I’m getting there. My IOE Captain said he thought he’d be able to sign me off by the end of this trip. Unfortunately, he timed out (meaning he’d go over flight time limits) this morning in CVG, so we weren’t able to complete the trip. Landing a CRJ 900 is reasonably difficult for someone with no airline experience. The 200 is supposedly very, very easy and lands a lot like planes I’m used to flying. The 900 flies like an airliner, and comes in nose-high. The timing of the thrust reduction is critical. The plane doesn’t float at all of…
Berck called me this morning. “Hey! I just landed the plane all by myself! No control inputs by my captain! What time is it there?” “That’s great! It’s 6:30.” “Oh, crap! I’m sorry. I was looking at Zulu time, and I figured it was 10:30 and you’d be at work.” (It’s Saturday.) Fortunately, I was really tired yesterday and went to bed at 9:30. Berck sent me a text this afternoon saying he’s probably coming home tomorrow morning. His IOE captain is training another captain next trip, so Berck will probably be home for a little while again.
Why did I think this was going to be a good idea? Oh yeah, shiny jets. The line for takeoff to Houston on Sunday night out of JFK was over 5 miles long. I think we were number 60-70 for takeoff at some point. We spent about two hours on the ground before takeoff. When we finally got to IAH, our flight out the next morning had to be delayed so we could get our minimum of 8 hours of “rest”. That’s 8 hours from duty end, which is 15 minutes after the plane pulls into the gate, until our…
All this week the Wings Like Eagles annual equestrian vaulting camp has been going on. This year we’re going to be having a second week of camp as well, so we can serve more kids. Vaulting is great because you can have a whole bunch of kids be in contact with only a few horses in a short period of time, unlike English riding, which requires different saddles, hard hats, and a lot of time. Wings Like Eagles is a ministry to kids with special needs, which we describe pretty broadly. There are several therapeutic riding programs in the area…
I’m sitting in my hotel room in ORF even though I should be sitting in the back of an ERJ to JFK. For whatever reason, we’re scheduled for a deadhead back to JFK, then a single leg to IAH tonight. It’s not looking like we’ll make it to IAH on time, even with the 3 hour sit in JFK we had scheduled, as the ERJ still hasn’t even left JFK for ORF. Luckily, I noticed it before I packed up my computer and told the captain who decided we didn’t have to go to the airport yet. It’s always better…