So, we get into Philly this morning around 930a and don’t show until 530a the following morning…makes for an extra long day to sit! So what to do, what to do. It’s the weekend before 4th of July in the city where America began = lots of people and lots of stuff going on! The weather couldn’t have been more perfect, 75ish degrees and near no humidity.

June is essentially over…where the hell did it go! Almost 100hrs of flying-scheduling is kept me busy in June. I got the 4th off, and I didn’t even bid for it. Bonus! But July will probably be just as busy, with another 90hrs+ scheduled and I’ll be moving…going to be a crazy month. Tomorrow is another busy 6 leg day…Life on the line continues…

The picture above is from my hotel room looking over downtown and the waterfront. Fireworks blowing up on the right.

 

So this 4-day I’m flying a US Airways pairing. Airways pairings are so much less stressful than flying the United side. Namely…no dealings with Chicago or Dulles whatsoever. All the Airways flying is out of Pittsburgh and the busiest place we go to is LaGuardia. A much more relaxed pace! Tonight I’m in UPS-land…Louisville, KY…early to bed…full day of flying coming up tomorrow…blocked right to the max at 7h59m. Whew…until then….

I can’t even begin to explain how much sitting around was done yesterday…brought to you by Chicago O’Hare and thundestorms. Let’s start in Omaha, Nebraska. We were scheduled to depart at 1645…we get to the airport around 1600 look at the boards and our flight just says delayed…never a good sign if it doesn’t say how long it’s delayed for. When we get to the gate the line at the gate is about 20-30 oeople deep. Great. Another good sign. I cut to the front of the line to see the distressed gate agent and ask how long the delay will be. “Significant. Hours.” Was all he could muster in between dealing with the lovely passengers who are all going to miss their connections.

So we get comfortable. Pull out the book, pull out the ipod, and find a corner of the terminal where we can hide from the angry passengers. Scheduling calls about an hours later to inform us that the plane is off the ground (finally) however, our release time to Chicago is almost 5 hours later. Great.

So we kick back and relax (even more) because we’re not going anywhere anytime soon and I engage in one of my favorite aiport pastimes - people-watching. If you haven’t done it, I highly suggest you try it. It’s esp. entertaining when people are delayed hours upon hours. When people lose all control over where they’re going and when they’re going, they want to try to regain some of that control, and the results are usually pretty funny to watch. I feel bad for the gate agents who have to take the brunt of all of the attempt to regain control. I dont know how they do it and I have an enormous respect for them.

Anywho, so when all is said and done, we end up only having 5 passengers on the flight to O’Hare, most of the others got out earlier on flights that diverted into Omaha needing gas before continuing to Chicago. We push off the gate and taxi to the holding pad out by the runway to sit and wait for our slot. About an hour later, just as we’re getting ready to start the engines, ATC calls us and tells us that Chicago is now groundstopped and it’ll be at least another hour before they release anyone to go. Joy. And of course, this happens just after we told the people in the back that we were going to be off the ground shortly. That’s the way it goes, I guess.

So…1 hour and 15 mins later, the groundstop is done and we are finally released. But the delays aren’t done yet, oh no! There’s still normal in-the-air delays going to O’Hare. We eventually get there about 1130 at night, right around 6 hours late…and we still have one more leg to go! Load up a full-boat for Roanoke, Va pretty much as soon as we get the last person off the plane from Omaha. Add in the time difference from Central to East and we didn’t get to Roanoke ’till 230a and to the hotel until about 315a since the hotel doesn’t have a 24 hour shuttle. Ah, the life.

This trip finally ends today! But what’s in the forecast, more thunderstorms…at least we’re staying well clear of Chicago.

So we take off from Dulles yesterday headed for the thunderstorm-infested Northeast. There was a Comair flight that took off in front of us…somewhere over Eastern Maryland:

 ”Comair 212 hold at BROSS as published. Latest word is Boston is groundstopped and you should never have taken off”

Oops. Someone messed up.

Anyways…6 legs yesterday and 5 today. They all kinda blend together…I think we end up in Nebraska tonight…I think…

So…the seniority lists came out tonight. They’re published once a month and basically, in the airlines, seniority is everything. It determines everything from the schedule you get to whether or not you get bumped off a flight when you’re commuting…so it’s pretty important. Well, my number, since hire, has gone up almost 30 places in my base, and almost 100 numbers in the company as a whole! For a small company like ours, it’s a big jump, and I’ve only been here 7 months…kinda crazy.

6 legs tomorrow starts a 4 day trip…gonna be a long day…

 until then…

Hi. Thanks for stopping by. I’ve always wanted to start a blog on my experiences as an airline pilot. Now I finally have the medium! I think it’ll be interesting to look back in a few years and reflect on where I’ve been and hopefully where I’m going.

 Ok, so, let’s see…where to begin. I’m 24 years old and I’m a first officer on EMB-145. I’m sure those of you in the industry will be able to figure out who I work for eventually, but at this point, it’s best if that remains a mystery. Most of my flying is done on the east coast and the midwest United States. I’ve been flying since 2000 and have been flying for the airlines since Jan ‘07. Before that I was a flight instructor for 1.5 years. I’m not even sure I want to do the airlines for the rest of my career, but for right now I’m having a blast!

So that’s me…I start a 4-day trip on Saturday which will take me to far-away destinations like Dayton and Omaha! Fun fun!