Cockpit Chronicles: Domestic Duties

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.

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

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.

Barbados Misconnect "Blogging in Miami"

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"

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.

Back to work...

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!

Punta Cana. It's not Brussels.

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!