Ground . 9

I've moved!

2010-02-26T11:08:00.001-08:00

It's been a while since I've blogged, and I really wish I had a good reason for doing so. I have a dedicated website now, and will be blogging there regularly on a variety of aviation topics, so come on over to www.groundpoint9.com, and thanks for reading.

Grounded Pt. II (postponed indefinitely :)

2009-04-15T14:45:00.000-07:00

This installment of my two part series was supposed to be the grand finale...the big tuna (not Jim Halpert, either). In a strange twist of fate, the story will be postponed until Fall. Let me explain....

We operate[d] 55 aircraft. Many of these are owned outright, some of them are leased. Eleven aircraft have their leases expire this year. Because of the current economic climate (are you sick of hearing that yet?) the company was not able to renegotiate the first four leases to come due, so the aircraft are being returned to the lessor. Simple math dictates that less aircraft equals less pilots, so the company was all set to trim off the bottom twenty pilots - including yours truly - come May 1st. Of course I was extremely disappointed to receive this news at the end of May, but confident that it was a sign that I should be doing something else and prepared to move forward. Imagine my surprise when, upon landing in Philadelphia after a flight from Syracuse, I had a voicemail from my chief pilot informing me that the furloughs had been cancelled and that they were maintaining the current staffing levels through the summer. This industry never ceases to amaze me. It is the most reactionary group of entities that I have ever seen. Oh well, I guess it means I can keep flying, so great right???

Oh yes, I finally received the medical certificate that I waited oh-so-patiently for, bless the FAA's heart. Crew Scheduling immediately put me to work, and I just wrapped up a delay-ridden three day trip in and out of the City of Brotherly Love. The first two days were routine, but the last leg of the last day wrapped up in typical fashion. We were working a flight back to the Big Apple. The flight was scheduled to go out on tiime, but thanks to some baggage mis-handling we pushed back 25 minutes late. The company flight that left for the same destination right before us was holding in the air, so the tower wouldn't release us for takeoff until they were out of the hold. As luck would have it, as soon as that aircraft was out of the hold, our destination called for a ground stop for all aircraft that hadn't left yet. Of course, we didn't have enough fuel to sit out on the taxiway, so we had to go back for fuel. By this time it was an hour after we pushed back. Once at the gate, the passengers apparently thought this meant that they could get off and go inside and find another way to wherever they were going, which caused mass confusion and turned a 10 minute fuel stop into a 45 minute loading nightmare. We pushed back after another hour, took off right away, and were immediately given holding once we reached our cruise altitude. We held for a full 45 minutes, and were 5 minutes away from "bingo fuel" - that is, the amount of fuel remaining before we would have to go get fuel. We were preparing to deal with anarchy in the back when Gotham finally accepted our arrival and I smacked one on the runway to conclude our trip.

As I write this, I'm waiting for my flight home, which is delayed a full two hours due to fallout from yesterday's poor weather that paralyzed the East Coast.

Living the Dream....

Grounded

2009-03-20T05:13:00.001-07:00

Welcome to a miniseries entitled "Grounded". This is the first installment in a two part series.

As pilots, we must maintain a certain level of health and fitness. I use these terms somewhat loosely, because really all we do is sit still, and many captains I have flown with haven't put the running shoes on in quite some time. Really, no one wants us dropping dead while on final approach in a snowstorm. We certify our fitness through the FAA Medical; we take a physical assessment each year with a designated Aeromedical Examiner (AME). It was my turn to renew mine a couple of weeks ago. Since I turned 35 last year, I would be required to take an ECG - no big deal, and I was more worked up about the eye test for no reason other than it is something to get worked up about. When it was time for the ECG, the nurse fumbled through hooking me up, then fumbled through running the test (I guess they don't do them that often). After the machine spit out the results, she took them to the doctor, them came back and ran it again (without adjusting anything, mind you). She took the new results to the doctor, and then said he'd be in to talk to me. Now I was starting to get worked up about the ECG. When the doctor came in, he said the test indicated a "possible circulation problem around the bottom of [my] heart". Okay, that got my attention. Needless to say, I didn't get my medical.

I got right on the phone and called the chief pilot's office and let them know that I was grounded because, after all, I was on reserve that day. My next call was to the union. Now, I haven't really formed my opinion on unions yet, and I can't say that I'm for or against them as I've never been affiliated with one in 10 years of working. Today, I was definitely for them. The union rep put me in touch with the aeromedical office, and they gave me the "gameplan" for what I'd have to do to get my medical, including a visit to the cardiologist for additional testing. Now it was time for some Googling. At the top of the ECG printout was my diagnosis, which was a possible 1st degree AV block. Come to find out, this is quite normal and common in athletes and people of above average health (let's face it, I'm not going to the Olympics any time soon, but I eat right and am in the gym 5-6 days per week). Now I'm shifting from shock and worry to pure anger. This is confirmed by the ALPA aeromedical doctor, who informed me that it is normal, and the AME should have simply held my medical for further testing if he wasn't comfortable just giving it to me.

Well, to wrap up, further testing at the cardiologist turned up a very healthy heart. I maxed out the stress test at 99% of my maximum heart rate, and additional resting ECGs only turned up an early repolarization which, you guessed it, is quite common in young healthy people.

So, now I wait....and wait....and wait.....and wait...for the FAA - a government agency - to give me back what was so hastily taken from me.

The moral of the story is this: there is a wealth of information out there at your fingertips, and medicine is becoming more and more of a team effort. The doctor is the educated authority, but only one of you knows what is going on with your body. If in doubt, question authority!

IM SAFE

2009-02-19T06:25:00.000-08:00

There is an old mnemonic used in general aviation to take a "personal assessment" of oneself prior to going flying. I used to preach it to my students because many, many pilots have bought the farm because their minds were not on the task at hand. I think it's easier to let these guidelines fall by the wayside in the airline world, in part because there is an additional pilot to pick up any slack, and in part because "the show must go on". Today, however, I'm in a hotel in Syracuse reviewing this very important rule of thumb, which goes:

I - Illness (am I sick?)
M - Medication (am I taking any medications?)
S - Stress (am I under any job/life/family stress?)
A - Alcohol (have I been drinking - this should be a no brainer)
F - Fatigue (am I tired?)
E - Emotion (am I experiencing any extreme emotions?)

I can say that today, I am in violation of at least four of these (no, I haven't had anything to drink). Two weeks ago, my daughter was so kind as to bring home the flu from school. After 36 hours of pure hell, and 4 more days of sickness, I got kind of better, took the trip I'm currently on, and got hit again with a vengeance over the last two days. By the time last night rolled around I was beaten down, and of course I had the last leg into Syracuse. I actually managed a very nice landing, probably because I was laser-focused on that runway and the hot shower I knew was a 5 minute crew van trip away. Either my timing was off or everything was just moving in slow motion for me. Once the gear and flaps were down, I felt like we crept along for a good 10 minutes before touching down, and we were the only plane around. A smooth approach and landing nonetheless.

The coup de grace: I just had to walk a mile to the closest drug store to get a variety of medications recommended by my doctor (nothing unapproved, but still). After making several "stops" during my walk, I knew I had failed the IM SAFE checklist miserably, and it was time to call crew scheduling. I should have known last night: I was too sick to eat my crew meal..........that was a joke (I'll save crew meals for another post).

Living the dream...

Commuting on Reserve

2009-01-26T07:22:00.000-08:00

Three words that strike fear into the hearts of airline pilots around the world. But what exactly does that mean? There is probably a Wikipedia entry on it, and certainly a Google search will return something. But a recent post by the author at fl250.blogspot.com about the industry/economy, together with the questions I receive about my schedule, prompted me to write about that very thing.

The airline industry is based on seniority. The longer you've been around, the more "opportunity" you have with respect to everything from schedule to pay to what type of aircraft you fly, for those that operate multiple types. My airline only operates one type so that leaves us with schedule and pay, of which I'll touch on the former. When you first start out at an airline you are on "reserve" status. The way I explain this to people when asked is that I am "on call". This usually resonates with people because they know that when a doctor is on call they get paged when needed, which is exactly what happens to me. During the recent hiring boom that is now gone, a new pilot could expect to "sit" on reserve for a very short period of time, if at all. I've been on reserve for seven months, which was unheard of as recently as late 2007 at most regional airlines. Unfortunately there is no end in sight in the current climate, but I try not to be negative.

So what does it actually look like? Well, if a reserve pilot is being called then that means a pilot that was previously assigned to a trip could not fly it for some reason - sickness, family, duty limits, etc. As you would expect, things like this can happen at the last minute, in which case you need to be at the airport in relatively short order. Which of course means that you need to be close by. Close enough, at my airline, that you can be signed in within 75 minutes (120 minutes in Gotham) of receiving the phone call. Which brings us to those three words. Since I am based in Gotham, I cannot possibly get there from my homeland in 2 hours, so I need to already be there. And since on call times typically start at 5:00 am, you guessed it again, I need to be there the night before. And since you are on call for five consecutive days....well, I'm sure you can see where this is going and it is not making the wife very happy. I have only been called on the same day once, and that time I had 3 hours notice so it gave me plenty of time. Every other time I received a call the day before, and it was always for a trip that was unassigned, or had not been given to a first officer during our monthly bidding process.

As I've mentioned before, my airline has a nice provision in the pilot contract that lets us perform our reserve duties at a base of our choosing, if allowed to do so by Mother (crew scheduling). Up until recently, Mother has been nice to me and allowed me to work out of the base closest to home, but times are tough. This base is small and does not see much flying, and Gotham is a big city, and sees much flying. The result is that I have been spending much time in my sister-in-law's basement just across the border from downtown Gotham, about an hour's drive from the airport (it's only 33.6 miles, I still don't get it).

The winter months are usually slow, and the current economy is making things slower. There is some concern on the grapevine of the small close-to-home base closing its doors. And without much attrition or growth in the company, the possibility of only being used in a reserve capacity for a long, long time is becoming a reality. Because things are so slow, I haven't been flying very much at all. In fact, sometimes I can't differentiate days off from days supposedly working. This is marginally acceptable when I am home, but when in the sister-in-law's basement, is not nearly as much fun. Of course the goal, regardless of base, is to be in the air looking down, not the other way around.

Oh well, I just requested an unassigned trip on my day off Thursday (is it a day off?). I look forward to the relaxing drive through the mountains to the small close-to-home base...for now.

Living the dream.

To: John From: Crew Scheduling

2008-12-30T07:13:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

I received a present from crew scheduling this year - a 7 AM show time on Christmas Day for a three day trip, meaning that I'd need to leave by 5:30 to get to the airport on time. And I didn't even get them anything.

Thus I've been indoctrinated into the elite group of "Those Who Work on Christmas Day", and I'd be performing my first "Christmas Lift" (For more tales of the holiday lift visit flightlevel390.blogspot.com).

I am based at our Gotham hub, but since we live in the SE United States, I always request to fly out of the base closest to our home. With the holidays upon us, and an increase in flying in the Northeast, this request has been denied more and more lately. My lovely wife is from the extended Gotham suburbs, so we planned to spend Christmas with her family. On Christmas eve we spent the day with all of the kids in the City (our daughter snookered an American Girl out of us), and the evening with the entire family, so I don't feel like I missed out too terribly much - although one day I hope to fly on Christmas Eve and make the "Santa Sighting" announcement. Next year perhaps.

The City that Never Sleeps is quiet at 5 AM on Christmas day, and the drive to the airport was the most pleasant I've had (well, at least the drive through Manhattan, the drive through the Appalachians to the airport in Virginia is always pleasant). I was originally assigned to this trip because another pilot dropped it, so I would only be with the crew for the first three days at which the original pilot would rejoin the crew. Nonetheless, I've blogged before that the upside of early report times, is going home early on the last day. This trip was no exception: one leg from BWI-LGA at 7 AM, and then homeward bound. Until then, however, two long duty days, with only four legs each day. This is made possible through the use of multi-hour blocks of airport appreciation time - that is, time spent in an airport waiting for your next flight. Sure would be easier if all airports had free wi-fi. I certainly don't want to challenge an entities attempts to generate revenue in these economic times, but to that point, are people actually spending $7.95 to use the internet for an hour? But I digress....

So yes, in two days a total of 8 hours and 20 minutes spent sitting in airports waiting for flights. That is a fine Christmas present indeed. I'm home now and all that is behind me. But wait, it looks like Crew Scheduling might have another present for me for New Year's....I really need to get them something....

Circadian Rhythm

2008-12-10T07:33:00.001-08:00

3:00 AM: My wristwatch alarm goes "beep-beep, beep-beep". I reach over and turn it off.

3:03 AM: My cell phone alarm goes "do-do-do-Do-Do" or whatever song it is. I reach over and turn that off.

3:06 AM: The hotel alarm clock goes "BWANH BWANH BWANH BWANH". I reach over and turn that off

3:06:05 AM: I reach for the remote control and turn on The Weather Channel. The ensuing glow ensures that I will not go back to sleep, jeopardizing my seat on the 4:00 am crew van to the airport and earning me a trip to have coffee with the chief pilot...although the meeting is in his office and he is the only one enjoying coffee.

Such is my routine when I have an early morning "show time", which I've had a lot lately. The upside to the early show is that on the last day, you're usually done by lunchtime, or shortly after. The downside is, well, you have to get up really early in the morning. No matter how hard you try, it is hard to automatically switch from being a night person to being a morning person, and somehow managing to get to bed early at night. Many pilots write about "Circadian Rhythm", and what they do to accomodate different schedules. One that I enjoy reading writes a column in Flying Magazine, and he starts a day or two early when he has a string of early shows or an overseas flight. Unfortunately, I cannot seem to do this, no matter how hard I try. When I have the 4:15 show time, it means I need to leave the house at 2:30 to get to the airport, so I have to be up at 1:45. Wow, that sounds even more ridiculous when I write it.

On this particular morning with the 4:15 - which I've only had one of on the first day of a trip - I tried and tried to get in bed at 7 PM, but just couldn't do it. As you can imagine, one gets pretty tired the next day, and we can't have tired pilots. Our scheduling department does a good job of making sure we're finished early on such days, and I can usually be in bed in the hotel by 1:30 or so. Of course, an afternoon nap makes it difficult to fall asleep at night, which you need to do when you have another 4 AM show time the next day...

And of course, by the time your body is adjusted, the trip is over, you're at home, and your wife is demanding why you are exhausted at 5 o'clock at night, falling asleep while she is telling you about her day, or falling asleep at much more "inopportune" times....

For me, the search for the answer to Circadian Rhythm will continue, and, in the meantime, I am thankful for $1.00 large coffee at the Laguardia Dunkin Donuts for flight crew.

Living the Dream....

When The Planets Align

2008-12-02T08:56:00.001-08:00

An airport that closes its only runway at midnight....a freak line of thunder snowshowers....a passenger stuck in the bathroom....all things that conspire to make for an interesting evening when the stars and planets align, or in our case, when the moon, jupiter, and venus are all in unusually close proximity in the evening sky.

My base airport closes its only runway at midnight each night for maintenance. I was assigned to do an "out-and-back", which brings you back to your home airport at the end of the day. There were numerous storms moving through the northeast, bringing high winds, rain, snow, and other nasty precipitation. We were due back into our airport at 11:57 PM local time, which is really pushing that midnight curfew. Upon arrival at the airport, the board unceremoniously announced that our departure time is 1:30 behind schedule, so we were already in trouble. We had 2:30 worth of layovers, so we were confident we could make up the time, and our departure time was moved up by 30 minutes, which bolstered our confidence. We launched for the City of Brotherly Love about 45 minutes behind schedule.

Due to the high winds Philly was using the two longer runways and landing to the west. While being guided for our turn at a landing, someone reported windshear on final, and apparently this renders one of the two runways unusable. We immediately were given instructions to tour the countryside, and things were not looking good for making curfew. After only a few turns, the airport opens up one of the other two runways, and we were brought right around for a nice landing by the captain on the short runway 26.

After unloading the passengers and conducting the preflight, I decided to check my phone for messages, which I usually don't do during a quick turn, which this now was due to our unanticipated tardiness. The Mothership (scheduling) called while we were in the air. I called them back, and they informed me that two of our final three legs would be cancelled, and we were to ferry an empty airplane from Buffalo back to home base. This was good news, because it meant we would make curfew, and I wouldn't be driving home at 1am. We immediately loaded up our passengers, and launched for the frozen north.

Along the way, we were treated to the unusual celestial show pictured above, which we soon learned meant that a passenger was going to get locked in the bathroom. With the flight attendant on the phone with the captain, together they managed to work out the method by which you can insert a pen into the slot that shows "Occupied/Unoccupied" and slide open the latch. This was a first for all of us, although I later learned they discuss scenarios like this during flight attendant training. I also learned two other methods by which you can get the lavatory door open if you absolutely need to. Who knew? I was distracted by this excitement, and failed to process the flashes of lightning off in the distance.

After landing at BUF, we simply needed to take on fuel and launch, as we weren't bringing any passengers with us. While we waited for the fueler to finish up, there was a bright flash - which was a lightning strike at the airport - and the sky opened up with large fluffy white flakes being driven by the winds. In airline life this indicates a trip to see the Iceman. We taxied the airplane to the deice pad, but the snow was falling so rapidly that the Iceman couldn't keep up with it. After two complete trips around the aircraft, the snow subsided enough for him to make a third and successful trip around leaving us with a clean and shiny plane. As long as it is clean and shiny, we can go flying. We lined up with the runway, did the Star Wars launch into the advancing snow flakes, and 1 hour and 30 minutes later, our night was over.

If this is what happens when the planets align, I shudder at the thought of what happens when pigs fly....

Aero-Dynamics

2008-10-13T14:41:00.000-07:00

After a recent trip I was left pondering the science of aero-dynamics, which is quite different than aerodynamics (notice the hyphen). What I am referring to are the dynamics of human relationship while trapped in an aluminum tube far above the earth's surface. I've always heard people say that you have to like the people that you work with because you spend more time at work than at home. I will agree with that statement, but in my previous career I was never forced to sit in my cube with another person and work on the same computer using the same keyboard and mouse. I could escape into my cube from those I didn't care to spend any extended time with. Now, that is not the case.

I've been told that first officers have to be "Gumby", meaning that we have to be flexible when it comes to our co-workers. I've been lucky so far in that I haven't had to fly with "those captains". The science of aero-dynamics does, however, extend beyond the flight deck. There have been two occasions where the captain wasn't a fan of our flight attendant, and vice versa. Because I'm new, and have no track record with anyone whatsoever, I try to get along with everyone, which is my personality anyway. This works just fine until, you guessed it, the parties try to get you to choose sides (I didn't think I was in high school anymore?). Now conventional wisdom, and my personal line of thinking is, you guessed it again, it's probably a good idea to be partial to the person with whom you're sharing intimate space for the majority of your day. This in and of itself works fine until we get to the second observed component of aero-dynamics...

Captains themselves, at least at my airline, can run the gamut of personalities. This is different from my last career where, corporate culture being what it is, people tended to have similar dispositions within a company. Most of a typical flight is a laid back affair, where we simply monitor the aircraft's progress and make sure everything is a-ok. During landing, and from pushback through takeoff, there is an intricate ballet going on and one misstep can disrupt the flow of things. At least it can for this relative youngster. Being somewhat fresh out of training, I tend to follow everything by the book because, well, that's all I know. I have developed some "line flying" techniques, such as turning the air on immediately after engine start and landing, for passenger comfort (no, that is not the actual order of things!), but for the most part I don't deviate. There are captains out there that have a "flair" to what they do when it comes to checklists and flow patterns, reporting times, and, well, lots of other things. Some call for checklists, some chide you for not running them already. Some don't like FO's to start engines, some do. Some don't want you to respond to some ATC directives - particularly taxiing - without checking in with them first. Again, think "Gumby".

Ultimately, we all have the same goal: get our passengers to their destinations safely and on time, while returning to our own families. What happens in between certainly can keep things interesting.

I Heart NY

2008-09-24T14:40:00.000-07:00

My last trip found me practicing the hub and spoke model out of LaGuardia in Flushing, NY (I never grew up, that's grade A toilet humor right there...). I guess you could say "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times". Or actually vice versa. You see, tropical storm Hannah was making it's way up the East Coast, right about the time we departed southwestern VA for the northeast. After a quick trip to NY, followed by an early end to the first day in Baltimore, we awoke on day two to the beginnings of Hannah. You only need to have ever watched The Weather Channel to know what bad weather can do to New York's big three airports, and we were already anticipating a change in plans along the way. We easily made it to LaGuardia in time for three hours of airport appreciation, prior to launching to Burlington, VT. Flights to Washington, DC, Baltimore, and Philadelphia were already starting to show as cancelled on the board. We all thought that we might be spending the night in Burlington, because there was no way we were making it back to NY. Thanks to Hannah's hefty winds, we arrived in Burlington a good 30 minutes ahead of schedule. There were already ground stops for traffic destined for Newark and JFK, but not LaGuardia. This is practically unheard of. We decided to load up the passengers as soon as we could and get the heck out before that changed. The nice tailwinds we enjoyed were now ferocious headwinds. We were only managing about 160 kts on the ride back, which gave the ice lots of time to accumulate. This was actually my first ever flight into "known icing conditions", and it was interesting, to say the least. We were being assaulted by sleet, or ice pellets as it is more commonly referred to in aviation-speak. We broke out of the rain band about 70 miles from the airport, and it was eerily clear below us all the way back. We could see the next band approaching from the south, and thought for sure we'd never leave for Syracuse.

Well, about an hour later I'm doing my preflight in preparation to depart to Syracuse. Doesn't dispatch know about the tropical storm? I guess not, because they are determined to get these 6 people to upstate NY. We made such phenomenal time on our trip to Burlington that we were still ahead of schedule, so we loaded up our 6 and pushed back just as the next rain band really started to dump some water on the airport. The path from the gate to runway 13 was wide open, but ground didn't send us straight to the end of the departure runway, which could only mean one thing. Sure enough, as we were crossing runway 22 we were told to turn "right on DD, hold short of the windsock, shut 'em down". By this time the rain is falling so heavily we can't see the terminal anymore. The captain calls operations, and I make a PA to our passengers to tell them the good news: all departures are stopped and there is no ETA on when that restriction will be lifted. The line of planes is growing behind us, at least we're first. Operations gives us 90 minutes before we have to return to the gate and release our priso....er, passengers. After the much-publicized JetBlue fiasco with the ice storm a few years ago, the Port Authority of NY/NJ has some new rules governing how long you can keep passengers on an aircraft on the ground. One hour and twelve minutes later, a mere eighteen minutes to go before we have to return our passengers, we get the instruction to start both engines, monitor tower, and be ready to go. Within five minutes we are airborne and trying to find a path through all of the red and yellow radar returns, but there is so much rain that there is no path; we are along for the ride. Our airplane handles turbulence very well, but it can't have been a fun ride for the passengers. Thankfully, the tailwind we enjoyed on the way to Vermont was still blowing this way, and it pushed us to Syracuse in about 40 minutes. The wind was blowing steadily down the runway, and I made an uneventful landing after breaking out of the low cloud deck. Tomorrow, all of this would be gone and we'd be left with beautiful weather, which allowed me to fly my first "Expressway Visual" to runway 31. I didn't get a picture of that, but I did manage to snap one prior to commencing the approach (things get pretty busy at that time...):

And one from the first morning, following the Hudson river prior to making a u-turn for landing:

Hub and Spoke

2008-09-01T14:39:00.000-07:00

So far I'm 37 "cycles" into my SOE, or, Supervised Operating Experience. A cycle is quite simply one leg from point A to point B. All but two of my cycles have included Charlotte (CLT) as one of those two points. I don't understand how the bean counters figure out when to schedule flights and how those flights are matched to connecting flights, but I find it fascinating. We all come in at the same time, and we all leave around the same time in waves. CLT has a flow control program in place for arriving flights, to help ensure that when you get there, you'll have a gate available. The New York airports attempt this by using "wheels-up" times to control the flow of airborne traffic during heavy times, but so I'm impressed by CLT's system. When we get here, our gate is always open, and we rarely have to wait on the ramp. During push times, when everyone is racing to leave, it can get pretty cramped, especially when trying to get from the express terminal, around the two massive Airbuses that always seem to be parked at the end of D terminal. On that note, talk about poor capacity planning; who thought it would be a good idea to put international flights, especially an A340-600, like, the longest airliner in existence, right where the majority of flights - regional aircraft - have to taxi in order to leave or arrive? It's a self imposed choke point, and causes all sorts of problems at the wrong times. Depending on the ramp controller, it can be better (Jimmy!) - or worse (not Jimmy).

After 40 hours in the airplane I'm starting to really get a feel for flying it. I still have a bit of trouble coming into the smaller airports after leaving CLT, specifically with my speed. After the CLT controllers have you keep your speed up for sequencing, you have free reign at other airports, which often ends up with me high and fast. Luckily, we fly an aircraft that can slow down and drop in on a dime, but I'm trying not to use its capabilities as a crutch and instead use better planning and judgement. Coming into Roanoke the other afternoon I was so high that I couldn't slow down, and ended up having to circle to another runway (embarrassing).

Last night's flight, the only one of the day, had us leaving the relaxed atmosphere of the south for the hectic, congested airspace that is NYC. I'm actually based in LGA, but this was my first time there. Aside from not understanding what the heck they were saying, it was a beautiful night and we were actually early to arrive and early to leave. The sunset on the way back to Roanoke was a nice treat:

Christmas in August

2008-08-22T14:38:00.000-07:00

I had no idea it had been 6 weeks since my last post, surely that can't be right. I feel like I have a pretty good excuse, having spent the last three weeks in "the box", also known as the simulator. It was tough, but I made it through. Day after day of emergency after emergency. It almost doesn't feel right sitting in the aircraft without an engine on fire or some other sort of dilemma to deal with. It's done that way so that when the real engine failure strikes, dealing with it is second nature. I wonder what happens when the real engine failure doesn't strike for two years? Better keep on top of that emergency checklist...

The real question is: was it Christmas in August last night? Well, yes and no. Yes, because it was my first flight as an airline, and yes, it did feel like Christmas. We started in Charlotte, and then flew a Chattanooga, TN turn and a New Bern, NC, turn. A "turn" in airline parlance is a round trip. On the return from New Bern to Charlotte, we were treated to the kind of sunset that makes me wonder what I was ever doing working in a cube. Of course, my camera was in the locker in the cabin, but I won't make that mistake again. There was a line of clouds to our west, and the sun setting behind then cast an orange glow on the high cirrus clouds far above. Because it was dark behind us, it felt like we were suspended in the sky, with the steady hum of those massive props doing their best to lull us to sleep. It was surreal.

On our approach into Charlotte between the green taxi lights and the red aircraft beacons, the airport was lit up like a Christmas tree. Now, I've flown in and out of the greater New York area several times at night, each time having to pick a small general aviation airport out of the sea of lights that is NYC. For some reason, that seemed easy compared to this (maybe because then I was creeping along in a Cessna 172?) The airport itself is laid out fairly well, much better than, say, JFK, but has a complex system of marshaling an aircraft from the south side of the airport to the north end where we park, using several ramp frequencies (I'm still not sure where these people sit and how they see everyone...). We were forced to weave around aircraft coming and going, it was an absolute zoo. I think my brain actually short circuited. All in due time, I guess.

Of course, I don't have a picture of any of that, but I do have a funny picture from my deadhead the other day on an Airbus. It's certainly something you don't expect to - or want to - see on your typical flight.

Today's flying will take us into the outer bands of a tropical storm. What else for the second day on the line?

Next Stop

2008-07-09T14:38:00.000-07:00

I was trying to be incognito about the airline for which I'm flying. Unfortunately, I recently moved to a MacBook and don't have any sort of photo editing software, so was unable to remove the company logo from the simulator in the picture. Technically, with two mainline carriers (now one) and 9 airlines in the family of Express carriers, I'm able to preserve some sort of anonymity. So we press on...

I'll try to summarize all that has happened in the last month as best as possible. The last test of ground school was on QPT (qualifications procedures training) and it was a doozy. This was the first test that was not multiple choice. As it was on procedures, it didn't make any sense to be multiple choice, so I'm not complaining. I'm sure it's hard to come up with a written test on what should be practical test material. I did pass on the first try, but not by much, and there was a good-sized group that did not pass on the first try (all of whom passed on the second try). The last afternoon was a strange affair. The lady in charge of sim scheduling gave us our tentative schedules, which had completely changed since that morning. I went from having a sim partner to being in the "holding pen". I won't go into details, but my original partner is not with this airline anymore. A couple people were paired with upgrading captains so they started right away, but the majority of us ended up with some paid time off.

I've used much of my time off to work on the kitchen renovation at the new house. I'm on target to finish it before I have to return to training, which is now scheduled for the 24th of this month. My wife's annual work trip was to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, this year, so I thought I'd use the opportunity to exercise my free travel benefits. In short: that is way too far to travel as a non-revenue standby passenger in these days of reduced capacity. My daughter and I just barely made each of the three flights it took us to get to PVR, and the only way we could get home was by sampling the ZED arrangement we have with Widget airlines. Basically, a ZED is a reduced fare ticket for airline employees to use to travel on other airlines. I bought a ZED for our daughter, and I hopped a ride in the flight attendant jumpseat, which allowed us to fly on the same plane as my wife. The downside, doing so brought us to Widget's major hub in the southeast, and my airline has very few flights into and out of this hub. In fact, Widget has done a great job of keeping almost everyone out, which is amazing considering it's the busiest airport in the world. So, we got to spend the night in said city and used ZED again to get home the next day. All in all, it's probably not something I'll be doing again anytime soon.

I've exchanged emails with the first person in our class to complete sim training. He has been on SOE (supervised operating experience) for two days and is loving it. It makes me want to get in the real airplane even more, but first things first, I have to pass sim training. So now I have two weeks to brush up on callouts and immediate action items (I hope my wife is up for playing flight crew later tonight...no, she won't be wearing a flight attendant uniform, sheesh...). An immediate action item is something that is performed in response to a system failure, but must be done so from memory prior to consulting the checklist. For example, if you experience an engine fire in flight, you don't want to go fishing for the checklist to figure out that you have to shut the fuel off. You just need to shut the fuel off, which is, in fact, the first thing you do once you've identified the fact that an engine is on fire. There are immediate action items for a number of failures, so as you'd imagine it's pretty important to have these things down cold, which is what I'm off to do now. More later!

Firehose, Part 2

2008-05-28T14:37:00.000-07:00

Glub....glub....glub....

I throw up my hands; I'm waving the white flag; I throw myself on the mercy of the court. I have officially attempted to drink from the firehose, and it is NOT a pleasant experience. Week two was spent on systems, and I must stress that five days is not a whole lot of time to spend on learning the systems of a fairly complicated airplane. In general, the older the aircraft is, the more complex it is. This is true with most things. Think about cell phones, televisions, ovens. As computers have become more prevalent and advanced in the things we use, our workload has decreased. Well, there are not many computers on my airplane. It's true that we run around with most systems in AUTO most of the time, but I wonder if there are little elves or some more primitive life form behind the panels running the show. If one of those little guys trips and falls while running from the right main bus to the left main bus, a LOT of lights come on.

After the short week learning as much as we could about the systems, we were up against the written test on Saturday. I was panicked, for lack of a better term. Even after spending a month or more of home study, and having a fairly good grasp of the overall workings of the systems, I didn't feel too good about a lot of the minutiae. There are a number of caution light combinations that illuminate in response to certain faults, and I didn't know all of the combinations. There are also a lot of numbers, such as oil, fuel, and hydraulic pressures, that can easily be transposed. We have two primary instructors, that I don't believe are line pilots for our airline. This in and of itself doesn't mean anything, but we occasionally had instructors stop in to teach a system that are line pilots, and they seemed to have a flair for making the system simple to understand. I don't know exactly what the correlation was, but having multiple instructors with different teaching styles only complicated things.

In the end, though, it was all for naught, as I somehow managed to get a 98%. (I'm not trying to brag, I'm still not sure how I got that high of a grade, but I'm glad I passed by a wide margin.) With week two at an end, we prepare to launch into procedures training for week three, which will conclude this portion of ground training. During procedures training we will start to learn what actually goes on in the cockpit, with regards to performing checklists and "flows". A flow is sort of way to visually trace a path around the cockpit and configure systems properly for the phase of flight. By performing flows, and then using the checklist to back yourself up, you can more expeditiously proceed from one phase to the next. In the words of one of the instructors at my old flight school "if you had to sit there and use the checklist as a do list you'd never get off the gate..". Now I see what he was talking about. It's hard to believe we're almost at the end, but I can't get complacent, as I'm already proactively panicking about my procedures practical evaluation...

In other news, we still don't know our base assignments yet, which is causing most of us a good deal of anxiety. I think I'm checking our employee intranet 4-5 times each day to see if it's posted yet. I have flown home as a non-revenue passenger, which, I have to say, is very cool. Our parent airline has very good travel benefits. Specifically, as a non-revenue passenger the only travelers that have a higher boarding priority are secret service agents and a couple of other government agencies. I felt a little weird getting called to board before longtime pilots considering I'm not technically an employee yet. In the end, everyone got onboard so it all worked out.

Firehose, Part 1

2008-05-20T14:36:00.000-07:00

Week one of training is officially in the books. Airline training is often compared to "taking a drink from a firehose". It hasn't quite been that bad, but it is a lot of information in a short period of time. In a way, it feels a lot to me like starting any new job. In other ways, I feel more comfortable because of the amount of time spent up front with the home study, something that most employers don't provide you with.

Even though my airline is a wholly owned subsidiary of a "legacy" carrier, our headquarters is located in a different city. The first day was spent at company HQ. This first day was, in fact, much like the aforementioned firehose. We had people from different departments come in for 30-60 minutes at a time and attempt to tell us everything we need to know to interact with that department. For example, in 30 minutes we were bombarded with all the information that we would need in order to work with crew scheduling. Yeah, right. The relationship between pilots and scheduling is one of the most complicated and, dare I say, delicate in any industry that I have seen. It is nothing short of a true love-hate relationship, and 30 minutes is not nearly enough time. I've already decided that I am going to overcommunicate, if anything, in my quest to breach the tension that lies between the two parties. Of course, I won't be answering my phone on my days off once I have a hard line.

Day two was spent in transit to our parent company's massive training facility, which will serve as home away from home for three weeks. The first day was an easy day: we put together our Pilot Operating Handbooks, were fitted for uniforms, and some other miscellaneous housekeeping items. Day two we jumped right in to the Flight Operations manual. We had to get through 4 chapters in a single day, because our first test was the following day. Needless to say, we did it. I guess we didn't have a choice. The most difficult concept to grasp, and one that caused us some headache, is that of crew rest requirements. Basically, a crew is required to have a certain number of hours of rest for a given amount of scheduled flight time. If you've ever been ready to board a flight and had it cancelled or delayed because the flight crew "timed out", this is what happened. The tricky part comes in because rest is based on scheduled, not actual flight time. If you end up flying longer than scheduled, your required rest doesn't change, as long as your next rest time starts within certain allowances. In short, you don't want your pilots to be fatigued, and sometimes just because they are "rested" doesn't mean they are. My airline seems to really be on top of this, as I've scanned some of the lines out there and most have more than adequate rest. Other airlines, not so much so (read: pilots falling asleep over a certain Pacific island chain...)

Friday was test day, and I passed fairly easily. There were some headslappers, and some that I'm still not sure how I got right. But all that really matters is that you pass. With that test (IQT, Initial Qualification Testing) behind us, we moved on to limitations and systems, which I'll save for the next post.

To the Schoolhouse

2008-05-09T14:35:00.000-07:00

It has been a couple of weeks, but this is the follow up to my previous post about the interview process. The approaching weekend will be my last prior to entering the frantic world of airline training, which starts on Monday. The anxiety and adrenaline levels are running high. In a way though, I've been at the schoolhouse since March 20th. My airline does what is known as AQP, which stands for Advanced Qualification Program. What this involves is a significant amount of self-study, which, in theory, shortens the actual time spent at ground school somewhat. To ensure you are studying the material, which you receive at the interview if hired, there are three take home test to complete: one on the FOM (Flight Operations Manual, the airline version of the Policy and Procedures manual), one on Systems, and one on Winter Operations. I found the third one curious, as it is as long as the other two, but there is obviously far more material on systems and policy/procedures. You might think "oh, open book tests, easy", and for the most part you'd be right. There are some tricky questions though, and you need a 90% in order to pass. I've heard that people have been sent home the first day for not achieving that number. I feel pretty good about what I have, especially after spending some time with a fellow new hire quizzing each other and talking through some of the systems. My wife keeps telling me I'm over-prepared, although I feel woefully underprepared. You know how sometimes you study something to the point that you start forgetting the material? That's where I'm at right now. We'll find out next week.

The first week consists of a day at company HQ to do the standard HR paperwork, which includes getting into the system to take advantage of travel benefits. We are very excited about this. With aircraft loads at record levels, it's not going to be as easy to travel as "non-rev" passengers as it used to be. Traveling as a non-rev relegates you to standby passenger status, and if you have been to the airport recently you probably noticed that most standby lists are long. At the bottom of the standby list are the non-revs. Despite that, I'm confident that we'll be able to take advantage once in a while. Our daughter is already plugging for a return trip to Disney.

After the first day, it's off to the real schoolhouse in North Carolina for three days of FOM, a week or so of systems, and then procedures. After that first couple of weeks, simulator training starts. I hear that the simulator department is backed up, and people are getting mini-vacations in between, but that remains to be seen. If it happens, I won't complain, as that will allow me to work on the renovations to the new house. Oh yeah, did I mention that we managed to buy a new house in the middle of all this?

More to follow as I progress through training, until then, it's back to the books.

March of the Penguins

2008-04-18T14:34:00.000-07:00

I have a number of things to write about, so instead of saturating you in one post, I will break them into two back-to-back posts for your reading pleasure. In this one I'll talk about the interview process, or as I've chosen to call it, the "March of the Penguins". Allow me to explain...

After completing the checkrides for my multi engine and instrument instructor ratings, I had to make a beeline for home to catch a 4pm flight to Charlotte. This in and of itself was silly, as I was only an hour and half drive from Charlotte as it was. As I was sitting in traffic in Chapel Hill, NC, sweating, worrying about getting a number of things printed in time for the interview, and being hungry, I decided that I would instead drive to the interview. This gave me time to grab a bite to eat and find a Kinko's, and take my time driving to Charlotte. The flip side is that it would be a long and lonely drive home the next day after getting the boot from the interviewer, or so I thought....

4:30 am rolls around early, especially when you are up until midnight unable to sleep. There has long been an unwritten rule that when you attend an airline interview, you wear a black suit with a dark red tie. I swore up and down that I would break tradition, but here I was, wearing my black suit. I had a striped multi-colored tie on, but nonetheless, I looked like...well...a penguin. Since I had my car, I drove to the training center, and sure enough I was first. The recruiter came downstairs to collect the victims, and I was the only one there. I don't know if that helped, but I met him first. About 5 minutes later I hear noise around the corner, and sure enough, 8 more penguins march around the corner, sporting their finest black suits. Whose funeral was this exactly.

I'll spare most of the details, as you can find them on any airline interview gouge site. We started with the written, and then were broken up into two groups for the sim and human resources interview. I am still grateful that I was in that first group. I completed the HR, which was a breeze compared to some panel interviews I had in the IT industry. As a rabid flight simmer, the sim ride, given on a PCATD (basically a personal computer with a commercial level flight simulation software package installed), was like being at home. Of course, when I play at home, I'm not a nervous wreck with a sim instructor breathing in my right ear. But I must have passed, because shortly after that, the recruiter collected me and together we walked to his office, where he extended me a class date of May 12th. Of course this is what I've always wanted, but I never, never thought it would happen this soon. Three weeks later I'm over the shock of it and the realization of the impending challenge of flight school has fully taken hold. My flight school and students are disappointed and sad to see me go, but I'm going to get my three most active students as far as I can before I go.

Next up, getting ready for airline ground school...

Trading 100LL for Jet A

2008-03-20T14:33:00.000-07:00

Let me start by saying I'm really, really, really tired. Why? I spent all day Monday and Tuesday training for my CFII and MEI ratings, was up very late each night, had my checkrides on Tuesday (passed!), drove to Charlotte for an interview, and was hired by a regional carrier flying turboprop equipment (I'm new to this game, and am not sure what I should and shouldn't post on the internet, but for now I'll be as vague as possible). That's three pretty full days right there.

I'm still in shock. I'm actually not even sure how I'm awake to write this, but needless to say I'm very excited. My new company has been around for a long time, and is in a good position to be around for longer. I can definitely see myself being with this carrier for quite some time.

Looks like my blog focus will be shifting soon to a look at airline training, which begins with a LOT of self study. I'll write more in the coming days, right now I'm beat.

Signing off...

Pursuit of Passion

2008-03-04T14:33:00.000-08:00

As you might have noticed by following this blog, I recently made a complete career switch from Information Technology to aviation. So far, I'm not flying nearly as much as I would like, but I certainly don't miss my former job, and quite frankly don't feel like I ever did that job. It's very strange.

This past Friday night, my wife rented out a restaurant and threw a party to celebrate. Have I mentioned how awesome she is? And she does stuff like this all the time - completely selfless.

After the toast, I gave a very quick encouragement to the crowd to find and pursue their passions, but I came up with some additional thoughts on that theme that I'll add here.

In my former career, I struggled with a question that I think many, if not most, of us struggle with daily. What is my purpose? How can I leave this world a better place than I found it? Here's three things that I came up with, that might work for you.

1. Find your passion
We are all passionate about something. It doesn't have to be career-oriented, such as mine. It could be your family, a sport, playing a musical instrument, your friends, it doesn't matter. It's cliche, but what did you want to be when you grew up? We all had something - I wanted to be, you guessed it, a pilot. That could be a good starting place.

2. Pursue your passion diligently
Okay, so maybe we can't all quit our jobs and become firefighters. If your passion is cars, you probably won't be able to run off to Europe and trade rubber with Michael Schumacher on the Nurburgring. But you could join a local car club. Get involved in amateur race leagues. I used to work with a guy that drove his Subaru in auto cross events on weekends. Take a photography class, do some traveling, learn to dance. There are ways to pursue your passion without necessarily quitting your day job, although if you can, you'd have my support.

3. Share your passion
This is the most important step. I'm fortunate right now in that, my job is to introduce others to the joy of flying an airplane. If you have a musical talent, join a band or play at church. Teach an art class. Join an actors guild and perform at local venues. Take your kids to the firehouse. What good is the gift of passion if we internalize it? I'm not suggesting that you take your daughter to the driving range and hit golf balls for hours on end to fund your retirement. But if others see you get excited about your passion, it will encourage them to explore and get excited about their own passions.

Get up. Find your passion. Pursue it. And share it with someone else. Heck, maybe we can leave this world just a little better than we found it.

Over (Almost) Before it Began

2008-02-26T14:32:00.000-08:00

Wow, didn't realize it's been almost a month since my last update. That calls for a little catch up.

First and foremost, I completed my last day as an IT professional on the 15th. I spent my last week really trying to do a good job finishing up a project I was working on, so put in some long hours. After a week like that, I really thought it would be strange flip-flopping to a completely different line of work - I was wrong. I went to the airport the next day - Saturday - and it was like I had never written a single line of software code in my life. In fact, after a week, I'm not sure that I could write code. It's like it didn't happen. People have told me that means I made the right decision....I guess we'll see, huh?

My first week, last week, was up and down, literally and figuratively. My lessons were weathered out for almost three full days. I have Tuesdays and Wednesdays off, so after working Saturday and Sunday, and being weathered out on Monday, I had a weekend. The weather was a blessing in disguise, however...

As I was sitting in the FBO on Monday, one of our senior flight instructors comes in on his day off. On his off days, he sometimes flies a Cessna 402 for a small company. It so happens that he was supposed to fly it on this Monday, but a line of weather in the southeast was preventing him from doing so. As he was sitting next to me he asked "do you want to fly to Daytona Beach tomorrow?" Needless to say, I didn't have to think about it. So at 6:45 the next morning, we taxied out to the runway to head for DAB to pick up 5 passengers that had enjoyed the Daytona 500 a few days before. As we flipped on the fuel pumps for takeoff, the right engine shut off. This should have been a sign. We restarted, flipped on the fuel pumps, and again, the engine shut down. Jim flips open his cell phone and calls the other pilot to ask if he's ever experienced this phenomenon. Of course, he hadn't, and as they were talking on the phone, Jim leans the mixture, flips on the fuel pump, and, naturally, the engine keeps running. Now that we had confirmed to the other pilot that we were imagining things, we took the runway and climbed into the lightening morning sky.

3.5 hours later, we touched down in Daytona Beach. Now, any of you that are familiar with the pursuit of aviation careers will know that time spent flying a multi-engine aircraft reigns supreme. So it should come as no surprise that when Jim mentioned finding opportunities to fly this airplane on my off days, and possibly getting trained and insurance approved to fly it single pilot, I was chomping at the bit. Fast forward to the ground at DAB. We loaded up our 5 passengers, and climb slowly into the warm Florida air. With the wind at our backs, we shaved 30 minutes off the return flight. Aside from some attention-getting moderate turbulence on the way back, we landed after 6.5 hours of golden multi time.

Two days later, Jim comes in and apologizes for putting me at risk. Huh? That's what I said...apparently, the plane went in for maintenance the day following our trip, and a 5-6 inch crack was discovered in the engine block on the top just behind the gearbox, hence the title of this post. As quickly as it began, my flying days in this good 'ol 402 are over. Hmmm....maybe they'd be interested in a King Air?

The pursuit of the dream continues...

300

2008-01-31T14:31:00.000-08:00

Not much to see here, just cracked 300 hours during slow flight with a student on Sunday. The hours are starting to build fast now, and will build even faster when I go full time next month. I might even be at 400 by the end of February! Once I get to 500 hopefully I'll start to get noticed by some regionals, although I have an "ace up my sleeve" that I'll attempt to cash in on prior to that milestone. Stay tuned...

Change

2008-01-23T14:30:00.000-08:00

Saturday we were lucky enough to be invited to hear Carly Fiorina speak at a local recurring event called the Forum. For those that don't know who she is, she is the former CEO of Hewlett Packard, the first and only woman to ascend to that position for a Fortune 20 company. She is an excellent speaker, and has an incredible presence, which I'm sure was a tremendous asset to her in her position. I won't recount her entire story, you can read about the roller coaster ride and her controversial exit from HP here.

It is obvious that she is a very cerebral person, and several key points stood out that I've been playing over in my mind since that night:

1. Although directed at our business landscape, the theme was undoubtedly "change".

2. The most successful species isn't the strongest or the most intelligent, it's the most adaptable. This was originally a quote from Darwin.

3. By the time everyone agrees that change is necessary, it is probably too late.

4. Those that fail to change, become irrelevant and old before their time.

Heeding these and other notable points presented in her speech, I promptly decided that the time for action is now, and turned in my resignation at my consulting job (okay, so I had turned in my notice on Friday, but the speech just reaffirmed what I had done, for me anyway). So, in another 2 or 3 weeks - I'm trying to remain flexible - I will be able to answer the question "So what do you do?" with "I'm a pilot!". It is definitely scary, but I have the full support of my wife, and although I can always fall back on IT if the going gets too rocky, I have a funny feeling that I'll never look back. I certainly don't plan to!

I celebrated by doing pattern work with a student in the snow on Saturday. We called it quits when the visibility dropped to VFR minimums, but it was pretty while it lasted. At one point I remarked that it was "cool", to which my student responded "yeah, for you!".

One Way to Ring in the New Year

2008-01-09T14:30:00.000-08:00

I celebrated the New Year in a most satisfying fashion: with my first private pilot students. I wish I had some exciting tales to tell of hanging from a balcony on Bourbon Street with various parts of strange women's anatomy pressed against me, but I'm older and wiser now (plus I did that once, and if I ever find that video tape it gets burned immediately...but I digress).

The actual New Year's eve was spent with family and friends in a condo at what we refer to as a "ski resort" here on the east coast. It was a great four day weekend, and I was almost a complete vegetable when it was over, which was the primary goal in addition to teaching our 4.5 year old how to ski, which I think we agreed was a total failure.

Anyway, with the holidays firmly behind us, I set out with my first two students, with one flight on Saturday and two on Sunday. The Saturday flight went well, aside from the fact that it took me twice as long to do things as it should have. I chalked that up to first time inefficiencies, which should be worked out with time. Fast forward to Sunday morning towards the tail end of the training flight. I had the plane because there was a bit of a gusty crosswind and it was her very first lesson, so she was following me on the controls. Just as we add landing flaps at the key position (in a Diamond) she says "what happens if I get sick?"

I tell her that I've got it from there and to just relax and focus her attention outside the plane. On base she says "I really think I'm going to be sick". As we roll onto final she says "I'm not gonna make it" I furiously dig for the sick sack and hand it to her, and just as I grease the mains on, she utilizes the sick sack. The Diamond has a bubble-type canopy, and when it is already warm out and the sun is beating down on you, it can get quite hot inside. I think that was a part of it, coupled with the timing of me taking the controls, which left her brain with little to do, other than inform her stomach that it was queasy.

Oh well, she says she'll come back, time will tell.

Almost Online

2007-12-20T14:27:00.000-08:00

No, not on the Internet. I'm writing this so obviously I must be...oh, never mind. What I mean, is that I'm almost online as a flight instructor! It's been a few since my last post, so an update is in order.

After coming home from my CFI training, I contacted the two flight schools in the local area. RIC is the domain of ATP, and now that I sit here and think about it, I guess they could be an option once I get the -II (soon) and MEI (not on the horizon). At any rate, I contacted the two flight schools and impatiently awaited the opportunity to interview with the both. After what seemed like an eternity of a week and a few days, I finally had my two interviews scheduled. Now, as someone with an IT background, I've been to quite a few interviews in the last 10 years. Because of the demand for my IT skills, I never really felt any pressure going into an interview, because there was always "someone else" that would hire me. Despite the almost rabid demand for flight instructors, I was nervous as heck going into both interviews. Maybe it was because there are only two players in town. Maybe it was because it was it is a new endeavor and I want to get off to a good start in my new career field. Maybe, and probably, it was some of both. Whatever the case, I was nervous. Both were relaxed affairs, and, long story short, ended in my getting job offers. I should have expected it, with the demand levels, but you never know. Of course, it's always nice to be wanted.

After much gnashing of teeth, I chose the "other guy", as in the one that I did NOT do my flight training at. My home FBO was definitely disappointed, but understanding. The main two reasons I made the choice were 1) pay and 2) opportunity. I think it's hard to argue with that. My new employer is part of a larger entity that includes a busy charter department, and it's written right in the handbook that, if the need exists, flight instructors can transition into flying charters. That is a very nice option to have.

After another eternity of two weeks, I finally got into the aircraft this week for my checkouts. My flight school has a mixed Cessna and Diamond fleet, although they are about to become a certified Diamond training center, which is pretty exciting with the prospect of getting one or more Diamond TwinStars online and having D-Jets in and out from time to time. We were also recently awarded the distinction of being the sole distributor of Diamond aircraft in a 6 state area, which is also very exciting. The more I write, the better I feel about making the decision I did. So anyway, for my checkouts I had to go up in a DA-20, which I've never flown, and a C-172 which I've flown A LOT. One of our instructors is a retired airline pilot, and he did my checkout in the Diamond. It is a slick and slippery little airplane, and it's easy to get up into the yellow arc if you don't watch your speed. In fact, my first landing was actually not a landing, but a go around for that reason. I turned final at 90 kts, and could never get rid of it. I couldn't even get into the white for the last notch of flaps, which would have been just what I needed. On the second trip, we used approach flaps on the downwind, "just like you'll do it at the airlines" Jim told me. That sent a little chill up my spine. Jim likes to spread the Diamond checkout over two flights, so I've got one more coming up. I'm rather looking forward to it.

The Cessna checkout was a non-event, oh, except for me performing the worst steep turns I've ever done. It took four tries to get them to standard. And I'm supposed to teach people to do this??? I would have been really rattled if I hadn't just ripped off some brilliant flight at MCA at about 37 knots without losing a foot of altitude (yes, I'm stroking the ego to compensate for those nasty steep turns). Our chief flight instructor dismissed it as "rust"...whatever you say, you're the boss!

I also decided that today was the day to let the boss (the IT one) know that sometime in the near future I'd be leaving as a full-time consultant. It wasn't an official resignation, more of a heads up. My hope is that I can transition to a part time IT guy and fly 4 days per week. That will help ease the shock of giving up so much income, while letting me build my time at a faster rate. He seemed to be understanding and very appreciative of the notice. Just goes to show, too much communication is never a bad thing...unless you're hogging the airwaves, but ATC will let you know about it.

This is aviation cliche, but I can't believe that I'm getting paid to fly airplanes. If you can say "I can't believe I get paid to do this" about whatever you do, you are in a good place and be grateful. My wife is truly an angel sent to me - one with the patience and understanding of a saint. I would not have come this far without her love and support, and I won't continue without it. I give all the glory to her, and to the Man upstairs for planting this passion in my heart. I hope one day I can show her the same support that she has shown me. Although...I know what she wants, and it requires diaper changes...the day that our daughter was potty trained was one of the best days of my life, not looking forward to that part again....

Lily Lake

2007-11-28T14:25:00.000-08:00

2007_11100022

Originally uploaded by jkirksey

This is mostly a test to see if I can add photos from my flickr account. It has the added benefit of sharing some of the beauty that I experienced in Colorado. Took this one hiking around Lily Lake just south of Estes Park, CO.

Some More Letters to Add

2007-11-20T14:24:00.000-08:00

- F - I! The aviation Gods were kind, and I was treated to a gorgeous, unseasonably warm week in Denver, CO for my CFI training. Not only did it provide great flying weather, but it had another, unexpected side effect that I'll touch on in a minute.

My training was conducted with Hulley Aero Training at the Front Range Airport. Of the airports in the Denver, FTG seems to be the "forgotten one". One morning as I was approaching the airport in my car a tumbleweed actually blew across the access road...how metaphorical. The people there were super nice, and both the airport facilities and the aircraft themselves were in fantastic condition. The bulk of my training was focused on flying - and teaching - from the right seat. Flying in the high country was a little different than I am used to. Because of the density altitude, the underpowered Cessna 172 RG I was flying struggled for altitude with every circuit of the pattern. A new experience for sure. Outside of that, there is nothing like climbing away into a clear blue sky with the [lightly] snow capped Rocky Mountains as your backdrop. I can't count the number of times that I only half heard my instructor, because I was too busy taking in the landscape. Just incredible.

One thing I'll really miss, from a flying standpoint, is the section lines on the ground. Every powerline, road, etc. is oriented either East-West or North-South, and make fantastic references for rolling out on headings. My use of outside references was better by the end of the week than it has ever been, and my flying was much better for it.

As for the actual flying, we covered everything in the PTS: from straight and level flight, to steep turns, to every stall in the book, to all the ground reference maneuvers, to every type of takeoff and landing - many, many, many times - all from the right seat. My flying was really good. My landings were really bad. Acceptable, but bad. Apparently Bruce thought it was good enough, because I started the checkride on schedule.

As expected, the week whizzed by, and Thursday night was the beginning of my oral. If you want to read the full write-up on my checkride, you can find it here. It's long, as it was a long day, so I won't duplicate efforts. The bottom line is, I passed, and I'm now a CFI!

With the checkride out of the way, I had a full day to explore the magnificent Rockies. Aside from the altitude kicking my butt and preventing me from making a hike I wanted to (Long's Peak), I had a great time driving along the Peak to Peak highway and taking pictures. Which brings me to my earlier comment - I want to move to Colorado. Not only do I want to move to Colorado, but my wife wants to move to Colorado. Oy vey! I am tentatively scheduled to start instructing full time here in VA, some feelers out to other airports, a job offer from a law firm for an IT position, and a wife who is tapped to be the next president of the Chamber of Commerce - all that and we want to move to another state without jobs, knowing no one, so we can be mountainhippieliberals. Life is a trip...

Been awhile

2007-10-29T14:24:00.000-07:00

I wish I had a better excuse for not posting in three months, but I really don't. I spend countless hours on the Internet engaging in "non-work-related" activity, so you'd think I would be able to carve out 10 minutes to write a blog post. Well, that's what I'm going to do now...

As you can imagine, stuff does happen in the span of three months, and quite a lot has for me on the aviation front. For starters, I finished my commercial single engine rating. I guess Plan C ended up being the charm. As I wrote in one of the previous posts, our Arrow went down and, though doctors did everything they could, they were unable to save it. I still don't believe they've replaced it yet, although the word is that they are trying. Long story short, I went back up to Philadelphia and completed the checkride at the place where it all began. I won't go into too much detail, but the oral was about an hour, and the flight was 2.5. Yikes! The oral was a strange affair, as we spent the entire time talking about regs. It wasn't even a question and answer, it was more of a free form discussion. Even when we did talk about my flight plan, the only question asked was "can you legally make this flight?" (There was a tropical storm off the coast that day). At the time I was silently counting my good fortune, but several days later something really hit home: being a commercial pilot is really about staying out of trouble. If something goes wrong, the NTSB is going to try to blame you, and they will do anything and everything to support their case. Are your logbooks accurate? Did you get a weather briefing? Were the aircraft's maintenance records up-to-date, and did you know they were/weren't? A quick read through the accident reports on NTSB.gov will confirm this. See how many are attriubuted to pilot error: CFIT, inadvertent flight into IMC, failure to maintain aircraft control, you name it, they will pin it on you. I won't talk much about the flight, but like I said, it was 2.5 and covered everything in the PTS, some things more than once ;)

With that out of the way, it was time to figure out where I should hemorrhage some more money, and I settled on the multi add on. I almost hesitate to tell this story, because it only involved a Plan A, and I have the next Plan A already in effect.....hmmmmm.....alright I will (please aviation Gods of Karma be nice...) After some shopping around, I located a relatively local outfit that offered a 3-day multi add on. The aviation Gods were kind, and we agreed to do the checkride on the second day, which meant a weekend away from home. The wife and daughter were in NJ, so I didn't even have to feel bad about being away. As if it couldn't get any better, I had two days of perfectly cloudless sky. The place was O & S Aviation (www.osaviation.com) and I can't recommend them enough. They are located just west of Chapel Hill, NC in beautiful NC countryside. It really was beautiful, and if I wasn't doing VMC demos or securing "failed" engines, you can bet I was taking in the views. After 7 hours of flying around a Twin Comanche on one engine, I was ready for the checkride and before you know it, I was on the way home with yet another temporary certificate. The only bad part was that the radio in my car is so bad I couldn't pick up any NFL games on the way home, which I love doing on a Sunday afternoon road trip. Oh well!

For that other Plan A I mentioned...this Friday I'm going out west to see about getting this CFI rating. I'm not going to say where, or with who, or for how long, because I don't want to anger the aviation Gods. I passed the writtens a couple of weeks ago in fine fashion: I finally learned after all this time that the best way to deal with a written is to spend a weekend hammering through practice tests, and take the tests on Monday. Wish I had figured that out a couple of years ago! I have now learned in my FOI (Fundamentals of Instruction) studies that this is referred to as "rote" learning. Hey, I guess I did learn something!

Anyway, I've been studying my arse off for the CFI and writing lesson plans like a madman. I decided to write one lesson plan for every subject area in the PTS, which should put me in the range of 50 or so going into next week. That may be overkill, but that way I know I will have covered everything that an examiner should on a checkride. My goal is to basically be ready for the oral, so next week will be spent on review and trying to learn to teach - and fly - from the right seat. I know I am shaking my fist at the aviation Gods by trying to do this in the western US this time of year, and trust me, I am definitely worried. My knuckles will be bloodied by knocking on so much wood this week...

Of course, the one little detail I haven't covered is the matter of my spin endorsement.....ah yes, right on cue there are the sweaty palms...I've talked to one of my instructors about doing that before I head out, so by the end of this week I should have another post on how that wasn't so bad after all...knock on wood

So much for Plan "B"

2007-08-04T14:22:00.000-07:00

In my previous post I wrote about my beautiful wife's observation that all of my flight endeavors seem to resort to some sort of Plan B. Well, now I can now say that sometimes, even Plan B doesn't work.

I'm still trying to figure out what sort of sign God is trying to send me, but in the meantime, here are the details: I was exchanging emails with our local DE to schedule a time in the next week for my commercial checkride. We had exchanged schedules, and then I received a final email from him, that I expected would have a date. Instead it went something like "Which plane were you using for the checkride. I hope it wasn't the Arrow. The gear collapsed during landing yesterday..."

What in the world? First and foremost, let me express my sincere hope that the occupants are okay. Secondly let me express this sentiment: WTF? Of course I was going to use the Arrow, it's the only complex aircraft in Central VA!!!! This is the kind of luck I've had with this process. I'm speechless, though my wife assures me that I should not be surprised. I haven't called the FBO to get the full story yet and see if everyone is unharmed, and if the Arrow is ever going to recover, but in the meantime I'm trying to get His ear and figure out exactly what it is He wants me to do here.

Now, I just need to figure out what Plan C looks like. Anybody out there got an Arrow? Crikey...

Plan "B"

2007-07-25T14:20:00.000-07:00

"It's always Plan B" my lovely wife says. Well, unfortunately, for my flight training that has been the case, and this was no exception. I travelled to Philadelphia this past weekend with hopes of knocking out my 10 hours of complex time and squeezing in a checkride just before hitting the road, but Plan A unfolded almost as quickly as it was enacted. Upon arrival at the FBO Friday morning and meeting the instructor to whom I was assigned, I discovered that he was off on Sunday and they couldn't backfill him with another instructor. Which means that Sunday would be a lost day. Okay, we'll fly 5 hours today and 5 hours tomorrow. Not so fast, this instructor gets off at 3:30 every day. "Well, when would you do the night cross country?" you might ask. Maybe on Monday evening, was the proposed answer. Well I need to be at work on Tuesday, so that won't work. Perhaps next weekend? Perhaps, but I'd rather not. I'm already getting that feeling in the pit of my stomach, so decided to fly as much as possible on Friday and see where we got. When 3:30 rolled around, all of 2 hours is where we got, after spending most of the morning in ground school. I started to get the suspicion that ad-hoc, part 61 training just wasn't going to work for this 141 school, which is fine. Don't get me wrong, my goal is to pass the checkride, and pass it with much room to spare and learn along the way, but I have to balance all this with the fact that my time away from home is limited due to the whole day job thingy. We did get through all of the maneuvers, which was good as I hadn't been exposed to the commercial maneuvers before.

A quick side note: I typically don't nit-pick on my instructors, as they know far more than I, but I couldn't help but notice that during a steep turn demonstration my instructor dujour, while trying to gain altitude for some oddball reason, bled speed off to the point that the plane was buffeting at the edge of a stall. All this while in a 55 degree bank at about 2200' AGL. I wasn't really feeling that, so I discreetly pushed as hard as possible on the yoke with my index finger while saying something to the effect of "watch your airspeed". Something about stalling and spinning into the ground just didn't sit well with me, but I digress.

On Saturday, we managed to get in the day cross country, which was a beautiful severe-clear affair across the PA mountains to Williamsport. Not sure I need to get back there, but it is a gorgeous part of the country, with runway 9/27 nestled right at the base of a good-sized mountain (by eastern US standards, anyway). Upon return to the Philly area, we ran through the maneuvers, and then capped it off with a power off 180 - which I need power to land from - which netted us a whopping 4 hours of flight time, leaving me 60% of the way there, as the title implies After weighing my options, and looking at a Sunday replete of flying, and with a pesky customer issue looming at work, I decided to return to my home and punt.

And thus, Plan B is in effect, and will kick off with a night cross country to an as-yet-undecided location tomorrow evening. More to follow...

Wiggle your big toe

2007-07-13T14:19:00.000-07:00

I've decided to make a more concerted effort to post an entry at least once every couple of weeks, or more often if something really interesting goes on (rare).

I've also decided to get off my but and knock out my commercial and multi-engine ratings. I'm heading up to Philadelphia next week for 4 concentrated days of flying, followed immediately by a trip to Connecticut for 2 concentrated days of flying for the multi. "Then what?" you may ask. Then, I'm going to try to take advantage of some of these ridiculously low minimums posted by the bottom feeders of the airline industry. There are only about four that fall into this category - not naming names - so my chances are slim at best. But I'll never know if I don't at least try. Which is the impetus for this whole riduculous endeavor, and my marching chant.

Someone asked me a couple of weeks ago what the end game is. I didn't really have an answer, which I guess I need to change. I've always wanted to fly corporate, but I've talked to a handful of people lately in that sector of the industry that really don't like mixing a little bit of flying with a lot of, sometimes a days worth of, waiting. I don't necessarily want to work all the way up to flying heavies for the majors and staring at the sun for 12 hours on end on the way to Hong Kong (talked to a friend of a 777 captain who does this and he says it's awful, although I'm sure working 10 days a month and making $180K temper it a bit...). If the pay situation improves, a regional captain wouldn't be a bad place to be, but that is a huge "If" right now. The 757 is my favorite plane and we like Louisville, so there's something to shoot for...I guess I'll figure it out as I go along. But first things first:

"Wiggle your big toe"

Once I've got this commercial-multi knocked out then I'll "get these other piggies wiggling".

(That's from Kill Bill Vol. 1 for the uninitiated)

There are those who have (originally posted 5-10-07)

2007-05-10T14:10:00.000-07:00

So, my first aviation post of this blog is also about my first hair-raising experience in an aircraft (well, second if you count the door popping open during my solo cross country, which I didn’t complete due to wore-than-forecast weather conditions…perhaps I’ll save that for another time). It wasn’t exactly an emergency situation, although the controller hinted at it; “do you require any assistance?” were his exact words. I’ll get to that in a second.

Today’s mission was a relatively short Angel Flight, departing Richmond to Raleigh-Durham Int’l to pick up a passenger, transport her to Norfolk Int’l, and then make the return trip to Richmond. I had a pretty tight timetable, as once I got home we were off to our friends’ house at the river for some rest and relaxation for the remainder of the weekend. How many dangerous flying situations have started with a tight timetable? The day started with a low sitting off the coast, pulling moisture in from the Atlantic and spreading it over coastal and central Virginia in the form of low clouds and visibilities. The weather close to home was actually pretty good, and left me flying beneath a 7000′ overcast for the trip to RDU, with the occasional cloud allowing me to log all of .3 of actual. Off to my left the picture was a little different; thick gray clouds descended from the overcast above me to about 2-3000 feet below me. It was almost like flying below a shelf of terminal airspace, with the airspace being filled with rolling wet clouds. The sight left me hoping it would improve in the next couple of hours, which the forecast assured me it would. After a quick turn and a departure into clear blue - but windy on the backside of the front - skies at RDU, we pointed to the northeast for the trip to ORF. It was only an hour with a generous tailwind, and at first it looked like it would be clear sailing for the duration. About 50 miles out, we found ourselves in solid IMC and just starting to receive vectors to the ILS to runway 5. As thick and dark as the clouds were, it was the smoothest flying of the entire day, and quite peaceful even with streaks of rain streaming across the windshield. About 20 miles out, I caught the slightest flicker of red from somewhere on the panel; it was so quick that I wasn’t sure at first where it came from. A minute or two later, I found out as the low voltage warning light came on and stayed on. As we were given the final vector to intercept the localizer, I realized that the radios were crackling and fading fast. We were still solid IMC in the bottom of the layer, with a fleeting glimpse of the ground from time to time, so I knew we wouldn’t have to descend too far down the glidescope to break out…if we even had a glidescope, that is. After a quick “great…this is just great” moment, my second thought was “turn off the landing light, that’s a hog”. Turning off the light extinguished the warning. With that done, I quickly radioed my situation to approach control, hoping that I would get some sort of early landing clearance or “rush processing” in case the radios went. This is when the controller asked if I needed any assistance. Short of a battery charger, I couldn’t think of anything so I politely declined. In retrospect, I should have asked for that early clearance - although I may not have gotten it, it never hurts to ask. As the localizer started to come alive, the low voltage light came back on. Shutting off the beacon and nav lights turned it back off. Turning down the localizer now, and waiting for the glidescope to come in so we can descend out of these clouds, and the low voltage light comes back on. The autopilot is one of the few remaining powered items on, so off it went, along with the nav/comm 2 radio. We intercepted the glidescope and started our descent. I should mention that as soon as I contacted tower they gave me the landing clearance I was hoping for, along with taxi instructions in the event that I lost comms. They were very accomodating, and I was very grateful. As predicted, we broke out about 1000′ above minimums, but it was so hazy below the clouds that I could barely make out the airport. In fact, the only thing I could really see was the coastline on the other side of the airport, and tracing it led my eyes to the runway. The low voltage light was on now, and with nothing else to turn off, I had to hope the comms would stick with me for the duration, which they did. We made a smooth landing and taxied into the ramp to find that all mechanics had left for the weekend. No matter: by now I had called my wife and told her I’d just meet her at the river when I could. I was determined to not become the next Get-There-Itis victim. If I had a choice I’d prefer to be an I Learned About Flying From That article and not an Aftermath column. At any rate, after about an hour on the ground the ceilings rose enough for me to contemplate a VFR trip home. It was about an hour into the wind, and I knew that the weather was better to the west, which a call back to my home FBO confirmed. I made an uneventful VFR trip home under increasingly scattered clouds, albeit with the low voltage light shining brightly all the way. By the time I got back, Comm 1 was, again, the only electronic device on in the aircraft, besides my handheld GPS, which was whining about a low battery as well.

To add insult to injury, the winds were 260 at 13 gusting to 19, which put them at 80 degrees to my planned landing runway. Hadn’t the flying gods had enough fun with me today? I fought the crosswind all the way through the pattern, sure that after all I had been through a ground loop would by my ultimate demise. As luck would have it, the winds died down precisely at the time I crossed the numbers, affording me the smoothest landing of the day. Thanks flying gods, I appreciate that.