Thirsty? Have A Drink.

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

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

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

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.

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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

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

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.

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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
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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.

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

The Time Has Come

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.

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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.