The Big Chill - Part One

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...