I wonder when we as a society decided it was ok to revert back to being a bunch of two year olds. I spend a lot of time riding on airplanes in the back with the passengers. Sometimes I really wonder how the flight attendants do it(their job). I probably wouldn't last a week. On a recent flight there was a guy behind me who the FA had to tell 6 times to shut off his phone! REALLY? A grown man who cannot follow a simple request. This is an FAA regulation! It is not up for debate. Say what you will about whether it really is dangerous or not about having electronic devices on, or not during flight, it doesn't matter. It's a rule!
Another trip the guy next to me (again another middle age man) sat with his headphones on and thought he was being sneaky trying to hide his phone. Uhh, yeah we can hear it, and see you bouncing around like a little kid to the beat. Just today the FA's where doing trash pick up, they had come up and down the isles several times. At one point stopped as asked the guy are you done with your paper? No I'm still reading it he say. So the FA says, ok so your gonna take it with you?! After landing a PA is made asking people to please close window shades, open air vents, and turn off reading lights to help keep the airplane cool. So, what does the guy do? Left his paper, left the light on, window shade open and vent closed? REALLY? I wonder if this 50 something man still lives with mommy?
When did we lose all respect for our fellow man, when did we become so self absorbed in our own person that we have to act like spoiled children?
Speaking of children. A recent flight had to go around and not land because sone parents refused to make their child sit in their seat for the landing. This was not a lap child, but a child enough to require their own seat! The plane has to go into a hold and people ended up arriving late, because two people had now an ounce of respect for the rest of the people on board that flight. There have been two profile cases recently of flight attendants going "crazy" on their flight. People pointed fingers and talked about them like it was some issue of their own. I can't say why they did this, but I can say I can see enough reasons , enough issues that these people put up with flight after flight that I can understand their eventual breakdown. Everyone has their own point.
What about just basic common courtesy and manners. I can stop at a gate to check my schedule and within seconds people start walking up with questions. Now I do try to help with I can, but on average most people don't even attempt courtesy. A person will walk up, throw their boarding pass on the counter and say "where is that". Not excuse me can you help me, may I ask you a question. I had one just put his boarding pass on the counter and just look at me. Never said a word.
I guess I'm just a part of an old generation. A time gone by. I still say please, thank you, yes sir, no sir. I still open a door for "lady" which I rarely get a thank you. I know we complain as a culture sometimes about poor customer service.
Friday, July 27, 2012
Blogging at 350
It was a beautiful morning in grand junction co. The hotel had a nice breakfast which is rare. It was a short van ride to the airport. Once there it was nice and cool, and the sun was just starting to pop up over the mountains. it was a very quick preflight as crew scheduling would only give us 25 minutes to get our plane ready. That is another story, which is related two a three hour weather delay the previous day.
Checks complete, ready for push. The mountains are glowing in the morning sun. A short taxi means we'll stat #2 pulling out of the ramp. There were some really cool planes to look at on th way out. A twin otter on tundra tires. That looked like fun! An aero commander, a couple of turbo prop ag planes. I bet those are a blast to fly.
Ok enough day dreaming, we're at the end of the runway, times and temps are all good, tower clears us for takeoff. We pull onto runway 11 and what is right in front of us. A mountain. Hmm that's the reason for the 150* hdg after takeoff.
The winds are calm, we start our roll and everything is moving so smooth. Wheels up, gear up, turn on course. Auto pilot on shortly after. It was to beautiful a morning not to relax sit back and just soak it up. There is a lot of cons to this business, but there are a lot up pros as well. I'm blessed beyond what I deserve! :-)
Below are a couple pictures I found of the grand junction area.
Checks complete, ready for push. The mountains are glowing in the morning sun. A short taxi means we'll stat #2 pulling out of the ramp. There were some really cool planes to look at on th way out. A twin otter on tundra tires. That looked like fun! An aero commander, a couple of turbo prop ag planes. I bet those are a blast to fly.
Ok enough day dreaming, we're at the end of the runway, times and temps are all good, tower clears us for takeoff. We pull onto runway 11 and what is right in front of us. A mountain. Hmm that's the reason for the 150* hdg after takeoff.
The winds are calm, we start our roll and everything is moving so smooth. Wheels up, gear up, turn on course. Auto pilot on shortly after. It was to beautiful a morning not to relax sit back and just soak it up. There is a lot of cons to this business, but there are a lot up pros as well. I'm blessed beyond what I deserve! :-)
Below are a couple pictures I found of the grand junction area.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Planes trains..., and buses?
I know a lot of people look at the airline industry and being an airline pilot with a certain romance. Well, I guess it might still have a little, but really it seems it has lost it's shine.
I won't go into a lot of of details on that right now, but one thing I will talk about right now is commuting. I'll take a short diversion from my 4 day trip.
Commuting is what a pilot (or flight attendant) does when they live in a different state or city than the state/city they work in.
I'm based in dallas DFW. I live in San Antonio tx. I have to fly to work. Normally it is not an issue. Today it was. For July our parent company decided to reduce the number of flights due to "lack of crew". That's another story, for another time. Well today we're 280 seat shorter then normal. Sat on a normal day is usually very full. Take away that number of seats and you really compound the problem. Customer service at it's finest.
I realized early on that there was going to be a possible problem getting on the flight I wanted, so I decided to go in two flights earlier. That allows me 5 flights to get to work. I arrive to the airport, get through security and walk to the gate. Then I see another pilot out of the corner of my eye walking towards me. "are you Tim" he ask. "I'm sorry I seen your name on the list but I had to come in early to get to work", nice since he was not on the list. Great! Now the Jumpseat is taken. That was my only chance.
Each airplane has a Jumpseat. It's an extra seat in the cockpit. Only pilots, or in some cases FAA can sit on it.
I already know that the next flight has two more pilot jumpseaters. The md89 only has 1 Jumpseat. So now I know I won't catch a flight for at least the next 3 flights.
My options are getting limited. Southwest has a plane leaving soon, but unfortunately it's going to Dallas love field. Sounds great, except the city of Dallas has NO transportation between these two major airports! My options are a shuttle between the two at $25 (do you know how much a regional pilot makes? This is a little old, but you'll get the point. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RayMaswju1A&feature=youtube_gdata_player). Or public transportation with MULTIPLE transfers and stops.
From love field, you take the #39 bus to the first train stop. Go upstairs take the train downtown (away) from Dfw. Get off at victory station, wait 30 min for the next train back to centerpoint station. Get off and take two more bus' to Dfw. 2 1/2 hours later you arrive.
Yes, I should have paid the $25. I arrived at Dfw at 3pm. My sign in was 310pm. I had just enough time to grab my jeppessen update, throw it in my case and get to the plane to start my day.
I do have to say Thank You to southwest airlines! For giving me a seat(out back even, not the Jumpseat) and treating me so well! That was the best part of the whole day! It's amazing what a little customer service will do for a company. One of the few if not the only airline that has always been profitable. The funny thing they are always called the "low cost" airline. Prior to me getting into the airline industry, I rarely flew southwest. Because they were never cheaper! I guess people will pay a little more for a good product.
The rest of the day went pretty well. No other issues. No visit from the FAA who have been out frequently lately.
Now back to the romance of flying thing. I'm sure it still exist. I never imagined working at a regional would be the same as a major airline pilot flying to some exotic foreign location. It has it's moments. Watching the sun rise or set from 37,000'. a perfectly smooth air early departure where it is so smooth you can barely tell your moving.
I've mentioned my friend Rand before, who writes the blog "a life aloft". His flying and writing is inspirational. He does help keep the aviation romance alive.
I won't go into a lot of of details on that right now, but one thing I will talk about right now is commuting. I'll take a short diversion from my 4 day trip.
Commuting is what a pilot (or flight attendant) does when they live in a different state or city than the state/city they work in.
I'm based in dallas DFW. I live in San Antonio tx. I have to fly to work. Normally it is not an issue. Today it was. For July our parent company decided to reduce the number of flights due to "lack of crew". That's another story, for another time. Well today we're 280 seat shorter then normal. Sat on a normal day is usually very full. Take away that number of seats and you really compound the problem. Customer service at it's finest.
I realized early on that there was going to be a possible problem getting on the flight I wanted, so I decided to go in two flights earlier. That allows me 5 flights to get to work. I arrive to the airport, get through security and walk to the gate. Then I see another pilot out of the corner of my eye walking towards me. "are you Tim" he ask. "I'm sorry I seen your name on the list but I had to come in early to get to work", nice since he was not on the list. Great! Now the Jumpseat is taken. That was my only chance.
Each airplane has a Jumpseat. It's an extra seat in the cockpit. Only pilots, or in some cases FAA can sit on it.
I already know that the next flight has two more pilot jumpseaters. The md89 only has 1 Jumpseat. So now I know I won't catch a flight for at least the next 3 flights.
My options are getting limited. Southwest has a plane leaving soon, but unfortunately it's going to Dallas love field. Sounds great, except the city of Dallas has NO transportation between these two major airports! My options are a shuttle between the two at $25 (do you know how much a regional pilot makes? This is a little old, but you'll get the point. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RayMaswju1A&feature=youtube_gdata_player). Or public transportation with MULTIPLE transfers and stops.
From love field, you take the #39 bus to the first train stop. Go upstairs take the train downtown (away) from Dfw. Get off at victory station, wait 30 min for the next train back to centerpoint station. Get off and take two more bus' to Dfw. 2 1/2 hours later you arrive.
Yes, I should have paid the $25. I arrived at Dfw at 3pm. My sign in was 310pm. I had just enough time to grab my jeppessen update, throw it in my case and get to the plane to start my day.
I do have to say Thank You to southwest airlines! For giving me a seat(out back even, not the Jumpseat) and treating me so well! That was the best part of the whole day! It's amazing what a little customer service will do for a company. One of the few if not the only airline that has always been profitable. The funny thing they are always called the "low cost" airline. Prior to me getting into the airline industry, I rarely flew southwest. Because they were never cheaper! I guess people will pay a little more for a good product.
The rest of the day went pretty well. No other issues. No visit from the FAA who have been out frequently lately.
Now back to the romance of flying thing. I'm sure it still exist. I never imagined working at a regional would be the same as a major airline pilot flying to some exotic foreign location. It has it's moments. Watching the sun rise or set from 37,000'. a perfectly smooth air early departure where it is so smooth you can barely tell your moving.
I've mentioned my friend Rand before, who writes the blog "a life aloft". His flying and writing is inspirational. He does help keep the aviation romance alive.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Another test
I'm trying yet again another mobile app for blogging. I have yet to find one that is even remotely worth using. I would lol to find one that would allow me to more easily post, add pictures and videos. I just found the blogger app for iPhone. We'll see how it does.
On a recent flight heading east. We had the privilege of watching the moon rise. It was a beautifully clear night and the moon was clear and bright. There are moments this job has it's rewards.
Another recent trip was down to corpus Christi Texas. They had us descend early, so we had a great view of the new wind farm.
On another trip I went to Roswell. I did not see any aliens, I did however discover the reason why our planes are always so full.
Ok, so there are three test pictures and some text. Now we'll see how it turns out.
Hopefully this one will work.
On a recent flight heading east. We had the privilege of watching the moon rise. It was a beautifully clear night and the moon was clear and bright. There are moments this job has it's rewards.
Another recent trip was down to corpus Christi Texas. They had us descend early, so we had a great view of the new wind farm.
On another trip I went to Roswell. I did not see any aliens, I did however discover the reason why our planes are always so full.
Ok, so there are three test pictures and some text. Now we'll see how it turns out.
Hopefully this one will work.
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Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Day 2
OK, so this is a day two, just not the same day day two when I started this. I figured this was more about information and things that might be of interest. I just had an even happen that I would imagine some might wonder just what goes on up front during problems.
We came out of the hotel in Waco Texas (yes we overnight in Waco, and 18 min flight from dfw) and everything appeared to be just another Texas summer day. The sky was partly cloudy, typical fair weather cumulus clouds, normal for this time of year. Once at the airport we work our way to the gate. Luckily some of the smaller out stations we bypass security. Honestly it still amazes me we (the flight crew) have to go through security, but that is another (hot) topic altogether. We get our paper work and board the plane. Stow our bags, and start making our "nest" in the cockpit. Once the kitbag is in its place, headset hooked up and charts and note paper in place you begin setting the plane up for pre flight. I have to get the atis, and clearance and then usually about that time head back out side to perform the preflight inspection. Since this is an early afternoon flight the plane had just arrived from DFW. Back inside I finish up my preflight duties just in time to hear over the radio there is a ground stop in Dallas. A ground stop? now I'm confused. After a little checking I find out there are storms over DFW. At least and hour before the next update. Then another hour. Now we hear an AA MD80 is on approach to Waco, diverting to refuel and wait out the weather. A short time later a couple Eagles join us. Then another, which had been en route from Mexico, unfortunately for them there is no customs there. They are all stuck on the plane! There is some chatter on the radios. Someof the passengers on the MD80 want off the plane. They actually made a good decision, and rented a car and drove the rest of the way.
Later the Captain I was with started talking about being hungry. He decided he wanted to order a pizza. About the same time another crew chimed in on the radio and was asking for phone number to a local pizza place. So yes, very important stuff being discussed. Just before we ordered we got word that the ground stop was about to be lifted. I quickly suggested we load the passengers up and make sure we are one of the first to take off. I let the ground personnel know and we very quickly loaded and ready to go. It worked out well, we were one of the first planes off the ground. we're now 3 hours late.
Finally off, climbing out we can see there is still a lot of weather around. The flight was a little bumpy but we managed to get around most of the bad stuff. Finally, after 3 hours on the ground and 40 min in the air we are on the ground in DFW. Now the gates are just a short taxi away, we're almost there...then we get the word. RAMP CLOSED! ugh. We cannot pull into the gate when the ramp is closed.
You may have heard this before. most large airports have a rule, if there is ligting within 5 miles of an airport they close the ramp. this is to protect the ground worker. We are given instruction to taxi to and hold at one of the holding locations of the airport. Again, luckily we are up front, so when the ramp opens we should be one of the first cleared in. About 20 minutes later ramp opens, here we go. we make it to our gate, we're 150 away from the bridge, but there are no rampers. Then it happens, a flash of lightning...no, No again. Then we hear it over the radio, ramp closed, again. so now we wait, again. more time goes by finally it opens we quickly get to the gate and let these poor people off. so hour "20 min" flight took two hours, gate to gate. Today we fly two legs, and you can imagine we are obviously late for our next flight to Springfield MO. We rush to the next gate to find that our plane isn't even here yet. As a matter of fact, it shows it hasn't even taken off.
Yes, when it rains it pours, and the day isn't even half over.
The ramp opens and closes a couple more times, finally our plane shows up and we make a dash for the plane, in hopes of getting out before it closes again. No such luck, it closes just as soon as we finish out prefilght duties and just prior to boarding.
the ramp stays closed for a while, but then opens again, we talk about boarding, I suggest we do so quickly, and just about the time we finish boarding, yes ramp closed! I know it might seem a little compassionate trying to get people on and there is a chance we may not go any where, but then you wouldn't be at the airport if you were not trying to get somewhere. This whole time we're looking at our radars on our phone and we are seeing this weather is about to move off, but then we hear ops calling everyone asking if the have people on board. If they say yes they say take'em off. We hear this one after another. They never get to our number, but the Captain say, What do you think, should we deplane? We both pull out our phones, we both look and I say that this last cell will be gone (outside the 5 mile area) in about 5 minutes or less, let keep them on. Not 2 minutes later we hear Ramp open! My finger is waiting next to the push to talk button, as soon as they stop talking I make my request for fuel. Again, being ready at the right time helped us get out quickly. Had we had to re board it would have taken longer. So now we're off, very late to SGF.
We get into the hotel very late and rush to bed, hoping our next day wont be messed with to bad.
We came out of the hotel in Waco Texas (yes we overnight in Waco, and 18 min flight from dfw) and everything appeared to be just another Texas summer day. The sky was partly cloudy, typical fair weather cumulus clouds, normal for this time of year. Once at the airport we work our way to the gate. Luckily some of the smaller out stations we bypass security. Honestly it still amazes me we (the flight crew) have to go through security, but that is another (hot) topic altogether. We get our paper work and board the plane. Stow our bags, and start making our "nest" in the cockpit. Once the kitbag is in its place, headset hooked up and charts and note paper in place you begin setting the plane up for pre flight. I have to get the atis, and clearance and then usually about that time head back out side to perform the preflight inspection. Since this is an early afternoon flight the plane had just arrived from DFW. Back inside I finish up my preflight duties just in time to hear over the radio there is a ground stop in Dallas. A ground stop? now I'm confused. After a little checking I find out there are storms over DFW. At least and hour before the next update. Then another hour. Now we hear an AA MD80 is on approach to Waco, diverting to refuel and wait out the weather. A short time later a couple Eagles join us. Then another, which had been en route from Mexico, unfortunately for them there is no customs there. They are all stuck on the plane! There is some chatter on the radios. Someof the passengers on the MD80 want off the plane. They actually made a good decision, and rented a car and drove the rest of the way.
Later the Captain I was with started talking about being hungry. He decided he wanted to order a pizza. About the same time another crew chimed in on the radio and was asking for phone number to a local pizza place. So yes, very important stuff being discussed. Just before we ordered we got word that the ground stop was about to be lifted. I quickly suggested we load the passengers up and make sure we are one of the first to take off. I let the ground personnel know and we very quickly loaded and ready to go. It worked out well, we were one of the first planes off the ground. we're now 3 hours late.
Finally off, climbing out we can see there is still a lot of weather around. The flight was a little bumpy but we managed to get around most of the bad stuff. Finally, after 3 hours on the ground and 40 min in the air we are on the ground in DFW. Now the gates are just a short taxi away, we're almost there...then we get the word. RAMP CLOSED! ugh. We cannot pull into the gate when the ramp is closed.
You may have heard this before. most large airports have a rule, if there is ligting within 5 miles of an airport they close the ramp. this is to protect the ground worker. We are given instruction to taxi to and hold at one of the holding locations of the airport. Again, luckily we are up front, so when the ramp opens we should be one of the first cleared in. About 20 minutes later ramp opens, here we go. we make it to our gate, we're 150 away from the bridge, but there are no rampers. Then it happens, a flash of lightning...no, No again. Then we hear it over the radio, ramp closed, again. so now we wait, again. more time goes by finally it opens we quickly get to the gate and let these poor people off. so hour "20 min" flight took two hours, gate to gate. Today we fly two legs, and you can imagine we are obviously late for our next flight to Springfield MO. We rush to the next gate to find that our plane isn't even here yet. As a matter of fact, it shows it hasn't even taken off.
Yes, when it rains it pours, and the day isn't even half over.
The ramp opens and closes a couple more times, finally our plane shows up and we make a dash for the plane, in hopes of getting out before it closes again. No such luck, it closes just as soon as we finish out prefilght duties and just prior to boarding.
the ramp stays closed for a while, but then opens again, we talk about boarding, I suggest we do so quickly, and just about the time we finish boarding, yes ramp closed! I know it might seem a little compassionate trying to get people on and there is a chance we may not go any where, but then you wouldn't be at the airport if you were not trying to get somewhere. This whole time we're looking at our radars on our phone and we are seeing this weather is about to move off, but then we hear ops calling everyone asking if the have people on board. If they say yes they say take'em off. We hear this one after another. They never get to our number, but the Captain say, What do you think, should we deplane? We both pull out our phones, we both look and I say that this last cell will be gone (outside the 5 mile area) in about 5 minutes or less, let keep them on. Not 2 minutes later we hear Ramp open! My finger is waiting next to the push to talk button, as soon as they stop talking I make my request for fuel. Again, being ready at the right time helped us get out quickly. Had we had to re board it would have taken longer. So now we're off, very late to SGF.
We get into the hotel very late and rush to bed, hoping our next day wont be messed with to bad.
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