Kent Wien's Trip Report

Looking for more trip reports? I've moved here...

2010-12-12T16:45:00.003-05:00

I've noticed a lot of hits to this page which hasn't been updated much in the past few years since I've moved over to Gadling where I post the Cockpit Chronicles and Plane Answers columns.

If you're just looking for my videos and photos, the best place for that is at kentwien.com.

Join me over there!

Kent

I'm still abuzz about that London arrival

2009-09-28T22:51:00.002-04:00

I'm still abuzz about that London arrival
Originally uploaded by Fly For Fun

"Descend to 1-3-0."

"Descend to 1-2-0."

I found myself listening to London Control while admiring one of the all-time greatest views I've ever seen.

"Slow to 220 knots. Fly heading 1-7-0."

As we banked to the right, I looked over my right shoulder at the London eye, a blue ferris wheel that stands out among the amber lights struggling for relevance against the sunrise.

No one should be up this early. Most of London is still asleep, and even if they were awake, they wouldn't be seeing the view we were witnessing. The lights of the city, the bridges crossing the Thames river and the sunrise that blankets the buildings with more light after every turn of our holding pattern makes me pause for a moment to realize just why this job is the most visually rewarding of any occupation.

As we turned to the right one more time, I began to ponder whether an astronaut would actually prefer the variety of these spectacular sights that a mere 'low-level' pilot can see.

A 777 ahead of us was still dark enough to cover the city lights. Even Mike, the captain with close to 40 years in the air, was taken by the scene. "That's just incredible" he said as the airliner banked to the right and peeled away from us, just 1,000 feet below.

I had to resist the temptation to pull out my camera. I had taken some photos earlier, at 12,000 feet, above the 10,000 foot floor where we can't allow a camera to distract us during the more critical 'sterile period' of our arrival into Heathrow.

So often I wish I could simply upload to Flickr the five most interesting things my eye sees on a flight. I have to try to capture whatever I can and post them here on Flickr.

It was a couple of well timed views like this that inspired me to post a picture from every flight with a small caption on a blog years ago. Then I'd write more. And then more. Finally leading to the Cockpit Chronicles blog.

It'd be so much easier if you guys could just sit in the cockpit jumpseat.

The most amazing sight I've ever seen while flying...

2008-07-24T09:46:00.001-04:00

The most amazing sight I've ever seen while flying...
Originally uploaded by Fly For Fun

I'll probably get around to blogging about this in Cockpit Chronicles next month, but I wanted to share this with you here first.

Not many pilots (myself included) have ever seen Noctilucent clouds before. But what started out looking like Northern Lights turned out to be these Noctilucent clouds which reach an altitude of 300,000 feet.

Read about them here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noctilucent_cloud

I have video to go along with this picture. It's great to hear the other pilots asking about these clouds on the North Atlantic air-to-air frequency. Judging by the comments, it was obvious that most of us had never run across these before.

This photo is almost exactly how it looked to us. I had to use a slow shutter with a high ISO to capture it on Monday night, July 21st, 2008.

Just look at all this work that needs to be done...

2008-07-06T09:01:00.002-04:00

It's important to do a thorough walk-around inspection...
Originally uploaded by Fly For Fun

I know I've slowed down on posting here lately. But I'm still posting to Gadling, Flickr and YouTube like crazy.

So, unless I have something specific to say that I can't say over at Cockpit Chronicles or Plane Answers at Gadling, I probably won't be posting much more to this blog.

Take a look at those sites if you haven't seen them yet!

Cockpit Chronicles and Plane Answers
Kent's Flickr Page
Kent's YouTube Page
Kent's Twitter

I'll still check the comments here, so feel free to get in touch with me that way if you'd like.

Plane Answers: Is "Free Flight" the answer to ATC delays?

2008-05-30T22:39:00.002-04:00

Map Display
Originally uploaded by Fly For Fun

Kent:

I know a lot has been written lately about airport delays, I have also read something about "Free Flying." With TCAS is ATC obsolete? Should ATC be more focused on ground operations, to get planes in the air? I know from most recent articles the ATC system is operating on antiquated systems and in need of a massive overhaul. I am interested to hear your opinion, is "Free Flying" in our future?

-Justin

Read my take on Justin's question in the latest Plane Answers.

Cockpit Chronicles: Our easiest trip: the two-day San Juan

2008-05-27T14:33:00.004-04:00

One leg down and one leg back the next day. It doesn't get nicer than this!

We came upon a cell that needed to be dealt with (yeah, as in GO AROUND-not vaporize) and yet we still managed to arrive in San Juan 30 minutes early.

It was great to visit with Captain Hank and hang out near the beach in San Juan. Just the ticket for my Paris marathon of trips coming up.

Cockpit Chronicles: Bombed in Paris

2008-05-26T08:51:00.002-04:00

767 cockpit arriving in Paris
Originally uploaded by Fly For Fun

The danger in this Chronicles title is the possible association with drinking the night away in Paris. Trust me, that's not what happened. Read all about my first Paris trip of the season here.

There's more Paris to come this summer, since I managed to get a whole month of it for June! I'm going to try to find something different for each trip. Let's see how that works, given the very expensive Euro/Dollar exchange rate.

Plane Answers: Overcoming the fear of flying

2008-05-26T08:44:00.002-04:00

Another sunset view
Originally uploaded by Fly For Fun

By far the most popular question I've been getting for Gadling's Plane Answers is how to overcome a fear of flying. I did my best to tackle it this week, answering questions about tailskid strikes, turbulence and the 10,000 foot sudden drop.

I wonder what percentage of passengers is genuinely afraid of flying. If I had to guess, I'd say 10% of the airplane is made up of nervous flyers. I included a few links to some resources in the post that may help people overcome their fear.

Plane Answers: Takeoff speeds, weights and lavatory drains

2008-05-17T21:05:00.002-04:00

Jetblue A320 takeoff from Boston
Originally uploaded by Fly For Fun

This Friday's Plane Answers covered a few topics that were short enough to combine into one post. Ever wonder what happens to the water from a lav's sink? Take a look at the latest questions and answers here. If you're curious about anything related to the pointy-end of an airplane, ask away!

Plane Answers: When are pilots afraid of turbulence?

2008-05-09T09:00:00.001-04:00

White Knuckle Flyer?
Originally uploaded by Fly For Fun

Kyle writes:

First of all, thanks for taking the time to respond to people's questions. There's something I've always wanted to know. Do pilots ever get scared of turbulence? If so, what makes them bad enough to actually be scary. Is there a way a passenger can know when to be concerned and when it's just normal bumps and shakes?

Read the follow up answer with video here.

The Airline industry's newest business model: Desperate Housewives

2008-05-05T12:00:00.000-04:00

Sunrise in Barbados
Originally uploaded by Fly For Fun

Two trips in one blog post this time! A Miami turn and a three-day with Barbados and Miami layovers.

The talk of the cockpit revolves around what's going on with the latest merger rumors. I think we only need to look at a typical episode of Desperate Housewives to see where the industry is heading.

After these two trips, I'm off for the next couple of weeks. Time to visit my mother-in-law in Germany with my wife and two kids.

I'll still put out a couple of Plane Answers every Friday, though.

Plane Answers: When do pilots use the autopilot?

2008-05-04T16:51:00.002-04:00

Left turn on course
Originally uploaded by Fly For Fun

This week's Plane Answers covers the when and how often we use the autopilot on the 757.

Justin asks:

My question concerns the autopilot. During the course of a flight how often is it used? Are there times where it can not be used because of heavy turbulence and other weather phenomenon?

Read the answer here.

Cockpit Chronicles: Domestic Duties

2008-04-28T12:00:00.000-04:00

Uh, oh. We've got the map out.
Originally uploaded by Fly For Fun

It looked horrible on paper. The first day took us from Boston to Chicago and then on to Miami. The next day had an early morning departure from Miami to San Francisco. After lunch and some daytime sleeping, we left that night for Boston. Arrived in Boston around 7 in the morning on the third day.

But the truth is, it wasn't as bad as I expected. Maybe Roland had something to do with that, but we really didn't feel tired.

Read all about the trip, including some nice pictures from the Miami to San Francisco flight here.

Plane Answers: How close are airliners allowed to fly?

2008-04-25T08:03:00.002-04:00

This is my first trans-Atlantic crossing
Originally uploaded by Fly For Fun

Every Friday Gadling I try to answer a Plane Answers query. The questions coming in have been great, and I've noticed that some of you have submitted a few. The most often asked question has been about my path to this job, and I plan on writing that up soon, but it's probably going to take a bit more time than, say, this weeks question regarding how close airliners are allowed to fly.

I'm sure passengers are a little uncomfortable when they see another airplane outside the window so close. But keep in mind, for that airplane to be there, we usually know about it up front. I'll probably write about how TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) has really improved air travle safety in a future Cockpit Chronicles.

I have just two more of the Cockpit Chronicles posts to catch up with and then I'm off to join the family in Germany where they're visiting my mother-in-law. Believe it or not, I really like her! Both Linda and I have been very lucky in the in-law department.

Cockpit Chronicles: Caracas and New York

2008-04-24T11:00:00.002-04:00

There were plenty of opportunities on this three-day trip for some good pictures. We had a quiet Caracas layover followed by a good day out in Manhattan, where we caught a play, November, with Nathan Lane. I came really close to losing my Sigg water bottle, but thanks to a very kind-hearted agent, I managed to get it back! You should have seen it. If only I had a camera. Wait a minute, I did!

Plane Answers: "When did first class become the crew lounge?"

2008-04-18T22:33:00.004-04:00

Just in the nick of time, I managed to post another Plane Answers over at Gadling. This one deals with a miffed passenger who wonders why crew members are allowed to sit in first class when there are plenty of open seats in coach available for them. I try my best to politely answer his query.

I'm just finishing up a post about Caracas and New York City, but I've been called out on another three day trip that doesn't have much time available for blogging.

I managed to get a line for next month. I'm hoping to trade around for some of the Paris trips that happen to start on May 1st.

R.I.P. Luscombe N71808 1946-2008

2008-04-14T09:07:00.014-04:00

When I was 19 years old during my sophomore year at Washington State University, I was in a quandary. I had been building flight time by sharing rental expenses with friends and even strangers by putting up flyers all over the school offering "night flights over Pullman--$5." I would rent the 172 and split the costs 4-ways, making the ride just $5. I had 170 passengers by the time I realized that my insurance company wouldn't cover this 'operation.' So I came up with the idea of borrowing some money and buying a vintage two-seater to fly around Pullman while I went to school. I needed to get from the 90 hour point to about 215 hours so I could start working on my commercial, multi, and instrument ratings, followed by my CFI.

My dad did not want me to fly while at school. He thought I should only concentrate on getting my degree and nothing else. His fear was that I would find a flying job before finishing up, which was a well founded concern, it turned out. So I borrowed $3000 from my boss at a hobby shop and $2500 from my grandparents to pay for the $5500 airplane. So while in school, I had a bicycle that I borrowed from my sister and an airplane. I figured I could get a ride to the airport from my passengers.

A few days later, I found a Luscombe that was in fair shape. I rented a 152 and flew my brother down to Baker, Oregon to buy it. Kurt flew the Luscombe back and we arrived in Pullman with a 35 knot crosswind. Since we had no radio communication between us, I had him follow me to a grass strip that was more into the wind where he could land. I then went on to Pullman and landed the 152, which handled the crosswind much better than the Luscombe would have.

I went on to fly that Luscombe for hundreds of hours. I landed on top of a hill north of Pullman, I gave rides to my girlfriend, friends and strangers. I even took my mom up in the airplane and realized that she wasn't exactly comfortable with the experience of her youngest kid flying her in a 40 year old antique.

I flew it down to the San Francisco area in California for the 1989 Luscombe fly-in. I was the first of 110 Luscombes to show up. I had a blast flying in formation with a cub and 6 other Luscombes throughout the event. I won the youngest participant award and the "hard luck story" award because of my experience getting to the event--a story that I wrote about here.

I slapped a "Wien Air Alaska" sticker on the side of the airplane, simply because I couldn't think of where else to put it.

I had to sell the Luscombe to my brother 5 years after I bought it just to pay off some of what I owed him for the flight training and fuel he provided me. I should have taken out a loan to keep the airplane.

So where is that little airplane now?

My dad was having dinner last week with a friend who mentioned he was looking for a Luscombe. The next day, the gentleman found a project advertised and noticed it had a Wien sign on the side. So he called my dad and asked him if he or the airline ever had a Luscombe (don't laugh, Wien had a J-3 Cub and a Cessna 140 at one point). My dad couldn't think of how a Wien sign got on a Luscombe, and it wasn't until my step-mom told him that it had to have been my old airplane that the puzzle came together.

It seems after we sold the airplane that it was flipped over on it's back. Someone else bought the airplane and stored it for the next 15 years. So when it came up for sale, the friend of my dad's went and took pictures of it. I'm glad he shared them with me, but I actually shed a tear when I saw the airplane. Here's what I'm talking about:

Note the condition of the prop. I bought that Sensenich prop brand new in '89. The thought had occurred to me to buy the basket case and someday restore the airplane. But just about everything would need to be replaced, leaving you with a $25,000 airplane that you'll have $35,000 into. Not to mention the logistics of where to keep it and how to convince the wife that we needed to buy this airplane. I'm still not ruling it out, but it's a longshot.

Someday maybe ol "Shamrock" will fly again. I hope so. Whoever buys it, let me know when you're ready to sell it. I might be ready as well.

(Update: The airplane was sold to Garwin Burroughs in Oregon, I believe. We talked last year and his plan is to restore the airplane eventually.)

Kent's 15 minutes of fame. from Kent Wien on Vimeo.

Plane Answers: How to become a pilot at 40 years old

2008-04-13T14:17:00.004-04:00

Plane Answers is in full swing now, and we plan to post it every Friday. Since I was flying this week, I had to wait until Saturday to post the latest question where I talked about the various flight schools a pilot could use if they wanted to get their training done as soon as possible. I'd love to hear from the regulars here. Just use this form and if it's interesting enough to the general public, I'll use it.

I had a great trip this weekend, as those of you who read my twitter updates know. I'll post the trip report for this Caracas and New York trip shortly.

The picture on the right is my good friend Russ and his Cessna 180 that he recently sold. I figured it matched the Plane Answers question enough to use it. But more and more pilots are selling their larger airplanes (like my brother) because of the higher fuel prices and the state of the economy. It's all about efficiency now--in cars and especially airplanes.

You wouldn't think I'd fool you, would I?

2008-04-07T11:43:00.003-04:00

Cessna 207
Originally uploaded by Fly For Fun

The April 1st edition of Gadling.com was entirely made up stories from the staff. All except one story, that is. Yep, you guessed it, my "Airline mistakenly carries passenger on the outside of plane" story turned out to be true.

Read this post to see the Anchorage Times article from 1992 that tells the story. I know the former manager of the airline who recently gave me some more details about the incident. It turns out the pilot thought that the kid had damaged the horizontal stabilizer since the airplane was flying erratically. He turned around and landed and was shocked to see the kid where he landed. He couldn't understand how the kid got there so quickly at first. As the story says, he was let go from MarkAir Express.

Plane Answers: How do pilots move up to Captain?

2008-04-03T21:49:00.002-04:00

Captain Mike
Originally uploaded by Fly For Fun

I've been asking myself this one for years, it seems. Well, the truth is somewhere in this first post from a feature we're calling Plane Answers over at Gadling. Please contribute any good questions and comments! It's not going to work very well if I don't get some good questions--so fire away!

Cockpit Chronicles: A three legged turn

2008-03-27T08:48:00.004-04:00

See why we had to add a stop in San Juan on this St. Thomas turn over Easter. Ran into Barack Obama down there as well--kind of. And how did I persuade the captain to give me the third leg? Well, you'll just have to find out here.

Photoshop Express Album

2008-03-27T08:30:00.003-04:00

2008 Cockpit Photos

Just messing around with the new online photo sharing and editing sight, Photoshop Express from Adobe. It's free and very full featured. Give it a try. It requires the somewhat new Flash 9 plugin. If it doesn't load, you'll know you don't have that plugin yet.

Cockpit Chronicles: A view from the office window

2008-03-22T12:40:00.003-04:00

Sometimes I forget how nice it is to fly over land. There's just SO much to take pictures of as this two day trip to L.A. reminded me. I had a chance to fly with a great guy, Bill, and talk small planes all the way across the country. Bill has an amphibious biplane (well, FOUR of them, actually) that he flies from his back yard. And Gadling is going forward with the Plane Answers column where I attempt to answer actual questions each week. Let's see how that goes. I'm sure the questions won't be like this one I got this week:

Great i enjoyed reading this blog am looking forward to a small
answer....
I am a production test pilot of a tranport aircraft.In one of the
tests today the aircraft viciously rolls to the left with aileron &
rudder trim neutral.Full left trimmer the roll is reduced but then u
run out of trim.We checked the aileron posotions all ok...as per
specifications....flaps were not used.Balnce tab in the aircraft is
fixed.Any thing why is it causing or what can be done...i am thinking
of gtg the CG checked...but
Any wise comments please shoot

Yikes. Anyone care to guess what could be wrong? I responded with the possibility of an inop fuel gauge causing an out of balance condition, but he says that's been ruled out. He responds:

Plane is AN-32 ( Russian ) asked i liked the blog so tht why not try.....no fuel imbalance problem checked already anything else come to ur mind

So I'm asking you guys now. Any ideas?

Time lapse photography

2008-03-17T09:22:00.001-04:00

This could be my next project. Has anyone done much of this? What still camera are you using?

Top Gear: Air/Car Racing at it's best

2008-03-16T20:33:00.005-04:00

I just LOVE the British TV show Top Gear. It's one of my favorite things to watch, not really because of the car aspect, but the fantastic writing and hosts. The photography is amazing as well. Take a look at this video:

Learning to fly...

2008-03-16T11:37:00.005-04:00

My favorite web personality, Veronica Belmont of Mahalo Daily shows you what's involved in a $100 1-hour introduction flight. If you've ever thought about learning to fly, why not try it out at your local airport. She did:

To find the local flight school in your area that offers this $100 intro flight, go to www.beapilot.com

Note that the $12,000 figure is for American Flyers, which is a high end U.S. school. My local airport charges half that price for 55 hours toward your Private.

Cockpit Chronicles: How pilots stay proficient

2008-03-15T13:05:00.004-04:00

I just got back from training last week. It's such a nice feeling to get that over with. Here are all the details of the week in Dallas.

On another note, Nielson has just come out with it's Blog ratings for February and Gadling was ranked as the #1 in growth and #3 overall! I was blown away. Here's a NYT story on the results. I think "Cockpit Chronicles" has a good home!

Is Pan Am finally dead?

2008-03-04T11:16:00.003-05:00

Occasionally I get to write a news item on Gadling. I just couldn't pass this one up. You can't imagine a more pilot bashing, union busting, corner cutting airline than the 'new' Pan Am, or Boston and Maine Airways as they're called now. Or were.

Twitter

2008-03-04T10:51:00.003-05:00

I'm going to start using Twitter more. In fact, I'll 'twitter' my training experience while I'm down in Dallas. Join the free service here and follow along. Be sure to add me. Just do a search for veryjr and add RuthannOC (frequent contributor here) while you're at it. Class starts at 12:30 today. International regulations is the subject of the day.

Cockpit Chronicles: Taken for a ride in Panama City

2008-03-03T23:41:00.003-05:00

The response over at Gadling has been fun to see.

Here's the next trip, released here a bit early. It goes "live" tomorrow at 9 a.m. eastern time.

We had a great time visiting the Panama Canal, and I managed to learn a lot about the history of that "eighth wonder of the world."

Cockpit Chronicles: How pilots choose their schedules

2008-02-29T10:34:00.004-05:00

Flew as FO on a Santo Domingo turn the other day. Apart from staring at a Caravan that wanted to land on us, it was pretty uneventful. Read the whole story here. I also failed to mention in the story that as we were pushing back the APU quit, which left us without air conditioning and power for a moment. This is a known issue on the 757 and the 767. It typically happens when you shut off the air-conditioning just prior to starting the engines. It was no problem to restart the APU while the tug was still connected.

Gadling: Should pilots have to compete for your business?

2008-02-27T12:50:00.007-05:00

Many have seen the video going around from the short takeoff and landing Valdez May Day fly-in contest. My brother was a spectator at the event and had some great clips that he shared with me.

While the takeoff is pretty amazing, the story behind a couple of the competitors was pretty cool. A father and 18 year old son pretty much cleaned up at the contest. Check out the video here.

Cockpit Chronicles: Panama City Riots

2008-02-25T10:12:00.007-05:00

757 Black and White
Originally uploaded by Fly For Fun

I was getting a few trips behind and so I decided to post the latest trip from a couple of days ago. I'll catch up over the next few weeks.

Here's the latest post at Gadling.com:

Cockpit Chronicles: Panama City Riots

And here's some video taken of the lunar eclipse:

Using ALL the runway...

2008-02-21T09:27:00.002-05:00

This Russian IL76 wanted to get it's moneys worth out of this runway. Take a look at this takeoff.

Cockpit Chronicles: Travel Tip: Don't leave home without pants!

2008-02-11T07:17:00.000-05:00

Most of you who've read this blog for a while know about my Irish buddy, Ruthann. Well, she gathered up her family and came over to London to meet up with us for a trip to the Air Museum in Duxford.

I wrote about it in the latest Gadling post and Ruthann took a bunch of pictures of this amazing place here.

I also whipped up a video for the Gadling post that's a collection of flying scenes above 10,000 feet. It may seem that the view is always spectacular, but these clips were taken over the last few hundred hours. I'll keep looking for interesting things to film. I'm open to suggestions, but I can't do takeoffs and landings.

Here's what I whipped up. Sometimes flying can be very relaxing:

Miami Turn - "You're pulling my leg!"

2008-02-04T11:01:00.000-05:00

Sometimes its WHO you fly with that makes a trip memorable. Last week I did a Miami turn with a great captain who I'd never flown with.

Cockpit Chonicles: Miami Closed? You're pulling my leg!

Next report: meeting up with Ruthann and her family in London.

2 Day London - "Europe without the jetlag"

2008-02-03T08:29:00.000-05:00

I've been busy catching up on the past few trips to post over at Gadling. The response there and the number of readers has been pretty exciting. I'm having fun with it so far.

So rather than repeat my post, take a look at "Cockpit Chronicles: Europe without the jetlag."

Another post about a Miami turn is coming later today.

I'm flying home tonight with the goal of NOT learning the score of the Superbowl that I'm recording at home. This is going to be incredibly difficult since we'll be flying into Boston. The company often sends us print outs of the score and it's always discussed over ATC frequencies as well. So I'm giving myself about a 5% chance.

I think we've come up with a good name for the Q&A section. Justin suggested "Plane Answers" which I thought fit perfecty. So look for that to come soon.

Need help...

2008-01-29T22:17:00.000-05:00

Justin at Gadling wants to have a Q&A section where I would answer any questions that people ask every week. So I'd like to ask you to help me come up with a name. Any ideas? While you're thinking about that one, take a look at another post I did this morning regarding an A380 panorama cockpit shot. If you have any ideas, post them in the comments section. Thanks!

Aruba Turn - Three of three this month.

2008-01-29T09:39:00.000-05:00

This switch to Gadling has caused me to fall a bit behind. I've just posted about my first trip report over there. It was regarding the 3rd Aruba turn this month. I have to tell you, I'm really not used to actually having to PROOFREAD my stuff. So I went through that first post many times with the help of the Gadling editor to make sure it made sense. I'm happy with the results.

So if you want to read how to park a 757, take a look at the latest Aruba turn post on Gadling.com. And you know I just love it when you comment over there. (I'm starting to sound like Ruthann.)

The big news...

2008-01-28T14:58:00.000-05:00

Last week I was approached by the Justin Glow at the travel website Gadling.com about writing a feature for them called "Cockpit Chronicles." They wanted me to essentially write my trip report on their site, which would mean reaching a larger audience.

I've jumped at the chance to do it, but I want to make sure that those who read and contribute here also head over to my Gadling feature as well. They've got a really slick site that is very frequently updated (practically every hour). But if you just want to go to the "Cockpit Chronicles" section, here's a link: www.cockpitchronicles.com

My plan is to introduce a post that I left over there with a few added details that I might not want to include on the gadling site as they might be a little too aviation geeky, if you know what I mean. So you can still come here and leave comments as well if you think they're more appropriate here. But I'd love to see lots of comments on the Gadling posts!

Thanks for giving me the motivation to keep this blog going. I hope I can post even more often as a result of this move.

Update: Lots coming next week...

2008-01-24T21:20:00.000-05:00

I've been flying my rear end off this past week. I'll have those trip reports plus some big news next week for you. Check back then. Sorry for the delay, I'm just beat.

-Kent

Aruba Turn - Two of three this month.

2008-01-16T21:39:00.000-05:00

After a couple of days off, it was time for another Aruba turn, and once again I was able to fly with a good friend. While I really like almost all of the Boston pilots, it's the ones that you get together with outside of work that I really consider friends, and Dave fits that category. You might remember Captain Dave B. as the one who wasn't thrilled to be packed into a subway with me on a previous Paris trip just so I could show him where there was a great toilet and a place to buy a beer across the city. But I always have the best conversations with Dave and we really enjoy flying together anytime we get the chance.

In addition to flying with Dave, I was able to fly with a co-pilot who would be my FB today that I've never met before. Kim W. is a really nice and funny FO that came over to the 767 when the Airbus A300 was no longer flown out of Boston. We inherited a number of those pilots and they all seem to be great people to fly with.

I was pretty sure this trip would go just like the last one. Boring, in a sense, other than being able to visit with Dave. Funny how things change when you least expect it.

We decided to let Kim take a break all the way down to Aruba and then Dave and I would split the breaks coming home. So Kim stayed in first class all the way down.

Here she is working hard:

So the flight down was almost completely uneventful. I shot this picture of Dave just after he sat down with his meal. There was just one problem with the lunch. No silverware. Dave has yet to realize this in this shot.

I like this shot of Dave. Needless to say, he's flown with me before.

When we showed up in Aruba, the agent came into the cockpit and told us that the flight home had cancelled. We thought he was kidding. Soon it became obvious that he wasn't joking. Since Boston was going to be seeing a significant amount of snow the next day, the company didn't want to have a bunch of airplanes stuck there for the day.

We gathered up our stuff and met an awaiting bus to take us to our layover hotel. Everyone was pretty excited to get an Aruba layover. I've been flying to Aruba for 6 years now and I've never had a layover there.

Kim, Dave and I met up with two of the flight attendants for dinner on a pier just down the beach. Unfortunately I forgot my camera, but these iPhone pictures give you an idea of the scene on the way to dinner. The sunset was fantastic. You'll have to take my word for it, I suppose.

The plan was to deadhead home via Miami the next morning, to arrive in Boston just as the snow started to let up. I had another dental appointment that I missed, but the Aruba layover was certainly worth it. Although, really, most people would rather do anything than go to a dentist, I suppose. But I did have a good excuse.

I wasn't too sure that we would get out of Miami with the snow falling so hard in Boston that morning. I told Linda that if the company were to lay us over in Miami on Monday night that I would just go to Macworld straight from Miami. The other pilot I'm going to Macworld with just happened to be flying the flight from Miami to San Francisco, so that would work out perfectly, I thought.

Well, that might have been the wrong thing to say to your wife who's at home in a foot of snow with two kids and a driveway that isn't plowed. I realized that I would at least have to get home and dig them out of the snow before going to SF.

I really shouldn't have said anything to her about that contingency, since we made it out of Miami without any problems. In fact, I'm writing this from seat 18B, a center seat in coach, while Dave and Kim are riding up in the cockpit where there's actually more room. At least this has given me some time to catch up on some of these trip reports. When I got home, Linda had slipped on the ice and locked herself out of the house. She wasn't too excited about me being gone for so long with her back pain, so I elected to pass on Macworld. I felt bad for Mike and Rich, but as the saying goes "Happy wife, Happy life." There's always next year. Plus I was able to watch the Steve Jobs keynote presentation which really is the highlight.

I've been getting a bunch of great questions either emailed to me or in the comments section of this blog, and while I have a moment, I thought I'd answer them publicly.

Regarding the daytime transatlantic flying... Yes, almost all flights leave in the afternoon and evening and come back in the morning to keep the flow of traffic going in the same direction across the Atlantic. There are usually about 8 "tracks" or parallel routes across the pond 60 miles apart that make up the North Atlantic Track System (NATS). Your position and altitude along those tracks are strictly controlled and you must reach each waypoint within 3 minutes or you'll need to update your position report to ATC via HF radio (at least for us low tech 757/767's-newer airplanes report these points automatically).

There are a few flights that fly the opposite direction or during the off times in between the rush. They must fly on what is known as a random route. This is done by either flying below 290 or by flying completely around the track system. There's very little traffic out there during these off times such as our daytime London flight. If you're ever flying from the U.S. to Europe, I highly recommend these flights. You'll get to London far more refreshed than if you went overnight. You will lose a day, but at least you'll be awake when you get there. Not only that, but the flights are usually less crowded.

Another question from Mike S. was regarding the breaks we take when we have a relief pilot. I touched on that a little bit above and in other posts but not in great detail. Any flight schedule over 8 hours in one day needs a relief pilot. It's up to the captain to decide how the breaks will happen, but for the most part the whole crew comes up with a plan and it's often the same each time. We usually just divide the flying time into thirds, not including the first and last half hour when we're taking off and landing. It's usually the FB (first officer-B or relief pilot) that takes the first break. That is a less popular break since the flight attendants are serving meals at that time and there's a lot of activity in the cabin. Our rest seat is in the aft left of first class (757) or in the front right of business class (767). There's no longer a first class in the 767.

The pilot flying-which can be the captain or the co-pilot-takes the second break since it's really no fun to come up to the cockpit 30 minutes before your landing to figure out what's going on after sleeping in the back. It's the non-flying pilot that gets this third break.

I usually sleep only if I really am tired during these breaks. Otherwise I might blog or listen to or watch a podcast on the iPhone. I've found that even if you don't sleep, you're still more rested when you get back up to the cockpit. Sometimes I just feel too groggy if I've slept the entire time. Typically the Europe trips have a 2 hour break and the Aruba turn has an hour each way.

I'll be back after the third AUA turn of the month and then we'll finish off with two London trips. Can't wait.

Aruba Turn - One of three this month.

2008-01-16T21:14:00.000-05:00

This month I'm either scheduled to fly the 2 and 3 day London trips or the one day (turn) to Aruba. As I've said last month there probably isn't a more productive trip in the system than the Boston to Aruba turn. It's worth 9 hours and 30 minutes of flying time. That's almost equivalent to a two day trip, and it's not much less than the 12:20 Shannon 3 day trips we used to do. For this long day, we had an FB (relief pilot) who was my good friend Rich Girard. Along with running the Boston marathon and traveling to every exotic location he and his wife can find, Rich is a serious Mac user. So we tend to 'geek out' a little when flying together. In fact, we were planning on meeting up in San Francisco for the Macworld conference there on the 15th of January.

Our captain was Jim I. who tends to be a quiet sort with a dry sense of humor. In all it was an entirely average trip. No issues or passenger problems at all and we were on time on the way down and early coming home. The only interesting pictures I managed were of Rich doing the walk around inspection which is usually the FB's job That left me with nothing more to do than to take pictures while on the ground.

So here are the three best pictures from today's flying:

Then and now... some perspective.

2008-01-14T21:45:00.000-05:00

Someone just sent me a YouTube video from a special the History Channel did called "Big Alaska." The segment covered the role of the bush pilot in the state. When I think about how far aviation has come in such a short time, I only need to look at the flying my grandpa, Noel Wien, did in the early 20's until after WWII. He started Alaska's first airline, Wien Air Alaska, inspired not by money, but the hope of a steady job flying, which was all he wanted to do. Wien Air Alaska flew for over 60 years before folding at the hands of a corporate raider.

So when I really start to think going through security is overwhelming, or finding a place to stow my bag on a deadhead is too much of a pain, or there isn't a hot meal on the 3 hour flight, I just think of how the pilots and passengers of that era got around. Heating the oil over a stove before putting it back into the engine at a cabin somewhere on a frozen lake seems a bit more challenging than finding an agent to connect the jetbridge to the airplane in the morning. Even the flying my dad did in the 50's and 60's makes me feel like we've really come a long way. I look up to my dad probably as much as he looked up to his dad.

Take a look at the video. Some of the footage was stuff I had never seen before. All of the still photos came from my grandpa's collection that I've been working on digitizing though. The man in the hat during the interview is my uncle, Richard. The part about my grandpa is from 1 minute in to the 3 minute mark, plus a little at the end. There was a biography written about him if you're so inclined to read about the early days of bush flying. OK, 'nuff said about my family. Back to the trip reports!

2 Day London - "A trip I could retire on..."

2008-01-11T23:18:00.000-05:00

I think I've just found the holy grail of trips. I love flying to Europe, but there's always a price to pay in terms of jet lag, especially during the layover. Seeing the sights is always fun, but you do feel like you're in a bit of a fog since you've just flown all that way overnight and then took a 4 hour nap before heading into town. So Paris, Manchester and the our previous Shannon were all scheduled this way.

When I first started flying the 767 in late 2001, we had a London trip for a short time. I managed to get a few of those trips and I really tried to make the most of them. We were all sad to see the London trips go when the 777 picked them up out of Boston. I had a chance to fly one more of these trips in January of 2005 when I had a brief stint as a 777 FO out of NY.

So we were really thrilled to learn that for a period of 4 months this winter we would be getting the 'two day' London trip. This is the trip that goes extremely senior on the 777 when pilots bid for their monthly choices.

I was even more excited to get a few of these trip for the month of January. But this trip wouldn't be like the other trans-atlantic flights. Instead of departing around 7 in the evening, we left Boston at 9 a.m. for London. After you get to the hotel in London sometime around 10 p.m., you're only goal is to stay awake until about 10 p.m. east coast time, another 5 hours. We got together for dinner at an Italian restaurant before heading to the hotel bar to watch the last part of the San Diego playoff game.

The next morning I had a choice, either sleep until the normal wake-up time or go out for some breakfast and sight seeing. You guessed it, sleep won. I chose to wake up just a few hours from our pickup time at the hotel which was about 7 a.m. Boston time.

It wasn't until taxiing out from London that I realized why I would bid these trips exclusively if I could. I felt energized compared to a Manchester or Paris trip. Sleep really is critical in this job, needless to say. And even the best intentions can't overcome the time zone differences and flying on the 'back side of the clock.'

Yeah, yeah, yeah, so London's a great trip to get, you say. But there are some differences in flying into Heathrow that are worth noting. They do the constant rate of descent approaches that we see in Manchester but they also have a very unique taxi system that I really wish we'd see adopted at other airports. You see, after landing, there are some centerline lights that light up when you call Heathrow ground. They will tell you to "Follow the greens and hold short of Echo 1" or something similar to that. And sure enough, the centerline lights turn green until Echo 1 where a red stop bar shows up. I managed to get a little video clip of us holding on the taxiway for a passing airplane before the lights turned green again for us. Take a look:

The other interesting part is that, even though we're flying a 767 to LHR, we really felt like we're in a 'quaint' little light twin compared to the 747's and 777's. Soon we'll see the A380 there, so we'll really feel tiny. You really get the idea that this is truly THE international airport.

Not much in the way of layover pictures, but I figured I'd share these shots of the view out the hotel window. Not very exciting, but it gives you an idea of how relaxing my layover was.

But wait! There was at least a little excitement. While surfing in the room, we had a hotel fire alarm that turned out to be a test of the system. Usually we're fast asleep at this point in the day when flying the three day trips, but I was spared the shock of the fire alarm going off while in a dead sleep since this was the two day sequence, and pick up was in an hour or so.

And finally, one other benefit to flying Europe again is that I can fly over Ruthann's house in Ireland so it's a little easier for her to stalk me. She managed to hear us depart from Boston, talk to Shannon overhead and pick up our ACARS messages (text messages to the company essentially). On the way back I was sure to request the weather for ROC (Rochester, NY) via the ACARS since those were her initials and I knew she'd be 'intercepting' the message. I even had a one way conversation with her. So who's stalking who? Yeah, I know. But hopefully she'll be working at the Shannon ATC facility someday. At least that would make it a two way conversation. Here are the pictures from her computer of our ACARS requests and our ATC track.

Off for a couple of days before doing a few Aruba turns. Then it's off to the annual pilgrimage to Macworld in San Francisco! Of course, I'll bring you along.

Update...

2008-01-02T14:16:00.000-05:00

Well, I had hoped to be able to write about my three day trip to Panama City, Panama and Caracas, Venezuela but my front teeth have prevented that. You see, instead of celebrating New Years in Panama, I had to take care of an infected root canal that flared up on the 30th. I'm trying to get everything fixed up so I can go on my London trip on the 6th. I haven't flown to London in 5 years, so I really don't want to miss that trip. Talk to you then...

SDQ 767 Turn "Flat out Lying"

2007-12-30T02:00:00.000-05:00

Unlike any other Boeing airliner, the 767 type rating allows you to fly two surprisingly different airplanes, the 757 and the 767. I would guess that I've flown the 767 in Boston about 10% of the time, mostly on the Paris trips.

This winter we've had more than our usual share of 767 flying with an SDQ turn, a London trip and occasionally on the Barbados trip as well. It's almost a treat to see one on your schedule. Sure enough, when I looked closer at a Santo Domingo turn that had been on my schedule for the past few weeks, I was happy to see that it would be flown with a 767.

The flight attendants for this trip, including Bunny, hadn't seen a 767 in nearly 10 years. Bunny's son Alex is learning to fly and occasionally drops in on this site. It was amusing to see Bunny jump right in and adapt to the different galley and layout so quickly.

This was also the first time for some of the flight attendants to see the new "Lie Flat" seats that we now have in the business class section of the 767's and 777's. Everyone had to try out the seats in SDQ and the general consensus was that while the seats themselves were flat, your feet were still lower than your head. The entertainment system on these airplanes is pretty slick, though.

I took a few pictures of the cabin with the new seats in business class. I even modeled a pilot on a crew rest break for you:

Once again we needed a pair of air carts or "huffers" to start the airplane in Boston and SDQ. These machines are incredibly noisy. Here's what they look like:

Shot this neat picture of an Airbus A300 reflection in the terminal window while I was doing the walk around inspection.

While taxiing out, I snapped a picture from quite a distance of these classic airliners. From left to right, C-46, DC-6, Convair 440, Lockheed Constellation, DC-3.

Since we had an FB on this turn, we had the usual 1 hour break on each leg. I'm currently typing this post while on my break on the SDQ leg back to Boston. It's pretty bumpy right now--I'd call it occasional moderate turbulence with some smooth periods in between. It's nice to be in the back while Captain Brad R. and FB Brad L. get us through these bumps.

Brad the FB is currently the number one guy on the FO 767 seniority list. (In comparison, I'm number 34 out of 40). Brad is probably going to be able to hold Captain on the MD-80 or "Super 80" as we like to call it at this airline in a few months. This means the rest of us move up a number. It's always the nice guys who move on, it seems, and he sure fits that catagory. I hope to be in his shoes in 3 or 4 years. Things move excruciatingly slow here compared to other airlines, but it will be worth the wait. The new age 65 may add some time to that number as well, but I suspect we're still going to see a number of pilots retire at 60.

I showed Captain Brad a few tricks to getting the sunset cockpit shots with the Canon SD800is. Almost all of the pictures this year have been with this little camera and I'm still loving it. It's been nice to have a small camera that I can feel safe taking out on layovers with me. But the big feature for cockpit shots is the wider angle lens that it has compared to the other Canon Digital Elphs. Here's an example:

The bumps seem to have stopped and my break is up. Watch out next year for my post on what should be a really fun, and new to me, layover for New Years eve. Thanks again for coming along!

Aruba Turn - "A Jolly Christmas Eve"

2007-12-27T10:33:00.000-05:00

A Christmas Eve Aruba Turn - "What could go wrong?"

Aruba turns (one day trips) are a great way to get your time in for the month. At 9 and a half hours, they're about the best turn we have in the system. We're limited to 8 hours with two pilots or 10 scheduled hours with 3 pilots. I was the FB today, having traded a Christmas Barbados trip for this turn on the 24th.

Since the weather was great and the crew was exceptional, I figured, "Hey, what could go wrong?" Never be too confident.

After some issues with an inoperative APU (auxiliary power unit) we managed to get the right equipment at the gate to get out of town. Since an inop APU means we will need pre-conditioned air (heat essentially) at the gate as well as two high pressure air carts to start the airplane. Boston is usually on top of these things and, sure enough, we were just one minute late departing.

Captain Paul M. brought some amazing pastries that looked like they came straight from a Parisian patisserie. Everyone was in a good mood and we were all looking forward to getting home tonight. In fact, we were even looking into leaving Aruba earlier than scheduled since we didn't have many passengers flying with us on Christmas eve.

Maybe that was a bit optimistic. More on that in a moment.

As you may remember, having an FB on the flight means we usually get between one and two hours for a break, depending on the length of the flight. Today we had an hour and 10 minutes each for the breaks and I used most of mine researching a new gadget. I'm considering buying an Ooma, so I was reading all the reviews that I had loaded on the mac. Ooma is a company that sells a box that allows you to make VOIP (voice over internet phone) calls without any monthly fee. The only catch is the $399 purchase price (at least until the end of the year, after that they say it will be going to $599). I love the idea of cutting any ties to the phone company, although I'll still have to pay Comcast for my internet service, of course. I bring this up mostly to hear if anyone has any experience with Ooma. I have two VOIP phone lines right now and I'm happy with the quality for the most part. I'll let you know if I cut the cord and go with this exclusively. --Update: I ordered the box. It's on the way.

After we landed in Aruba, the airplane would not accept external power. This is a problem since, without an APU, if we shut the engines down without external power the airplane will go dark. The cargo doors won't open and it will get pretty warm in the cabin quickly. After trying three external power carts (ever one they could find on the field) we knew we had to shut down and hope that maintenance could fix the problem. If not, we were in for an Aruba layover, something I would normally have loved, but not on Christmas eve.

We shut down and the passengers got off the dark airplane. Since we had some time while we were waiting for the mechanic to look into the problem, I talked everyone into getting a Christmas Eve picture taken by the airplane on the ramp. Everyone joined in and we had a few laughs getting these pictures:

By the time FO Mike R. and I preflighted the outside of the airplane, the mechanic, John, found the problem. It was a tiny fuse that had burned out down below the cockpit that prevented the airplane from accepting external power. We were set!

Just as we began boarding, the 'pre-conditioned air' cart (AC) died. Wouldn't you know it ran out of gas. The temperature in Aruba was about 82 degrees F (28C) so we really needed to get some air for the passengers. I also went down to mention that we would need to 'huffer' carts (high pressure air) to start the engines as well. They managed to find only one huffer cart. That was enough air to pwer up the packs and get the passenger cabin cooled, but it wasn't enough to get the engine started. After a short delay, we had a second air cart hooked up and we were ready to go.

I really figured this trip would go smoothly. They usually do, really. As any frequent reader here knows, I've been on a roll this year, maintenance wise. But just when you least expect it, usually when you need to get home the most (remember the Superbowl trip 11 months ago?) you'll have one of these days. Amazingly, we made it home just 5 minutes later than our scheduled time. Just in time to get home and put some presents under the tree.

New Years should be interesting this year and I'll have a detailed post about that sometime next year. So check that out next week. I figured I'd give myself one year of blogging about each trip and then I'd decide whether or not I'd keep going. It's been a fun way to 'log' the flights and people i've come across along the way, so I intend to keep up the pictures and posts. Thanks for checking in here and posting the great comments. If you keep it up, I'll keep it up.

Talk to you next year, and have a great Christmas.

Barbados Misconnect "Blogging in Miami"

2007-12-21T23:17:00.000-05:00

Well, the fourth snow of the month finally caught up to me. Here's a shot of the drive to work from New Hampshire to Boston:

We were to leave again in the afternoon for one leg to Miami and then another leg to Barbados. The arriving airplane landed about 15 minutes late and then an MD-80 had pushed from the gate and was being de-iced and anti-iced. This process can take a bit of time and so our airplane didn't make it to the gate for another hour.

Jeblue had cancelled a flight to Cancun, so 50 passengers came over to AA after buying last minute tickets. Apparently Jetblue was not required to book them on AA it seems since it was a weather related problem. I chatted with some of the passengers and told them that they had a pretty good chance that the Cancun leg would be held for them since there were so many on our flight.

Even though we were over 2 hours late getting to Miami, they somehow held their connecting flight for the Cancun passengers. Vacation saved!

We did the two part spray as well (type II and type IV), which is a big part of the delay. Here you can see the lovely view we get after the spraying process. Makes it tough to get any pictures.

I'll be flying Christmas eve, but I doubt I'll post anything for a while after that. Have a great Christmas everyone!

Barbados 3 day "The calm during the storm"

2007-12-21T22:07:00.000-05:00

Everyone was talking about the big Noreaster we'd be getting in Boston. Snow and later freezing rain, it was going to be ugly on Sunday the 16th. Lucky for us, we'd be leaving on the 15th for Miami and then Barbados, where we'd relax on Sunday before flying back on Monday. Don't you love it when the timing just works out perfectly? I did feel bad for my wife who was snow blowing the driveway while I was away. Fortunately my neighbor came out to help her finish up.

Well this Noreaster didn't disappoint. We got dumped on. 10 inches of snow, on top of the 4 or 5 that we already had. It did rain a bit at the end which put a glassy layer of ice on top of the snow. It made for some good backyard sledding though.

I got the updates from my phone while sitting in a sports bar with my Captain, Phil B., and watching the Patriots win again. We sent everyone pictures of our 'plight.'

Flying back, here's Barbados while we were climbing above 10,000 feet.

Here's Miami snapped from the observer's seat.

This device also tells you if you're left or right of the centerline taxiing in and when to slow down and stop. It even checks for obstacles on the ramp. Flight number, destination, aircraft number, departure time and minutes to departure shown.

But what's this? Yet more snow in the forecast on my next Barbados trip it would seem. Next time maybe we wouldn't get so lucky. Or maybe we would. Stay tuned.

Saint Thomas Turn "Snow, sand, snow"

2007-12-21T18:53:00.000-05:00

Going to work on December 13th, I KNEW that our trip down to Saint Thomas (STT) and back that day would be interrupted. I packed my bag with the knowledge that we'd be staying on the island overnight.

It wasn't because of the weather we were seeing prior to departing Boston. In fact, it seemed like a normal overcast day there. But the reports were of 6 to 10 inches of snow starting about an hour after we left in the morning. By the time we got down to Saint Thomas, the computer showed more than half of the flights in and out of Boston were cancelled. I was digging through my bag for the sunscreen. While we waited, the flight attendants offered us some cookies. Needless to say, we didn't eat them all:

Somehow, our flight was still planned to go back to Boston. It all hinges on whether or not the Logan airport could keep up with plowing the runways and keeping them open. Since this was one of the first snow storms of the year, and the largest by far up to that point, I was still thinking we would be lounging at the beach while everyone up north had to dig their cars out of the snow and fight the afternoon rush hour traffic. But we wouldn't be spared.

Captain Paul M. and I both came to life on this trip. It certainly broke up the monotony of the normal, on time trips we usually fly. Instead, we were curious what would happen next. Would we cancel in Saint Thomas? Divert into Washington Dulles or maybe Norfolk, VA?

Off and on while flying north we heard reports that the airport was open, then closed, then open again. Finally we were on the Boston Approach Control frequency. We asked about the delays getting in and they told us that there would be no delay for us at all. They had just opened runway 4 right again and we were cleared for the approach.

We mad an 'autoland' which is required when the visibility is as low as it was for us. That went without a hitch and we taxied in slowly since the snow covered the runway turnoff points and some of the signs. I let the tower know that we had a loss of 10 knots of airspeed while on final approach at about 1000 feet so they could pass that along to the airplanes behind us, as well as our braking action which we thought was "Fair."

Ruthann told me later that she was listening to the Boston frequencies at www.liveatc.net and after our arrival, only one more flight made it in before the runway was closed again. This caused quite a debate on the radio, mainly from some JetBlue pilots, since they had just finished de-icing and now the airport was closed again. They would have to start the process all over again when it opened up again. We weren't paying too much attention to them, as we would have to avoid an outbound United flight that was in our way.

We both thought we were SO lucky to be coming in and not going out. You see, one of the biggest concerns for pilots during these snow days hinges on our outbound flight canceling. If that happens, then we don't get paid for that trip, which can mean a loss of up to a quarter of your monthly pay. Bidding reserve, where you're guaranteed at least 73 hours starts to look like a good idea in December and January.

Approaching the gate, we saw where all the snow is taken. A huge machine that melts it by the truckload and puts out a huge plume of black smoke. The melted snow then goes down through a drain and out to the ocean.

I call it "Fried Snow."

When we got to the gate, I first took a picture outside the airplane. According to the time stamp on my camera, this was 20 minutes after we landed.

At the top of the jetbridge, I looked back and saw Paul still gathering up his stuff in the cockpit. Worthy of another picture.

We dodged a bullet on this trip. We weren't even late getting in. But there was a 'Noreaster' snowstorm forecasted for my next trip. Stay tuned...

Reassignment Heaven!

2007-12-16T23:51:00.000-05:00

On the 10th, I was supposed to fly a two day San Juan trip. But I got a phone call from our crew scheduling 'asking' me if I wanted to fly on the 9th to San Francisco instead. I say 'asking' because if you answer your phone on your days off you can be required to take the trip. But Camille was nice enough to give me the option. I checked with the wife who thought it would work out even better for us and then it dawned on me. This was a San Francisco trip and my very long time friend Mike is a San Francisco based captain. What if Mike was the captain on THIS trip?

I agreed to take the trip and then I ran to the computer and pulled it up:

Yes! I've been waiting to fly with Mike for the past 13 years. It was finally going to happen. 10,000 pilots. Think of the odds on that. I worked during my furlough for Mike managing his hobby shop in Coppell, Texas. Here's Mike in this YouTube video at my side when I crashed one of my R/C helis back then. And another video of Mike tormenting his dog with an electric RC plane at his house. So you get the idea. We go back a long time.

Mike's copilot exceeded 30 hours in 7 days, so he was off the trip. I was to fly to SFO and then deadhead back the next afternoon. So the plan was to stay with Mike at his place which is about an hour and a half north of San Francisco in Santa Rosa, CA. Mike also has access to some neat toys to fly, but more on that later.

I had my video camera with me and so I had to show Mike that gadget. We shot a few scenes in the cockpit, nothing during the sterile period though (below 10,000 feet or while taxiing).

Now for the fun part. Mike has a Citabria that he's really cleaned up nicely. New engine, etc... But he also has access to an RV-8, a Diamond DA-20 Eclipse and a Columbia 400. So the question is, which one do we take out to fly the next morning? We only had about an hour, so it could really just be one of the airplanes.

Choices:

Since I've already flown an RV-8 and a Citabria, and since I like airplanes that are at least in the realm of potential ownership on my part, I chose the Diamond DA-20 over the Columbia to fly. The fuel costs would be about 1/4 as well.

The Diamond has become popular with flight schools in both the Rotax and Continental powered versions. Maybe some of you guys out there are flying one? If so, consider yourselves lucky. This is SO much nicer to fly than the 152 that most of us learned in. It's smooth, quiet(er), fast, it has a stick, has great visibility, it's clean, efficient, and even sexy!

I think any airline pilot type who hasn't flown any small airplanes for a long time would be really comfortable in this airplane. It's feels closer to the jet than it does to a Cessna 152. It even has TIS, Garmin's traffic alerting system. That'll make 'em comfortable. (It's hard to give up some of the features you're used to at work)

So naturally we had to film the .6 hour flight. Here's a version on that looks much nicer than YouTube, but if you have problems viewing it, go to the YouTube version below.

Next up, two trips during two northeast snow storms! Stay tuned.

Oh, and thanks Mike and Gretchen for such a great time!

-Tsurugi boy...

San Juan Turn "Don't run over that DC-3"

2007-12-14T23:34:00.000-05:00

This would have been a completely uneventful San Juan turn worth nearly 8 hours if it hadn't been for a controller who was really trying to get the most out of the system.

We were number three on final for runway 8 in SJU. They had us slow up to a surprising 150 knots when we were still nearly 10 miles out. That's about as close to hover mode as we ever get when we're that far out. There was a DC-3 on short final and another jet of some sort behind him, maybe 2 miles or so. When the controller realized that the jet was overtaking the DC-3 far quicker than he planned, he had the DC-3 go around. Usually the jet would have been the one to go around, but I think the controller thought he could keep the DC-3 in a tight pattern for a landing IN FRONT of us.

Sure enough, he told the DC-3 that he was now number one to land after the jet touched down. This DC-3 was still on the downwind leg and I just wasn't sure this was going to work out, but I knew it would be fun to watch. When the DC-3 was on final, we were only 2 miles behind him and 600 feet above. This was as close as I'd ever seen planes packed on final. The captain was flying, and I told him that if I had to guess right now, I'd say there is no way this is going to work. We were both ready for the go around. It's at this point that you run through the call outs in your head. "Go around, Flaps 20, positive rate, gear up, set missed approach altitude, heading select, runway heading," etc. We were at 135 knots and the Diesel 3 was at 90 I'm sure. As we approached 100 feet above the runway, the controller told us that we were cleared to land after the DC-3 turned off the runway, which he was just in the process of doing. As we went through 50 feet, the DC-3 was clear of the runway and we were now cleared to land. There wasn't anything unsafe about it, as the DC-3 was probably 4000 feet down the runway (almost a mile) but legally we can't touch down until he was clear. It's not really that easy to come around that fast and land with a quick turnoff in the Douglas. But those guys who fly for Four Star out of San Juan really know what they're doing.

I really wish I could have shared a picture of the view out the front with you, but it was during the sterile cockpit period, so I didn't have the camera. In fact, about all I can come up with is this reflection of our airplane at the terminal while we sat at the gate:

I'll try to post up my last two really fun trips over the next few days. Lots of great blogworthy stuff to talk about.

SJU/EWR "The Amazing Race"

2007-12-11T21:21:00.000-05:00

After writing about each of my trips for the last year, I'm starting to realize that, even though we might fly to the same places at the same time of year over and over again, these trips are always unique. Something usually happens that set one trip apart from another. And I'm not just talking about a mechanical issue or bad weather, but more about the people you meet or the conversations you have along the way.

This 3 day, 21 hour San Juan/Newark trip wasn't much like the trip two weeks earlier where I met up with my sister. I flew with Captain Kevin K. who is extremely easy going and fun to chat with, and I ran into a reality T.V. 'celebrity' which made my day.

But let me share this trip, as I usually do, using pictures. The first picture is from San Juan while we were holding short of runway 8. Since this puts the runway on my side of the airplane, and the lines can be long at times, it presents a perfect perch for a picture or two. I heard AA 1065 over the radio on landing and immediately recognized the voice as Captain Ellen's from the Aruba who I flew with on Thanksgiving. The FO I flew with for that turn, Bill K., was again flying with her this week. So I took this picture of them which I plan on emailing them.

While going through security, for some reason San Juan had only one lane open for the entire terminal. I was patiently waiting in line when I noticed an Eagle co-pilot behind me. I recognized him immediately from a reality T.V. show we have in the states called "The Amazing Race." Nicolas is racing with his grandfather and they are doing a great job so far. He mentioned that the next nights episode would be a good one, and it was, although I can imagine that any leg of the race where you aren't in last place would be considered a good one. They finished 3rd or 4th that day. I have to say, Linda and I enjoy this show because it gives you a great look at so many different countries and personalities. The race is often won or lost as a result of how the contestants secure their airline tickets and that can be entertaining. In one episode, Nicolas was pleading with an Aer Lingus agent and I couldn't help but cringe as I know Aer Lingus agents can be a bit, well, how do I say this nicely... They're, uh, a bit procedurally minded. I asked Nicolas if he felt the editing made him look any different than he did during the race and he felt that he and his grandpa came across exactly as they were. I can attest to the fact that he seems like a nice guy in the show and he certainly was in person. Of course, I had to get a picture since I knew I'd be writing about this. I probably made him late for his trip. Hope I didn't get him fired. Especially if he didn't win the million dollar prize. The Amazing Race airs on Sunday nights on CBS.

On the flight to and from Antigua, I managed to get these pictures. Always looking for shots I haven't done before. It's my little challenge.

Finally, on the third day, Kevin and I were feeling rather talkative since we didn't have to depart at 6 a.m. on this day. Kevin always has some great stories and I think the following might be a good example.

Kevin grew up in a flying family. His dad was an Eastern pilot, and his brother and sister also learned to fly. The family had an Aeronca Champ and when his younger brother (also a captain with us) was ready to solo, a sinister plan was hatched. As is customary on your first solo, the instructor will usually go around the patch with you before hopping out and telling you to 'giver 'er a go. Kevin's family knew this would be the day for the younger Kris. So when the instructor gave Kris the nod and hopped out to watch him make his first flight, Kris taxied down to the end of the Hampton airport where his dad was waiting. Kris got out and his dad hopped into the seat where Kris had been sitting. Kris's dad is of course an accomplished pilot, and he proceeded to take off and perform an award winning drunk farmer routine that used to be popular at airshows. The airplane took off, rotated hard over on it's side in a knife edge fashion, bounced back on to the runway, staggered into the air again, climbing and stalling all the way on the downwind and base legs, and finally came to a rest back on the runway. Kris's mom was watching with the petrified instructor and since she wasn't in on the gag, she too was close to having a heart attack. Their dad landed long on the runway, and Kris swapped places with him and taxied back to the ramp. The only thing they didn't think of was to get the entire flight on video. If they had, this is where I'd put the YouTube link.

At least I have a picture of Kevin telling the story:

Aruba Turn - "Turkey in the sky with dressing"

2007-11-27T20:23:00.000-05:00

I managed to trade a 10 hour San Juan 2 day trip over Thanksgiving for a 9 1/2 hour one day trip to Aruba on Thanksgiving. It was certainly worth losing a half hour of pay to gain an extra day off.

Linda wondered if we would be catered with a few pies or turkey meals for the crews like United did (where she was previously a flight attendant). I was pretty sure that wouldn't happen, as I usually work on Thanksgiving and I hadn't remembered anything like that in the past.

Fortunately for us, the flight attendants brought turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes and a variety of pies for the flight home! How lucky was that? It was actually really good. Since this flight was more than 8 flight hours in one day, we had an FB (relief pilot) along with us. That meant we had a 1 hour and 10 minute break going down and 1:15 coming back. I snapped a few iPhone picture while enjoying the Turkey dinner.

Ellen, the captain, brought an amazing Pumpkin pie that she also made. Almost as good as being home. Almost. Today was also my mom's birthday. I couldn't help but laugh when we flew over 'her' waypoint. I had to take a picture with the phone and email it to her right away after landing. Notice the "Kathy" intersection:

I've got another one of those San Juan/Newark trips next week and then for December I'll be spending a bit of time in Barbados! 31 hour layovers. How could such a junior guy on the list hold this wonderful trip? Well, it pretty much flies every day during the Christmas break. Santa may have to come to our house a few days early this year.

But the big goal will be to bring my wife on one of the BGI layovers that just happens to be over our anniversary. That would be a huge feat for both of us if we could make it happen. We're watching the loads closely.

3 Day San Juan Newark "Canal Street with Kimmie"

2007-11-23T19:42:00.000-05:00

The ability to trip trade can make all the difference in the world sometimes. I called up another FO (Jeff) who was kind enough to trade with me for his identical SJU/EWR trip that departed one day later than mine. This made it possible for me to attend my wife's U.S. citizenship ceremony. We've been married for 15 years, and she's always had a British passport with a U.S. green card, but now it's official, she's a citizen. The trade also allowed me to layover in Newark on the same night as my sister Kim, a flight attendant for Alaska Airlines. We planned to get together in Manhattan for some shopping, so I was especially excited for this trip, even with the early departure and the flight time of more than 20 hours over the 3 days.

As is typical in a small base like Boston, I had flown with the Captain, Mike S. before. Mike drives from Vermont and since this trip left so early in the morning, he had to leave his house at 12:30 a.m. to drive the four hours to Logan. It made it much harder for me to complain about getting up at 2:30 a.m.

Typically our early morning departures either have just one leg or they are a turn. This one however was the beginning of a very long trip. The first day had us going from Boston to Miami to Aruba to San Juan. That's nearly 8 hours of flying. After another mexican dinner and some good sleep, we left the next day for Antigua then San Juan and finally Newark, NJ.

Flying over St. Kitts, I thought it would be cool if there were an astronaut out there who could blog freely. I figured this picture taken from a 757 would have to suffice.

But after landing in Aruba, I realized this BA 777 was the closest thing to a space ship that I would fly:

I left Mike to go with my sister to her layover hotel since we planned to go into town early the next morning. When we woke up on Monday morning, it was snowing pretty heavily in Newark. We were both excited to get into Manhattan though, so we jumped on the NJ Transit train at Newarks Penn Station and zipped into the city with another Alaska flight attendant who was going to visit her friend.

Kim and I went straight to B&H Photo which is a HUGE store that is full of great gadgets. This place is nearly the size of a grocery store, and unlike most places, it's staffed with nearly 200 employees. If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend swinging by. It was pretty crowded even at 9 a.m.

With my favorite place out of the way, we went to Kimmie's stomping ground, Canal Street. This place is full of Chinese knock offs which would normally bore me to death, but my sister made it fun. Kim Wien Wong, as we like to call her, knew some of the shopkeepers by name. In fact, I think she may be too friendly with them as she wasn't completely brutal in her negotiating tactics. She was sure that no one was showing us the good stuff because I looked too much like a cop. Finally some guy led us to a loft in a back alley for some handbags. Kim didn't find anything she needed but hypothetically, I could have bought some poorly encoded, movie theatre filmed DVD's of The Simson's Movie and Dan in Real Life for $3 each. Hypothetically of course.

Before heading back to the hotel to get ready for our evening departures, we stopped in the Apple Store in SoHo to pick up a few accessories. I've managed to turn Kim into a real tech geek in the past few years, so she was right at home.

Kim went home to Seattle on Alaska and I flew down to Miami and then Boston.

I was surprised how many passengers have been asking about the airways that are being opened up for the holidays on the east coast of the U.S. It seems like a lot of hype for such a small tweak to the system. On the way home, we heard Jetblue ask: "Center, is the George W. Bush super highway open yet, we'd like to get a direct to Hampton if we could and break it in." ATC told them it wasn't scheduled to open until Wednesday though. Nice try JetBlue.

SDQ Turn

2007-11-12T11:30:00.000-05:00

Just after getting home from the two day San Juan, I traded into a turn to Santo Domingo. The Captain turned out to be Mark S., who was deadheading with us the day before from Miami. Mark is senior enough to avoid flying on reserve, but for November he probably figured the reserve pilots wouldn't be used much, so he went ahead and bid it. It may have backfired on him, because if this week was any indication, he might be pretty busy in November.

We climbed out of Boston at a leisurely 1130 a.m. and flew 4 hours south to SDQ. I snapped a few shots while doing the walkaround in Santo Domingo. I thought this was an exceptionally polished tailcone, so what the heck. I'll add it to the trip pictures along with yet another winglet shot and ramp scene. More and more of the 757's are showing up with winglets. All of the 737's are done apparently, and soon all of the 757's will be retrofitted.

The flight back was uneventful. As with nearly every flight this time of day, the sunset was worthy of a shot.

SJU Two Day "Minibar Mayhem"

2007-11-10T06:30:00.000-05:00

Combined with the lack of flying on reserve at the end of October and some days off at the beginning of November, I was starting to feel ready to go back to work. My wife, Linda, had thrown out her back, so it was lucky I was around to help out around the house. Let me tell you. Being as I call the 'captain' of the house, responsible for everything that goes on such as the laundry, cooking, cleaning, shopping not to mention the diaper changes and feeding everyone, well, it's enough to make you RUN back to work when the chance comes. Linda is feeling much better and I'm so glad to have her back to help out! She's pretty amazing.

I managed to get a line for November, which was quite a surprise since we had reduced our flying this month significantly and I was just sure I'd be flying another reserve schedule. But when you throw in a holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas, if you're willing to work over those two days, you just might have a good chance of holding a line.

I traded almost every trip around and I've made up a nice enough schedule, I think.

My first trip back was with Captain John R. who is a wicked smart political junkie. I always enjoy flying with him to get the latest scoop on what's going on in the world of politics. He has certainly changed my mind on a few important topics.

While this trip involved an early get up (3:30 a.m) for our 6:30 a.m. flight to San Juan from Boston, at least we were done when we got there and could (in theory) spend the rest of the afternoon on the beach. We zipped on down to San Juan along those Atlantic routes that president Bush plans to open up for the Thanksgiving rush. They are often 'cold' anyway, so we did take advantage of the shortcut this time.

John was nice enough to give me the first leg down there. After being off from work for a bit of time, I think I would prefer to fly the airplane rather than talk to ATC. You never forget how to fly, but talking is easily a forgotten skill. (And writing in a blog, for that matter!)

We arrived at San Juan before noon and went to my favorite hotel, where, if you'll remember from this trip, I discovered from Captain Mike that if you are staying in one of the suites, the minibar is complimentary! I was sure to let Captain John know this wonderful gouge (Gouge: military speak for a tip that will help get you through a task). I arrived in the beautiful room that had it's own walk out terrace and immediately dove into the minibar. The Oreos and the Pringles were the first casualty, followed by a soda or two. I mean, really, why let these things go to waste?

Later in the afternoon, while video chatting on the complimentary high speed internet with Ruthann in dreary Ireland, I opened up a Medalla beer. Ruthann was ready to throw her macbook in the rain with frustration. But don't feel sorry for her, it wasn't but a few months ago that she was happily snapping these pictures to send back to her friends soaking back home in the old country.

I had to hang up with Ruthann and her mom to meet up with John for the free appetizers and beer at the hotels small lobby for those staying in the suites. After a false start, (who knew long pants were required at this lounge?) I was enjoying the visit with John and one of Boston's best flight attendants, Elaine. Cheese, fruit, chips and salsa at no cost. Ahh, this was the life. (insert mental image of wife changing a diaper back home here).

Karma has a way of catching up to me quickly. I went back to the room to get ready for our dinner at a Mexican restaurant and I got a knock at the door. And then "Minibar," was the call out. Oh, no! I opened the door and meekly asked if the minibar was in fact free to crewmembers. "No." He said. "I'm here because you are short a water."

"Well I'm short a heck of a lot more than water!" I laughed. After explaining that I was set up by a certain captain who's pictured here the Minibar guy said not to worry about it. He wouldn't charge me. But I really didn't do this to scam anyone. I honestly believed it was complementary. And now I had to tell Captain John before he cleaned out his fridge!

Fortunatly John had only managed to work his way through the Oreo cookies. I tallied up the bill that the minibar guy left for me to see. I would have owed $17.

Of course I had to get back online to tell Ruthann. She felt vindicated. Served me right, she claimed, for sitting in paradise while she was in some leaking thatched roof home with only a peat burning fireplace in Western Ireland sharing a room with her 8 other siblings. (well, OK, she just has one brother, but I'm sure the rest of that is true-in my mind).

John and I met back up and ate at the Mexican restaurant down the street. Here's a nice blurry picture of the place.

The next day John went to pay for his Oreo's. The lady at the front desk said, "Don't worry, there's no charge. We don't track those closely." So maybe this was the lady that Mike talked to who told him there was no charge. I love this hotel.

For the flight home, we were completely full. Even the extra 2 flight attendant jumpseats were filled in the back as were the cockpit jumpseats. It was my leg, and since we had 4 Boston based deadheading pilots on board, the pressure was on for a good approach and landing of course. I think any pilot wants to do his best when his peers are in the back. PIlot nature, I guess. Of course, the landing was so good that after the tears cleared from their eyes, they took down my address to send me roses. At least that's how the landing was - in my mind.

As you know, the original purpose of this blog was to take a nice picture from each trip and write about it. But I typically exceed my self imposed word count and photo count for most trips. Here are a couple of pictures I shot on this two day trip. The highly polished 757 in Miami is an example of one of our oldest (#7) 757's that recently came out of a "C" check in Tulsa. They really do an amazing job of bringing them back to near new condition. I still love how they look in the sun.

And if you want to make it look like you're flying very high, just use a wide angle lens for your horizon shots:

And finally a little advertising on the airplane:

Another pilot's blog...

2007-11-01T23:03:00.000-04:00

Sorry I've been quiet lately, but I'm not due to fly again for a few days. In the meantime, you might enjoy reading this anonymous pilot blogger (who happens to be female) write about flying in Canada. I'm enjoying her writing style and I think you just might enjoy her Cockpit Conversation blog.

Check out the list of GREAT aviation blogs she has in her "blogs" section.

Wicked Cool Reader #2 - Nick de Jonge

2007-10-23T08:11:00.000-04:00

I got an email from a reader, Nick who is going through training at KLM. He's pretty excited to get a chance to fly for the world's oldest airline and you can see why when you look at the pictures he's taken. His website has some amazing stuff. Way better than what I'm doing. I can't imagine the kind of pictures he'll be taking at KLM someday (discreetly, Nick. I don't want to see you get fired in your first year!)

LAX three day (the all nighter)

2007-10-22T20:47:00.001-04:00

Brakes are set, waiting for takeoff clearance
Originally uploaded by Fly For Fun

One of the reasons I'm not interested in bidding domestic is the LAX all nighter that represents about half of our domestic flying out of Boston on the 757/767.

But when you're on reserve, anything can happen and so I managed to get one of these trips. I don't mind too much since I'm more of a night person anyway. But they really can kick your butt.

We departed on Thursday night at 5 p.m. and arrived in LA 5 1/2 hours later. The Captain (Emmitt) was someone I had flown with 10 years earlier on the MD-80, and I hadn't seen much of him since. So it was nice to catch up. We had a bit of that low level fog that seems to be plaguing us in Boston lately. The RVR (runway visual range or the measured visibility) was 1000 feet, so that was well above our 600 foot minimums for this runway. I took this picture to give you an idea of the visibility while we were holding in position to wait for enough spacing behind a previously departed USAirways flight. Each runway light on the side of the runway is 200 feet apart. The centerline lights are 50 feet apart. So you can see how much visibility we had just before going. We were in the clouds completely at 100 feet.

After an uneventful takeoff, we chased the sunset across the country. We noticed a big cell up ahead that looked like a cruise ship. I snapped a few pictures and some HD video that I hope to put up at some point of the sunset and the lightning that we saw in the distance. We enjoyed the light show and easily worked our way north of this build up.

After we arrived in LAX at around 9 p.m., Emmitt went to stay with his brother and I went to the hotel. I was looking forward to getting some things done all day the next day in LA.

The highlight of the layover for me was catching a great movie. I have been out of the loop as to what was playing lately and so I went to the Quicktime Movie Trailer Page and checked out what was playing. I decided to see the matinee of Across the Universe. Wow. What a movie. They took about 20 Beatles songs and built a great story around them set in the '60's. If you have the chance, go see it. The songs are sung by the cast in ways that really bring some freshness to the usual Beatles songs everyone already know. I've told my wife that she has to see this movie immediately. That was 3 days ago. She still hasn't been able to get out of the house to see it.

There were no good photo opportunities on the way home since we left at 11 at night LA time and arrived at 7:30 in the morning in Boston. I was wide awake for the trip since I slept pretty well at the hotel, but by the time I got home I was walking around in a fog - even after a nap. I'm more used to being exhausted in Europe but feeling great after I get home, so this is one of the differences I noted between flying west versus east.

I just got back from a surprise retirement party today for our Boston Chief Pilot Bill Bronson. Bill has already gone down as the best chief we've ever had and everyone in Boston will really miss him. Massport, which runs the Logan airport presented Bill with a taxiway light which I think was the coolest gift a pilot could ever get. Bill was overwhelmed with the outpouring of thanks from everyone who was there. Thanks for the past 10 years, Bill!

Picture taken with the iPhone. Bill has seen the light! Have a great retirement CA Bronson.

Thanks Ruthann...

2007-10-19T10:49:00.001-04:00

That's more like it.
Originally uploaded by Fly For Fun

Ruthann thought she could come up with a more realistic avatar for my blog and website. I think she has, what do you think?

Thanks Ruthann. It's perfect.

Corporate pilot buddy Bob stops by for a visit

2007-10-17T22:28:00.001-04:00

My good friend Bob swung by the area in his brand new Challenger 300 jet. Well, not exactly HIS jet, as he was flying it for the fractional jet charter company he works for. I have a number of friends who fly for the big two operators, Flex Jet and Net Jets, and they all seem to be pretty happy there.

Bob and I go back 15 years when we flew Twin Otters together out of Long Island. We hauled gamblers down to Atlantic City and brought them back home, usually $10,000 lighter in the wallet. We could almost tell how much they lost when computing the weight and balance. It was especially hard for us to watch all those throwing money away when Bob and I made $1000 and $1600 a month respectively. Ahh, well. They were still good times. Especially when I was able to fly with Bob, who was the best co-pilot to fly with. The kind of guy who brings donuts to the company meetings, is really enthusiastic and who flies exceptionally well.

So it was fun to catch up with him while he showed me the really slick features in the new Challenger 300. He pointed out the extra large LCD screens, the lack of any overhead switches and the plush interior. His co-pilot was busy doing Jepps revisions in the cabin. The airplane holds around 15 books and the pilots are expected to keep them up to date during their sit time. It looked like a daunting task.

With all of this paper on board, I found it funny that Canadair didn't include a clip on the yoke to hold your approach plate. Some guys have taken to buying a clip that has sticky tape on one side from Staples to hold the charts. Proof that the designers aren't pilots in every case.

I'll leave you with some pictures of this really sexy machine. But do note the revisions and yoke clip:

2nd Paris trip - The Rugby World Cup

2007-10-14T20:16:00.000-04:00

As I was in the bus going to the employee parking lot on my way home from the previous trip, crew schedule let me know that I would be going back to Paris the next day. Fine with me. I knew I was paying back some karma from the month of September when they hardly needed me.

This time the Captain was yet another Mark T. and the FB was one of my favorite guys, Mike H. The captain was on reserve from NY since we must have been out of pilots in Boston. He had previously been based in Boston and I had flown with him a few times, as I recall.

We agreed to meet up for dinner later that night. I met one of the flight attendants who would be coming to dinner with us in the lobby of the hotel in the early afternoon. We agreed to tour around together. Nancy helped me find a great shirt that my daughter needed for her school's travel theme day on Monday. We stopped in The Mazet pub (the same pub seen in this video) where we had a beer. Both on the way in and on the way out, Nancy caught the eye of two of the more wild English rugby fans. They gave her a very warm welcome, in fact.

We continued to walk around the 'Latin Quarter' checking out the shops (got the shirt!) and sights. It never fails in Paris that you'll find a couple making out in the middle of the street, and this trip was no exception. Of course I had to get a picture to share with you...

The copilot who was supposed to have flown this trip was 'reassigned' to one of the early morning two day Caribbean trips. He had reservations at Le Volant where we've eaten before and he let Mike know that we could go in his place. It turned out to be a great thing, since most everything in Paris was full on the night of the huge Rugby match between France and England. We enjoyed our seats, even though the TV was behind a huge pillar from where we were sitting. I guess this is good as any place to sit the americans who don't actually know anything about rugby. We enjoyed the atmosphere, though.

Le Volant had people spilling out into the street as they had a TV outside for everyone to watch. It was a popular place that night. But we were ready to beat the rush for the metro to get back to the hotel, so we left before the end of the game.

We passed a few other pubs on the way back to our hotel that were equally full.

By the time we arrived at the hotel we found out that #2 ranked France lost to #6 ranked England in what was quite an exciting upset. Of course, we were pulling for France. Hey, when in France, route for the French team. If we had been in Manchester, well, we would have certainly pulled for England. But if I somehow find myself in Dallas, well, the same can't be said.

The only good picture from the flight home was of this dessert that Nancy brought to the cockpit:

Paris 3 day - Going in circles.

2007-10-14T19:50:00.000-04:00

I wasn't too disappointed to get a Paris trip call for the next day. It's hard to complain about having to go to work when it involves a Paris or even a Manchester trip. I tend to be a night person, so the evening departures work out better for me than the 5 a.m. trip to the Caribbean.

The Captain was again Mark, and Russ was the FB. I was happy to be flying as the FO today. Before I left, I texted a friend of mine in France who is just finishing up his training with the French Air Force. I usually let him know when I am in Paris, just in case he can make it out. He's usually many hours away by train, but he had the time off this time so he agreed to meet up with me. I first met Nicolas 6 years ago when he came to stay with our neighbor with hopes of improving his english. He wanted to apply for an ab initio Air France pilot position and part of that interview involved speaking and understanding english. Linda and I agreed to host him for two weeks at first, but we enjoyed having him so much that he ended up staying for most of that summer and the next. He didn't get the Air France job, but after the second summer with us, he applied with the French Air Force and was accepted. He's currently flying the Alpha Jet and really enjoying himself.

Mark gave me the leg for the flight over, but as we approached Paris it became apparent that neither of us would be making the landing this morning. The ceilings were around 100 feet and the visibility was between 150 and 600 meters. The autopilot can perform a Cat III Autoland down to 75 meters, so that is what we set up for. Landing turned out to be the easy part, it was the taxiing in that proved more difficult. We could only see about 300 feet in front of us, so we proceeded with caution.

I was only able to get in a 45 minute nap before I had to get back up. I rolled out of bed and walked deliriously down to the train station to meet up with Nicolas. We had lunch at a Creperie close to our hotel and then visited for the next 5 hours until he had to go back to his home in Nantes. We talked about all sorts of flying stories and he happened to ask me about flying a holding pattern in the Boeing. "It's SO much easier with the FMS, Nicolas." He lamented about holding at night with charts that were hard to read in the dimly lit cockpit. But it was funny we should talk about holding patterns...

I slept for a big portion of the evening after Nicolas left. I had sprung for the $30 internet fee which I almost never do, but I wanted to share some stuff with Nico. So after taking another 2 hour nap, I was up surfing away. But I couldn't hold out much longer and I was soon sleeping the night away. If you ever really want to get some good sleep before departing the next day on one of these trips, try the no nap after arriving in the morning method. It's a killer, but you WILL sleep well that night.

Captain Mark had brought his wife and they had a good time in Paris. He insisted the next day that I fly the landing back in Boston, which was very generous. But when we arrived in Boston, the weather was approaching Cat III minimums, so we set up for it instead. So we would be flying two legs in three days and no one would be hand flying a landing. Typically you might see one Cat III autoland in a year, so this was a little unusual.

But before we landed, almost as if to pay homage to Nicolas, we were given a hold for one turn just east of Boston. Unlike holding when you're getting your flight ratings, Boeing makes this process pretty simple. Just type in the name of the fix, the inbound radial, the length of the leg and you're set. No need to decide if the entry is a direct, parallel or teardrop, it does it for you. Here's an example of the FMS page and the resulting drawing shown on the map page.

Back to work...

2007-10-07T19:22:00.000-04:00

When you are on international reserve, the company can potentially call you at any moment for a trip. However, you're usually notified around noon the day before the trip. For domestic reserves, you need at least an 8 hour period of designated rest in 24 hours. When they run out of reserve coverage from the domestic pilots, they will give the international pilots this designated rest period just in case a domestic trip comes up.

Last night I was given a rest period that ended at 5 a.m., meaning that they couldn't call me until 5. just as my clock read 5 a.m., my phone rang this morning and I knew this couldn't be good news. They had a trip for me that signed in at 7 a.m. I could make that, I figured, but having not flown for the past month, it took a bit of time to convert my suitcase from vacation mode to work mode. I found myself taping my i.d. back together after I broke it while trying to install a carseat in an airplane during our trip home 2 days earlier. I dusted off my jacket that we never wear during the summer months and changed out the manuals in my kitbag. Finally I took a look at the trip on the computer. Wow, a 'ferry flight' down to Miami with a deadhead back home. How easy. No passengers at all going down and just ride home and catch up on some video on the iPhone. Deadhead trips have become much easier ever since the invention of the video iPod or iPhone.

I hadn't flown with this captain, Steve, yet. He's on the domestic side and I probably fly 3 domestic trips a year or so. Steve also is a fellow mac user who's very involved in video editing, so we had plenty to talk about.

In fact, so much so that I really didn't get any pictures at all during the quick flight to Miami. I hope to make it up on the next trip. One interesting thing about the flight was our very light airplane resulted in an approach speed of 110 knots or 126 mph. That's about as slow as I've seen.

The flight home saw a rarity. We raced to our gate expecting to have a middle seat in the back or even a cramped cockpit jumpseat, but they had two seats available in first class for us. It's been a long time since we've seen that happen. After saying hello to the Boston international crew flying the plane home (two friends) we sat back and enjoyed the flight home. Total time away from home: 11 hours. Not too bad.

I'm on reserve for the next 6 days, so I'm sure something else will pop up. I suspect I'll be flying a lot more than last month. Hopefully I'll have enough time off to put the final touches on the swing set project!

Danger, elderly people in Ireland!

2007-10-04T03:06:00.000-04:00

We've been to Ireland to visit Linda's friends and family seven of the past ten years. But this was the first time we've been able to bring my mom along. She's been a good sport and she even posed with this unusual sign along the road...

Q & A

2007-09-29T09:51:00.000-04:00

I finally have a chance to catch up on a few questions from Patrick of Switzerland concerning transatlantic flying. I figured I'd answer here on the 'trip report.'

Patrick asks:

Relief pilots, you call them FB (flight buddy?) have to be Captain-qualified on the specific type of aircraft (e.g. 757/767). Meeting that requirement, can you bid this position (crew schedule) in order to get to more international long-haul destination or is being FB a non-loved duty because you can't log a landing?

The FB name probably comes from the term First Officer-B. So it's really like a second first officer position. It pays the same as the co-pilot position. The disadvantage is that you usually don't get a landing on your trip. Almost always the FB position goes junior to FO, but they still run a bit more senior than many of the domestic FO's flying narrow body aircraft. It really comes down to what you enjoy flying the most. My brother (also a captain here) prefers domestic flying, even though he's flown a good deal of international in his career. I prefer the layovers in Europe even though they are becoming more and more expensive with the low value of the dollar. It's nice to work at a major where you can choose what kind of flying you'd like to do.

Patrick also asks:

When your aircraft is ADS-B equipped, that means you don't have to make position reports at all, right? CPDLC requires ADS-B but you can flying without CPDLC over the Atlantic with ADS-B on, so you'll have to make only a position report on HF when switching airspaces.

Right. We tested CPDLC (Controller Pilot Data Link) in the 757 when flying through Miami's airspace a few years back. They aren't doing it anymore for some reason. About the only non verbal way we communicate with ATC anymore is by the position report capability built into a few of our 767's and 757's. All of the 777's have this capability.

This makes life much easier when crossing the Atlantic. Currently, every 10 degrees starting at 50 then 40, 30 and 20 degrees, we have to call up either Gander on the Canadian side or Shanwick on the Ireland side of 30 degrees and tell them our flight number, position, altitude, time estimate for our next position, the name of the next point after that and our fuel on board. They will then relay this information to a separate air traffic controller and also to our company who tracks our fuel and position. So it might sound something like this:

"Gander American one four six, position."

"Go ahead American one four six."

"American one four six position five one north, five zero west, 2230, flight level 370, estimating five two north, four zero west at 2315, five two north, three zero west next. Fuel six zero decimal five. (thousand pounds)

That's not so hard, but getting a word in through the extreme static of the HF radios can be a challenge. Some have likened it to talking into a geiger counter. I believe in a few years, these automatic position reports will be standard on all north atlantic crossings. I can't wait.

While we're on the subject of technology, I'm really excited that we've been granted FAA approval to carry 3 of our airplane manual books in digital form on a laptop. This will save a couple of pounds for those of us who regularly carry a computer anyway. We can also access any part of the manual quickly through the search function. We're told this will start on October 15th. Since this results in opening up a significant amount of space in my kitbag, I hope to bring my good digital SLR camera with me occasionally. Maybe someone will invent a smaller kitbag for us as well, although we're still required to carry the Jepps manuals which are between one and two books per trip.

This is just an intermediate step until we get our class three EFB (electronic flight bag) early next year in the 757/767. Once all of the airplanes are converted, I would imagine we will be able to leave almost all of our books at home. I never thought I'd see the day! We'll be telling junior pilots in ten years, "Back when I was a co-pilot, you had to replace hundreds of pages every week in those manuals! You don't know how good you have it, son!" All the while, they'll be thinking, "Geezer. Get out of my left seat."

Speaking of getting out of the seat, it looks like the retirement age for pilots in the U.S. will be going up to 65 years from 60. This will slow down some hiring a bit, but I suspect a number of pilots at AA will be going at 60 anyway. My guess would be 50%, but no one really knows. I know my dad was fully capable of flying well past 60 and he's still flying formation flights in WWII aircraft even today at age 77. But not everyone agrees with the change, especially those around my seniority. I can clearly see both sides of the argument, but most of those who I fly with would prefer no change to the rule. I won't truly know how I feel about it until I put in my 36th year while looking at 5 more.

The ones mostly affected will likely be you guys who are learning to fly right now. I'm hoping it's offset a bit by all the new positions available in the corporate world, which is set to really take off. (Oh, that was a weak pun.)

Thanks Patrick for the great questions!

Christoph talks about getting hired by Lufthansa

2007-09-28T15:12:00.000-04:00

I got an email from Christoph, who is currently going through Lufthansa's ab initio training program. He's also very much into photography and has his own site as well. I was fascinated to hear how the hiring process worked at Lufthansa, so I asked him if he would fill us all in. Let's let Christoph explain how he landed this highly sought after position as a Lufthansa pilot and the training that followed.

For me, everything started in April, 2006 when I finished my school and applied for the training. First of all, I had to send in all the necessary stuff as for example a curriculum vitae. [Resume] Pretty standard I guess but I also had to include details about my motivation and my intentions why I chose to apply for a pilot career - this would become important later on during the selection process.

After completing this first step, I was invited to the so called BU which stands for "Berufsgrunduntersuchung" and is done in Hamburg. During this phase, all the necessary skills are tested and evaluated. Computer based applications are mainly used to accomplish these tests which require abilities like for example math, physics, multitasking, reaction time and working capacity. English skills are of course tested as well. In general, this step is used to judge if the applicant is qualified for the challenges the job comes with.

When I finally received the letter about the results of this first test, my heart was beating and I started shouting when I read that I had completed it successfully. But actually, this was not the end. The "Firmenqualifikation" was waiting for me. Again, I had to spend two days in Hamburg where I was interviewed and set under pressure again. This time I had to prove that I fit into the Lufthansa company and this is definetely a hard challenge. Every time you say or do anything, you don't know whether it's right or wrong and this makes it the hardest part of the selection process. On the first day, teamwork played the most important role, the second day mainly consisted of flying a simulator and being interviewed by a Lufthansa captain and actually you can be kicked out at any time of these two days. I will never forget the final interview and the moment when "my captain" told me that they wanted me! Unbelievable!

The third and last step was the medical examination which I passed as well. My dream could become true!
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The training

The training itself is devided into four parts. The first part is theory which takes place in Bremen, Germany. Pretty uneventful, with some tests, but actually the second part is the most exciting one: The flight training in Phoenix-Goodyear, Arizona. On a Beechcraft Bonanza F33A we learn to handle an airplane correctly and this is what everyone is aiming for. Now that I'm here in Phoenix, I have come to the best part of the training. Flying is just the best thing I can imagine!

But back to the next part: When having completed all the checks in Phoenix, we come back to Bremen where we have to absolve another six months of theory for multi-engine aeroplanes. After that the training is actually completed but to be able to fly the aircrafts in the Lufthansa fleet, flights on the Piper Cheyenne have to be absolved. The last step is the type rating and the line training for the Boeing 737 or the Airbus A320. So far... The whole training takes about 2 years with every phase lasting about 6 to 7 months. I hope to be ready by the middle of 2008... We'll see!
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Thanks Christoph for the inside look at how Lufthansa hires and trains pilots. Good luck on the rest of your course.

I'm still here...

2007-09-27T08:11:00.000-04:00

Every once in a while you can get really lucky on reserve. September was one of those months for me. I've managed to fly just one trip, amazingly. We're still paid a base salary so it works out nicely ever now and then. The time off gave me plenty of time to rebuild this swing set and enjoy the great weather we're having in New Hampshire. In fact, I'm so worn out from all the sanding and building that we're now going to take a trip to Ireland. While I like to keep this blog aviation related, I may slip in a few pictures of Ireland later.

Taking Ruthann down to the Cape

2007-09-23T11:24:00.000-04:00

My friend Russ volunteered his airplane and pilotage to take Ruthann down to the Cape where she would meet up with Captain Mike for a visit before heading off on the rest of her U.S. tour.

Here's a quick video I shot with the new HD camera. I used a cheap little wide angle screw-on lens for the in cockpit shots. With iMovie '08, I can upload in 4 different sizes with great results. If you have the bandwidth, take a look at the large version. It does require Quicktime however.

Ruthann turned out to not be a psycho, and we really enjoyed having her stay here. She's quite the aviation and computer geek, and she taught me a little more about the Irish culture.

Ruthann is coming for a visit...

2007-09-17T00:18:00.000-04:00

Those of you who follow the comments here and on the old blog may remember Ruthann, who I 'chatted' with via radio when flying over Ireland. Well, she's doing a whirlwind tour of the U.S. and she just happens to be stopping by for a visit. It's always a nice idea to invite internet stalkers to your home for a visit. We might even have her babysit the kids.

Read about her amazing time this summer in the U.S. here.

THIS is good news for those of you learning to fly right now...

2007-09-17T00:16:00.000-04:00

It's always nice to see this kind of report while you're slaving away trying to get your commercial ratings...

Deepening Pilot Shortage to Raise Fares

Holly says it better than I could...

2007-09-11T16:48:00.000-04:00

Holly Hegeman of PlaneBuzz.com said it best today.

In addition to remembering what happened on September 11th, I can never stop thinking of the co-workers at AA and UA that my wife and I knew.

I flew with Amy Sweeney three months prior and took this picture of her and the captain. We invited her to go with us on the Boeing tour in Renton, Washington, but she decided she'd stay in Seattle at the very nice hotel where we were laying over. This was back when we were flying the 737 out of Boston to Seattle.

Punta Cana. It's not Brussels.

2007-09-03T22:11:00.000-04:00

I've mentioned that September is a month where I'm back on reserve, covering trips that someone either calls in sick for, or were left unfilled in the original bid run. Just as I was getting ready to go out and spread some mulch in the front yard, I got a call from crew scheduling asking if I could make it to the airport in 2 1/2 hours. No problem, I said. "Great. But you're really not going to like this trip," Camille said. I was to deadhead from Boston to Washington National, and then hop in a van and go to Baltimore. Then the next day I would fly from Baltimore to Miami, then on to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic and back to Miami where we would lay over. The third day had us flying from Miami to Dallas and then I would deadhead (ride in the back of the plane) home to Boston.

"Ugh, I said. I'm not sure if I could have made up an uglier trip." Camille jokes around a lot. So I was sure she was joking when she said, "You should have taken that Brussels trip."

"Wha, what? What are you talking about?" I stammered.

"You passed on the Brussels trip we offered last night."

"No! I live for trips like that!" I cried (literally, I cried)

After further investigation on Camille's part, it turns out that I had entered a computer code a while back that told crew schedule if there were someone junior to me that I could pass a 4 day trip to, then don't even call me, just pass the trip down to them. I had put that code in back when we were flying some pretty long Caribbean 4 day trip. I now realize just how dumb that was. I mean, what if they needed me to fly a Chicago to Anchorage trip that took 4 days? I would have missed out on a trip I've ALWAYS wanted to fly. Brussels is nearly in that category.

Oh, well. Never again. I pulled that reserve preference out immediately.

Things don't always go smoothly when deadheading on Eagle. Couple that with a surface deadhead (a van) to Baltimore, well, I was expecting the worst. But it went amazingly smooth. I spent the night there updating my Dallas charts, since I fly to Dallas probably once ever two or three years. To help distract me from the mundane task of updating these Jeppesen charts, I watched some college football that I recorded at home, through my laptop using a device called a SlingBox, which allows for you to watch anything on your Tivo or whatever you have at home. It really comes in handy when you're trying to catch a live NFL game while you're in Europe.

The next morning I managed to find the BWI operations where I would meet up with my captain, Tom. Tom is a young looking but very senior Captain who is about to build his 3rd house using some really efficient techniques, possibly including solar. I love picking the brains of people who are well versed in so many areas.

Even though we had Hurricane Felix a few hundred miles south of the Dominican Republic, our weather was just fine all the way. I had never been to Punta Cana before, so that was something to look forward to, even though we'd be there for just an hour. I managed to take some pictures of the unique airport terminal.

The flight back to Miami was uneventful and while we were waiting for the van to go to the hotel, Tom and I ran into a mutual acquaintance who was also staying at the same crew hotel we were. So we got together near the pool and socialized for a while before dinner. Tom and I were absolutely beat, so we called it an early night.

Under one of those umbrellas down there, we enjoyed the $1 beer and some conversation in Miami:

The flight to DFW was painless, even though I fly there rather infrequently and I wouldn't mind keeping it that way. I couldn't help but check the weather in Brussels throughout the trip. (Partly cloudy and 65 degrees)

Finally, deadheading home I caught up on a few episodes of "Mile High" the 2003 to 2005 raunchy British TV show about an airline called Fresh Air. I'm embarrassed to say that it hooked me in. This show makes Desperate Housewives look like Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. I put them on the iPhone and now I'm about half way through the 39 episodes.

I have no idea when or where I'll fly next, but you'll be the first to know when I get back from whatever trip it is. Here's hoping for a Brussels someday. Thanks for checking in!

Video clips from the cockpit window

2007-08-30T21:12:00.000-04:00

I've collected a few video clips from the past few months and I thought I'd share them with you. If I can't make any trip reports right now, I may as well catch up on some of the things I've wanted to post here. This one minute clip is a collection of 17 clips taken either above 10,000 feet or on the taxiway when the parking brake was set. It gives a sense of some of the sights you see when flying.

Cloud Skimming

2007-08-30T20:54:00.001-04:00

This was taken a few weeks ago, but I only now noticed it in iMovie '08. I am really enjoying this program after having some big reservations about it initially. It's perfect for throwing these types of clips up here in a matter of minutes. In two weeks I'll have a Panasonic HDC-SD5 video camera which might improve the quality of these shots.

1994 R/C heli crash

2007-08-30T09:06:00.000-04:00

This video transferring is kind of fun. Here's a 1994 video of me flying a 4-stroke radio controlled helicopter. After practicing some autorotations (simulated engine failures), I went up for a stall turn and wouldn't you know it, the tail rotor failed at the worst possible moment. If I had been level, I could have easily removed power from the heli and simply glided down (another autorotation) which straightens the helicopter by removing the torque. But the heli wasn't exactly level. Here's the outcome:

I'm on reserve for September, and if I don't get called for a trip in the next few days, I'll be subjecting you to some more home movies. So you'd better hope I fly soon!

Hard at work - at home.

2007-08-27T20:48:00.000-04:00

I'm busy digitizing some videos that are mostly family home movies, my solo flight, some ultralight stuff, and waterskiing videos. But the most interesting item is from my grandpa's flight from Fairbanks to a stranded ship in Siberia that became stuck in the ice in 1929. This became the first round trip flight from North America to Asia. Since my grandpa, Noel was an amateur photographer and film maker as well as a pilot, he did a good job documenting some of this early Alaskan flying. If I can get permission from my family, I'll post this silent film here soon. -->update: No such luck. Unfortunately I can't post a small web version of this film.

Bartek 'lands' a job!

2007-08-23T23:38:00.001-04:00

ATR-42-500; EuroLOT; Warszawa - Okęcie (Frederic Chopin) (WAW / EPWA) 03.05.07
Originally uploaded by spotter.pl

I've been emailing with Bartek for a year and a half now. He told me about competing in precision flying contests in Poland and his training there toward his ATP license. Well, he just let me know that he has just been hired by EuroLot as a co-pilot on the ATR 42 and 72. Congratulations Bartek! Now let's see how many others who are reading this blog land similar jobs. It does seem like the whole industry is finally picking up steam. Good luck to anyone who is now learning to fly. You may have timed it just right.

Jose has a plan...

2007-08-20T15:18:00.001-04:00

Jose from Venezuela is a frequent reader to this blog and I think he represents a bunch of you guys who are working to become commercial pilots. He even made this very inspirational video, with an important message at the end:

Way to go, Jose!

SDQ 2 day

2007-08-17T20:47:00.000-04:00

The last time I flew with CA Bob was last year when we were still doing the Shannon trip. Bob and I had a great time at this pub, where the bartender put us to work. Ahh, those were the days. Everyone misses the Shannon trips.

This was another one of those two day Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic trips that pass through San Juan. It's not a Paris or Manchester trip, but sometimes its nice to stay on the same time zone. We have a morning and afternoon version of this 'Dingo' trip right now. I prefer the afternoon departure, which leaves at 3 p.m., but due to some thunderstorms over the Western Atlantic, our airplane was late arriving into Boston. Those storms moved out to the east and we had a nice flight to San Juan, although we were running a half hour late.

I snapped a few shots of the sun going down on my side of the airplane to add to my flickr site. I'll share the best two here:

There were few if any buildups that we had to go around, and we made it in to SDQ sometime after 10 p.m. The hotel is about a half hour from the airport, and upon arrival, the staff there presents you with a small, cold Presidente beer. How nice. If you arrive in the afternoon, it's usually a fruity drink. It's a great tradition. Barbados also has this thoughtful perk.

Since the air conditioning in my room was set by a polar bear, I sat out on the balcony and finished my drink. The next morning, I took this picture of the view from the patio. It looks really nice, but one of the reasons that there weren't any people down there is because it was about 91 degrees (33C) and it was a bit humid. But it looked nice.

Passing through San Juan, I snapped this shot of a DC-3 that is still flying freight commercially. It's hard to imagine that after more than 70 years these airplanes are still working so hard. Will they make it commercially 10 more years? 20?

Effective August 2nd, they closed the runway in Santo Domingo and repainted the taxiway and changed the lights. So now we're landing on the taxiway down there. It's not much different, except for the long delay in getting out of there. We had to wait for numerous arriving aircraft before we could 'back taxi' on the runway and turn around to take off. But this presented a chance to take pictures of landing airplanes while we sat with just the left engine running to save fuel. Here's an A300 landing there.

Here's Bob climbing out while the sun goes down north of San Juan. Nothing beats hand flying on a nice smooth evening.

Technorati Tags: SDQ

Manchester 3 day with Tony

2007-08-17T10:52:00.000-04:00

I hate to back trips right up against eachother, but if you want any significant amount of days off later in the month, you really need to compress all of your flying to do so. So right after the last Paris trip on the 6th to the 8th, I put in a Manchester trip from the 9th to the 11th. You have about 24 hours at home in between, so that's plenty of time to mow the lawn, say hi to the family and put critters to bed (my two daughters) and catch up.

Manchester leaves at 8 p.m. and takes about 6 1/2 hours to get there. I'm more of a night person anyway, so I don't mind the late night flying. Besides, it's about the only way I'm ever going to see the sunrise, as I surely won't be getting up that early at home.

I've been taking so many stills of the sunrise and sunsets, but I figured I'd whip up a video clip and send it to YouTube via this new iMovie '08. It's not a good program anymore for making movies like the Paris trip flick, but it does clips really well.

Here are a couple of pictures of Manchester. We're still a good 20 miles out when this was taken, on a very high downwind leg.

CA Tony is about as Italian as they come. He's fun to fly with and since he flies Manchester quite a bit, he's familiar with all the good restaurants, especially the Italian ones. But I was planning on spending my afternoon in Manchester working with iLife '08 that I picked up while heading out the door for my trip. I have a friend who's selling his house and paid me to make him up a website and ad. So I didn't have any big plans for dinner, other than to meet up at least for a drink with Tony and 3 of the flight attendants. But, as is often the case, after a Guinness, you tend to lose motivation and I found myself trying out the fish and chips at the Bank restaurant in Manchester which is very popular among the crews.

For the flight home, Jamie (who posts here regularly) positioned himself at the 'spotters hill' in Manchester so he could get a few shots of us and the other airplanes departing. I've mentioned it before, but it looks like an ideal location to take some great pictures of a wide variety of airplanes.

I managed to snap this shot of the photographers on the hill. Jamie is in the middle I think. At least that's where the waving was coming from.

And these are pictures from Jamie's side of the fence. Thanks Jamie!

Paris 3 day - "Want some camembert with your whine?"

2007-08-16T00:06:00.000-04:00

This was a trip I had been looking forward to for weeks. A Paris trip with my buddy Captain Dave. Dave is an opinionated, outspoken and intelligent guy. He'll throw out a statement that goes against all conventional wisdom and you'll tell him he's completely lost it, but 15 minutes later, you realize that he's spot on. He takes an active role in flight planning to save fuel, and he's helped create some flight plan routes for the company that save huge amounts of fuel. He's shown me that it's not really that hard to do.

The co-pilot was Mike, the same FO I flew with on last weeks Paris trip, and one of the pilots on this video, although very briefly he reminded me. I was the FB on this trip (relief pilot) but CA Dave elected to give me his leg home, meaning I would fly the Paris to Boston leg. The only caveat was that if it were a good landing, he would get all the credit. Deal, I said.

So Mike flew us over and after a 4 hour nap, Dave and I went out to the grocery store for some bread, wine and strawberries. We ran into a few of the flight attendants at the store who were planning their own outing. Our plan was to take a bike tour of Paris with Fat Tire Bike Tours. Unfortunately, most of the flight attendants had just done the same thing the week prior.

So we jumped on the Metro to go up toward the Seine, which is north of our hotel. I wanted to take a few pictures from Paris Plage, which is an annual thing in Paris where they actually build a sandy beach along part of the Seine for everyone to enjoy in August. I've missed this for the past few years, and I really thought it would make a good picture for this blog. Not to mention that there was a place near Pont Neuf where we could get a cold Kronenburgh and hang out, just as we did on this trip.

The Metro was a bit more crowded than usual and as I was leading the way north, Dave was whining about how much faster it would have been to just walk to the river. This picture expresses his true enjoyment over the train ride, which he claimed that the S.S. couldn't have packed more people into a train.

By the time we got to the bridge, it was 6 p.m. and we needed to be at the Eiffel Tower at 7, so after having a quick beer, it was time to go. No Paris Plage sighting for this year. Oh, well.

Now to get to the Eiffel Tower, we could either find a Metro station and take two more trains out to the Dupleix station, or we could just walk it. I really didn't think I could take listening to Dave whine about the crowded train, so 'we' decided to take the nearly 1 hour walk to the tower. Of course, once we got there, we would find ourselves on a bike for the next 4 hours at least, with a few breaks, but we could do it. I mean, it's not like it's the Tour de France or anything. And the seats of these bikes are very comfortable.

Fat Tire (formerly Mike's) is a tour of Paris that either leaves at 11 a.m. or 7 p.m. every day from the south pier of the Eiffel Tower. The guides are always English speakers, as most of them are UTA college students from Austin, Texas. I think I've done the tour 4 times. I even brought my sister on the tour. It's cheap fun, at about $30, which on the night tour includes a boat tour of the Seine while enjoying some wine provided by the guide.

We met up with Mike at the south pier and we sat around while waiting for the rest of the group to get together there. The line to get into the tower was amazingly long. At one point, the French military pulled up and we just figured it was part of their security around there. Pretty soon, we noticed that they had cleared out the line and sent everyone away. This HAD to be a huge inconvenience for those who had waited for hours and were just now reaching the front of the line. The military came over and told us to move out as well. So in very little time, the entire base of the Eiffel Tower was cleared out. Someone then mentioned that it had due to a baby stroller that had been left unattended. When we cleared out, the only thing left was that stroller. Notice the stroller in the bottom of these pictures. We were just a few feet from it, amazingly.

So from the Eiffel Tower, you walk with the guide for a few minutes back to the bike tour location. Just as we got there, a huge downpour started. I've done the tour in the rain, and it's surprisingly enjoyable. But Dave and Mike represented 2/3rd's of our democracy, and they voted to bag the bike tour and go to a restaurant nearby. Here are the bikers heading out on their wet journey.

Le Volant is a restaurant that was started by a famous Formula 1 race car driver. The food was great, but the best part was the open wifi network nearby. I was able to jump on with the iPhone and read the news that Apple had released new iMacs and iLife '08. (As you may have noticed, I bought iLife '08 right away and managed to really mess up my original iWeb blog, to the point that I have now switched over to this Blogger format.)

I also sent this picture of Dave enjoying his dinner to his wife using the phone:

Maybe the caption above should be "Whining and dining with Dave."

So we called it a night pretty early and I wrote up the previous Paris trip report and posted it before going to bed.

As promised, Dave gave me the leg home, which was awfully nice of him. Getting a landing is the icing on the cake for most pilots and in a two pilot crew we obviously swap legs. Three pilot crewed trips with two landings usually leaves the FB without a landing. Fortunately, I don't fly FB very often.

After my very nice landing in Boston, I knew it was time to get back at Dave for the incessant whining on this trip. As we approached the gate, I made the typical arrival PA, and then let my finger off the mic switch so nothing would transmit and I said, "Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in congratulating Captain Dave on what was the finest landing of his career today." Dave snapped me a look of horror and said, "Did you just say that?"

"But Dave, you wanted the credit for only the good landings, right?"

Mic button for the PA:

"Gotcha Dave!"

Recovered the old posts...

2007-08-12T13:47:00.000-04:00

Good news. I 'rescued' the old posts! But the bad news is, that for now, the comments are gone. I'm sure I'll figure out a way to get it all back. But in the meantime, if you want to go back to any of the previous 6 months worth of previous posts, they're here. Even if I can get them back, I'm thinking of switching to this format. (update: the old comments are gone forever.) It's quicker and easier for me to post to Blogger and it seems to work well enough. Maybe I'll migrate the old posts over here slowly.

Moving yet again?

2007-08-11T22:13:00.000-04:00

No, we're not leaving New Hampshire. But I may have to give up using iWeb for these posts that I've been keeping since the first of the year. I updated to the latest version and made a few experimental changes which have really messed up the look. It's completely unreadable. I went back to change everything to the way it was and now I can't get it to publish. So I'm taking a look at Blogger to see if this could serve as a replacement. Sorry you have to be guinea pigs in this. I'll post two more trip reports soon here. And hopefully I'll be able to link back to the older posts with their comments. I'd hate to lose all that work.

Update: I still can't get the comments back on the old format. But here are the posts for the first have of 2007. I still prefer the old format, but I'll stick it out with Blogger for now.

Paris 3 day - Musée du quay Branley

2007-08-01T20:13:00.000-04:00

August will likely be a month with little pattern or ‘cadence’ in flying. I love to fly a variety of trips, but many of our lines are either built with all Paris, all Manchester, or all Santo Domingo or San Juan. But I’ve managed to trade around and get a nicely varied schedule for July and August, flying one of each of the trips we have.

Mark is the kind of Captain I aspire to be. Sharp as a tack, great sense of humor and always enjoyable to fly with. I was the FB (relief co-pilot) for this Paris trip. I had flown with the co-pilot, Mike once before and it looked to be a really fun trip. We were all happy to see that Michelle would be one of our nine flight attendants. Many of the others were actually from the Dallas base, surprisingly.

Typically everyone sleeps on the bus ride from the airport to the hotel in the city. I’ve heard stories of the ride taking as much as 3 hours, but I usually fly Paris on the weekends or in August when everyone in the city is away on vacation, so, this being August, we were at the hotel in less than 45 minutes. So, while I listened to The Apple Phone Show podcast, (highly recommended, BTW) everyone else slept...

Michelle really wanted to go to the Musée du quay Branley, which displays ancient instruments of non western societies. Sign me up! And Captain Mark wanted to check out a restaurant that was a converted train station he’d heard about. So with our evening planned in advance, I could sit back and enjoy the ride, so to speak.

The last time I flew with Mark, Michelle was also on the trip. Due to a mechanical issue with the airplane, we were unable to fly home with passengers, so we ferried an empty 767 back to Boston from Paris. And prior to that, Michelle was part of the crew that went to a play in Manchester together. So we’ve always managed to have a good time. She’s extremely smart, funny, positive, and she teases relentlessly. But I like that, and it makes for some great layovers to have her come along. Or maybe it was us that was tagging along with her, really. We discovered that all three of us pilots had cell phones that could text message internationally. CA Mark figured this would be a great way to meet up in Paris if one of us wanted to go out early. We tested it out and it worked great.

When I got to my room, I realized that I forgot the charger for the iPhone. Oh, The horror! In good cheapskate pilot form, I asked at the front desk if they might have a USB iPod cable that was left at lost and found. No such luck. So just after arriving at the hotel, I found myself walking to a FNAC store to buy an iPod charger. 2 hours later and I was in business. But that really cut into my nap time. So I crashed for another 2 1/2 hours before meeting up with CA Mark and Michelle. We planned on meeting Mike at the museum later. After picking up a wee snack at the pastry, we jumped on the Metro to go over to the Eiffel Tower, close to where the Museum was located. I rarely get to that corner of the city, so I made sure to take a few pictures while there, even though the clouds weren’t helping with the shots. Here are a few:

So we hung around the outside of the museum waiting for FO Mike, but he was running late. It seems that the Metro station he planned on using was closed, so he texted us to tell us he’d be late. Ahh, you’ve got to love technology. We hung out at the Museum Cafe before finally giving up on Mike and going inside. We elected not to rent an audio device that would help us with a tour of the Museum. In hindsight, that would have been very helpful. I struggled a little bit with my limited french to understand what I was looking at. They had masks, costumes, violins, guitars, and weapons from ancient worlds. Cameras weren’t allowed inside, but I rebelled and snuck in one iPhone picture for you:

Now I’m a huge fan of museums. Let’s see, there’s the Boeing Museum, the Pensacola Naval Museum, Stephen Gray’s fighter collection in Duxford, and the Planes of Fame museum in Chino, California. So while this museum was really interesting, I think I would have preferred the Kalamazoo “Air Zoo” museum. But thanks Michelle for trying to open my eyes to new things. I’ll try out the audio tour next time.

FO Mike may have had the best idea. He met us at the museum cafe outside. I joined him and texted CA Mark when Michelle found us outside as well. It was really easy to get lost in there! Mark had secured reservations for 4 at the restaurant called Le Gare for 8 p.m. Imagine a train or subway station with the tables down where the train tracks used to be and the platform above and on both sides also featuring tables. I managed to get one picture inside that may help get the idea as well as an exterior shot of the restaurant:

Notice the ghostly blur in front of one of the tables? That was the only picture I got of the hostess who the 3 M’s (Mark, Mike and Michelle) found to be distractingly stunning. I hardly noticed her at first, as she really wasn’t my type, but they managed to point out one of the truly beautiful features of Paris. OK, she was hot. But if she had short blond hair, I would have flipped. (And taken pictures)

The dinner was great. As is somewhat common in Paris, you order a fixed price meal which runs about 36€ or $49. It comes with an appetizer, the main course, and the desert. (Shrimp, beef and half baked chocolate cake for me). Due to the language barrier, I ended up with well done beef, but it was still very good. And the dessert was to die for. (I’m convinced there are NO bad desserts in France)
So it was time to leave the restaurant and work our way back to the metro station before they shut down for the night. I think it was 11:30 or so. We passed the Eiffel Tower and stopped at a convenience store for some water and fruit for the morning.

We depart at 1:30 in the afternoon the next day. Since we got there a bit early, I wanted to take a picture of FO Mike with his window open. I got a shot of FO Mike waving from his window.

Then CA Mark just had to share some of the limelight followed shortly after by Michelle. It quickly became a photo shoot!

I swear, it’s not always this fun. Sometimes we even have to work. But we’ll do our best to enjoy the next Paris trip, when we may go on a late night bike tour of the city with FO Mike and my good friend Captain Dave B. Will it be as much fun? Stay tuned.