Geek in the Cockpit

First…the reason I haven’t been posting is due to the hours spent installing a new floor in my house. We went from this:

to this:

My wife and I installed more than 600 square feet of flooring over the last week. When I say installed….I mean we were on our hands and knees installing it. Ooof. Lots of work.

Friday I had afternoon airport standby. I had hoped to not get an overnight so I could work on the floor Saturday morning (I had afternoon standby Saturday as well). Well I got an overnight. The longest overnight I have had in a while….15 hours! Booo!

The entire crew consisted of people on airport standby. The Captain gave me the outbound leg. The flight was just one hour each way.

The outbound airport runways are installed in the typical cross fashion. One east/west runway and one north/south runway. The winds were out of the northeast at 4 knots. We were coming in from the east. I told the Captain to ask if we could land on runway 27 instead of 36. Doing so would save a few minutes and allow us to fly straight in. The tower allowed it. Nice.

There was no ILS on this runway so I simply briefed a visual approach. The runway is 8000 feet long. Even with the quartering tailwind we only needed 3900 feet according to the performance charts.

On final I noticed the wind readout on my MFD displayed a 25 knot tailwind. The winds on the ground were much lighter than in the approach corridor. I had to increase my descent rate slightly as the airspeed was 135 knots while the  ground speed was 160 knots. The tailwinds died down below 200 feet. I began my flare at 20 feet and chopped the power to near idle just below 20 feet. The wind was still pushing us down the runway. I set the mains down about 2000 feet down the runway. Immediately I popped the thrust reversers and began applying the brakes. The exit I planned on making in my brief was quickly coming up. I decided not to brake harder than needed (I hate when I’m a passenger and the pilots brake hard to make an exit….braking hard to avoid the end of the runway is okay though!) and told the Captain I would make the next one. Done.

The hotel was nice. They have Sleep Number beds. I don’t care for them. Like a big air mattress.

For breakfast on Saturday I walked across the street to a small cafe that’s more than 45 years old. My eyes were bigger than my stomach and caused my mouth to order the “Big Boys Breakfast”. Yeah. I somehow ate it all.

I then spent the next few hours in my room updating my manuals and watching episodes of Diggnation. Fun day. Not.

The van was set for 1:55PM. The inbound plane was 15 minutes early. We only had 19 people going back with us. That combined with a beautiful day outside allowed us to leave 10 minutes early. Nice.

The skies were clear in base. On final the Captain made a very interesting approach. He had been doing the normal fuel saving techniques for the entire flight. Turning final I noticed we were really high….but it didn’t concern me as we were on a 10 mile final. I then noticed he had the thrust levers idled and they had been for the last few minutes. He was managing the energy and gliding in. This can’t always be done as airport congestion/weather/you name it typically causes us to do 180 knots to the final approach fix then slow down.

He was a good deal above the glide slope until we reached 1000 feet. He never added power until right above 1400 feet the plane was at flaps 30 with the gear down. Nice.

With such a smooth approach one would think the landing would be awesome. Well the combination of a very light plane (again just 19 passengers) and a gusting crosswind caused the plane to float a bit. He was easing it down perfectly when the gust died down….plop went the plane.

After parking, I was released right away and my wife picked me up. I often state how awesome my wife is……I’m a lucky man.

My wife and I spent the evening laying more flooring. I checked my schedule for Sunday and was assigned morning airport standby. My line is afternoon airport standby. I haven’t done morning airport standby in months. For the first time in a long time I had to set an alarm clock at home. Boooo.

At 5:30 AM on Sunday my wife drove me to work. I signed in, checked the open flights and went to the quiet room to sleep. There were no open flights to cover and all the morning flights “appeared” to be covered.

My slumber was disturbed by my phone vibrating on my chest. A First Officer called in sick after flying into base. The next flight left in 30 minutes. By contract I have 45 minutes to prepare for a flight….so I was in no rush.

I walked out of the quiet room and saw a Captain I know. I asked if he was flying to Fargo. He said he was and asked if I was going with him. Yep.

I grabbed by bags and stopped off at Dunkin Donuts. Coffee was needed. Java in hand I went to the gate.

The gate agent told ME to tell the flight attendants that she was sending the passengers down. Hmmm. I asked if the flight attendants were ready? She again stated she was sending the passengers down. I replied back to her that she should call or walk down and verify the flight attendants were ready. She then gave me a glare and turned around.

As I walked onto the plane I saw my favorite flight attendant Peggy standing in a dark plane. No power. They were not ready. I told both flight attendants what the gate agent had planned. The front flight attendant called the gate. I applied power to the plane and went out for the preflight.

By the time I got back the Captain was on board. I took my seat and began setting up the plane. I quickly noticed something wrong with my side. The FMS wasn’t working.

The plane I fly has dual FMS (Flight Management System) units installed. Only one is required. Most regionals have just one installed as they are quite expensive. The plane is built around the FMS. I could only get to the ACARS side application, but no navigation/performance data. Grrr. Call to maintenance.

While waiting I chatted with the Captain and the front Flight Attendant. The front Flight Attendant was itching to go. When she heard we had maintenance she got a little bummed.

The Mechanic arrived and quickly added the FMS to the maintenance log and placed an INOP sticker on the unit. We pushed out 20 minutes late.

With no FMS my “needles” were yellow showing cross side data (Captains data). Also of note is the green FMS1 showing I am using his FMS while the arrow is pointing to my side showing my flight director is being used.

With just 24 people on board we were able to climb to FL410. This helped save fuel and time. Being so high we can get more direct routing. The weather at the outstation was low enough to require an ILS approach. I haven’t done a “real” ILS approach in a month or two. I miss the “magic” of the runway appearing from under clouds/rain/fog.

We pulled into the gate 18 minutes late. After loading up 70 passengers, we pushed out 23 minutes late.

Takeoff weight was 74000 pounds. I haven’t flown a plane near max weight in a while. The Captain briefed the takeoff, making note that we were 7000 pounds over max landing weight.

The takeoff was normal. I could feel the weight of the plane on rotation and climb out. We were given three different heading changes between takeoff and 5000 feet. The climb out can be a little busy. Since I was hand flying, the Captain (Pilot Not Flying) sets the heading bug. He also takes care of the radio as well as any other button,switch and lever. He is busy. With each heading change I would turn toward the heading right away even though it had not yet been bugged. I feel very at home in my plane. This comes from time in the plane (about 950 hours) and my total time flying (I will pass 1500 hours tomorrow).

We were up against headwinds as high as 90 knots on the flight back. The winds normally don’t get this high until winter. With such high winds I couldn’t make up the time.

I brought my lunch on this trip….a Lunchable with mini-hot dogs. I don’t like cold hot dogs. I decided to try and warm/cook them using sunlight and windshield heat. It kinda worked.

After lunch I joked with the Captain that I was assigned airport standby from 6AM until 2PM and that I would stop working at 2PM. Once 2PM was reached the plane was all his. He laughed.

The arrival corridor was busy. For a reason not known to me the plane ahead slowed down from 300 knots to 260 knots more than 90 miles from the airport. This caused ATC to slow us down from 310 knots indicated to 250 knots. So much for making up time.

Winds were blowing right down the runway on my approach. I briefed a visual approach. With no FMS on my side, once I switched to the ILS frequency, I lost all navigational data on my MFD. We were cleared from 12,000 feet to 4000 feet. Being clear we sensed approach was going to give us a short approach. Already slowed to 210 knots by ATC I set descent mode at 210 knots and slowly opened the flight spoilers to increase the descent rate. With a 40 knot tailwind we were being pushed way downwind. I called for flaps 1 and then flap 8 to increase the descent. Passing through 5000 feet we were given a turn to join final.

Approach told us to do 180 knots to the Final Approach Fix. Since this was a visual approach I asked the Captain to let me know when I reached the FAF.

Just under 2000 AGL I clicked off the autopilot. The landing weight was 64,000 pounds. I haven’t landed a plane this “heavy” in a while. When the plane is heavier it doesn’t float as much. I waited until 10 feet to chop the power. The mains touched down decently. Nothing spectacular…average.

The Captain took over an steered us off the runway. Once clear I noticed the clock….1:59PM. After we parked at the gate I told the Captain I was done. Ha!

My wife picked me up and we went straight to a home improvement store to rent a 100 lb roller to finish off the floor. After that was done we went out to celebrate being done by eating at an awesome Greek restaurant. Yum!

Today starts my 14 hour two day trip on overtime. Probably won’t post until tomorrow night. I will likely be using Twitter tough (the Geek on the Go! section in the upper right hand corner!).

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Airline pilots for the most part are lazy. They like to work the least amount and get paid the most. I guess that’s like every other profession I guess. Eh.

Each month that I am available to work each reserve day I get paid for 75 hours. I could fly ZERO hours or 75 hours and get paid the same. Not a lot of money as most people get paid 160 hours a month. My current pay rate is around $35 an hour (not listing the exact figure to maintain my anonymity ) Each month I take home roughly $2600 in pay plus around $250 a month in per diem. This is all before taxes, 401K, insurance and union dues. Realistically I get about $1950 deposited in my checking account each month. Here’s to all the great spouses who support poor  pilots!

If I happen to fly more than 75 hours during a reserve month then I get paid $35 an hour for each hour over 75 hours. To date I have never flown more than 75 hours in a reserve month. I have been paid for more than 75 hours in a reserve month though. How? Extra flying.

If I pick up extra flying performed on a day I would normally have off then I get paid straight pay plus an extra percentage. Unlike “real world” overtime I don’t get time and a half.

With pilots on furlough I resisted picking up extra flying. I had to give in as I would like to help pay for our trip to Tokyo in October.

I put in and was awarded a 2 day trip worth 14 hours of flight time. Fourteen hours of flying in just 2 days is a lot of flying.

The trip consist of 6 total legs. All of them are pretty long which is a good thing. If it were 2 day trip with 14 hours of flight time and 10 legs (entirely possible!) I would likely not have bid it.

Since this is extra flying I will be paid at least 89 hours for the month as long as I am available each reserve day. The most I have ever been paid in one month was 95 hours when I actually flew just 79 hours (this was one of the two months where I held a hard line).

The total pay before deductions for this extra flying is roughly $600. Not too shabby.

I was advised of my extra flying when I signed in for airport standby today. Nice way to start 8 hours of airport appreciation.

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Yesterday a flight crew of a regional airliner lost an engine on takeoff. They climbed to 1000 feet AGL and troubleshot the issue. They then secured the engine and landed safely back at the airport. Didn’t see the news blurb on CNN? Yeah neither did I.

Due to this incident I was called while sitting airport standby to cover a flight. The Captain was the same  standby Captain I have flown with the last two months. Nice guy who used to train pilots on my aircraft.

When I arrived at the plane, the flight attendants were already on board. I noticed the cabin was cool, but there was no power. Hmmm. I opened the cockpit door and found a black overhead panel…yup no external power connected. There was however PCA attached. Odd.

I turned on the battery master and used the backup RTU (radio tuning unit) to call company and ask for external power. There is a 5 minute limitation on operating the aircraft using the battery master. This is mostly due to the cooling of the two CRTs. Once the call was made I turned off the battery master and went out to do my preflight. By the time I got back to the cockpit we had power. Nice.

On the flight out we had 63 passengers. The Captain was in a fuel saving mindset. Instead of climbing to our planned FL310 we climbed to FL350. This combined with a 3.5 degree descent angle saved 630 pounds of fuel.

After pulling into the outstation we were informed we had just 14 passengers to bring back. Wow. With such a low count we were able to do a 20 minute turn. I had time to do my post flight, walk into the terminal, check my schedule, use them facilities, chit chat with the gate agent, get our clearance and text my wife….all without feeling rushed.

With just 14 passengers our takeoff weight was crazy low. I took a photo of the performance planning page while sitting at the gate waiting for boarding to finish.

Takeoff weight was 54,000 pounds. Max takeoff is 75,000 pounds. Normal takeoff from this particular airport with a full load of passengers and no alternates is 70,000 pounds. I apologized to the Captain for the rough landing that I knew would ensue.

We were both in the fuel saving mindset. With that in mind we set the maximum flex takeoff temperature which allowed the lowest power on takeoff. This also helped reduce the initial climb rate which would have been crazy high if we did a max power takeoff. The initial altitude was just 4000 feet. Even with the flex power takeoff the plane climbed at 3500 feet per minute on the initial climb out.

Climbing through 3000 feet we were cleared to 15,000 feet. I was still in takeoff configuration meaning flaps 8 and takeoff power set. I was hand flying and trying to keep the plane at 200 knots while also trying to keep a comfortable climb angle. During a turn to the south I adjusted the trim a bit much and had a feeling similar to reaching the top of the hill on a rollercoaster. Nice.

The flaps were retracted and I asked for the autopilot while climbing through 13,000 feet. Our flight plan was set for just 300 NM from takeoff to landing. Wanting to save fuel the Captain requested FL400 for a final. We didn’t think we would get the request as the arrival corridor is normally jam packed with aircraft. Somehow we got it.

I set the plane to climb at 2200 feet per minute while maintaining roughly 290 knots until passing through roughly FL280. I then set the plane to climb at 1700 feet per minute and set the speed bug to Mach .74. I could have set the plane to climb at 290 knots or .74 the entire time, but the plane does odd motions while climbing in climb mode. The plane will change pitch to maintain speed. It can be uncomfortable to the passengers as the plane pitches up and down in waves. By setting a constant rate (1700 feet per minute), the angle stays the same for the most part. I can make small changes to maintain speed.

On most flights the plane climbs between 500 and 900 feet per minute above FL300. Being so light I was able to have the plane climb at 1700 feet per minute all the way up the FL400.

We were only up there for 3 minutes before we had to descend in order to make our crossing restriction on the arrival. I waited until the VNAV indicated a 3.5 degree descent rate before starting down. The initial descent rate from FL400 was 3400 feet per minute. With that descent rate I was able to idle the thrust levers and kept them idled from FL400 all the way down to 17,000 feet all while transitioning to an indicated airspeed of 300 knots. Nice.

With such a light takeoff weight, the landing weight was even lighter of course at just 51,000 pounds. The winds were right across the runway at 15 knots.

Even though I configured early and was stable I still bounced it onto the runway. Well not literally bounced, but it wasn’t smooth/normal. I tried to ease it down like I normally do. Once the mains touched, for a brief second the plane settled, then the shock absorbers rebounded sending the plane up slightly. Right away the ground spoilers popped up pushing the plane back down onto the runway. When the plane is full the plane settles much easier without the rebound. The plane I fly is much easier to land when it’s fully loaded than it is light. Thinking back I could have flared longer, but I was tired.

We were 15 minutes early. We had to wait for a few minutes for a gate to open. While the plane was stopped with the parking brake set, I made a PA letting the passengers know about the delay and that I was sure they were all awake after that landing. During deboarding we had the cockpit door open. One of the passengers stopped by and joked, “geeez the landing on XXXX airlines was much smoother”. I turned around, smiled and shrugged. If you can’t laugh you can’t live….one of the sayings I live by.

I am on reserve at home today with a 2 hour call out. Doubt I will get called. I then have three days off. Still working on a few blogs answering questions that have been posted.

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I’ve had the same belt for over a year. I have worn it through TSA checkpoints without “going off” hundreds of times. This morning it went off!

Both the Captain and I both beeped. Initially I thought it was my hotel pen in my pocket. The TSA screener advised it could be my belt. I explained it had not gone off the last time I walked thru this exact checkpoint last week. He shook his head. Belt came off. I walked through. No beep. I made a comment that the sensitivity was turned up too high. The Captain agreed.

The flight back was my leg. Takeoff weight was 64,000lbs. The Captain decided to not use Flex Thrust for takeoff. I didn’t question why.

I set takeoff thrust and we began rolling down runway 4. The plane reached rotation speed of 124 knots in a little more than 3400 feet. At 400 feet I asked for heading mode and began a turn to heading 320. Being so light the climb rate was just over 3000 feet a minute. Fun.

One the arrival there was a bit of confusion over a crossing restriction. We were told to cross 40 miles north of the ABC VOR at FL240. When I tried to input the restriction into the FMS I got an error because there were 3 fixes prior to the ABC VOR. I only had one cup of coffee and just decided to use the FIX option and made a fix 40 miles north on the radial we were flying in on. Once set I used to “Range to Alt” bar (better known as the banana bar) to make sure I would make the restriction.

I’m very easy going for the most part. The guy I was flying with gets under my skin. Thankfully it was just the overnight and the legs were short. Some guys make this job harder than it has to be.

I recently had the following question presented to me.

This is a question related a bit to the smooth landings – is it normal for the plane to feel like the wings are rocking from side to side just right before the wheels hit the runway?
Sort of felt as if someone was jiggling it? Could that have been from crosswinds?
Weird question, I know – I have just been wondering about it for a while because it was pretty noticeable on at least two flights!
I have only noticed it on the type of plane you fly..

I have a longer post to the answer which I will post separately tonight or tomorrow. I am including this here because this situation happened to me this morning.

I was landing runway 8. The winds on the ground were reported 320/05. The winds on approach were 070/20. Big difference. I watched the winds come around passing through 200 feet. This is when I had to correct the heading and compensate for the changing winds which went from a headwind to a quartering tailwind. I worked the yoke all the way down to the ground. The wings were slightly rocking left and right. Nothing major, but visible.

Due to the tailwind and light landing weight (61,000 lbs) I floated more than I liked. I touched down 500 feet shy of the end of the touchdown zone.

As soon as we finished the parking checklist I called Crew Scheduling. I was released right away. Nice.

The lack of photos lately is directly tied to me forgetting my camera. Will be sure to pack it tomorrow.

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