Geek in the Cockpit

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Questions Answered: Hotels for overnights

August 7th, 2009 by Geek Pilot
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I was wondering what type of hotels they give for your overnight stopover? I heard that on international routes they get 5 star hotels for crew members, what about on regional airlines & domestic routes?

Does it includes free food or its up to the crew to pay for it?

Hotels…..some are awesome (Hyatt Place!)…some are not so awesome (Comfort Inn).

While on a trip all hotels are paid for by my airline. The union stipulates what level of hotels the airline is allowed to place crews in. The airline must try to select hotels with a gym for example. Some hotels have amazing work out facilities (Marriott’s and Hyatt Place) while others have old, worn out, rusty pieces of metal.

Depending on the length of the overnight the airline must attempt to select hotels with food/activities around. For short overnights the airline must attempt to select a hotel close to the airport to reduce drive time and increase rest time. For longer overnights the airline must attempt to select hotels located around places to eat and entertainment. Notice I use the words try and attempt. Yeah.

I will say 99% of the hotels I stay at are very nice. There are pilots and flight attendants that review hotels and work with the airline on which hotels to use in each city.

Staying in hotels used to be exciting for me. Now….not so much. I have gotten used to just leaving without having to sign or pay. When I travel with my wife it feels odd to “pay” for a hotel room…even though most of the time we use points…so we don’t really pay.

As far as meals, some hotels offer free breakfast, dinner or happy hour o’dourves. Many offer free Internet. As part of the contract every hotel I have stayed in while at my airline comps any Internet charge which is nice as it cost them next to nothing. I have noticed the “nicer” the hotel….the less they offer free. Holiday Inn Express gives free Internet, free hot breakfast (I love their cinnamon rolls) and has an awesome showerhead (my wife bought me the same model for Christmas a few years ago). The Marriott has none of those. The Marriott does offer nicer beds, fancier rooms and really nice smelling lotion (my skin gets really dry while flying).

For each hour I am away from base I get per diem. Over the course of a month a typical line holder gets $350-$550 a month in per diem. This can really help get by during the first few years at an airline. Back when I held a line, I spent at most $230 a month while eating on the road while taking $400 am month home in per diem. I could have spent WAY less if I watched my spending and brought along more snacks/food.

I haven’t flown Internationally yet for an overnight, just for turns. I do hear from the crews that do overnights in Mexico and Canada that most of the hotels are on par with Domestic. A few cities have the crews staying at very nice vacation resorts. Would be nice.

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Questions Answered: FAA Medicals and My airline

May 7th, 2009 by Geek Pilot
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Is there a company requirement regarding your medical?

There is a lot of criteria involved in getting a FAA Medical. I am not…and will never be an authority on the subject. Every person has unique circumstances that could disqualify them from getting a medical. Additionally someone might have an issue which they think MIGHT disqualify them when in reality it doesn’t.

My airline requires pilots to be examined by an FAA approved medical examiner (AME):

  • Captains – once each six months if over age 40 or once each 12 months if they are under 40
  • First Officers – Once a year

As far as which class of medical is required; Captains must always have a First Class Medical. First Officers are required to have at least a Second Class Medical Certificate. It is my responsibility to have a current First Class Medical Certificate prior to the beginning of Captain training.

My first experience with an AME was horrible. I was getting ready to start training at ATP. I used FlightPhysical.com to find an AME. Just my “luck” there was one less than a mile from my house. I made an appointment for the next day. At the time I drank a lot of coffee, smoked and never exercised. ATP recommended me getting a First Class Medical to make sure I would qualify for one later down the road. I have qualified for one every time since.

When I arrived the Dr. seemed “off”. He had not done a flight physical in quite some time. After the eye test and getting my vitals, he told me my blood pressure was borderline high. At the time it was 140/95. Yeah…high. I explained that I had a really stressful day at work and had chugged down a bunch of coffee right before I came.

The next thing I knew I was laying on a table getting my chest shaved! I was 29 years old and he was getting ready to give me an EKG exam! The results were to be transmitted to Oklahoma, City and I would be notified if the medical would be denied. I paid the $195 for that exam!

I left there even more stressed out. All my life I wanted to be a pilot. Suddenly the door was closing. Saying I was a little depressed would be putting it lightly.

Everything turned out okay. My blood pressure was border line hypertension.

With diet, coffee, exercise, and quitting smoking, I am now down to 118/75. No drugs needed. Okay coffee wasn’t part of my lowering of blood pressure…but I refuse to give it up! Every other week there is a story on the news about the benefits of coffee!

Since then I found a better AME. My current AME is a no-nonsense doctor. He charges a flat $35 and is very efficient. Many pilots at my airline use him.

As far as my health. I wear contacts. That’s about it. I don’t take any medications. And with my blood pressure under control….I’m just an average guy.

A word of caution for those that think they might have a disqualifying condition. Don’t go to an AME to find out. If you get examined by an AME for purposes of getting a physical, they must report the results to the FAA. A better way to find out is to use the FAA.gov website…it’s way easy to find information. Okay so it’s no where near easy….but it’s better than it used to be. Another way is to anonymously ask an AME. How so? Well Jetcareers.com has a Ask A Flight Surgeon. Before asking a question, just browse what has already been asked. Chances are there is someone out there with the same issue.

One thing I don’t care about the FAA medical process is the piece of paper it’s printed on. I have a “Costanza” wallet (Seinfeld reference). My wallet at any one time has receipts dating back several years. No reason why. Ignorance really. My friends often make fun of my huge wallet….it’s painful to sit on. There isn’t much money in there…..just crap. Anyways keeping track of this little slip of paper is a challenge for me. I am going to look into laminating my next medical. I haven’t lost a medical slip yet…but I’ve gotten close.

My current medical expires on the 16th. I am going in on the 12th to get a new one.

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Questions Answered: Commuting Policies

April 20th, 2009 by Geek Pilot
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I was just wondering what your airlines commuter guideline is? I know that a lot of pilots commute and was wondering what you exactly have to do?

One of the freedoms of working for an airline is that you don’t have to live where you are based. Living in base means being able to drive to work. Of course sometimes a pilot might live in base only to have the base close….and they become commuters.

I am currently toward the end of a book about the demise of Braniff airlines. Toward the end of the airline, employees were being moved all around the system due to furloughs and the closing of bases. There were employees who moved three times in three years.

Currently I don’t commute. I am pondering the idea though. I have yet to meet anyone who enjoys commuting or says it’s easy. Well there was one guy…but he is single, no pets and young.

Airline commuting policies vary. Most of the “good” airlines allow flight crew members to miss 2 to 3 assignments per year due to commuting problems. At my airline a flight crew member must list on at least 2 flights (on a regularly scheduled air carrier)in order to qualify under the rule. If they list on two flights and can’t get on (and will miss their assignment), they must call crew scheduling and let them know they will not make the assignment and that they wish to use the commuter policy. The flight crew member will not be paid for the flights that they miss. If the assignment is a multi-day trip they can still attempt to commute to base and pick up the rest of the trip. The flight crew member will be paid for the remainder of the trip. Additionally if the flight crew member misses an assignment due to a late flight (the flight they commuted on would have allowed them to be on time, but ended up arriving too late) they can still use the commuter policy.

Commuting experiences vary. I know quite a few Flight Attendants and Pilots who live in one outstation that has an unusually high number of daily flights to base. The flights typically have plenty of open seats. One Flight Attendant in particular has only used the commuting policy once in the 6 years she has been here. There are many more cities where commuting is very tough even with a large number of flights. Don’t assume just because the city you live in has a lot of air service that it will be easy to commute.

One really senior Captain I have flown with has a two leg commute to get to work. He lives in a pretty small town in the upper Mid-west not served by our airline and has no mainline service. He commutes/jumpseats on one airline to a city where he can then catch a ride on mainline to base.

I have quite a few friends who commute to work on Fedex/UPS. There is an obscure policy which allows shipping of people in boxes as long as they have sufficient air space. With the employee discount we get as pilots, FEDEX/UPS shipping of ourselves is really affordable. Hmmm…okay not really. Fedex/UPS have several jumpseats available for travel. After their own pilots are taken care of, pilots from other airlines are welcome to catch a ride.

The stories I have heard from those that have used Fedex/UPS are all positive. The companies make it easy to list, give instructions on where to be and when, and typically order a meal free of charge for the jumpseater! The downsides of using Fedex/UPS are that they typically involves overnight flights (which could be a positive) and they normally park quite a distance from the main passenger terminal. Getting a ride from the cargo ramp to the passenger terminal can be tricky.

If a Flight Crew member misses more than the allowed flight assignments due to commuting they could cease to be a Flight Crew member.

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Questions Answered: Headsets

April 6th, 2009 by Geek Pilot
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What type of headset do you use? Since you use batteries, I surmise that you have an active noise reduction headset, but is it an in-ear type of headset, or a larger David Clark-style GA headset?

Also, are the headsets worn during all phases of flight, or are they just required during certain phases?

Thanks!

When I first started flying I bought a David Clark headset (a h10-13.4). It was very high quality, but squeezed the heck out of my head. There is a reason why they are nicknamed David Clamps. I quickly bought a Telex Stratus 30XT headset. It was ANR and I loved it. I wanted to use it at my airline, but it wasn’t TSO approved.

When shopping for a headset I would go ahead and buy one TSO approved. I didn’t know what the heck TSO was when I started flying. TSO stands for Technical Standard Order. A TSO’d  headset  has met minimum performance standards issued by the FAA for specified materials, parts, processes, and appliances used on civil aircraft. Not all headsets are TSO’d. The FAA requires airline pilots to use TSO’d headsets. Some pilots use non TSO’d headsets thinking they will never get caught. True the risk are low, but are still too high for me.

My current headset is a Telex 500 ANR headset (TSO approved!). The headset retails for $500! I bought it for $100. How ? Well the eBay seller misspelled Telex (he spelled it Tellex) so I was the only bidder. I search for misspellings.

I am pretty happy with the Telex 500 ANR. My two biggest gripes are it uses 9-volt batteries and the ear muffs aren’t easily replaced. For $100 I am happy….if I spent the full $500 I would be upset.

My airline (and maybe the FAA) requires that I (along with the Captain) wear a headset while taxiing and under FL180. I normally wear it the entire flight. The CRJ is very quiet once up at cruise altitude. I still wear my headset. Hearing is important. The extreme majority of my Captains don’t hear nearly as well as they should. This comes from years of flying loud airplanes with crappy or no headsets. Many of them take off their headsets whenever they aren’t required. No thanks. Once hearing is lost, you can’t get it back. The ERJ’s (135,140 and 145s) are MUCH louder than the CRJ. This is due to Embraer using the exact same cockpit as the Embraer Brasillia (a turboprop). The Brasillia cockpit is quiet for a turboprop. The Brasillia flies at turboprop speeds. The ERJ flies at jet speeds. High speeds in a cockpit designed for low speeds equals a very loud ride. I have only jumpseated in the ERJ once….I was glad I had my headset!

The airline supplies 3 David Clark headsets in each cockpit. One for each pilot and one for a jump seater. I have used them maybe twice, but only after a very intense cleaning with alcohol wipes.

The choice for ANR vs NON-ANR is a personal one. Remember, once you lose a part of your hearing you will never get it back!

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