Flight Level 390

Position: 44 miles east of KRNO (Reno, NV)
Altitude: 36,000 feet
Groundspeed: 368 mph (320 kts)
Passenger count: 65
Destination: PANC (Anchorage)

We are too heavy for 38,000 feet. The PANC weather is grim; heavy snow, surface temperatures below zero, strong winds and turbulence. The landing alternate is Fairbanks. Winter ops continue...

Fi-fi is nose forward in the 150 mph windstream. Her vitals are stable; fuel flow 5200 pounds per hour, good oil pressure, good N1/N2 vibration, generator transmissions 92 C., pilot oxygen pressure 1700 psi, hydraulics 3000 psi, fuel tank balance within limits.

I just got out of training a few days ago, so I am still twitching from engine failures out of high altitude airports at max gross weights on a summer day. High terrain in front of the aircraft and barely able to maintain level flight... Fun and games in the simulator. It will take a few days before I am back to my normal, laid back mode.

When I checked in for this trip, I saw one of my buds, a female captain who used to co-pilot for me in the bad old days. She told me that she recently flew a trip where the flight attendants were all male, the co-pilot was male, and her husband was in the back. That was about two hours ago. Fast forward... To my right is a young female co-pilot; behind the flightdeck door are three female flight attendants, and my lovely wife is sitting in 3C. Yikes! Is this failure mode ju-ju? Two cosmic opposites in the mysteries of the night sky?

Or do I simply need to cut back on the caffeine?

During the pre-flight rituals, my number one flight attendant gave me a rubber duck (for good luck) in an airline uniform. She purchased a bag full of ducks in KSFO and has been handing them out to her pilots. To me, it looks like a sitting duck. That may not be a good thing for line ops...

Life on the Line continues...