Part 1: CAF days

Although I was relatively inexperienced at the time, I made it through the training program at Central Air Freight without a problem. The year was, well, it was a long time ago. I was newly married and was very thankful for a job. I reported to the dispatchers office on the ramp at Kansas City's downtown airport with my graduation papers in hand. I introduced myself and was assigned a twin engine Rockwell Commander 500 Shrike that had been converted into a freight hauler. The interior had been removed all the way to the tail cone and plywood sheathing installed around the inside of the fuselage. Behind the pilot's seat was a super heavy duty nylon net to keep the freight out of the cockpit area. The left side of the fuselage had a cargo door for loading and unloading. The pilot had a separate small door on the left side to climb into the cockpit. I did not know it at the time, but I would fly thousands of hours in this very aircraft.

I was assigned Liberal, Ks. as my duty station, then given my route details and customer contacts. I was to start Friday evening at 5:15 PM. It was Thursday morning when I pushed the starter buttons for the first time on my Shrike. I taxied to the runway using the toe actuated hydraulic nosewheel steering system. The engines sounded beautiful as I headed west to my duty station. I would come to love those engines. This airplane had no automatic anything! It was stripped of all weight possible to gain more freight capacity. I set the fuel mixtures by company policy, which was exhaust gas temperature. The propellers were synchronized by ear. There was no auto-pilot, yaw damper, or weather radar. H.S.I. (horizontal situation indicator) was still in the future a few years, so my primary compass was a gyroscopic type that I had to set by a magnetic compass every fifteen minutes. The VOR equipment was the old wiper type and the ADF radio set was an old coffee grinder. I had one of the first DME (distance measuring equipment) sets available. It would measure groundspeed, too. At the time, it was a wondrous new invention. I was feeling pretty good about my position in the universe.

When I arrived at Liberal, the airport was under thick winter clouds. The visibility was down to 1/2 mile with blowing snow. After making a sloppy ILS approach to minimums, I taxied to my designated tie down and shut down the engines. The wind was howling outside and I could feel the artic chill seeping in the cockpit. Later, I would remember this moment as a harbinger of things to come.

Friday evening arrived and I was dutifully waiting beside my aircraft for the first packages to arrive. The weather was terrible! A winter storm with embedded thunderstorms for the first few hundred miles of my route. The package drivers were late because of slick roads, so I ran inside the local FBO to check the weather for the 100th time. It was getting worse by the hour. I decided, then and there, to cancel the night's flying. There was no way I could safely fly in this weather! Needless to say, that decision caused havoc. I stuck to my guns, though. I went home with my tail between my legs.

Bright and early on Saturday morning the Chief Pilot called me. I can remember every word of the conversation to this day. The short version goes like this:

We need a pilot at that duty station who will fly everyday, unless you are too sick or injured, then we'll send out a reserve pilot to cover for you. Are you the guy? If not, we need to know before Monday evening. Hey, don't feel bad if you can't handle it. This is a tough flying job, that's why we pay better than most. Let me know ASAP. Good-bye.

Gulp! I was darn sure not going to quit. I was newly married and I needed a job. I slowly started to realize the ramifications of being a night freight pilot. What had I done?

On the following Monday evening, the adventure began.

Still Sick

Being sick is a complete waste of valuable time! I was forced to call in sick for a primo trip I had been looking forward to for a month. Yesterday, I was still unable to clear my ears. Unfortunately, the tremendous pressure differentials a pilot experiences on a routine basis do not allow for plugged ears and/or sinuses. The good news- I am feeling a lot better today. The bad news- my lovely wife is now sick. It is the first time she has been sick in three years. Must be a nasty little bug running around my house.

Hopefully, only a few more days until I can go back to work.

Sick call

I started feeling funky on Monday evening and by Tuesday morning I had a head cold coming on strong. I decided to take it easy on Tuesday, drink lots of fluids and all that stuff in hope of being able to report for my simulator training on Wednesday evening. This morning my head was completely full of crud with a sore throat. Those conditions would be marginal in the simulator with all the motion involved, so I called in sick for my simulator training. Very disappointing, to say the least. I was so looking forward to getting it behind me. The really aggravating thing about this is the timing, i.e., I have not been sick for more than two years. What are the chances of sickness right before two important days? Bummer!

Lunch with CEO-Part 2

I am back from the big birthday party in Las Vegas...yep, back to reality. I am hitting the books hard preparing for the simulator that is staring me in the face two days hence. I intended, when I had a bit of extra time, to write more about the CEO brown bag lunch on Day 1 of groundschool. Now is that time.

Our CEO is a brilliant guy with a strong airline/business background. His informal presentation was interesting, but not surprising to me. I am well aware of the past, present, and potential future of the airline industry. The short version of his talk goes like this:

The airline endgame has begun. There are too many seats and too few dollars for those seats. Recently, a legacy (large major airline) carrier restructured it's pricing to compete with the low cost carriers. This action has forced all the legacy carriers to match those prices. Low cost carriers using bare bones business plans are slowly bleeding cash everyday. The legacy carriers are pumping cash away in large arterial spurts. It has turned into an endurance contest. The carrier or carriers who run out of cash first will die. There will be no more government loans. This will get rid of the excess seat capacity and the survivors will be able to raise ticket prices to profitable levels.

Well, it sounds scary but no need to panic. Every twenty or thirty years the industry under goes fundamental changes. You can bank on it and if it catches you by surprise, then you haven't been paying attention. The last earthquake was in 1978 when deregulation shook the industry to it's core. Three beautiful and old legacy carriers were wiped out and two more were severely wounded. One of the wounded has never fully recovered. The warning signs for another big change have been around since 2000, but we have been rolling downhill toward a cliff since 9-11-2001.


We have now rolled over the edge of that cliff into the abyss. The industry looks like a falling, whirling cat fight with hair and teeth being ejected from the rotating furball. Employees are blaming the evil management teams. Management is blaming the corrupt unions. The pilots are pointing fingers at each other in anger causing huge rifts in the ranks. A perfect example of the old adage - divide and conquer.

The free fall towards the bottom is in progress. Will my airline have enough staying power to survive and pull up before it hits the ground.

As Joe Ciseneros (an old Mexican cowboy from my youth) would say, "Maybe so, maybe no."

The Las Vegas Hilton

What Happens Here Stays Here

Las Vegas! Holy Moly! I am having a great time, in spite of the training beast. I should feel guilty, but no.... We are staying at the Las Vegas Hilton with most of my wife's family. This morning I bought a two day pass to the Hilton spa. It is fabulous! The work-out room is state of the art. Also, they have real Roman baths and saunas. The locker room is huge with all the amenities. Our room is outstanding and the food is excellent.

The feeling of relaxing in Las Vegas is very different for me. Usually, I am running around the airport with my hair on fire trying to depart on schedule. Or, if we are overnighting, I am so tired or the overnight is so short, I cannot enjoy it. Yes, I know...the simulator is only four (4) days in the future. My brother-in-law only turns 50 once, so I have had to make adjustments. I will be prepared for the simulator, or as we pilots affectionately call it, the stimulator.

I brought my laptop and aircraft manuals to study on this little excursion. After all:

Non-normal and Emergency procedures represent the actions applicable after a failure, to ensure adequate safety and to ease the further conduct of flight. Some are conducted from memory while others are applied using the Read and Do principle.

Vee one...rotate...

City of Lights

My brother-in-law is celebrating his fiftieth (50) birthday in Las Vegas. He is really a good guy, so I decided to join the wife of my youth, who is in Las Vegas with her family. Normally, I would not do this in the middle of my annual training, but this is a special case. After ground school dismissed today I hurried to the airport and flew to Las Vegas on the first available flight.

From the time I walked out of the classroom until I walked into the Las Vegas hotel where the festivities are being held was two hours and twenty minutes.

Simply amazing!

Ground School - Day 3

I must be getting used to the traffic, because it didn't really bother me this morning. I arrived in plenty of time to harass some of my buds, drink coffee, and study a bit more for the exit test. We started at 8:00 A.M. with landing gear. We watched a short video on catastrophic engine failures. At 9:00 A.M. a performance geek came over from the engineering department to lecture on the redesign of the nation's airspace. I use the word geek in a complimentary manner, for these guys are S-M-A-R-T! They live and breath large jet aircraft performance. Lunch was very quick today because of the material we needed to cover.

Navigation was next (which is my favorite subject), followed by automatic flight system. Then, to finish our day, an air traffic controller lectured for about an hour. We took our final (or exit) exam and were dismissed.

I have five days to prepare for the simulator...

Ground School - Day 2

The traffic was horrendous today, again. I feel sorry for people who have to put up with it on a daily basis. It's no wonder there is so much road rage in Phoenix. Anyway, we wasted no time getting started this morning at ground school. The subjects were: the auxiliary power unit, electrical, hydraulics, ice and rain protection, and aircraft communicaton systems. After lunch, we went to the flight attendant academy for emergency evacuation training, fire fighting, life vest training, smoke hood training, and opening all the doors and emergency exits on each of our aircraft types. After we finished at the flight attendant academy, we reported back to the classroom for a weight and balance paperwork review. Finally, our Fleet Captain spoke to us for fifteen minutes. He said we are doing OK (translation: We are losing money at a slower rate than most other airlines). He also said we were getting eleven brand new aircraft and hiring about 200 pilots this year. Awesome!

I drove home on back roads again.

Ground School - Day 1

This morning when I drove to the airline's school house to begin my annual recurrent training, I was astounded at the traffic congestion. I rarely drive during rush hour because of my schedule. The traffic was unbelievable!! It took me one hour to drive twenty miles. And they continue to build houses as fast as humanly possible. Well, on the positive side, it is job security for airline employees. More passengers...

I reported to ground school thirty minutes early and was pleased to see some of my oldest pilot buds there. We traded insults on each other's flying abilities, then caught up on kids, wives, ex-wives, girlfriends, surgeries, time to go until retirement, etc. The instructor showed up on time and we began the annual studies. This morning we covered security issues, crew resource management, low visibility landing approaches, and then took a test covering our homework assignments. We ate a brown bag lunch with the CEO of the airline and then had a thirty minute bitch session. I was impressed at how well he handled all the hot button questions thrown at him. This guy is obviously used to pressure.

After lunch, we studied a famous airline accident from 1978. We read every word the Captain, co-pilot and flight engineer spoke twenty-seven years after the fact. I wonder if their spirits can hear us....We finished the day with more security stuff followed by a quiz.

I drove home on back roads.

2:30 Get up

Finally, the homebound leg of a four day trip! Last night, I took my wife with me to Texas. She makes the time away from home a lot better, but can only go if it is a weekend or a holiday. We got out of bed this morning at 2:30 AM Arizona time to get ready for the crew van. These early morning get ups are tough. Another reason I like flying nights; you can sleep until your body wakes you instead of the alarm clock.

We have been airborne for an hour and it is still dark. The co-pilot lives in Seattle, so she is hoping to catch a flight home thirty minutes after we arrive. I told her I would do her after landing duties so she can haul it to the Seattle gate. The air mass is smooth and the headwinds are light. We should get to Phoenix ahead of schedule at 7:30 AM.

10:00 AM - The landing was beautiful this morning with a pink eastern horizon. The co-pilot made her flight home as planned. My wife and I ate breakfast at a Mi Mi's cafe close to our home. This is like a free day off! Tomorrow, I begin my annual recurrent training.

But, that is another story...

Over Kansas City at Flight Level 390; westbound sunset.

Dark to Dark

We felt the landing gear hit the up-lock latches eight seconds after I called for "gear-up", then a few seconds later, the gear doors closed and sealed the gear wells. At one thousand feet above the ground I called for climb thrust. My co-pilot pulled the thrust levers back to the climb detent and I relaxed a bit as the engine temperatures dropped. We are enroute to Reno with a full airplane. The sun rose about an hour ago, but I left my home well before sunrise. As you might suspect, I am out of my element flying in daylight, as I much prefer the night sky. Oh well, if I must...

My co-pilot is a young female just off of probationary status. One year of worrying about her job is behind her. She said the best part was watching the Chief Pilot shred a year's worth of Captain reports. Each flight of a new hire on probation requires a Captain's report to the Chief Pilot. It's a single form that the new hire must fill out and present to the Captain at the end of each flight. If the Captain does not like that individual, it can be trouble. Personally, I never stab a new hire in the back with a bad report; instead, if they are weak in a certain area, I will work with them until they get it right. These young pilots are the next generation of Captains.

The landing at Reno was at maximum certified landing weight. In fact, we had to descend to a lower altitude to burn off more fuel to lower the weight. The temperature on the ground was
-15 F . As I walked across the ramp to retrieve the flight paperwork for the next leg, I saw steam rising from the hot brakes of the main gear. The rampers unloading the cargo and bags were bundled against the cold, their breath leaving large plumes of vapor illuminated by the sunlight. The scene was surrealistic...

We can't get out of Reno fast enough, the cold is bone chilling for Arizona folks. The co-pilot is the flying pilot back to Arizona and she does a fine job. We do a bag drag to the other side of the terminal to pick up our east coast aircraft. The number one flight attendant informs me that our crew meals (pilots only) are missing in action, so I quickly go into the terminal on a food hunt. It's in vain, though, the terminal is packed with passengers and the lines are long at the few food vendors. I buy two energy bars at a news stand and head for the remote dispatch office for my paperwork. I run into a Commando Captain (trouble maker) and he tells me to delay the flight until our crewmeals arrive. Oh yeah, that's what the paying passengers want to happen. Screw that, we are leaving on schedule, crewmeals or not.

We flip for the leg to the east coast and I lost. The tower clears us for take-off and soon afterwards we are level at 37,000 feet running with the wind. I do a quick fuel check at top of climb and note that we are 1,000 pounds ahead of flight plan. That is because the co-pilot is flying efficiently, yet aggressively. Perfect!

The night sky enveloped us over St. Louis. The giant star Procyon is clearly visible rising in the northeast. Mother (the airline) starts sending us messages six hundred miles from the destination about bad turbulence ahead. Apparently, some of our company airliners climbing out of the destination experienced nasty turbulence for about five minutes. Mother gives us the coordinates; I look at the weather maps again and come up with a plan of action. It is readily apparent what is happening; there is a fast moving cold front over the Appalachians. I brief the flight attendants first, then the passengers. The cabin will be secured prior to the turbulence penetration. I ask ATC for a slight deviation to navigate to a point in space
I have entered into the nav computers. It is my best guess as to where the turbulence will be only moderate in strength during our descent. How do I know? It is only a hunch generated from years of experience with turbulence. Another example of a Catch-22 situation. The Captain better be right, or else big trouble with the airline and the Federal Aviation Administration.

The co-pilot started her descent about 150 miles away from the airport. The ATC radio frequency was almost unusable because of the air crews complaining about the turbulence. I warned the passengers one last time to secure themselves, then tightened my five point harness a little more. Wham! Just as advertised, we hit the turbulence at 25,000 feet. The co-pilot was doing everything I would do, so I kept my mouth shut and let her do her thing. The aircraft was bucking, shaking, rattling, bouncing...it was interesting to watch the co-pilot move her hand toward a switch, button, or lever with the intention of adjusting some parameter of flight only to have the turbulence move the control away from her grasp. She raised the wing spoilers to max deflection and pushed the nose down even more to increase our descent rate. Perfect! This young lady can really fly! I tightened my five point harness a bit more.

We descended out of the turbulence zone at 15,000 feet into a smooth air mass moving from the west at 60 mph. The airport beacon was clearly visible 25 miles ahead. The approach controller cleared us for a visual approach to the runway of our choice, then handed us over to the control tower which cleared us to land. The co-pilot allowed for the movement of the air mass as she merged with the localizer and glideslope beams without being blown off course. I lowered the landing gear for her and set flaps to full on her commands. She is in the groove. Over the threshold of a 6,400 foot runway, she kicks the crosswind crab out with right rudder, then slightly lowers the left wing for a perfect crosswind landing in the touchdown zone. In a New York second she has applied max reverse thrust throwing me forward against the five point harness. At 100 mph she starts mashing the brakes with her size five shoes; she's a little thing, but she can certainly handle this huge jet. I am impressed! We slow down to taxi speed on the runway centerline, then I take control for the taxi to the gate. ( The airline does not let co-pilots taxi. Why? They do not say specifically, but it is probably the nightmare scenario of crossing an active runway without clearance.)

The 150 passengers were very complimentary to me as they were de-planeing. I must have said 140 times, "Thank you, but my co-pilot did it." Then I would point to the co-pilot and the passenger would glance at her with a confused look. You could read their thoughts. I said to the co-pilot in a quiet voice, "I don't think they believe me." She replied, "Everyone knows girls can't really fly."

Yeah, right...

Our contrail shadow with the refraction halo. We are eastbound at 37,000 ft./sun behind us.

Time and Distance

TRW ++

I am home for three days with the wife of my youth. Last night there was a huge thunderstorm over my neighborhood. While I was cooking on my grill, I watched the weatherbeast form southwest of my house before it moved overhead dumping it's rain, wind and lightning onto unsuspecting Phoenicians. I had to temporarily stop grilling; the wind kept blowing out the fire. Moving back under the deck just enough to stay dry, I stayed outside and watched the storm.

Then something really cool happened...

A company airliner came from the west, passing directly over my house at low altitude heading for the airport twenty miles east. Then another, then another, then another... the unforecast storm had the normal ATC procedures in disarray. The approach controllers were radar vectoring the aircraft through the softest part of the storm. I was mentally in the cockpit with the pilots...fuel was probably uncomfortably low, the weather radar trying to penetrate the rainshafts, the Captain sweating, the turbulence nasty as lightning bolts sizzle around the aircraft. Oh man, I am watching it from my backyard! The turbo-jet and turbo-fan engines overhead sounded powerful and close. The wingspans were big! I was sending encouragement to the crews in mental emails...hang in there...twenty miles and you are there!

It is weird to witness an event like this from the ground. Usually, it is me up there sweating and looking at the fuel gauges every five seconds.

The steaks were especially delicious last night!

Stars in my pocket

I have found an excellent piece of software for my PDA titled Pocket Stars. It is truly worth the money, if, like me, you are an addict of the night sky. It has some limited celestial nav functions, too. The coolest thing about it is the users ability to plug in the altitude, groundspeed, and position to get the correct star charts for that moment, then the display moves at the correct rate. It has a listing of 9,000 naked-eye stars, plus all the planets. Really cool!

Much better than the star wheels that I have used for so long...

The belly of the night bird.

Thoughts from Starbucks

I love hanging out at Starbucks coffeeshops. I frequent them at the four corners of the empire. This morning I am in Herndon, Va., trying to stay warm inside a Starbucks. The location is full of vivacious young people trading tales of their Saturday night exploits. I am having a cup of the coffee of the day, which is excellent. Starbucks is, on the surface anyway, a very well managed company. The employees seem to be motivated beyond their pay scales. In Arizona, where I reside, I have two Starbucks equi-distance from my house. The crisis of the morning, when I am home, is which one to frequent? The employees at both locations are very pleasant (and they both have wireless internet service).

All things considered, I have a great job. It allows me to sit inside a far away coffee shop and be reflective about the mysteries of life on our little blue water planet. It is 2005 A.D.; think about that folks. In 1965, when I was only dreaming about being an airline pilot, I would have bet the farm that in the year 2005 Mars would have been colonized since the year 1990. The first starships should be under construction now in low earth orbit. But, instead, our nation's space program has faltered. NASA management is between a rock and a hard place. This idea that spaceflight has to be safe is ludicrous. When you ride the fire, it is anything but safe. I had to giggle with amusement when the news media got so excited about the little fiberglass cork that won the $10,000,000 prize for the first private sub-orbital flight. It was a good and solid achievement( for a private enterprise), but it was not spaceflight. The talking heads were very grim about the chances of the brave little rocket breaking up during "re-entry". Another example of inaccurate reporting that will be repeated as fact. The re-entry maneuver is brutal and requires the power and resources of a government to accomplish.

Unplug my laptop and get me off the soapbox or I'll go on and on...

Christmas Party in January

My airline was so busy during the Christmas holidays that it postponed some of the Christmas parties until January. The station manager of the east coast city in which I am overnighting is throwing a big Christmas party tonight. Myself and my crew are invited to the festivities located at an infamous airline crew orientated bar. All I have to say is:

You've got to be kidding me!

Maybe twenty years ago this would have been OK, but not in today's airline environment. I wouldn't be caught within 100 yards of an adult beverage while on a trip. I could start a whole new blog about the sad tales of my fellow pilots who have been breathalized after a night of partying and failed!

No way, Jose!

Line check

February is my training month, but I am eligible one month prior or the following month. Guess who showed up today for a northern California turn, i.e., round trip from hub? Non other than Mr. Check Airman! An observed flight is an annual requirement of the training regime administered annually to airline Captains. This was a surprise since I was not expecting it until February. I try very hard to be a "by the book" Captain every flight for this very reason. One never knows when a company Check Airman or the Federal Aviation Administration inspector will show up to observe. Because of this, my line check went OK. He found a few nit picking items; they always do. My co-pilot was a strong support in this matter and I thanked him. Also, my annual ground school and simulator training are both scheduled this month. Well, I will be done sooner.

That is a good thing!

Short Runway

I am in Southern California gazing out my hotel window at the gray and rainy skies. Well, they do need the moisture. Yesterday was a fun day of flying. I have a excellent co-pilot who can really handle the aircraft in an aggressive yet smooth manner. We landed at Burbank last night (on schedule) with a completely full aircraft. The weather conditions at our landing time were VFR (visual flight rules); 2,200 feet overcast/5 miles visibility/light rain showers and a temperature of 50 degrees. Burbank airport sits in a little pocket of mountainous terrain sort of like a corner pocket on a pool table. There is rising ground on two sides of the airport. The only runway with an instrument approach is a very short one. The usable landing surface is 4800 feet; not a lot for a big airliner at maximum landing weight on a wet surface. I must have checked the required distance to land performance chart about ten times, then I had the co-pilot check it to make sure I was not spacing out something important. Both of us figured 3800 feet; 1000 feet to spare. My other option was to circle around the airport to land on a runway that has 5900 feet of usable surface. This maneuver is a bit risky at night because of the terrain. (This is a perfect example of the Catch 22 factor in airline flying. If this was a personal trip and I owned the aircraft, there is no way I would land in these conditions. But, the company pays me to do it and the flying public expects it, so it will be done.) I decided to land on the short runway if we touched down in the touchdown zone and if the rain fall was still light, otherwise we would go around and try again.

The main gear tires touched down firmly in the touchdown zone at 9:12 P.M. The flying pilot, me, used maximum reverse thrust and heavy braking on a wet runway surface to bring us to a stop in about 3800 feet. Amazing how our performance engineers get those figures so close! I turned the brake fans on and let the engines run at idle thrust for three minutes to cool, before shutting them down at the gate. Burbank is one of the few airports that still uses airstairs to unload the passengers. Tonight they were getting wet walking to the terminal building. After all the passengers unloaded I had the flight attendants, three small females, leave their bags at the top of the airstairs. The co-pilot and I then carried their bags to the ramp to prevent an accidental fall down the rain slickened metal stairs. They said we were the only pilots that had ever done that. That's a sad state of affairs. It must be politically incorrect to be a gentleman in today's world.

My workday ended a lot better than it started. Yesterday morning, for the first time ever, I lost my cell phone. I have had five cell phones and never lost one before yesterday. I remember leaving the hotel early in the morning with the phone clipped on my belt. Several hours and hundreds of miles later, it is gone. What a hassle! I have been online and on the phone to my cell phone service provider all day. I feel naked without my cell phone. I need to find some other method of attaching it to my clothing that absolutely will not fall off.

Happy 2005

OK, will someone please tell me what happened to 2004. I can't believe it is gone. But, indeed, it is... I am back in the cockpit after one day at home with the wife of my youth. We had a good neighborhood New Year's Eve party that I was able to attend. I even managed to stay up until midnight to hear the gunfire in the valley of the sun.

I am on day one of a four day trip. Thankfully, most of the flying is west of the Mississippi. We finished the longest leg of the trip, Cleveland to Las Vegas, about an hour ago. I just checked into the hotel in Sin City for a very short overnight. Tomorrow it's out to Texas, then west to California for the overnight.

Good night...