Flight Level 390

Happy Easter everyone...even if it is politically incorrect. Today, the wings of man will carry me home to my own little Easter Bunny, a.k.a., the wife of my youth.

Our arrival into Michigan airspace was twelve minutes ahead of schedule, thanks to stronger than forecast tailwinds. The weather report for our arrival city, Detroit, said the sky was clear. Interesting, I thought, because we were flying over a solid undercast fifty miles southwest of the airport. The co-pilot was the flying pilot as we descended to 11,000 feet. An almost full moon was rising in the east with Jupiter already 30 degrees above the eastern horizon. The moonlight illuminated the cloud layer underneath our airplane as we descended. When we leveled at 11,000 feet, the cloud layer was only a hundred feet below us. Watching the moonlit cloud layer rush past us gave a true indicator of our fantastic speed.

We came to the edge of the cloud layer suddenly, as if God had cut it with a heavenly knife, and as advertised, there was Detroit under clear skies. Further descent clearance allowed us to fly off the edge of the cloud table into the dark well with Detroit at the bottom. Approach control cleared us for the visual approach (runway 22 Left) at 10,000 feet above the ground. My young co-pilot was scrambling to lose altitude with engines at idle thrust, landing gear lowered, wing spoilers up full, flaps coming down while decelerating. He dumped a lot of altitude in the turns from downwind to base leg to final approach. We rolled out on final approach in the groove with engines spooled up and the airspeed under control. The main gear tires touched down on the touchdown zone marker, shortly thereafter, our V2500 A-5 engines opened their cascade vanes giving us maximum reverse thrust. A few minutes later, those engines were quietly spooling down at the gate.

As I accomplished the shutdown checklist, a few things were readily apparent:

1. This kid's flying skills are excellent!

2. We had seen a rare and beautiful sight above the clouds; I hoped some of the passengers felt the same.

3. Tomorrow is Easter Sunday... very appropriate!

I have discovered the joys of downloading music from Microsoft's site, then transferring the songs to my PDA. It is addictive! Oh no! What is next? An Ipod?

We, the co-pilot and I, arrived at our hotel in Lost Wages exactly on-time after a marathon flight across the Empire to Los Angeles, then as a reward for being on-time at LAX, the company let us fly to Sin City. Our passenger loads have been unusually heavy for this time of year. Yes, we haul a lot of spring breakers to Florida and Mexico every year, but even the cold weather destinations are full. As my 23 year old niece is fond of saying, "What's up with that?"

The March schedule is very busy for me with trip flying and simulator training. It is challenging to rest, eat, and exercise properly when one is working all segments of the clock. This morning, as I was dragging myself out of bed, a young lady from crew scheduling called and told me about a change of plans for the day's flying. She sounded afraid of me, as if I might yell at her...so, I responded with a crack about being able to get more beauty rest. Her whole demeanor instantly changed: thereafter, we had a nice conversation. The gist of it: Last night, one of our aircraft had a maintenance problem in Texas. The ripple effect has caused our schedule to be adjusted by shifting some of our flying to another crew. The result- I get to sleep in this morning! This is an extremely rare event, in that schedule changes usually mean less sleep.

This is starting out to be a very good day. Let us hope it stays that way. I will let you know after we arrive in Michigan tonight.

Once again, I was successful in demonstrating to the company and the Federal Aviation Administration that I am qualified to carry passengers in air transport operations. I completed two simulator sessions, each four hours in duration, over the last two nights; then a checkride.

It is not easy to get through simulator training every six months, but it is necessary.

Today, at noon, I kissed my lovely wife good-bye and departed on a four day trip. When I was a kid and learning how to fly in a Cessna 150, acquiring the necessary flight time (40 hours) to complete my Private Pilot's license seemed an impossible goal. The aircraft rented for $6.00 per hour and the instructor pilot for $5.00 per hour, even so, that was a lot of money in those days.

The trip that I am flying has 21 hours and 31 minutes of flight time (in four days). Now, that is a much better deal!

Our star setting in west; an eastbound company jet underneath us.

Spring break is upon the airline business! The major airports are a zoo! There are college students sleeping on terminal floors across the Empire. Today, my crew and I flew thousands of miles with completely full aircraft. Weather conditions at our destinations required us to accomplish instrument approaches for landing. Yet, even with maximum lift conditions, we maintained our schedule. The airline's management has forecast a 93% load factor for this weekend.

And we are still losing money...

Why? High oil prices and artificially low ticket prices.

My landings have been smooth for three weeks. Last night, my touchdown at Dulles International on runway 12 was almost imperceptible. Of course, I have been getting maximum mileage out of my in the groove state with the flight attendants. I tell them my normal touchdown is a bit smoother, which of course, is not quite true. The co-pilots are biting their bottom lips.

Smooth landings seem to run in streaks of a month or so, then one goes back to the regular ploppers. The little bump the passenger feels on touchdown is caused by the tire deforming from the friction of the runway, i.e., it is round before it touches the runway, then as it contacts the surface, an oval shape results as the tire is forced to spin. The aircraft rolls on the oval shaped tire for one revolution and the bump is felt throughout. There are two ways to prevent the tire from deforming on touchdown. A wet runway will turn the regular plopper into a very smooth landing (however, other dangers lurk on a wet surface for an airliner). The other method is, for lack of a better term, biorhythmic luck. Consider the distance from the pilot's seat to the main landing gear. Those wheels are a long ways behind and beneath you. How can the pilot know if the tire is one inch or one foot above the runway? Actually, it is impossible.

The aircraft must be landed in the touchdown zone of the runway. The manual states, "Do not hold the airplane off during the landing flare in an attempt to make an extremely smooth touchdown." So, floating down the runway looking for the grease job landing is strictly forbidden, with good reason. The radar altimeter is a great help during the landing operation, as it will tell wheel height above the runway down to about five feet. The last five feet of altitude is where the super smooth landing is lurking. Usually, it gets away from you, but when you are in the groove, everything comes together for the perfect touchdown.

How long will it last? I have had the streak last as long as two months. We shall see...

Thirty nine years ago, today, Neil Armstrong and David Scott were orbiting the Earth in a cramped two man Gemini spaceship. One hour prior, an Agena booster, had been launched as a rendezvous target for the Gemini. This was a practice mission for the upcoming moon shots. Armstrong and Scott flew formation with the Agena for awhile, then successfully docked. Soon afterwards, trouble came for the astronauts in the form of a malfunctioning thruster. The two ships began tumbling. Armstrong, the mission commander, kept his cool and de-activated the malfunctioning thruster. NASA decided to scrub the rest of the mission. It was a close call...

Man, those were heady days!

Cotton Candy

The aircraft type that I fly has the ability to land with the auto-flight system controlling the landing procedure. The pilots must carefully control the auto-flight computers during the event. We use this system to land during very low visibility conditions. A good example is thick fog at the Seattle airport. The autoland system must be checked on a regular schedule to maintain it's certification. When the aircraft is due for that check, there is a little note on the Captain's paperwork that says, "Check Autoland Please." When I see that note, I groan, because the autoland system usually does not make smooth landings. It plops the aircraft on the runway like a drunken goose. I, as an airline Captain, take great pride in my landings. It is embarrassing when the passengers are dropped onto the runway like a sack of potatoes.

Well, they do say "please"... Which, in today's airline environment is amazing.

A friend at 39,000 feet; We are at 37,000 feet.

Tonight, as we waited on the hotel van at the Detroit airport, we froze our tails off! The temperature was only 30 degrees Fahrenheit, but a westerly wind lowered the chill factor to something beyond miserable for desert dwellers. There is a little known Law of Thermodynamics which states that if the outside air temperature is below 50 degrees, the likelihood of the hotel van waiting diminishes geometrically. Sure enough, the hotel van was nowhere to be seen. (We called them thirty minutes before we landed, then we called them at the gate to let them know we would be ready in ten minutes. You know, the same flight that lands every night at this time, seven days a week. The flight that has been staying at your hotel for years and years.)

I called the front desk of the hotel and told them we were freezing our butts off. Of course, they assured us that the van was only two or three minutes away. Fifteen minutes later, as our teeth are chattering hard enough to knock fillings out, the van arrives. We all piled in and asked the driver to turn the heater up to max.

I told my crew on the way to the hotel, "This is living the dream. The airline lifestyle." A few small giggles from the frozen ones.

My acquaintances (not close friends) will, on occasion relay some airline story, as in, their bag was lost, or the plane was late, or the flight was cancelled, etc. The wife of my youth has trained me to keep my mouth shut and listen patiently to their complaint, then respond with something like, "Thank you for bringing that to my attention." I will tell them that 95% of my flights depart on time with no problems at all (which is true), and I am sorry that they had a problem. Some of them will actually tell me they are going to fly Brand X next time. I always wish them the best of luck.

A few months will pass before I see these folks again. Invariably, they forget the complaint about my airline; then, they complain about Brand X losing their bag, late plane, cancelled flight, etc. Tonight was one of those times... The wife of my youth had her finger in the small of my back pushing my polite button.

I replied with, "Well, 95% of my flights are on time and we do not lose very many bags."

I am on an unusual four day trip. Each day has only one flight, albeit long flights, but only one. This, in itself, is not the norm for my aircraft fleet. We usually have a little mini-flight after the long leg is finished, such as LAX to Las Vegas, or Las Vegas to San Francisco, etc. I think of it as a night cap of aviation before bedtime.

At this moment, during a layover in Virginia and sitting in an A-list Starbucks, I find myself hacking away on my excellent Dell laptop. In a few hours, I will walk through my front door to spend two days with my lovely wife. Yeah! Since spanning the Empire on each flight segment since Saturday, I have been controlling my desire to add a bit more fuel for the unexpected. It is difficult trying to match the company forecast fuel burn for each segment; therefore, we have been taxiing on one engine whenever possible to save fuel. I think about fuel, fuel, fuel the whole time we are flying the company routes. All in all, I have been a good little Captain and I will do everything I can to save this Goose that lays the Golden Eggs.

Some of my fellow pilots who do not like management, tell me the fuel crunch is only a plot to keep the pay scales low. Yep, they are sincere in their beliefs. I will have to look into this theory when I get time. I have noticed, on occasion, a private Saudi Arabian jet parked on the ramp at the Phoenix airport. I always thought they were here to buy Scottsdale real estate, but maybe they are here talking to our CEO about keeping jet fuel prices high.

I should have known...

Our star is setting in the west; the contrail is from an eastbound bird 1000 feet below.

After a few days vacation, it is back to the line for me. I reported at 3:07 P.M. to begin a four day trip. My co-pilot is a female with seven years seniority. She is a very good pilot as I found out on our flight to Boston. That is a huge relief for me, as it makes the trip much more enjoyable.

The price of fuel is climbing ever higher. Yesterday a barrel of oil sold for $55 American. Wow! Thank goodness our airline is hedging half of our fuel requirements on the futures market; unfortunately, the other half is purchased on the spot market. Ouch! As I suspected, the dispatchers are getting stingier with the extra fuel for unforeseen circumstances. This means more gray, I mean, silver hair for me. It costs money to carry extra fuel because of it's weight.

I was assigned another date for my simulator training; I was forced to call in sick for my January date. I have seventeen days to prepare myself. I will be glad to get it behind me for a few months.

Outside the hotel in Boston a beautiful day awaits me. Cold, but beautiful. More later...