Geek in the Cockpit

Sure enough we got the overnight. The entire crew was composed of reserves. Flight was scheduled to leave at 5:20PM. The inbound plane didn’t arrive until 5:15PM.

As I setup my side of the plane I noticed something missing…the mike muff for my UFlyMike setup. Ugh. I thought I could get by without it. Nope. The intercom worked fine, but when I tried to talk to ATC my transmissions were garbled. The prices for mike muffs are ridiculous BTW….$5 for a piece of foam….really?

We blocked out at 6PM.

The departure line was long. Really long. We were number 15 for takeoff. Ouch. Tower advised to monitor clearance for a reroute for weather. I monitored and heard our flight number. I began copying down the clearance. Right away I realized it was the same clearance that came up on the PDC. I read it back and advised it was our filed route. The controller came back stating there had be an interim reroute but was changed back to the original. Hmmm ok.

By the time we reached the hold short line, the crew that was supposed to fly this flight touched down. It was good for them as the flight I was assigned was the end of their 4 day. They got to go home and get paid for the trip!

During climb out we contacted departure who cleared us to a fix NOT on our flight plan. After a few exchanges we were given a heading, fix and….tada….a reroute! Apparently in the last 5 minutes things changed. Copying down the clearance while getting bumped around wasn’t easy for the Captain.

My leg. Already late. Overnight was scheduled for 9 hours. Leaving so late is was down to 8 hours 25 minutes. I cruised at Mach .80 at FL380.

During the 2 1/2 hours Paul, the Captain, and I caught up on what’s going on in each others world.

Entering the terminal area we could see the airport 35 miles out. ATIS had arrivals on 28R. For the last few months every time I was assigned 28R we landed on 28L. Sure enough once I turned final they offered up 28L. We accepted.

Smooth turn to the left and I lined up. Paul setup the FMS and tuned in the ILS as a backup.

We blocked in at 9:33PM…..43 minutes late. Overnight down to 8 hours 22 minutes.

I slept well for such a short overnight. I woke up several times like I normally do on short overnights…I worry about over sleeping. Never happened…but I worry.

At 5:52AM I walked out the hotel room door. The flight attendant walked out of her door at the same time. She also mentioned how she didn’t sleep well as she woke up several times too check the clock.

We both arrived in the lobby to see Paul waiting. We all loaded up in the hotel van at 6AM.

This airport, like many, doesn’t have full crew line. We have a special entrance to bypass the line, but then have to wait in the same screening line as the public. We are all much faster than 99% of passengers. Paul was first and politely cut in line. I followed suite. Once clear we all scattered for breakfast. I bypassed Dunkin Donuts……which was a mistake. The line I took at the bagel shop was short, but the two passengers ahead of me didn’t “get it”. They took a while to order…fine. Then when told to move down…they just stood there. The employee behind the counter blared out, “Next!”.  I placed my order over their shoulder.

When I arrived at the gate I saw a whole crew waiting there. Didn’t think much of it. I greeted them then went down to the plane. As I sat down I realized it wasn’t the same plane as we brought in last night. When I checked last night I was flying the same plane I flew in. Hmmm. The other crew was supposed to leave at 6AM. Due to weather they were delayed. The outstation and dispatch worked out for us to take their plane. Hmmm….

After the pre-flight I pulled out the company David Clark headset. I didn’t feel like messing with my headset and the missing muff. After wiping the David Clark down with alcohol pads, I placed it on the hanger. I then noticed the MEL stickers. The plane we flew in was perfect. This one was not. Nothing major. One thing did bother Paul and I. A “Prox Sys 2 Fault” EICAS message.

All over the plane are proximity switches that are used to check the state of various doors and aircraft surfaces. If one is out of whack or “unknown”, a “Prox Sys 2 Fault” might be displayed.

Now 99% of the time it’s the nose strut switch that causes the Prox Sys 2 Fault. Once enough weight gets on the nose (through pax boarding) the message goes out. Sometimes though it’s something else. Paul and I discussed it and bet on it going out. As the flight attendant closed the door the nose went down a tad…..and the message went away.

Blocked out on time. Slight frost on the wings required a deice. Just type 1.

Lots of turbulence over the US today. We didn’t find smooth air even at FL 390. The ride didn’t smooth out until we were 50 minutes out.

Coming in we were assigned the runway furthest from our gate. Eh. Then approach called out a 777 at 1 o’clock and 12 miles. We saw it. We were then cleared to follow him and assigned the  runway closest to the gate. Score!

We blocked in 15 minutes early and the Captain and I were both released!

My wife is flying out for work today. Since I was released I GET to watch her dogs instead of her taking them to the kennel. She prefers a dog sitter, but because of my erratic schedule it’s easier to use the kennel. She comes back late tomorrow night. I am off until 2PM tomorrow. Just me and the dogs. Yay!

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Sitting in the crew room. The Captain, Paul,  sitting ready with me is a guy I enjoy flying with.

When I first started I held a line for 2 months (my base was overstaffed so senior pilots bid reserve and sat at home with full pay!). One of those months was with Paul.

Paul is a great Captain. He treats me as an equal and lets me make the decisions until I make a mistake.

My first, and so far only go around out side of the sim, was with Paul. I was new and thought I could go down AND slow down….at the same time. Yadda, yadda, yadda I had the plane at 1500 feet with the spoilers all the way out, Flaps 20, gear down and still blazing at 190 knots. Wasn’t going to work. Around we went. He then hipped me to go down OR slow down. Handled nicely and I learned something.

Paul has been here a while. He used to be a steady line holder. Then my airline decided to move planes around and reduce our base. He has been reserve for a while.

Recently his family decided to move (he was out voted 3 to 1) to another state. He went from living 20 minutes from the airport to living a 2 1/2 hour plane ride from the airport. He is now a commuter who is just one number up from being the bottom guy.

Lately he’s been buying a lot of hotel rooms as there haven’t been many flights open. The cheapest hotel is a Motel 6 that charges crews $31.05 out the door. Not bad. But not free either.

I had already checked at crew connections and hipped him to one reduced rest overnight we could get. The crew to fly it is at an out station waiting on a plane to leave the base. Once the plane arrives the crew hops in, flies to base then out to the overnight. Right now the overnight is scheduled for 9 hours. The plane is running over an hour late.

As of right now the crew is estimated to arrive 17 minutes before they are supposed to leave. They are parking 23 gates away from the overnight flight. I am thinking we are going to get that flight. I wouldn’t mind it. Haven’t flow in a while. Getting an overnight tonight would allow me to be at home tomorrow night.

For now…we are both hoping for an overnight.

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March starts with me going back to daily airport reserve as my line. I welcome this as I didn’t like being on reserve as THE junior man.

Being the most junior I was up for any and all assignments. At first I welcomed a change from the monotony of airport reserve. That lasted until my 5th or so deadhead flight. I also didn’t like the mix of morning airport reserve followed by afternoon airport reserve followed by morning call out reserve. No thanks.

For March I have partial weekends off (Thurs-Saturday). Not bad at all. I don’t go in till 2PM on Sunday.

I only flew about 35 hours last month.

With my kiddo on the way my mind has turned to FMLA.

FMLA will allow me to be at home with the kiddo as much as I need….up to 12 weeks. Of course this is unpaid time off. Instead of burning all 12 weeks at once, I will use mine strategically.

I plan on using time off for the holidays for sure. One crappy thing about FMLA….no non-revving without permission of the Chief Pilot. Kinda crappy but whatever.

I will likely keep my afternoon airport reserve line thru June. In July I get 5-6 pilots under me as base swaps start. By the end of the year I will have at least 11 pilots under me thru base swaps. Not too shabby. I could possibly be…..a line holder. Who knows.

I turn a year older soon….the big 33. Thinking about heading to Vegas for my birthday. Just have to somehow get my wife to approve it.

The story about the kid in the control tower in New York is being overblown. As pilots we know what to expect for radio communications. With the dad standing right there, I don’t see how anything bad could have happened. If the dad was out smoking a cigarette and left the kid in charge, then yes I would see a problem.

Ready for summer. Seeing snow all the time gets depressing. I’ve been using Google to search for Sunshine….to make sure I don’t forget what the sun looks like.

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Scheduling has been interesting this week.

Monday – 4 legs with a 3 hour sit in between

Tuesday – off

Wednesday – Morning airport reserve

Thursday- Late morning reserve at home. They didn’t realize they had no one to cover afternoon airport reserve until it was 2PM…the time the shift starts. They called me at 2PM to sign in at 4PM. Released at 10PM

Friday – Once again no one assigned afternoon airport reserve. They didn’t realize it until 3:30PM when they needed a reserve quick. They scrambled and called me at 3:50PM to come sit ready at 5:50PM.

That’s where this blog starts….5:50PM. I arrived and attempted to sign in for airport reserve. The computer rejected my sign in stating I wasn’t assigned airport reserve. Whatever. I was there. I went and sat down with a buddy of mine in the crew room. I did notice a 6:30PM overnight that was open (due to the First Officer who is based elsewhere, being reassigned during the 3:30PM scramble!) I know the Captain…didn’t feel like screwing him over so I stepped up to the plate. I called scheduling and advised that I wasn’t able to sign in and that I saw a 6:30PM flight open. “Oh yeah, First Officer Smith, yeah okay I’m going to assign that too you then you have one leg out in the morning and a deadhead back.”

I was okay with it, except they had a 20 minute connect time scheduled for the deadhead. Impossible as my flight arrived at 7:50 AM. The deadhead left at 8:10AM. There is 15 minutes of duty scheduled at the termination of each flight for debrief leaving 5 minutes for the flight. She fixed it. I did state, “Good thing I called or the flight would have likely left late.” No response. Whatever.

The Captain and I flew together about two years ago. I didn’t remember it till I brought up my previous profession in the IT field. A light bulb went off in his head and he recalled how I helped him with his computer problem. Oh yeah.

Flight was fine. My leg. I was being super lazy and didn’t feel like putting in a fix 30 miles out at 10,000 feet (to help with Vertical Nav/fuel savings). I just winged it from FL 360 down to the 2500 altitude at the FAF. Same with the approach. Clear night. All worked out. Even landed on the 1000 footers for the first time in a while. Overnight short. Just 9 hours.

Many hotels have these waffle makers. I am a pro at them. If I get furloughed I am going straight to Waffle House!

The other base gives me Tourette’s syndrome. I don’t like it. The ground controller asked where we were parking. He gave simple instructions, “Ok taxi Hotel to Mike 2 then Lima to the gate.” But then he continued, “If the gate is occupied, Hotel to India, India to Foxtrot 2, Bravo, Charlie then Double back on Lima and hold short of Mike 9″. I think. Honestly I have no clue what he said….he spoke way too fast. The Captain got it all. Thankfully the gate was open.

The Captain had a 2 hour sit and offered to do my post flight. Nice. Off I went to my deadhead.

I was assigned a middle seat in the back…better than the jump seat. Prior to leaving my schedule had me terminating in base after the deadhad. I texted my wife my flight number and my ETA as she dropped me off yesterday, I would need a ride home.

Yadda, yadda, yadda I land in base. I called scheduling to get released. Nope. Assigned another overnight leaving in 45 minutes….from the other side of the airport. As the scheduler rattled off my assignment all I could hear was, “No you can’t go home, now back to your hole flyboy!” Over dramatic yes. But it’s the weekend and it would be nice too see my wife.

My wife was already on the way to pick me up….had to tell her to turn around.

Being in the back of the plane, it took a while to get off. I made it to my gate with 25 minutes to spare. Flight attendants on board, no Captain.

After greeting the flight attendants I fired up the APU. For whatever reason the ground crew didn’t hook up power. Not my gas. Not my problem.

The Captain arrived with 10 minutes to spare. He was called from home and was actually early as they called him late. We blocked out 1 minute late. I was hungry.

The winds were gusting from between 100-120 degrees to the left of the centerline. Captain managed a nice gusty, slight tailwind,  light weight landing.

Once at the gate, he was deadheading back. I was staying the night along with the Flight Attendants.

The airline is short on Captains. He is heading back for a 4 hour sit for an overnight. Another Captain would be deadheading up to fly out with me in the morning. What a mess.

I did go to lunch with the Flight Attendants to an awesome seafood cafe for awesome fried catfish. Almost made this craziness worth it.

Leaving tomorrow morning on a 4:45AM van for a 5:40AM departure.

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