILS.

---

I'm in Wickenburg today. Thankfully, on the ground smack dab in the middle of an area of huge thunderstorms with tops to 50,000feet. It has rained over 2 inches in the last hour and shows no sign of letting up. Every time I check the radar, it keeps getting bigger.

Being in desperate need of some flight time, I almost flew up here thisweek. At the last minute, I decided to drive. I beat Murphy this time.

It's good to know that my time working in Wickenburg is nearing a close.I'm really sick of it here and am ready for new scenery. 32 more daysuntil the scenery changes. Tick-tock.

AWAC Paddywhack, Give The Girl A Job

2007-07-19T22:46:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to my friend Dana. She was just hired by Air Wisconsin, one of the premium regional air carriers. Air Wisconsin Airlines Corporation (AWAC) is the largest independently owned regional air carrier, with a fleet of 70 Bombardier CRJ-200 aircraft feeding the US Airways system.

Good Job, Dana!

---

I went to the doctor today and was finally found to be clear of kidney stones. Yes! The test results finally came in and said that the stones were the calcium type. Other tests revealed that I must:

Stop drinking soda. Ouch.
Cut back on sodium.

I don't use a lot of added salt, so hopefully quitting soda will take care of the sodium issue. The doctor says to avoid stones, I should drink a gallon of water, with lemon, per day. OK. I'll do anything to avoid stones again.

The good news is that the coast is clear. Medical is good.

---

It's the half way point from being hired to the commencement of training. Five more weeks and it's back to the hectic pace of intense training. This time though, my career depends on success. No pressure.

Before I know it, I'll be flying in and out of some of the busiest airports in the world. The other day, I logged in to LiveATC.net and listened to approach and departure control as well as tower at JFK, my future home base. It's a pretty cool site that has live ATC for most of the busy Class B airports in the US. Give it a try.

As always, fly safe.

0 to 380 in Seven Minutes

2007-07-03T14:47:00.000-04:00

Whatever your opinion of the Airbus 380, this is a pretty amazing video.

Finally Some Fun

2007-06-30T17:40:00.000-04:00

The last few days, I've actually been able to get to the airport and do some plain old VFR flying. On Thursday, I had to go to Wickenburg to do some work and decided to fly up. My 6 year old had been asking me about flying for weeks and he tagged along.

We headed over to Falcon Field (FFZ), grabbed my favorite little Diamond DA20 Katana and headed out. The trip to Wickenburg was smooth and fast. With the tailwind, our ground speed was 155 knots and it didn't take long to get there.

We wrapped things up in just a few hours and my son informed me that he was hungry. Hmmm...same crappy Wickenburg fast food or something else? We decided to go to Prescott for lunch. They have good greasy food with a nice big window to watch the traffic come and go. Prescott has a pretty busy airport.

The flight from Wickenburg to Prescott was also quick and easy. We did hit some heavy turbulence over the Bradshaws approaching Prescott. As usual, it was WINDY. Winds 280 at 16 gusting to 25. No big deal, the Katana eats crosswinds for breakfast. A little extra speed to compensate for the density altitude and we were on the ground taxiing to transient parking.

After lunch, we headed back to FFZ. Other than some mountain wave turbulence, it was an uneventful flight home.

We witnessed a forest fire that ignited just as we were taking off. When we landed at Falcon, one of the guys that worked at the FBO asked if we saw the fire. He said his house was less than one quarter mile from it. The good news is that no structures were lost and the fire was contained quickly, thanks to USFS aerial tankers that are stationed on call all across Arizona.

---

Yesterday, my friend Kevin called me. He's had his private license since the late 80's. He is a CPA who does our company's books and used to take me flying on occasion. We've been talking about going flying together for about a year now and last night it finally worked out...sort of. He isn't current and asked if I would arrange for a plane. I obliged and made a reservation while I was at Circuit City with my 3 children, who just happened to be very rambunctious last night. I made a reservation for a G1000 172 at 7 a.m.

We met at Angel Air this morning at 7 a.m. to head to points north for cooler temperatures and some $100 pancakes. When I arrived the check out the plane, the dispatcher mispronounced my last name, something that happens about 100 times a week. No big deal. He gave me the keys and we were off. We both decided on Prescott. Cooler temperatures, control tower for busy Saturday morning breakfast traffic and a good restaurant.

We did the West Transition over Sky Harbor and then went GPS direct to Prescott. Nice, smooth and enjoyable flight. I called Prescott tower about 10 miles out and he said to report a 2 mile 45 for the downwind to 21 left. No problem. We descended to traffic pattern altitude (6,000 feet MSL) and then heard "Cessna N20984, you're number two behind an Archer, altitude 8,000 feet. Report the Archer in sight and follow him. Umm, ok. Why the heck is he 2,000 feet above TPA?

Finally we made visual contact and tower reported him at 7,000 feet when he was mid-field downwind. OK. We follow him past the approach numbers, he finally starts descending, but is 1,000 feet too high. Then he keeps flying downwind, nearly 3 miles. Finally, I call tower and ask if the Archer plans on landing today. The tower say's "HE'S LANDING" and the guy finally gets the message and turns base.

Meanwhile, a King Air is approaching from the opposite direction. Tower instructs him to report a 6 mile base. The King Air pilot acknowledges it and just as we're turning base at 3 miles, there's the King Air 1,500 feet away from us turning final. Is it just me, or is it pretty easy to visually tell the difference between 3 and 6 miles when you're 1,000' AGL? I query the tower and they tell the King Air to do a right 270 for spacing. We turn final, airspeed 65 knots just a little above the PAPI. When we're on short, short final we hear the tower call the King Air and tell them they are not cleared to land and are about on top of us. The King Air pilot says "they landed". Um, no we haven't. Tower issues them a go-around. I couldn't believe the pilot wasn't asked to copy a phone number.

When we landed, we parked next to the Archer. It was some scared European kid on his first supervised cross country. I can understand his altitude issue, even though his instructor pilot should have had a little better situational awareness. What I can't understand is the behavior of the King Air pilot. WTH?

All that matters is we landed safely and enjoyed a nice breakfast and a good flight back. Stellar was very busy this morning and the pattern was a little crazy, but that's all in good fun.

Now the funny part.

When we turned the plane back in, we found out there was a scheduling issue. The plane had actually been scheduled for a guy who's last name is very close to mine. When I checked in this morning, the dispatcher said his last name, which sounded like the way my last name is always mispronounced. I corrected him and he dispatched the plane to me.

Right after we departed, the guy who was actually scheduled for the aircraft showed up...for his first solo. No plane. They started panicking and actually thought a terrorist might have gotten the plane. It's amazing how the human mind thinks sometimes. Anyway, they did a little research and figured out what had happened. Our last names are off by just a few letters! I really felt bad for the guy since it was to be his first solo flight. They gave me his phone number and I called him to apologize. He was a good sport about it and realized how everyone involved made an honest mistake. Thanks Darrel.

What Do You Think?

2007-06-28T02:15:00.000-04:00

Here is a video of a guy that used a mini camera on board a CRJ recently at JFK. The flight was delayed for about 4 hours due to severe weather. The flight was finally cancelled when the crew timed out.

I'm curious about opinions on this. There seem to be a lot of negative ones from the general public who have a difficult time understanding why a passenger can't just disembark from an aircraft at will, even if the plane has built-in stairs.

Another interesting tidbit. The guy that shot the video used a new video camera that he is marketing. It just so happens to be going on the market in a week or so. I don't personally care for the manner in which he conducted himself and don't want to provide the name of his company. I think he acted like a child and that the captain showed great restraint in dealing with this guys aggressive tactics. I personally think he was right on the line of violating the law by interfering with and intimidating a flight crew.

Did the guy really think the crew wanted to be sitting there for that amount of time, not being paid block time? Did the captain appear to be enjoying keeping the passengers on board? Was it the captain's fault that they couldn't depart or deplane? Does it seem like self promotion that the guy has appeared on The Today Show?

The Cognitive Test - a.k.a. - You're An Idiot And We Can Prove It

2007-06-27T01:20:00.000-04:00

Things have been a little busy the past week. I took the family to a local resort that has its own water park. It's called the Pointe South Mountain and it's a great retreat from the heat here on The Surface of the Sun. While we were there, temperatures in Phoenix reached 114. (eye roll...but it's a dry heat). My paying job has kept me busy too.

So here's the best I can do with describing the cognitive evaluation.

It's a series of computer based modules that test some basic math, problem solving, visual acuity, hearing, hand-eye coordination, short-intermediate-and long term memory and a few other things. Anyone that takes this test will walk away doubting their ability as a basic functioning human being. In retrospect, now that the pressure is over, it was pretty fun.

It first does a series of math problems. Nothing earth shattering. Time & distance story problems and stuff like that.

Then it showed some symbols that correspond with numbers:

Now, these aren't the correct symbols, it's just an idea of what it's like. A character will flash on the screen for a second or two, and you use the light pen to choose the number that corresponds with it. The next test uses the same characters, but then puts a bunch of them in sequence and gives you an unspecified amount of time to do as many in a row as you can. The exercise ends with the screen going blank and introducing the next exercise.

Next, it shows all of the symbols in random order without any numbers. It asks you to put the corresponding number with the correct symbol...STARTING RIGHT NOW!

One that I can't really re-create is showing a ramp dude with a flag. You have to determine whether the flag is in his left or right hand. However, sometimes he's facing you and sometimes he's facing away from you. Sometimes he's upside down too.

Another one I can't show an example of is the hearing test. It plays a series of tones ranging from 5 or 6 tones to 12 or more. It plays them two at a time and you have to determine if they are the same or different.

The test would give one fairly simple test, then another fairly simple test and then combine them for a real crap storm. In the example below, the combination of tests includes identifying character sequences as same or different while centering a "glide slope-like" line every time it enters the red area, but not before. The line moves up and down rapidly and teases you near the red area.

The colors and direction test was also a fun one. From what I can remember, it showed 4 boxes on the bottom of the screen. Two that were squares with either colors or no colors and two with arrows that were facing right and left that were different colors. There were multiple exercises in this one too. For example, the computer would say "direction" and you would touch the corresponding box. Or it would say "color" or "shading". For the last one you have figure out what the computer was looking for without being prompted, then keep doing it until it "bonked" at you. Then you had to switch to another pattern that it was looking for and continue until the "bonk" and so on. Big fun. After that, I felt like I couldn't reason my way out of a cardboard box.

Next, refer to the symbols from earlier in the test and place the number with the correct corresponding symbol. Crap! I can't remember what I had for breakfast and this test expects me to remember a bunch of random symbols?

The last "fun" exercise was another combination. One exercise was to touch the number that flashed previously on the screen. For example: If 3 flashed on the screen and the next number was 1, when 1 came up you were to touch 3. Pretty easy when it's the sole exercise. Next was a line with two perpendicular lines in the middle and a triangle on top. The triangle moves to the left and right very rapidly, like a rabid rabbit. Your job is to keep it centered by rapidly pressing the right and left arrow keys on the keyboard. You are penalized if the arrow goes off of the line. Again, by itself it's pretty easy.

Last, do both of them at the same time. If you get a number wrong, it "bonks" at you and it makes a "bonk" if the triangle goes to full deflection. Though it lasts only a few minutes, it seems like an eternity. It's much more difficult than it appears, at least for me.

There were a few other exercises, but these were what I found the most significant. I made the drawings on my computer. They are just representations from memory. Please do not rely on them.

It doesn't really matter. There is no way to study for a cognitive test. Get a good nights sleep and don't drink coffee or Red Bull before hand.

I walked away from the test sure that I had failed it, second guessing almost everything I did. The benchmark was set by having 300 line pilots take the test and then set the median. I think most people do well enough to pass this, it's just nerve racking and a little intimidating.

In the words of Forrest Gump, who I feel I have much in common with after taking the cog test, "That's all I got to say 'bout that".

Why I Feel Safe

2007-06-27T00:53:00.000-04:00

From SNL -

ATP Written - Out Of The Way

2007-06-26T01:00:00.000-04:00

The ATP written exam is now out of the way. I took the Part 121 version.

I drew the short stick on tests. Out of 80 questions, there were over 10 of the long-form performance questions like Cg on a 727, several of the time consuming time/speed/distance/fuel burned questions and stuff like that. The guy next to me had 4 total. I focused my studying on the things that apply to me and didn't spend much time on the old DC-9, 727 and 737 performance questions, which lowered my score just below 90. I really wanted to do better than 90, but am still satisfied considering the content of my test.

At least the score remains valid as long as you're employed by a Part 121 carrier and don't expire in 24 months like other tests. I'm glad I'll never have to take it again. There will be plenty of other things to look forward to such as proficiency checks. A pilot's butt is always on the line.

ATP Written Time

2007-06-16T02:46:00.000-04:00

I was instructed to bring the results of the ATP written exam with me to day one of class. Now that's several weeks away but, I don't want to waste any time.

I'm taking the ATP at ATP. Huh? ATP Flight School has a one-day cram study/test taking session that costs a little bit more, but I have yet to run into anyone that has scored lower than 90 from ATP Flight School.

It starts at 8 a.m. They have a special bank of questions that eliminates CFR Part 135 questions. You basically spend 8-10 hours cramming on a computer and then take the test.

I've never scored lower than 90 on a rating exam. Hopefully the trend will continue.

---

When I get time, I want to post about the cognitive test. It was interesting to say the least.

One Year, Two Months, Fourteen Days

2007-06-14T16:15:00.000-04:00

441 Days to be exact since I decided to change my life. To go for the job I've always wanted. Well it happened. Today, I was officially offered a position as a first officer.

If anybody is ever feeling good about themselves, may I suggest taking a cognitive test? It will take you from hero to zero in 1 hour. After completing the test this morning, my self esteem hit a new low. I felt stupid, uncoordinated and a victim of memory loss. The guys taking the test with me said that I was hitting the keyboard so hard that it was shaking the entire cubicle pod. I guess that anxiety and an intense type-a personality really came out. However, the baseline must be low because I passed.

After the cognitive test, we were all given lunch vouchers for the company cafeteria (very nice and great food). After lunch, it was time for the other guys to interview. The pilot recruiter that was handling the group came in and told me in front of everyone that they were offering me a position with the company. It was a little embarrassing, since the others had yet to interview. To make matters worse, they were informed that they wouldn't have an answer for a few days due to timing. Everyone was gracious about it and offered congratulations, but it was still a little embarrassing.

I some ways it seems like it's been such a long journey. In reality, it's been a blink of an eye. It's time to pause and realize how quickly this happened and how fortunate I am to be in this position. Just a few years ago, becoming an airline pilot in one year was pure fiction. There are thousands of people that spend years upon years paying dues to get where I am now.

My goal is to be the very best pilot that I can be while continuing to learn with every flight. A friend told me that a good First Officer 1. Gives the Captain accurate, useful information 2. Enjoys flying with a passion 3. Is always in training to be a Captain.

As it stands, the official class date is August 27th. There's a strong chance of starting earlier. I'll be flying Bombardier CRJ-200, 700 and 900's primarily in the East and Northeast. Training is about 90 days, with the ground and simulator portion lasting about 6 weeks and IOE (Initial Operating Experience) another 4 to 6 weeks. Flying in the Northeast will be great experience. It doesn't get any more difficult than that.

I would like to stay current over the summer and spend as much time with my children as possible. The next year is going to be a busy one and time away from family will be the hardest part.

Fly safely.

The Final Hurdle - For Now

2007-06-13T10:06:00.000-04:00

Well here I sit at Sky Harbor in Phoenix waiting for a space available seat on a flight that is terminally oversold. The airline I'm flying has only two daily flights to Cincinnati. Right now, the flight is oversold by 4, which leaves me here to wave goodbye from the terminal.

Oh well, there are other less convenient ways to get there. No complaining. I chose this and had better get used to traveling non-revenue status. The benefits far outweigh the inconveniences.

Wait, I think there's a chance I may get on board after all. The just announced that they don't need volunteers to give up seats. Maybe there will be one seat for me? Maybe?

---

I've spoken with as many people as possible about the cognitive test and the concensus is that there is no way to be prepared for it other than having a good night's sleep. The goal of the test is to find out if a prospective pilot is capable of multi tasking in the cockpit of an ailiner.

Nerves are tense...relax...just breathe.

Well, Thanks For Coming Out

2007-06-06T19:52:00.000-04:00

We appreciate your interest in XXXair ...

and would like to invite you to our corporate headquarters for the final hiring process!

Seriously, the HR guy that called me gave me the news with a Simon Cowell delivery that went something like this: "Mike, first of all I want to thank you for coming out today. We appreciate the effort you made. That being said, there's really no easy way to tell you this ... ... ... (big dramatic pause) ... ... ... we think you did a great job at the interview and would make a great addition to our team and we'd like to invite you to Northeastern City for the final stage of the hiring process. Congratulations."

I had been doubting my performance all day long and was really dreading the phone call. I honestly thought they were going to pass on me. The Simon Cowell bit actually worked as I sank into the couch only to be followed by total elation.

It's hard to believe how much has happened and the progress that has been made in just a little more than a year. One thing is for sure, without the support of family and friends it would have never happened.

My wife has been the pillar in our home during the last year. Her strength and love has made all of the difference.

So, in the next week or two, I'll be headed to company headquarters for a quick overnight. The final stage involves a cognitive computer assessment, background check etc. If all goes well, I should be starting class on July 30th.

If you want to become an airline pilot, NOW is the time to do it. There hiring conditions out there right now will not last forever and could take decades to repeat. The brass ring is closer than ever.

BTW - This is what my daughter drew for me and left outside of her bedroom last night. She is the sweetest thing in the whole world.

The First Step Is Always The Hardest

2007-05-17T16:38:00.000-04:00

---

I finally got all of my ducks in a row. Resume done, logbook totaled, records & certificates up to date and airline chosen.

Yesterday, I met the head of pilot recruitment for the airline I have chosen. He happened to be in Phoenix and it just worked out. We chatted for a few minutes about my qualifications and where I stand. He asked for my resume. Yes! He said to apply immediately. Yes!

Application sent. Mike, hold southwest of ***air. One minute legs. EFC: when we're ready to get back with you.

I'm just a little bit anxious. It's driving my wife crazy.

Time to start reviewing CRJ performance, limitations and systems. I'm sure that's the aircraft I'll be grilled on during the interview.

Vacation Over. The Hunt Is On.

2007-05-15T23:48:00.000-04:00

Carnival Pride

The family just returned from a relaxing seven day cruise on the Mexican Riviera. Our family vacations are predominantly cruises. They are a great value and a lot of fun.

This trip, we were on the Carnival Pride. We really like this ship. There's plenty for the kids to do and it never felt crowded, even though it was at 100% capacity.

In Puerto Vallarta, we spent the morning with the kids at a water park. After dropping the kids at the ship, my wife and I enjoyed a nice lunch along the Malecon and some shopping. The next day in Mazatlan, we took the kids horseback riding along the beach and coconut groves on Stone Island. My daughter has been taking riding lessons and I was proud of how well she handled her horse.

We couldn't believe that we got all the horses together and kids smiling.

The next day we were in our favorite port, Cabo San Lucas. We've been there four other times, always on a cruise. We keep saying that we'll actually fly there and spend three or four days at one of the beach resorts. Free airfare will be a great incentive.

In Cabo, we rented a Wave Runner and took all the kids out. They really had a blast and enjoyed being close to sea lions in the open ocean.

My daughter had been begging me to try para sailing at every port and I finally caved. It is very easy in Cabo. They take you out to a custom made boat and you launch and recover directly from a platform on the boat. No water. No risky beach landing. Just a nice, smooth flight to a height of about 300 feet.

My middle son with a very serious look on his face.

Daddy and daughter soaring over San Lucas Bay. Where's the yoke?

---

The airline decision has been made. The application process is just a few days away. Sun burned, well rested with some quality family time. Let the stress begin. Wish me luck.

Home Sweet Home

2007-05-03T22:10:00.000-04:00

After being away from home for 31 days, it really feels good to be home. I spent the entire month of April in Denver completing the final phase of my flight training and it really feels good to be home with my wife and kids.

Things at home got a little livelier while I was gone. There was a death in the family and I came home for a day and a half. While the circumstances sucked, it was good to see my family. We had been talking about getting a puppy for the kids and this is what we found:

Piper

Well, from a lazy man's perspective, the timing couldn't have been better. Get the puppy now so my wife and worry about the 2 a.m. potty training while I'm away! As believable as it sounds, that wasn't the true reason. We were driving home from lunch and passed by a sign advertising Lab puppies. My wife actually was the one that made the big deal about it.

Anyway, her name is Piper (my wife's idea, actually). The name fits her perfectly. She was 10 weeks old when we got her. In the three weeks we've had her, she's doubled in size...and energy.

The dog thing is a little O.T., but her name is Piper.

---

So now it is time for the long awaited family vacation. We all need it. When we return, it's time to start looking for a job. Wow. One year has passed. My goal was to be ready for a job in 18 months, and it happened in 12.

I'm looking at a four different airlines: ******, ********, ******* *** and **********. The airline I was originally looking towards just won't work for me. They currently have about a 7 year wait for upgrade. ******* *** sounds great, but they fly Embraer 145's. All of my training has been focused on the CRJ. I'm sure it wouldn't be bad to learn the Embraer. My friends all tell me it's a dream to fly.

At my age, the most important thing is time to upgrade. Quality of life is also important and I might have to sacrifice a little to get the upgrade faster. The quicker I can upgrade to captain, the quicker I can build the all important turbine Pilot In Command time that is required to work for Legacy carriers, or premier global freight companies. One of the above airlines just lowered its upgrade requirements and that is why I am giving it such a serious look.

If all goes well, there could be a few interviews this month and a June class date. That would be exciting, huh? Ugh. I forgot how much I hate looking for a job. Resumes, cover letters, letters of recommendation, interview prep etc. Just writing about it is making me tired.

I hope all is well with everyone. Happy flying. Safe flying.

The flash overpowered the CRT's of the PFD, MFD, EICAS 1&2 & FMS.

No flash. Too blurry. This camera sucks.

Too Many Facts & Figures, Too Little Space

2007-04-05T21:35:00.000-04:00

Brain space. Mine is very limited. Overwhelming is the key word.

Some limitations for the Canadair Regional Jet CRJ-200.

Maximum Internal Turbine Temperature (ITT) for go-around or APR thrust: 928C
Maximum Permissible Oil Temperature: 163C
Maximum Exhaust Gas Temperature (EGT) for Auxiliary Power Unit (APU): 974C
Maximum Altitude for APU Bleed Air Use for Air Conditioning: 15,000 feet
Tire speed limit: 182 knots ground speed
Maximum Differential Pressure for the Pressurization System: 8.7 psi
Maximum Permissible Time for Ground OPS with DC power only: 5 minutes
Minimum Ambient Temperature for Starting Cold Soaked APU on Ground: -40C
Maximum APU Starting Altitude: 30,000'
Maximum APU Operating Altitude: 37,000'
Number of Transformer Rectifier Units (TRU): 5
Hydraulic Systems: 3
Number of Pumps: 6
Vmo: 335 KIAS - Mmo: .85 - Vfe (flaps 8/20): 230 (flaps 30): 185 (flaps 45): 170
Vle: 250 KIAS - Vlo (extension): 250 KIAS - Vlo (retraction): 200 KIAS
Turbulence Penetration: 280 KIAS

That's about 1%. Argh.

Hiatus

2007-03-31T01:38:00.000-04:00

The month of April will include the final phase of training. It will involve 16+ hour days and very little spare time. Right after that, it's a long awaited family vacation.

I hope all goes well for everyone in April. Best wishes to those up for ratings, in the hunt for the perfect flying job and lurkers considering aviation. Flying is where it's at.

Unless something unbelievable happens, or there's more spare time than expected, I'll be returning to the blogosphere around May 15th.

Happy Easter. Fly safely.

For now, here are a few photos from the recent Vegas trip, courtesy of my friend John.

This mountain called is Vulture Peak, near Wickenburg. The photo was taken right after a pretty gnarly downdraft.
This is John at Bullhead City, with Laughlin in the background.

This is Lake Mojave, just north of Bullhead City. It is fed by the Colorado River, downstream from Hoover Dam.

This is the awesome view of McCarran airport from John's Room. To the right of the Tropicana is the terminal where the 737's depart for Groom Lake and Area 51...oooooohhhh.

Lousy view, huh?

New Friends and Weather Trends

2007-03-27T01:00:00.000-04:00

One of the best things about creating this blog is the amount of new friends I've made over the past year. It has been a great way to meet new people that share similar interests.

Last month, one of this blog's readers contacted me about getting together during a visit to Arizona. He was coming out in March for Spring Training and then heading to Las Vegas for a few days of fun. He asked if I wanted to fly up there with him. After working out the details and finding out that neither of us were closet axe murderers, we decided to do it.

Last Thursday, we got together for breakfast before heading over to Stellar to pick up the plane. The weather was looking iffy from Phoenix to Northern Arizona. I had an IFR plan filed to North Las Vegas but had a few concerns. First, what fun is a flight in IMC to Las Vegas? No mountains, no Grand Canyon, no Lake Mead and Hoover Dam. Second, the freezing levels were predicted to be right at the MEA of our flight plan. Third, thunderstorms were developing all over the route.

Southwest had an anytime fare of $238 r/t, which was definitely cheaper than renting a 172. But how much fun would it be? After checking the weather again, it appeared that the low causing the poor weather in Arizona was not a factor 75 miles West of Phoenix. Some quick calculations showed that a VFR flight from Phoenix to Wickenburg to Lake Havasu and then up the Colorado River to Bullhead City, Boulder City and then Las Vegas would be just fine. I decided it was a go. Thunderstorms were building to the South and West moving Northeast. The window of opportunity was narrow.

We took off from Stellar and picked up flight following from Phoenix Approach. By the time we were handed off to Albuquerque, the controller was rude and said she didn't have time for us. Oh well, the weather was clearing and looked beautiful to the west. The winds had shifted and were in our favor the entire way, which was good. Our VFR route was considerably farther. Our ground speed averaged 145kts and at times reached nearly 160kts! We decided to land in Bullhead City to stretch our legs for a while. I had listened to LA Center on the way to Bullhead and by the number of holds being issued, it sounded like Vegas had flow control issues. I only like to fly into Las Vegas with flight following or an IFR plan and figured the easiest way to get through to North Las Vegas would be IFR.

Thanks to the favorable winds, our flight to Las Vegas (airspace, at least) only took about 35 minutes. Las Vegas approach is proud of the desert and wanted to show us as much of it as they could. We saw State Line, I-15, Pahrump and all points in between. It was a very nice tour. Finally, they vectored us to North Las Vegas and we were cleared for the visual 30L.

As we descended, I called up North Las Vegas tower. No response. They were talking to others and answering other callers. I called them another time. Again, no acknowledgement. I tried a third time, again with nothing at all. Finally on the 45 to the downwind, the controller says, "Use caution. There's an unidentified 172 in the pattern that has failed to contact us." I immediately broke in and said, "This is Cessna N*****, I have called three times in the past two minutes with no acknowledgement. I am IFR, cleared for the approach and squawking ****. Please mark the tape." Two other pilots came to my defense and said they had heard me. Finally the controller says, "Fine. Cleared to land 30L" Grump. Why is it so difficult for some people to admit when they're wrong?

We tied down, headed over to the FBO to order fuel and check the weather. Things in Arizona had deteriorated. The freezing level had dropped to 6,000 feet, there was a convective sigmet and severe weather from Flagstaff southward. At that moment, I was glad that I planned ahead and brought an overnight bag just in case. This was a just in case moment. There would be no flight home tonight.

We shared a cab with two other pilots from Vail, CO and shared stories about the controller at North Las Vegas and wondered if he was having a bad day. We arrived at NY, NY and met up with my friend's other friends.

My friend's name is John. He's a firefighter and aspiring pilot from Illinois. We met his other friends Scott and son Garrett at the VIP check-in at the hotel. John told Scott about my dilemma and without hesitation he said, "Any friend of John's is a friend of mine. You're welcome to stay in our room." That was a really nice offer, but one I couldn't accept. I did ask if he could use his influence to get me a nice room, which he did. It was a very nice room on the 34th floor with views of the strip. It was only two doors down from their room, which had something mine didn't: a 180 degree view of McCarran airport. A pilot's dream view. You could see the entire airport and almost all ops. Next time I go to LV, I'm staying at NY, NY and requesting a room with that view!

They invited me to hand with them as if they'd known me for years and I was part of the original plan. It was a lot of fun. We played everywhere from NY, NY to Downtown, where the Lady Luck's blackjack tables were good enough to me to cover the cost of the room and some. Not being a huge player, I decided to quit while I was ahead and make my way back to the hotel. John, Scott and Garrett were doing VERY well at the roulette table. I thanked them for their hospitality and went back to NY, NY to get some sleep so I could leave first thing in the morning. No storms in Arizona last more than 24 hours, right?

I woke up at 6:30 a.m. and called Flight Service. The briefer said that things along the same Colorado River route looked good until 18Z, about 11 a.m. Arizona time. The freezing level was forecast to be 8-9,000'. If things got bad, I could file for a pop up IFR clearance.

I got off the ground by 8 a.m. Vegas approach, in usual form, refused to let me transition and gave me another tour of the barren Nevada desert. Thanks guys. Once on course, I headed back the same route I had flown up. Crossing Bullhead City at 7,500', I began to see gray in the distance. I switched on the NEXRAD and saw nothing but ugliness 50 miles ahead. I descended to 5,500 and by the time I got to Lake Havasu, the weather was deteriorating rapidly. The temperature dropped considerably. I pressed on another 10 miles and started to pick up rime ice. CRAP. There was no way to safely go IFR home at that point. I turned around and headed back to Havasu, where apparently every light aircraft pilot in the known universe had decided to divert. There were literally 40 planes at the transient ramp. This confirmed that others agreed with me. It wasn't safe to fly a light aircraft in that weather. I spent an hour there hoping for clearing skies. What I got was deterioration. To the South and East, it was LIFR and the freezing level had dropped to 4,000'.

A note about NEXRAD: The picure it gives you is delayed 5-15 minutes. When there are fast moving/developing storms, it only tells you the weather sucks, not where it is specifically. I have heard of pilots that use it like real radar. That could get very dangerous, very fast. The Garmin G1000 glass cockpit has a lot to offer, but I can see how some of the tools it offers could give the wrong person too much confidence.

If I had to spend the night somewhere again, I didn't want it to be Lake Havasu. The airport is a long way from town, there were no rental cars available and hotels were EXPENSIVE. I got in the plane and flew back to Bullhead. With Laughlin across the river, there was at least something to to. Sun Western Flyers topped off the plane and called the Riverside Resort shuttle for me.

I didn't want to spend more time in a casino filled with acrid, carcinogenic smoke and it was too early to decide about staying over night so I went to a movie. It was "Shooter" starring Mark Wahlberg. It was a typical conspiracy thriller, but better than hanging out in the aforementioned ashtray.

When the movie ended, I called Flight Service. The weather had mostly cleared and short of a few scattered thunderstorms, the route home looked good. That was all I needed to hear. I was ready to be home.

The flight home was smooth and easy. It felt good to see the lights of Phoenix. Timing was nearly perfect. A pretty big thunderstorm had just dissipated near Stellar. The winds were still strong, but the lightning and heavy rain had subsided. I managed to grease the landing with a 15 knot crosswind on a very wet runway in the dark, which tells me I'm finally getting comfortable with Cessna's. They're not difficult in crosswinds, just different.

I made it home in time to read to my kids and kiss them good night. A perfect end to an eventful two days. It felt good to be home...for a few days at least.

John took some cool photos. As soon as he gets them to me, I'll post them.

John, Scott and Garrett from Illinois: You're all first class individuals and it was a pleasure to meet you all. I hope to see you guys again sometime.

Gentlemen...Toss Your Cookies

2007-03-18T00:11:00.000-04:00

Er ladies, actually. More on that in a few.

Last night, a friend called me in a panic. "I need to get to Grand Canyon Airport tomorrow. My car is in Tusayan and I lost my ride there. Can you take me?" I'm really not in too much need of single engine time, but she's been a good friend and has helped me a lot this past year. It would also be an opportunity to fly. Why not?

We set off this morning, planning on an 11 a.m. departure. Of course this being general aviation, our departure time was closer to 1 p.m. The hot weather that California was experiencing last week had found its way to Arizona. By noon, it was 96 degrees. Did anybody tell Mother Nature that it's only March? It's not even Spring yet!

My wife and daughter came along for fun. That put the G1000 172 I had reserved at max gross weight. Density altitude for the airport was about 4,000'. We took 3,000' of runway to get airborne and best climb was about 500' per minute. We hit clear air turbulence over Sky Harbor and lost nearly 400 feet. Climb performance was terrible. It took nearly 20 minutes for us to climb to 8,500'. By that time, we just told Albuquerqe Center that we were going to stay at 8,500' instead of 10,500' we had requested. We didn't want to take another 15 minutes to get to 10,500.

There was quite a bit of turbulence and my wife was beginning to turn green. Cue Sic-Sac #1. She threw up the Dramamine she had taken as a precaution. That happened over Cottonwood airport so we decided to land there for some fresh air and water. Cottonwood has a nice little terminal. There was nobody there, but a nice selection of complimentary cookies and a cold water fountain to refill our water bottles. My wife decided that a snack of cookies might make her feel better. A few minutes later, the color was back in her face and we headed back to the plane.

We departed on runway 14. Density altitude was an issue again and Cottonwood's runway is only 4,200' long. A short field takeoff was definitely in order. Lean for DA, flaps 10, max brakes, full power...and then everything started to move...in slow motion. Finally we hit rotation speed and the plane just didn't want to climb. I can't believe how close the subdivision is to the end of 14. We could see the whites of people's eyes following us as we skimmed the neighborhood at best rate of climb (not much).

We climbed out Northbound over Verde River Canyon, using thermals to climb when possible. The air was really rough. Bweelchhh. BWEELCHHH. My wife was literally tossing her cookies...the one's she ate in Cottonwood. I thought she was going to kill me when I asked her if she was tossing her cookies, but she was too busy throwing up. At this point, she was not looking good, but there really wasn't anywhere to land. My wife said she could make it to the Grand Canyon, so we pressed on. It took us all the way to I-40 to make 8,500' again.

Soon enough, we were on approach to Grand Canyon Airport. Winds were 180 at 16, gusting to 25. We were cleared to land on runway 21. The gusty crosswind called for 20 degrees flaps and 75 knots on final. It was a little bit of a fight, but patience prevailed and she settled down nicely. We taxied quickly to transient parking where my poor wife promptly melted out of the plane.

We picked up my friend's car and set out looking for a place to eat. Maybe some food would make my wife feel better. We ended up at The Grand Canyon Lodge. It was one of the few places that had table service today. The main dining room was closed, so we had to eat in the bar. My daughter thought it was cool because a few of the bar stools are western saddles. (She loves horses and just started riding lessons this morning.) We finally had to tell her that it was against the law for her to sit at the bar to get her back to the table.

While waiting for our food, my wife warned me that she might not be getting back in to the 172 again today. Crap! I'm a pilot, not a logisitcs expert. Let's see, we have two boys at home with a 13 year old babysitter, no clothes or toiletries (very cheap at The Grand Canyon I'm sure), no hotel reservations and the 172 through 8 p.m. I went to the front dest at The Grand Canyon Lodge and inquired. $179 plus tax! Not bloody likely.

My friend called her office to update them on her whereabouts. She is a pilot for Air Grand Canyon. I have to give them a plug and say what nice people they are. When they found out about my wife's condition, they immediately started making calls to find a hotel for us. They found us a room at the Holiday Inn Express and got us the local rate of $69.

After eating, my wife said she felt better. Well enough to fly home. I knew she would feel better and the front seat would make a huge difference. We stopped by the Air Grand Canyon terminal and they set us up with a fresh supply of barf bags. We thanked them for their courtesy, said goodbye to my friend and headed back for Phoenix.

It was nearly sunset and the winds and temperatures had come down. We departed out. I lazily set the GPS course for Phoenix, dialed in 9,500' and sat back to enjoy the ride. It had been a long day and it was time to let the plane work for me. Just like I was telling my daughter earlier about the horse she was riding. It knows where to go and what to do, you just have to let it know who's boss.

The flight home was much smoother. Our route took us over Williams, Clarkdale, Jerome and then in to the Phoenix Metro area. By the time we got back to Phoenix, it was completely dark. I love night flying. We came in over Lake Pleasant to Deer Valley airport and then the East transition over Sky Harbor. By 8:30, we were on the ground at Stellar. Some of us more glad to be on the ground than others.

---

Next week, it will be time to start studying CRJ systems again. I leave for Colorado in less than two weeks for the last phase of my flight training. I alsow plan on getting checked out in the top secret multi engine plane I discovered. It sounds too good to be true. We'll see.

Also, someone that I met through this blog is coming to Arizona next week too see some Spring Training games and visit with friends. We're going to fly to Las Vegas together on Thursday. That should be a lot of fun.

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait...and Wait, Right?

2007-03-15T18:13:00.000-04:00

RIGHT!
---
The checkride actually happened today. I feel like I won the Powerball jackpot. The stars were aligned. Whatever. It happened. It's over. I feel good.

Last night, I wanted to make sure everything was set for the checkride. I drove over to the airport, did a pre-flight and practiced emergency and maneuver flows. It was a few hours well spent. Feeling better prepared allowed a good night's sleep.

The checkride was scheduled for 9, so I got there around 8 to do W&B, performance and get the paperwork in order. That was a good thing. He showed up 20 minutes early and asked if I was ready. Yes I was.

He briefed the checkride: normal takeoff straight out, head towards Coolidge Airport (P08) and climb to 5,500. After reaching 5,500', 2 steep turns, slow flight and stalls. After that, VMC demo, emergency descent to Coolidge and pattern work. Depart Coolidge to the north for a single engine ILS approach into Gateway.

We taxied out and on the takeoff roll, he cut the mixture on the right engine. Done. Takeoff after that was fine. This particular DE is an Airbus check airman and is BIG on checklist usage. I practically had the checklist glued to my hands to ensure proper usage. Climb checklist complete. We hit 5,000' and he asked me to perform steep turns to the left and right.

Flying with a DPE can be like playing "Simon Says". The way they give you commands tempts you to do the maneuver without proper setup. I made sure to take a deep breath and remember to configure the aircraft and do clearing turns. Clearing turns before every maneuver. The steep turns were fine. +/- 20 feet for both turns. He asked me to transition in to slow flight from the steep turns, again trying to get me to do it without doing a clearing turn. No dice. Once in slow flight, all he asked for was a 110 degree turn to the right. He said since I held my altitude exactly, there was no need to climb or descend. Good.

We did a power off stall and a power on stall in takeoff configuration. PTS. Done. Next, he had me go under the hood, vectored me all over the place and then cut an engine. Then we did a full feather, shut down and air restart. The air restart was a little hairy. The starter just wouldn't get the prop going, so I had to dive 1,500 feet while engaging the starter to get it going again. Finally that was done. Air shut down/restarts are not my favorite task in these old Senecas.

He told me to take off the view limiting device and climb back to 5,500'. Once there he said, "There's smoke in the cabin. Do the right thing." Power out, props forward, gear down and descend at 140 MPH towards the nearest landing site. I recovered at 1,500' AGL and we entered the pattern at Coolidge for pattern work.

I felt blessed today. The winds were light and variable, never more than about 6 knots. The first landing was just normal on runway 23. Since we were the only aircraft at the airport, we taxied to the other end and took off on 5. Next time around was a short field with a 50' barrier at the threshold. I picked the 1000' markers and nailed them. It felt great. Then we taxied to the end of 5, turned around again to 23 and did a normal takeoff. He said we were going back to Gateway for the ILS. First he cut the mixture on the takeoff roll again. Then at about 300' AGL, he cut my left engine. Directional control, airspeed 105, gear up, establish zero side slip, mixture rich, props forward, full throttle both engines. Identify dead engine. Verify dead engine. Feather affected engine. Even though it was nearly 90 degrees, with zero side slip and Vyse the plane was able to get within 200' of pattern altitude. The single engine pattern landing was pretty straight forward. There were no surprises other than when he cut the engine when I was expecting to return to Gateway.

Again, we landed on runway 23 and turned around and departed on 5. He said, Things are going well, all you need to do is the ILS 30C at Gateway with single engine and you've passed. I want to see you nail your airspeed, configuration and center the damn needles all the way down. At DH, go visual and do what it takes to land. There will be no go-around or do-over. Do you understand?" I replied, "Yeah, do it right and go visual at DH!"

He cut the engine well before LOC & GS intercept. The aircraft followed my lead and the needles came in. Airspeed was a little fast, but some trim took care of that. We settle right on the glideslope. Perfect rate of descent. At 1,580' DH, I called minimums and took off the shades. It looked great. I put in 25 degrees of flaps and greased it on the 1000' markers dead center. At that point he said that's where most people bust. They don't follow his instructions to go visual at the DH, they hesitate and then ask him what to do and they bust. What's funny is that most instructors make you wait until DH and then tell you to go visual. I can see someone could easily make the mistake.

After landing, I hurried a little too much to the nearest taxi way and had to break a little harder than I liked. He said he noticed that a lot of pilots do it at Gateway. I think it's because the nearest taxiway from runway 30C is over 5,000 feet from the threshold. Due to the number of ILS approaches on that runway, the tower is always asking pilots to expedite. Today they didn't and habit took over. It really wasn't that big of a deal.

Taxiing back he said, "Congratulations. You did a great job. Get me back to the ramp in one piece and I'll get the paperwork started." That was good enough for me.

When we debriefed, he said the only issue he took with my flying was that I took my hand off the throttle and put it on the glare shield a few times. That's a bad habit and one I will definitely break. Other than that, it couldn't have been a better checkride. Everything went my way today. I didn't make any of my typical mistakes, no matter how much my attention was divided. Today was a good day.

Private: 45 days

Instrument: 75 days

Commercial SEL initial: 105 days (about 45 days worth of work including cross country time building)

CMEL add-on 60 days (about 7 days worth of real work and 50+ days wasted on maintenance problems)

Overall start to finish in 10 1/2 months. It really hasn't been that long. Best of all, not a single checkride bust, although I walked the tightrope on instrument.

The final phase of jet training starts in 2 weeks. That will take 30 days. After that, I'll need another 50 hours of multi engine time and it will be time to set up interviews at my top four choices.

I hit the jackpot on a place to build multi-engine time. More on that another time. This is already way too long-winded.

Nice Landing

2007-03-13T16:35:00.000-04:00

Here is a video of an ANA Bombardier Q400 with a nose gear failure. Kudos to the pilots. Very nice landing.

"Family Time" (Building)

2007-03-12T01:05:00.000-04:00

I had a few hours coming my way in a 172 and decided to take my sons with me to Palm Springs today. My wife and daughter are both under the weather, so a trip for the boys was a good idea.

My wife is still a worry-wart. To appease her, I filed IFR so she could see the progress of our flights on FlightAware. That keeps my cell phone from ringing 384 times before I land.

There was a quartering tailwind and velocity changed alot enroute, so there were a lot of corrections to stay on V16. It was a nice, rather boring flight. Why Palm Springs? 1. Almost everywhere in Arizona had Airmets & Sigmets for turbulence and most airports north of Phoenix had wind gusts >25 knots. 2. I still had the headset that was loaned to me the last time I was in Palm Springs when my Bose headset was lost. (long story-see Dec. 2006 if you care) I had mailed it to the person that loaned it to me and the post office returned it after 5 delivery attempts. Today was a good day to return it.

Palm Springs Approach instructed me to maintain best forward speed for spacing. Descending, I had 135 knots indicated until configuring on a 2 mile final. That was the most exciting part of the flight.

It was HOT in Palm Springs. 95 degrees! Phoenix has been warm the last week and they say it's going to hit 90 next week. This must be what is coming our way. That is why March is my least favorite month in the desert. The temperatures are on the rise. 100 can happen in March. It's depressing to know that the oppressive heat is on the way. By June, I'm used to it and actually enjoy it. It's the re-acclimatization part that makes March suck.

We parked at Signature Aviation (expensive but worth it) and they gave us a ride to the terminal and offered a crew car. Very nice. I've always been treated well at Signature Aviation, no matter what the airport. They treat you the same no matter what plane you're flying, which I think is smart.

The boys were starving and there's a Fatburger near the airport. Fatburger is always a treat for the kids, so off we went.

We got back to the airport, turned in the car, returned the headset, filed IFR back to Phoenix and made our way to the airplane. When the fuel was topped off, Signature took the time to clean the windshield without being asked. Another nice touch.

The sun was setting when we took off and it was dark within an hour. I always like coming back to Phoenix from the West at night.

A nice trip with the boys and 5.0 total/1.5 night added to the logbook.

On the Signature ramp at KPSP

Man, do I love Falcons

Just departed KPSP on the Palm Springs 4 departure - 2,000 for 9,000

Departing Coachella Valley. The large body of water is The Salton Sea.

Sunset over the Colorado River looking South from Blythe, CA. Sorry for the blur.

That's enough for tonight. Still hoping for the checkride on Thursday. Positive vibes are always appreciated.

Un Freakin' Believable

2007-03-09T17:02:00.000-05:00

Oral 9 a.m. - Pass

Flight 11 a.m. - Did anyone really think the plane would fly?

"CHECKRIDE! CHECKRIDE!"

Message to villagers: Next try, Thursday 3/15 9 a.m.

Damn.

The Boy Who Cried "Checkride"

2007-03-06T23:19:00.000-05:00

There once was a pilot boy who was bored as he sat on the hillside watching the village airplanes. To amuse himself he took a great breath and sang out, "Checkride! Checkride! The checkride is happening!"

The villagers came running up the hill to wish the pilot boy good luck on his check ride. But when they arrived at the top of the hill, they found no checkride. The pilot boy laughed at the sight of their angry faces.

"Don't cry 'checkride', pilot boy," said the villagers, "when there's no checkride!" They went grumbling back down the hill.

Later, the pilot boy sang out again, "Checkride! Checkride! The checkride is happening now!" To his naughty delight, he watched the villagers run up the hill to wish him good luck.
When the villagers saw that there was no checkride they sternly said, "Save your excited song for when there is really a checkride! Don't cry 'checkride' when there is NO checkride!"

But the pilot boy just grinned and watched them go grumbling down the hill once more.
Later, he saw a REAL checkride scheduled in ink and a working plane about his ramp. Alarmed, he leaped to his feet and sang out as loudly as he could, "Checkride! Checkride!"

But the villagers thought he was trying to fool them again, and so they didn't come.
At sunset, everyone wondered why the pilot boy hadn't returned to the village. They went up the hill to find the pilot boy. They found him weeping. "There really was a checkride scheduled! My mind has scattered! I cried out, 'Checkride!' Why didn't you come?"

An old man tried to comfort the pilot boy as they walked back to the village.
"We'll wish you good luck again in the morning," he said, putting his arm around the youth, "Nobody believes a liar...even when he is telling the truth!"

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New day and time: Friday 9 a.m.