Flying With TnT

Weather is coming

2010-08-23T16:30:00.001-04:00

The skies above newark are a mes rig t now

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2008-07-08T20:59:00.006-04:00

Ok folks, as I kept promising, here are the photos.

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

2008-06-24T13:37:00.000-04:00

After the check ride, I had my LOFT training the next day. LOFT is where we practice actually flying a flight, not just practicing flying. Typically, the instructors make this as fast as possible. Tail winds are plentiful :) After that, a mad dash to the airport. I spend the better part of a day running from flt. to flt trying to get home. Finaly I happen to catch a flt home at 8pm Central time. After a quick stop in MDW, it on to MHT. After 27 days away from home, I finaly get to see my wife again. 2 nights at home seems very short. We have both become accustomed to having our own bed, so the first night we spend more time elbowing eachother than sleeping. Monday rained all day as the stationary front slowly passed. The same frontal system that caused all the delays earlier on sunday. My car is still up at the Augusta airport, leaving my motorcycle as my primary means of transportation. Monday was a wash, but the weather picked up nicely tuesday, allowing me to finish my errands

Newark... the land of perpetual delays. I have attempted to fly through EWR 3 times. I have been delayed every sing time. Newark is horrible. I do not lookforward to flying there, let alone being based there. Today, it's because of traffic. I am sure later weather will be added to the mix.

Once I get to albany today, we will wait for a Q to arrive at the hanger. Sometime close to midnight we will go practice pulling the emergency exit doors, locating emergency equipment and such. Pictures to follow.

TNT

Check ride done and passed

2008-06-22T02:22:00.009-04:00

Today is the 21st of June... This is important, because almost Exactly 1 year ago, i was taking my check ride in the 1900D. The 1900D was my first type rating, and the first time i would actually call myself an Airline Transport Pilot. The ATP (airline transport pilot) is in a way, the final license. With the ATP, you can pretty much fly anything with wings that don't move. You c an fly lots of people, or few people. At this point, the only thing that sets a Captain of a Boeing 777 apart from me is the airplane he is in. You may wonder why i am telling you this, so here goes. Feb. 13th, 2006 - Chuck Colgan officially offered me my first airline job. Before this, i had worked as a Flight instructor in NH, VA, and pretty much all over the world. I had Provided training to US Marines, under the Initial flight screening program, and even brokered aircraft for sale. I flew countless scenic flights, photo missions, and survey work. I had been asked probably 15,000 times if i was ever scared. After roughly 2000 hours in various airplanes it was finally time to move on. During my stint flying small aircraft, I took pictures... much like now. They can be found at http://s300.photobucket.com/albums/nn16/TUCKnTRUCK/ I Covered a good amount of the country, as can bee seen in this screen capture from Google Earth:
I logged a lot of miles, crossed the country a few times, and had some of the best experiences of my career. If you are ever looking for a good adventure, Take a small plane and head west. Spend time to talk to the people you meet on your way. Say hi to the airport bums. Leg by Leg you will learn about the country, and usually get some good grub while doing it.

Back to topic,
When Chuck offered me the job he said one thing, " Give me three years, and I will give you two type ratings, and 1000 hours PIC" A type rating applies to large aircraft. It means we can fly that specific plane. I couldn't actually go fly a 747 right now, but a 747 pilot couldn't come fly a 1900, unless we were typed in that aircraft. PIC stands for Pilot In Command. When you are the captain, you sign for the aircraft, and are responsible for it, the passengers, and the crew. This means you are the pilot making decisions, so you are in command. Having different type ratings shows that you can learn different aircraft, and PIC time shows that you are mature enough to accept the command of a large airplane.

Short version, 2 different type ratings, and 1,000 hours PIC would really help me get on with a Major Airline (US air, Continental, United, Delta etc.)

Feb 2006 i was hired.
June 2007 I upgraded and got my first Type.
June2008 I transitioned to the Q400 and received my second Type.

It's a shame the airline industry is in such a downturn right now, because i would have been very competitive at a major airline. The New airplane is much larger than the 1900. more than 3X the size. Below is a cabin layout. We actually have 1 more row of seats than this picture... 74 cabin seats total, but it is close enough:

Moving to the new airplane required a new Type, and that new Type goes on my pilot licence. Once i pass the exam, i am issued a 120 day hand filled temporary certificate. In this modern day, the 120 day Temp. has not changed since the FAA took over from the DOT. Memory fails me, but i believe that was near 1932? This is what the Temporary airman certificate looks like - minus the details.

Right up until a date near 2003, All FAA licences were actually just paper cards that got mailed to you. I have a copy of my old ground instructor certificate. I imagine this would not have been hard to fake.

After Sept. 11th, the FAA decided they needed to make licenses harder to duplicate. They then issued a Plastic card, roughly the size of a credit card. The Big problem though, is that there still is no photo on the ticket. I don't care how hard it is to copy the license, there is still no way to positively ID the pilot. Because of this, the pilot must carry a passport ($$$) or Federal ID with them self's at all times. This wasn't an issue until this year. Many have you have heard of the "REAL ID" or federally accepted state ID program. Well, a few states do not meet the requirements. New Hampshire, and Maine. Go figure that i live in NH, and fly in ME. This means that you can not use a NH or Maine drivers license for your "federal photo ID" This means i must fly with my passport in my possession. Here is the "NEW" Pilots license
The single coolest part of this new license, is the micro print. Below is a 100% crop of the left side of the Write Flyer in the license. The Vertical ties are actually micro print. Between the front and back of the license, the abridged tale of the Write brothers is told. Pretty cool if you ask me, but also pointless... and impossible to read... see below.

.

Enough about the pointless stuff.. We have been staying at the Holiday in Airport West, in West Earth City. http://www.trails.com/all-hotels/hotel-info.asp?hotelid=92201 .

While things may have been inconvenient, the staff at the hotel has been nothing short of Amazing. The Desk clerks all know us, and take time to chat with us. The hotel downstairs features a Bar/Restaurant called Malone's. St. Louis is not known for it's Irish settlements, but many actually settled just off the river.
http://stlfire4.loudclick.net/ for some Irish history in St. Louis.

I only add that, because I myself though an Irish bar in St. Louis was funny. Point aside, the hostess there, Jody is Incredible. She is very quick to spread the southern/ mid west charm. She pretty much new all of our favorite drinks... after 1 night. There were always locals coming into her bar just for her :) Catch her on a Tues-Sat night, and she will make your visit pleasant.

Jody, the fixture at Malone's

Always quick for some fast conversation, A short stop to Malone's is worth it. The Van drivers always seem happy to drop you off at the Mall, or guitar center if that is your fancy. A quick $2 tip, and they'll point out the best places to grab some food in the local area. The hotel houses pilots from Colgan, Republic, Chataqua and shuttle... so pilots are abound there. One of the oddest hotel experiences was the Missouri auction school. Nothing like walking down to breakfast, and finding 1-200 "Southern" boys with a southern drawl practicing their auction speak.

Tomorrow is LOFT, Line Orientated Flight Training... we all think of it as stress relief day. Now that the check ride is done, we get to go up and try using all the cool toys on the plane. This training is supposed to get us ready for the line... But none of our instructors have flown the line with Colgan, so, well. Yeah. Just gonna be fun.

Till later, have fun.

TNT

2008-06-21T11:53:00.000-04:00

Check Ride passed... So far so well. more to come later

TNT

T Minus 1

2008-06-16T20:49:00.007-04:00

We have one Simulator session left. At this point if we don't know it, we hope we don't need it on the check ride. So As i may have commented on before, training is different than what I am used to. The training here feels like the they know we will pass, so now we are checking boxes. In the 1900 Sim, when we got done we would be sweating... the seat damp, pit stains under our arms. When we finished, we had worked. This airplane is a totally different experience. At one point in the 1900, i was flying an "airplane" with 1 engine inoperative, a leak in the fuel tank on the good engine, flaps stuck halfway down, gear stuck down and wind shear on final. Had to make it though because we didn't have enough fuel to go around etc... That was time limited and stressed... just get it down - oh, not to mention that was on a circling approach in tight weather. in the Q it seems that they take a more logical approach. We have 1 failure... say a generator, or flap drive or engine. Never multiples, unless we cause it. Not going to lie... if you cause it in this airplane, you deserve it. This almost makes me distrust what we are doing, because i am not sweating while working.

One cool toy that this airplane has an option is a Flip down HUD (Heads Up Display) This is an optical lens that flips down between you and the window. A projector behind the pilot projects an image onto this. It looks like the display that fighter pilots get... the green lines and stuff you see in the movies.

Looking through the HUD while on the ground at night.

You can dimly see the runway in front of it, the green lines are the projected images.

It was hard to get a decent picture of this, I will try again later, but you can see the green horizon bar on it, and see how it is projected in front of the window, so you can see outside. When you use it to shoot an approach, it is 8 times more sensitive than the normal approach indications. The pilot flying using it is making tons of rapid control movements to keep it lined up. You get a Small circle that is the airplane position / trend indicator, and a larger target circle. The idea is to keep the little circle inside the big circle. At this point it is just like a video game. To keep the Circles lined up it take lots of small, fast control inputs. For the Pilot who is not flying, his instruments are 8x less sensitive. So He sees the Pilot flying making TONS of corrections are a high rate of speed... but it looks like nothing is happening. It can be quite comical. This system is so accurate, that you don't need to be able to see the runway until 50ft above the ground. 50 Feet is where we start the flare for landing. The Little ball will actually indicate your pitch attitude for the flair, and because you are already looking out the window, yuo don't have to look up or down to see the runway for landing. This is an INCREDIBLE tool for pilots... and i hear our company "MAY" opt for this option.

Our Q400 Simulator building is in the old TWA training center. Back when TWA was still flying, St.Louis was their big airport. American Bought TWA, and this is an American 757 on take off out of STL

We have to go in the back of the building, right next to a ghetto air conditioner that sounds like it's about to explode at any given moment. Today they replaced one of the fan drive motors, so at least now you don't go def while entering the training facility.

(Note the Small entrance door right next to the HUGE A/C unit)

My schedule for the next few days is Sim 7 (last one) on Tuesday, i have Wednesday off, then Oral exam on Thursday, followed by Type ride on Friday. Then i get a newer element to training called LOFT, or Line Orientated Flight Training, on Saturday. The LOFT is a pretend flight, where we actually act like a real flight. Normally in the Sim we never exceed 180 knots... which is about 30% power for this airplane. On the loft we will turn it up and cruise at 286kts at 25,000 feet. This works out to be nearly 400mph over the ground. This will be the fun one, where the instructors have to sound like cranky flight attendants.. and really is more of a stress relief than anything else. Due to the high performance and complexity of this aircraft, the FAA requires that I ride in the observers jump seat for 10 hours, then do 25 hours of IOE. Once I am on the line, I will have higher weather minimums for the next 50 hours, and I will not be able to fly with a newer (green) FO for the next 100 hours. I am not sure yet, but i believe that i got Albany as a base. I have mixed emotions about this... Yes, it is drivable for me, and I will be able to hold a line... But ALB is a Maintenance base.. so I may end up doing lots of extra work moving broken airplanes. A Paycheck is a Paycheck these days... and i feel confident that my position is secure... That can't be said for a lot of pilots these days. Good Luck to all, and Goodnight.

2008-06-14T01:41:00.000-04:00

If I haven't said it before, this new airplane is diffrent. Diffrent airplane, diffrent training. The training at flight safety is vastly different than the upgrade training with Colgan. During simulator training with Colgan we give given the departures and approaches we would do. That was it. Any failures or emergencies were fair game. Pretty much anything that the instructor could come up with was fair game. This meant we had to be on the ball. We had a general idea what was coming, no take off would be normal, no landing assured.
The Q400 training is done by Flight Safety. Flight Safety does things diffrently. We get a nice solid brief in the morning from the instructors. They go in great detail descibing all the steps of training. Not only do we learn what failures to expect, we pretty much know when it will happen. The approach is totaly diffrent to me, but I find it helps. The move to new equipment is a challenge on it's own, so spending more time learning the plane, and less time fighting it helps.

Some other diffrences come from the 'colgan/flight safety' disconnect. All of the instructors for FSI jumpseat on colgan to learn basic ops, but only a rare chance do they get to see an emergency or something of the like. They do a good job tailoring the training to our 'ways' but it seems like they get their information from the students, and as you know if you watch 100 pilots land the same plane, you will see 100 diffrent landings. Meaning, you will hear diffrent ways/tricks from everybody. While everybody is standard, even the FOP says standardization will not be so strict as to limit crewmember input. They want us to be able to make changes if operations require it. Changes afoot... tomorrow is smoke/fire and fun...

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Picture day

2008-06-12T16:43:00.004-04:00

Decided today is a day for pictures and movies.. enjoy

The Q400 panel from the Copilots sideCockpit from behind... It's dark in the sim
With the flash on, so yuo can see all the buttons
Deep in the books...

Scanning...

2008-06-11T17:32:00.005-04:00

This is for those of you whom are not pilots.

When we are flying in the clouds, we fly by referencing our instruments. We have have several instruments, most of which are broken into 3 categories: Control, Performance, and information.

An instrument that tells us the relative pitch would be in the control group, while one that tells us our engine power output would be performance. Generally if you think one instrument would tell us something relative to what the airplane is doing, (up, down, left,right) you can think of that as a control instrument. Some of these instruments change depending on what we are doing. When we climb, we try to climb at a profile speed. At low altitude, my Climb speed is 200kts. This means i am going to use my airspeed indicator to tell me how to control the airplane. (Pitch up for slower, pitch down to go faster) This is my control instrument in this case. Because i am flying at a set airspeed, i measure my performance from two other instruments. My Attitude or pitch will giver me a reference, 10 deg. up should give me 200kts. If it does not i need more power, and my rate of climb should be 2,500 feet per minute. Now i need to adjust my power selection to maintain my pitch and vertical speed. These instruments are now how i judge my performance. In a climb, my airspeed controls what i do with the Yoke, or control of the aircraft, the other instruments tell me what i need to do with the engines or performance. The other instruments like fuel flow etc. are strictly for my information.

If it seems like a lot of information, it is. So as pilots we develop an instrument scan. Much in the same way as a car driver. When driving your car, you may fall into a routine that you follow when looking around. You may go from looking ahead to your speedometer, to the tachometer, then your rear and side view mirrors and then back to the front. A pilots scan is similar. In older aircraft the Scan was divided into a "6 Pack" of instruments. they were arranged in a 3x2 array (3 across, 2 down) It looked like you were looking at a 6 pack of soda from the top down. People came up with all sorts of scan patters, called different names, 2T's, V's etc. This meant you might Start at the top left, move to bottom middle, over to top right, then bottom right, top middle, bottom left etc. This pattern made sure that you didn't omit anything. What good would it be to maintain your speed and heading if you had inadvertently rolled upside down, or descended 2,000 feet? This scan is known as Basic Instrument flying. At this point we know what the airplane is doing, but we don't know where we are. We have an instrument called an HSI. It has a long name that basically means, tells us where we are relative to a navigation point or facility. This HSI is normally incorporated with the instrument that tells us the direction we are flying.

In the 1900D you quickly learned a different type of scan. I will call this one a Primary Scan, and Perhipial Scan. the primary scan is the top and bottom center instruments. From these two instruments you can tell your pitch, bank, direction and HSI information. Your Perhipial scan covers speed, altitude, vertical speed etc. In the picture below, the Primary scan area is in clear detail. The perhipial scan is blurry, but visable, and the other stuff that you look at every minute or so is black and white.

The reason for this was two fold. The 1900 is fast. If you wanted to look at each instrument repeatedly, you would gain a massive migraine in no time. When you are going 300mph, just a small change in pitch results in a large change in altitude. Also, your perhipial vision is VERY sensitive to change. While you were not looking at your altimeter, you could see the needle start to move immediately, and make a change. Same with airspeed, vertical speed. Also, the human eye has an easier time viewing in the vertical axis for focused vision, horizontal for perhipial vision. The pitch and heading must be very accurate, so primarily we look at those, but we see all the others in our perhipial vision. This is seeing the "bigger" picture. By scanning in this manner, we could slow down, turn, descend and join an airway with relative ease. In the basic scan, you would have to spend time dedicated to looking at each individual instrument, and it would be hard.

The new airplane is different. Here is a picture illustrating the same information in the same scan.

The Primary difference is that the altitude, airspeed and vertical speed are no longer round gauges. They are now read like a measuring tape. They give a digital read out of each. This means that you actually have to "read" each instrument I have applied the Primary/Perhipial scan that i used in the 1900D to the image. If you enlarge it, you will see that it is hard to see the airspeed and altitude. Normally i would use the movement of a need to draw my attention to the gauge. I can't do this in the new airplane, because you don't see the movement of a number changing. The best reference i can make to this is clocks. If you have been using an old analog clock with hands, you can just glance at it, and have a close idea of what time it is. If you move to a digital clock, you can't do that. You actually have to read it. the digital version is more accurate, but slower to read. Now I MUST look at every instrument, rather than focus on my primary instruments, and watch for changes in the others.

We did our first sim on motion today, and i will admit i was a surprised. I though my strong scan would give me an advantage, but found it more difficult. Coupled with the unfamiliar location of each read out, i found myself searching for information. My turns, stalls and maneuvers were "OK" i would have been TOTALLY disgusted with myself in the 1900 though. I know that this will develop with time, but i was expecting a faster and easier transition. Those that may be entering training right now, i recommend getting some time in a glass airplane. any advantage you can earn is a step up.

Aside from that, the new profiles, call outs and, well, everything else, is going quite well. It's fun to learn a new airplane. Thanks for reading... I'll have more pictures up before long.

The first day of CPT

2008-06-07T23:32:00.002-04:00

Today was the first day of CPT for us (Cockpit Procedure Trainer) This is where we get used to the new aircraft, it's switches and the way that your supposed to do everything. Pretty much we get to do it right in the SIM, but with motion turned off. The new Sim is pretty sweet. It uses Google Earth images for the local area. When your looking at downtown NYC, it's really NYC. Initial response to the airplane is that it is slow. The 1900 was pretty damn responsive. The Q400 is quite to opposite. I even found myself over controlling a fair amount. Control input pressures that would result in a fast bank in the 1900 result in one Heck of a maneuver in the 400. Listing Lazily to the left takes some skills.

Down below is the simulator. The old one in the previous pictures was for some older airplanes, a Jetstream 31 and Saberliner 60. The new Sim is all high tech looking. It looks like something from Disney world.

The next picture is from the doorway into the simulator The screens to the left is where the instructor sets up the simulator. You can start to see a dark cockpit up front. Tomorrow starts at 10... so more pictures then

2008-06-06T12:56:00.000-04:00

Sytemes test passed by all 6. I was done in about 35 minutes. Now on to the flying machines.

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All systems check

2008-06-05T19:08:00.006-04:00

Today was the last day of Ground school before our systems test. You can't say that were not getting pushed though. We finished up systems, covering the landing gear, brakes, Performance, a general review, and some smaller systems. We all left for Del Taco today, but we were lucky enough to ride with a FSI Instructor. Fitting all 7 of us in the car was interesting. Probably the most interesting thing to happen all week, so I have added multiple pictures... and for viewing delight a video

As you can see, the car is quite crowded.

The next topic... the rabbits. First one, then two, now 5. If you blow up the window, you will see 5 rabbits in front of Flight safety. I guess they like watching us stand around... We must be their petting zoo.
After tomorrow we will now be going to the FSI building in the old TWA hanger. The hanger is just a little bit further west on the airfield. This is where they keep the EMB-145 sim, the Q-400 sim, the CPT's, and Paper tigers (mock up cockpits for practicing flows etc.) We get three days in the sim with the motion off practicing running checklists and moving buttons, diagnosing problems... Then we turn on the motion, and the fun starts for real. Day one is the only happy day. No emergencies yet. After that, if your not scrambling to fix something... then your wrong, and therefor probably about to die. Off to study now, tomorrow should be good. Also thought I'd drop a note. Lucky guy I am... My awesome wife sent a little package with all my favorites, some movies and other fun stuff :) (Real food Rocks)

2008-06-05T11:03:00.002-04:00

If I had to choose a city to live in, it would have to be Boston right now... parting shot on my way out for the last time... I think

2008-06-04T23:23:00.003-04:00

Today was probably the longest day in ground school yet. We covered some of the more challenging topics, but first, here is a short video of the JS/31/32 simulator in motion. As you can see it pretty much just sways on stilts.

Currently at the hotel, there is a Missouri Auction school. I had no idea that you had to go to school for it. This means the hotel is currently swamped with a good endless supply of Cowboy hats and Cowboy boots... and a good bit of redneck accent to go with it :) It's quite amusing when you hear that many people practicing "Auction Talk"

Auction talk unfortunately turns into drunken stupor/party at night.. so sleep has been somewhat scarce for me. Only thing keeping me alive is coffee today. I hate the stuff hot, so... liquid salvation :
Today covered Flight Controls, Pressurization, Hydraulics, Ice and Rain protection, and some other stuff.. To be honest it all becomes a blur at this point. I wish we had a CPT or SIM day in the middle, so we could stretch our fingers out on the book learning we've been doing. I really do think it would be helpful to have a training event in the sim right now. If anything it would break up the schedule. 7:30 Van, 5 minute breaks every hour, and an hour for lunch is all we get. Today we got back at 6pm. It's like having all of your college classes, no breaks, and the same teacher all day. Don't get me wrong, the teaching is excellent, but it gets monotonous. Once we get into the Sim, i am sure to have more interesting stories.. .so for now, Good Night

2008-06-04T19:19:00.002-04:00

removed

Tuesday, June 3

2008-06-03T22:29:00.005-04:00

I swear every night i sleep less, but spend more time trying. Today was pretty much a straightforward day. We hopped a van to Flight Safety at 7:30 am. The van ride to the Flight Safety Saberliner facility takes close to 10 minutes, depending on traffic. Speaking of vans, below is the Shuttle Coordinator. Without him i am pretty sure we wouldn't make it anywhere. As seen below, he is using his personal phone to phone the Van... which apparently went to the wrong Flight safety building.We have now documented that there are 3 Different rabbits outside of Flight Safety. They show no fear whatsoever towards us. They must think we are total pushovers, because we're always outside waiting. The Systems covered today were relatively simple. Engines, Props, Puh -nu-matics (pneumatics) and something else which i must have slept though.. as i don't remember. FS; Saberliner was actually busy today. They had the JS31/32 sim's going all day, and even one of the Saberliners was gettin some love. For those who have never been to a full motion sim, it's basically a large white box on hydraulic stilts that moves around, shake, shimmy and then break. You can always tell when something messy is going on inside the sim... it shakes the whole building.Above to the Right is the JS31/32 Sim... It was going most all of the day today. To the left is the older Saberliner sim... Motion for the sabeliner is up and down. For those of you who have never seen one, The Saberliner was one of the first corporate Jet's. I am pretty sure it was the first, but don't quote me. It was moddified from an airforce trainer, the T-39. It's very rare to see them flying in the USA, as they cannot be updated to level 3 noise reduction, so they are banned at most airports near civilization. They are still pulling heavy duty in Africa.

Not quite the high fashion plane they once were.. still a neat one to find:). The JS 31/32 Sim in the background has full range of motion, meaning it can lean, pitch and bank. When you are inside the aircraft, it has an incredible feel to it. Blind to the direction you are actually moving... the sim is very good at tricking your ears. During take-off, the sim will pitch pack violently. To those inside the sim, it feels like the acceleration during take off. You even get the runway bumps and rattles of the real airplane. Amazing machines they are.

Good luck to those in class with me... Friday is the systems written test... and I am not gonna lie... this is kinda new to me :)

Week Start

2008-06-02T12:02:00.003-04:00

JUNE 2

Today is day 3 in ground school. Mornings do seem to be getting rougher. I you have yet to guess the Van is still going to be a sticking point for us. On Sunday our lunch ride was 15 minutes late arriving, and 15 minutes early to pick us up... this left us 30 min for lunch which isn't enough time for all of us to eat.

Waiting seems to be the name of the game... Waiting for the van again

This time around, we had 3 different rabbits come visit.. I think hawks and vaulters were circling. Sunday covered fire protection systems, Flight instrumentation, Navigation, and Oxygen systems. For the most part, the 6 of us seem to be moving right along. No tricky systems and such yet. The main stumbling block is simply all the damn acronyms we have to learn. Below Is quick snaps of the paper mock ups we use to learn switch locations, and flows etc...

Main Panel in the Cockpit

Center Counsel, side panels and yokes

Overhead Panel with fire protection in the yellow box

This morning (Monday the 3rd) we had more van issues. Quite simply, they were full. I can understand the company wanting us to use the van on short trips, but considering how old it has already gotten, the next 3 weeks of it will probably get very testy. Today's systems include: Auto flight, Communication, Fuel and EFIS1... Tonight I'll prob risk my life and walk to the mall. Gotta get out of the hotel for a bit. Pictures to be added later. Thanks for reading :)

[Posted with hblogger 2.0 http://www.normsoft.com/hblogger/]

Sunday, May 31

2008-05-31T22:57:00.003-04:00

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

2008-05-29T20:16:00.005-04:00

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

2008-05-28T20:39:00.006-04:00

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

2008-05-22T21:41:00.007-04:00

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

2008-05-19T18:23:00.007-04:00

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.