Boise

I deadheaded on Southwest to Boise last night. Both flights were packed, as usual. We stay at a boutique hotel in downtown Boise that is very nice. The hotel staff recommended Goldy's for breakfast today so I walked over this morning. There was a 15 minute wait, even at 10:00, so I sat in the sun and read the paper. My meal was excellent, and I felt the need to walk off some of the calories. One of the places I walked by had four street-light looking things that were motion activated percussion music players. The video is me walking by them. Sorry it's sideways...none of the video rotator programs do the audio justice! Make sure you turn up the volume.
Tonight, I fly to Casper and then Memphis, turning to Flint Michigan. WooHoo!

Adventures in Deadheading

I just completed a week of flying Milwaukee to Indy and back. No snow in Milwaukee, which was strange compared to last year this time. In early February, both airports closed and I got to go home last year. We had a few flurries, and one deicing incident in Indy this week, but nothing horrific. The deadheads were the only newsworthy story.
This trip starts with a Monday morning deadhead to Milwaukee, which I hate. I much prefer to get there Sunday night and try to get a good night's sleep before beginning a week of flying on Monday night. No such luck with this one. I got up very early at home (2:45 am) to catch the 6:00 American flight through DFW. While in the bathroom, my cellphone rang and the polite lady from American wanted to know if I'd be willing to take a later flight through Chicago instead b/c the DFW-MKE leg was oversold. Remember, I have to check in by 8 hours prior to showtime in Milwaukee (around 9:30 pm), but there's a loophole. If you're within 100 miles of the layover city, you can legally check in. The company figures you can, in the worst case, rent a car and be there by showtime if you have 8 hours and are within 100 miles. So, even though this deadhead arrived in Milwaukee later, I could actually check in sooner when we landed in Chicago, and I waited for my connection. A quick check of the weather confirmed no delays, so I took the offered first class upgrade and things went very smoothly. I still got to the airport in ABQ in time to get back on the original flight, in case some unforeseen problem arose, which meant an extra hour of drool time wasted in an airport.
Then, last night, I woke from my hub turn nap in Indy ready to fly the last live leg back to MKE to find that they had "changed gauge" on the flight (meaning our jet was too small for the amount of freight they needed to move so they stuck an Airbus on it), and we were to go to the hotel in Indy and then deadhead home from there. Flurry of activity...get new deadhead ticket, cancel new company ticket which would take me to Memphis instead of ABQ, cancel old deadhead ticket from MKE to ABQ, cancel pre-reserved shuttle from MKE hotel to passenger terminal. Wait as sec, I made that reservation for the wrong day and time anyway! It was a good thing, I guess, that things went the way they did, b/c otherwise I'd be standing there in the MKE hotel's lobby wondering where my ride to the airport was to go home. By the time my sleep-starved brain had figured it out, I might have missed my flight home!
So now I'm cooling my heels at DFW on a 3 hour layover b/c the connections were not good from Indy. Man I hate commuting!!! Boise next week.

Fedex 757 First Flight Video

I added this youtube video to the permanent links list:  http://youtu.be/Hv2bFBdVlI8

Line Check Complete

I'm good for another year after my double-team line check to Greenville. Actually, the guys were great to fly with and the checkride went very well. Decided to bail out on the weekend layover and come home: live to fight another day.

CMV-1 Complete

Made it though my CMV-1 last night, although the sim was acting up and at one time it looked like we would not be able to complete the event. That would have sucked b/c it would have meant another day in Memphis, probably next month. Last night's event was a dusting off of old emergency procedures, and an intro to a new type of approach we're going to be doing using GPS with a tighter tolerance (called RNAV (RNP). Tonight, I have my line check to Greenville with a check airman acting as my FO while he watches a new check airman check me. What fun!

Global War on Error #3

Ground school today, my third year with Noel as instructor. I gave him the link to this blog in hopes he might be able to glean some more info on the life of a Fedex pilot. He actually does a very good job of relating to us as a group and understanding our unique concerns, but more info never hurts, right? A post of particular note might be the Confessional back in October, b/c I applied some of the concepts Noel is teaching. Tomorrow night is my CMV-1 sim, then a day off in Memphis, then my line check to Greenville. Stay tuned!

Jumpseat to Memphis for Training

Michelle got home at 8 pm last night from Seattle and California, and I had to get up at 2:30 am this morning. Since Jan 2, these 6 hours are the sum total of the time we've gotten to spend together because of her schedule and mine. I won't be home again for another 9 days. Sometimes, retirement sure looks good. I picked up breakfast burritos for the crew and my mechanic friend at Fedex Mike this morning, and then rode the jumpseat to El Paso. We loaded some freight and another jumper and got to Memphis at around 11:00. It took quite awhile for me to locate the trusty Golf in the parking lot, but it fired right up and got me to the hotel which will be my base of operations for the next 4 days. Time to study!

Low Vis Takeoff

Here's what 1400 RVR (Runway Visual Range) looked like for our takeoff from Greenville last night. Since it was below 1600 RVR, I had to make the takeoff instead of the FO. The little red sign says "22" for the hold short line at runway 22. The blue lights are taxiways and the white lights are the runway.

Union MEC Vote is in

The Fedex ALPA MEC has decided to continue our present contract for one more year instead of reentering section 6 negotiations. This means a 3% pay raise in March and continued interim discussions with the company on open contract items for 2013. So, we can all get back to work now for another year without the inevitable conflict that surrounds active negotiations.

Quantarids

We were treated to a nice meteor shower on the flight from Memphis to Greenville this morning. The Quantarids only appear in a two hour window once a year. Here's more info: http://www.space.com/14136-photos-2012-quadrantid-meteor-shower-images.html

Lost Bag

The offending bag

This happens about once every 5 years or so. I'm one of those pilots who hates to deadhead in uniform and also hates to try to carry on my bag, so I risk my uniform not showing up every time I deadhead. Last night I got into Greenville, SC at midnight and there was no bag for me at baggage claim. The next American flight was not until this afternoon. I finally got the bag at 5:00 pm, so it wasn't even close to my showtime of 9:00 pm, but it did severely limit my day.