On Tuesday, July 2nd we all had our "Doors" training. Doors is exactly that, we get in the actual airplane and learn how to operate the doors, the location of the emergency equipment etc. The flight out of MHT was in the afternoon. While waiting at the Gate, Air Canada had a MHT-YYZ (Toronto) flight. To my surprise, this 1.6 hour flight is done in a Beech 1900D, painted mainline colours. If you look in the aft baggage compartment, you can see the back wall of the LAV. Yes, the 1900D did have an option for an aft lav. It sits between the seats in the last row of the aircraft, and has a curtain to cover it. It is small... and generally not many people use it. The drain is IN the aft baggage compartment... so if you got bottom luggage, look out for blue stains!!!
The Next flight out of MHT was to be an early 6:30 am departure. the 6:30 am flt is the only one which is usually on time it seems. Out of order... but you can see the early morning fog sitting on northern Manchester/Hookset
Once we got to Albany, we practiced using the emergency exit doors. Normally this only happens when there is a plane in the MX hangar... at 1 Am, but we got lucky with an early arrival, so our "Doors" were done at 10 pm.
A small amount of a Story goes with the next 3 pictures. The Cockpit has an Emergency Egress hatch for the crew. This is in case the cockpit door gets jammed, we are on our side etc. It can also be opened for ventilation(NEVER!!) Once of my fellow 1900 drivers decided that the first time he tried this hatch, it was not going to be when he needed it. In Rapid succession, you will see
The ACT
Going For the Hole
The Emerging Wookie
As it turns out, putting the hatch back in is much more difficult than opening it. Shortly after emerging from the hole... 4-6 mechanics were attempting to return the hatch to it's prior installed location. Funny how 1 hatch teaches you all the dirty words mechanics use for pilots :)
This next picture may offend some of those in the aviation industry, but CA Mark and I both came from the 1900. We feel that we earned our way into larger aircraft. So when a "Jet a job fast" outfit like the following posts an add referring to the "1900" as substandard, we get a little ticked. To actively promote "cutting" in line, is kinda wrong. So is said school.
Guess what hasn't ended? Hotel rooms... This one was in Burlington VT on my IOE. For IOE I had overnights in Burlington, Toronto, Burlington, Hartford. I've decided to keep all my room keys to make a mural of them.
I took Southwest home... they have always seemed to get me, and everybody looking for a ride on. Late night flight, and dim lights...
The Q400 is has a very nice cabin for a regional aircraft. Bombardier tried to implement many nice features. Each seat has a Coat hook, and on the back of each tray there is a flip down cup holder
The Cup holder has a little bit of a slope built into it, so that your drink will not spill if the person in front reclines their seat. Unfortunately, people it seems do not think they are all the way down, and force them... breaking them. SO many have broken, that sadly they are being removed.The best part about the cabin in my opinion is the Legroom. I stand 6'1, and most of it seems to be in my legs. In a fully natural seating position, there is a lot of clearance between myself and the seat in front. The setback pocket has my phone, wallet, mp3 player stuffed into it, and still nearly 4 inches of clearance. I have had many passengers get on the airplane, complaining about the "turbo prop" only to get off talking about how much more comfortable it was than the RJ
The Video is of a cabin walk through, so you can get a feeling of how large this prop plane really is. There are 74 seats in this version.
Here is another Cockpit picture, this time of the actual cockpit, not the sim. It's got some decent space.
Once again is the "paper tiger" or CPT just so you can compare the paper mock up to the real cockpit.
The MOST important part of the airplane is located in the back...That's right, Dueling Coffee pots
