Farmhouse Frat

Lunch at Moe's



Now that's a different kind of fraternity...

...and they are genuine farmers, with tomatoes on the sidewalk!

Walked around the campus after lunch today. It's a little warmer, but still nice. This week's had the best weather for flying that I can remember in a long time. Better enjoy it now, Isaac is on the way!

Higher Ground

Nice old Volvo P1800 like "The Saint" drove in the TV show

The museum had its eyes on me

After a rainy week in New Orleans and an arduous commute to Knoxville, the week ahead promises to be very nice. It's starting to cool off now, and there is no precip in sight. A little voice in my head said I should visit more art museums, so I spent a nice hour at the Knoxville Museum of Art this afternoon. I found a new artist I really like, but I'm afraid the available prints don't do her justice. Her name is Catherine Wiley and she was a local. I about got run down twice walking around the UT campus by little Vols driving big BMWs. Who sends their kid off to school with a BMW? Sheesh.

NOLA Weather

These are the typical afternoon scenes this week in New Orleans. Every time I try to go out, the thunder starts, then heavy rain chases me back to the hotel.

Delays Delays Delays

The view out the cockpit window in Ft Worth

As soon as I entered the cockpit in New Orleans last night, I could see we had a problem. The EICAS displayed a main battery charger fault. This is a no go item because if you lose all generators and are down to the most basic of standby instruments, these will be powered by the battery, and if the battery is not charging, game over. Interestingly enough, the New Orleans ramp does stock an extra battery charger for the 757, and they swapped it into place. Still no luck. They tried a new battery; nothing. By this time our Fort Worth freight was being transloaded to the Memphis Airbus to protect delivery and anger the crew. Eventually, maintenance discovered a secret hidden circuit breaker for the battery charger and reset it. We then had an empty airplane to fly to Fort Worth in order to bring freight back to NOLA on our regular flight. Unfortunately, thunderstorms were just hovering over Fort Worth, waiting for our arrival. The FO did an excellent job getting us on the deck in a nasty storm, but the ramp was closed due to lightning when we pulled in. We sat for 30 minutes until the weather eased enough so that maintenance could come out and marshal us into our gate. As I write this, the sort is at least two hours late and counting...it's gonna be a long night.

NOLA

After four weeks off, two of which were spent in Alaska, I deadheaded to New Orleans for a week of flying back and forth to Fort Worth. It's friggin' hot here! I've become a humidity wimp I guess. I made several errors during my first flight back last night, the worst of which was a missed item on the cockpit preflight. The fuel crossfeed switch was left in a non-standard position which allowed for fuel migration between the two main tanks based on whichever side's pumps happened to be strongest. About 20 minutes into the flight, I noticed it was taking alot of aileron trim to keep the airplane level. The fuel config light came on warning that there was a non-standard fuel load. We had a 2000 lb split between the left and right main tanks, which is out of limits. The solution is simple, provided you have time: just turn off the pumps on the low side, leave the crossfeed open and allow the heavy side to feed both engines. In another 20 minutes, we were back to normal and I was somewhat chagrined for the sophomoric mistake. Tried to walk around town today and get some pictures, but every time I went out it rained. I ended up trapped in Harrah's and had lunch there waiting out the showers. We stay in a very nice hotel, but the rooms have no desk or chair! This has made it a challenge to work on my monthly and vacation bids.