Sunday, May 31

Today is another "Off"day

I am wondering how the schedule will remain the same, with these extra days off so far. I am concerned that everything is gonna get slammed into 10hr days now. I spend most of my day reading... underlining, and studying. The manuals were apparently written by people who have nothing to do other than come up with acronyms.. why would you put WOWX2IOP Fail as an acronym? I mean really... that's just nonsense. The way i learn best is to ready, and copy. So i write my version of what i read... doesn't have to be legible, and it's not fast.. but it works. for me As shown below.. books. It's hard to be all Artsy when reading an AFM... sorry

When I am just about ready to pass out from low blood sugar levels, or simple starvation.. salvation is just down the corner. Dinner these days is doled out 75 cents at a time.

I really wish i had gotten a set of blood work done before heading down. you know, cholesterol, and Sodium mostly... then compared it when i got home. Maybe if we could show the company how unhealthy vending machines and fast food joints are, they would give us a hotel near something.. or a car to get around. Weather has been stormy the last few days, with tornado warnings last night, and a few passing thundershowers this evening. I finaly had enough, and bribed the hotel van driver to take me to a local supermarket to get some fruit. Time to drive off the scurvy. on the way out, a remarkable pink sky to the west. Pink at night, Sailors delight right? hope that means tomorrow will be a wonderful day... but i fear i may be in for a surprise.

Not to insult the local chain.. .but being from the north, i find some mid/central/southern names funny. the grocery store was named Schnucks... To me, that sounds like hard alcohol, or a combination noise of S**t and Shucks... More to follow tomorrw.. thanks for lookin

Stay Classy... St. Louis?!?

CBT Day

Computer based Training... Day 1
Today was slightly different. Normally we would have been into ground school for day 2, but our instructor was off on some personal business. The company "knew" about this, but went ahead and scheduled us for school anyways. Pressure was laid upon Flight Safety, and rather than getting 3 days off after 1 day of training, We got to do the CBT which is normally done at the end of training. No Car for us, pushing the training facility around - Quality I guess.

But, I digress. CBT is Computer based training. We use it for free and easy practice for a few things. Today's major lesson was the Universal FMS. universal being the brand... not a 1 size fits all FMS trainer. basically it's software on a computer that simulates what the equipment does in the the aircraft. Looks like this:

The screen is hard to see, but the black screen to the right with the keyboard is the representation of the FMS it's self. The FMS is a computer used for navigation and flight planning. It uses input from GPS, VOR,DME to derive a current location of an aircraft allowing it to come up with it's own navigation solutions. The big screen with circles next to it is the MFD(Multi function display), on this screen in the aircraft we can display NAV data, Systems, Radar etc. more on that later. All the way to the left is the PFD - the digital representation of our instruments. Everything on the top is the simulation settings; speed, altitude, CRS and auto flight settings. Basics of what we learned How to initialize the FMS, program it a flight plan, and amend it. IFF and coffee. the two most important things regarding FMS.

Following that, we reviewed systems and pre-flight walk arounds... Nothing exciting. Back to the hotel room for more study time.

Yesterday they dumped all of our learning materials in our laps... As seen below there is a TON of information. best part, we've got just over a week to learn it. The actual Aircraft Flight Manual is 1886 pages long.


Sorry the updates aren't exciting today... but off to the books. Tomorrow is a day off, so I'll prob. explore St. Louis a little - And as proved above... i shall smell ok while doing it.

TNT

TRAINING DAYS 3 AND 4

Travel to St. Louis and Flight Safety Saberliner

Today is May 27th, My Birthday. This marks 2 years in a row i get to travel to training on my birthday. Can we say FUN?

As i am in the process of transition to an aircraft flying for Continental Air Lines (CAL), i must travel on CAL. The company books me from MHT on CAL flt 2322 to Newark(EWR),

The Ride to EWR (Express Jet EMB-145)

the two St. Louis. I show up with the wife for lunch before my flight in MHT. Somewhere around 12:40 i make my way through security to the gate. Somewhere near 2pm we board. Then near 2:05 we deplane. At 2:45 we board again. Near 3:00 we deplane. From that point on, the update times from EWR just keep rolling bye. Turns out there was a nasty line of thunderstorms from S Connecticut to somewhere near Albany NY.

Weather Loop - Click below

Final Result is a 7:20 departure on what was supposed to be a 1:35 Departure. I Hate Newark.

I finally get into St.Louis at an hour near 10pm Local... 11pm my time. Funny thing about STL... there are 3 different holiday inn's. The company never told me which one. Once i made my way to the hotel, and checked in, it was close to 12:15am. A 6:00 am wake for training, and it was a rough day.

Home for the Next Three Weeks

6am Wake Time
All of our training will be done in the St.Louis Flight safety facility. Flight safety is most known for their Full motion Simulators and well developed programs. The have branched out to marine safety as well. Our Classroom is a failure feeling. They all look identical, no matter what facility your in. Just a well set up classroom for training. We will be in this room for the next 4-7 days before we move into the Sim.


The Only down side is transportation. The Flight Safety facility is about 7 miles from nowhere. The "Company" has determined that there is no need to get us a car, as the hotel said the shuttle service will pick us up, and take us where we need to go. The problem with this, is that we have a fixed schedule, and the hotel shuttle needs to pick up passengers from the airport almost continuously. We hardly fit in. This next picture was taken at 12:20... 35 minutes after our "Pick up" time... we almost didn't get lunch today, and this is a Wednesday. Wait until Friday. We are not thrilled. Notice the Invisible "Van" that the training department says will be there for us?

We were standing outside so long, even this little rabbit came out to mock us.

Once we hit the books today, mostly we covered an Overview of systems, and started to run through using all the high tech goodies. First item was Crew Alerting. The new airplane has two warning tone generators... they make lots of fun noises for us when something happens. It is also smart... it sets a priority for which tones we get. Terrain call outs come first, then traffic, engine fires, master warnings, and then master cautions. Ground, planes, fire, red yellow... etc. The CWP in this airplane is much better than the 1900D. The Yellow lights gain a flasher and steady yellow light on the warning panel. A red light gets a flashing light on the CWP, and a master warning flasher. When you cancel the flasher, the CWP goes steady. This way, if you get a new Red light, you can pick it out because the new one will be flashing.

The Electrical system is only about 15 times easier than on the beach. it automatically does about everything, and for the most part we have 5 sources of power. 3 batteries, 2 DC generators, 2 AC gens, which through 2 TRU's can power the DC system. We don't start to worry until 2 DC gens, and 1 AC gen or TRU has failed. As a classmate said, that's battle damage. The plane does everything, and then when we get around to it, we actually moves the switches to make sure they conform. We hear talk of some new features, learn about cockpit lighting, doors, emergency exits, external lights, and the most important thing of all...

How many things can break with out denying us our coffee. All we need is 2 AC gen's to make coffee.

Homework for the night, and then off to CBT's for tomorrow. (computer based training)

So long. Drive fast, Drink lots, and take risks ;)

Day's 1 and 2

Day 1 of Training:

The First day isn't really training. Today is travel day.

Somewhere obscenely close to 2 am the alarm clock sounds... Day 1 is underway. After finishing up my packing and the normal required prep. activities, I hop in the car near 2:40 for my drive from Manchester NH to Augusta ME. It's a 152 mile, 2.5 hour drive that i swear i could do blindfolded these days. In fact, I've put 120,000 miles on the wheels of a 2005 vehcile (another story). The road is empty for minutes at a time. setting the camera on the dash for a minutes captures the empty roads. At 3:00 am, I don't even spot animals.

I role into the parking lot at Augusta ME (KAUG) right around 5 am, The plane is out on the ramp... waiting Patiently. Today is a modified schedule for me. Normally i run 7 legs in the morning schedule... Today i do two less Legs, but instead i get to commute to Washington Via Newark, NJ. At 5 am it's pretty easy to be filled with False hopes - I like to think today is going to be easy. I am excited to be off to training, but not really looking forward to the time, dedication, and 30 nights in a hotel that it requires. The first 5 legs go well. On time, and smooth sky's. In fact, the part that normally jacks up my plans, the flying, goes well. Everything goes off without a hitch until i turn into a passenger. Even pilots are not immune to traveling woes.

My flight to Newark is delayed by nearly 3 hours... due to weather and winds in New York. I think weather and winds is ATC's way of flipping the bird to the FAA (another story again). There are a lot of people that really need to rediscover how important all people in all aspects of aviation are. The general public wants to travel via air, and for less than driving would cost. If you have to ask why you bag got lost, i'd look at the fair on your ticket... If your baggage handler was making more than he or she would at any fast food chain, they may put some effort into their jobs. ATC is facing the same issues.. caused by the FAA... if not for the RLA, i am sure they would all strike soon.

At this point, my 3 hour delay will cause me to miss connect in Newark, missing my only shot to DCA before i reach my 16 hour duty day limitations. I approach the gate agent, who, like I am not failure with restrictions on my positive space travel. He comes up with a wonderful idea, and places me on a Delta flight... which is Direct. Not sure if this i ok, i call company and ask. Of course, company doesn't answer the phone, so i wait for the answer. Turns out I'm not allowed to travel on Delta, so i go back to the gate, and guess what, planes booked full and they have given away my seat... Oops. Now I've no way to get to training... I'm stuck holding a ticket voucher worth $750.00 usd, no flight, and the knowledge that if i don't use it, due to contract, the company will be billed that that amount, and i turn, I. So somehow now i have just bought 750 dollars worth of flying on CAL. I call the 800 number on the voucher, and get everything canceled out, now I'm flying on my own. In the Airline gig, we really are not supposed to use our own travel privileges to travel for company... but i felt this was warranted, as i had screwed up the original ride.

Lucky me, i caught a ride to training, and arrived at the hotel. We used to stay in the Best Western Manassas, VA. It's was a decently shady joint, but right next to the training center. The new hotel is brand new, and pretty nice: Each room gets flat screen TV's, plenty of electrical outlets, and for some reason the deal breaker for me... a vent in the bathroom. I hate hopping out of the shower to a room full of steam, and a mirror that's not worth looking at for 10 minutes.

After a brief nights rest it's off to training. The training center isn't quite like what i would expect. I guess i always imagined that airline training would take place at an airport... Here it is, the "Training Center" in a strip mall.

The training center consists of 2 classrooms and a couple of offices. When operating at peak, this place goes non stop. I think they run classes at a nearly 24 hour clip. Today is a running review of basic Indoc... Hazardous materials, Safety, Security, CRM, Special airports, etc.

The lights in the training center give me the worst kind of headache, so when we discover that the rest of our training will be in St. Louis... i am glad. Roughly at noon we break for lunch at chipotle, serving bricks of burritos. After lunch it's movies, movies and more movies. A short CRM/Crash video.

The hotel is almost a mile away from the training center, so the company gave me an old friend. The BEAST used to be used for shuttling passengers and pilots when the weather was too bad in Maine... the BEAST is now in Mananas, but still have the Maine tags to show :)

After dinner at the hotel, bedtime it was... Day 2 done. Sorry for the roughshod post... I'll clean it up late.

Goodnight

Selective Service and I turned 18

For a more then short introduction, I currently am a Captain on a Beechcraft 1900D, Based in Mid- Maine at KAUG. The Airline world is ruled by two things, Money and Seniority. I happen to have a "little" of both. I spent the first year of my airline life chained to the right seat, playing Pilot while acting as a flight attendant. 15 months, and 1150 hours later the company overlooked the fact that i had yet to complete a meal service, had manage to break more airplanes than not, and get myself paid to drive 13 hours to cover 1 flight. They let me "Upgrade" Upgrade is the term applied to training which will move you from the right seat to the left seat. I have also come to learn that "Upgrade" tagged to training is much like "Upgrade" as in Free DVR upgrade for 3 months, ($60.00 p/mth) after from the cable company.

Hiding and Tuning out

About three months after Upgrade i realized that i didn't want the upgrade... I just wanted the upgraded paycheck. That fabled CA spot pretty much sucks. Now you have to teach, you have to be on the ball... and when crap breaks... You get to do all the paperwork. The next "Upgrade" in pay from this point on will be made by moving to a larger airplane. The more people you upset when you fail at your job.. the more they pay you. Just so happens that the bigger airplane i get to move into is BIG. The Dash 8-Q400 is just about 3x the size of the 1900D. It also has 2 Flight attendants, and more automated systems than a Mr.Coffee. Currently there are 4 of us 1900D Captains in line to make this transition to the Q400. This is where the title comes into play

Nose of the elusive Q400

On Apr. 4th We all got the good news in the form of a memo. the company was taking extra steps to get us into training. They moved the 1900D pay rates up by about $8.00/hr to draw in our replacements. The first golden shoe was down... we all get to go to class together. Life is good.

Fast forward about 40 days, it is now mid May. You can hear the other shoe coming... Falling so fast the sonic boom is deafening. $8.00/hr extra wasn't enough. Not enough people took the spot, so 1 of us is out. That 1, is the guy with the lowest seniority. This gives the remaining 3 some bad vibes... 1 person they could cover... 3 days later the shoe comes back again... another one drafted back to the 1900D. That leaves 2 of us moving on... with 1 more draftee... I go back to the 1900. Right now i wish i could hide from the company. Make myself about as small as possible to avoid reminding them that they can pull me out of class. I would run to Canada... although somehow i doubt that would improve my chances these days. Today was 3 days before the beginning of training. I only have to make it to the 22nd, and i will be done in the 1900. Hopefully my number doesn't get called on this one. The feeling is almost like the anticipation you feel right after you jump off a bridge. Sort of an, oh crap, i may not make it, jitter. Should i survive crew scheduling selective service rotunda, I will hopefully find myself staying at the Best Western in Manassas, burying my face in books for the next month or two.

Until then, fingers crossed and days are counting.