To: John From: Crew Scheduling

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

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

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....