Bump, unbump, bump

When I got into Memphis this morning, I decided to do a couple of errands before checking in to the hotel for the 24 hour hole in my schedule produced by a training bump. A bump is when the company wants a trip that I own to do some type of training. This line is particularly attractive for training purposes b/c it is day flying (still rare in the 757), there are three legs rather than two, and the block times are pretty long. There are minimum times each pilot must achieve for initial operating experience as well as consolidation once released to the line, and these Great Falls trips fit the bill. So anyway, I changed in to my civvies b/c it was very hot in Memphis and headed for the car. On the way out, I got a call from IOE scheduling saying they were going to bump me off of my Friday trip. I was very pleased and went ahead and scheduled a jumpseat home for later that afternoon. As I was running the errands, I got another call from a very apologetic scheduler saying that, for technical reasons, they would not be bumping me. Now I was bummed. I cancelled my jumpseat and headed back to the AOC to get my suitcase and head for the hotel. When I got inside, I decided to check my schedule one last time and found that they had put a new FO on the trip who needed flight time for consolidation. It appeared that she was very close to achieving her 100 hours in 120 days as required. Then I remembered that the pilot who had bumped my other deadheads for the month was interested in this trip as well, but since he had less than 75 hours in the 757, he could not fly with the original FO on this trip, who also had less than 75 hours. Did the new FO have at least 75 hours I wondered. Yes! I called him up and he bumped me. I rescheduled my jumpseat and got home two days early. If my luck holds, the only trip I'll have flown this month will be the Fourth of July trip...all other were bumped for training or consolidation (yes, I get to keep the pay). Yes!!! More time to study for training and checkride next week.

Fireworks all night

The moon was actually more impressive than the fireworks that went on for hours. No sleep for me!

Happy Independence Day!

We left Memphis yesterday afternoon, stopping through Wichita on our way to Great Falls. My landing at GTF was crappy in strong crosswinds (which are ever-present here), but we survived. This morning was cool and breezy, so I walked the ten blocks over to the parade. It was almost two hours long and quite the slice of Americana. The Airforce had a strong presence in the parade as Malmstrom AFB is nearby. Since it doesn't get dark until 10 pm up here, I'm not expecting to get much sleep tonight! I'm sure the fireworks will go on past midnight, and I have to get up around 5 for the flight back to Memphis.