Position: Seven Miles above MontanaMagnetic Compass Heading: 183 degrees
Pax on Board: 116
Fuel Burn: 5200 pounds per hour
I am in the trip stream, fast moving and wide. The next vacation is in July. Do not think about it, just fly the airplane.
It is one of those mornings... Outside, the atmosphere is smooth and moving toward the east at 100 mph. Our headwind component is only 5 mph. Fi-Fi is happy; all systems are in the green. I am feeling good today, as in really good. It must be the perfect combination of sleep, exercise, and caffeine. We just departed Canadian airspace...
My cup of Starbucks is between warm and lukewarm now. Nevertheless, it is still excellent coffee. I can smell our morning crewmeal coming out of the ship's food replicator in the forward galley... Sort of a sulfurous odor. No way will I eat it. Real food is only a couple of hours south of here. I will give my crewmeal to the co-pilot, a young kid who will (I have noticed) eat anything that does not eat him first.
Out my left side window is a scene from a Star Wars movie (The Empire Strikes Back)... Ice Planet Hoth. It is snow covered and desolate as far as the eye can see... Big country up here. It takes a jet aircraft to cross it in a timely manner.
Life on the Line continues...
28 comments:
Ha, nice star wars reference.
Right above my home state :). Love Montana beautiful pleace. Keep up the great writing!
If I had a question as a passenger about commercial aviation how would one get in contact with you outside of the comment system on the blog? Long time reader of your blog. I think its awesome to get inside the flight deck since they're so off-limits these days.
See any Tauntons grazing down there in the ice?
Did your co-pilot go to boarding school? Those of us that went will eat anything that is not moving, or covered in less than in inch of mould. I draw the line at when the mould starts moving.
Dave- Pefect sleep while on the road? Wow!
In your posts, young co pilots are often found eating your share of food. Was it the same with you in your early professional life?
I always thought, flying over northern Canada that if this was created, then the creator anticipated airplanes. There's no way we were meant to showshoe or canoe over this expanse.
Great post Dave, as always... The scenes featuring Planet Hoth from Empire Strikes Back is actually shot in Norway. I have flown over the location a couple of times this winter, during my PPL training and the resemblance is striking. One of the last places I would want to make an emergency landing this time of the year.
Keep on posting!
PS. For all of you Firefox users, try the Cooliris addon, it is great for viewing Dave´s pictures in gallery.
John- I will think about this... Stand-by one...
amulbunny- maybe... We were kind of high...
Boy on a bike- No, he was just hungry all the time. He has not been poisoned by a crewmeal yet.
gh- probably... I think the food was better back then, though...
Aviatix- God, I love Canada!
You have a gift.
Love the posts
My Lord, the fleet has moved out of lightspeed. Com Scan has detected an energy field protecting an area of the sixth planet of the Hoth System. The field is strong enough to deflect any bombardment.
just a question about clear-air turbulence, and some other things like that - that might require detail outside of what most people would normally care to read about :-D
Love the blog.
From where are you flying if you've left Canadian airspace, are over Montana, and are on a heading of 183? Is that a direct heading, or after a turn?
I'd love to know that...
I recently flew ATL-PVG (Shanghai China) and the route segment over Siberia, now THAT looked like something from another world...
Love the blog
A DX from an airline's "mothership"
Probably a stupid question, but why do the crew not get the same food (but no alcohol) as the passengers?
Just sat down with my Netflix arrival: The Shadow of the Moon.
It's about pilots. These characters flew to the moon back in the late 60's early 70's.
You fellows do get some distractingly beautiful scenery.
Cool picture, I promise never to complain about how cold the ramp is, ever, ever again! Can't compare with that.
Question for Dave or anybody else who knows Airbus procedures: One source said that in the Hudson ditching both the Auxiliary Power Unit and the Ram Air Turbine were acting to provide power to the controls. I presume that the APU would not be on during most of a flight. When is it ordinarily shut down? When is it started again at the end of a flight? If the RAT were the only power source available could it have provided adequate control at low speeds near to landing?
Wow nice scenery hope to see it too thanks for the pics
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Great photo and story, Dave.
Oh, the travel bug is severely biting again... I want to fly... I want to look down on the Earth and surf the clouds...
"food replicator" - perfect!
Howdy from CYYZ
Awesome blog, I am really enjoying the read, along with a lot of others looks like.
With each post I go through, it makes me wish more and more that I could time travel to 3500 Multi PIC
I am emptying my pockets towards what will eventually put me right seat on the Embraer or the Bus at Air Canada.. easier said than done though, but hopefully somewhere down the line my childhood dream will come true.. right now just hoping to get my CPL before I graduate from High School..
thanks for the great read, keep posting
Cheers
Great Blog...this is going into my favorties !
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Cool blog !!
I don't understand all because my english isn't perfect. I work hard to improve it... ;-)
The word "HOTH" is not in my dictionnary, what does it mean ?
Hoth wath the biggetht brother on Bonantha... (thorry, couldn't rethitht)
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoth
For the person who wanted to know about the APU being left on....
It depends on how pissed off you are at the company...contract time or especially when the company is asking for scope relief. (sick pilot joke)
I don't fly Airbus but the RAT is enough to get you on the ground.
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