Chapter 4

I never have been a very good writer, and I have also not been very good at journaling. It’s been 4 years since I’ve posted here. Honestly I wasn’t even sure the blog was still here. It was never an attempt at becoming a “blogger” it was more of a way for me to journal about my new career endeavors.
Aviation was a second career for me. I’ve always had a passion for aviation, literally since I was a toddler. I did not actually start flying until I was in my 30’s and that was just as a private pilot and for the fun of it.
At 40 I acquired my commercial license and began my aviation journey.  After a short time flight instructing I accepted a job with American Eagle airlines. A wholly owned subsidiary of AMR Corp.
things were going great until the bankruptcy. Eagle (now called envoy) went from 3000 pilot to a low of around 1500.  I had my fill, and moved on. I was offered a corporate job and jumped at it. It was amazing. For some reason my journaling/blogging got side tracked there.
I’m not sure why, because the last 5 years have been amazing. I’ve been fortunate to have seen and been to so many places I think your average person would never see in a lifetime.
My wife often went with us, sitting in the back with the owner who treated her like family. We’ve visited many a Christmas season in Manhattan. Gone to our nations capital together and many other great places around the country. I joke that the last 5 years have been early retirement.
The only problem with private part 91 is the job is directly related to the success or health of the owner. In my case both business and health issues have caused changes that required me to start the next chapter in my aviation life. So, here we go again. The picture is just a hint.

Big easy

We spent an evening in New Orleans last night. I've only been here one other time but the first wasn't an over night. We brought two planes over for a board meeting. So the other crew went out with us. We stopped at drago's for dinner. The charbroiled oysters are awesome. After dinner they all decided a trip to the river boat casino was in order. I'm really not much of a gambler but eventually I joined them on the craps table. I walked out $97 in the positive so I suppose it was a pretty good evening. 

Switching to the corporate would has been a great move. There might even be much better news coming soon. We'll see

What's new

Some things have changed in the last year and 4 months. Of course one of my last post was about my leaving the 121 world. Things at eagle had starting going south very quickly. What should have been a 3-4 year up grade turned back into 7+ years. Of course that is if eagle (no longer named eagle) still exists. My bid status had dropped to a level that may have been lower when I first became line qualified. Even though I had a short commute, it became to much with me being on reserve. 

It's really such a shame that management just has no respect for the flight crew. In not going to go into details, but I could never recommend anyone go to eagle, or any regional for that matter. 

So I went back into the part 91 world. I was doing flight instruction, and flying a 182, and Baron for a couple business.

Then out of the blue I received a phone call. Someone I knew, asking me if I might be interested in flying a citation XLS. 

Hmmm, uh. YES! It wasn't to difficult a decision. It's been so long since I've posted to my "journal". I'll have to start posting again. 

Now Where?

So it's been a while since I last visited. Of the few who read this I'm sure are all gone. Why stick around when nothing new has been added. As I mentioned airline life has come to an end for me. My wife and I decided to bring that to an end  and the end on last year. It was a great couple years! I had a blast. The Emb-145 was a fun plane to fly even if it was a bit doggy. I found that once I got comfortable with the plane hand flying to a visual was a lot of fun. 

What I found was the airlines were NOT a job. It's a life style, and you have to want to live that lifestyle.  In another life, I would have lived it. Where I'm at now living that lifestyle was not what me and my family needed. Of course things could have been better, but in many ways it seemed so many went out of their way to make the job miserable. The vast majority of the flight crew I worked with were great. Just good people to fly with. My "do not fly with" list was pretty small, and yes I had a list. Lol. 

I'll come back and revisit airline life again, but what I need to focus on now is the future. I have been focusing on getting back into the local aviation scene. I have a few leads for corporate jobs and that's what I'm focusing on. We also started a business in January, so the plate is once again full, keeping me very busy. 

Aviation has not been at all boring so far, so who knows what excitement it will bring me in the future. Here is a neat looking airplane I seen recently. I have to say it looks MUCH better as a tail dragger!

The end.

It's 12/21/12. Is it going to be the end? Yes! At least the end of airline life, for me. It was a short run. Just under two years. I really enjoyed the flying. However what I learned was airline life is NOT a job, it's a lifestyle! You have to give up a lot to do it. I'm sitting in Dfw waiting on my ride home. More details to come.

Just a little weather

We had just finished a cvg turn and back at DFW when I first noticed this little cell just east of the field. On our way to cvg we had not received a single report of bad wx. However, once we got in range of cincinnati we started getting vectored for storms. It went from landing to the north, to landing from the south, to reports of wind shear on final. Lucky for us we did not experience any bad weather during the approach.
We had to dodge a couple cells on the way back to DFW as well. Fortunately the wx in the picture above was the only wx we seen on our way to FWA.

Really?

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.