Birdstrike #2

We had a second birdstrike in three days on final approach into Memphis last night. It hit the FO's side again, just above the side window. They've really got it in for him (the birds)!
I cleaned out my locker when we got to Memphis as instructed. They're planning on expanding the number of sleeprooms into the existing locker room and library. I'll have to use my car for my spare uniforms and such. $50 in coins scattered across the bottom, the sum of about 15 years of use!

Miami

Airboats in storage

Drowned Dinghy

Downtown in the distance

Dinner Key

Scotty's for lunch

It was a nice day in Coconut Grove...cloudy but mild. I walked around the marinas for several hours, then had lunch at Scotty's under a canvas tent. Fish and chips and key lime pie for desert. Yes!

A Close One

We had a disturbing event last night in Atlanta. We had closed up the doors and armed the slides for automatic deployment, and the ramp crew had pulled the stairs away from the aircraft in preparation for pushback. After a delay, the stairs were pushed back to the airplane, and a mechanic came up to bring us some paperwork, opening the door without ever letting us know his intentions. Normally, there would be a signal on the interphone or just visually, and he would wait for the flightcrew's approval before opening the door so we'd have time to disarm it, but this did not occur. The reason this is a big deal is that the door is designed to blow open and deploy the slide automatically if it's armed and the door opens for an evacuation. There is a mechanical interlock that deactivates this system when the door is opened from the outside so that rescuers can get to the crew if we're unable to open the door ourselves, but we are trained never to take chances with this last-ditch safeguard. The door is always disarmed and opened from inside if there are crewmembers onboard. Of course, if the airplane is empty, then no one would have been inside to arm the doors, so they can safely be opened from the outside. Anyway, this guy had apparently gotten complacent about opening the door and hadn't paused to think about the fact that he was one mechanical failure away from certain death or severe injury. I had a few words with him about how lucky he was and then we closed up again and the flight proceeded to Newark without further incident. Today, I filled out a safety report advising that the Atlanta maintenance personnel might need some remediation in this area. I'm just thankful that the safeguard worked and no one got hurt!

Survived Night 1

Atlantic City

The worst is behind me for this trip. The weather was very nice for our trip up and down the eastern seaboard last night. We had a birdstrike on the FO's side window climbing out of Newark on the second leg, and they had to do an inspection in Miami for any damage (there was none). Coincidentally, there was an article in USA Today about this topic http://usat.ly/Iam3e5 The third leg from Miami back to Atlanta was a killer since the sun had come up. We landed just after 8:00 and I slept until 4:00 pm. At least we don't have to fly that last leg tonight!

Atlanta

In order to make up some of the lost pay for my deviation failure, I picked up an UGLY trip. It began with a deadhead to Atlanta, which I got to by jumpseating on Fedex (enough with the passenger carriers for awhile). So I got to Atlanta this morning and will attempt to get some sleep this afternoon. At 10:45 tonight, the fun begins. We'll fly to Newark, turn and then fly to Miami, turn and then fly back to Atlanta, arriving at 8:30 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow night, we'll do it again, but stay in Miami, finally returning to Memphis Friday night. I'll get home early Saturday morning in a vegetative state, I'm sure. Living the dream.

Midday, time to get up

Sunrise: Time to go to bed

Sunset: time to go to work

Around Columbus

St Joseph's Cathedral

Wendy's is BIG here

Columbus College of Art and Design (spells "ART" from a different angle)

Cool building

W.G.Grinder's

Smallish sign on a big building

In the lobby...go through that door on the right...

down these stairs

Through this unmarked door.

Lunchtime. Consulting Google Maps revealed a grinder shop in the basement of a local office building. Apparently, many of the denizens of said office building do not even know of the restaurant's existence b/c it's so well disguised and hidden. Above, follow the route to a great cheesesteak grinder!

Turn left and it's at the end of the hall!

Deviation Success

It was a near thing, once again, but I made it to Columbus. Last weekend's debacle made me doubly paranoid about deadheading, b/c two misses in a row would have been VERY bad for my career. I had a ticket on American from ABQ-CMH through DFW on Sunday, again a day early from the scheduled deadhead from MEM-CMH. On Saturday, the severe weather center in Norman, OK was predicting a huge tornado event throughout tornado alley, but it was supposed to subside on Sunday. I moved up my ABQ-DFW leg anyway so as to have a backup out of ABQ, and giving me a 3 hour layover in case things were running late. When I checked how things were going Sunday morning, DFW was in the middle of a line of thunderstorms that stretched way up past Kansas, but it looked like things would be okay for my early-afternoon flight. Then I got a message from American that the DFW-CMH leg would be delayed 45 minutes. Now, that leg wasn't until 8:00 at night, so the fact that they were already delaying it made me very concerned. Easy to cancel the last flight on a Sunday night if things got too dicey. I called American and asked why the change and they said their forecasters were predicting more storms later that evening. I called our corporate travel office and re-booked on and earlier United (ugh) flight through Denver and hustled down to the airport. This new ticket initially cost an additional $200. Then American also re-booked me on the same United flight, a really bad indicator. Unfortunately, United smelled blood and raised the price while I was cancelling the American flight (too soon), so I was now out $300. I finally got to the hotel in Columbus around 1:00 am, just thankful to be able to check in with Fedex saying "I'm here!" Next month, NO DEADHEADS! I'll just jumpseat to MEM on Fedex and if the flight cancels or delays, it won't be my problem...of course, it means I have to fly out of Memphis which is always a pain.

Deviation Failure

This was a rough week. I was originally scheduled to deadhead from Albuquerque to Milwaukee Sunday afternoon for a week long trip. I had deviated from the original trip, which would have left Memphis on Monday morning to deadhead to Milwaukee. I prefer to go Sunday night even though it's an extra night away from home, to avoid the stress of early Monday morning deadheading, and to get myself in to a nighttime sleep schedule. Unfortunately, American cancelled my Sunday night flight b/c of tornadoes in DFW. I checked the weather for Monday morning and it looked good, so I rebooked on the first flight out. I would still get to Columbus in time to legally check in for crew rest for my live leg Monday night. I got up at 3:00 am Monday morning and got to ABQ at 5:00 for my 6:20 flight to DFW. At 5:50, American announced a one hour delay in the flight due to a cracked windshield. I knew it would take alot longer than that to replace the windshield and allow the sealant to cure (more like all day). I tried to get on another flight, but none would get me to Columbus in time for my check-in. I made the agonizing decision to call Crew Scheduling and let them know there was no way I could make it in time. I was removed from the trip (without pay) and went home. I eventually had to provide a justification for the reason why I failed to make it to Columbus for Fedex Flight Management. The financial impact was significant, being half a month's pay. Not a happy event, but I feel like I abided by the provisions as set forth in our contract to make sure the revenue flight was protected. I have only missed a couple of deviation trips in my 17 year career (the other one due to a record-setting snowstorm that was not predicted), but it definitely felt like I had failed when I had to make the call. This is not helping my stated goal of some day retiring without anyone in Flight Management knowing my name.
Of course, it could have been worse...there was a guy on the flight who missed a job interview he'd been trying to get for months. At least I'm still employed!

Oooh, Scary

PHOENIX (AP) – A Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta to Phoenix has landed safely after one of the plane's engines shut down as it began to descend over Arizona. 

Delta spokesman Paul Skrbec says Flight 2046 carrying 159 passengers landed normally Saturday afternoon at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. It taxied to the gate under its own power.

The Boeing 757's left engine shut down as the plane began to descend, so the captain followed procedure and declared an emergency. Skrbec says there were no injuries but the airline apologized to the passengers.

The twin-engine 757 can fly safely on just one of its two engines.

Good to know it will fly on one engine!