Jury Duty

Ahh! The pause that refreshes... This is right up there with riding my crotch rocket above 6,000 rpm in a 30 degree bank.

Out of 61 potential jurors, I was selected as one of twelve to serve. The airline gives me full flight pay; the county gives me 44 cents p/mile and $12 p/day, enough to cover gas and chow. The big thing, though, is that I get to sleep with the wife of my youth for longer than three nights in a row. Cuddling with the center of power...

Life is good.

Rotary Oscillator

Fi-Fi is at her altitude limit, i.e., 30 knots between low and high speed regime. There have been studies that concluded Fi-Fi's artificial intelligence is overly paranoid in this regard and that we could fly higher, if the Captain deems it safe. Curiously, these results surfaced when fuel costs exceeded 50 bucks a barrel. Uh, no thanks... I am sticking with what I learned in groundschool all those years ago. Thirty knots is minimum safe spread in smooth air.

We are paralleling the Sierra Nevada range en route to Alaska with 114 passengers. The sky is a cold blue and the winds aloft are light. I can see Mono Lake to the west. Even with the color filtering qualities of Plexiglas, it is stunning. Truly, it is beautiful up here.

On the ground, though, it is anything but... The pilot groups of three major airlines, some 18,000 strong, are preparing offensive and defensive union warfare against themselves! It is, in air carrier terms, biblical in size and scope. At stake are thousands of pilot jobs, one of them being yours truly, as airline Chiefs look for merger partners. The seniority list is the Holy Grail in this business. Nothing else is more important. The airlines cannot stand the high cost of oil using their current business models. Soon, there will be furloughs on a large scale as the airlines re-group for $120 plus oil.

What will service be like? Think of the old Aeroflot from the Soviet days; chickens and pigs in the aisles... Aircraft cockpits with missing instruments. You think I am kidding? We have to carry all sorts of weird animals now because of "comfort animal" legislation. Fuel will be heavily subsidized by the government, i.e., the front half of the camel inside the tent. Maintenance standards will be re-examined when the government is faced with the costs of keeping that A320 or B757 airborne. Oops! Maybe AA did not really need to re-tie those nose gear wire bundles after all.

Ernest K. Gann's Band of Brothers not... The poop has hit the rotary oscillator.

Too Much Whining

Position: Eight miles above Wyoming... Westbound.
Destination: KPDX (Portland)
Passengers on board: 150



The first breath of summer blew across my cinder block fence yesterday. Outside air temperature was 95 F. with a 15 kt. southerly wind. Yeah, it is coming; the unbelievable heat of a Phoenix summer. My pool's water temperature is 79 F. I need 80 degree minimum to take the first plunge. That will be in a few days, I think. The coldest water temperature reached this winter was 54 F.; the warmest temperature reached last summer was 93 F. That is a 39 degree change for 16,000 gallons. I must think on this further...

At this very moment in time, outside air temperature is -58 C. Brrrrr! Below is a landscape that reminds me of the surface of Mars, except it is eastern Wyoming.

Last night, prior to push back from my house, the wife of my youth gave me a little pre-flight briefing. She told me there was too much whining from the left seat... That would be me. Of course, she is right... As usual. She reminded me that I am, more or less, spit on the cog wheels of a mighty machine and worrying about the state of the industry will not change the outcome, whatever and whenever that might be... As usual. It is never ending in this business. In the best of times, enormous expenses and thin profit margins. These are definitely not the best of times.

Well, folks are still flying in spite of $3.50 gas and $4.00 loaves of bread. I would have bet $1,000 that our planes would be empty by now. I have read theories that flying is ingrained in the mind of the public as a necessity, rather than a luxury. That may be true.

Stand-by one...

OK, stand-by one... Let me make sure I understand this...

The premier airline of the third planet from the sun, i.e., Earth, is cancelling thousands of flights because wiring bundles in the nose gear wheel well of the mad dog are not tied correctly.

What?

And the reason for this is... (according to the news media) The F.A.A. is getting tough with their former [customers]??? Wait a second.... Run that by me again, please. Uh, if there are no airlines to regulate, there will be no regulators, i.e., no F.A.A. What the heck is going on here? We are talking about American Airlines... How long do you think they can lose daily cash flow and survive $112 oil? Not very #$(*&%!(censored by wife of my youth) long...

It reminds me of a teenager wrecking the family car... Well, I didn't know...

Dark Duck

Position: South of the US/Mexican border
Destination: MMMX (Mexico City)

My little rubber pilot ducky is on-duty as we wing toward MMMX. When I first laid eyes on Mexico City, as a 737-100 co-pilot, it was the largest city in the world. I am not sure if that is true now, but, regardless, it is a huge city. In fact, you have to see it to believe it. The terrain surrounding MMMX is formidable, in other words, high and dangerous. The airport elevation is 7,300 feet and on a good day the surface visibility is 5 miles with smog. The approaches into MMMX require that the aircraft be configured and on speed (gear down/flaps down/<170 mph) well before the runway's outer marker, which is why I usually fly all the approaches into MMMX. It has been my experience that half of the co-pilots I fly with do not grasp the importance of this concept going into MMMX, even though I brief it beforehand. It is easier for me to be the flying pilot; no hurt feelings that way.

Five years ago, one of my captain buds had a hair greying experience on this very flight. They flew down to Mexico City and discovered that the field was flooded due to heavy tropical rains, so they diverted to their alternate of Puerto Vallarta. When they arrived at PVR, they discovered that airport was also closed because of tropical storms. There was no communication with the PVR company station or PVR ATC, so they were essentially clueless. Because of the storm, the crew was unable to raise Mother on the separate company comm system. The captain decided to divert to Acapulco, instead of wasting fuel over PVR hoping things would improve. The co-pilot was able to relay a message through a Mexican airliner via Matzalan center to Albuquerque center... "Call Mother and tell her we are heading for Acapulco." When they arrived at Acapulco, they were able to land in marginal VFR conditions with 30 minutes of fuel remaining. The captain had no weather for Acapulco; only a gut feeling from the MMMX weather package beforehand. This was a fairly impressive display of airmanship.

Tonight, though, it is dry as a bone in MMMX. Should be a routine Mexico City arrival...

Life on the Line continues...