On Monday, after taking Dad to the COS airport, Jonah wanted us to return the Bremers’ truck and pick up the blue car from the Bremers’ to go to the airport. There was still patches of snow/ice on the ground, and I was sure the Bremers’ driveway was covered in snow, and that there was no way we were going to get the blue car out, since the snow tires on the red car. I made a half-hearted attempt to convince Jonah of this, but she didn’t believe me. I figured it was easier to drive to the Bremers, prove that the car wouldn’t go anywhere, then continue on to the airport. So that’s what we did. I managed, in 5 minutes, to move the car about 20 feet, and get it reasonably well stuck in another part of the driveway. I neglected to realize that would mean driving the truck to the Denver airport, which meant, essentially, throwing away $10 worth of gasoline.

I got the airport at about 7:15pm for a 5:00pm American flight that left for ORD at 7:55pm. The fact that the flight was delayed was the only reason I was able to get on it, as the delay had caused many people to give up and go back home, declaring that they would try again tomorrow. There were a dozen pilots on the flight with me who had been trying all day to get on various overbooked United flights. The commute to Chicago is, I’m afraid, going to suck.

Fortunately, I shouldn’t have to do it for very long. The company announced last week that they are not going to furlough anyone else in the near future, which means my job is safe for now. I suspect that means they aren’t going to displace as many people from the CRJ, but they have stated that they will still be displacing some. The details should be out end of next week. I still think I should be able to get the Dash 8, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

The ORD airport is very large, and I haven’t got a decent overview of the layout, from the inside, in my head. If it confuses me, I can’t imagine what it does to passengers. Fortunately the signage is plentiful and mostly helpful.

Our operation is apparently liberally sprinkled all about the airport. In my 4 days, I flew out of the B gates, C gates, E gates and F gates. None of which are close to each other.

When busy, the ORD controllers don’t give you a chance to acknowledge radio calls, especially on the ground. That’s okay as long as you’re listening up and understand them the first time. I rarely did, but fortunately my Captain had a good idea of what was going on, and I did my best to keep up.

I flew exclusively the CRJ-700 this trip. There’s plenty of 200 flying as well, but unfortunately, I didn’t get any of it. The 700 is just like the 900, only slightly smaller and lighter. It lands more or less the same, only it sits a little lower, so my landings weren’t perfect, but were generally adequate. The annoying part is that the FAA considers the the CRJ 200/700/900 all to be of the same aircraft type, so I’ve now been signed off to fly the CRJ-200 as a regular First Officer, despite the fact that I’ve never flown it, except for 3 times in the simulator. But I’m signed off, done with IOE, so the first time I fly it will not be in a training situation, which bothers me.

I flew to to DEN, then DEN-COS in the CRJ-700. It’s roughly a 10 minute flight, and would have been shorter except that DEN was taking off to the North, although COS was landing to the south. It’s the first time I’ve landed at home in a jet, and it was a nifty perspective. I hand flew the entire flight, including the ILS approach from which we broke out at about 1000 feet.

ORD is cold. The planes are all covered in filthy and covered de-icing residue. The runways are covered in potash, the ramps with salt, and everything is mucky. The snow is piled off to the sides, mostly, but there are plenty of taxiways that didn’t get cleared, so there’s some slipping and sliding to be had. Fortunately, that’s all the Captain’s problem. The world looks very white, even when it’s clear, from the flight levels. It’s a view I’m pretty happy to have.

The really annoying part about being signed off is that I’m now on reserve until the beginning of next year. I have plenty of seniority for a decent line, but I just missed the cutoff for the December (er, M13) bid period. I haven’t gotten a reserve schedule yet, so it looks like I’ve probably managed at least this weekend off. I’m sure they’ll have headed back to Chicago soon, and it looks like I’ll need to find a crash pad. I’m not looking forward to it, but I’m hoping that I’ll be in training for the Dash sometime early next year.

One response to “ORD is cold”

  1. Jonah Avatar

    Obviously, I chose the wrong car, but in my defense:

    1) I’d talked to the people housesitting at the Bremers the day before, and they said they’d gotten as much snow as we had down in the Springs. On Monday morning, however, 9 inches of snow sat on the driveway, while we just had about 3.

    2) Monday the sun shone all day, and it was relatively warm. At the end of the day, there was no snow or ice to speak of on the roads in our neighborhood. When the sun shines all day, the Bremers’ driveway is always clear at the end of the day, provided it has been plowed, which Duncan does every time it’s got more than an inch and a half of snow. But no one had plowed that day. So despite melting all day, there were still four inches left that night.

    3) We got to the airport at 7:15 because Berck left his wallet in the car at the Bremers and didn’t remember to get it out until we had driven all the way to Larkspur. That round trip took us half an hour, leaving us just enough time to get him to the airport in time for his now very delayed flight.

    4) There was no snow on our journey expect at the Bremers, so taking the car with snow tires all the way to Denver and back seemed silly, especially when Berck is concerned about the gouge in one of the tires.

    Also the flights were so full that day because so many people weren’t able to get to the airport on Sunday due to the weather and the Interstate turning into a very slippery parking lot. They’d looked fine the day before.

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