48 Hours Later

I actually ended up spending about 48 hours in Memphis. My biggest accomplishment while there was getting some WD-40 to lube the squeaky wheels on my roll aboard suitcase. My FOs will no longer be embarrassed to be seen (heard) with me in hotel lobbies! It was an ugly winter and the bag was dragged over much snowy/salty tarmac causing wheel bearing corrosion.
I've heard two explanations why we were taken off the TLH trip. One was that the company just ran out of 757s in "up" status and the Tallahassee trip was the easiest to replace with a 727. The other was that the forecast foggy Tallahassee weather and lack of nearby stations equipped to handle a 757 weather divert, since it's a relatively new airplane to Fedex, severely limited operational options, forcing the dispatcher to use a 727 instead. Whatever the reason, it cost me $135 in Memphis hotels. Bygones. We've flown the trip the last two nights, and it's been uneventful (which is aviation-speak for no big problems). I'm getting bumped for the Saturday trip/deadhead for training and my FO gets to crew for a new 757 Captain's activation ride, which is his final trip in training, while I get to go home on the am jumpseat. I'm looking forward to some time off (at home) for good behavior.
Oh yeah, while I was stuck in Memphis, our pilot group voted "yes" on a Tentative Agreement for up to two years which includes some nice safety enhancements and a small pay bump. We'll still be in negotiations for the rest of the contract sections, but this gives the company some flexibility in opening new domiciles abroad and some time to digest the forthcoming new FAA scheduling rules. I think it was a win-win. Very few airlines are even considering pay raises for their pilots nowadays.

Stuck in Memphis part two

AOC crew briefing area with 100 computers

One of my two hero airplane line drawings: Customs P-AEW

Game room

Dead guy plaques in the Greenway Memorial Library

Greenway Memorial Library

Lockers for 4000

Lockers

TV room...reminds me of the ready room on the carrier

Crew buses lined up to take you to your jet

I had to deadhead in to Tallahassee a full day early (Sunday) to make the required check-in period 9 hours before my active leg Monday night. No way to get there in time on Monday from Albuquerque. This meant paying for my own hotel room as well as leaving home much earlier than I wanted. Have to remember this when it's time to bid again. The trip last night from Tallahassee to Memphis seemed to be going smoothly right up until the ramp agent brought out the weight and balance at 20 minutes prior to push. That was my first indication that we were much heavier than planned; 9000 lbs to be exact. Now lifting this much extra weight up to 32,000' and carrying it 540 air miles to Memphis takes more fuel. The weather was very nice which meant the dispatcher did not have to give us fuel for an alternate, or very much extra fuel at all. I determined that we would need some more fuel to safely fly our route, and after some hemming and hawing the dispatcher agreed, but there would be a considerable delay in getting the fuel truck back out. Fedex takes any delays in its schedule very seriously, so I had to write an email once we got to Memphis explaining my actions (we were 35 minutes late). Then, shortly after checking in at Memphis for our return leg to Tallahassee, we were notified that the trip back was cancelled due to lack of 757s. Same thing that happened two weeks ago. They put a 727 on the trip and we went into substitution again, but with no airplane. This will cost me another hotel room in Memphis. Grr. So, I made use of my time in the hub by taking some pictures.

Spring Break YES!!!

The Captain has left the bridge. I'm heading home as soon as American can get me there.  Michelle and I are heading off to Chama, NM for Spring Break, so I won't be posting for awhile. I want to leave you with an example of the finest Daylight Exclusion Device I've ever seen, and it's only available at our layover hotel in Tallahassee. Two styrofoam-cored precisely cut to fit the main window and window arch, covered with black cloth. It is, indeed, a beautiful thing to behold. The pictures don't do it justice because it's so dark! Cheers, and I'll talk at you later.

My FO for the month with "Piper"

Nice weather finally

Lard and Sugar...what could be better?

The last two days have been cool and crisp, with no major flying challenges. I finally got to walk around a little on the layover. Went to see Tron at the local discount movie theater and was generally unimpressed. Unfortunately, I also found a Krispy Kreme and ate an undisclosed number of fresh hot fat-pills along with a hot chocolate. I'm very lucky the KKs in Albuquerque went under or I'd weigh alot more!

It's always interesting being in Memphis. I had time to do a little maintenance on the Golf, which is my Memphis car with 150,000 miles on it. I have an isolator on the battery that keeps the juice from draining since I only drive it once every few months. Saw a statue of liberty in front of a huge local church holding a cross instead of a lamp. How would that make anyone but a Christian feel? I guess it doesn't matter b/c only that particular church knows exactly what is best for everyone.

Stuck in Memphis

Weather today looks just like last night. TLH is where the red box is.

The saga of this week continues. When we showed last night for the Tallahassee to Memphis leg, the weather was ominous but GOC (Global Operation Control...our dispatchers) gave us almost an hour of extra contingency fuel, which does wonders raising the comfort level. On the way out to the airplane, I took these pictures b/c this was the cleanest airplane I've seen in a long time, having just come from a "C" check in JAX. Sure is a pretty beast! Anyway, just a minute into the walkaround, things started to go south. You see the red lights on the wingtip? Just like with a boat, the other side should have green lights, but they were not working. That's a no-go item at night. The mechanic did not see a quick  way to fix the problem b/c the circuit breaker kept popping. Not a good feeling, a short somewhere out on the wing which is full of gas! GOC re-routed a 727 into Tallahassee to pick up the freight and we thought we were done for the night. The nightly haul out of Tallahassee is worth several million dollars b/c there is a firm in Dothan that deals in refrigerated oncology shipments that MUST get where they're going without fail...something like $30,000 per box! By the time the 727 got to us, the mechanic had come up with one more bright idea; he checked the cannon plug for the lights ...basically a wiring harness plug in the wing...and found it to be loose. He tightened it and that seemed to fix the problem, so now the ramp had to reload us again. We ended up being about 1 1/2 hours late, and the 727 had to land for gas anyway. We plowed through the weather getting the crap beat out of us and finally landed in Memphis just in time to check in for the return trip to Tallahassee. Oh, and the circuit breaker for the right wind lights popped on landing. Hmmm.
Next chapter; the sort was and hour and a half late, but we went out to the new airplane and they started loading freight, so we were looking ok. Then I noticed the lights in the cockpit kept flickering every couple of minutes (pretty good considering how tired I was). It reminded me of what happens when the electric hydraulic pumps are first turned on. I figured that the ground power unit was about to go out, so I started the APU (our little jet-powered onboard generator) and switched the electric power source to it. Still flickering. I finally  checked the hydraulic pressure and found that the right hydraulic pump was cycling on and off. Strange and not good. The quantity was also a little low, maybe a leak? Called maintenance. We're getting a rep as a crew now! Airplane was hard down with no spare 757 in Memphis. They had to transload the freight to a 727. Back into substitution for us. I got to my favorite Memphis hotel about 5:00 this morning only to find that they had raised the Fedex corporate rate from $43 to $59. What a day (night). My first hard down airplane as a Captain, and one of only a handful ever for me at Fedex in over 15 years!

Grueling Night

On Saturday, I received a crew notification that my deadhead trip for Sunday had been cancelled...they put a 727 on Tallahassee instead of the 757. When this happens, the affected crew goes into "substitution" where the company can assign a different trip. I was pretty sure they would not have anything for me b/c it would have to be a deadhead, and they're usually held pretty tightly by pilots. So, I maintained my availability (by having a phone with me) and got paid for the trip that they cancelled. Cool, but there's always the piper to pay. Monday, I was notified that my trip for Tuesday morning (02:00 showtime in Memphis) was "revised." Trip revisions are usually bad news, and this was no exception. We were supposed to have a nice easy one-legger to Tallahassee, but no; we flew to Tallahassee, offloaded the freight, took the empty plane to Cecil Field in Jacksonville, swapped airplanes to one that had just come out of heavy maintenance (it took three test flights to get it flightworthy last week), then flew that plane back to Tallahassee, landing at about 10:00 in the morning. Ugh, the sun was up and it was very hard to get to sleep. The plane acted a little strangely as well, and we'll have to try and do some more extensive troubleshooting tonight on our way to Memphis when we're a little more awake. I did get a glimpse of the Jacksonville Customs air branch (now Homeland Security), and some of their P-3s like I used to fly, which are stationed there. Sorry, no pictures, or they'd have to shoot me. At least it's warm in my birth state of Florida!

Mitchell Gallery of Flight

On my way out of Milwaukee yesterday, I found a nice little aviation museum right in the airport. It covers the life of General Billy Mitchell as well as astronaut Jim Lovell, both native Milwaukee sons. Here's the link: http://www.mitchellgallery.org/default.asp. There was also a model of a Fedex Airbus on display.

Farewell to Milwaukee

Things again went smoothly at Milwaukee last night as well as Indy this morning. We had a little glitch with the autothrottles right after takeoff that caused them to go to idle in the climbout (not exactly what you want them to do close to the ground, slow and 20 degrees nose up), but we sorted that out and continued on our merry way to an early arrival at MKE. I got a few zzz's and now it's off to the Eagle RJ for the long trip home.

Gloomy morning for farewells

I received a notification that my deadhead trip to Tallahassee on Sunday with a live leg to Memphis on Monday night had a change of gauge. For some reason, they put a 727 on the trip instead of my 757. This means I'll be in "substitution" under our contract. I must be available for a new trip assignment from 3 hours prior to the original showtime until 8 hours later in order to be pay protected. Since the only thing they can realistically assign me is another deadhead, I will get another day at home. If skeds calls with a trip, I can refuse it, but I'll eventually lose the pay unless I make it up. I scheduled a Fedex jumpseat for Monday night to join up with the rest of my Tallahassee trips for the week. We'll see if they change the gauge on those as well. This actually works out well b/c getting to TLH from ABQ was not easy, and I was going to have to take a much earlier flight that I wanted just to be in position by the required 9 hours prior to showtime on Monday night, and pay for an extra night in the hotel out of pocket. Stay tuned for more ...
On the rumor front, the mechanic in Milwaukee this morning said that he heard Fedex was in negotiations with Boeing for 767 ER freighters to replace the MD-11s. Since my type rating is for 757 and 767, this would be great news! I had previously understood that the 767 would not work with our belly can configuration, but I guess anything is solvable if you throw enough money at it. As the saying goes, "Don't believe anything until it's painted purple and sitting on the ramp." See http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/flightblogger/2011/03/boeing-and-fedex-eye-767-400er.html

Hubble

Last night went so smoothly it was scary. We were early out of Milwaukee and Indy, and the weather was great.  I'm sure we'll have to pay the piper tonight, since it's going home time when we get back to Milwaukee in the morning. They're predicting freezing rain so we'll see.
Today I took in the IMAX Hubble show at the Natural History Museum. All I can say is WOW! SEE IT IF YOU CAN! I think most pilots have entertained the idea of spaceflight as something they would like to try, at one time or another. Growing up in Florida in the 60's and 70's, I sure did. This 45 minute film about the Hubble repair missions is absolutely breathtaking, and in my case, tearjerking. It was particularly poignant considering Discovery is on her last voyage as I write this. It's very sad to me that our country will be losing its leadership in space very soon. The pursuit of pure science and discovery on the last frontier is one of the areas where we once  could actually and truly claim exceptionalism, but no more. What grand unifying dreams will our kids aspire to now? To be on American Idol? To Dance with the Stars? I think a voyage to the stars would be so much more fulfilling...
http://www.imax.com/hubble/

Milwaukee Car Show

 All in all, not too impressive. More of a car sale than show. The nap on Monday was a better idea. No Lotuses in sight. The Lamborghini and Maserati were quite pretty (their price tags weren't), and I was glad to see the convertible Camaro is once again on the road. Very few vintage cars, but they HAD to have a '63 Corvette Stingray coupe. Mine was a red roadster. Miss it every day. Waaaa

EEC Failure

This morning's trip from Indy to Milwaukee was interesting. The fuelers in Indy were dragging their feet again, so we were almost an hour late. On the takeoff roll, the autothrottles kicked off. Not a big deal so we continued and set the thottles manually. As we climbed out the autothrottles re-engaged, but then the left engine began surging intermittently along with pronounced yaw and a momentary thrust limiter indication, followed by the autothrottles disengaging (as they're supposed to). Then everything would go back to normal and I would re-engage the autothrottles. After a couple of times, we got out the checklist and tried deselecting the thrust limiter. The problem reoccurred, this time with a momentary EEC fault. The EEC (Electronic Engine Control) manages thrust by continuously computing the proper power setting. So, the next thing we did was to turn this system off for both engines (because you want them both being governed the same way), and now we were back in the 60's with hydromechanical vs electronic engine governing. We turned the thrust limiter system back on to provide some measure of protection against overspeed/overboost and proceeded to landing with manual throttles. The workload goes up in a modern jet when anything reverts to manual control, especially at 5:00 in the morning, but thankfully the weather was good and my landing was ok. The big question is, will maintenance be able to fix it for tonight's flight? Probably no parts in Milwaukee, so another manual throttles leg is in our future.

Frank Lloyd Wright Exhibit

My kind of graffiti!

The truly breath-taking Milwaukee Art Museum

Happily, the weather is much improved in Milwaukee this week. Things are looking up. I intended on going to the big car show yesterday after lunch, but when I showed up at the Frontier Center, the doors were closed and the sign said they wouldn't open until 3:00. Rats! So, I wondered around and eventually went back to the room to wait. As 3:00 approached, it became apparent that a nap would be in my future unless I caffeinated myself. I finally decided that sleep would be more important than an auto show since I got in late last night and would be staying up all night. I can hardly believe having to make that choice, I mean really; taking a NAP instead of looking at CARS! For us night-shift types, sleep trumps just about everything else, especially as you get older. Anyway, there's the rest of the week to make it to the show after I get my day sleep pattern established.
So, for today, which was predicted to be the least cold (38 degrees), I decided to make the half hour trek to the Art Museum for the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit, and I'm sure glad I did! Milwaukee has a very interesting architectural presence...kinda whimsical actually. The best thing I saw, though, was some graffiti on the wall of a side alley...it succeeded in lightening my day considerably. Maybe there is hope for us! The museum itself is quite beautiful, and I spent almost two hours enjoying Mr. Wright's work. It brought back memories of visiting Taliesin West with Michelle and the girls, and seeing Fallingwater with my dad.

Sleep roomzzzz

Your cell is ready, convict.

Y'know, I hate wearing uniforms

Ah, the sleep rooms at Indy. You get in and sign up for a room, then get your linens and go make up your bed. For some reason, they always have queen sized sheets for a single sized bed. The fitted one is just silly! Oh yeah, don't forget to take a leak before napping b/c it's a long walk down a cold hallway to the head in Indy. When you get up, you try to make yourself presentable in the small mirror b/c you emerge from the sleeprooms into the crewroom carrying your stripped linens and everyone turns to look. The facility in Memphis is a little better b/c there are many restrooms interspersed with the sleeping rooms. Although there are alot more rooms in Memphis, it is much harder to snag one b/c you have to get there well before midnight or they're all taken. 757 trips seem to get in after midnight, so there is little hope. At least Indy generally has enough for everyone. And I really shouldn't complain at all about these rooms...UPS has nothing like them.