In case you don't know fl330 or "Flight level 330 is simply a way to say 33,000 feet. In the ATC world anything over 18,000 feet is in the Flight levels.
So here I am at FL 330 directly over DFW writing a blog post. Im on my way to Chicago. After another two week "vacation" the training center finally called and scheduled me for another IOE trip. This should be my last one. Then again, it has been nearly a month since I have last flown, I hope Im not to terribly rusty. It seems like we might have some bumpy weather ahead. Clouds above and climbing up to our altitude. Once cumulus clouds reach this altitude you know there is some pretty good instability in the atmosphere which for the people in the back means...bumps ahead. ; I only have a two day trip ahead. Day one included a Minnesota (said in my head in my best minnesotan accent, ok don't get mad at me for saying that, all all make fun of us texans too!). After the mn. Turn we head Memphis. We'll overnight in Memphis. Day two includes a return to ORD and then a Jacksonville Florida turn, then I hope to home in time for my wife's birthday! The one thing Im finding out real quick, is that airline life has no concern whatsoever for your personal life!
Well it looks like our very experienced AA crew got us through the clouds without any turbulence. Good job guys!
Im not sure if Ive touched on or not but it was recently announced that AMR (our parent company) will divest or spin-off eagle. That actually disappoints me a little. I was actually quite proud to be a part of AMR. Im sure I will have a lot more to say about this in the future. One slightly positive thing came out of this. AA did agree to a flow agreement with Eagle. Basically every single pilot at AE right now has a Job at AA when the time comes that your seniority allows. I'm not real sure of the will do me much good. The idea of moving up to a 737 or some version of airbus does intrigue me. >> >> We'll I better get back to reviewing my aircraft manual. I need to re-learn things I have forgotten sitting at home.
Flight Level 370. You don't really think about it, UNTIL you're there. I guess my thoughts have been all over the board lately. Being at home, and the stress of training is finely starting to subside so I guess now my mind is starting digest what all has taken place.
My mother brought my baby book to me a few years ago. I was really amazed by one of the earliest things she had written. When I was a toddler, if I was outside and an airplane would fly over I would stop, look, and once spotted I would point at the airplane. I guess my whole life Ive had this infatuation with airplanes.
Later as a small boy I remember my dad telling me about these jet's that would takeoff from the McDonnell Douglas which was located at Lambert Field, St Louis International. (You always knew you were in St Louis, especially at night when you would land and see this big red sign!) He talked about how there were fighter jet's that would come roaring down the runway, and pull straight up. Or how there was an endless stream of airplanes coming and going. Each one had these super bright lights, and you would see these lights long before you could see the actual airplane. As a kid I would sit and try imagine what it was like. Finally my dad said he was going to take us to the city, and we would go to see these airplanes. I was so excited. It was a day I still remember very well. Actually it was probably the day the airline bug bit me. I was just amazed at the activity. All these huge airplanes coming and going. Just like my father had told me, you would see these lights, and that's it. You wouldn't see the airplane for a long time. Back then Lambert field had an observation area. A parking lot just off the end of 12R and 12L. I would end spending a lot of time in that parking lot, Later once I could drive. I don't recall my Dad ever taking me there again. It's funny, I was taken in by these magnificent machines, yet I had never been on an airplane, neither had my parents. We didn't know anyone who flew them, I had no connection to aviation. I really think that's why I never really dreamed I could be a pilot, or never pursued it as a kid. No One told me I could! I didn't think just a "regular" person could become an airline pilot. I was 18 before I got on an airliner, a TWA 727. It was a flight to San Antonio Texas, on my way to basic training at Lackland Air Force Base.
Later on as I mentioned I would continue to go to KSTL and watch planes. Eventually I even got to take my girls and introduce them to it. One of my favorite memories is buying some Churches fried chicken, and mashed potatoes and going to the airport to eat dinner and watch airplanes. Only problem, we didn't get spoons, and the restaurant was 15-20 minutes away. What do you do? Well, you take the biscuit box, which is thick paper. tear it into strips, and use paper to eat your potatoes. Silly stuff i guess, but great memories non the less.
(Did you see the "pride of TWA" behind the L1011 taking off? St Louis was such a busy place. Hard to believe things have changed so much)
Watching all of those TWA airplanes also stirred up within me this admiration for the company. TWA had this special feeling to it. Even as a passenger, it wasn't like any other airline I have ever flown on. I don't even know how to describe it, it was like they were a living legend. To this day I still love and miss seeing those red and white planes. I had started a collection of twa pictures years ago. I have original photographs of A Ford Tri-Motor, dc2, dc3, Boeing 307, The Connie, the Martin 404, 707, dc-9 L1011, and 747. I'm still missing an Original MD80, 727 757, and 767. One other item, I have stored away for now is this poster. It's in perfect condition. I will have it framed someday. Unfortunately its not standard size, so it will have to be professional framed. Which is expensive. But I want it done right! Because neither of those items depicted in this poster will ever live again, except in our memories. So It has to be done right. Twa always did such a cool job with their travel posters.
Growing up in the midwest (just south of St Louis) It was amazing to see all the contrails that would crisscross the sky. I would always see these trails and wonder where they were going, and where they had been. One night I was sitting out side on a beautiful summer evening with a big full moon and this airliner passes over head, right across the moon leaving a contrail. It was probably one of the coolest things I had ever seen. So now, all these year later I get the opportunity to fly for an airline. Its finally my tum to fly. My first flight is from Knoxville Tenn to Chicago Ohare. I was surprised really at how natural you feel, even transitioning to a Jet. It's still just flying an Airplane. Then all of a sudden you see this.
And your mind just goes WOW. I just flew a plane up to 36,000 feet. Then You see another airliner pass below you at FL350, and he is leaving a contrail, and again your mind goes WOW, that means I'M leaving a contrail. Then you wonder how many kids are on the ground looking up at your path in amazement. Then the next thought you have after realizing your at FL360...How am I gonna get down. HaHa Flight Level 370 Is our max. I would be there on another trip heading back east bound. I think maybe It's all still a little surreal to me. I'm still new at it, not even done with training yet. I'm looking forward to this journey.
I might have yet another new toy. No it's not the new EMB-145 model that adorns my fireplace mantel it is the new mobile blogger account I set up. It seems there are a lot of bugs to work out. There are two methods. One is to simply text to the blog, another is to email to the blog. Either was it is with the iPhone. Caveat emptor to anyone who may read this. The iPhone has an autospell feature that finds some very interesting replacement words for words you're trying to type. Google "autospell fail", and you will see what I mean. Warning some of these are rated R. There are some extremely funny ones though. My goal here is to be able to make quick post on the blog so I can quickly share some of my day to day activities during this little journey.
I fully expected to keep a journal of my experience at the American Airlines training facility while I was in training. I learned very quickly that I was not as prepared as I thought I was. AE's training was pretty intense. I know I touched briefly on the time in the training center in previous post, but I wanted to expand on it a little and share some of the photos I took. It all started back in February of this year. I was invited to interview with Eagle. They sent me a packet of paper work that had to be filled out exactly they way they want it. People had, and continue to be sent home from interviews for not follow instructions. I hear a lot of people talk about how silly AE is about paperwork. I do not see it that way. As an applicant you are asking an airline to hand over to you the keys to a multi million dollar jet, and the lives of 50 people so you can hurl them around the country at 500kts and 37,000 feet above the earths surface. If you are really unable to do a little paper work, how in the world do you think you are ready to accept the responsibility of being an airline pilot?
Paperwork done, interview day is almost here. They flew me up the day before. My first time riding in First class. It was kind of ironic, we had to wait for a little 152 to get out of the way before we could take off. A 152 from the flight school I worked at. The morning has arrived. The beginning of this long journey. I make my way to AMR HQ. It seemed like a very long day. There were three parts to the interview. A technical interview to determine what you knowledge was. An HR interview where you would get questions like, why do you want to work for AE, or What is the definition of a professional pilot. Last there is a Simulator evaluation. It's pretty basic, they want to see you do some basic Instrument flying, a hold and two approaches. In reality the interview is much easier then you make it. In other words you stress level is so high, it seems like its really bad. We had an interview group 6. Of those six 4 got the offer. It was interesting how they would do it. We all would get done with the three phases at different times. Rather then come in and take a person who was finished and say congratulations come with me, they would open the door, say the persons name, and then say grab all your stuff and come with me. straight faced and serious. You though you were toast. Once the door closed, they would smile and say congratulations! Then they hand you a letter.
Once you realize your not going home "early" and you have been accepted, wow, talk about a sigh of relief. Now they start the final out processing. Take fingerprints and they begin sending faxes to previous employers. It was in this room I found out the guy who had been shuffling us around all day and never said a thing to us, was also a Captain at AE, it slipped out by accident. It was then I realized they had been really watching everything we did, all day.
Now you go home, and wait the Captains review board. The pre-offer you receive in the interview, is just that a pre-offer. It's up to the review board to offer you a spot in a class. I managed to get my phone call the same week I interviewed. Once you get that call the only thing left before they give a class date is the medical. Again They fly you to DFW and you go to AMR HQ and do a drug and hearing test.
March 28 2011. All the preliminary stuff is done. Now I'm in Dallas again. this time to begin ground school. Monday morning, Here is this group of 40 people sitting in the lobby of Flight Academy (it's actual name, but we all called it the training center). I was looking around trying to get a feel for the group. It was an interesting spread. I thought for sure I would be the "old guy" in class. I ended up being #5. Seniority is given out in class based on age. The oldest person is most senior. I thought for sure I would be able to pick any airplane and any base I wanted. I wanted DFW, and the Embrear. I got the EMB, but I did not get DFW, instead I was given ORD (Chicago). I could not believe it. Now the separate us based on aircraft. The ATR-72 group (The young ones in class) were taken to another room. They are basically a different airline. We're all called eagle, but the ATR's sre on the Executive airlines operating certificate. Week one. Indoc (indoctrination). This is were they hand out all the books we will use during training and throughout of career. We're also fitted for Uniforms, and we'll also do other specialized training. Here is the first set of books. The Red one is basically what we would call the POH for the airplane in the GA world. The gray one is aircraft systems. One of the blue ones is company procedures and regulation, and the other blue one is our Union contract. This first week we'll spend in the Blue procedures and regs book. With a test at the end of the week. They also handed out these on the first day. Honestly speaking this set of wings was an incentive for me. I have never been awarded a pair of wings, I wanted to finish that checkride (Which was still weeks away), so that I would officially have EARNED those wings. Now that housekeeping has been taken care of, its time to get down to business. I can tell you Reg's and policy is dry, Its all you can do to stay awake. Ed out instructor did a good job with injecting humor when ever possible, but it was still an absolute cure for insomnia. Week one finished pretty easy. We took a test on Friday, but unfortunately we had to stay the weekend to do a couple things Monday morning. Monday we will go home for one week. This is a new procedure for them They have you go home to do one week of Computer based training. It's not a bad program, it's just hard for a person who has never flown a jet to grab onto some of the things they talk about. A 310 does not have Pacs, or bleeds, or fadecs, fire suppressants, fms's, etc...you get the picture. The airplane is actually not to difficult to learn. It's very automated. The best way I heard it described is that it is a "mother may I" airplane. Turn the Start engine knob to start and you are basically asking the Fadec to pretty please start my engine. The thrust levers (asked me how many times I was yelled at for calling them throttles) are basically electric switches.
After a week at home we head back to the training center. Week three is called the "flex week" Basically we don't have a set schedule. We can come and go as we please. I thought this was a waste. There is so much to learn, if you are going to have me sitting here, teach me something. After sitting around during flex week we will Now start two full weeks of ground/Systems. We found out real quick since they now are doing CBT's (computer based training) the ground school is considered more of a "review" and they go through it real fast, don't blink you'll miss something. During the Ground/Systems portion we also do FMS training and CSI-ops which is where you sit with an instructor in front of a "paper airplane" And practice flows and profiles. Flows are just a way for you to memorize your checklist. Checklist in the 121 world are just that checklist. Not do list. By the time the checklist come out everything should be done. We have a paper airplane at the hotel as well. MANY a hour was spent sitting at these things practicing over and over again. After 8 hours at the TC you would head back to the hotel and spend another several hours doing even more study.
now we are approaching the end of ground/systems. we get to go on a field trip We get to use the PBE (personal breathing equipment) and put out fires. We will also practice life vest and emergency exits.
The emergency training ctr at the flight academy is pretty amazing.
Now we get to put out fires.
Practice with inflating life-vest
And remove emergency exits We also get to use the "DV" window which is the emergency exit inside the cockpit. . Now that we're ready for any emergency that could hit us HA we head back to the classroom to do our written exam. I sure hope I'm ready :-) Actually It wasn't to bad. Included in the written test besides the 100 questions, you had to write from memory the 6 Emergency procedure checklist items that have to be known verbatim.
Once the written is over ground is officially over. Now we wait for the Oral Exam. Wouldn't you know it, I have mine the very next morning at 8am. No last minute study time for me. Again, I was very nervous. I did not feel like I was ready. I got there before the examiner, So I set my stuff up. I actually left the room though. We are only given 2 hours for the test and I was not about to give him 15 extra minutes! lol. I came back to the room at 8. He was there. We actually a bit of small talk and we began. It was pretty straight forward. He took my AOM 1 (the red book I said was like a POH) and just started asking me questions. We then moved up to the paper airplane for more systems questions, and then I had to do a performance problem. And just like that it was over and I passed. Since I went first day (our class had two days for orals) I had a day off before sims. It was a much needed day off. Little did I know the sims were going to kick my butt!
Day 1 in the sims.I was actually very excited. Not knowing what to expect I thought it would be pretty easy. Ha, boy I misjudged that one. I guess in reality it really wasn't to hard, but for me it was difficult. You really had to fight to keep up. there is no giving up. If you do you wont catch back up. Basically every day in the sim is night time and weather to minimums. You always have an emergency to deal with. There is never a nice sunny day where you fly from point A to B. All the flows you have practiced up until now, here is where it matters. It is amazing however just how quickly your brain will flush all that stuff away and you feel like you have no idea what your doing.
The Amazing thing is just how realistic these things are. The first time we "pushed back" from a gate, It felt just like we were pushing. You felt the bump of the tug, the bumps in the concrete. it was amazing. Of course the other problem with all this realism is that it's not. That means you brain thinks something is happening. but your body says no its not. this causes, or can cause major disorientation. For me it was during breaking! Obviously the sim cannot simulate G forces. so to simulate the force of deceleration the sim noses over. So your brain sees straight and level, but your body feels that you leaning far forward, and what left is disorientation. Which can make you sick. Thankfully I never got sick. If I was not flying, when we would brake I would just close my eyes, and everything was ok. One day the sim had a little malfunction during breaking. It nosed over so far we were handing by our seat belts. The instructor just says, ill bet this looks crazy outside". Here is a landing, keep in mind WX is always at minimums, look closely towards the end and see if you can spot the approach lights. It will be just about the time you hear minimums. Sorry the Iphone does not take very good video and its being held up to see over every ones heads.
The Simulator training was two phases. Phase 1, 2 and then check ride. Phase one is the basics. Phase two goes into single engine emergencies. V1 cuts, which is losing an engine on takeoff after v1. V1 is the speed where you are committed to fly. No aborts. Wind shear, unusual attitudes, collision avoidance, and several other fun activities. At the end of Phase two you do a phase check and then do a checkride. Well, for my class, we had several events take place that cause delays in checkrides. Unfortunately that cause delays in being reschedule for sim time. It took as long as 6 weeks (extra) for some to finish. I myself went home for 3 weeks to wait for a sim slot to finish. After my three week "vacation" I finally got the call to return to Dallas. It was my turn. Two training sessions in the sim and I was scheduled for a 6am checkride, 5 am show time. The Examiner was a nice guy. He tried to make me feel at ease, yet he didn't sugar coat things either. He told me what to expect, and what he expected. Once we climb in, we preflight and program the "aircraft". The "captain" taxis us out for takeoff. I notice the wx/Visibility dropped significantly. this my que to say hey capt. the wx has dropped, I think maybe we should get a current report. Ok, check that box. Now we're on the runway. We take off from New York La gaurdia Fly a departure. Once clear of the area, we begin with stalls. After stalls we do a Localizer approach go missed then a GPS approach. Next is an Ils, and then an ILS with one engine inoperative. Of course the engine quit on the previous takeoff! So we had to circle to land single engine. Got back on the ground did an aborted take off due to a lav/smoke warning and that was it. With that, I was now officially the proud new owner of those wings I had received on day one.
I was supposed to have a two day trip to finish my IOE. I flew into DFW Sunday Morning early to update my jepps. I can say I already hate seeing those yellow envelopes waiting in the crew room. I finally meet my Second IOE captain. He was a really good guy. We talked, took care of business and finally took a walk to our airplane. On the way down the ramp I met the FO coming off the plane, he told me there was a MX issue and that MX was on their way to the plane. They finally got there , signed off the work don and left. Great, now maybe we can go. Not quite. We get a message that we have been switched out of planes to the plane next gate over. and of course I was almost completely ready to go. Now we have pack up and move. The next plane is being brought in from the MX hanger. Which means it's been parked outside in the South Texas sun completely closed up. The gate did not have ground power available so we had to run the apu for power, and for AC since the air pumped in from the ground was just not enough to cool the airplane down. Then the ahrs would not align, this was due to the plane being repositioned with the avionics off. Basically the plane was lost and could not find its self. Now we are AGAIN waiting for MX to show up. Finally they do, problem fixed before start and engine start checklist complete, and we get a warning. Alarm and red lights flashing are not good! We have a bleed on leak. The only problem with with this is the bleed one is closed, because the #1 engine which supplies the #1 bleed is not even running. Now we are waiting on MX to show up yet again! This time we're told the flight is canceled, we're so late now it just doesn't matter no more. Our next leg would be DFW-CVG 3 hours from now. I'm learning real quick that there is a lot of "hurry up and wait" time in the airlines. While I'm waiting I find a new app for the iphone that lets me sorta blog from the phone. I say sorta because you can only take a picture, add a caption (not many words) and post it. I was looking for an app that would let me use blogspot. I cannot believe Blogspot does not have a mobile option, that is just crazy. You will notice below a couple post made with this new app. it was just a test, and only a test of the mobile blog system. I really don't like it.
Finally it's time to go fly. I got to the gate find out this plane as well has an issue. We will be speed limited to 250kts. This is going to be a long flight.
Now after three airplanes we are on out way to Cincinnati. After takeoff climbing through about 27,000' the Captain says hey look at that fire. It was one of the most brilliant things I have ever seen, and it was huge! I was just about to say something when all of a sudden the fire turns into a half circle. It was the moon, apparently it was behind a low cloud. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen! I wish i had a nice quality camera so I could have taken a picture.
The rest of the trip was uneventful. We made it to CVG, found our hotel and went to bed. The next day rolls around and I'm excited to get this trip going. I was going to fly two legs. CVG-DFW and HOU-DFW and that would have finished off my IOE training.
However...I go outside to do the preflight inspection and I find this on the #2 Engine.
Then I see this
and this... and this... I go back into the plane tell the Captain I need him to inspect the #2 and of course he sees the same thing. You guessed it, ANOTHER call to MX. The gate agent was kind enough to bring a luggage conveyor belt up to the engine so we could get a close up look. Come to find out there was a total of 14 damaged blades. Flight Canceled.
Now we wait to see if we can get a flight back to DFW. I'm supposed to be going home. Of course there is only one more DFW flight ours was sold out, and the next one was already pretty full as well. this does not look good! The captain managed to get the jumpseat, Myself and the flight Attendant go back to the hotel! Oh yeah, another fun filled night in Cincinnati.
The next morning I catch a 6am flight to DFW and then a 755 flight DFW-SAT. and now I sit and wait for yet another IOE trip, since this last one did nothing to help me get closer to a line qualified sign off.
Yeah, this airline thing is going to be interesting...Oh by the way I guess maybe I should mention that this morning I found out our Parent company decided to spin us off, or sell us. There might be a slightly bright side to this. In the agreement to spin us off, American also said that all current Eagle pilot would have a job at American, when an opening becomes available. No Interview, no medical. When your number comes up you go to AA class. Hmmm, just wonder If Ill ever see it!
three mx write-ups and two planes later I'm still stuck in dfw. was due to depart at 325pm
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Now I'm going to back up a little. Immediately after my LOFT (line oriented flight training) Sim session I managed to get a two week gap between LOFT and my first IOE trip. My wife who had already planned to go to Oahu to visit her sister was already at the airport heading to Dallas, on her way to HNL. I had to go to the training center to get my new certificate signed (which now says EMB 145 on it). I was done by 7am and heading to DFW myself via the shuttle. Once at DFW I had a bit of a wait so I went over to the gate where my wife was due to arrive. It's Funny to meet your spouse in passing at an airport away from home. After a short visit we talked about me going out as well. So off to SAT I go. She managed to get on the flight to HNL. So now I'm at home taking care of things I needed to be done before I leave.
After a long flight she calls and we confirm that I should go. So Inside of a couple hours I pack and make arrangements to go. I have never made a decision and prepared for a trip to Hawaii in a couple hours before. Usually those trips were planned 6-7 Months in advance. Sometimes it's not easy being Spontaneous. I called UPS and asked about Jumpseating with them. Jumpseating is where a Pilot with an airline is allowed to fly on another airline if both airlines have a reciprocal agreement. My airline allows UPS pilots to fly on our airplane and vice versa. The best thing about this, it's free. The down side is that its standby, space available. If the plane is full you do not go. And now days, most airlines are trying to fly at 100% every flight. The lady I spoke with said it was no problem for me to catch a ride with them. The trip would be SAT-SDF-HNL. There was about a 5 hour sit in Louisville, but I would still make HNL at about 10am local time.
I caught a ride to the UPS center at SAT. The people were very nice. I finally met the pilot, he checked my documents and welcomed me aboard. There was another UPS pilot jumpseating to Louisville for training. He took the time to explain their operations to me. I think this was my first ride on an airbus, an A300 to be exact. Didn't see to much, the jumpseat area was small with about 4 fold out jumpseats. Not real comfortable. I had had very little sleep in the previous 24 hours so I did my best to try to rest. Once we arrived at sdf he even took me inside showed me around and where to check in. The facility had a dark room with lazy boy chairs, another room with lazy boys but with lights on, a cafeteria, and a huge preflight room. this place was really nice!
Finally after I tried to get a little more sleep time in the dark room, I went to the briefing room to wait for the crew. Soon after an FO (first officer, or commonly referred to by many as co-pilot) walked up to me and asked if I was jumping to HNL and I said yes. He was part of the crew on my flight. A little bit later another FO showed up, he was the relief officer for the flight. When a flight is long they add a pilot to the crew so they can take breaks. Now all we need is a captain! Just before the final show time the captain walks in, reviews the paper work we all have a little small talk and then off to the airplane we go. Back into the crew van for our ride to the airplane. Door to door service, I think I could like working for UPS. Finally we get to our plane and climb aboard. My first time, again, aboard an MD-11. I love these airplanes and always wanted to fly on one. Their jumpseats are MUCH nicer. Basically first class seat that recline with foot rest. However the captain offered to let me sit up front with them on a little fold out jumpseat...yeah I took it! I'm not going to miss this for anything. So after a very cool takeoff roll, and climb around some thunderstorms We finally settle in at cruise altitude. The captain then turned around and say's "their should be two meals for you in the back, we will be using the bottom bunk, so the top bunk is open. make yourself at home!" Hmm No sleep in the past 24+ hours, a 9 hour flight ahead, and there is an open bunk...Now this was an easy choice. So I changed into some shorts and a Tshirt and to sleep I went. After a few good hours of sleep I finally decide to get up a little more then an hour out. Time to get changed, freshen up and have some breakfast. Wow what more could a guy ask for... As you can see the big island is poking up through the clouds, this means we're getting close. They brought us in over the south west corner of the Island, over the Famous Waikiki beach and Diamond Head Crater. You can see the ala wei canal on the north side of thr tourist district
It was an awesome finish to a great flight. ATC took us out pretty far over the Pacific before turning us back to the airport. Being 1500' above the Beautiful blue water is an amazing view.
And just like that we're on the ground. My Beautiful wife was there to pick me up and had a front row seat of the landing. The crew had me take one more van ride with them to the gate, and then I jumped out to catch my ride. The entire process with UPS was awesome! The crew was just wonderful, a great bunch of guys! Thank you y'all so much!
So now it's time to do what I came to do...See the Island, and family.
My wife with a view of Koko head Crater in the background.
My Niece at our favorite little local restaurant Keneke's in Waimanalo on the windward side. and one of my favorite, if not my favorite places on Oahu...Sunset Beach!
What a great time, now now it's time to head back to the airport, It's time for IOE...
then the Island offers me one more beautiful view before I go, What a way to top off a great visit.
Last I wrote I was sitting in a hotel in Chicago just outside of Ohare waiting to start my first trip. I was really anxious about it, but more in a nervious kind of way. I always thought my first time in a Jet would be exciting. Normally I am always very excited to fly a new airplane. This time though, I was letting my nerves get the best of me. IOE (Initial operating experience) is the first time you actually climb abroad the actual airplane. Up to this point it has all been in the box...or the simulator. My first trip would be ORD-TYS-ORD-RDU.
So the moment arrives and I finally meet my IOE Captain in the ORD crew room. He was a very nice guy. Very patient. Our first plane was running late, so we went outside to use another airplane to do a preflight inspection on. Finally our plane arrives so we head down to start preparing for our flight to knoxville Tenn. He took care of the walk around because he knew I would be needing the extra time to get my duties done. He took the first leg, I had to handle the radios while on the ground in ORD. I felt like a brand new student again. I think I said "what did he say" on every other call. I thought I was pretty good on the radios, ha, not as good as I thought. So we finallyu made it TYS. We once again did our preflight duties and now it's my turn. The take off was pretty smooth. I wanted to get a feel for the airplane so I hand flew it up to about 14,000 before turning on the autopilot. It's a very comfortable airplane to fly. The flight went pretty well. I was very much behind the airplane, but CA McCarthy kept up with me, and the plane. My first approach in the airplane just had to be in Ohare, no, not some smaller airport. I had to fly the 27L ils and land at one of the busiest airports in the country. Well, I made it. we got on the ground and prepared for our next leg to rdu where we would overnight.
The next day was a return to ord, then an Omaha turn. Again I would fly the ORD inbound legs. Day three and four was a repeat of the previous two except I did the outbound legs
This was my plane for the Omaha leg. it was an interesting flight. The controller actually put us in a bad spot, but we managed to get a visual on the runway just before the Capt was about to call a go around. He asked if I had a visual, and If i could get it down. I said sure. It actually ended up being a descent approach and I even got a compliment for salvaging the approach.
this was not my first flight but this shot remind of the first time time I flew to 36,000. I though cool I'm at FL360, then I thought, How am I going to get down?
I am now done with 6 days of IOE. I will probably do two more before being signed off. I'm currently at home waiting for the call. I hope I hear something soon.
Here are a couple more pics from the trip. Sitting in OMA waiting for a ground stop to end so we can go back to ORD
You'll have to forgive the picture quality. I don't have a camera just my Iphone for now.
